##VIDEO ID:NHpuk5T3WOQ## good evening this is to formally advis that as required by mgl chapter 30A U sections 18 to 25 and pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021 an act relative to extending certain covid-19 measures Ed during the state of emergency signed into law on June 16th 2021 as extended by chapter 2 of the acts of 2023 yarma select board will hold a public meeting on Tuesday October 22nd 2024 at 6: PM 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 AL alternative Public Access provided on our town website if would all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance please I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all okay going to start with announcements Bob I hand do you have an announcement um yes Madam chair I do have um an announcement for the public and for the board um I've received in the office several inquiries um and there appears to be a great deal of misinformation that's swirling around regarding Town interactions with a local cranberry bog out on Route 28 um some people report to us that they've been informed that the town is going to be taking a local cranberry bog by eminent domain um or or else that the cranberry Farm Stand is either going to be seized or somehow impeded or threatened by uh the town's Wastewater development I just want to report to the board and to anyone listening that um those statements are entirely untrue um first and foremost um folks need to know there are going to be no eminent domain takings really that we're aware of of any properties in that area let alone the cranberry bar and there's also no wastewater treatment that's going to occur anywhere route near Route 28 all of the uh wastewater treatment uh is going to be out at Buck Island Road we're just working with the collection system out on Route 28 and um there is a small pumping station that is proposed to be located on the capabilities property um that is adjacent to where the bogs are located but nothing on the bog property at all or interfering with the bog property in in any way and I just want to say folks should know that um we've met in in my office I met with the bogs operator and um he's indicated I think one concern that he has is he'd like to move and expand his popup trailer cranberry sales um location at some point in the future and um the town is working with him to get his plans and we feel that there's plenty of room to provide that flexibility for moving that um pop-up cranberry store in the future and also um related to initial concerns uh the pumping station has already been moved farther away a little bit from the existing location of that of that trailer with a a new little road proposed to provide better access uh to that area um so anything that the town's doing for Wastewater should in no way interfere with any bog operations uh there's plenty of room to peacefully coexist um out there and to protect the environment with that much needed Wastewater system as well as protect the cranberry bog um as well so um folks should know the town supports agriculture we have no um ill will towards any of the bogs and we're currently working now with the property owner to find out their future plans and you know work that in so um I just thought you know there's so many people that are asking questions about that um we should have that information out there and so that just gives you a little update thank you I appreciate that okay um public comments good evening Liz Argo and I just wanted to say that I went to the uh school board meeting last night and I was amazed the um emergency preparation plan that the that they reported on was incredible and I also want to give a shout out to Tracy because Tracy Post because um the discussion on the mcast question was top drawer these people had done their research and they were qualified and I learned so much so we're really lucky to have uh a school committee that is that um they're they're outstanding a lot of work a lot of good work thank you dor Cas you can't see this view is um a little bit weird but there is somebody with their hand up oh Joe Glenn yes Madam chair can you hear me I can indeed um well thank you very much uh Miss zgo for those comments and uh I can tell you that uh as a school committee member um it was very refreshing and it's you know we we often times uh and the selectman get it too sometimes from me but uh we often get correction Joe often times from you well that's not going to stop but uh I hope that I sometimes do uh uh congratulate you and and as a matter of fact I I think that um um we are because of that communication um and uh I just want to read uh because this is not acting as the Lea on here but it's just a public record of a motion that was approved last night um that goes to my point uh there was approval to use to use interest earned from Capital stabilization fund for ongoing roof repairs of the margar small Elementary School um and so I I think that that shows um an ongoing type of uh communication I hope that it goes for forward uh even more um but I did want to commend um uh the Town Administrator on his uh announcement there um because there was a lot of confusion I kind of held off on trying to get the information I I don't know if we can put something up up on the website to clarify uh any of that so I I I assume that the blog operator is now satisfied that there's no uh movement for a special town meeting or anything so maybe we can clarify that but uh otherwise I didn't want to get bogged down in some of the uh minutia um sorry I couldn't resist that one but uh uh thank you so much for your time uh thank you Miss Argo because um it really is uh uh we we do try to work with both the towns and uh I think that the uh [Music] renewed going forward Ward communication will be uh best for all the towns and I look forward to uh having that happen so thank you very much and I'll try to be more complimentary in the future we look forward to it thank you Joe do we have anyone else that would like to make a comment okay time to pop the balloon um I have a problem with the SRO officer issue um I don't know how many times we've given extra money to the school to support SRO this is not the first time that they decided they didn't want to support them financially I think they're very important for the kids have you ever seen you know the them interact with the students it's it's a huge help to some of these people you know you hear about the kids that don't really have a home to go to that's these guys that their home um the other one that I've mentioned a bunch of times and I'm sure somebody's going to tell me I'm wrong but if I was going to spend a bunch of money I wouldn't spend on M Small I would spend it on mes even if it's a temporary measure to buy a few years it's it has its issues but it's there less issues than does me small have and I think on a like I said on a temporary basis you could probably do something at that school in a matter of you know single millions of dollars instead of the idea maybe floating another $100 million school because I have a feeling that that will not fly I talked to somebody recently said I moved here my taxes were 202 $2,000 he said now they're 4,400 there's only so much people can go for you know you think about and and again what happens with we vote on things at town meeting and it takes sometimes years before it shows up on the tax bill and they don't know why their tax bills are going up right so the school's just coming on the DPW various things that we've done through the past so you got to be very Leary and cautious about moving forward another big school right now um I've been told that well I know there's an effort underway to plant daffodils for beautification of the Town apparently a town employee told these people that on certain property they couldn't plant daffodils because they're not pollinators um I talked to somebody about trees the dead trees the D dangerous trees that are still out there and we spent a lot of money on a on a lift so that people could actually you know take care of these things and they and this could bebs I don't know but they told me there's a policy that if they cut down a tree another tree has to be planted in its place um mil Creek Park I spoke to Dorcas quickly on the way in I don't anybody knows the poor condition of that Park there's a bench there that's supposed to look out over mil Creek the vegetation in front of that bench is this tall and that's no exaggeration which means nothing's been done to that Park since we did it which was 2007 or eight somewhere around there you know if we keep making parks and we don't it's like the sidewalks if you keep making sidewalks and parks and you don't commit to taking care of them after you do them why bother you know go to lower the lowest possible maintenance you can do um you know same thing with why do we keep planting grass we all know it's bad for our environment we know it's more work to take care of I saw something about irrigation money going to the uh Drive-In site don't plant grass you don't have to mow it you you know probably put like beach grass that you cut down once a year um I've also been told that to volunteer in this town on a committee you have to be a registered voter now again don't know if it's true but this what somebody told me and I know years ago there was a policy set forth by a Town Administrator and I've seen the letter so I know it exists about no idling of town vehicles and yet every time I see Town vehicles and I don't care if it's one or six they're all just sitting there running for what it's not good for the trucks and it costs a lot of money for fuel so you know it's people have got to get with figure out the program and get with it because it's like the inmates are running the asylum out there unfortunately just I don't know I I know through change of personnel over the years things get forgotten but at some point somebody's going to say this is not okay you're going to do it that way or this way and I don't see it happening I'll stop there but I get more thank you I see Vita morz Vita hello can you hear me I can hear you um i' like Mr SE my seem to have a whole bunch of uh topics but uh I I'll try to keep it to just two I think um I uh there doesn't seem to be any additional material on the resource officer on the police presentation so I don't I don't know where that stands all I can say is that the school committee uh uh debated the you know that issue and uh had some very good information when they decided that uh they could do uh with one resource officer at the new school this is what the uh the issue is about right now uh and I don't understand I know the unions pushed very hard to to keep the second officer in that school and I guess I'll wait to see what the uh uh presentation is about and I hope it's not too late to to keep that uh in OB us now we have a a a I mean a total disaster with us speak of the schools in the uh test results I think the I think the superintendent is sitting there if I'm not mistaken can he give us an explanation what exactly happened there I mean as bad as those test scores used to be this one is catastrophic and I think that the the the selectman and the Town Administrator need to sit down with the the and and with the with the people from Dennis and and the superintendent and demand an explanation and he's uh pushing up for a new another Taj Mahal here while the scores are coming in I mean to think that the uh the Massachusetts score for the whole uh uh state was at 49% and we were at 27% for MTH it is catastrophic and something needs to be done about that first and foremost before we talk about any new buildings or anything any more expenditures on behalf of the school uh District thank you thank you VA do we have any other public comment uh no oh please go ahead Dr Smith U Mark Smith superintendent Dennis armouth Regional School District just uh for because I know the SRO presentations or the the chief chief L is going to speak and I know there were a couple of questions at the last select board meeting so just for reminder on a couple of the previous or sort of what got us to where we are from the school district's perspective I just want to remind sort of the budget situation that we found ourselves in last year and just to make sure that we're having the right conversation that it wasn't a conversation around the school district not believing that school resource officers are not important uh but last year uh fully level service budget uh that we originally presented to where we ultimately landed the budget that the voters approved that was a slightly over a $2 million reduction uh ultimately we ended up laying off 35 and a half positions across the district which did include not funding the two resource officers and and I know there's there's ultimately uh and it's a conversation that Chief lenon and I had where we had added a resource officer that ultimately didn't end up getting build but at the time I was planning to have to bill for that second so what would be three Yarmouth resource officers um but still so you know sort of uh what's the word I'm looking for semantics about whether or not um it's one resource officer or two resource officers but um but having a second resource officer at um the Intermediate School um and we made that decision based upon two things one looking at uh the size of our schools and the age so looking at an intermediate school which is grades 45 and then 67 um and the number of kids at that school and the ages of the kids at that school and then looking across the region and how are those types of schools staffed with resource officers and then again at the size of our high school and comparatively sized high schools and how many uh how other High Schools staff uh with resource officers and then again looking at the scope of the problem that we had which was a a budget that needed uh to be reduced and you know I want to map that against other things that I've presented which is the fact that our enrollment still continues to increase so we reduced 33 and a half uh educator level positions in a against an enrollment that continues to increase over the last four years so just want to put that in the context of the larger conversation that that it we're having so thank you can I ask fre to ask questions I don't know if you're leaving Dr Smith or if you'll be here for the presentation yeah I'm happy to I came because I knew this conversation was happening so I'm happy to come up if there are other questions at any time okay okay I have several questions for him because I kind of was not here for that part of the budget cycle and um I watched the presentation last night on school safety and I thought it was amazing and it was great to hear that we actually have nine backup officers that are trained for school resource um but but what I I didn't hear and I'm a little unsure of is um you're talking about we have two school resource officers at the Intermediate School is that correct can you just can you just break down what we have and what Dennis has because um I'm I'm just curious how their funding theirs and how much of it is being funded through your budget now as opposed to our budget so I can uh so the way so if I go back to last year so it's okay so last year uh the Staffing model was there was two officers at the intermediate uh Middle School both of those were y arth officers and there were two officers at the high school one from the town of Dennis and one from the town of Yarmouth I'm not screwing anything up right um and uh so the the three of those four officers was the the way things were when I first showed up on day one so the two officers one from Dennis and one from Yarmouth at the high school and the one officer uh at the in who had previously been at madaky so would have been a Yarmouth officer uh Chief lenon and I had a conversation uh early uh in my time as a superintendent about uh adding a second SRO at and this is where uh we hadn't budgeted as a school and he came asking would we be able to potentially cover at least part of that cost in that first year that bill never came from the town because the way it's structured is the both and it's the same arrangement for Dennis and Yarmouth the the benefits the training um any sort of ancillary costs are covered on the town side but the straight salary is paid we reimburse the town the town you know the paycheck to the officer comes from the town but then we get a bill and then we pay we essentially are reimbursing the town it comes uh I think the two towns build it differently but it it comes I think like I think we get one check like half or one bill like halfway through the year and then another bill at the end of the year for the salaries for the officers so it was so the district essentially paid for three officers or was it the four three Yarmouth you paid for at the end of the day last year we paid for three two Yarmouth officers one dentist officer now going into this year we only are budgeted to pay for one from each town okay so that means that there would be no resource officer at the middle school or one officer at the high school and one officer at the intermediate school that's not we're currently staffed the same as we were last year which you know the chief can talk about how that's happening but um we really haven't had much other then we don't have the fourth officer isn't in isn't uh currently uh stationed at the school at all but we're sort of back to pre my arrival okay um thank you for being here today Dr Smith and if you wouldn't mind staying in case there should be any further questions thank you you're welcome um on our next item on the um program today we have the police tuse update on the war articles Chief Lennon good evening good evening since we've started talking about the uh school resource officer I'd suggest why don't we continue that conversation now um and we can go back to the public safety sign on after this first I I would just like to say that uh Dr Smith and I have had some very good conversations about this and I'm sure we're both on the same page we're concerned about the safety of the students and the teachers at the school and historically the town of the school paid for three positions so there were two at the high school and then one at MES middle school when they built the new school and sha Brewer who's at bakis moved over to the new school and then they brought those students in from in from Dennis we didn't add a second SRO so the the population that Shawn was working with went from 400 to 800 So based on the and yes they're younger kids and and they they need less attention but the SRO program is much more than just you know dealing with criminal activity our officers are there working with the teachers working with the parents building relationships with the children at a very young young age which we think is extremely important you lay that Baseline foundation on a third fourth fifth grader and then you can work that through we are developing relationships that pay off exponentially throughout the years so the Yarmouth Police Department took a look at it and said there are so many people going into that complex and and I said this at the finance committee meeting if you were on station AV between 730 in the morning and 3:30 in the afternoon you now see the amount of traffic that is in there and it's generally because of the schools we have you know between the three schools and I probably get the number wrong but there's well over 2,000 students between those three schools hundreds of Faculty members parents dropping off and picking them up at different times the school buses going back and forth that is our most densely populated area of our community with our most vulnerable population throughout the school district from 7 o'clock in the morning till 3:30 in the afternoon so as the chief I think it is important that I point out that I think that there's a public safety issue up there with only having one SRO in that school because when we had two with Nick and with uh excuse me with uh Nick's at the High School Alex xaros and Sean Brewer Alex was at the school to help in the morning but then he would also move over to station have Elementary and visit there he would go to the St to the Emmy small school on hickin Co Road and visit there and even pop into St Pas so having that fourth officer gave us a couple things one if an officer took the day off we had coverage that wasn't costing us overtime the SRO was able to leave the school and go someplace else and visit and and Alex is great with with the kids so he goes to the different schools if for some reason we had a runaway or something that required the officer to leave the school we still had a presence there so when I went to to Dr Smith early on his tenure I tried to hit him in that honeymoon period and said hey let's work a deal we had four now we only have three can we work something out and he did he we he appropriated and I think the number I gave him was about $40,000 to cover the position we were able to write a grant through the uh through the state for school security so we ended up using that Grant funding to cover that position versus going to the school so it is correct in that school year they were paying for three and he did appropriate money for us if we needed it just turned out that we didn't need it so we did have conversation about it very early on that we feel that it's very necess that it's it's important to have two at the at the intermediate school and then two at the high school it's important for the high school and I know that if you look at different models uh depending on the town some only have one SRO and I would just say that that's the way they do it but that's not that doesn't mean it's a right way to do it our our SRO uh officer pasosa and officer tibits they work with some of the people in those schools they're adults and if there's a fight you're dealing with an adult male and Nick and John have had to deescalate some fights and they're dealing with people that are much larger than them and they deal with some pretty significant issues at the school at times so having two SRO there for us is critical and then if somebody takes off because they have to do a lot of training the SRO have to have I believe it's 24 hours of refresher training in addition to their 40 hours of inservice so they are also up there developing relationships with the students so and and they've told stories of they've been able to diffuse situations or recognize issue with students because of the relationships that they built with them throughout the year Nick can tell a story about there's a student that got out of a car and he just looked and said what's wrong with you today you're something's off and he was able to diffuse a situation a family situation before the student even made it into the school because of the relationship that they developed so that's that's the the the Avenue that we look at it from and then the unfortunate part is we always have to plan for the worst if there's an issue in that area and I look at it as one big complex you now have three schools within about a third of a mile if we have a significant event at any one of those schools the other two were going to go into lockdown having four ideally four officers there to deal with that is when it first happens is going to be ideal it's also in Yarmouth those schools happen to be in our town we are going to be the responding officers we are going to be the investigating officers it's not a a district police department that's going to do it it's the Yarmouth Police Department that's going to fall on it and God forbid something happens people are going to look to me and say what did you do how did you how did you prepare your staff how did you prepare to deal with this issue so that's why I'm here today to say I need additional funding to get another officer up there we are in a bit of a unique situation where we're down seven officers I have three in the academy trying to put two into the fouth academy which is going to start in January but I just had two retirements and I have another three coming in the next nine to 12 months so I'm two years away if everything worked out to be fully staffed if we were fully staffed I don't think we'd be having this conversation because I would have the ability to take somebody off the road and drop them in the school because that's what we did last year we were were able to before I I was able to get the money we had more bodies I was able to take Alex off the road and put him in the school and we were able to absorb that but just with staffing issues a long-term injury I don't have that luxury right now my by the way that we staff our shifts we are at the bare minimum to put officers on the road so when I look at things I have to say okay what do I have to do I have to pull people out of specialty positions put him on the road because that's the number one priority and then work from there that's why Alex came out of the school and he's back on the road and with losing the funding from the school and they're only funding two positions now sha Brewers at the school being paid solely by the police department so it's a bit of a you know a double hit right there but you I I it's extremely important that we have these conversations and I know that the sro's working with Dr Smith they've been doing a great job rebuilding the safety program getting it to where it is today it was always very good but they've taken it to the next level with the new program that that they're introducing and they're starting to roll out and I believe they're at a PTO meeting tonight talking about it more in more depth so that people know what we have done and what we plan to do moving forward so the request for the Warren article is to get me through the fiscal year so that I can take Alex and put him back in the school and bring us back up to the level that I feel very comfortable with and then it also helps with if uh if they have to go to training or if I have we have four other officers that are certified as sro's because under the new uh police police reform mandate you can no longer put an officer in the school that is not fully trained we used to be able to take officer Jones and say go to the high school today sit in the office if something happens it's an emergency you you can deal with it we can no longer do that they have to be certified as an SRO so to do that they have to go to 56 hours of training and then we have to keep their training going so two years ago we sent several officers to that training and so did the town of Dennis so that we would have a cadr of part-time officers keep their training up so that they could fill in if needed but the you know back to where we are today the request I talked to the Town Administrator and the request is to give to give me some relief because my overtime budget cannot handle taking another person off the road and putting him in putting him into the school so that funding will allow us to do that okay um just going to take each item on its own so um are there any questions joice um I just wanted to ask U about the training for um SRO how long does that take not in terms of hours but in terms of like weeks or whatever to for people to pursue those hours they break it into two sessions there's a 40-hour class that you have to go which is called the basic uh school resource off officer program which is run by a corporation called nazro which is a national school resource officer organization and then there's additional training that they do in a a 24-hour segment so they they basically go away for two different times one's 40 hours the other one's 24 or 16 rather and then once they get certified initially as an SRO and to do that we have to report to the peace officer standards and training commission and tell them that the officer has completed the training sign off on them they then sign off on them that the officer is certified not only as a certified police officer but as a certified school resource officer meets the criteria and there's criteria with that that uh for the for the job description certain things that they can't have in their background and and and so on and so forth and they can't be somebody that we just select that's got to be between the school district that actually the superintendent and myself putting a person forward so there's a lot go that goes into picking someone to be an SRO okay thank you Tracy yeah um well personally I believe that we should have school resource officers in every school um I've firsthand seen the value I mean having myself gone through the district but um they used to have the pre-prom crash right and I remember standing there with Nick one day and without the student having to say a word looked at him and walked into the school and he just gave her the thing and she was crying and the fact that he knew her brother had uh been into um a terrible car accident and that was a very difficult situation for her without even speaking a word he comforted her and um I think that those relationships are extremely important and because our police officers are in connection obviously at the school but also with with some of the um home challenges that these students are are going through it's it's much more than just a disciplinary thing um but in any event what what's frustrating is that you know in today's day and age and terms of budget cut priorities for a school district I think that this should be the last um I understand that there's you know there was significant cuts and a and a lot of things that had to you know we have to make tough decisions but you know in terms of a longrange plan what what's our plan next year like we we shouldn't we should have a commitment to this program and we've been here before with the school resource officers getting cut um so yeah okay so this year we get50 5,000 for overtime costs what's the plan for next year is there are we is it budgeted for I just I know we're like stop gapping it but I just want to make sure that we have a long range plan and you know after watching Nick's presentation bringing in into the next you know it's like it's like we're half committed you know either you're committed or you're not committed to the program so I don't know how you bring it to the next step when we can't even fund what's there now it's very um unfortunate but you know like Joe Glenn said last night and um there's a lot of money out there there's a lot of grant money is there uh has the school district and the police department been able to work together to find any grant money to be able to secure the program in the future I've looked for grant money so there's there has been school safety grant funding in the past for positions excuse me I haven't seen any of that come around lately and with those grants they're it's almost like the fire department safer Grant so they give you amount of money for you know 75% for year one 50 for year two 25 year three and then you own it after that so and I agree with you wholeheartedly and I don't have an answer for it because I would like to not have this not have to say hey I'm short or look at the SRO who thinks that they're going to school because that's what they love to do they're in there they're in there for a reason and they make a difference and you made a point earlier I just want to make sure I didn't missp discipline is is it's something that they they don't get involved in discipline it has it's a criminal activity that that falls on the school uh so but when they're dealing with something like that is a small component of of what they do on a daily basis I can come back later with the presentation that Nick put put together that shows the the the work that the SRO have done over the years and its relationship building that then drives down those those issues that they have with the students in working with with the with the staff with with Dr Smith's staff and they work they work in tandem they're a team they don't work independently they don't work in silos they have to work together because that's the only way we're going to we take care of the problems up there and sometimes the children that go up there that's their that's the the parental guidance that they get at the school because Unfortunately they they don't really get it at home and that's just the that's just an unfortunate thing that we have and our sros have a a deep impact on those students as well as the teachers and the guidance counselors and that's why it's very important and don't know how to move forward from this because this is a shortterm this is a short-term measure I would like to see it long term we are different than some other communities Barnstable they pay for their SRO the police department does fou does the same mashby does the same but in some of those areas they don't have as many SRO as we do we put a presentation together and I think it was right before the uh right as as Bob took over the Town Administrator excuse me took over and the cost for us we costed it out to put a an SRO in every school with a supervisor and that's about a $700,000 a year price tag to cover all of our schools and then when you when you look at that it's like what does an SRO look like at the at the uh at the small school like are they going to be able to interact with the kids the same way that they interact at the high school so I don't know if if that would be feasible to put someone in every school but I think going back to the level that we were before having that fourth SRO fully funded uh whether it's through us or or or or through the school and being able to get out and get to those other schools and then you know I've worked closely with with Chief Brady from the town of Dennis uh they have committed to eight hours of overtime a month to put somebody in the school when we need when we need to uh to cover it and he's working with the same you know he's got the same issue he's trying to do the same thing he's short staffed he's got a limited overtime budget if you can reassign somebody on the on the day shift he will do that but ultimately if they can't do it I believe it falls on on my shoulders because again those schools are in the town of Yarmouth and God forbid something happens it's going to be what did the Yarmouth Police Department do to protect it so I think it's very important that I come forward and say these are the challenges that we're facing this is a way that I think that we can fix it today and then have those deeper conversations later on to figure out where is the funding coming from in the future because it's difficult to run an operation and figure out you know coming into the school the school year that I have to pull somebody out and then scramble to try and to try and to to you know to plug those holes so well the continuity piece you know with with Alex being there and then not being there and then being there again leaves a gap and um so I'd love to see a long range plan for this and I appreciate your comments about how it looks at Emy small but um I think in today's day and age um you know it's extremely important it's extremely important unfortunately but that's that's where we're at and um I fully support this it's unfortunate it has to be done done at an overtime expense and that we don't we don't have the Personnel um to do that but that's a that's another conversation so thank you and I appreciate you coming and and supporting us because you're right they there there are schools and you have a job to do in our town and I appreciate that thank you thank you Tracy Mark uh all my questions have been answered um I support this request thank you as someone that has firsthand experience being the school bus driver um and both the middle school and the high school being places I've seen in action how critical the uh resource officer can be and of course we shouldn't forget officer Finley either I'm sure fin Finley's paid very well in dog biscuits um a little too well if you see her lately a little too well but um and as Tracy was saying too to me this is is just critical um and I um am sorry that it's come to this but like Tracy also I'm I'm just um cautioning that we need to look at a long range plan and that I personally fully support our continuing with u having the school resource officers there and with our taking over the overtime funding for now if that's what it takes to have those officers there uh so if we could move on then to article two do you want to do your recommendations now or wait do them all at the end why don't we why don't we um do all the recommendations at the end I think to make it simpler okay article two that's the public safety sign on okay so uh this goes back a little while um Deputy fire chief going to join me because this is um this is an issue that we that we're both dealing with so recruitment is down locally and nationally for for Public Safety police and fire so a couple months ago the fire chief and I we were brainstorming on what we could do to try and keep ourselves competitive and that's really what we're trying to do we're trying to stay competitive with the local market it's hard to get people to come to Cape Cod and work down here because housing is is very expensive so when we're trying to attract uh either lateral transfers somebody who's already certified and can step right in after just 13 weeks of training or somebody who goes to the academy we run up against that so the police department we go to job fairs at Westfield fitzburg Middleboro Mass Maritime and we are now being interviewed by the students and they ask us what is your starting pay do you have a sign on bonus how many vacation days do you get you have the full Quinn Bill what is your education and they do that with with the different police departments that are there and I'm sure the fire department seeing the same thing so recently within the past you know recent I said within the past year or so nck has always been a police department that has had to use sign on bonuses to attract people to go over there but other departments have have started the same thing so Barnesville now does a $7,500 sign on bonus you get $2,500 to start $2,500 upon the completion of your field training program and then $2,500 six months after that chadam has a $7,500 signing bonus very similar uh provinc toown has a uh you get $5,000 if you have less than five years on you get $10,000 you you more than five years on tro has a signing bonus but it's it's different that gets uh that gets broken down weekly into their paycheck and they they do that based on the number of years and experience you have coming to the department so in looking at ways to keep us competitive again with the local market we have a very large Police Department right next door that is coming at a civil service in probably the next six months the town of Barnesville has contracted with a a consultant to bring them out a civil service we never had to compete with Barnesville before because you you had to be a Barnesville resident to take the test and get hired there so we were able to grab people that couldn't go there because they weren't residents and we had a very good feeder system for bringing in lateral transfers once Barn comes out of civil service we have now gone from almost on a Level Playing Field to weigh down because they have uh their insurance is 7030 they have the full Quinn Bill and they have a $7,500 signing bonus they're a larger Police Department with more activity more specialty positions so somebody coming in would probably be drawn more to a department like that not necessarily but they could so I spoke to Sarah our HR Director about it and she said in her former life in the private sector it's something that they would do so we made a presentation to the Town Administrator and discussed what it could possibly look like and uh we came up with the idea to put to put a warrant article out $100,000 it would be 50 for the police and 50 for fire 5,000 per hire so if we had to hire 10 people the next ex amount of years we we would be able to fund it and you know in in the past 18 months we lost three officers to the state police uh we've had other people that have interviewed viewed other places as well uh so we're just you know this is really a measure to help us stay competitive because now being down seven people and looking at looking ahead if we were lucky enough to hire a lateral transfer I could be fully staffed in a year to 18 months if we're not lucky enough to hire a lateral and I have to put people through the academy without any retirements I'm probably looking at closer to two years to be fully staffed because and I think there was another another piece that I sent out that when you look at the cost if we hire a uh a lateral using round numbers we pay them about $20,000 in salary when they're being trained there's a $2,800 equipment fee that we pay for medical and psychological screening is 1,700 you come up to just under $25,000 for somebody who comes in that's already trained if we put somebody through the academy that numbers $63,000 so it's beneficial for us to get somebody who's who's who's a lateral transfer bring them in from someplace else because number one we're saving a lot of the money a lot of that money is uh is going out in salary because when you hire somebody and you put them in the academy now we cannot pay somebody at a student officer rate there used to be a reduced rate that we would pay them when we hire them now they come in at the starting of where they would be so if we hire somebody with a bachelor's degree they're coming in at $72,000 a year and they're in the academy well I'm filling that position with somebody on overtime to keep the Staffing levels up so not only am I paying $72,000 for the six months that the person's in the academy whatever that number works out to be I'm also covering their shift with somebody on overtime so the benefit for us to become very competitive with our neighbors and do the sign on bonus and that's only that's only one piece of it but we feel that that would be a step in the right direction so that when somebody does look at us and say Yarmouth what can you offer me we can offer offer you AB c and d and I think the signing bonus would help out as well in dep and we yet we're are both we're in the same situation we're almost a mirror of U how things are going uh as far as sending people away to training covering them back with overtime trying to find people um and for us it's it's the districts that are um Barnstable districts that they they're their higher pay more competitive um you know benefits and things like that too so we're we're in competition with the districts just uh as the chief was saying it's things are things are changing for us and it's we're we're chasing um those those tires do you have to go through that with the district um Personnel uh do they require um residency or can they come from anywhere residency is is being lifted more um because you know the the housing crisis that we have on the cape uh so that they they can Branch farther out also um it's just their um their benefits and things like that are a little bit better salary wages are a little bit higher and you know that that's what's attracting them uh to the districts over like say per say town okay Joyce you have any questions thank you um I wanted to return to u a conversation that we had the last time the chief was here and I suspect it affects the fire department as well um spending a lot of money to train people and then losing them to departments that may offer them U Financial or uh or Better Health Care incentives um does it seem to you that there's a possibility that someone could collect signing bonuses at multiple departments like just shift every two years um when we give a signing B bonus are we planning to lock them in for a specific period we uh shortly after I got promoted I was talking to Sarah and we brought it to the Town Administrator we actually implemented a an employment contract back in January of 2003 we now anybody that we hire has to sign a contract that the Town Administrator signs and the employee signs and we do liquidated damages up to $14,000 so if we hire somebody we just had it happen we hired somebody we put them into the academy and we have unfortunately had to separate them well we prated it and that person owes us $6,000 back for equipment uh training time so we we were able to come up with a number and I used it uh the province toown Police Department uses it then anet Police Department uses it it's been tested in court and it is held up so now every employee that comes and they want to work with us we make them sign the contract and we spell out what they will owe us back in the event that they leave before a certain period of time so if they stay a full three years they don't owe us anything but if they decide to leave before that we go back to the contract and we look and I would work with the Town Administrator and with Sarah and Council if needed to figure out what we what we would go after them for lack of a better term uh but but we have that in place and I actually set the contract over to the fire chief last week so he could take a look at it and see if that was something that they wanted to implement but it has been used successfully by other police departments to get back some of the funding that we expend when we hire somebody because it is it is very expensive exactly very helpful and I I do want to just underscore that last point that he made by working together here and establishing a program it allows us to standardize our procedures among the the fire and the police department and and I think it elevates the best practices of having that clawback provision if you recall remember we were talking about the the you know we had a person that was trained by Yarmouth and then as soon as they were trained they they left and we didn't have any of that that clawback by by addressing it I I think holistically like this uh it enables us to kind of elevate for all of the Departments and in the future if this initial pilot is successful we're able to gain some traction it may even be appropriate for truck drivers and and other other types of positions that we just can't recruit for and um the last piece that that I I I do want to mention that I I was very encouraging with the Chiefs to um work together on this to come forward um meet with the select board on it and the way that we've structured this article is it places it under the administration of the select board so um before any implementation is made the entire package including what Provisions for safeguarding the town will come back and be approved by the select board so um we're going to this is our our pilot program to try to be a little more aggressive in the recruitment to be competitive to stay up with everyone and make sure that we're fully staffed and um so we're hoping that working together on it like this we're successful Tracy do you have any questions well that was one of my questions that Joyce asked how how are we going to roll it out in terms of making sure uh that somebody doesn't keep jumping ship to to to get it I mean there's got to be time it looks like Province toown does 50% on the start and 50% after after a year which sounds which sounds um good the when you get you and I have to refresh my memory because it's been a while since we talked about the Quinn bill um you said a lot of those towns were fully funded with the Quinn Bill where are we at with that we are at uh we're half so you get uh 10% for an for an Associates 15 for a bachelor's and 20 for a masters it's it's less than than what the full the one the full coin is actually I'm sorry we're 510 and we're 510 and 15 the full coin B bill was 10 20 and 25 so in Barnesville if you have an Associates you get you get 10 Yarmouth you get five a Bachelors you get 20 here you get 10 and then 25 for masters in Barnesville we get 15 all right and in terms of your requirements too um is the college degree still a requirement of employment no we we took that out so we have I don't want to say we lowered our standards but we we adjusted our standards uh because like many other places and I I've used this numerous times I will date myself in 1992 when I sat at the madak E Middle School I sat with 400 people to take the test to get a job in Yarmouth we stopped testing because it was costing applicants money and we weren't we weren't getting anybody when we used to have 150 tiet test we were getting five and it was becoming cost prohibitive so we've looked at different Avenues there's companies out there that offer online testing if you want to just jump in and do it and then there's kind of a pool uh we went away from that we have a rolling enrollment process so we post all the time you see we try and get creative with our different social media posts to try and attract laterals or or Academy trained uh we have one person right now that is going to go to the academy he is a GED we signed on with a company where he had to take a competency exam to make sure that his English and and everything was was up to date to his grammar rather so he would be able to succeed in the academy we hired a company that does independent testing for us so we could make sure that he would beat the requirements to move forward uh because there are some very good candidates out there that just for one reason or another didn't graduate high school and never went to college and we're missing them uh so we're we're expanding our Horizons to see what we can get you know this gentleman's in his 30s he's got great life experience just ran into a couple speed bumps when he was younger and just went back and got his GED but he's very solid individual and we're very confident he's going to be a great repres representative of the armouth police department so we we've had to shift gears uh there's some police departments that still mandate an initial education to get in but you know I looked at the Massachusetts State Police and some other organizations and they don't require it they require a GED with other qualifying uh experiences so we're looking at education and life experience to determine if the person would be worth wild moving forward wow different world we're living in right now than back in the day um well Bob answer my other question because I I was thinking holistically as a town why we're I know that it's extremely important to fow ships for uh Public Safety but um you know there are a lot of jobs that have gone un um unfilled so I'm looking forward to seeing how how how this goes forward and to see if it makes a difference in your recruiting thanks Tracy Mark no I'm I'm fine you've answered all my questions I I support this let's move on then to Article Five Cruiser upfitting cost Chris thank you very much we'll take you off the hot seat Scott Scott I'm sorry thank you as I said I have trouble with names sometimes still the new guy he's doing great thank you Scott so two fiscal years ago when I brought to the Town Administrator let's leas some Cruisers because we could flatten things out interest rates were different than they are today our last lease the interest rate was 7.69% on the Cruisers so in in doing some research I realized that when we buy a cruiser we pay for everything so that's about a $23,000 upfitting cost as well which could be purchasing a new flashlight transferring over a light bar uh having them install a USB port someplace so trying to figure out a way to uh lessen some of the financial burden we figured that if we still lease the car because that's going to keep our payments flat but use a uh use it a special article for the upfitting costs we'll you know per car we'll sa probably in interest alone over the the life of the lease probably $1,800 so I know it's not a ton of money but just looking at it uh because I don't know when the when the least interest rates are going to start going back down again but again initially when we first started looking at them they were much lower than when they are where they are today and leasing seemed to be the way to go to flatten it so we didn't have those those Peaks and valleys coming in one year for $250,000 and the next year asking for 400 we were able to flatten it out which we've been able to do but then again looking at it and figuring out where we are today it just seems like it's a the more fiscally responsible thing to do to take the upfitting cost off of the lease so we just lease the car for what it is and it's unfortunate in 2017 a Ford Explorer coming off the line was about 27,000 and now they're they're over 40 and then we have to pay for the different pieces that have to go into it so by taking that off we're not we're not leasing a flashlight for four years at 7% we're just paying for it we're moving on and then we'll have to take a look and see how we can bring that down even more because I'm sure that there's other equipment that we can have our mechanic Phil is very talented to see what he can move over for us once a new car comes in and you know shave a little bit off of that as well but that's a number we came up with we're looking for we're asking for four cars in FY 26 because we're at the we were able you know again working with the Town Administrator on the best way to flatten things out in three years we were able to replace almost the entire Patrol Fleet and we have a two other cars that the body is older but we had to replace the engine sooner than we would have expected and it was done under uh under warranty so although the the vehicle might be a little bit long older than we would like to have the engines are almost brand new and we can run those a little bit longer and then turn them into like a utility car like one that goes to the school or one that we use for court but this don't idle them all day that's why we have the hybrids our engine shut off and we go to battery we have to go to Plymouth to get them fixed so we don't even want to go down that road we're spending more gas bringing them to Plymouth to fix than anything else but anyway uh so this was just the thought that I had I brought it to the Town Administrator you know because I look at the I look at the lease paperwork before it goes over to Town Administrator for the final sign off and I've just seen the numbers go up and I've asked Ford Credit why and they just say because that's the cost of doing business that's where they are right now so it'll save us a little bit of money on the next round of Cruisers because we just we've just leased cars so this is this is going to be moving forward if we can do this and then at the fin committee meeting and it was brought up do we look at going back to the uh the old way of doing things uh just with a chunk of money and we just buy cars we are where we are today and I think this is just a way that we can save a little bit of money at least NY 26 and potentially going forward okay Choice well that sounds like a good workaround by which the department would own the ancillary equipment and be able to reuse it you know if the car go when we buy a car We Own It Anyway we just not paying Ford a the cost and then interest to move it so if Ford moves a light bar that we own they're charging us $375 to move it and then they're charging us 7.69% on that 375 to move it over because it's part of the entire lease package if we take that off we're leasing the car for $411,000 over here then all the equipment is in a is in a bucket over here some stuff we can do other things we can't our mechanic cannot rewire an LED light bar but he can move a flashlight he can move the USB charger there's other things that he can do so in a long run we'll be saving money and again we're not we're not saving a ton of money but my round numbers it's probably about over the Le over the life of the least probably about $1,800 per car if we do it this way and I have a follow-up question it's kind of an economic development question for um what your mechanics wouldn't be able to do in terms of the ancillary equipment installation and and transfer would the rest of the labor be done on Cape we it gets done at the dealership so all the upfitting gets done at the dealership which is either in Plymouth or in maror there are no police uh Cruiser uh manufacturers or or resellers for a better term on Cape Cod you have and there's just a few there's just a few in the state if we don't use Plymouth or marbor we have to go to havil is where Adamson industry is and there's some police departments on the cape that go there they drive a car up there and they lose it for three or four weeks while it's getting while it's getting done well thank you for exploring the geography of what was available Tracy no I like to save money I the only other thing I could that thought that I had with that though was when the fire department bought the fire truck and they borrowed from our ourselves um with the rates being what they are that may be something that we should be considering um um our Capital stabilization funds that's a great suggestion we could probably we could probably lease some Cruisers out of capital stabilization or or and then the department can pay the town back that's how we do with the fire department the fire department had um the town stabilization well it was before we had the town stabilization but they borrowed and their um ambulance fees paid the the fund back so but it's you know at that kind of rate that's that's a lot of money we be oh yeah next to nothing Chief's right when we started this program it was like the municipal money they were giving away you know it's like why not take it but then you know we got caught with the economy and things are coming down a little bit but still we have money we have money in a in an account I mean it would be paid back over the same I mean we could work out something but it's just a thought anyway thank you did you just repeat that the fire department was going to buy the police cars no no no I don't think that's what I said I got that done good try Chief good try okay thank you defend himself me the difference is they have a funding source right I mean that was one of the differences that's unfortunate but I mean your budget is paying for it anyway to an outside Source at a higher rate so um thank you Tracy Mark no I'm fine thanks Chief thank you okay while Chief's here maybe he can give us just a quick update on the generator that it's another topic that so tomorrow the uh so the generator bid was awarded uh the company is out of we say Fall River they're really the Fall River of Rhode Island but they're right there uh tons of experience with this they're coming tomorrow they've already been out of the station twice to do some site plan work they've been working with Robert for maintenance they're coming tomorrow with a crane to take out the old Generator uh disconnect everything take it out and then start prepping the pad they have to drill through the existing pad to find the conduit that they're going to need used to to pipe it back into the station if everything goes well we could see a new generator sometime in June or July the initial estimate was 50 weeks from the time that the contract was awarded but they said when you sometimes when you order a bigger piece of equipment it comes in sooner than that and I know that uh that they were working on trying to rebid the I think they were trying to rebid the generator rental because right now we have a 20 255 KW Diesel power generator behind the station that we have to keep until the new one gets installed gets fully installed and tested and we make sure it's up and running so I know Jennifer has been working on that to find the funding to get that done but it's we're going to be probably just shy of 18 months from the time the generator died until the new one is fully up and operational if you remember based on what we were told by the experts trying to fix the existing generator was was not an option we would have spent a lot of money put a part in it with no guarantee that it was going to continue running so this was really the only way that we had to go any questions for the chief okay no questions for me thank you very much okay the next item we have on our agenda is the final review recommendations and execution of special town meeting warrant um Bob would you like to walk us through that certainly um we need to set the the recommendations so I thought that the best way to do it would be just to go um article by article and um article one is the transfer from free cash of $1,200,000 to the OPB trust to maintain the town's schedule for the um OPB unfunded liability is that current or past it is uh um we have a current Actuarial analysis that so this is for this year's contribution I move that we uh see if uh I move that we approve of article number one um do we want to do it individually you recommend yeah so we do the recommendations for each one second okay all in favor I I opposed okay 4 Z on that and then article two is the public safety recruitment bonus I make a motion that we recommend second any discussion all those in favor I I okay then article three is um this is a a one that's appeared new um here from the last warrant warrant draft and it's for um the previous year's County Retirement assessment there is a um supplemental assessment for Public Safety that we receive in addition to the several million of our annual assessment it the amount was 243,000 um I I guess we didn't get in invoice for that and the money wasn't paid and it floated back into the free cash but it's a obligation from the previous fiscal year how does that happen though I've never seen that happen before how did we not budget for that no we did budget it was it was in the budget the money wasn't paid so it closed out at the end of the fiscal year so you put it into free cash now you just want to take it out correct it's where if it just flowed back into free cash it the check should have went before it went into free cash it should have went to the C okay do I have a motion no recommendation I recommend that we uh recommend article number three I have a second second all those in favor I I I still I still don't understand how we didn't know that if we had 243,000 what wouldn't we have got it I mean I've just never seen yeah I haven't either no okay then article four is the school resource officer coverage make a motion we recommend second all in favor I I make motion we recommend article five second all in favor I I make a motion we recommend article six second I I'm sorry all those favor I eyes come easily to the Scottish up yet um okay article seven um I'd like to just say something about this uh Madam chair um I really hope that the safety improvements mentioned will help protect drivers along the side of the golf course because we have had uh cars hit and we've also had one individual report to the town that she was injured and said don't worry I'm not suing but I think you should know this there needs to be some protective barrier between the road and what turns out to be more than one of the holes I had assumed originally it was just one hole so I guess I would like to see a serious piece of attention paid to that because um improvements and then a mention in the explanation of better safety sa right is it safety for golfers only or if I may uh I can go through this article I I work with uh Scott's division uh the the golf director's division usually in the fall they'll have Capital articles and they're not overly uh you know involved in the sense that they try to get get some Capital done in between the seasons so the clubhouse area is probably the third year that they're working on the clubhouse and the safety is usually related to car path movements around the clubhouse and also around the uh bab Hills patio area um so in the clubhouse work it is painting and also bringing the clubhouse up to you know code in some areas um lightning detection system is really necessary U and that allows a warning system across the golf courses to the golfers because it is a issue on golf courses in the baby Hills patio area there's a patio expansion actual design that's been made available uh by the golf course director that indicates uh that they're trying to expand their outdoor space for dining and things like that and make a safer uh movement between the patio area and the uh adjacent car path what you're talking about is golf balls leaving the course periodically so uh they are working on an overall plan and they're going to look at that during the overall planning you really can't build Nets and things like that because they're leaving it such a high elevation so uh they do warn the golfers you know in terms of who are the predominant people responsible for having them leave the of course so uh nice way of putting it who wants to get that talking to yeah no more no more shanking the ball well well from that perspective we have signs and other means to you know uh tell them to take care of so we are looking at I think it's Bass River u in terms of some of the master planning to take a look at taking not specifically for that Master planning to create a better course a more efficient course in terms of its maintenance and lower cost uh and better play and part of that we'll be looking at those issues um can I ask do you anticipate um the safety issue and the for for people going along um the Bass River Course um to be included the budget aspect of that in the annual town meeting budget no we already actually are in the process of doing a a design that was funded in a prior town meeting for Bass River is one of the areas we're looking at so that's already underway so for construction will be coming yeah well no no actually it it it it's less of a protective issue you it's more of a aligning the course so it you know the golf balls aren't hit parallel to it so because you can't can't build a net that high you can't go up that high so in in a lot of cases so you know there's 's a lot of different options that they can use their primary issue right now is the links was the opportunity to open up some holes that were closed during you know some times of the year because of drainage and things like that now that that's operational and working well now they'll look at the master plan in other areas and let's say Bass River so if they have to close down holes or do work there that they have the link so it's a sequenced sort of capital plan by the uh golf Department and part of it is to look at safety in all aspects you know the golfers themselves the adjacent properties things like that that's an area for school bus traffic also which the letter writer underlined yeah I'm I'm I mean we're aware of it I mean uh I think that when they do the master plan they'll take a close look at it but the master plan is not prominantly just for that when it's it's for the the entire course but it's under review thank you yeah it's it's part of the design process okay so do I have a motion on article 7 a recommendation how what exactly are we recommendation recommendation do I have a recommendation on article 7 not from me well I mean it's we we didn't get a presentation on this other than what we just had it's hard it's hard to know what what these costs are but well I can give them some of them to you I mean uh stuff already been bid I mean you they've already got estimates for this uh no I don't believe it's been bid no not bid but they have estimates they have estimates the lighting system is sort of the lightning system is sort of a package so that's within the context of the uh budget for the package and uh I'm looking at the Capital Improvements portal right now to so we have 2.7 million in the um Enterprise account correct and for our future planning this 39 390,000 is that going to affect that I mean obviously going to affect it but are we still going to have the funds to do everything we need to do the the future planning the uh we already allocated that to uh budget so that isn't included in the 2.7 million so the the design work that we're doing on the other course on Bass River is in part of 2.7 so I move to recommend I have a second second all those in favor I I abstain okay moving on to article eight I'll make a motion we recommend eight we've talked about I'll second this all those in favor I I I move to recommend article nine second all those in favor I I'll move to recommend article 10 all those in favor sorry a second all those in favor I I moving on to article 11 I move to recommend article 11 second can we discuss this though for a second sure we can just put the motion on the table and then open it up for discussion second that's why I asked for discussion right I'm just wondering why the finance committee was 33 the what was the discussion behind that why would they split you want yeah U my understanding is they're concerned about a revenue plan and other things they BL brought up under another authorization that was prior to this uh so it was unrelated to this it might have been unrelated to this specific request uh this specific request is to take advantage of the fact that the irrigation system will substantially improve the viability of the plant material reduce the maintenance costs it makes a lot of sense to put that in but I think there was a issue in the original authorizations of this in terms of information that finance committee wanted uh for the overall project well it's always the thing when we create a park is is maintenance part of the upcoming right operating budget that's I mean it's a valid question we going to grow grass we can't mow I mean it's a it's a real question is there a plan I'm I'm not sure about the maintenance plan they were asking for is there Revenue to then fund that fund what they were looking for uh what is a revenue anticipated out there I don't know if Jennifer you have any you were at that meeting good evening this um yeah the finance committee is concerned about a maintenance plan and they didn't want to vote this until they sought a a a maintenance plan for the park um I did tell them that you know as we put together the operating budget we will look at that and see you know when the project ends how much would need to be allocated for the maintenance of this park next year I think the Project's supposed to be completed in August and September so you probably wouldn't fully fund it but I know there is a u maintenance plan that they had in the feasibility study at one point and they looked at that so that's something we'll be looking at the operating budget but the um finance committee wanted to see the whole maintenance plan um that night and so there was a little bit of back and forth on that well they didn't hold off until town meeting I mean they make made a recommendation here so right so they were going to hold off on town meeting and then there was a lot of back and forth and then someone made a recommendation and it came three but there was discussion you know let's just hold off till the night of town meeting you know we can you know look at the maintenance of it um I think that personally that's important and um you know to Kurt's point like I haven't seen the overall grass part of it and where the irrigation is going to go but you know we we've done that before we've installed grass and we haven't really done irrigation aot these properties but you know the town needs to have a plan to maintain these Parcels so excuse me I know there's a recommendation on the floor but I'd prefer to to wait until town meeting but any other questions or comments I think I think Now's the Time to get this done we the Project's under construction we've got Grant money tied up to it so let's get it done let's get it worked out um I don't see this passing this prevents in any way coming up with a plan that addresses that I think they're two separate things I think we got to get this thing done and get all the necessary work so I I strongly support this article do you remember when we put a septic system in at Parker's at the thing that sat there we put a septic system with no bathroom for probably about 10 years we invested money in that we had no plan to build a building so I don't want to waste $160,000 I don't see this as a waste any other comments Madam CH I have a I guess it's a parliamentary question um about the uh Finance committee's recommendation um I noticed that it was 33 but this is considered a recommendation it reminds me of that silly headline ages ago Harvard wins Harvard 29 Yale 29 I mean this doesn't seem like a very firm recommendation to me and I actually think that it would need a majority vote to be called a recommendation I to clarify that I think everything's called a recommendation whether it's 70 33 23 the recommendation would be say it was like you know 2 three then it would be two4 three against it's just showing the public just showing the vote exactly what the vote was three four three against okay thank you you're welcome if I may this uh the they separated the project into horizontal construction and then vertical vertical being the building and then the boardwalk so horizontal is already on the way so actually well on their way to moving forward on the project the vertical or the part components like the irrigation system and things like that this irrigation system is going in the horizontal portion that is the work that's that's underway what other pieces are yet to come for this I think the bathrooms are and then the boardwalk is that right jef uh Jeff kobby Public Works director just the bathroom the boardwalk's part of what's ongoing right now right so you want the irrigation in the ground before they before they finalize it that's why you're doing doing it now that would be ideal what wasn't mentioned here but it was mentioned at the finance committee is the contractor is donating a portion of the irrigation system to get the grass established so this irrigation piece would be building off of that and would be uh enhancing the more delicate plantings around the restroom and the walking paths and that type of thing but there will be Irrigation in there that's being supplied by the contractor not part of what was required it's part of the design process we actually did not fund irrigation uh but at this point if there's going to be a backbone of irrigation provided why not distribute that to other sensitive planting areas so that's what the proposal is two other sensitive planting areas that are plants or grass that are plants plants so it wouldn't be so this 160,000 wouldn't be to help mow the lawn that we'd be looking to have covered no there will be some need for operating budget expenses associated with maintenance of this park that we will be working with uh the finance director and town Administration on in the next fiscal year um so that is a good discussion that is is happening about that but that's really for the operating budget for next fiscal year this will be just to get the infrastructure in that can be utilized for ongoing maintenance in the future to the tune of $160,000 correct okay so what do we have um we we've had our motion and um second all those in favor I I abstain reluctantly I okay um three four and one abstention moving on 301 301 301 sorry and then analysis of the P groundwater M chair I move that we recommend article 12 and do I have second okay all those in favor I I okay Article 13 zoning amendments has the planning board had their yes the planning board held a public hearing and made their recommendation um which is included here uh now what I wanted to point out is that we weren't able to schedule the planning board for this evening but we scheduled the planning board to meet with the board of selectman and present the article um at your next meeting U and so you know the question would be whether you motion we recommend from the floor second all those in favor okay we have to vote the entire warrant and place the warrant too yes make a motion that we place the warrant sure actual execute and you still need 14 is that up we haven't floor 13 and 14 Zing yeah include those both from the floor all from the floor right yeah okay we have a motion and a second all those in favor I and and that was to approve and execute the town meeting warrant okay okay do we have any other items that have to come up at this point we're at the end of our agenda I don't think we need we need helmets for people on high bank but I may put that in for a future town meeting expense I have to i' I'd be interested in the actual statistics on that Joyce because I've lived here my whole life and I've I've never seen that I've never heard of that so I mentioned it to Mike Stone and he said you know because he lives in that area up off or lived in that area up off high Bank he said oh yeah we we drive around that rather than along High Bank Road because our cars get digged so that made me think it was more than one injured person the yes CH I'd like to move to a journ I have a question first okay your question um is there time at our next meeting to be able to do the um who's going to take which article are we doing that on our our next meeting my understanding is that we are okay okay U I have a move to adjourn do I have a second on that second all those in favor I I I thank you very much we will see everyone next week for