##VIDEO ID:0MIGwEQFaQg## but I'll step up I just want to make sure so I'll keep everybody out thank you we'll get him a Swiss guard uniform those are the coolest okay here we go good evening this is to informally advise that as required by Massachusetts General Law chapter 30A sections 18 to 25 and pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021 an act relative to EXT ending certain covid-19 measures adopted during the state of emergency signed into law on June 16 2021 as extended by chapter 2 of the acts of 2023 the armor select board will hold a public meeting on Tuesday December 17 2024 at 5:00 pm beginning with executive session and then opening to the public no sooner than 6: p.m. in the hearing room Yarmouth Town Hall 11:46 Route 28 South Yarmouth Mass 02664 the public is welcome to attend either in person or via the alternative Public Access provided below and that's on the town website for anyone that is U listening in on our meeting agenda we have executive session the yarma select board will consider entering into executive session pursuant to massachusett General Law chapter 30A section 21 A6 to consider the purchase exchange lease or value of real property at 316e 28 Wastewater easements if the as the chair declares that an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the negotiating position of the public today um may I have a motion to go into executive session sure who mov do I have a second second okay we're going to have a Voice vote on that Mark I and I'm assuming you have declared that the public session would be contrary and have an adverse she did I know she made reference to it but I think she has to certify that I I so certify that an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the ne negotiating position of the public body okay Joyce I I Liz and the chair says I we are now in executive session we will return uh roughly at 6: P.M e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e an objection because I think as chair you have that discretion yeah well I was watching I was watching a um a webinar on parliamentary proceedings and City Council meetings um and city council presidents was never be shy about using the recess privilege you have to figure something out we're going in The Recess we're going to sort this out so that you can consult with the manager or whoever you have to consult with so I think that was a huge takeaway for me so just store that away I'm [Music] now back how it's still the to I mean your different your different voting group we also voting for you yeah it only covers the side it only covers no it could potentially come up to us too there's no way of KN so we I wasn't invited into that meeting but I'm just I'm I that and I know don't you think he'd have some undo influence people people aren't going to look at you look at you as a yeah no we will we will we will and I have a question I'm not going to do three people though what we talked about moving this on to an agenda when we see e e e exactly e is Tracy coming or no no she had said at the last meeting she had a she was be able to make is she doing something fun just because some people are here that look you have a seat okay good afternoon good evening let's go with when it is um I am calling the meeting you might have to pull your mic closer to oh that would be helpful wouldn't it okay I'm calling the meeting to order and I'm starting with General announcements do we have any announcements Bob no okay moving on then to public comments if you could please step over to the podium okay hi uh John Stewart uh I live at 182 Route 6A in yoth Port and I'm here this evening to applaud the phenomenal efforts of the excuse me yeah I'm in the fire department as well as the uh responding uh First Responders from the other towns who responded to the fire in in the building in which our uh business was located abber work woodworking uh we were there for over 40 years and uh I just want to encourage all the residence ofana to support our First Responders that that's all I have to say thank you thank you [Applause] good evening evening my name is Robert Wilkins more commonly known as Bob um I am the chairman of yarmus Old Kings Highway committee I've been on the committee since January of 2016 and chairman since January of 2023 first of all I'd like to take this opportunity um and express my appreciation apption to this board for this opportunity to address you I have a great deal of respect for this board uh I have a great deal of respect for all the citizens of Yarmouth who step forward um in appreciation for this town and in an effort to help this town and its citizens um and one would hope that that respect is mutual and reciprocated to Old King's Highway we all want the same thing what's best for the town of Yarmouth and what's best for its local citizens and I'm proud of our committee uh in that connection I would like to take this opportunity to clear up uh a persistent misperception that is in the hearts and minds of some of our citizens that yarmo King's High committee uh Highway committee is not conscious of and mindful uh and interested in um the environment and climate change and that we are not pro-solar um I asked our office administrator Lisa Sherman to provide me with uh statistical evidence refuting that and she has done so and I have copies to hand out to all of you um but in essence since 2021 until the present day we have heard 124 applications for solar on uh houses and other buildings in the town in the historic district we have approved 114 of those 124 92% so let me if I may present you with those thanks thank you thank you thank you MERS are present tonight who would like them I have extra copies so I recognize that the appointment of John is not on the agenda tonight um but nevertheless for your consider ation and deliberation I would like to talk briefly about him uh first of all Stuart for the record John Stewart thank you FR um first of all I think the comments he made at the outset of this meeting speak volumes of the kind about the kind of man John is uh he could have taken this opportunity to talk about his qualifications and his experience and justify his uh appointment to Old Kings Highway instead he chose to thank the fire department I think that's highly laudable and I was asked by uh new Committee Member Elizabeth Argo to supply a resume for John uh I was unable to do that because of the fire of which I think you were all aware John lost everything in the fire however I do have his talent Bank form that he supplied in 2013 to become an alternate which I happen to think also speaks volumes of John after he was uh not reelected to the committee he offered to serve as an alternate um I consider that very big Of You John and I um applaud you for it uh John is been of exceptional value to our committee first of all I'd like to take the opportunity also at this point to hand out his talent Bank application to the members of the board thanks thank you appointments have historically been automatic to U the historic all Kings Highway historic committee volunteers are as I'm sure you're aware a rare breed they're not like picking apples out of a barrel and when you find good ones they're to be treasured I also want to make an observation about a comment that was made about John's qualification relative to his experience as boat building parenthetically he does have extensive house building experience too uh which given the opportunity we can speak to at a future date when it becomes relevant but bold building historically as I'm sure most of you realize is very much related to house building same skill set same tools and in history especially in the maritime history of Cape Cod uh the boat Builders very commonly were the house builders so I'm going to let others speak I don't want to monopolize the podium um but I would hope especially given the circumstances of uh John's present state where he is straight out dealing with the ramifications of the fire which destroyed everything he had um relative to his boat building business and uh his records which is why I wasn't able to present uh his resume tonight that um he would be allowed sufficient time to fully document his qualifications so I'll conclude with that thank you very much thank you Bob good evening my name is Lisa TR Grady I reside on the Old Kings Highway in yarmouthport my husband and I grew up in Massachusetts and we specifically moved to the Old Kings Highway because of the protection and preservation of the character of this area we've watched and occasionally participated in nearly every Yarmouth Old Kings Highway committee meeting for the past 5 years in that time I've witnessed their compromise ability to adapt to change patience and accomplishments as well as the Dynamics of the group in April of this year upon the resignation of Richard ventron as architect for the Old Kings Highway historic district committee I reached out to select person Doris mcgurn Dorcas mcgurn excuse me in an email I wrote I'm writing in support of John Stewart a long serving member of the Old Kings Highway committee currently an alternate is Richard ventr tron's replacement John is uniquely qualified not only for his experience as a contractor but also for his years of dedication to the preservation of the Old Kings Highway District his balanced thoughtful approach to Solutions and compromise come from years of meeting challenges as simple as changing the color of a front door to the current task of balancing preservation with the needs of climate change John's presence and oversight would offer our seamless transition to a time when many would like to undermine our long established District my support still stands at the last select board meeting of December 10th newly elected board member Miz Argo while still serving as an elected member of the Old Kings Highway committee chose for no cause to challenge and undermine her colleague John Stewart's excuse me reappointment as chair in a public forum she diminished John Stewart's accomp accomplishments of approximately 50 years of construction experience by referring to him as a boat builder and in direct conflict of interest and a power play suggests that the select board find an appropriate replacement or allow him to stay on until they do according to the acts of 1973 chapter 470 this position calls for a one-year appointment for either one architect or in the event none is available a building contractor with no less than 5 years experience in the Building Trades it is not subjective it is not open to individual interpretation or changed on the whim of someone's Personal Agenda it is law she suggests that he doesn't have the character or qualifications yet Mr Stewart has s served over 10 years as a member of the Old Kings Highway committee as well as other Town committees selflessly giving his time to the betterment of our community she even referred to him as a character in the historic district but I would offer that John brings character to our village Mr Stewart lives in one of the oldest houses in yarmouthport and through his restoration efforts of his home received an award from our town while serving as an elected official on both the Old Kings Highway historic commission and select board MGO is currently acting in violation of the armouth toown charter section 3-1-2 which specifically States no selectman May hold any other elected town office there's a reason why the charter was written that way it puts too much power in one person's hands and you cannot serve two masters m Argo should be removed from any further involvement or discussion regarding the Old Kings Highway committee which includes her independent efforts to rec recruit Mr Stewart's replacement so the select board ends the year with one member having to publicly apologize for making a disparaging remark about voters and another the newest member Miss Argo showing up for her first meeting and taking a cheap shot to publicly undermine her colleague on an another committee a colleague who by the way recently lost his business on December 1st when a Yarmouth fire sparked an explosion that caused a fire to spread to Mr Stewart's business he lost everything talk about kicking a man when he's down ad hominin attacks are both out of order and an unseemly look for any Town board its existence discourages those who might want to volunteer to participate in our government to make a difference it does not bring us together or serve to improving Communications there's going to be another election in May and I would like to point out the precinct one which comprises a major section of the Old Kings Highway has over 3,000 registered voters a lot of people may have been too preoccupied during the holidays or just plain exhausted from National politics to show up this December maybe that won't be the case five months from now thank you for your time do you want a copy of my statement Dorcas uh thank you it's in the record okay thank you [Applause] my name is Joe gin I'm district 6 I'm here tonight uh to suggest to this board to propose an article on the next town meeting to use $2 million of our free cash to rebate back to the taxpayers of Yarmouth for the hard work they have all done in passing numerous overrides tax exempt bonds they have clearly shown their support for the town when money was needed we've been fortunate this year to have $1 million in free cash 3.3 million has already been allocated at our previous special town meeting I don't think this as a gift I think this as a payback for all the support our town and registered voters have given this town when requested thank you very much I hope you'll consider it again thank you good evening um before I start I'll just say I typically really like to speak extemporaneously on issues so I can look right at you but in this instance I thought important to write my notes down I'm going to tell you um good evening I'm Richard ventron and I was the architect appointee for the Old Kings Highway historic district committee and I served from January 1st 2023 until resigning my appointment in the first quarter of 2024 I am qualified under the Secretary of the Interior standards and guidelines for archaeology and historic preservation professional qualifications standards for historic architecture as published under the code of federal regulations 36 CFR part 61 I have over 33 years of experience as a preservation architect and have worked on preservation and documentation projects including the White House and the Newport Mansions where I was employed as the preservation architect for the preservation Society of Newport County I was the architect for the restoration of five Rhode Island lighthouses one of which is a National Historic Landmark it was I I know it was brought up at the last meeting it was I who recommended to select woman mcgar that Mr Stewart would be a fitting replacement for me as the architect build appointee on the committee in my professional opinion I believed that Mr Stewart in his capacity as a contractor employed in the Building Trades had the knowledge of building Technologies and comprehensive understanding of preservation particularly as it relates to Wood Construction structural systems and detailing to serve the committee and the interests of the Town well he has repeatedly demonstrated that I was correct in my assessment since being appointed after me the character ation of him as a boat builder by m Argo is dismissive insulting and betrays a lack of understanding about the complexities associated with the Building Trades design structure and materials used in Marine architecture that material has historically been wood the very material from which nearly every historic and new building in this town is constructed when making appropriate design decisions on requests by applicants to the Old Kings Highway historic district Comm committee to demolish or replace extent historic fabric it is critical that the committee have a professional member that understands whether the building component can be conserved and restored rather than replaced most contractors want to replace historic material and advise their clients to choose that path the work that Mr Stewart has achieved in restoring boats and buildings including his own important home in the village has provided him with a knowledge base that is desperately needed on this Committee in my year plus on the committee I found Mis Argo to have little genuine interest in preservation rather I found her to be almost exclusively interested in the Solar projects a guaranteed yes vote for any and all solar panel applicants it was her reason for mounting her right in bid to sit on the committee and a fact that she openly spoke to at meetings during my tenure she was the solar person a distinction without a difference given Mr Wilkins said the committee's approval of solar applications that exceed 90% in my expert professional opinion as a preservation architect she is not at all equipped judge Mr Stewart's qualifications I care about this town a great deal it is now my home and the place I intend to live out the remainder of my life on my commute to and from my workplace as the senior architect for the Town of Barnstable I drive down Route 6A every weekday and take great joy at the parade of historic architecture that passes before me the more modern scale the more modern residential neighborhoods also such as the one in which I live display a certain sense of scale proportion and design that has historically been unique to Cape Cod a cohesive sense of place that is now in Peril with the Modern Trend for needlessly large generic contractor special homes that look as though they could be located anywhere Ohio Maryland New York it's all the same Bland cookie cutter soulless mess and we are in danger of becoming the norm here for new homes and renovations to existing smaller homes a feast of tepid hulking Colonials with vinyl windows and useless shallow Farmers porches though I could no longer serve on the committee for personal reasons and as a point of personal Indulgence for a moment it took a lot for me to even come here tonight but I feel that strongly about this that have you haven't heard from me in months because I've been very very careful and mindful of my privacy I felt sorry I'll do let me start that again though I could no longer serve on the committee for personal reasons I felt assured that a strong preservation voice would be represented in having Mr SE Stewart serve in my stead I fervently hope that this body will continue to gift and it is a gift do not make a mistake the citizens of this town town with the skills knowledge and talent that Mr Stewart has brought to the Old Kings Highway historic district commission through his Service as the architector architect Builder appointee thank you thank [Applause] you good evening Madam chair select board members Tom nickal Precinct 3 good evening and what a pleasure to be here tonight um first of all I like to just start off by thanking our water department uh you may all know that the water department has been extremely busy uh over the last couple of weeks months uh with the high-grade construction going on our water department is there to pick up the pieces and they're doing a wonderful job so thank you to them second of all uh Kobe Enterprises on the agenda tonight and as I watch that um board of appeals hearing months ago the presenter Mr singer the attorney did an outstanding job with kobia in trying to keep the commercial property on Station Avenue in their presentation to the board of appeals they had a mitigation site that they were going to try to find and they did for nitrogen thus allowing the old Shell station to become online again for our commercial income as you know you're also being presented tonight with some numbers from the humanity economic development committee and you can see the numbers are dwindling last year we had 580,000 this year we have 52 it's very important we keep our commercial property up to Snuff we can't keep losing it out of the 250 mile 250 miles worth of roadway in town there probably about 15 miles worth of Commercial Business extremely important that the commercial business stay viable so we can afford what we need to do in our town and we can't we got to put a roof on Amy small for $2.9 million we have an energy Park That was supposed to come online give us a half a million dollars in Revenue don't know where that is it just seems like we're getting deeper and deeper into putting the burden on our residents and the last thing IID like to just to say because it's the spirit of the season and I'm a history buff in the early 1800s a religious revival spurred through the uh newood interest in Christmas the holiday became popular again in the South but it was slow to catch on in New England in 1830 Louisiana was the first state to make Christmas a holiday other states followed suit and Christmas soon became popular again in 1856 um Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote We are in transition state about Christmas here in New England the old Puritan feeling prevents it from being a cheerful hearty holiday though every year makes it more so later in that year in 1856 the Massachusetts legislator finally made Christmas an official holiday and finally 1870 ulyses S Grant our president made it the national holiday thank you happy holidays thank you Tom Merry Christmas do I have anyone else in the room that would like to speak good evening uh my name is John Grady I live at uh 415 Route 6A in yarmouthport uh with my wife Lisa Grady who has spoken earlier tonight and um I know there is a complaint before you which I can't talk about but I'm here if you want to ask any questions about it and but on the other hand uh I just want to make a brief comment uh after watching the uh tape of last week's uh meeting um I'm going to read it so I get it right in view of the self-inflicted controversies involving the two Selectmen currently designated to process appointments to wen Kings Highway it would be wise to make an exception to the assignment practice and assign this to more senior Selectmen watching the tape of de December 10th is apparent that M Argo and Miss Flynn have had prior communication regarding removal of Mr Stewart their uninformed opinion suggest they are not on board with the mission of the Old Kings Highway uh uh this is a particular concern to me as a resident living in a historic home on Captain's mile who has applied to the to be considered as an alternate on the old King's Highway committee I would like to feel that those who evaluate my application are competent and objective thank you thank you Kur I saw you standing up first Kurt Sears thank you Kurt good evening I'm Judith recknagel I live right on uh 408 Route 6A let me just say thank you to the selectman I uh know that all of you have been involved for many years for the good of our town and I just want to reassure you that uh I did serve on the uh Old Kings Highway committee for Yarmouth in 2016 and 2017 uh John Stewart was uh also uh at as far back as then um uh as you know that what we do is evaluate applications for a certificate of appropriateness and there are several criteria that go into that that have already been talked about the historical value of the structure the design the texture the materials the color the setting uh John was always well informed and I I uh found that I could rely on his judgment and I don't think you would go wrong in in reappointing him thank you thank you [Applause] okay let's go to the other side of the Town um i' like to know how long a traffic light has to be broken before somebody notices it and fixes it um we're having problems with the flaggers everybody's told you can get access to the different places no you can't they stand right in the middle of the road and dare you to run them over there's one guy in a truck was driving on the wrong side of the road to prevent a person from getting to their business the other day pulled over and got the guy's way so why do we have four different places at the same time being worked on in 28 nobody can get anywhere the patching jobs are horrible there's another business who's had three disruptions to their business because of broken water pipes and and other issues is another guy who has a $750 water bill because the contractor broke his irrigation system and nobody knew it because it was just spraying water instead of going through the heads um today there was three different trenches open which prevented one of these people from getting their property once again they're running a business they're on call and they can't get in or out of their business and nobody cares they're leaving all the materialss on people's Lawns they're packing their equipment on people's Lawns I was told if they had taken people's property they supposed to be paying for it I don't see anybody I haven't heard anybody getting a check yet so if you if everything thinks the sewer system is going well it's not and I stood up for how long and said this is an environmental project with economic benefit these places are going to go out of business people oh the big businessman I don't care guess what go talk to the waiters and waitresses who aren't making any tips right now I talked to one they said thank God we had Thanksgiving cuz that's the money I'm going to live on because they got tip well for Thanksgiving otherwise they're not making any money you got to figure out how to do this get on the property disrupt it and move on not come back and forth three or four times and then they show up at somebody's door at and just start working they didn't say hey tomorrow Tuesday whatever we're going to be at your place they don't care about anybody so thank God they'll hopefully be off Route 28 pretty soon at least and maybe we can get that road back before we kill every business there is and remember you're going to the West Side starting in the spring this has got to be done differently thank [Applause] you do I have anyone else in the audience on Zoom I see Joe Glenn you have your hand y yes Madam chair can you hear me yes I can um I want to Echo everybody including the last speaker who spoken tonight and it goes to a much larger issue a bigger problem um and I'm going to bring up another one that happened this evening that I'm going to report to the uh Attorney General's office tomorrow a violation of open meeting law before the meeting started there was a conversation between the care and M Argo uh within inches of Mr Forest um and the Town Administrator it was another hot mic moment folks um the mic was on and this goes to a problem that you are making backro deals back room decisions have conversations um I know that Tracy Post isn't there maybe if she was there she might have spoken up and said this is a violation of open meeting law when there's a quorum of the committee within three people whether you're on email in in in phone conversations serial phone conversations it constitutes a deliberation and it's a violation of open meeting law and it happened tonight and then uh uh Miss Flynn uh joined uh came into the room um and conversations continued about uh upcoming agenda and miss Argo who then went to Mr Forest and then went to the Town Administrator okay now that might not have been recorded but I'm telling you what happened and how would I know if I wasn't in the room and and there may have been people in the room because the video was just shown to be um the the members of the uh select board and the Town Administrator but this is a big problem it goes to what the last speaker is saying um because you guys are losing it um there is a recall provision in the charter I I think that we should uh activate it um there's no checks on on our our select board um there was no apology I wrote a letter and you all know it and you all received it I got no response back from any of you um after the special town meeting on the guarded comments okay even though the select board member didn't admit what the guarded comments were never said them they were printed in the paper and they were uh everybody knew what they were because they heard them but uh you know if these are the guarded comments I want to know what the unguarded comments are and those are the ones that are happening in the back rooms power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely this is discouraging and always um I had tremendous respect uh and when I first heard it um um I uh thought it was Miss Flynn's voice but because the uh uh the Town Clerk and the uh Town moderator were there I I I I was picking up their microphones too so it sounded uh thing but had I not and I don't know if it was me but I put that in my letter because I was upset with the Town Clerk and I'm upset with the town clerk on a number of different things including the a legal election I think we should invalidate that election I do not think that Miss Argo should go on the ballot at the top of the ballot um as a a a reelected incumbent um and I don't know what the rules are on that but that should be uh looked at um I think that we should uh look into and I know you had an executive session which is also a pet peeve because it seems like things never come out of executive session but uh the you know you had an executive session on something to do with the Appropriations uh I want to know if we if somebody pays a billion dollars to the bog because uh to the bog owner because they know that that's they're the only game in town uh so they can charge whatever they want uh what is the restriction on the appropriation from town meeting I think that there should be a limit um or it should go back to town meeting but I think when you have a special town meeting to tell the people at the meeting that they that this is non-binding is also improper but I'm very disappointed in all of you um I think that we should move I I'm going to start a couple petitions uh in regards to them but uh I I want you to look at uh a recall um provision and the other thing is the we should know this I've run for veral Town officers they told me you couldn't run the the charter says that you can't hold more than one pos one paid position in the town um and the school committee is not a uh Town position the Housing Authority is in a talent position so and and that has been adjudicated 15 years ago but yet uh our selectman are still confused about it but I'm very disappointed but I hope that everybody in the meeting has a good good meeting thank you thank you Joe Tom Sullivan do I see your hand up hi good evening Madam chair hi I can hear you Tom I just like to follow follow up on something I'm gonna change the subjects tonight uh I sent uh the board and Town Administrator email in regards to the veterans uh bill that was passed by the state legisl uh it's called the heroes Bill uh I happen to notice that in the article I sent you is also where the Springfield Town Council just uh passed theirs uh I like to know if that's going to be on the agenda for the May town meeting it is a uh modification of the chapter 59 real estate exemptions if maybe the Town Administrator can answer that we are in public comment Tom there are no responses that are made at this time yeah can you hear me I can hear you can you hear me I got you now all right well uh no response from the town on this I'm just a very simple question not at this time does this have to be put in a petition article then why don't we talk about the fact that we can bring this up at a future select board meeting when we have it on the agenda yeah if you could uh I would like to attend the meeting it's a substantial uh increase in veteran to the veterans here in Yarmouth disabled veterans that is there's a difference all right uh we'll do that Madam chair then I'll watch and I'll attend that meeting if you would put on the agenda thank you do I have anyone else with their hand up today Madam chairwoman I would like to read a three- sentence statement that might clear up some of the misinformation mad chairwoman I would like to read a three sentence statement that might clear up some of the [Music] misinformation we sending on someone from it to uh look into that go ahead thank you uh I was elected to protect the residents of Yarmouth against improper actions that is part of my job and I have no question did not question Mr Stewart's knowledge and his critical contribution to the Oak Kings Highway however the instructions were read to you we are to appoint an architect or professional builder with five years experience last I grew up in Orleans I am a cape Cotter I worked and made movies about the Orleans Arena Theater which is Orleans Original town hall and I have denied five solar installations in my work to preserve the Route 6A corrier so let's keep our facts straight and thank you Madame chairwoman for letting me make a statement thank you okay next on the agenda we have Cola Enterprises LLC requests for substitution of original credit land at 446 Station Avenue with substitute credit land on West Great Western Road Madam chairman maybe I can um introduce this topic I did um have some correspondence with the attorney singer on behalf of colia and um the reason for this agenda item this evening um is for the purposes of communication um that there were some questions that came up at the board level following the approval of an underground petroleum storage tank license um at the um new uh see the what's the name of the mini Mar again uh Seasons Seasons Seasons mini Mar and gas station located on Station Avenue and um the question questions are concerning the conditions that were placed on the license um namely that the gas station that was across the street um was to be removed uh and um maintained one of the conditions excuse me for one second could I please have quiet in the audience thank you one of the conditions of the license was that that property be um maintained as an open site by the lensee and since that time um there has been a a change I I think in the intentions of the applicant and they sought to um come in meet with the board of Selectmen and try to clarify those intentions and um and the select Board needs to determine if if uh you know they that they feel that um this was a condition and um at this point uh it's a matter of communication if if the board determines that there is a potential violation of the license and um there's not an intention to correct that then a future action would be um to hold a hearing uh in which to address the issue in the context of um the license for underground storage whether it should be um amended or or revoked but what we had hoped to do is um questions came up I think there's a lot of um you know misunderstanding on behalf of the um leny in the town with respect to the conditions on that license so we wanted to try to um bring the parties together and see if um those misunderstandings could be resolved before um a formal hearing is sought okay Mr singer good evening forther record Andrew singer attorney in dennisport here on behalf of the applicant with me is Jay Hall from Kia Enterprises and and we appreciate the opportunity to speak with you tonight um I wanted to um sort of go over the history uh of the fuel permit license um because I think that will help um the so back several years ago and this started before covid and ultimately got approved uh several years ago um but was only rebuilt was only built within the last year and a half or so um there was a proposal to uh develop 473 uh Station Avenue which is now the site of the seasons Shell season Corner Market shell property part of that project was to close uh both the what was the sonoko station at 433 Station Avenue and the then existing Shell at 446 so we went through uh many hearings with many boards Board of Health Board of Appeals various ones and ultimately um the uh boards there were the the it was approved by all the boards including the the select board uh you were the last stop on this chain uh of very long number of permits there were four separate parts of the Redevelopment proposal that involved 446 that's the what was the then existing Shell station so the old Shell station um there were four parts of that decision that impacted it before we got to you so when we were at the board of health and the board of appeals first the board of appeals required a deed restriction that there be no further fuel service at the old Shell station second that the old gas storage and pumping infrastructure was to be removed third that if necessary and it was then as a placeholder which is why we're here tonight um the site would be placed under a nitrogen aggregation restriction to meet health code requirements and fourth that the site would be Rel landscaped as per a plan approved by the board of appeals and when we appeared before you in 2022 for the new fuel storage permit for 4 73 we presented all of the all of what I just said to you and you granted the license the fuel license referencing all of this plus also that as required by the board of appeals you wanted expressly in your decision that 446 would be Rel landscaped and maintained because everyone was concerned about the possibly being an ey store you know if you had just a vacant lot with without being used or developed so all of the environmental conditions in Improv movements that were conditioned by the board of appeals the Board of Health and that we represented to you have been fully implemented um the non-forming fuel use is gone the fuel tanks have been removed the site is clean and the deed restriction against future fuel storage use is recorded at the registry of deeds so that site can never be used no matter what happens at that site it can never be used as a fuel use again which is what um the boards all required and and what we proposed um and as I noted the the the Landscaping was done per both board of appeals and this board's um request now as far as the nitrogen aggregation plan and that's where I think it gets um to the time ministrator comment gets a little confusing the that was something separate from zoning zoning the only requirement that the board of appeals had was that we had the deed restriction against future fuel use on the property the old Shell station property condition 1e of the board of appeals decision said that the petitioner shall complete the nitrogen aggregation process to De restrict offsite open space for purposes of credit to the property prior to the new opening the site the new site opening so because of the health regulations and because that's in an aqu aquifer it's in the APD that site needed the benefit of about 25,000 Square fed I think of of offsite open space so I'm sorry can you which site the well the to develop the 473 the new gas station mhm okay we needed about 25,000 ft of additional area offsite to deed restrict against nitrogen introduction and that's that's hence the nitrogen aggregation plan it has two type levels of restrictions on it and at that time so Kia had a requirement that they needed to restrict some offside open space in the same Watershed that's very important and they were searching for some itional land and they actually found the land that we're here to discuss with you tonight but um the uh the ability to buy it there was there was a death of ownership there was probate it it took a long time uh for that to fall into place and so as a placeholder um and as I said to this board back in 2022 they uh proposed to place the nitrogen aggregation restriction on they're existing 446 the old Shell station and it was under the under the provisions of the recorded nitrogen restriction documents um and um as we related to the board of appeals and I relate to this board uh back in 2022 the 446 land was to be not used effectively you know effectively not used until two things might happen and this was in the documents themselves approved by the Board of Health the first is if sewer comes down the road if a sewer comes down the road the Restriction just goes away but secondly if substitute credit land is obtained and approved by the Board of Health that was in that's paragraph 10 of the uh credit land restriction so at long last earlier this year or maybe late last year I don't remember exactly when the deed transfer was Kia was able to buy this land on West Great Western Road and they proposed to the Board of Health to restrict a portion of it it's a large piece of land so they proposed to restrict a portion of it um as credit land into release 446 so it could be reused in the commercial Zone and protect this other land and we went to um we appeared before the Board of Health earlier this year as I said and we made this proposal Town Council had reviewed the matter before we went to the board of health because we had had meetings with the Building Commissioner with the Board of Health with the health director and with Town Council and um well not meeting wasn't with Town Council I met with Mark and Jay in Mark's office and then they had communicated with Town Council and he concurred that a substitution was legally available to be made by the Board of Health per all of the laws in Massachusetts and the Restriction document itself so we did that and the Board of Health approved it um a few months ago they accepted that the substitute credit land this portion of this land on West Great Western Road is actually better as credit land because it is surrounded by Lots similarly situated in terms of location access and re buildability and in fact the town of Yarmouth has purchased all of them for preservation so the piece of land is is a is a island of land unrestricted in the middle of land that the town bought to restrict so it makes perfect sense that this would be a good place to restrict land and as a corollary the Board of Health accepted and not not a Board of Health requirement but but that the substitution allows 446 the old gas station to be once again used as an active and productive non-hazardous use in the town's retail Corridor so by releasing 446 and restricting the other land what the Board of Health was doing is saying that um we were in compliance with the all the health regulations which means we're in compliance with the board of appeals decision and that nothing else was going to change so 446 per the board of health and board of appeals now is saying it can be used for a conforming use under zoning there can be no fuel use there can be no hazardous materials used it has to stay the deed restriction stays we're not asking for any changes of that whatsoever those are all valid um and the so those imp Perpetual imp Perpetual I guess I said imp perpetuity but Perpetual restrictions last forever um the question then so we have those documents the Board of Health signed ready to be recorded you know amending the the credit land and a month ago or so maybe is when um the town reached out to us to say look there's been some questions we have you know we'd like to talk and so that's that's why we're here this evening um any future use of 446 has to go through design review has to go through site plan review and if necessary I'll have to go through board of appeals and Board of Health review so what what the lease of 446 does in the swap that the Board of Health approved does nothing to change the permitting track of anyone whether it's Kia or anybody wants to develop that proc property they'll have to go through all of the requirements in town plus though it cannot be hazardous so you'll get some sort of a store but or an office but you're not going to be get anything that is a hazardous use and so that's how we kind of got to where we are this evening um uh the question was raised when I was talking you know with Bob is you know you use the word violation I I I don't think there is any violation I think that um pia has done everything that they said they would do in representations to the board of appeals the Board of Health and to the select board um I went back and watched the video of our meeting back in 2022 and just to make sure that I said what I thought I said and I did um so it's on the tape and so um I don't when I and I also looked at the condition the the the fuel storage permit itself so the permit itself is just you know the form it's just a simple form it doesn't have conditions in it per se um but when I looked at or listened to the video and I had said expressly that um the 446 land I didn't use the word placeholder at that time but that's what effectively was because I said it will be restricted until such time as either the sewer comes in or substitute credit land is fall followed so that's where we are I don't know that we need anything else from you in the sense of a hearing or anything because I think we're in compliance but that's why we wanted to meet tonight share all this with you I have copies of all the documents it was a confusing project to permit it took many many years so I appreciate that it's still confused as I'm sitting here listening to myself I hear that it's still confusing um but that's where we are if you have questions we'd be happy to try and answer did you want to say anything you um no I would you know reiterate everything that attorney singer had said um when we were prior before before this board and we had noted the fact that like you said it's either a sewer seems unlikely um or we could find additional credit land we were looking at that piece of property that that abuts the open space of the town we we didn't know if we would get it at the time so at the time time we kind of went along with with the game plan as a placeholder and then once we were able to get the the property under under control it seemed like the natural thing to do is use that property as what essentially becomes open space so that there's not in the in the retail World they call speed bump in the retail Corridor where you get a break in the retail Corridor and that that property can be used again as you know for some reason I always say a flower shop or or an office or something like that um in a consistent manner be a productive piece of property in the retail carridor for the town and then hopefully it's a you know whoever buys it we don't plan to develop it um we would sell it to a party that would redevelop it and something that's consistent that would have to go for Planning and Zoning um and hopefully be a a contributing lot from a from a Commerce standpoint it seemed like the the natural thing to do was to swap those two out um if I can answer any questions hopefully it's clear I understand as as attorney singer said it does get a little confusing because there were two separate tracks that the property was being restricted on um one sort of that zoning track and the other being the nitrogen uh restriction track mark do you have any questions um no Madam chair I I was against the overall project I was the I think the the the dissenting vote um but I am in interested obviously in what's being done with the property I think there's an understanding here that it was going to be used for green space I think that's what the board was told so I'm I'm interested in hearing more about that the and and again when we're last before the board and again when we were before the board two years ago you're correct you were the the vote against um but and I think at the time it was based on traffic because you had recognized the possibility that this could be reutilized yeah yeah just for with folks that are listening and following this meeting yeah but my concern is station AB has just become a traffic night correct yeah it's way too much volume and uh we need to have a better plan in place to handle that I was hoping that a lot of work could be done in that regard before we'd approve projects like this so correct and those projects I'm I'm going to be pretty consistent I'm going to be very very very much cautious about approving and supporting any major development on station heav until we can get a a better job at managing traffic flow and and and that is absolutely fine and and any project as I said that would come to reuse that property once it's released would have to go through all the process of review um as far as to your first comment to hear more about about open space on that lot we did say that as the placeholder you know or until the sewer or the substitute land was provided we did say to the board um this board that we were as we've both said restricting that to open space and Rel Landscaping it per the plan that the board of appeals had approved which we did there was an anticipation at that point that if we never got to the stage we're at now that the building would come down at some point and it would become just an open an open lot um but now you know what we had hoped would happen meaning finding that Al the alternative open space was successful and so that's why that's why we did that process with the um with the Board of Health and now with talking with you so so I think we we did what we what they said they were planning on doing um separate from the concerns you did raise couple years ago on traffic absolutely um but any reuse of this property will as I said have to go through the permits and as well when we were before this board we were seeking a fuel service permit a fuel storage permit and so you have a fire safe it was a fire safety and Hazards jurisdiction that's what you guys were looking at and then as and you noted it then traffic really wasn't part of a fuel storage permit but it was something that was looked at what we believe with what we're proposing is that there is no and this is where it also gets a little strange we're discussing a fuel storage permit for a piece of property across the street you know it's not this property this property is now no longer a gas station so we would respectfully submit that a conforming nonhazardous reuse of for 46 the old gas station in the future has no threat to fire safety hazard threat to the APD anything that would have been involved in the environmental review of issuing the gas station permit for 473 across the street so all legitimate issues but we think they're separate no I understand I think when um I think some people felt more comfortable thinking it was going to be greens space that there wouldn't be any additional traffic demand so in terms of the utilization of this space I don't believe there are any traffic limit there any sort of vehicle limitations or traffic projections for future uses of that site would you be willing to entertain some restrictions or some limitations well I mean the the limitations obviously are going to come in through the planning process that depending on what what's being proposed if it's an office or a pediatrician there's very little traffic if it's a flower shop there's probably a little bit more traffic associated with that because a retail use but that's going to be dealt with on Redevelopment as to where the curb cuts are how the traffic is going to flow whether it's a right in right out um it'll really be dependent on the proposed use at the time and and the planning board using their wisdom to say okay we're going to have to look at this look at what the proposal is how the traffic is going to circulate onsite offsite um I just raised that only because um I know this is an issue that other other select board members are are concerned about as well so if if there were some PL or proposals to limit that that I think might be a step in the right direction so that I I put that in the interest of um again my I've already made up my decision I'm I'm pretty much over it at this point um but I do think that any steps that are made to limit you know excessive traffic on station AV I mean you're a property owner there corre I think that that would all be very well received and it's also going to be just the sheer the size of the lot the location of the lot the uses that are allowed as a conforming use only those will also all play roles in what kind of a plan could even be designed for that lot in the future that would then go for the town reviews so that all plays a role in it as well but thank you Liz do you have any questions yeah um is it next to the rail trail the new G the new the old one no the old one is one property away one prop there's an office building between it and the parking lot the rail trail itself is on the other side but you got the parking lot for the rail trail an office building the site so it's next to the parking lot for the rail trail is that what you're saying no there's Anice the Dunkin Donuts yeah um and the office building behind Dunkin Donuts that property wraps around the back of this piece okay I think it's the the other office building which was actually I think the site of the Old Town Hall back in the 1930s or 40s I remember seeing a plan way back when that is what touches the parking lot okay yeah I I'm sort of with Mark i' I'd like to see see some kind of restriction not from traffic viewpoint but from that the parking lot that serves the rail trail and the rail trail itself are are um points of uh interest in the tourists and the residents enjoy using those and to have something there that would be more green space because it really isn't Green Space now that's for sure it's what a tree and a bush so um would be nice to have it more of a a visual respit for um in keeping with the rail trail being so close and I also wondered when are the charging stations coming in charging stations are on the way and what level will they be um they're going to be quick what you would call it quick charge DC yeah that that's that I'm happy to hear um the Transformers went in two weeks ago yeah and the Transformers are active now the the Chargers will actually be delivered to the site I'd hoped next week it looks like it's probably going to be the first week of January or the second week of January and it's like a charge point it's similar to they're not charge Point Brands no but it's you have to have a card and you okay um so that's I'm sort of with Mark I wouldn't mind seeing um some limitations or some expectations just just to be clear limitations are expectations it's a tiny lot if it's going to be limited um if we were to take the building down and comply and then swap the land out the it would still be a marketable piece of property at that point we could sell it and somebody else could could come in um it would seem a shame to do that because I think it's a it's a cute building it's a um as a as a small retail shop I think it makes a lot of sense uh from an environmental standpoint I think by knocking buildings down and then rebuilding for no reason no is agreed with you there necessary I just think I think Mark's right that we should be looking to something that would not add to the traffic issues that we have and I guess one of the questions also is and again we're here just for communication so I don't think there's any necessarily I'm not sure what it is on it's just on the agenda for discussion the question is the legal question I'm a lawyer I got to bring it back to the legal question is um you know appreciating all the comments and all concerns question or interest but the question is is from a legal point of view the board of appeals the board of appeals the select board granted a fuel storage permit for 473 based upon representations that the applicant made one concerning 446 and based on those representations at during the meeting and they're on the tape we think that it everything's in compliance with those so the issues you're raising are legitimate questions but from a legal point of view the issue you know the the Town Ministry has started off by saying is there a violation and we should should we send you a cease and deist order and pull your license which is a pretty severe you know comment and so my question is why you know you recognizing the discussion we're having and we'll continue to have but at the end of the night I guess it's a question of Legally where do we go and I guess I don't see that b but maybe I'm missing something yeah if I could jump in Madam chair yeah I think in in you have to forgive but we have new members here that were not part of this whole this whole discussion so they're trying to follow what's going on um you know as was stated this our business was to handle a fuel storage tank permit and um while the from a fuel storage and fuel management point of view what they were proposing made a great deal of sense because they were removing old underground storage tanks and installing new facilities so from that point of view what they were doing from an from an environmental point of view was a an overall benefit and I think everyone pretty much agreed on it it was I think just during during the presentation and the discussion you heard from me in my in my rant about excessive traffic and overdevelopment in that area so uh and I and I made it very very clear that I'm not sure legally I'd have much of a leg to stand on but nonetheless I just felt that going forward with a project Pro overall and the aggregate was a real concern but I think there were some board members that at least voted for it and I don't want to speak for the others that that were here at the time but I think there was a general sense that because there was a perception and again maybe it was a misperception but there was a thought that that space was going to be green green space with no development I think people have been anxious to see what what was going to happen there as the development unfolded and then when the lot was paved and uh some additional work was done on the site then I just started raising questions here on the board so we we I think and forgive me if I'm overstepping my bounds here Madam chair but I think what we were interested in is just getting an update on what your plans were what you were doing what was going on because I think at the end of that hearing and at the end of that deliberation some of us were left with a different impression in terms of what was going to happen uh I'm not a lawyer I can't you know get into the Weeds on the details here so I understand what you may be doing it certainly fits within the legal parameters you obviously have outstanding councel he knows he knows his business he knows it very very well so I just want you to understand that I think some of us came away from that meeting with a different impression in terms of what was going to happen so I I appreciate you coming before the board and explaining and providing additional Clarity in terms of what's going on I think that's a Town Administrator oh I'm sorry did I speak let me as another um member of the board that was sitting at that meeting on um 2022 I personally ended up voting in favor of it knowing that this would end up being Green Space because I had severe concerns regarding the traffic Corridor along Station Avenue and particularly how close that those properties were you know to know that we could offset by not having anything but Green Space in this property ended up taking my vote to in favor where I quite honestly if I had known that this we'd be sitting here two years later um I would have voted in a completely different way on that uh proposal that night so I am concerned I appreciate you're coming here tonight to explain um your your situation I think you're hearing from us our concerns regarding um the severe traffic situation and quite honestly congratulations your business is turning out to be quite successful at that location but as a result of its success it has done exactly what unfortunately hurts us along the the uh Corridor there of Station Avenue is it has increased traffic um so I I do appreciate you're coming tonight and explaining if you could go over a little bit more for me please the uh land that you have on West Great Western Road you happened to mention that actually meets the parameters much better than the um than the land that is on Station Avenue that we're discussing um happy I think we submitted copies the back of the there's a plan that we marked if you have a copy of that that that'll show it to you I'm happy to bring it up if you don't have it we have it oh you have okay um that land so what I was saying that is that all of the land I mean it butts up to the route six layout so on one side it's a highway but but on on the other three sides of that land um it is open space that was purchased by the to either donated or purchased for value by the town of Yarmouth over the last many years um to be preserved and this larger chunk of land in the middle was not or has not MH and so uh it was felt that you know preserving it's in the same Watershed that's all that's required so it's in the same sub it's actually in the same subwatershed uh this the health regulations are very strict so this land meets all of the legal requirements it is actually in an area of open space around it not in the middle of the commercial district and so we felt and the Board of Health uh supported it that this was a good piece of land to restrict uh or begin restricting it with pieces of it because otherwise it's not restricted and and that land they felt that this land would be better for that that's where what I said came from what's the difference in size between the two pieces of land well the the the if you look in the plan that the the the portion we're proposing to restrict is is the on the left hand side of it is 25,000 feet so it's the same size as the 446 property it is yes the part so the land itself is much bigger it's several Acres um and but this piece of it would be restricted to begin with would be restricted the same as the nitrogen aggregation restriction on what was on 446 since before the Board of Health voted to amend it and it's the same size so it's like for like can can you show no excuse me one sec and does that mean that you were saying that all around it is open space so is there a portion of this that's not going to be nitrogen restricted that is not open space or is that yes and no it is open space in the sense it's not developed but there is a portion that will not be under nitrogen restriction at this point there is a Thinking by KIA that if there are others that in the future that need credit land this is a perfect site to continue restricting until ultimately the whole piece is nitrogen restricted but what we're proposing right now is that that left-and swath the 25,000 ft would be put under the restriction and what portion of that would not be under the restriction the remainder of the lot and how much would that be uh much I mean if you look at the plan it's I can't tell you the size but it's much bigger because it's everything to the right of that light if you this would be the restricted part so this would be the part that's still unrestricted so it's obviously larger yeah okay Liz I'm sorry no no I'm sorry the to for clarification is it the the rectangle in the middle that you're preserving no may I approach yes oops I'll show you [Music] so this is the piece of land and that's the part that would be currently restricted yes it's a little sliver correct well that little sliver is it's a big piece of land so it's 25,000 Square F feet but yes thank you little sliver is larger than my house slot but um but it's and it's not actually I saw you just it's actually not that narrow because it's it's perspective it's a big piece it's a perspective of it yeah but it is 25,000 Square fet Joyce do you have any questions um yes I as somebody who wasn't on the board when you were here before and who was um watching this from the back of the room I I confess that when I heard open space and thought of our the way we use that in the town with the open space committee that it was going to be something other than the paved concrete lot um now I realized with this trade you know that that the other property would be under a valued restriction but if the trade were made how are you planning to leave the lot at 446 well the it it once we do the trade we'll likely Market the lot at 446 and anybody who wants to come in and redevelop it would have to go through planning go through zoning and the resulting approvals would determine how that lot is left yes I I understand that part I meant um a until it has a new owner until it has a new owner we would we would have the lot as it as you see it now because we've already got the nitrogen station and conrete corre and that that was the plan approved by the board of appeals and you know so so what is out there they did they did exactly what the board of appeals required them to do so they're in compliance with the zba and then in talking with this board it was if it got to the point where it was going to be the building someday was coming down and it was going to be I guess what you were thinking of quote unquote open space as from an open space committee point of view then it would you know that the building would be removed and probably the pavement someday would be removed but the idea right now is that um with the release that the Board of Health Board of Health approved that it would stay as it is right now and then as as Mr Hall said once a new potential owner came in and permitted whatever it is it would be whatever was on that plan and that plan I assume would have well would it would have Landscaping whatever a plan plan would have for a commercial development but I don't but it would stay as it is for now okay so it would stay exactly as it is if there were a trade until I'm talking about 446 stay exactly as it is right now if there were a trade until it's rented or sold to a new owner that is correct well rented a good yeah or until it was rented that's that's a fair statement yes does anyone have any other questions Liz no sir no no okay we appreciate your coming before us um we'll kind of um yeah thank you thank you thank you very much thank you [Applause] you okay okay next item we have on the our agenda is the community and economic development committee special event funding recommendations and update for uh calendar year 2025 and review of fiscal year 2026 allocations for annual town meeting article thank you thank you Courtney this I think it's the same I think it is the same that's good just in case we have two good evening hello thank you for having me um I'm Courtney Butler for those of you who I haven't met yet I'm the chair of the community and economic development committee or cedc as we like to keep it short um so I'm here tonight to present on a couple of items the first is the 2025 special event Awards so the committee is charged with um utilizing some of our tourism Revenue preservation funds to support special events in town and um every year we put out a request for thank you B um request for any proposals um this year we had uh five total um which is less than we've had in years past um but we um have allocated of the 140,000 that we put out to the public we have allocated 6387 and that is this first slide here um so I'll just briefly touch on each of the projects um the first project is the Cape Community Orchestra Susan came and presented to us and um they are looking for a new event space as they are growing out of their current space in harwitch um and so they are coming to the new Dennis Yarmouth Intermediate Middle School and that um increased costs for marketing to advertise their new location as well well as event use fees from the school um is their request so we funded them in the amount of $4,700 the next applicant is one that is very familiar to us the Yarmouth Seaside festival and Jan um they have requested $35,000 which we were giving them for performers and entertainment for the 2025 Seaside Festival um next is the yd Red Sox another applicant that has come before us um a few times this year they um are asking for marketing cost with a heavy focus on the All-Star Game the 2025 Cape Cod Baseball League All-Star game will be held in Yarmouth and that is huge news we're very excited for that program um and to see what it does for the town of Yarmouth during that part of the summer um it is a on season inseason event but we're super excited to see where this takes the town and um all that Paul and his team plan to do for the WD Red Sox uh next another familiar face is um Bob at Taylor Bray farm this is for uh marketing their events they do a few events a year including their sheep shearing Festival in the spring as well as their fall festival and other events that they hold um at the farm throughout the year and our final applicant was the Yarmouth toown libraries this was a brand new application for us and we were thrilled to see Mindy and Jane come before us um I just want to give a big shout out to Mindy and Jane at the libraries they are enthusiastic for their jobs they are excited to provide a vast array of services for the community from young readers to older readers and everybody in between and we're very lucky to have them so I just wanted to give them a Kudos and thank them for coming up with this um request for us um so for $917 we are um helping to support their level up at your library summer reading program which features the level up Renaissance Fair um and I do believe that this program is one is one of five throughout the whole country that was selected um for uh participation in this Nationwide event so that totals our $63,800 um as I indicated these uh application came in less than last year we've typically had anywhere from six to 10 applications um so we have voted at our November meeting to reopen the process in 2025 for calendar year 25 events and we have $127,000 available for that so we will be putting out a request for proposals um in the New Year great any questions from the board I have one question where is the uh the Renaissance Fair summer reading program level up to be held do we know that or is that not something that would beIN thebr at the library yeah they'll have more information on that um just curious I believe it's at the library itself yeah since we have three yeah yeah okay Mark do you have any questions oh sure um I I would agree with your your assessment that um Jane and Mindy are terrific yeah and it's great that they're they're coming up with this proposal what exactly is the $99,100 to be spent on oh Mindy's actually online um did you hear that Mindy she has her hand raised go ahead Mindy can you hear us hey Mark hi select Forge yes can you hear me I can hear you wonderful so the main um funding will go towards the mini Renaissance Fair which is the first of the um type for the clams library system which we already have commitment from several other libraries to help host the event um so the main funding will go to getting performers to make this a capewide event that will generate lots of visitors and participation that first um weekend in July and as for where the location will be held we have two options um I am filling out the fir form currently to use the madak keys property and if that is available we would like to use that if not we will be hosting it at West garmouth Library on the lawn there and seeking participation with community members in that area to help expand onto their spaces awesome great anyone have any questions from Mindy uh no I think it sounds very good thank you fabulous wh Mindy we're going to look forward to that one m thank you thank you very much thank you m chair I have a question for uh Courtney and be because it's in my mind I suspect it's probably in a lot of other people's minds too now what now is the permanent track of funding for the uh St Patrick's Day uh Festival parade and all the things that wrap around that I believe it was in administrative a year ago yeah I can I can answer that is that um what one of the issues that we faced is um um obviously with the growth that we're trying to stimulate all of our community events there's only you know so much funding available and so the select board made the decision in the budget to create um another fund that would help some of the um costs associated with community events that couldn't be funded through the CC's tourism um fund and um so far we were able to place um enough in that line item to fund this year's um St Patrick's Day parade and the St Patrick's Day Parade organizers had agreed that they would keep the parade going for another three years and um what we do hope to do is in the future if funds become available we'd like to expand that to to have it be a a CommunityWide fund that could also supplement potentially some of the public safety costs associated with other events in town but um so far uh what we've been able to do you know working with a partnership between the town the parade cedc is we've taken the um St Patrick's Day Parade we're funding that out of the special events fund under the select board budget um and that frees up uh cedc to tackle some new community events and things such as the um summer reading and other programs nice okay well thank you that's that's very helpful U good luck with all this sounds like Yarmouth has all sorts of exciting things going on almost every month yeah thank you thank you Courtney and you're going on to yes and the board should also approve the U Grant Awards okay I would entertain a motion to approve so moved second okay any discussion all those in favor I I I unanimous thank you appreciate your support um so yeah next moving on to the FY 26 tourism Revenue fund proposed allocation um we're kind of trying to get a little bit ahead of the game here as this will um eventually end up being a warrn article as it is every year um to talk about our budget so um this year our total allocation that we receiv received for FY 26 is $520,000 $52,900 um and this is approximately 5% less than FY 25 um so we have taken our sort of we call them our buckets and we've taken the $520,000 and divided that up into the buckets um um typically I just want to note we have the Personnel line item there is zero typically we've committed 15,000 to that in the past but with the vacancy of the economic development program manager um we decided to shift those funds around until we know what's sort of happening there um and that position is filled as we wanted to allocate those funds to other projects um so special events this past year we all we um put out that we had over around $140,000 um we're trying to keep with that same theme with $135,000 in FY 26 um marketing um so marketing is cover is the cost that's allocated to cover the cost of the um services that we put out to a competitive bid to market the town the Yarmouth Chamber of Commerce is currently holding that bid to carry out the marketing and visitor Services um and these will be rebid in FY 26 um so we are going to start working on that in the new year um the current marketing contract is for $1,655 and that um that contract includes online marketing traditional marketing visitor services such as managing The yth Visitor Center um and events as well as a flat Service delivery fee um so for the FY 26 we've put the contract at $200,000 um just because we don't know what the bids are going to come in at um but given that it's been a few years and inflation all that we want it to be safe um our next bucket is the public improvements and that is um a proposal that we put out to town staff and departments to work on fiscal improvements in town um we are allocating 135,136 to that um this represents 26% of the appropriation and we are required to um allocate at least 20% um so we are allocating 26% this year um some recent uses of this fund include a 5% match to the municipal fiber grant program application that was submitted by the town um and we are excited to see what sort of projects Town staff bring to us in the coming months um as we enter 2025 and our last is the economic development project which we are putting at5 $50,000 um these are for economic development projects related to efforts that help diversify and grow our yearound economy and we work with Town Administration on a lot of these projects so that brings our total allocation to 52,900 [Music] maybe Karen can help with that there's been a slight reduction in the rooms tax over the last couple years so I think that rooms tax uh Revenue the the way that the tourism Revenue preservation fund is calculated as a formula and it's a formula based on the prior years's uh rooms tax receipts and don't forget we we also have the uh short-term rental tax that's been um piece of it has come out of this uh allocation yes so we made we made we made an amendment to the overall that's correct in 22 just wanted to make sure I'm having a senior moment here so I just wanted to make sure we're clear on that the um is the public Improvement bucket the one that we're using to do the interpretive signs on the historic yes okay historic Yarmouth whole initiative that we've been talking okay that's good just wanted to get CL Clarity on that and and as well as the Revolutionary War markers that are going in at the ancient cemetery and um cedc also uh provided $25,000 towards the design of the monument project which I think Bob was here Bob Kelly uh and David G andopolis were here last week yep no that's all seems to be going well no um just as an observation I I I I'd like to I like this dialogue I see Joe Manning is here I love it when you Courtney or whoever is cheering uh but it's great to see you folks come here and have a dialogue so that we can have an open exchange um there's so many committees that we have that are working incredibly hard but I think your committee is one in which I think just given the nature of the fund and the work that you're doing is important for us to have uh a regular dialogue and regular communication about the work that you're doing because I think our input our Guidance the work that the the the insights that we can provide you I think are incredibly helpful to the your group so I I like the frequency of our inter interactions and um it once again it's great to see you and and other members of the committee coming here tonight to talk about some of the great work that you're doing so I does this require a vote or anything else are we done voting tonight this this allocation is what the committee would be recommending you move forward for the uh warrant so we'll have another crack at it later on absolutely okay that's great no my questions are done thank you thank you l no no questions we are going to go over the tourism fund still oh and Joyce I'd just love to hear an example of the public Improvement use um you mentioned historical and I'm I'm always interested in that yeah do you want me to jump in par River so uh yeah in past years we've helped cover some of the costs at uh the Parker River Bridge we paid for Lights that were probably more um decorative than would have been covered through the other costs uh the Sandy Pond uh playground and splash pad um the physical improvements uh funds were used to kind of finish off the restroom uh side of things there um invasive species management some of the roadway banners that you see up and down Route 28 um improvements at the drive-in site the um the old utility boxes that are all wrapped with beautiful pictures and scenes from Yarmouth and yarmouth's history those were funded through uh the physical improvements uh and let's see way back uh packet Landing part of packet landing and the Beautiful Pavilion that's there uh I think cedc at that time this is going way back um provided the seed money uh and then worked together with CPA so what's what's really nice is some of the projects Mark was asking about um we're we're really moving towards coupling uh the town funds to accomplish nice things um and so like Courtney said hopefully we'll get some uh good feedback from town departments I know I have a couple ideas could you give us like a tiny Peak into one use of um the fiscal 2026 funds um what something you're considering yeah nothing has officially come to us yet but we're um interested in Chase Brooks Park and um a couple of other sites in town that are deeply in need of some love so we we let when we put out the announcement recently for the public improvements we have an onhand balance of funds that are available right now but we also know that um an additional 135,136 will come online in July once we get the the appropriation and um those funds are available for things as well so things you know people people in the past who have asked questions are um uh Department of Natural Resources they're certainly doing a lot of nice things out and about our friends in DPW uh sometimes like to dress up things um the chasebrook park for sure uh will be coming forward okay well Beauty's good thank you it is I'd also like to lend my words to Marx that thank you very much you're a committee that works very devotedly to us and you're giving of a lot of your time and we appreciate it and we appreciate your coming forward because communication is a key element on both sides I'm sure you know if there's any information that we can share with you at any time please let us know because we'd be happy to um so moving on to the tourism fund yep so um this is just pretty much um a projection of what the balances would look like come FY 26 July 1 um with what we currently have in our um in our line items and then what we project to get in 2026 um so just to kind of give you a taste of what we have right now and what we're hoping to add and focus on um in the future thank you yeah thank you look forward to talking to you later yes yes we'll be seeing each other again thank you if I could also U just for the point to the public uh a little clarification um when Joyce was asking about the St Patrick's Day parade and Bob was answering I'd remind folks that were at our town meeting uh back in April that uh this was an item that was marked in the budget as selectman $50,000 that caused some confusion and I'm I I do believe Bob that we're going to have that better highlighted in NE this coming Year's budget so that folks will see your selectman aren't getting any kind of raise there I mean it is money that's going toward the parade thank you okay moving on to our next item on the agenda we have the Wastewater update yes good evening uh Jeff Colby Public Works director and I'm joined by Lori rosala our water and wastewater superintendent so this is a similar format to we've given previous updates I think it covers all of the the high points that it's uh needed to update the board but just a overview of what we'll cover we'll talk about the groundwater discharge permit we have ongoing discussions with de kind of about what that looks like going forward uh we'll talk about the uh water resource recovery facility that's contract one that's also what we've refer to as the treatment facility a major part of the contract so very important item and then we'll talk about collection system contracts 2 through six and always wrap up with Wastewater Communications how people can find out more information and how we're communicating some of the the changes out to the public groundwater discharge permit uh this is something we uh gave you an update on last time that we actually do have a final groundwater discharge permit that's been issued uh by D for 370,000 gallons per day for 99 Buck Island Road but as we talked about uh previously that's only a portion of what we need for phase one so we're having ongoing discussions with d on a monthly basis with regards to where we can find that extra flow for phase one and I'm happy to report that we have progress being made towards the remainder of that flow being handled at Bayberry Hills I know we'd referred to that as a location for uh a possible you know future location the next area we're going to explore we met as recently as today with uh Scott Gilmore and CDM Smith to talk about the different Poss possibilities there and it's very promising based upon the volume that they use for irrigation that we can use the reclaim water there for that uh purpose for several hundred thousand gallons these numbers still need to be worked out but then there's also a a fairly significant amount of subsurface discharge that can Happ happen there as well uh we're looking at something on the order of a million gallons a day up at that facility so that will get us where we need to be for the first phase and maybe even a portion into the second phase but all those numbers still need to be worked and we will be able to do that with those ongoing discussions with DP so we're having uh some success I can't say that we have our full solution yet but we are making progress uh ultimately we will need to look at other I should mention it's the last bullet on this slide here we will need to look at other locations as well uh we're talking about uh a very large eight-phase Wastewater plan but we're making progress with where we need to go and as I mentioned last time we're talking about the flows uh it's important to remind people it's going to take time for us to get there uh we have a uh collection system going in now and we'll give some dates and some upcoming slides about how that uh process um is going to unfold with regards to some dates and Milestones that are coming up but we won't be seeing first flows into a treatment facility probably till early 2027 so we have some time to get there uh but we do need to continue to make progress on finding locations for discharge also we like to give an overview of where we are for the contracts before we get into the details of each particular one I referenced in the overview that we're going to talk about contract one that's in the middle of the screen that's that green box that's the the treatment location uh and then the other five contracts are all spread throughout Route 28 Old Main Street Southshore uh that that hasn't changed but does it's a good slide for reference purposes if we need to go back to answer any questions this is a a good slide to demonstrate where the contracts are and where work is unfolding currently contracts two and three is where the active construction is occurring today uh the Water resource recovery facility this is contract one uh the notice to proceed so we uh updated you last time that we had a a signed contract uh the notice to proceed is the next step that was issued to CH Nickerson on November 25th the construction time in the contract is a th days so that's approximately two years eight months and and doing the math that gets us to a final completion on September 10th 2027 now a lot can happen between now and then on a nearly $100 million component of the project uh but if everything stays on track that is the contract duration and when we expect to have that completed then we have to go with startup and testing from d uh there's some clear water tests that happen before you can even receive your first flows so that's why I mentioned before that uh you know it's 2027 is a good Target at this point but um that is a moving Target still as we get closer and we have more updates to you we'll have a you know lock that in better as you get closer to those dates I like your use of 1,000 days to give us a sense not to be hurrying you know because it's going to take a while 1,000 days and nights can you explain why it takes so long to get this project constructed it's a long time yeah that is a great question it's a long time uh there's a lot of components to it there's a lot of concrete there's a lot of excavation that happens uh there's infiltration beds I don't know that we have a slide that kind of shows the overall uh magnitude of this but it's a very large project yeah maybe at the next update you know we do these we we do these updates regularly and maybe at the next update we can talk more about that because it just thousand days is a long is a long long time it is a long time it is longer than the collection system contract so this is kind of that uh you know critical path if you will to get to where we're going we'll certainly work with the contractor to try to expedite that but I will tell you that during the bidding process this thousand days is what we heard from multiple contractors saying they needed in order to accomplish the work there's just so many steps long lead times tend to be with electrical components there's a lot of um complex electrical components associated with this uh we have an kind of a little bit of anide we have a generator project with the police station that has a very long lead time just for a generator and this has many more advanced high-tech electrical components associated with that so it's just a a lengthy process treatment facility of this magnitude is you know the biggest project that uh certainly DPW will ever do we've done some smaller water treatment facil ities but this is a massive undertaking may I ask um when you say construction time are we talking to are we talking that in a thousand days it it'll be operable it'll be ready to receive flow that's that's correct um on on big projects like this there's likely to be punch lists and things that need to be finished up and that's why uh we're going to work with a contractor to to speed that up and substantial completion of this project could be you know in advance of that but uh there will be um significant components what you're seeing on the screen here is really just the process building there's a lot that goes into that for uh controls employee facilities a lab things like that uh but there are a number of buildings that are part of this um large tankage um again we can probably show on our next update a a larger scale you know map or plan of what that looks like on some of the previous updates we've had that but it's it's a major facility uh if there's no other questions on the treatment side of things we'll switch over to the uh collection system contracts and updates with that okay so I'm just going to start with contracts two and three which are the two that are under construction right now so contract two is the Robert be hour contract um and just to give you kind of an update of where they're going to be at over the next few weeks um so actually this this week right yeah this week they are on on um where they've been for the last few months on Route 28 both near the Pancake Man and uh near this right now the state police barracks um and they're not going to be working on Route 28 um next week except for on Monday um in the following week so they're going to move over to M Lane they have some work to do over there which is um closer to B um yeah Bass River Bridge um some of the side roads over there um so they won't be working on Route 28 over the Christmas holiday they're taking the Christmas holiday to stop construction they won't be working at on Route 28 but they will be working okay that's just Robert that's just Robert be hour okay um as for roli right now they're working on Route on Route 28 uh between SE View and pine grve both doing the water main and putting in the longside sewer laterals as well as they're on sore Drive near Red Jacket and sore Drive uh near Parkers each um so they have four or five crews out there right now um doing that work um and though it is I know a lot of a lot going on on the roads right now revoli is not working for the next two weeks starting on Monday so we have two weeks reprieve from all of um the detours on Route 28 um so I just did want to touch base on um I I know there was the public comment earlier about the traffic it is a lot going on right there right now um part of the challenge is that what rol is doing on Route 28 right now is the longside laterals they have to cross the street to get the sewer laterals to the properties on the south side and really the only way to do that is to close the road um and that's a that's a tough detour they you have to go up Forest Road and down winds gray um right now we have um eastbound traffic going south north westbound traffic going north um to try and keep them from Crossing each other at turns um so hopefully that working out but at the same time we have the Robert hour detours which I know is confusing for everyone um we have made some adjustments to um after we've got some comments from residents so um some of the signage particular on Long Pond Drive was confusing people so we've adjusted that um and then as well as um as Kurt mentioned some of the flaggers have uh not been guiding people to the businesses so we have spoken to U Mike Bryant who's the lieutenant at the police department that runs the detail de details um and he made sure that every morning the OIC the op officer in charge of the flaggers lets them know where exactly ruli and Robert hour are working and that to help them to be able to guide people to the businesses that are open there actually aren't that many that are open but some businesses are open and um they need to be able to get there so they've been better trained since um month Monday I know there was some issues on Monday since then to allow people to get where they need to go thank you for letting us know that that's been address that's great so I know there's still going to be challenges because you still can arrive and not know where to go um people do need to just ask is if you don't know where to go is probably the easy ask a flagger how to get to where you need to go um the other thing is I am I do update ways every morning with exactly where they're working so that if you do follow ways it should guide you to where you want to go um the way ways works though you have to close like sections of road so it it may take you close but it may not take you all the way if you're business is right at where it's closed um but it should get you to at least come in from the right direction hopefully um so I still really encourage people to try and use ways I am updating it every day um is there a hotline that people call when they find that they are the traffic pattern just isn't working or is there or they just reach out to you how do people there there's people calling I think they may call the police um that would that's actually ideal because police are the ones that um Mike Bryan at the police is the one that's helping to set up all the detours and um arranges all the flaggers and detail officers um but a lot of people call my office or Jeff's office okay so wherever they call we get we're getting the message and we're trying to make adjustments to help people get make feedback through the ways app as well too so that's an interactive app yeah so people can look on their phone yes okay that sounds great I think a lot of people probably don't know that so um if you could kind of just mention that again very loudly for the audience at home I think that might be helpful and it's on the website I'm pretty sure it's right front center onite and we'll end with that as well because we have some information on communicating and updating the public and I guess the other um piece of information we just want to convey is that you got to remember we can't work on Route 28 in the summer so we have have to work on it now and um businesses don't want us working on the shoulder Seasons either so it leaves us the winter um but then we can run into weather problems in the winter um and mass do requires that we pave every day asphalt plants are only open one or two days a week so it just makes it challenging to work in the winter so though it's kind of chaos right now the the hope is that by doing a lot right now we'll be doing Less in the spring when um I know a lot of businesses don't want us on Route 28 um and uh the other thing I've mentioned before but just want to mention again is that we're also installing water uh all all along Route 28 replacing the water line so each contractor has to go by doing the sewer M which is going to be your most disruptive then they're going to put in the sewer Services which is when they have to cross the roads and they have to put in the water and then eventually they have to tie in the water to every service so it is a lot of going back and forth in front of a particular property um there's there's not a good way around it those steps kind of have to happen in that order um in particular the water the line has to be installed and then tested disinfected before anyone can connect so you you kind of have to do the whole thing before you can go back so I just wanted to convey those um challenges that we're facing and that's kind of why it is the way it is right now people it's why people are so frustrated right it is really yes it's the back and forth back and forth back and forth when they think it's over it's not and they're coming back um I I'll save my comments to to the end um and then just to give you a scale of what we're working with this manhole right here that you're looking at that's one of the ones uh the second one up from the Pancake Man so it's 20 feet deep um and that's a 30inch pipe coming out the bottom um and each for each manhole and each stick of pipe they have to put in they build this structure around it um so it takes a long time and they're Paving every day so it's a slow process um and but they're moving you know we're trying to get as much as we can get done now in the winter as we can Lori what was this um this hole for this the it's a it's a manhole sewer manhole so it's the water pipe on the right and then the sewer pipe on the left um so the big big cylinder is the manhole the pipe next to it is just a dewatering pump um and then the actual sewer m is the green pipe at the bottom that will continue on this is before the actual pipe was installed gotcha so this is what homes will tie into they'll tie into the green pipe okay well yeah but so what and this is for maintenance these these man holes then yeah access to the to the main all right and this is just an overview of where we're at with contract two and three um contract two is about 72% done and that's just counting I'm just talking about sewer main um and then contract three is at about 43% um contract the contracts um divide right at Skull Island um so everything to the right of kind of that little intersection in the middle right in the middle is uh contract two and everything to the left is contract three so they're making progress okay moving on contract four this is actually under contract with Robert Robert BAU we have received a schedule from them um they plan to start working on it in the March time frame um they would ALS they also have a section on Route 28 that they want to try and get done as soon as possible and then they have the north south um Old Main North M and station a um little just small areas to stay within the mass doot project that's coming later um contract 5 is from bass R uh Parker River Bridge to Higgin coll road that bid we received in Robert B hour was the low and contract six is um from Higgin C road to Barnstable and that bid was um the low bid there was digit construction I I have a question about um contract 4 now with the map do we assume everything north of the map here is contract 4 no contract 4 is really small I mean not yarmouthport but no no contract 4 is just that small let me go back to it sorry there you go Little Blue Area it's really small why it's that small is just it was it was meant to line up with the Mast doot project that's happening there but uh they were delayed so we needed to move ahead and continue our with our project so the sewer is going in before the mot project and then the um we are going to do the water main but it's going to be with the massot project oh okay that's the Bass River Bridge Project and includes that intersection as well oh okay I I have a question um about an area of town that has a lot of trouble with flooding Captain's Village um is it possible that um with the sewer system collectors could remove that excessive runoff Rainwater that people have to drive through and I'm asking two Engineers because I don't actually know what's possible sure the the short answer is it couldn't it could not be part of the sewer project itself we have a separated system it's just sanitary sewer there are some older larger I guess you could say grandfathered cities where they do have a storm water sewer combined system but those aren't allowed anymore uh there's huge overflows that happen when it rains heavily and those are going to be your older cities like New Bedford ball River you know things like that um new systems like ours are not allowed to combine with storm water but with that said there will be some opportunities as we um impact roadways that we'll look at drainage infrastructure as well we're doing that in a couple of areas uh just like with the water uh if we know we're going to be digging up a road for sewer we'll see if we can do water or other utilities at the same time if it makes sense so particularly for Captain's Village I think there's going to be some opportunities for storm water improvements but it will be a separate system at that can be done at a similar time as that Wastewater project when that happens question so really it would almost be like a a byproduct of all the digging up to um have better drainage around the pipes that are laid down but it's not not any part of the sewer system or the water system am I misunderstanding well it wouldn't be part of the sewer piping manhole system you just saw in the picture there but there is separate infrastructure that can be added at the same time potentially with the same same contractor uh just like we're doing contracts two and three those selected contractors are doing water and they're doing Wastewater separate systems but they're kind of doing them under the same contract we could do three uh when it gets to uh areas that need significant Improvement like Captain's Village there could be a water component there could be a Wastewater component and there could be a um a storm water component but but they would be separate infrastructure if you will the state D does not allow us to kind of interconnect those systems those are all have to be dedicated systems okay and what what contract number does that fall under that's a good question we don't have the overall eight-phase map but it's not in I think it's phase four or five yeah it's not two or three it would be after that two or three are kind of the more easy connections off of what you're seeing here uh maybe the more of the Lewis Bay South of 28 um heading North are kind of the later stages of the phased plan now we do need to revisit some of those phases in order to meet the D nitrogen removal targets so we'll be revisiting that and talking with the board about updating those phases but the um Captain's Village is in the later phase it's probably more like four okay thank you okay so our last part is just about Wastewater Communications um um as I mentioned before we work closely with the police department um to coordinate the detours um and they are very good about getting they make the detour maps and share them on all the social media um which seems to go well they have a lot of followers so that's good um and we are in frequent communication with the Chamber of Commerce Mary vbon and I speak frequently and probably with Jeff too um and then we send them the weekly updates for the look ahads for the work and she sends them out to her constituents so that that's hopefully keeping people who don't want to have to check the website that it's coming into their inbox if they're members of the chamber so that's helpful as well nice um and they help put up the signs on the bridge on the um my Parker Parker River Bridge the water campaign signs y um and as I mentioned before way is updated daily with which roads are closed and where um and if anyone would like to connect um for detours follow the town of Yarmouth or the Yarmouth police on social media um that way you'll get the most the latest up detour information um but you can always go to ways for what's closed on any given day um and then the if you just want General more general information our website has the weekly construction look ahead so for right now it's just contracts two and three but eventually everything else will be added as they come on board um any PL plans for where the main is going you can look for them there as well as a there's a whole page about Resident information as far as what what to do when it's time to connect um and that will be added to as we get closer to when people can actually connect I think that's all I have yeah I think that's it happy to answer any questions you might have um thank you U and thank you for the presentation um uh I think you were here during public statements and you heard some of the frustrating comments um and they're not new they're you know we've heard them before um I I'd like to put out there to for for some thought we don't have to address this tonight but I would really like folks to think about other measures that we can do to improve Communications and the flow of information about the project and particularly traffic um one of my one of my fellow board members talked about a phone number um when we were having meetings uh Dennis Yarmouth and hartch the the towns were told of the town of harwitch when they were doing Wastewater construction they had a designated person a name and they had they were the Wastewater utsman and this person was a very visible figurehead in the the community their phone number was easily accessible and there was just someone that people knew they could call if they had a question about what was happening with the project on any given day all their job was totally Communications and communicating with residents sounds and um and the Harwood select board members that were part of our dhy sort of working group the har s what's that no I just I was remembering the dhy days well the the working group did a great job I thought and uh one of the suggestions that came up from the harwit select board they said they had a great experience in having someone designated as a Wastewater coordinator or you know Ombudsman and that that was the term that they use in harch and they said at our meetings that this person became an incredibly important figurehead and and um was crucial in terms of sustaining public support I'm not suggesting that you folks aren't putting in the effort but I do think the absence of having a phone number and an individual whose job it is um at the top of their list on their job description it's this I think it's something that really needs to be considered I'd really like to you know I'll I'll put that for the board to you know chime in on because I honestly think we're at a point I don't want to say a breaking point but we're at a point point where um there just so many dimensions and so many aspects to this project and there's so much misinformation that I think having someone that people can call and talk to because there are many folks this back and forth I know for some people it's driving them crazy and uh I I I know it's the nature of the work um but they're aspects of the project that many people find frustrating and we've got to figure out a better more you know we shouldn't I don't want say rest on our Laurels cuz that's not really what I mean but in the absence of a better phrase I think we need to keep striving to find ways to make things better and find better ways to communicate and get word out to folks I see your videos I see the ways I see stuff but then you know I will literally go along Route 28 and and I will see businesses with like no traffic and I know that normally during this time of dat there will be activity there should be activity but for whatever reason the cars aren't being directed or people just aren't there so there's no question what we're doing is having clearly an impact on a lot of people and I just think we have to keep coming up keep looking at what can we do better we should always be trying to find a way to strive to do something better so my pitch for tonight my suggestion is going to be we all give some thought to having a Wastewater Ombudsman with a phone number um very accessible on the website on all the stuff everything that we put out um it's on the sign boards a person that people they know they can call I mean I mean I I don't want to sound like I'm critical of you because you folks are always very accessible but I think someone needs to we just need to brand that name and have it a face and have a voice and have someone that and can also play a role in helping uh address some of the complicated questions that people may have with respect to tie ups tie-ins and hookups and where I can get funding and stuff like that there just needs to be a person that people can sort of um connect with and talk to and get that information now I asked the Hart select board when they were when they set this position up I asked how many hours a week it's there may be times where it's a full-time job but on average they said that should be a 15 to 20 hour a week job but you could get calls and and and I know the coordinator that they had or the the Ombudsman that they had was available on weekends they he took calls anytime and sometimes would meet with people go to their house sit down with them talk to them they were confused about something make sure that they got the information that they needed so I think that's something that we need to really think long and hard about but soon we need to pull a trigger on this either you know go or no go on it very very soon because um you know it's I just don't see it I'm I'm just very worried about you know the next several months and and what's going on and more and more frustrations on the project so um I'm not going to ask you to respond to that I'd be bit very interested at least initially in hearing um what my other fellow board members think but we've got to do something well I do have a very brief response and it might not fully answer your question but we just recently had an assistant Wastewater superintendent start so he's obviously got a learning curve associated with that but meeting with residents is one of the key things we've targeted him with it's been mostly on stub locations and more of the the fine-tune you know construction issues you know dealing with you know problems and trying to overcome those issues so I don't know if it completely addresses that on budsman position that might be more um higher profile uh but we do have additional resources within the DPW that hopefully will help us to make some improvements as we move on well then if you have this individual may I if you have this individual at least for the public at large let's Des think about designating that individual as the Wastewater Ombudsman let's have that individual's name out there um on our posters our mailings our Communications have a question call our Ombudsman uh put his name out there what's that on the post office wall exactly on the post office wall on the chamber wall uh you name it whatever wall that that's out you know as many walls as we can find but I think we need we need to connect this to to a person people want to talk to people people want to know that they're talking to someone that's in that's in the know that's in a it's it's in a position of authority of some sort that they can connect with and I think um I think we've gone long enough without that I think now is the time to really pull the trigger on it so I would make I would consider I don't I don't know again what the union rules are or what the job description says but um you know we may just want to Just Dub that person for the time being you know Wastewater Ombudsman and have a I mean you want to learn on the job there's no better way to learn on the job than to become the Ombudsman for something like this and handle all the you know phone calls absolutely so I I would urge you to give some thought to that okay any further questions Liz I would um building off of Mark's idea I think it's great and I agree that that would be a major addition and I I'm not I don't know the person you just hired but I do think it's going to require a certain kind of person I'm not sure that um somebody who's an engineer never mind I don't know who but eloquent Engineers but I think it's you're wasting somebody who's very talented in other areas if that's the who you have as the ombudsman the Ombudsman that I would Envision has to be very uh touchy feely able to respond to people in a very caring way and spend the time on the phone talking to them when maybe somebody else would feel I'm really supposed to be over here doing this job so I I would question pushing us that onto a um super assistant superintendent but um I do think that that's a really great idea and I think it could also help with PR in that it could be we another ounce announcement or however it should be handled that this is being implemented we hear you here's something additional that we're bringing forward to try to help could be another good town move okay go ahead oh I I I think the idea of a central person is is very smart and I would certainly if we needed more money to do that for next year's budget I would certainly support that well certainly the timing of this is coming along with our budget Workshop starting up in January so um but I think what you're coming across from the board because I also support the idea of a budget on Ombudsman I've seen how well that works in healthcare and um certainly a lot of times it's just having that Personal Touch that person you can talk to can make all the difference in the world so yeah because the person's there for the public it's you know it the person has a job to do for the town but the person's their job is to be the Ombudsman for the average resident citizen person in town that is just plagued with questions and questions and uncertainty or or you know why isn't that service line going where it was supposed to go why why the change just someone that also is connected to the the town bureaucracy that knows how to get the answer and communicate effectively to the people that are working on things so um a person could even um beg your pardon is that okay could even um uh be available for presentations to the rotary to the um Yarmouth U Chamber of Commerce and and the senior center where are we what's going on that could be your person goes out and at one o' there'll be a presentation by but I think the priority is if you know agree I beg to differ a little bit I the priority has to be the Yarmouth resident taxpayer the people that here live in this community that are residents that are impacted by this that should be their number one priority this person is there for them yeah all right you have questions call me you don't know anything call me um you want to know if you can get to stop and shop tomorrow call me you want to go shopping you got to do the laundry whatever call me just you need it it it's for some folks going on a you know this is easy for us right going on a mobile phone and looking up ways but there are lots of folks that that is just torture really you just you're kill them right I mean I I I know of a half a dozen people I can rattle off right off the bat where where I say that that's not going to mean anything it's just a complete waste of time so we have folks are very different some are very good at technology a lot of folks aren't and I think we the phone is something that most people are pretty used to so I think we should just be focused on you know that kind of communication or even even in person you know someone you know come to my house I want to show you something they should be very visible very mobile out in the community and to some degree My Hope Is they ease your burden a bit all right because I mean I can't tell you how many times I've called Jeff to say I've got a angry constituent this is what they're asking me and can you go talk to them I mean I've been I've been bugging him on a pretty regular basis and um and you've been great you've been incredibly responsive but I think now's the time to think about you know maybe some reinforcements in a different focus and a different approach you know um so and I and again I'm not coming down critical I just think that um given the dimensions of the project and given what's going on I think this kind of uh this kind of move I think um we really need to take seriously okay thank you thanks thank you so much thank you so much right thank you and we know you're early morning people so double thank you have a good night thank you okay moving on we have board and committee actions um approval of the minutes for the December 9th 2024 meeting I had a comment on the minutes I um one one I think they so I would would have liked in number one item one to have let people know where I was going it says for another meeting and I'd rather that they didn't think I'm going to Alcoholics Anonymous although I could have been Bridge Club yeah bowling so you want to make a change to the minutes that's reads that um to um for a meeting with o Kings Highway scheduled meeting with Old Kings Highway okay any other revisions Madam chair I move the approve approval of the minutes for December 99th 2024 as amended second all those in favor I I I okay it's approved moving on we have the upcoming agenda review our next meeting is going to be next year it's the time of year when we can say that uh we have the uh items that we have listed um we have the budget Workshop um Capital improve movement presentation the mes utilization committee update and review of the final draft of the station Avenue Corridor study report I was thinking that when we met previously we moved a couple of items onto this agenda but maybe it's too crowded we had um thought that the communications update was rather important and that it would be nice to have that um soon but maybe was supposed to be on a different night that ring any bells you're talking about the communication syst update it may have been moved to the 14th it was on my sheet so we do have a upcoming Communications update January 7 may be very um busy we had to move the CIP to go along with the budget Workshop it may may work out better that we do on J January 14 put that Communications update on good let me just stop there for a moment before we start talking about January 14th and say we've got January 14th and we have January 21st not meeting on January 21st because of the um Martin Luther King holiday um how does the board feel that about meeting instead of having back-to-back meetings at the beginning of November and then no meeting until I'm sorry January um and then no meetings until February what would the board think of having our meetings be January 7th and January 21st it's fine with me that would that would be fine with me also January 7th and 21st is that what you're suggesting oh so the Tuesday after the holiday right I don't have a problem with that yeah that that's fine I think it it it spaces it out better and the month you know in case things are coming up yeah I just want everybody to understand there there's been this tradition with the board for years that the Tuesday after a long weekend is typically not a date to schedule a select board meeting that's been the custom it's been largely set up that way for people to make plans for family vacations and trips and other business and stuff like that so um but I I'm okay if we take these up uh you know on a caseby Case basis that's fine with me okay so our meetings then in January will be on January 7th and January 21st okay going back sorry Bob to Communications update then we'd be talking about on January 21st yes budget Workshop of course is going to be something that's a continuing item for every single agenda up until it's finally approved and I think we also had a route 28 update oh M do do do we have them coming down to talk or zooming in no I think what we're looking for is to get an update on what their plans are if they can come that's great but don't we have I think we have um the improvements to Route 28 under design and I keeps getting pushed off on the transportation Improvement program so um I think what we're anxious to do is make sure that that project uh keeps pace and keeps moving forward is it my understanding that the state is kind of delaying on making a presentation to us I I don't know what the delay is all I know is is that um the sooner we can get the design work done the E the faster we'll fund it I I represent uh I'm on the the mo the Metropolitan planning organization which is the regional organization that creates the the tip and approves the tip and this project just keeps getting bounced further and further out um now obviously there's a lot going on in the Wastewater front of course but I think um getting getting regular updates on what's happening with that project uh is in order and it it could come you know either from DPW or from the Town Administrator I just think that we just we can't lose track of that project it's so critical it's a lot of money I think it's what is it $38 million something 30 it's it's it's it's it's a pretty expensive project and in order to keep things moving you know some communities are actually putting their own design money on their own money on the table like we've been talking about for route 6i you know putting our own money on the table to advance the design work there so it can get further up in the priority I mean you know at some point we may have to consider doing that I know I I I know the administrator and staff would prefer not to but um I mean that project keeps getting put off because of it's it's so expensive so let's get that update on maybe we can tentatively put it on for January 21 if we can get the do down here to give us an update that'd be the best yeah see if we can do that yeah I know that can be difficult but it's worth [Music] trying I would love to um add the update on the second round of Grants from G green communities to the 21st okay thank you I'll tell okay um and what I can do is Bob and I can get together and take a look also at some of these items that we need to check off that we haven't uh addressed yet in our pending yep and see about putting some of those on the agenda too great but as I say budget Workshop will definitely be something we're going to be discussing each and every meeting at this point up until it's finalized okay I don't think it's wise for us to go any further out than January I would agree I I would just also add on on the sth I know that it says it on the B on the the list when we talk about um Station Avenue and the station Avenue Corridor to also bring in the possible Station Avenue Elementary School as just part of a possible possibility a possib and we we did if you recall um we had that discussion and then I immediately went to the Cape Cod Commission folks and you know they had done a lot of their work but asked them specifically to cover the educational issues that there and so we'll ask them to highlight um any information that they were able to put together you're talking about educational Transportation along the and the um you know congestion associated with the schools we had we had our police chief was here saying predominantly everybody in town is down in that area on school yeah but I I I want I want to refresh everyone's memory we've got a feasibility study that we've been talking about and we've been told by the school and by Bob that in the discussions with the state um there they have a I don't want to say a hidden agenda but they have an agenda and that is is for us to be looking at supersizing the station AB school now when the superintendent came here originally he thought having a school in West charmouth made sense um and then we as a board have talked about um at least taking a good hard look at some of the existing facilities like the Lawrence MacArthur school right so um I think it's important for us the more we better understand the traffic impacts and safety the safety issues on on on station AV yeah I think the more we can be better informed in communicating to the state any reservations that we might have about that option because that seems to be their preferred option is for a new school to be folded into a revamped station AV School so this is what we're being told and I think to some degree if there's an issue there even even further complicating traffic on on station EV then we need we want to be as clear as we can to the state that that option has some downsides Mark do you remember when the station EV Elementary School was built y are you going to tell us years ago years ago 20 yeah 20 25 25 years ago years ago yeah Suzanne M thank you that's a help I mean because it it looks new but it is new 20 in year in years School in school years that's new yeah that's a baby before we built the the middle school that was the new school yeah oh wow yeah but the states there are when when they when they in their discussions with you know Bob and with the superintendent they were pretty open and thinking that doing one big school now when I was a kid schools were neighborhood schools MH idea was to walk you walked to your kindergarten in first grade and second grade right think of all the kids in Yarmouth that you know went to elementary school and could walk to their school um you know the idea of making Elementary School almost something like its own version of high school where everybody gets bust to it just there there's something there's something wrong with it again we we also I think um I had I had the occasion to U bump into St St Senator Julian sear the other day and um he was emphasizing his strong interest and support for getting this going he also mentioned that given the makeup and the demographics of our school population that we me we may qualify for a higher percentage of reimbursement from state aid on that school he said that a new school we may qualify that would be great for 70% funding on it so I mention that because is um that's just an important piece of information that he shared um and that's literally all he talked about was making sure that he was kept in the loop on the studies and how things are going so that um he could continue to advocate for us uh to get a higher allocation he thought that our demographics were suchh now here's another factor that keep in mind and I don't want to bog this down because I know this is all future agenda stuff but and another Factor worth checking into is West Yarmouth portions of West Yarmouth have been designated as an economic Justice area and that may argue for keeping West Yarmouth in mind for a location because this when you go through the meepa process when you go through the environmental permitting and review process uh the state is taking a hard look at um ways to um improve or not disadvantage any further these areas right so that could be a factor in all of this as well from a regulatory point of view the state has is sort of still in the process of figuring out how when you do a regulatory review the things to look for the criteria and factors um to consider in making uh regulatory decisions in economic Justice areas um but um we shouldn't wait for that to all get completely I guess what I'm saying is I'm just make flagging it because it could be a factor that will influence the the selection process as well so enough enough said on that going back to the review of the final draft of Station Avenue uh quor study doesn't that include the traffic patterns that are caused by the schools it along Station Avenue it does but when they that answering what you were asking yeah but when they did the study they weren't looking at the new for another new school right the replacement for the Margaret small wonder if they could at least show us the difference in the tra I wonder if there is any information on the difference in the traffic patterns along Station Avenue um pre Dy IMS and post Dy IMS because that just installing that one school has certainly made a big difference right well that's the reason why we want them in here plus we may not want them to leave we may we may want to keep this study um open-ended a bit until we get more answers okay okay moving on from um upcoming agenda review individual items Mike Mark excuse me sorry um I I want to thank um you know Mr singer and uh the folks from Cola for being here tonight and and in and taking my abuse um yet again um and I I also want to thank commend the Town Administrator for being frank with them and upfront that you know we've had certain expectations given what was presented and I don't think they should should be surprised by any of it but I do appreciate them coming in um and and talking to us tonight um the other thing is there was a comment made during the public comment section about discussions that board members have um you know maybe you know before a meeting begins and I just want to reassure anybody that might be watching that you know we're not engaged in anything nefarious it may be very simple stuff about what does this mean on the agenda or um you know what time didn't we already discuss this I mean there there's not a lot of deliberation go that goes on uh when we recess or before a meeting goes on So for anybody that thinks that there might be something exciting and suspenseful and something nefarious going on I I I there certainly wasn't happening tonight and rarely if ever does so I just had to get that out there because I was trying to think think about because I was me my name was mentioned someone was someone on the board was talking to me and it was sort of like I think the question that we were discussing is wasn't this didn't we already agree to have this on the agenda that's a that's not we're not deliberating on matters of state or any big issues we're trying to get some clarity on what's on the agenda or what might not be on the agenda so um I just want to reassure Mr Glenn and others that are concerned about this that sometimes we just we might have brief conversations just to make sure that we're clear on what we're going to be deliberating on in the evening not necessarily the substance of it or whatever but it's just basically procedural stuff so procedural I think it's important for everyone out there to know that we're here representing you and we certainly are not forgetting that and uh we do take our job seriously uh so if certainly if you have comments for us feel free to to send them in um but we are doing the best we can we are only human Joyce um I think I'm set um I look forward to these January agendas I just want to um mention that I'm going to be coming in by zoom on January 7th okay so I want to give you a heads up okay Liz uh I yes I'm the guilty party for being the Newbie and having to get um information from my fellow board members and from My Town Administrator um very much not a anything other than where does my pen go and how do I um Turn the Page over here so I and I want to point out to the people who uh are IR rate with me I serve I'm here serving and I have no agenda I have no um prejudice against any individual I trying to support the laws that that are written and I'm very grateful to have uh the Town Administrator and the town law lawyers helping me in doing that so this is not an action by a select person who has an agenda I'm here serving the people who are both electing me and not electing me thank you thank you okay moving on to the Town Administrator items we have the consent agenda we have the plank donations as part of that do I have a motion to accept the um to move the consent agenda so moved second okay any discussion all those in favor I I I Bob Town Administrator updates thank you very much um couple of items I wanted to mention is um first of all I did attend the school building Administration meeting um Massachusetts school building Administration last Friday and um they invited the town this was the entire um SBA for their program they they adopted their um communities that they're accepting into the program for the upcoming year and they have made an invitation they voted to invite the Dennis Yarmouth Regional School District to participate in the SBA program with the initiation of a feasibility study so I was very happy to see that that follows up with the actions that the board took in discussions with the school system um we have a lot of Challen challenges but I I think as um select board member Forest pointed out if there's a possibility the numbers that we're talking about um are are huge of um maybe leveraging up to 70% State funding for a new school um it's very critical that we participate and participate strongly and it's going to take a lot of leadership to make sure that um we're close with the educational leaders in our community and that when we communicate with the state We Do It um as Yarmouth and so um I I think that's really good news and we're going to see the the next steps there um will be um a request to you know have funds to do the feasibility study we're going to be talking about the scope of that and so we're going to ramp up that and we'll have that on some future agendas but that was a a watershed meeting last Friday um and it was quite an interesting process we had maybe over 200 people on that meeting and you think it's it's hard managing a a zoom it took 20 minutes just to go down the list of everyone disclosing who's recording the meeting right and but it was it was um fascinating um I want to also tell you our budget process continues um I'm at the point in the budget process we're no longer at the start I have met with every single Department we've spent hours in hours and hours and um we don't short circuit it we did the for instance the the DPW um one day uh you know last week and it it was um almost an all day Affair the amount of Divisions that are involved there and um we're in the process now of refining the revenue uh looking at each individual proposal and um we are on schedule working very Clos ly with our finance department Jen Mullen the finance director we' talked about um her role this year in the budget process has really been ramped up so it's highly collaborative and we've got the whole financial team along with me and we're evaluating all of the different costs and and we are on schedule to have a budget recommendation um by the first of the year and when we have on January 7 the budget Workshop um I I think it'll be a very meaningful experience for everyone and that'll be a good kickoff so um things are moving forward and we're spending a lot of time with the budget um I think this is kind of um funny if I manag to to bring it the um I went to the Cape Cod Municipal Managers Association meeting last week and and I had a copy of it I might have left it in my folder upstairs but you'll be happy to know that the town of Yarmouth has been awarded the Wastewater road construction of the Year award for Cape Cod for 2024 but you mean being the most disruptive is that here we go I'll pass this around this is this is our award and um I I was happy to see us finally road construction we finally knocked off the town of barnable who had um garnered that award for the previous two years and had led the show and it's nice to receive that um recognition from our peers throughout Cape Cod and I I got to kick out of that road construction we beat out bar been busy nice and and and that's an actual award we received I want wish everyone um the best holiday wishes next week is Christmas week I wanted to let you know I'll be out next week because my family is going to be traveling to the Midwest um for Christmas but just for that week and then I'll be back in the week between Christmas and and New Year's um and I wanted to mention on Friday that we have scheduled in this room for our staff we generally have a holiday potluck lunch and um I'd like to invite board members around you know noon time so stop by um and say hi um Friday it'll be this Friday and we're also um looking for Snippets it it just got too busy tonight with all of our executive session but um we we have Santa hats that we're looking to have our select board members Don and give us just a a brief holiday wish um as part of the communication Department's Outreach in the community and and I think we'll have some fun with that but if you do stop by um we'll make sure that um we get just a quick little video of saying saying hi to the um the staff and everything so that'll be great do we bring food um you don't need to it's kind of a pot luuck that you know we're gonna we always have so much food okay just if if you get a chance to to stop by and say hi to folks noonish you said yes Friday this Friday and that is what the 20th and that's all I have for this evening I would like to extend um a happy holidays wish to all the folks living here in town and to all the wonderful and dedicated people that we have working for us as um actual Town employees and we'll be seeing you next year and at this point I will introduce uh a motion to adjourn so move move and a second second all in favor happy holidays everyone we'll see you next