oops good evening welcome to the meeting of the armouth board of Select Board of June 4th 2024 which will be a high meeting which necessitates the following notice be read this is the formally advis that is required by General L chapter 38 sections 18- 25 and pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 20121 an act relative to extending certain covid-19 measures adopted during the state of emergency signed into law June 16th 2021 as extended by chapter 2 of the acts of 20 23 the Arma select board will hold a public meeting on Tuesday June 4th 2024 at 5:30 p.m. beginning with executive session and then opening to the public no sooner than 6:00 p.m. in the hearing room Town Hall 1146 Route 28 South yth Mass the public is welcome to attend either in person or via the alternative Public Access provided below and the information below provides the information for anyone to join by computer or um by telephone there's a slight correction in that notice and that is we will stay public for the swearing in of the newly elected notice I didn't say the new select me because one of them's already done for stance the newly elected selectman Tracy Post and joce Flynn then what we're going to do is we're going to kick all of you out of here and we're going to go into executive session for approximately 15 minutes or so to discuss a union matter and then hopefully around 6 o' or very close to that we're going to come back to public does everybody understand that okay I'm going to recognize our town clerk for swearing in good evening Mary maslowski uh we are also here to swear and Mr Martin to the uh Dennis Yarmouth Regional school committee so I would ask if you'd like to start if you can come forward we'll do you each individ individually so your families can come forward so I'm going to ask you if you if you stand in front of the chair and raise your right hand so the camera can see you want us all at the same time Mary oh wait no we'll do we'll do each of you individually going do them with you him separately oh he going to swear into me just if you face me and we'll swear you in so they can see you on camera so please uh repeat after me I I please state your name Mar do solemnly swear and affirm do swear and affirm that I will faithfully and impartially that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me all the duties incumbent upon me as a member of the Dennis Yarmouth Regional school committee M of the Dennis Yarmouth Regional school committee for the town of Yarmouth of Yarmouth according to the Charter bylaws rules and regulations to the Charter bylaws rules and regulations of the town of Yarmouth of the town of Yarmouth the Constitution and laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Constitution and laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the Constitution and laws of the United States of America and the Constitution and laws of the United States of America so help me God congratulations you just to sign two things for me I'm going to do that one we this one for my office I did that the original is for you oops I gave me the wrong one one I gave me the wrong oops because I brought the wrong one downstairs yep it does so you're all set you just signed that one you're all set I will note that it was signed conrat thank you so much who wouldd like to go next Joyce she is you've been sworn into to a number of things as well so if you'd raise your right hand to repeat after me I I please state your name do solemnly swear and affirm that I will faithfully and impartially I willfully discharge and perform discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me all the duties incumbent upon me as a member of the select board for the town of Yarmouth as a of the select for the ofou in accordance with the charter bylaws rules and regulations withw and rules regulations of the town of Yarmouth of the ofth the Constitution and laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts the constition and laws of the common of Massachusetts and the Constitution and laws of the United States of America and the LA of the United States so help me God congratulations you sign that one for me and if you would sign this one sweet thank you I'll take this one this is yours thank you very much lovely thank you and Tracy you know the drill I I post do solemnly swear and affirm doem swear and affirm that I will faithfully and impartially faithfully and impartially discharge and perform discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me J upon me as a member of the select board for the town of Yarmouth as a of theel for the town of yth in accordance with the charter and bylaws rules and regulations of the town of Yarmouth the Commonwealth uh the Constitution and laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts constition laws of the common of Massachusetts and the Constitution and laws of the of the United States of America so help me God congratulations [Applause] thank you KY thank [Applause] you congratulations for now do one well that probably won't be the last time we're swore at thank you very much thank you um we're going to have to ask everybody to leave now because we're going to go into executive session again it should be very short 15 minutes or so and then you can come back thank you congratulations go congratulations people told me they were tell okay all right very true see you behave yourself no [Music] problem I know isn't it I have no idea come up so welcome back I'm back being over where back why you want to uh talking about SEIU right is this evening you want me to make the motion I'll make the motion somebody second it okay yes I moved that the uh yit Board of selectman enter in executive session pursuant to M internal laws chapter 38 section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining which if held an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining of the public body and the chair so declares I have a second second okay we'll take a roll call vote on that Mark I Tracy Dorcas I I um did you vote I too both you okay we are in executive session good evening um we' now return to public session following a brief executive session we'll start this segment of tonight's meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance please rise pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all announcements as anybody have any announcements no um okay as you may know as result of the election uh Joyce Flynn was is a newly elected member who was sworn in tonight and Tracy Post was a recently elected member not newly because she served four terms prior to running this time so we congratulate them both and thank them for the willingness to serve the board and the and the people of the community public comments is next does anybody want to be recog I yes sir state your name and uh where you reside in what you'd like to say Elvio rodriges fourth precinct um last year on March 29th 2023 I submitted a letter to the select board requesting that well number 11 off Forest Road be shut down immediately due to high levels of both pfas and nitrate in that letter I informed the select board that the EPA was planning to lower the maximum contamination level of pasas from 20 parts per trillion to as close as to zero as possible at that time well 11 was reporting a PFS pfas level of 11 my letter was both unanswered and ignored I sent another letter on April of this year to the select board and that letter also was unanswered and ignored on April 10th 2024 just recently the US Environmental Protection Agency EPA issued new limits on pasas in drinking water drastically reducing it from 20 parts per trillion to four parts per trillion with the goal of zero this should come as no surprise to you you are advised of that eventuality the ging thing is that the select board has allowed well 11 to be operational for another full year knowing the effects of pasas and nitrogen on human beings well 11 has had a toxic mixture of chemicals for years and you have allowed the residents of Yarmouth to continue drinking that water as our water Commissioners you are just standing back and taking no action until forced by the federal and state entities or agencies we need Commissioners who will stand up for us perhaps a reorganization of the water commissioner responsibilities as a separate committee is in order the town of Yarmouth has the worst water quality of any town on the Cape Cod the dangerous levels of nitrate and pasas in yarmouth's water supply should not be a surprise to anyone here it has been well documented in the past and the present sadly it's a NeverEnding Story thank you thank you anyone else V has her hand up on the V let's go to vaita we'll come to you ma'am vaita can you hear me uh yes I can can you hear me now very well thank you good hi tra welcome back than I hope that you will be having a productive tenure on this board and uh so uh towards that end I'm hoping that Mark will Rectify his borish behavior of three years ago when he us he usurped your rightful succession to the chairmanship of this body by nominating you tonight for that position good luck okay I guess Peter's done ma'am you have your hands up in the back good evening um Mr chairman members of the new select board and Mr rittenau um my name is Linda bager I'm the president of Hy's Park civic association and I'm here tonight to seek your endorsement of a proposal for a regional transportation study that is being floated by the Barnstable town Council to the Cape Cod Commission although there have been numerous Transportation studies in the past none have included air travel in their scope of work understandably the commission does not have jurisdiction over airports but they could partner with airport authorities to draft have a comprehensive picture of what future needs challenges and sustainability for Cape Cod and the islands why am I here bringing this up because Hy's Park which is located in the southwestern corner of Yarmouth resides in the shadow of Barn's Transportation Hub our problems with beach erosion Route 28 traffic noise and plane emission pollution along with posos contamination all emanate from barnable Barn's leadership has been graciously listening to our plight and pursuing some solutions Hy's Park civic association started by partnering with greater hyanis civic association to address posos we two communities linked by our geography but it became obvious it didn't end with posos beach erosion along Lewis Bay by faeries the expansion of Cape C Gateway airport road traffic and congestion all would be in the scope of work of the proposed Regional Transportation study let's not use sustainability as a buzz word we can make it a reality I ask that you open discussions with the Town of Barnstable and consider endorsing their efforts for a regional transportation study thank you thank you yes sir I'm Jerry Nemer from Precinct 7 um for the last couple of years the snack bar at smuggers beach has been not open or um open very little and um even though the sign out front says the snack bar is open 10 to 5 and other people have mentioned to me that it would be nice if it would be able to be open I don't know what the status is this summer uh but I would recommend to the board if possible to try to keep the snack bar open all summer I think it's a an asset to the people who use our beaches and uh it's helpful to F families with kids and so forth so it would it' be my recommendation the board see if they can open that if it's not already been open thank you very much thank you sir anyone else CTS are you I'm not trying to throw anybody into the bus here but there are things that bug me or maybe just have concerns about one is the Wastewater traffic I talked to Paul about it I think there needs to be more proactive approach approach to letting people know what's going on um some of the locals have gotten wise and they drive around the roadblock because they know they can get to wherever they're going between the roadblock and the business they want to visit but the tourists will be out of their mind trying to figure this out all summer um so one of the ideas and just an idea maybe it won't work but do something like a ladder sign or something that says South y whatever they call the plaza today go this way or go that way or whatever the business may be so it's a little more proactive the only thing that's out there is a couple of signs that rbo put out that say local business open but it doesn't help people and I've talked to people who have had concerns about trying to get to Walgreens just to get their prescriptions and I have to tell them just drive around the road block and go there it's all you can do because they don't know that they can do that from certain directions so that's just one example there's a lot of businesses are being hurt by the fact that people can't get to them I was sitting in a business one day and uh excuse me a customer came in and said hey do you know the roads closed that's the only way they knew they were they that prod ofct 28 was being closed in front of their business so and again I don't have all the answers I just think something a little more proactive needs to be tried to see if we can get to people um I no this there's a storm water meeting coming up and one of the things that bugs me is Bay View Beach parking lot is broken away at the bottom so the water from the road just runs off and right into the into Lewis Bay and when people pull up to the guard rail which 100 people do a day I guess you can drive right off the edge of the payment somebody's probably going to get stuck in there trying to get backed out of there um the signs in ythp at the playground list a direction which way you should Park it's all parallel and I know we had big safety issues back years ago they're all illegible you can't read any of them um the fence on Forest Road by the bike path just north of long Pawn Drive is all falling apart and I've asked somebody about it they said yeah we're not going to do anything about it so you know there's a drop off of that land behind that fence so to me a better solution would be to if not fix the fence put a guardrail up there so to keep because I don't know how people don't can't they can't find their brake pedal they get in an accident they just keep on driving you know um the the the material you had across the street I can't believe there was not an undisturbed area that could have been used for that as opposed to that little bit of wild area that we have left here I I think that could have you know it's too late now but it certainly could have been located somewhere else and I would hope that with the Dispatch Center that our existing dispatchers get supported in the new Center thank you Kurt anyone else okay anybody on the screen no next item reorganization of the board should have a list of positions that were occupied in 23 24 and then to the right of that new uh the vote that we'll take tonight on these these particular items first item is Chairman I have any nominations for chairman can I just ask a question in terms of past policies because I know we've done some different things I don't know what the policy has been has there been a rotation or there hasn't been since you left no okay there was one at one time there wasn't one when Eric was there like for six years right then we went to a rotation then we broke away from the rotation okay I thought we we had Mark what in the um time that I've been here we've had Mark as chair and you as chair so there has been some rotation yeah but not officially no not annually I think Mark served two two consecutive terms as did I I believe so what is the desire of the board is to continue to rotate or to I mean I'm I'm I'm new here so I'm just trying I mean it would be dorcas's turn so to speak if if um she felt ready I would be so kind to nominate Dorcas for chair unless you know obviously ly I'm I'm open to whatever the board chooses to do do you see your nominating dgas a second second choic is a second okay all those in favor do we ask about other candidates or excuse me oh do we ask other Nom I don't know how you do that actually I guess you could you could yeah I guess you could it's up to you how you want to do it do you want to nomin somebody else I just thought we should give everybody a breath too because somebody might want to self-nominate or or nominate someone else I'm the Newbie so I just I I need to take this a little slow it's a fair question it's a fair question yeah I think typically the process in the past has been to open the floor for a nomination open the open for the chairmanship and then there have any other nominations I'll nominate Mike Stone as the chair okay second and then the second choice okay so how do we do this vote we have one nomination for Dorcas would Dorcas get a second yes yes I sit here in second down on the end yeah oh okay second and both so how do we do the vote the question is do you want to are there any more nominations and then you want to if there aren't any then you close yeah take as many nominations as people want to make right so then I would move to close the nominations if there aren't any others second do anybody have any other nominations and then and then in that case if we're closing the nominations I would concede to Mike Stone as chair you would okay um then we have I remove my motion you support that motion well she's REM I support conceding to so Joyce would have to remove her second to my motion you have to remove your second on my nomination all right it's removed thank you very much all right I me one in favor of Mike Stone for chairman say I I anyone opposed all right so that position will stay the same Vice chairman was danan Horan last year I'd like to nominate Dorcas mcgar Dorcas you have a second second you're not going to second that sitting down that chair who second that you Tracy we have any other nominations for vice chairman all right seeing none all those in favor of Dorcas as the vice chairman signify by voting by saying I I anyone opposed that passage the embc Dorcas will be the vice chairman the clerk last year was Dorcas chairman I'd like to nominate Tracy Post do we have nomination for I'd like to nominate Tracy Post as the clerk I we have we have any other nominations for for clerk okay all those in favor say I I hi anyone opposed Tracy has been elected as the clerk chairman of Licensing Mr chairman I'd like to nominate Mike Stone as chairman of the licensing board okay second so we have the in-house resident lawyer this chairman of Licensing any other nominations all those in favor say I I anyone opposed so I will continue on as the uh licensing now we have the appointments chairman Dorcas was the appointments chairman last year Year Mr chairman I would like to appoint Joyce Flynn as the appointment chair it's a great way to learn oh I seconded with enthusiasm I'll second that nomination so um is there are there any other nominations for appointments chair see none all those in favor say I I anyone opposed so that passes so Joyce is going to be the appointment's chair the ambulance waiver administ was Dean Horan I've done that in the past it's not a big deal really it's just signing off on people who can't afford to pay the uninsured portion I'll nominated Dorcas for that of the ambulance is any any nominations nominated Dorcas Dorcas do we have a second second okay we have a Dorcas anyone uh any other nominations okay see n all those in favor say hi hi hi what opposed so Dorcas will be the ambulance waiver administrator now rep to the D liaison primary was Peter Q Smith I would like to nominate Tracy if she would accept that I know it's a lot of work but um there was a feeling on the board that we didn't have the representation that we should have had and um I heard from a number of people that gee there was nobody at the school committee meetings there's nobody really um highly engaged in that capacity Tracy did a really good job when she was on the board previously in that capacity so I'm going to nominate Tracy i' second that um any other nominations okay all those in favor say I I anyone opposed so Tracy has been elected as the da liaison the contract negotiation team Peter Q Smith I'm going to nominate Tracy for that position as well well that's we used to uh I'm not sure if it's a contract year but the other problem is they often don't negotiate at night so um they don't no I think that they negotiate and I I um okay I don't not any joys for that I I believe treating employees really well just so you're not you're unnoticed hold on a second take that back I'll do it I'll do it I'll take your nomination Mike okay I believe I believe in treating them well but not that well Joyce so who's getting nominated here Tracy Tracy for the Dy contract negotiation team okay all those in favor I anyone oppose so Tracy's going to do that one scholarship committee was and Horan alternate actually who's the who's the um why do we just have an alternate there I would scratch the alternate huh let's scratch the alternate Mr chair and just leave it the scholarship committee representative and I'll nominate Tracy Post for that okay we have a nomination for Tracy scholarship do you have a second second any other nomination all those in favor say hi hi anyone oppos Tracy is he scholarship committee representative affordable housing trust it was Mark Forest I'll nominate Mark Forest second may have a second any other nominations all those in favor say I I I anyone opposed so that's Mark again alternate airport rep now I say alternate again because we have Chris Chris gyy is our airport rep correct so this is a backup the alate was Dan hor does an excellent job as rep she uh keeps the board informed no she does she does a fabulous job um I'd like to nominate Dorcas mcgurn for that you nominate Dorcas as the backup any uh we have a second on that second second any other nominations all those in favor I I anyone opposed so that's dcus mades Middle School Bill committees a hold clean water trust managing board rup is Mark I nominate Mark to continue second um any other nominations okay all those in favor say I I anyone oppose Mark Public Access Media Center was dorus um I nominate Joyce Flynn okay okay I'll second that nomination uh any other nominations all those in favor say I I anyone opposed so that's Joyce and then Bob lton as Regional Transit Authority um second we have a nominate who nominated him me Mark with second by Dorcas all those in favor I I so Bob lton okay the m p o Dy section rep was Peter Q Smith and um we've been informed that we can leave Peter be the rep and if he can't make meetings he can nominate somebody to um really yeah is this an elected isn't this both I email said effect otherwise we clarify I thought you had to be a serving on the board no that's been cleared up no I'll we I'll forward the emails over here it has been cleared up if he resigns then it goes to election again and Dennis could possibly take that seat so this is the one that we used to rotate with Dennis and it's byelection it's our it's our turn now what we would do is we would alternate there's a term of two years three years right three years three years it's a threee term so we would go through the process of alternating that all right uh between the towns Dennis Yarmouth and back and forth so it's our turn um and Peter has served for a year I believe yes and um and so is he willing to serve well before before the election late in he uh he said that he cuz he said to me don't forget even though I'm not running for elect man I still have this other position so um he did indicate that he was willing to continue can we indicate a preference for an alternate if there's if he's unable to attend a meeting is that allowed the emails I read I think he has to designate the alternate yeah but you you certainly could indicate a preference if you'd like to to to tell him you think to him to Peter pet yeah I think we should identify someone on the board who's willing this is an very important position and um it means a lot in terms of funding uh particularly for Yarmouth road projects other other improvements for the town so I I think it's important to have a strong voice on there so can I just ask a question if it doesn't need to be a select person could we nominate Jeff Jeff Jeff's already going to be he's already on there he's on the joint Transportation committee I believe we're going to nominate him or get him to put on that I think it has to be a selectman I thought so too has to be it doesn't have to be a selectman it can be a selectman but it can also be they gave an example in the email as a selectman or they said like a former DPW director or somebody like that yeah so no it's not limited to a selectman you just have to be a sitting selectman to be elected at the time he's elected but then he's still stays for the whole time I oh so okay that's the clarifying yes okay so I'm going to flip you those emails okay so we can decide to Contin we if if we don't vote we've already he's already in that position currently correct so it's not like we have to take a vote on who our representative is correct correct so that P so he's there so continues for like two more years so for the purpose of the record Mr chairman he's he is our representative he's been appointed and even even though he has stepped down from the board he is not disqualified he can continue to serve and has expressed the desire to continue to serve is that all correct that's correct my concern though is how are we filtering the information from this board and what our priorities are to him prior to that vote that's that's that's why I think it's important for somebody no disrespect to Peter but um there's got to be a way unless Jeff's there that talks about you know there used to we used to have a priority list I know if we still do there is a priority list is a transportation Improvement plan we need somebody to execute that for on our behalf that plan is generally well vetted through the transportation committee that that Jeff is on I'm also on the mo representing Barnstable County but I'm obviously a little bit biased in favor of Yarmouth of course and um and I'll just full disclosure right there um I'm always going to B for Yarmouth projects no because I think we have a number of important ones and I've been been haven't been shy about that so if you concern about is information flow the information flow is generally well established so I think that's a legitimate point it's a very legitimate concern but I think we've got that covered between myself uh and Jeff and also those documents do circulate among Town officials here in town hall Bob will see the documents and so we're pretty well vered on the overall Transportation Improvement plan the projects that are being nominated the real challenge is in the staff discussion questions which is um which is why it's important to have multiple eyes and there are and I can just say from my own experience there are multiple eyes on this plan because periodically in the past we've been bumped you know in terms of delays on this and uh a number of us also you should be aware Bob lton is on the mo representing the armouth RTA not the armouth RTA the the cape card Regional Transit Authority so there are multiple eyes looking at this for both Regional benefits and Regional initiatives but also keeping an eye on Yarmouth projects as well so and I think Bob does a pretty we together I think we've done a pretty good job on staying on top of things I don't have an object I I think it's important to be clear on the tech technicalities of Peter continuing to serve and if he's willing to do that um but and that's great if he can uh and and and and is willing to do that so I'm I'm very comfortable supporting that Jeff do you want to say something on this Mr chair I just want to correct uh or or clarify something just to you know bring to your attention I believe later tonight you'll be acting on the uh Cape Cod joint Transportation committee representative and we've actually requested that Amanda Lima Our Town engineer uh be the town's representative because she's looking to become chair of that body they were looking for some leadership and she's willing to do that but you have to be officially appointed by the board so not to throw a monkey wrench into the situation but that is uh I I believe what uh you're going to hear later tonight uh during that committee appointments piece is that uh amen Anda Lima is looking to be on the uh your representative on the are you being nominated as the alternate yeah correct okay so now for the purposes of discussing the transportation Improvement plan it's that body that typically will make the full recommendation to the mo so if Amanda if we appoint her so we'll have her as the chair um I think yarm will have all the bases C covered for this particular assignment Mr thank you Jeff so should we not vote on Peter should we let it just stand let it stand no we just leave leave pet stand uh Cape Cod Commission rep Dennis pron does anybody know he wants to continue on Mr chairman I think it would be helpful we've talked before about having a county day I think we need to periodically have some a report remember when Susanne mcalli was you know representing the county she'd be in here every 3 or 4 months giving us an update on County stuff I think I think we should get in the habit again of inviting our County reps to come in periodically and particularly this one Cape C commission I mean they're doing there's a lot going on over there I'd be nice to get a report from time to time from our rep there on what they're doing so I'm very comfortable with keeping that appointment as is I don't think we have to act on that one I think we can just let that one stand just leave it and leave it there and Dennis will continue to serve um but I do think July 9th what's that July 9 is our tentative County update night so we're working on scheduling that now so do we need to act on that Bob do you know so you got all that Bob I don't know when his term's up I I would have to check that yeah let's I would recommend that we just double check we can always come back to it um okay we have a licensing matter [Applause] um see the advertisement for it 630 item special entertainment license and requests for board to we fees meet a mermaid in yarm is that the advertisement right there no this is for um this is for constr C and D fees I'm talking this um type of application doesn't go in the newspaper it's the application for a special license but it's not a public hearing so Yarmouth chamber come on up events being coordinated under the tourism reservation preservation funds marketing events and Communications contract signed by Mary vbon good morning good evening good evening how are you you want to identify yourselves for the record please certainly my name is Mary vilon I'm president and CEO of the armouth chamber hi I'm Jennifer Warner I'm the marketing Communications and events director for the armouth chamber okay um we have a public notice that went out on this you said it wasn't a advertised public no for the this type it it's not a a public advertisement it's just the application okay so we didn't have to have an ad on it okay so Mary do you want to tell us a little bit about what it is that you're seeking here um so under the marketing contract on behalf of the tourism Revenue preservation fund we are proposing that on June 29th we are going to do meet a mermaid day for families at Parker River Beach from 5:00 p.m. to 700 p.m. and it's in partnership with Yarmouth Recreation and Yarmouth libraries um so we're going to have children's games um Miss Cape Cod will actually be a mermaid for the afternoon so that there will be photo ops there'll be uh family games there'll be storytelling and then in the evening y Recreation will be doing a movie on the beach as well and we do have a rain date of June 30th yeah your rain date are is the next day Sunday the 30th yes that's correct same hours um is there going to be a fee charge for this there is not no fee to the public m tell us about the movie at sundown is that going to be at Parker River Beach it is yes so Yarmouth Recreation will be organizing that portion of the event okay they're going to be showing The Little Mermaid of course appropriate if you have grandchildren you'll understand this and you're not seeking any um anything other than entertainment correct no and the only reason why we're applying for special entertainment is because we will have an MC of the event so he'll be making announcements when certain things are happening and then we also will have a steel drummer playing in the background okay a what playing in the background a steel drummer Steel drummer very good know the song right I do I do so we don't have to have public I'll make a motion we approve the application as presented second second all right we have a motion to approve with a second um all those in favor say I I I anyone oppose so that passes unanimously but we still got the fee waiver issue that um are we are we keeping track of the cork Amendment still we haven't since you left but we what you guys been doing we probably should start um I'll make a motion we wave the fee wa a second okay we have motion second wave the fee um the both the licensing fee and filing fee right so mhm 155 165 um all those in favor say I anyone opposed so that passes unanimously and so does the fee waiver thank you good Lu thank you very much welcome you to attend okay the cor commment I'm glad you brought that back to keep track have a um first hearing on a construction and demolition fee increase um and we do have a public notice on that right it t arm with construction and demolition fee increase hearing I read the notice into the record notice is given that two public hearings will be held at the Arma select board meeting starting at 6:00 on at yarma Town Hall in the hearing room 1146 through 28 South yarm on June 4th 2024 June 25th 2024 concerning proposed fee increases for construction and demolition written comments will be accepted by the select board via email at selectman y.m ma. us until 4:30 Friday May 29th 2024 verbal comments will be accepted at the public hearing starting at 6: p.m. persons interested in these Chang Es are encouraged to attend proposed day of change would be July 1st 2024 fee categories are construction and demolition the current fee is $165 a ton the proposed fee would be $25 per ton the next category is construction and demolition mixed that's $190 a ton current cently it would be increased to $230 a ton and think that's pretty much the increases correct okay do you want to Enlighten us as to why you feel these fee increases are necessary and what they would be utilized for thank you Mr chair I'll just introduce myself I'm Jeff Colby the Public Works director and Roby White House our assistant Public Works director we'll uh guide you through a couple of slides we have on this topic but I will say it's been two years a little over two years since we've been before you on this uh fee increase and costs have increased over that that time obviously so Robby great thank you very much I should probably pull up so you can hear me B thank you very much for bringing up the presentation uh thank you for taking the time to speak with us this evening and uh we'll make this as quick as possible because we know you have a full agenda so just make sure I'm going in the right direction so we did a comparison of our neighbors and our other businesses as you can see um their rates currently are Barnstable 235 Bourne 190 chadam 190 Dennis 225 harage 205 Orleans 225 and SNJ which is a private entity not a community at 190 that averaged out to 208 Yarmouth as you can see is the lowest for construction and demolition rate Ates for vendors at 165 and as Jeff mentioned it's been a couple of years since we've asked for an increase and we did that comparison as well for the Mixed rates not a lot of towns offer a second price for mixed rates but as you can see they're substantially higher and it really is important that they that we ask people who use our facility to separate so that we don't have to charge that extra rate can I just ask a question because our packet has S&J at 2155 just want to see which one is no it's 190 sorry about that no that's okay thank you on the next page too there's two charts yeah it there it's it's actually interesting they have several rates and I might have picked up the wrong rate they actually have several rates for CND d uh they have 190 per ton for Demolition and difficult to manage 215 extremely difficult to manage 25 so they have several rates for CN D at at SNJ so my apologies if I picked up an incorrect rate there they're their lowest rate is 190 so I think all I was trying to point out was is that Yarmouth is substantially lower than everyone else so as Jeff mentioned it's been quite a while since we've been before you and uh as you can see you approved our increase to 165 and April of 2022 with a mixed rate of 190 um and and we recognize that although those are the fees that are charged to the folks who use the facility it's important to kind of keep track of what the town is being charged so the 2020 FY 23 rate to charge to the town is 138 our current year that we're in right now it's $144.90 and beginning July 1st the rate that we'll be paying the vendor win waste will be 15215 we have a conclusion of that contract in 20 FY 26 and we're expecting at this point that the rate increase from that vendor will be at least 25% they haven't specifically confirm that and who knows who'll win the bid of course we have to go through the procurement process but because of what they're dealing with on their side the costs are going up significantly so we expect that we'll be back before you again and talk about this but we wanted to share those rates with you to anticipate what those cost increases will be so for C and D fee analysis as I referenced earlier the we actually I didn't reference this but in FY 23 we had expenses of over $4 million it supports our salaries benefits Insurance utilities are not included in that uh the revenue was 4.7 and uh our current fee analysis indicates that we need at least $250,000 to support our increasing disposal fees and uh in anticipation of 2025 we have several items that we know that are coming up in addition to our CND D Pad which was voted upon we know that we have some drainage concerns we have some vehicle Replacements uh we have um also some facility improvements that need to take place on some of our older properties on that site so I wanted to quickly summarize I I said a lot of these same things already but I just wanted to hone in on it currently our rate is 165 again we're paying 15215 to the vendor the new County contract will begin in July of 2025 and we anticipated it will be substantially higher if we find that the July contract is not performed by the county in a sufficient amount of time or if they can't get to it we'll do it in the town of Yarmouth so that we can make sure to get back before you so that we can do another fee increase if necessary the proposed rate would be 205 as I referenced and hopefully you'll allow us to begin charging charging that rate on July 1st additional C and D Revenue expected is expected to be in the range of $700,000 for FY 25 and again we're adding $25 to that rate for the Mixed C and repeating it one more time and I apologize for so much redundancy but it's a hitting that number really hard is that 165 is our current rate and we're looking to go to 205 we're looking for a competitive rate in comparison to other communities and hopefully this rate will do that it'll allow us to be in good place with that Delta between what we're being charged and what we're paying and and um again we're expecting a high increase and all of these things I've really HD on very hard and return on the future to we C to return in the future to talk about rules and regulations I wanted to mention that also we've been working with our treasur office we'll be working with our Board of Health and we'd like to come back in the future to talk about our rules and regulations and get a better handle on how stickers are sold for the disposal area and make sure that we're um really educating our residents and those who purchase stickers to make sure that we're doing a good job of that and the rules and regulations really speak to that Mr chairman may I ask a question you may um when you say substantially higher do you have any estimate as to what that substantial will be I have spoken to the vendor at wind waist and their representatives on numerous occasions at asking them exactly that question they have promised to come back to me um on several of occasions before I came to this meeting and they couldn't tell me their only comment was expect at least 25% okay thank you Mr chairman I I also have a question sure um I wondered um if if any of this would help to buy an additional trailer um as I was campaigning um on Saturday days I noticed that many days the the truck traffic going in was disappointed because the U trailer for I guess it would be something like construction debris but big things in civilian terms um closed it one and it seemed to me that maybe that was a question of if we invested in another trailer would any of these fee increases help push that forward the lack of trailers the trailers are actually provided by when waste they have Personnel who come and pick up those trailers and take them back to their facilities for sorting they have a transfer station where they do sorting they have drivers who come down and pick up those trailers and take them back to that facility and it could have been a matter of not having any drivers to come down and pick up those trailers or it could have been a matter of the trailers just not being able to replace particularly if it was on a weekend day um they do not have drivers who can come down after 1:00 in the afternoon to come down to pick up those trailers great question they're not owned by the town okay not all things can be solved with [Music] money true enough anyone else Mark yeah Mr chairman correct I recall didn't we at one time have some self-imposed limitations on our fee increases over the years I'm just trying to think back yeah I was talking to Tracy about this and the question she had raised um I believe that at one time we maybe capped increases at a certain amount do you recall might when that think it might have been golf yeah I don't think it relates to sanitation I I think it is Golf and um we have in the past had approval from this board to go up in a a stepped increment like if we anticipated needing uh $40 a ton additional but that might be two years out got an approval to do a step up to $40 a ton uh but I can say based upon our uh calculations now we need $40 a ton starting July 1 not a stepped approach but we have done the stepped approach previously I think the last two requests yeah I think one of the benefit I think to some degree what we're trying to do is sort of sustain some predictability um and I think by announcing ahead of time that we can expect fairly significant increases in the future I think is sort of sort of one step in that direction um because I think we're all getting feedback that solid waste disposal costs are definitely headed in a in a very expensive Direction where does our construction where does this debris go ultimately where does it end up wind waste handles that and they usually send to two different locations I they have spoken of Ohio uh and they've also spoken of another state that uh I'm not positive of but I it could be Georgia um yeah I raised this only because that these are the factors that are involved in the ultimate disposal that's becoming more difficult to find receiving facilities for this kind of waste and oftentimes the charges are related just to the excessive distances that this waste might go must go we're going to run into the same problem when we deal with Wastewater and creating sludge and then figuring out how we're going to deal with that that's becoming increasingly challenging both uh you know we talked earlier of posos earlier tonight posos is has become an issue in the whole in the whole business of sludge management and we're finding fewer options in terms of that disposal so that's another topic that we're going to have to eventually wrestle with but I think I think getting back to this I think that the fee increases um I I know we're not going to vote on this tonight this is just the first hearing but I think I think I I think youve made a good case for us to to to address this um and and and I think everyone just just a reminder that these costs are going to continue to keep going going up um it's basically it's almost like it's out of our hands because these costs are just the one piece that I failed to mention was this the at no with this this increase also will take care of any concerns about rates increases for our residents as far as stickers are concerned it supplements that so there is something that I I didn't mention earlier but I think that's really important to note our residents are not being affected by this it is the users of the C and no and I think it's good to emphasize that point because one of the reasons why you have these separate charges is order to limit the impact on residents for that Resident fee which in of itself is a significant dollar amount but the fact is by managing this in a very self-sustaining kind of way it sort of sort of uh keeps those other fees from having to sort of pick up that some of that cost as well so no I I appreciate that thank you Tracy yeah I was just going to say that if you look at the expenses uh versus the revenue uh clearly there's um money made here that supplement the uh disposal area however I uh think we should potentially consider a range of a fee because because it is a money-making um Endeavor uh if you see a drop from the rate increases um in your total tonnage uh I think that potentially you would want the flexibility to reduce that in a quick manner because um if SJ is at 190 and we're I mean the rest of them really aren't competitive because everybody's pretty far away that's lower um you know maybe we want to give them the flexibility to be able to bring it back down a little bit um you know if I I know you're going to need the need the money but I'd hate to lose the tonnage because that that would net in a in a loss for uh increased revenue for our that that offsets the disposal stickers so and we had this conversation I think that's was our concern the last time was was being competitive and and and still making sure that we got the tonnage that we needed to be profitable so that's all okay anybody in the public want to be heard on this matter anybody in the screen no hands up any board member have anything else they want to say all right then we'll put this over for a second hearing um what was the date on that June 25th continue to June 25th 625 625 we'll continue this matter to June 25th for the second hearing thank you thank you very much water quality Update 7 o'cl item don't go anywhere Jeff where's Lori there she comes all right thank you Mr chair looks like we're just about ready I'll introduce myself again Jeff kobby Public Works director we have Lori rosala our water Wastewater superintendent with us and she's going to uh give you an update on on water drinking water and then we'll transition to a Wastewater update that's uh also on everybody's mind these days uh what I will say about the the water quality you'll have some good information put before you and I believe you're going to hear about the tell me we don't have a drought yet uh we don't have a drought the the water levels are very healthy that's that's the good news um we have some uh challenging news in here but the good news is we don't have a drought but I think that's one of the first slides that she'll cover but I do want to say that um uh in my professional opinion Yarmouth has the best water quality on Cape Cod and that's primarily due to uh not needing to chlorinate uh most systems do and you'll hear from many communities that they've got uh uh pool tasting water that's a a pretty common thing in other communities that's not the case in Yarmouth and we have not had to treat for iron and maganese that's been a real struggle in some other communities with uh contaminants and that's not uh a challenge we've current currently had to deal with uh in Yarmouth but that is potentially in our future depending on uh you know where things go so but currently um very strong water quality and Lori will walk us through that okay so um just for the water um portion we're going to be talking about the drought although we're not in one so don't worry um service line inventory some of our construction projects and then talk about posos and water quality um and then we'll get into waste water Jeff can handle waste water today okay so as for the drought we are not in a drought at all right now so that's good news um the only reason I'm really bringing it up right now is that if we do head towards a drought we're going to have different rules um for conservation measures this year because we have a renewed Water Management ACT registration through Mass D that has forced us to follow certain conservation measures that are different than the ones that we just put in place a couple years ago um we when we made that we thought we were in line with what D had been recommending but they since have made them a little bit more stringent so this is our um current water conservation plan so the new one will change from on the level one drought right now we have two days per week it's going to go down to one day per week and put more restrictions on um flow flower beds and ornamentals uh and then the other one as we go into a more significant drought uh you're going to not be able to water your lawn at all not even by hand and then um the ornamentals go out in in a critical drought as well so just wanted to give everyone a heads up that if we do head towards a drought this year restrictions will be um more stringent than they have been in the past and that's required by mast EP another project we wanted to let everyone know about is the service line inventory this is part of um the get the let out program through EPA uh and we the every town or every water department is required to submit a inventory to mass D and EPA by October 31st 2024 so we've started to compile our inventory based on our we have some records of water service lines um and we are also asking our customers to help us with this by filling in a form online um I just want to also just make note that to date we've not we have not found any lead service lines in Yarmouth we actually have records from when the water department was established in 1933 um that that year they bought copper for service lines um and once you use copper there would be no reason to go back to lead um copper is is malleable it's bendable that's why they used copper and that's what they needed lead for so if you've already moved on to Copper the the latest and greatest at that time there' be no reason to go back to lead um but the D doesn't that's not good enough um so we have asked customers to look at their service lines and um fill in this form which is the tiny URL listed there um to let us know what their material is so everyone is getting in their mail in their um bill um a stuffer that H gives you instructions on how to how to do it how to fill in the form online if you have problems it has my email on it a lot of people just email me the information rather than fill it in so it's so far it's been in the South Yarmouth bills uh it will be in the West Yarmouth bills that they're receiving right now and then yarmouthport will receive them the beginning of July uh but if anyone maybe doesn't receive their water bill because they're a tenant or something they can go on and fill in this form as well so I just want to encourage everyone if they live in Yarmouth to please fill in what your water service line is made out of for us the more information we have um the better off we'll be going into this Sub midle in October basically if we don't have information on a service we have to find out so we're going to have to get into the houses and find out if if you don't tell us so it's better if if we can do it this way and not have to um interact that much with every single customer and there's more information about the whole plan on the town website and the link is listed there um so I just wanted to get into some of the construction that's going on Wells four and five um which were the first two Wells to be treated for posos um that treatment plant is done um we have received approval in May to run it to run it um and we are just working out some of the final Kinks we've had few setbacks along the way which is pretty common with any startup um but we're ready to pump it into the system this week we have one last um our ska guys is coming tomorrow to just work out a last few Kinks and we should be running that into the system this week um well number nine which we had been offline for many years is back online it went on in November 2023 and it's still running so um we have recovered quite a bit of capacity um in the last six months um I also just wanted to say a word of thanks to Luke white the assistant water superintendent who has really been the one to get the wells 4 and five treatment plant running so to give him some credit there um as far as our phase three improvements which again is um our chemical feed buildings replacing the roofs the trim uh heaters painting the floors um and then improvements to one main which is the old Water Department on Union Street um that work is almost complete we're down to just painting um and as long as the weather holds out to finish painting the outside of one main it should be done on time which is um completion date of June 30th so these are just some of the pictures of where we're at um the pictures on the the right are all one main um the old water department um which was kind of it's stucco which is unusual and a lot of the stucco was falling apart so that's been repaired um it actually just today got painted white so it looks a lot nicer um uh and it'll continue to just be much better looking in the future than it is right now um so moving on to water quality um as was mentioned earlier there is new EPA regulations for posos coming out um the it's been written into law but they don't actually go into effect until 2029 uh currently Massachusetts regulates posos not all states do Massachusetts regulates um based on a combination of six posos chemicals and the limit is 20 parts per trillion so on this chart the chemicals that have a star are part of that six and then there's two more listed at the bottom so um EPA is made different regulations their maximum contaminant levels are individual for pooa p pfna pfhxs and the genx chemicals um and then they do have this mixture at the bottom that is kind of similar to the mass Massachusetts P 6 um but it's a hazard index so it's a formula um to come up with your compliance with that um so that's what we'll be looking at for 2029 uh there is let me actually go on to the next one um so we've been planning for this we have known this was upcoming um right now just as a reminder well 10 is offline because of posos and Wells four and five have been and they're coming back online um we also have had levels above um above non Tech but less than 20 at well 11 which is right near well 10 off Forest Road um it's actually access through that neighborhood not Forest Road but um and then Wells 18 and 19 when we initially did testing had higher levels and the levels have actually since come down um so they're actually less of a concern so um our consultant kleinfelder has done an extensive evaluation of our different options for treatment or just future posos planning in general um so we've looked at both seasonal and year- round treatment facilities for Wells 10 and 11 which would be a com a combined treatment um 18 and 19 which are already a combined location um a centralized facility on Higgins CR road that could include we have um half our wells on Higgin sill Road it could potentially include any or all of those um and then potential additional treatment at well 9 or to find a totally new source of um water um and some of the m metrics that they looked at were water supply volume how much each well can produce what the capital costs and on andm costs would be down the line um the site suitability you know if there's Wetlands around other constrictions um how how it applies with resiliency so you know close uh close uh proximity to flood zones and things like that um and then you know could we get it permanent and the environmental impacts and finally timeline so after going through this large Matrix um basically our our best option is the seasonal treatment of Wells 10 and 11 so as you can see in the map there well 10 is the one the the one more Northern um that's right off Forest Road well 11 is at the end of christen path um but there is a power line and a water line that crosses over to Forest Road so we'd have to um run a water line from well 11 up to well 10 um to treat them both at that location um and this would um be beneficial because it would bring well 10 back online and it would um help us with well 11 which will eventually uh it actually has slightly higher levels of pooa which will have that EPA regulation of four right now it ranges from anywhere between six 2 and six for pooa so that will get um you know would end up having to be turned offline in 2029 if we don't address it now so we are um looking to get that addressed before it becomes regulation have 10 and 11 treated um and this would be a seasonal system so um if anyone's ever seen the ones over in hyanis they're just big massive vessels sitting outside uh that way we would only be able to use it in the summer but that's really when we need it the most and then we could just um you know mothball it for the winter and not spend the additional cost of building a structure around it which would then you know have a roof to maintain and hva HV a system HVAC system to maintain and all that uh additional equipment um so planning on moving forward with treatment at Wells 10 and 11 um so we will be um we already have piloting in Klein felder's contract so that would be the next step we were able to not do piloting on four and five because that was an emergency um but this is not emergency so we have to do the full piloting and design and construction as you normally would and we're going to apply for funding this summer um well the you you apply this summer for the intended use plan that would come out next winter um so this is where we move over to Wastewater but before we did I want to send out another word of thank you to our water field crew um this has been a CH challenging year for water because of sewer um and in particular Ryan hommes and Paul weatherbe have really stepped up to the plate to deal with the many issues that have happened to the water system because of the sewer project so I just wanted to say a word to thanks to them and the whole water um crew now we can move on to Wastewater yeah so we've covered a lot of information I didn't know Mr chair if you wanted to have provide any input or questions with regard to water before we move to Wastewater because that's a whole another topic I'm happy to take questions at the end or or pause now if you'd like Mr chairman I have a question on this section oh thanks um when you talk about seasonal treatment of an individual well like well 11 um what months in the year would that involve treating the well um we could treat any time that it's not freezing isn't a concern so we wouldn't use the well unless it's treated so it would have to be off from probably November to March or April oh okay thank you anyone else at this juncture Mark yeah Mr chairman thank you um the um I'd like to just try to directly address the comment that was made during the public comments about well uh 11 um and I I think the concern is is that maybe those P levels are above but from what I'm hearing in terms of the presentation they're not they're not above uh any uh regulatory standard so they're well within those however we are concerned that's why we're moving forward with treatment anyways is that a faar way to characterize that okay we're currently in compliance with all current regulations yeah and I know there was some reference to the quality of the water I believe an organization called the apcc actually did an analysis of water departments and Water Systems around the Cape is that is that correct they come out with their yearly report and Yarmouth ranked as high as any other system on the cape and there was actually a couple that ranked lower so yes that's what I thought okay thank you the um the building uh the Water Department building that's getting improved on is that still being used for the storage of Records yes yes it is it's and it's fairly full still correct correct yeah and to my knowledge we still don't have a plan yet for um or maybe there's a plan maybe maybe we can talk about that later but um I I just want to flag that because I'd like to revisit the whole issue of record storage uh with the with the administrator um the uh other point I want to mention is um it's just a general compliment I know you're giving kudos to people in the water department that are in the field that are doing work and I want to add my own kudos to the folks that are working in the water department clearly um we've moved in a really aggressive and positive direction in terms of improving the overall water distribution system um people don't realize that if you're not maintaining your system if you're not taking care of your system it can lead to all sorts of other problems and so the care of the system is quite evident and uh whether it's the pumping stations the facilities around the pumping stations putting in the treatment and getting those systems in place um even the hydrants I used to complain Jeff user I used to annoyed Jeff on a regular basis about the hydrants and when the hydrants were going to be uh taken care of and maintained ped and painted and even those are all looking great and I think quite in many respects it sends a message to the to the residents of the town that the municipality cares about uh maintaining its infrastructure and that says a lot about the community so I I too want to add my uh Kudos and compliments to the water department and the water department team I know this is a lot of work has gone into this and so um it's not gone unnoticed so thank you thank you we haven't got to all the hydrants yet but we will get to we will get there but it's you know I know there it's it's being noticed so thank you TR do you have any comments or no questions at this point Tas no thank you okay all right no other questions we'll move right on to Wastewater and uh could I sorry so groundwater discharge permit we want to start with the permitting and this is the the big news we have on Friday Friday so just hot off the presses uh uh received the draft groundwater discharge permit from DP I will say this has been a um a long process uh multi-year process and uh we've been before you a couple times in recent months to update you on the progress with this being the announcement that we you know wanted to be able to make uh so that's the that's the good news there is a little bit of a process behind that there's a posting that needs to happen there's a comment period uh but we have reviewed the draft permit and it's it's all good news there's nothing uh very stringent in there that we couldn't uh comply with any uh difficult Provisions uh it's all good news and we're able to move forward based upon that uh with the next um contracts and so it's it's all uh very positive um so I want to cover that it's highlighted on this slide in bold but um certainly wanted to you know put that message out there first before we cover all the other items uh so this is a little bit of uh history on this slide as well with where we were and as I said multi-year process starting back in August of 22 with the the hydro Geo study that was also approved as part of this package over the last couple of weeks that D approved for us uh we will be meeting with DP uh going forward because we do have work to do uh that draft groundwater discharge permit was for 370,000 gallons a day that's a a big number but it's not as much as we need going forward so that's a a portion of our phase one flow and then ultimately we have a uh eight-phase plan so we need a a lot more groundwater discharge uh permit capacity in the future so we will continue to meet with d uh to make progress in that we've also regularly been meeting with our neighboring communities at least on the staff level with Barnstable and Dennis which are in the the same situation we are uh in the case of Barnstable they need additional capacity and have had regular discussions with d and in uh Dennis's case they're following right on our tail coats with um building a brand new facility uh they're a little bit behind us but they're taking uh copious notes uh with the process that we just went through and uh we we compare notes on a regular basis to make sure that we can make progress and we're uh giving the same message to DP because it's the same across the cape with these challenges uh so we also had filed a notice intent and that was very helpful in our process with our local Conservation Commission they approved the order of conditions that's also some uh good news uh to share but that was a very powerful tool in dealing with d to say hey our local commission supports this monitoring and testing plan and that uh that went a long way so that was a great uh great help uh we also received a grant uh to offset some of the cost of this additional analysis I think I mentioned that last time I was here as well so just a little bit of refresher uh this is the Wastewater contracts there's six of them since this is such a large uh project for this first phase uh contract one which is is the critical piece that we needed which is our treatment facility we needed that groundwater discharge permit in order to move that forward so uh currently we are advertising for that project uh there's been a lot of interest and so we're very excited about that uh but the uh project is advertised so that's very good news and contracts two and three are the ones that are actively being worked currently and we are advertising uh this week for contract 4 as well I think some of that's going to be covered on these next couple of slides but this is just graphically where those different contracts are so people could get that clear we also like to show pictures whenever possible and there's some uh uh representations of what the process building will look like for the water resource recovery facility I previously mentioned that is treatment but that's where the treatment for the Wastewater occurs uh pre-qualification has been completed and as I mentioned before we are now advertising the project so some Milestone dates to uh be aware of is is that the uh sub bids are due July 30th there's quite a few for a project of this magnitude and the GC bids the general contractor bids are due August 20th so time is uh is marching forward here because we do have a deadline that's that last bullet there and that's of October 31st of this year to have that awarded so those are critical deadlines for us and that's an extension that 31st deadline but we are on track to meet that uh here's another picture is a like a bird's eye view of what that facility looks like the Water Department property is uh building is right here so if you stand behind that uh building and look at that vast open field that's essentially what the rest of this facility is these are treatment buildings and this are the infiltration beds where the uh groundwater will be uh where the uh effluent will be dispersed to um filter down into the groundwater another representation of what that facility looks like from the processing standpoint uh sequencing batch reactors and again it's a very industrial type of complex but I think it helps people to get a picture of what that looks like versus just looking at plans uh that are online so contracts 2 and three I mentioned that before those are actively being worked now uh contract two is a contract that Robert bow has and they are working currently on Route 28 until June 14th after that they will be off of Route 28 they'll be continuing to work other areas of the community uh primarily Old Main Street Pond Buck Island Road Winslow gray forest and Long Pond so there will be ongoing uh Wastewater construction throughout the summer just not on Route 28 so there'll be a a break for the businesses and our residents and uh tourist the lake along that stretch and contract three is ravoli construction uh there is currently no work happening on that contract on Route 28 or Southshore Drive uh until after Labor Day and but they will continue working on C viw which is a uh short section of uh main that's being installed currently uh we anticipate that they'll tely complete that section uh by June 21st that's a tentative end date for them to take a summer recess in their uh portion of the project may I just quickly ask so that means the road close signs the detour all of those are going to disappear as of June 14th uh there won't be any detours along Route 28 but there will be uh detours or um construction that's happening on other roads 28 but on 28 um as of next Friday uh it will be um no construction orang signs Route 28 that's correct okay so in answer to the businesses the the concern that was raised about the businesses everything be wide open for Route 28 correct thank you great so the remaining contract you saw that map I showed earlier we have contracts for I think I uh let the um message out a little early on that but the bids are due June 27th so just this month we'll know what the bids for that fourth contract are and then we still have contracts five and six that are outstanding they are currently at about the 90% design stage so we're finishing that up we have some uh easement to secure for Pump Station number two uh but that is um also necessary to have those two contracts awarded by October 31st as well so quickly following uh on the heels of the treatment facility contract one uh will'll be contracts five and six uh once we have a better idea of what the budget is uh for that uh first contract I didn't mention this but that is more than 50% uh of our over was overall uh Wastewater phas one budget so it's very important to know what that is and how the other pieces can then fit into that uh that project uh the engineers estimate for the uh treatment facility itself is $106 million for construction so it is a big portion of our budget uh so with that said with last couple of times we've given you update we wanted to highlight this as one of our final slides and that is uh Communications we like to steer people to the Wastewater construction web page that's on the town uh website that's been a good source of information as far as uh the 3-we look ahead for contractors the overall schedule for contracts uh there's detour information there there's a nice handy uh residential information uh piece there and also updating ways daily so we encourage people to use the app ws and that will help with proper routing around construction and arrival at your destination in the most efficient way so even if you know where you're going using this app is very helpful because it will alert you to where there's activity and construction happening uh with that said I think that's really you have a little um item at the very end here you wanted to add Laur I just wanted to add the um water qual the 2023 water quality report is available uh everyone should have received a postcard about it but if you didn't the um link and QR code is there if anyone wants to check out the 2023 water quality report and happy to answer any questions you might have odor immediately comes to mind particularly I have to say for me personally living on Sullivan Road just around the corner from this new facility um where are there any comparisons that we have of of current locations and what the odor situation is like there for like what what we might be dealing with C certainly there's a couple of uh relatively new modern uh Waste Water treatment facilities on Cape Cod the most recent being Orleans a great example of a facility that's up and running and uh you walk through there you wouldn't even you know know there's uh a wastewater treatment facility it's it's the oders are uh well contained and well treated in these new modern facilities and also chadam which is a facility that's a few years older but still has modern Technologies associated with Odor Control um and you wouldn't uh wouldn't know there's any issues no complaints in either of those areas from the neighbors that's when we go and tour of these facilities it's the first question we ask we've actually brought the health uh Department out with us on a couple of these tours uh because Odor Control technology selection was an important process as part of the design process and we've uh we asked the uh different operators any complaints from uh neighbors and there's never been any complaints from these facilities that we're aware of or were reported to us okay thank you ch um I don't think I have any more questions um this this seems pretty thorough and I will have questions the minute you're done of course thank you gra no um Mr chairman um I I just want to uh commend everybody involved in getting this discharge permit together um you know we had some pretty contentious and uh very spirited let's say meetings uh with our legislators and with others um a fairly large cast of people uh expressing real concerns about the delays and the difficulties in getting Clarity on the criteria for this discharge permit it was very frustrating for a lot of people um and there are a lot of folks that should be congratulated or at least commended and thanked uh for the work that they've done obviously our team you Jeff and and our Consultants um this has taken a lot of work and I know some we've had our moments where we've been pulling our hair out of our heads um I know you spent a lot of time with our water resources advisory committee they they certainly deserve some thanks as well um I want to commend our administrator Bob Bob um written hour for uh his leadership on it um we had to be creative we had to be persistent and I think um that leadership from our town team sort of um helped lead the way and obviously members on the board here used whatever contacts they had to to um to get people engaged in this uh I know that uh when when Governor Healey was here uh she certainly heard about it when she came over and did the housing project announcement so we we talked to her we talked to the lieutenant governor and we stayed pretty much in regular touch with our legislators they they heard about this on a fearly constant basis and it was great to see um our team meeting every other week with the EP um to literally sort of work out whatever issues uh need to get worked out uh we brought on a consultant horley Whitten to help us with the wetlands I think this the move towards going to the Conservation Commission was a very smart move so I think um I mean we really had no there was no margin for error there was no slack in the schedule um and I I think some of us were somewhat pessimistic that we we would meet the deadline and hang on to the money but through the persistence and the hard work of a lot of people um this thing this thing came to together so um I'm very excited I'm very pleased uh thanks to everyone involved in this and uh I know I I know it just came down to the wire but uh we're at we're at we're at a great spot here and my hope is is that um you know particularly working with d they're not uh you know I don't think this is a secret but they're not the easiest people to work with I think I'd like to think that we've got some you know we've got we've got some momentum behind us and we've figured out a way to to sort of work these relationships so that we can continue to make progress you know in subsequent phases and some of this other work that we need to do and we'll need their approval on and we'll need their support so my hope is is that um things continue to go well in the right direction and uh if there are any issues there are any problems we get flagged early like we like we did on this one uh when when when folks came to us and updated us so once again thank you uh for for getting to that point it's a great milestone so congratulations thank you okay I'd like to extend my thanks as well and basically Echo Mark's uh sen it's it's put an uphill fight in many respects and it's taken a lot of effort by a lot of different groups um like Mark said at the governor's office the legislators Town leadership staff Consultants uh it's taken all of that to basically get in under the wire even with a tremendous amount of effort you know once we once everything got pass the town meeting we figured we could sit back and take a sigh of relief and you know implementation is a different issue than you know getting the town approval so um what you what you once DPW starts sinking its teeth into you it's uh it's it's going to be a struggle and um but I think we've showed resiliency and the ability to be persistent and um as Mark said I think Bob rittenau um has coordinated that effort and has been Relentless in in resisting you know what I think are some of the unreasonable um requirements that DPW uh that DPW that uh d uh had in mind for this project I think they got caught up caught up in a lot of the theory of it and and got away from the Practical considerations like we only have so much land we only have so much um you know we are in in an area with high water tables to begin with um we can't change our environment we can only try to work within it and I don't I don't think there's enough of a um uh understanding on their part uh of the difficult challenges that we have environmentally to uh complete this system and I I I'd like to see a little more flexibility on their part um so that's that's just basically my take on it so thank you very much we appreciate the update and uh look forward to continuous updates as we go along and if we can help you'll let us know through Bob I'm sure yes thank Youk you um we got another update on Golf Links Court update thanks thank you charge awesome all right good evening good evening thanks for having us I'm Scott Gilmer director of golf I'm Dennis Hoy golf professional for Yarmouth golf um we're excited to bring for you um The Links Course construction update um we're roughly 3 four months into the project and we're moving along very steadily and and we're we have a lot of pictures and we'll explain as as we go along on why we're doing the work and the playability for it so the contract was awarded in February for to Turco Golf out of New York and uh their subcontractor National lawn for irrigation uh we B began construction actually a little bit in February then we got snowed in most of it started in March um we are still on targeted completion date for mid to late June and expect to open the course in July um I know there's a lot of rumors going out there but we are we are on target just a big shout out to our golf course architect Tim garish and hydrogen designs for Designing the um irrigation system int on the master plan so the picture here is some Drone footage at the very beginning stages of the work um we're going to do another fly over next week or the week after to show majority of of the after um it'll be a pretty good night and day of what what is going on out there um a couple of the main highlights is where we did all new HTT piping um which is better for for waste water or sorry reclaimed water to be used um the entire site had no sub surface drainage before we did the work it was all surface drainage and due to settling and other issues with the course it just kept getting bottled up so there's subsurface drainage on every hole multiple locations now to drain the drain the site down um we did also do a further enhancement to take it further off the site into the catch basins to further dry it down um one of the other main highlights is every bunker has been either is is either getting renovated or some have been removed for playability all were high in rough shape Dennis can hit on some of the playability here in a minute um four T's on the long holes into the prevailing winds five six and eight to really help out the beginner golfers and stuff like that because it was a long long holes for them and then the complete redesign to the fourth hole it was very severely sloped if you hit a straight ball was actually going into almost a trans station it was a pretty good problem so we did a lot of Earth moving to bring that hole up to prevent that from occurring and then the just new fairly rough lines as as we move on through the construction project um one of the reasons that we did all this to start with uh anybody that came to play our Golf Course many of the things they ran into uh the conditions of the golf course was extremely wet uh we had done a tour with a lot of you guys uh before the project and it was not draining properly and playability wise it was very difficult to play uh when the ground is saturated like it is or was now when you go out there um it's amazing how much it's dried out just from the drainage they put in already it's going to make it much more playable and it will also allow us to keep the course open more than we did previously so we're going to be able to have that uh all 27 holes running every day of the week which before was not really viable because of the conditions that we're in um as far as playability goes all the bunkers in the golf course were changed reshaped some of them made smaller uh I don't know how many of you play golf but uh what it does it makes it much more playable for everybody when they go out there um and they're much easier to maintain and conditions of them are 100% better uh like Scott had said uh one of the holes that we had out there even if you hit a good shot the way that it was designed initially the ball would just run off into some very deep grass on the right side and it's was a frustrating hole for a lot of people now that that's getting straightened out it's going to make the overall Golf Course much more playable we're extremely excited uh to get it up and running and uh it's going to be a huge addition to uh Yarmouth golf going forward a picture there is the first hole that's actually um brand new bunkers completed uh the irrigation in went in on Sunday and Monday so pretty pretty much this entire hole has been already completed and ready and could fire up pretty soon here um now we're just going to move through some of the main highlights this is irrigation being installed on one of the holes out there um we had a pretty good amount of guys out there doing all this work the main line was all trenched um it's an 8 in Mainline so it had to be trenched throughout um we also had CDM Smith on site doing this to make sure the liner was not hit and then where they're doing the the laterals that was all um drag through and then they were checking each head to make sure the liner was not hit as well CM Smith has been great to work with to make sure that the liner was was never going to be hit um this is the fourth hole um looking back at it that as you can see there's a lot of Earth that was moved into this area to get rid of that slope that's all now been flattened out and that's going to be mostly Fairway to catch the ball so you you had a pretty good straight shot it will now stay there instead of going down into the slope or even across the C path where it used to go so as Dennis mentioned playability wise it should help speed up pace of play and and keep people happy on that hole so this is the bunker re reconstruction um all the flags you see around were actually the shape of the bunker um you can see this one got smaller U that was one of the first things they done out there was to reshape the bunkers they all have the same type of liner we put in at the bayber course from a few years back um and they all kind of mimic the same kind of look to help bring the courses together just some more photos of some reconstruction up by the green we actually removed the bunker to help make the hole a little better um just kind of taking you through some stages of how they do it they pour out and then they do a rough shape which is this towards about 90% of the shape and then Tim Gars the golf architect will come in and do the final shape for them before it gets SED this is the forward t on the fifth hole um again one of the longer holes that plays in the wind felt it was necessary to help lower the yardage to to help face a play and improve the liability we also took a big emphasis on making it a little more fair to play a little better so bunker removal was a big key there used to be a bunker on the left side of this hole and then we're wiing the Fairway over there for for shots to come into the green on the other side of the ho then another big emphasis of the project obviously was drainage it was definitely holding a lot of water so that you can see here they're getting a line into the ground um one of their main lines that we have going out there is going all the way across 5 to three to two and taking it off the site uh it's a 6in train line to take a lot of water off the site um but the four big things were drainage irrigation bunkers and improved playability to the course where it keep he uh reasons for doing the construction Scott can you just go back to that slide for a second yep so let me make sure I understand what you're doing here what what you're doing is it it sounds like the water would sort of build up on The Fairway is that it and it really didn't have any place to go correct so what you want to do is create a drainage Culver or some underground drainage system to move the water out so that it can yeah so the whole place was was built for to take its surface drainage and then it settled over time and then with the liner as well it was just coming back up it had nowhere to go I see so we had to put in some drainage lines underneath to take that water and move it off the site when you say offsite what do you mean by that just off the uh the golf hole we have four big catch it stays on the golf course site though yes okay yeah so we have four Big C catch basins on each don't tell D you taking drainage off site so it stays on the course but just not on playable golf yeah so I would assume that that's probably one of the challenges for a golf course like this with with a liner so it just can't go through the soil it it collects it stays there particularly in certain areas like this yeah so this is a main collection point so we that's where we started to put the big main 6 inch line I think my Mrs Beasley still under there somewhere um this is on hole 8 um that stone wall was naturally was there from the start of when the links was originally built we exposed it back in the project and it's a nice feature of the hole now and that just shows some more of the construction going on with the bunkers so one of the the big things the course had was all the bunkers are very elevated blocking a lot of the green or the shot so most of them have come down to the ground level to the Fairway so it's a much better View for the player to have a shot um like d says we're really trying to proove the playability out there so this is is just showing that that was built up about 15 ft and we brought it way down um and then all the all the fill has to stay on the site so we're making Mounds off the site or moving it to four or seven to better utilize it this is showing the drainage work um and the green is is Fred from CDM Smith making sure the liner is not going to be hit um but they've done a great job to ensure that that was never going to be a problem so all almost all the drainers has been put in almost all the irrigation has been put in they're moving right along on on the project um just a couple before and afters the bottom is the before on hole one the top is the after you can see we significantly reduced the bunkers to make for better playability a better look of the hole and then hole nine as well sorry it wasn't quite the same angle but again we we reshape the bunker for for better playability of that hole as well and then this is hole eight with the finished bunker that was the rough shape of it um just again the same feature to bring the same similar look of the the 18 hole course and the same playability to mesh the golf courses together and just to recap where we're at now one and nine are 99% complete the irrigation is in on both of those holes they both have already done through the major construction two or eight are complete they're finishing up four and seven right now they're working on three five and six the end of this week and into the next and we continue to to get on our Target of mid to late June for completion and then uh opening around first couple weeks of July um the budget we set aside for this was 3 million after approval at town meeting um the bid came in just under 26 we expected a few alternates to the project was is additional drainage some irrigation ah heads um and stuff like that that tot it up to about 27 we had another chunk of money to to do further enhancements to the project um sorry that's hard to see but um didn't expect that to go that little but the other parts we're doing at the same time is the transfer line taking the the reclaimed water from the treatment cility directly to the pond um that will help everybody involved we'll be able to take a lot more water that way um they started doing some piping today for that work um we already had funding set aside for it and then we did the additional drainage improvements which will tend not take the water completely offside just into the catch basins um where it's really going to f further drain and then one of another key features is on the seventh green there was a big depression um with having to keep the fill on site we decided to best reuse it and put it in that area to expand the green to help play playability at whole so those total costs are roughly 138 for that two things so we're at about 2.8 a little over for that part of the work and then to pay um CED and Smith um tank a and and uh Hydro designs will be just under the 3 million for the whole project um certainly can answer any questions you guys might have any questions mark yeah thank you Mr chairman um first of all uh congratulations a $3 million project budget you've come in under budget uh knock on wood I guess um let's hope things continue to go in the the right direction with the rest of it um who designed actually designed this I mean this is a tremendous amount of work goes into figuring out how to manage water and drainage and how to redesign all of this who's who's doing that work for you yeah so Tim Garis the GOL course architect is the main guy that will Design and and look at the training side and then we hired Hydro design as well so they work together to to combat the irrigation and the drainage issues together so it's a accumul effort with our staff as well to to point out the issues and where they're at that's great so it's sort of like a team team work team team process no it's it's it's very impressive and uh I've never heard of Turco before I've learned I think we've learned in yarma that um a success of any project really it a key to it or at least one of the keys is having a good construction firm that you can work with and I would assume that we're we're pleased with the work that they're doing so far right oh yeah they've been great to deal with uh on at least once a week sometimes twice a week the all of us will get together myself Dennis Tim and the crew from turgo and National lawn we'll all get meet to make sure that we're going forward directly on the same PA you know issues arise during construction obviously to make sure we solve those but it's been a great crew to work with and they're they're doing a valous job and and they obviously saw the site when it was really wet and they're very impressed with how well it's draining down now so we're working through it and we're excited to get it back open in a few weeks here yeah no it's it's a great very impressive presentation um I wish you continued success thank you thanks pery yeah it looks great um I don't think you could make a fairway long wide enough for me but um how how deep is that liner how much how much it really depends on where you're at on the site um we've we found it only about 15 Ines down and it's all the way down to five or 6 feet depending on where you're at on the site W so we knew we had to do a bunch of test fits before any of the work happened so we knew where it was low to begin with so those were key areas to make sure they were doing hand digging and stuff like that to make sure they would never touch the liner but they did a great job to expose it to know where it was and then to lay the pipe um CD and Smith was very happy with us to put the the pipe right on the liner they had no problem with that so we got it right to the liner and then put the pipe in the ground to get as deep as possible but yeah there's there's certain parts of the site where it settled or where it wasn't quite high enough to begin with so we we just found it anywhere between 14 inches and four feet really what do you think that this is going to increase your play on this in terms of percentage well what it is currently what we did uh we would open up three mornings of the week we did a back nine start on our upper course and that would be the back nine so we were're able to rotate it so it's going to increase probably 20% the amount of play we'll be able to do on a daily basis so that's great um I know some time back we had an issue with wa with um the calculations of water with our permit how is this going to affect that for our water per yeah directly so our water permit it wouldn't affect our water permit it it affects the discharge permit but we can accept more than what they we just have to take a minimum of 7 million we can take any more than that so this is going to help the number that we can yeah absolutely y so we we take anywhere on any given year between 7 and 12 million and we could take upwards of 20 million now by having the director R and then watering the course from us now directly perfect thank you tarus we had an interesting U wet spring to be able to prove how it was going to work I just want to commend you on coming in under budget and um basically on time so I no questions thank you thank you Joyce oh thanks I'd just like to say that what you've done is create Beauty as well as create well- drained space and I think golfers are certainly going to appreciate that new look thank you thank you thank you I too would like to commend you for coming in under budget and U having the work progressed on a timely basis so the golf course can be more available to the users so great job thank you um so thank you very much for the presentation we're going to move on to beach opening update Grace's Beach reminds me of your photos Facebook still got the trash can right there in front of pictures thank you still bothers me one very recent the trash can right at the end of the boardwalk most photograph Place trash can it's just a pet peeve it's a one of my favorite places time is that 15 so who's up next b beach opening this you gra Beach Mr Colby again what is got all the allstars today is that Jen back there yeah that's Jen what she doing here she's here listen to the finance committee oh she's gonna be part of that conversation okay all right thank you Mr chair uh Jeff Colby Public Works director again good evening again Jeff uh just giv a a brief uh Beach opening update I know it says Grace's Beach on there I have a few things to uh identify for the board uh we did move the Gau Shack back for maneuverability at uh the beach so was a much easier place to to turn around or drop off people which is will be very helpful for that facility uh in moving that there was an impact of some parking spaces so we added a gravel area uh just to the north of that and so there's been no loss in parking spaces at that beach because we know that can be a real challenge some from some of those busy times of the year so uh that's good news for the grav Beach but but one of the things I would like to bring to the the board's attention if you haven't uh already seen there are significant areas on the south side of our beaches that are uh roped off for the plovers and and other nesting birds and that's made a significant impact on portions of the beach that are available for people to use uh as I did want to highlight that uh there are uh eight nesting pairs uh over at Seagull and at least one uh nesting pair at um at Smugglers and we do expect that once they nest that those those roped off areas will be able to be um shrunk down slightly uh but that really is up to Autobon who does the bird monitoring uh as to whether there's going to be continued nesting uh in that area will hopefully completely go away after the birds uh fledge which is in the mid July time frame uh so we could be hitting a period where we are really ramping up for Beach Activity at the beginning of July uh with with somewhat of a limit on uh the amount of people that can use that space because of restricted areas so I did want to bring that to the board's attention uh it hasn't been a problem yet but we're going to get much busier and if we can't get those uh restricted areas um shrunk down to a a smaller size that'll be a challenge I do know I was out there uh just uh this week over at Smugglers and it it feels like it's about half the beach that's that's roped off so that's just something we're continuing to work with The Regulators on that's you know really beyond our control uh with what's uh required that's a relatively new uh item for a number of years we've been dealing with plovers and and um restricted areas over at Seagull Beach but in 19 I'm sorry in 2021 uh the mapping changed to really include all of our uh Southshore beaches in uh potential areas so we're just seeing more nesting areas being restricted um this year and not just at Town beaches but also on private property it's really anywhere along that uh Southshore area where uh the birds decide they want to Nest has to be uh roped off in in a restricted area so just wanted to mention that that's probably a a significant a potential impact this year and definitely a change for some of the beaches that haven't seen it at all are now seeing that um being implemented at at those beaches I do want to highlight that there's some new docks over at the ramp at Smugglers that were provided by the state so those were uh no CA to the town of Yarmouth but I think the boers will really appreciate that I also want to mention uh all of our beaches uh June 15th we'll have them uh gate attendant and lifeguards there full-time and we are uh fully staffed so we don't expect any issues with regards to the the Staffing of the beaches starting at that um every day a week uh period uh on June 15th and going uh to labor day uh I heard earlier tonight the concessions was mentioned we are having a challenge with uh our concession vendors having Staffing or health issues I will say that we currently have a concession at smuggers Beach uh but our other beaches seagull and Parkers do not have a current concession we put we advertise that again this week and hoping to get some responses have opened that advertisement up to be very broad so it's more than just operating at our fixed concession but potentially even food trucks if they're interested so we're really working that to try to get uh service at the beaches uh if at all possible but uh just like the the town is challenged on Staffing I know uh many of the the vendors that would use for that service are also challenged and we're trying to work through those issues and get that uh that service implemented at those beaches as uh the best we can so that's really kind of the update for our beach opening and happy to answer any questions the board might have anybody have any questions mark um yeah Jeff thanks you know when when I've dealt with u beach closure issues in other towns usually it's um the Natural Resources Director and the conservation department that are coming in talking about Beach closures but uh I'm just impressed that this is yet another uh item on your list of things to do your NeverEnding list of things to be on top of and uh God Bless you that's not something I was planning to be involved in you get kind of you know thrust into that um and the expanding areas as I mentioned before that are being restricted are um causing us to react I I will tell our our parks department that maintains the beaches uh does a great job and they are a little frustrated because theyd like to put out a better product but there's been areas where we couldn't maintain uh it wasn't until U just after Memorial day that we could even dig out some of the ramp WS because of not impacting the birds and the nesting so it's been a challenge so much of your work is probably getting direction from The Regulators or others in terms of the areas that need to be cordoned off and then your job is to make sure that those areas are secure or they're roped off or they're properly marked so and the proper signage is there to take care of that that's correct and even to maintain the beaches like I mentioned before digging out walkways or raking the beaches has to be done under the review of a monitor under the regulations that been have been given us by the state so it's been a a real learning experience as it's applying to more beaches this year yeah have you highlighted that portion of your job description for the Town Administrator that's one we're going to have to add yeah that's sound under all other duties as assigned yeah no other questions Mr chairman thank you Tracy je I'm curious uh what the feedback was um since the Grace's beach sticker I missed last year um I know when I had left before there was some issues with um the Lots being full and people driving all the way down there was there any way to do the board on Route 6A I don't I'm I just am curious ious what the feedback was last year uh it's it's become a little normalized if you will now that we've done it a couple of years with charging uh at the beach and we do have advanced uh signs that let people know when the parking lot is full and not and that seems to be very helpful so I will say as last year we had uh very little concerns or complaints that were forwarded and and when they do we try to address those uh but parking has been a challenge there but I think it's gotten better each year that we've uh implemented that fee there but no parking along the road anymore correct okay okay I don't have any questions uh the birds are always an interesting situation for us at the beach uh I might make a suggestion that you and uh Bill benetti and Lori Sullivan might want to get together to put together some kind of video for instance on our town Facebook page that goes out kind of explaining things to people um otherwise they're going to get there and wonder what the heck are these lines all over the place that we can't cross it might you might find it helpful I was surprised when I went to Smugglers this year to see and seagull to see how much is cordoned off shall we say for the birds good idea thank you than oh thanks well presumably all this cordoning off will mean an explosion in Plover population right and then they won't be endangered anymore and you can have your Beach back thank you this is is really encouraging I mean and it helps to know if people ask us about about the beaches to to know what is going on and thank you for yet another appearance I hope you get royalties when this is Rerun okay I don't have any questions thanks for the updates much appreciated great thank you come on come on team next item incom Regional emergency communications bring them up bring them you know I I get the uh my name is Richard Simon I'm the chair of the uh finance committee U yes you are and the real but the real uh people behind me are the ones who are making this happen but I did did want to I did ask uh the Town Administrator to put us on the agenda for tonight uh for a verbal briefing uh at the and just by way of reference because there are new uh members of the select board uh at your minutes at your meeting of April 23rd the U uh police chief and fire chief did present a uh Collins Center report which summarized the opportunities for a Regional Emergency Communication Center uh the Colin Center is uh has done over 30 of these types of analyses uh for over I think it's 84 communities so this is not the first time it's come around um also uh in doing this uh background work we found that Yarmouth has actually been a leader in Regional U emergency communications as recently as 1994 Yarmouth was thus Center the Yarmouth fire department was the center for the entire Cap's Mutual response system so it's not like this is something new it's just different um the reason that I wanted to also come uh forward is to talk about from a financial standpoint uh what are we looking at so the agreement that is before the board uh the intermunicipal agreement which has to be signed I Believe by July 1st so this means potentially your um June 25th meeting would be when you would have to potentially approve this uh so the intermunicipal agreement would uh allow the three communities to move forward with the feasibility study for this particular project it's not a commitment to build it yet but it is allows us to move forward with it and so in support of that at that meeting the board did ask uh the finance committee to review the Colin Center report and to do additional research and since then we've already started that work we met on uh our last meeting was May 12th and we reviewed a number of items that are related to the math behind the agreement so if you think about it the agreement says population calls and cost so the the formulas that drive the intermunicipal agreement population calls cost so we've already started doing longitudinal work on the calls and the population not just looking backwards but also looking forward and so far we don't see any big red flags the cin Center report as presented is a realistic expect or realistic number for the assessments that would be potentially charged we still have work to do but I just want to give you that early head up in terms of cost again the cost we are trying to find comparable cost and I know dorcus went to the duckberry facility the other day uh the chief has been able to get us uh an appointment with the duckberry financial staff and we do expect to go meet with them uh before our next meeting on June 12th to finalize some of those bits of research again we do not expect anything surprising out of that effort but again we're just I just wanted to alert the board as to what some of the steps that we are taking and so that was I just wanted to alert you to all the steps that we're taking we do anticipate issuing some sort of recommendation of what we have found to the select board so that you as part of your deliberations on the 25th but I do want to stress also that our work is not related to the public Outreach which is already being done there's a a separate uh piece of the Outreach uh already on the town website nor are we dealing with the legal issues which I believe the Town Council is going to be presenting to you at your next meeting related to the intermunicipal agreement so I'm just I what I'm trying to do is say we will do our due diligence on the Colin Center financial side any specific questions I would be glad to answer Mark I don't have any questions thank you crazy not yet if I might just make a couple of comments uh Mr chairman yes I did have the um privilege of going to the duck spre Center um for a very indepth um visit and uh they were very open um answering any questions that we might put to them um even taking us up into the actual call center so we could see how it op operates um and uh it was rather impressive we were kindly asked to leave the call center F at one point though for a very good reason there was an 18-month-old baby that was not breathing and um we very quickly left the premises but um in answer to a question that um a concern actually that Kurt Sears brought up during the public comment uh section I too wanted to hear what uh how uh previous dispatchers were feeling about the change over to the regional and was able to um meet with their current um supervisor for the dayshift uh who herself had been at uh one of the towns for eight years as a as a dispatcher before they melded into the regional system and she had since been um part of the regional system I believe for 5 years and um she indicated that she was probably the most against the whole process from day one um highly resistant to the change and that she stood there today uh saying that she was completely of the opposite opinion that it was the smartest thing that they had ever done that um it it changed for the dispatchers their quality of life and their ability to work um and they're having access to all of the state-of-the-art equipment that they needed having the trained professionals with them um the call Senter had uh currently had six people working that day two of them on um police dispatch two of them on fire dispatch um and one of them on they actually man even the regular telephone lines that come into these fire departments and police departments and the reason the rationale for that makes sense too many people happen to call that number really intending to call 911 something I hadn't really thought about so they they actually uh are are overseeing those lines and then there's a supervisor that's covering the floor and they each have their own section of the room but they're all there to jump in and help uh they were explaining that the day before we had been there uh there had been a drowning in Hansen and they were talking about how quickly they could get all the resources in from different towns to help with that situation um just by having the depth of of that number of people um in the room so I personally walked away um from that meeting very encouraged by what I was seeing and feeling that we would now not what we have with our current dispatchers is is topnotch but what we'll be able to have if we transfer to a regional system takes it to an entirely different level and it's not part of our POS our job to talk about the technology per se but one of our committee members uh rapael Gutierrez is involved in ever sources emergency response uh he made an observation again it's not part of the finance committee thing but uh that this is a uh an opportunity for all these towns Yarmouth Barnesville and sandwich to really move the technology to the next level to really future prooof our technology um there's something called uh NextGen 911 as well as the uh improvements in the computer assisted uh dispatch which are literally Beyond probably our capability as an individual town to fully implement or take advantage of and so he said that this is a unique opportunity for our towns to work together to actually future prooof our uh technology for at least the next 20 years so that he was very enthusiastic about it but again outside the scope of what the finance committee per se can say I'd also just just say that um they also voiced many of the same concerns that we had as we went into the room about what it was like when they individual towns were coming on Bo board with this Regional um setup and that the major one that they were hearing is well if I call into this number am I still going to get my firemen from Yarmouth or my my policeman from Yarmouth to come to my house and the answer is absolutely yes that does continue and some say that that as again like in the next gen they have uh the the ability if for instance the Katrina happens that I was talking about earlier of picking up a laptop and setting up within 15 minutes in another set uh location if they have to if all the power goes down Communications is down which astounded me the uh I think the famous example uh and I'm cheating CU I the uh Chief has given me some of these examples uh Fort Meers when Fort Meers was devastated by that hurricane literally they moved 30 Mi Inland and reestablish their Communications uh within hours in the middle of a hurricane just amazing so I would also encourage if any of you have the opportunity to take the tour when um the next one is being established I highly recommend it thank you thank you CH uh thank you for giving us the uh finance committee input on this I confess that I was sold with the uh two chiefs presentation before about uh about how response times would be so much faster and lives might be saved I also was just startled to hear with that past presentation that all the calls were going to one Department dispatch but then would have to be switched if necessary to another um this just seems like it's a whole another level of being and it's wonderful to have the finance committee look in and look at things like the the benefits for the employees and the staff and all that affected but I mean this just seems like a win-win it just seems wonderful Mike I do have a question Mike Mike I do have a I do have a question I know I had asked this question to Bob my my question was about the IMA and um the oped benefits and I think it was Bob's belief that it was outside of um the the budget of the regional Center's budget so those costs wouldn't be allocated towards um towards the service which the reason and the reason I'm concerned about it is and I I I've said the scenario before is like say sandwich got the benefit for 10 years and you can sign on the line and leave and you have no responsibilities why you know do do those oped benefits now get redistributed to um the remaining the remaining communities that's that's what my concern was right so uh that is actually one you know that's part of the Deep dive one of the and Jennifer has been a huge help she's been U communicating with various towns who have implemented these types of systems U and so uh and we suspect that uh the model that is probably going to be used is probably the Enterprise model um yes so can hi I'm Jennifer Mullen I'm the finance director so there's two types of and I'll just be brief but there's two types of um when towns regionalized there's really two types they regionalize on their own and they're a standalone entity so they have their own accountant they have their own audit and they're not really part of a municipal system but with this regionalization it's Barn bondable is going to be the host company the host town the host Municipal municipality and so all the financials will be with bondable and they will give us an assessment and so when you talk about the OPB liability that will be with the town of bable and I don't know how they would assess that to Yarmouth I would think that that might be embedded in the cost of it um that's what I'm that's what I'm figuring I'm figuring the the opb's got to be dispersed to to the overall operation so if you have a town that gets the benefit hypothetically for 10 years how can they walk away without having any ownership to those benefits that they've gotten the benefit of for 10 years so really the way I look at it and it might be just communication I don't look at OPB as a benefit I look at it as a liability right so Bond will hold the liability for OPB nobody really gets a benefit from it um I look at the pension benefits now that's different that's a benefit because when you retire you will get P pension benefits you're not going to get oped benefits um so I think that's the Deep dive on how that part of the assessment will be I know that they'll look at the cost of running the department and those will be the um incidental costs if you will and then that will be and I'm assuming that will be assessed to the member communities based on how what laid out in the IMA right I just want to know what number goes into that because if if there is um liabilities long-term liabilities then the towns shouldn't be able to walk away without having some liability go with them um because I certainly don't want as Yarmouth that redistributed to us and that's what will happen of course this is years down the road oh so you're saying um if the Regional dispatch disperses who's going to take on the OPB liability any of the liabilities liability so um yeah I'm sure that I mean that's yeah that's a I mean that's a good question I can't imagine Barnstable would be in the position to hold the bag on all that why would they I mean if they're hiring three times the number of dispatches to cover other communities why would they do that well I would assume so I would think part of the assessment would be that liability right so I mean the cost of the department they would hold the liability and then if at some point that disperses um how that you know how that would work and I don't know if that's laid out in the IMA or not and that's that's my that's my issue is that it the the what's laid out there is you can sign on the dotted line and walk away okay that'd be great if we were the ones doing that it's not so great if we're the ones that are a partner in that being redistributed to us so you're can right so if the IMA is for 25 years I believe it is but I know that there's some an out Claus of we decided not to move forward with it but if we're fully regionalized up and operating if that disperses and they decide they don't want to do that anymore after 25 years what will happen to those liabilities to the town of Y so that's basically what your question would be not really at the 25 years and even in the first even in the first analysis it's for the first 25 years at some point in time um they they'll get a long-term benefit that will get redistributed somehow and I just don't think the principal is going to be in the position to hold that that's the detail that I know that that is that is the detail so there's a thing called direct and indirect allocations so typically that would be there would be a number of additional indirect cost addendums if you will to the IMA U which would include for example for the Enterprise fund you know the definitions of direct and indirect allocations which if you think about our Enterprises like uh golf I mean they get an allocation of oped right so that's that's that the next level of detail now for this particular stage of the process obviously none of that granular negotiation or detail has been developed yet nor do we have the granular detailed cost that we would have for at you know once we get to that next level so but again I at this point I think we're we have sufficient data uh which will again I'm still reviewing committee is still reviewing but it seems like there's no showstoppers at least at this point right the only other thing related to what Kurt had to say that um in relation to what the Chiefs laid out in their uh presentation was that our dispatchers have to apply for their job and I I think that part of our IMA should mandate that they take we I don't think we should go into an agreement without that being part of it they should have a job period that's that's my opinion I don't I don't think it should be optional right that's all thank you anything else anyone else anybody have a questions mark just a word um while we're on the subject I just want to give you a brief update on some of the public Outreach efforts um we have coordinated between the public safety team and the communications team to um put together their public Outreach Matrix that was presented to the board of selectman I believe at your last U meeting and through involving social media uh the town website that has a whole section now on the regional dispatch um and and also traditional media they began to push out information to the public um seek input direct people towards that uh website and there is a a forum a public form that will be in person on Thursday June 13 at 5:00 p.m. at the senior center and that is going to be a televised presentation question and answer U session to um help fulfill a lot more of the the public Outreach and we felt that the senior center was a great spot um hopefully involve a lot of the you know clientele that visit that facility as well and so we'll continue the public Outreach efforts and and try to spread the word and get as much feedback as we can on the proposal okay anyone else all right thank you I appreciate uh your time because obviously it's an important project appreciate the presentation thank you thank you ra a great point about the 10year walk we got to we got to consider that okay um we have another update on the library Grant application you going to handle that bill sure I also have uh Jane Kane here the library director uh the board should have a memorandum of May 10th I wanted to include that in this update because it shows the entire background on the Massachusetts Public Library constru ruction program process and then there's a May 31st update which is uh at the end of that uh the first memo isn't is remains unchanged from it's submitted to your last board meeting and the memorandum update is subsequent to the actual filing of the grant um the most uh I think Salient piece is on page two of that memorandum where it goes over the timeline for the grant the grant submission is on May 31st the awards are announced in October 2024 grant funding is available thereafter usually these things take some time in Contracting back and forth with the state and then planning and design uh winter 2024 spring 2025 through spring 2027 Town vote to move to the next phase which would be the construction renovation phase would be fall 2027 and in construction renovation 2027 to 2029 possibly 2030 now the key to this is that uh this is actually the grant funding for design and site selection everything else so none of that has really occurred what has occurred is the programming phase and crucial to the programming phrase phase is establishing what types of spaces you want in there who should it serve uh you know what the size of those spaces are there was a original programming done years ago and then it was recently updated by a consultant through a series of focus group meetings and and other meetings to get the programming necessary to facilitate this Grant application that you couldn't do the Grant application without that programming so all that work had been done beforehand and uh at town meeting there were two votes one to accept the legislation for the application and then our except that you were going to file an application and the second one uh was to vote the match the $150,000 uh so the memorandum for the update is page three of your memo that uh and what I've done there is the the unique part about these Grant applications is they want a whole bunch of information that we already have in some form related to finance one thing that's unique with this agency is they do a really deep dive on you know uh how uh much capability does a community have to fund their program how much uh need do they have so in that memorandum on page three there's actually all the files that went to the state there's 41 files the majority of them are Finance information uh so even down to the Capital Improvements plan to show other key competing Capital Improvements and so we can show that there's a need in in in a lot of this regard and uh Jane and her team and the Consultants put together rest of the application the the actual application is attached in its more of a uh table of contents for all the attachments the other key uh to this is that the community I mean uh the way they Design This is to compare apples to apples in terms of how uh somebody cost estimated their building and so the programming is going to tell you roughly here's our square feet and we're looking at 26,000 square fet and so the state has given us a model or a computer model Excel model to then run the numbers to show what the eventual outcome is for the cost of the building and those cost uh vary substant Al but they needed to create a system where across all the applicants they had the same type of cost estimating and so this is how they arrived at that and then this is also how they arrived at the uh subsidy number that would be applicable to U the Yarmouth project so as you can see that Library uh group in the state has some very specific application requirements and that is one of them uh the submitt of all the financial information is one of them so what's in front of the that group right now is everything that you saw in that uh graphic all those files and then also the application that's attached and all the uh studies that have been done to date and they are at the link on the U in the memorandum so the real key to this is earlier in the memorandum one of the things uh we pointed out is this is really two phases in a sense the programming phase is done now you're going into design and construction and there's a recommendation there that maybe you want to look at a different committee structure because when you get into design and construction you're you know focusing on a different topic so uh so I think that uh that's one of the things have recommended in the memorandum and then the rest of is just explaining how the application process moves forward so that would be the update so far Jane uh can tell you the interactions with the state as it relates to the application process they're very good at that agency in terms of helping people move forward and uh to her team's credit they submitted early so that they had the opportunity to have a dialogue with the state before the application date closed any questions yeah we were anxious to get it in not to missed the deadline y we met of the depth of the information yeah that had to be provided and if there's any glitches we wanted to have a little bit of fallback room um but the public should know there's been no definitive decisions made these These are more or less placeholders are they not correct I mean when you submit the grant to your submitting here's all the information we have at this time here's a programming information and if we had this amount of money we could move forward to get definitive information and go through a very transparent process uh with a committee that you know the board uh might see is appropriate for this type of project uh so I think that this what the state wants to look at is is your programming appropriate to your community I and is the need there sign the payroll no I'm not signning the payroll once no I'm all set sorry I can't sign them oh there conflict things oh gotcha okay sorry no it's all right no problem so now next steps would be what to form a new committee with a a focus toward the next step the the next step is your design your site selection and then there's another step and then the getting approval of town meeting uh for the funding for the eventual construction so there's a lot as you saw in the schedule that's in um the end of the first memorandum there's quite a bit of time there uh at which we would you know we're starting in uh May 31st 2024 and we're uh construction renovation is 2027 so you have a three-year period in which you're really going through a process both with the town and the state the state's going to make sure that we're doing all the right things to building a building that's commensurate with both our needs and you know uh cost Effectiveness and programming and so that that programming piece is the foundation it is you know moving forward here's what the ideas are for the building now we're moving forward and saying here's what the design should be in the site and and other more detailed matters so none of that's really been determined uh pregrant application any questions or comments Mark um no given the hour um I I appreciate the update I think what I'm very interested in hearing is how we get to a concept plan and how the Public's engaged in that process and a plan that has a consensus with some significant public involvement that's the that's I'm sure it was maybe it was in there somewhere but uh at some point when when when this comes up again an agenda that's that's the stuff that I want to zero in on uh because there are segments of the community that have been sort of feel that there's a predetermined conclusion or they're somewhat skeptical so we need to really be very open uh and very transparent about everything in this and uh uh I mean there are I mean I I hear about this in my travels and um I don't know if it's permeating Town Hall but I mean we've got we've got to we've got to have a process that at the end of the day arrives at a consensus that the community is comfortable with the plan that ultimately and again we don't the worst thing to do is the the exactly the same thing that we did last the last two times is we come up with a plan someone comes up with a plan and then all of a sudden it gets imposed on people and that's been the suspicion in the community that this you know and and and I would say that some of the people that have come before this board in the past have only reinforced that uh perception so uh I think it's incumbent on us if is to make sure that this process and these steps going forward do that get the community engaged doing surveys is not the same as public involvement and public engagement let's be clear about that um you know there's a need for dialogue there's a need for engagement and so I think again that's the thing that we should really zero in on um tonight's not the night but we should have that conversation soon c i I agree I think we've been we've been round and round um poor Jane um I'm not sure she knew what she was getting into it's been you know the the the one or the or the community satellite uh discussion for many many years and people feel very strongly about it and we've never been able to quite um move Off the Mark so to speak so um there's an awful lot of information in here I think this is a great first step and clearly the community wanted this um but I think it's very important that we listen because at the end of the day regardless of which plan we come up with it's going to cost money and we're going to need the town to support that and I'm not sure we're there yet and maybe Jane has more for another day on some of the consensus that's being built but um I think it's just Mark's point is extremely important because it's Marcus well I agree with what Tracy and Marcus said um I think a key element for this is going to be the establishment of the committee that works with you on this and um I think that we really need to look at having a townwide representation on that committee uh and I'd also make a caveat that no member that was on the previous committee should should be on this committee I think it needs to be a whole new group of people looking at this to help to resolve some of this undercurrent that we hear in town um giving you kind of a challenge there Jane for what to do but um we just need to sell it because Tracy's right it's going to cost us money and we are you know we have an awful lot of other things that are on the docket for us to pay for as well and we're going to need to have found support for it your well I believe that we should have public engagement and a very respectful process where they can see the steps and the Alternatives and have that all laid out I think and I'm usually an optimistic person I think we will never achieve 100% consensus on this because we have our our little Regional Villages and they they you know play tug of war my library exactly is this microphone on yes good evening everyone um I just wanted to say I've had a lot of conversations with a lot of different people through the course of the past year and a half getting to this point um I'm very excited that the application is filed it felt to me like I was writing a big long term paper and I was crunching a lot of numers MERS and reviewing a lot of data and so this is quite an achievement but I had conversations with Bill and I want to thank him a lot for his time he said up to this point essentially we've been studying it like a librarian to see what the needs are for the community what the services are that folks want things like that and now I think it's a good time to bring in other departments and other interests this is the stage where you get a project manager involved to help the project move along you talk to engineers and you talk to people who have building experience and things like that to move it along and I think that's going to help a lot to to give people the information they need to make the right decisions I hope I agree really basically with the comments of the other board members um I think should be a new committee M um and I think it should be uh a primary focus to try to get a public consensus as to what the public wants it's their facility s it's their money um and it's the right thing for us to do and we'll make the ultimate decision but um it'll be based on a clear sense of of community input we're hoping for the best okay Jane I know we have it on good shoulders to take care of that for thank you yes we do thank you thank you we are going to next talk about goal setting for FY 25 you have before you the goals that were developed in for 23 um maybe I'll start with Bob I tell you a little bit about the process we went through the last two years to come up with the um goals and if Mark if you want to join in feel free are we going to work we're not doing this now no we're not we're not going to set any goals now but what what we wanted to talk about talking about what how we did it and so forth so the the last two years um we seem to have had you know built up a pretty successful rhythm in trying to get out of our normal meeting it the the meetings are just so busy everything is is crammed in and it's just very difficult to have the attention and focus on just the overall Global big picture so working with the board we established a a separate Workshop session on a Saturday morning time frame around 9 to 1 p.m. to get offsite outside of town hall and Mike had initially suggested I I think the simpkin school and um I know Mark liked that U simin library we were were the last two times we were in the library they were great a good location y we had refreshments coffee and um obviously it was open to the public but we're pretty much there by ourselves um although you know I I think we all welcome the public but I thought it was the right environment for us to have a fairly open and candid discussion amongst ourselves about goals priorities things like that so I would love to do that again I think that would be an enjoyable the question is going to be can we find a date soon that we can all agree on that we can be there it's important that we're all there of course and and the other thing that we've done that I think has been successful is to you know we bring in a professional facilitator that um has a background in strategic planning and goal setting specifically for um Boards of Selectmen municipal government um and he's got a lot of experience in state government as well Jerry Bruno I know he's he's done a great job helping us Focus he has some very interesting um exercises that help develop consens ensus without uh you know a big debate thing with like you know we use the the multiv voting types of things so so that has been helpful as well uh to to to get the focus to have someone help facilitate it and um you know the the other piece is that I I think the board and this is one of the I think the great successes of of the the board of Selectmen over the last several years is to um you know we took a look at the big picture all of the strengths weaknesses threats things that face us but came up the board was able to establish these priority goals so that instead of having 80 or 90 goals that is just a statement that that you know nothing can get followed up on we've established through this board a series of high priority goals and you know they're mey issues but it really has helped me uh coordinate and work with the staff on internalizing these throughout the organization and we've even got a whole section on our website now that the Department's update that breaks down the goals into specific tasks and says where we stand on on some of those things as well and so I I I think that prioritization thing has been very helpful as well and um I I want to say that in advance of this discussion I I did contact um our facilitator to see his availability and um throughout the you know the rest of of the summer he said he's got really good availability I would I would suggest even though it's tough for for all of us but when you commit to that that Saturday um it's it's really good to have nothing else to worry about for that time except this and then by the time we get out at 1 p.m. heck I I went fishing last year I think after so I didn't ruin my day at all and U but but at any rate I I think to if we could pick a Saturday at a time frame when you know the um members of the board are comfortable it's probably the best way to go let's do it so do you want to do a doodle Pole or some poll or how are you going to how are we going to nail this down but I think what you need to do first and foremost is is to kind of figure out structurally a little bit bigger picture when do you want to do this and then um I I think if we if we generally narrowed it down um I mean one of the things we talked I don't think there's a big lot of debate on that one we should be doing it soon yeah like in the next month yeah and you know the the question came up can I just I'm going to be be a little pushy here are we in agreement that Mr chairman we should do it yeah yeah I think the first thing you do is check on his availability yeah oh we don't know come in with some dates for us I I checked it out and um July 13 is out um but other than that July and August Saturdays are are open so if the board had a preference July July 20th July 20th July 20th what do you think Bob let's get right to it right July 20th how does July 20th look for you Joyce I don't have my calendar here but it doesn't ring a bell for something that I absolutely have to do I think it's a great tentative yes want to say tentatively yes that's the day M shoot for Simpkins works for me and Bob will get all the refreshments sure will that sounds good my only request and I I put this up for discussion um I like the facilitator Jerry's very good um what I would request is I know he likes to do the ice breaker kind of thing in the be I would if there's going to be something like that if we could just make it briefer you know I thought that exercise was a very interesting exercise he gave us some homework something to do we came there we discussed it but it I found I found it um I didn't see it as Jun huh Jun I you know I I didn't find it as but I can see how it can be useful in groups that are not used to working together and being together yeah I think there's a lot of familiarity I mean we've served with Tracy before or obviously Dorcas I mean even you Joyce you're new to the board obviously but you're not new to us we've we've we've we've I think we have a real General Comfort level together as a group so I'm not sure we need to go into the The Ice breaking or that whole exercise to get us all warmed up to talking to one another I think we might be able to whatever that exercise is keep that short and just get right into it relatively quickly that would be my suggestion so sure maybe he can tell a joke and there you go a couple of jokes ice breakers and then let's just kind of get right get right into it I think the goals that we wrote last time were terrific um there's a part of me that would love to know you know let's I think one of the things I'm learning after now being on the board now as long as I have is that some of these things take a lot longer than you really think you know you you you come in wanting to see a lot of stuff done and then you realize that some of these things just take you know a lot of time and a lot of work like we put uh Communications plan um in our last one we want really wanted to make a focus of that and when you think about what we've been doing we've got a communications director there's a Communications plan um and and there's some implementation going on but that's a work in progress that's going to build on it and and um you can already see a difference on the website you know with the with the little news items and everything it's very welcoming yeah yeah um but I think those are the those are the things that we need to sort of sort of maybe we may want to reflect on in this in this exercise to the extent that there goals that we identified before um to what degree folks still embrace them and and looking ahead what more needs to really be done now so did did you show up with your own things and you kind of culminated that or did you start with a fresh I'm just curious I think one of the things that Jerry did which was good is he came I mean we had all this stuff with us but he helped guide the discussion and focused on priorities topics let's hear them and then we put stuff up on you know the uh the the huge Post-it notes and then we all tried and then we all as you know then you put too many things on the Post-it note and then everybody goes around and puts prior you know checks off the priorities so you can find out where there's the consensus and I mean that that seems It's A Creative chaotic kind of exercise um but you know even if we didn't have something in writing in front of us we're always going to end up in those same I've learned that even when you know when you and Eric were on the board we always seem to gravitate towards a handful of things that just consistently sort of dominate you know our agenda so I think whether we have stuff in front of us pre prepared um I'd certainly welcome having just you know having I mean we have in our packet tonight the uh our last year's goals but maybe just having printed copies for us there um because I think I thought I I think the last since Jerry's been doing this I think that i' I found them much more enjoyable before I used to dread the whole meeting on calls setting it was like it was like going to the dentist but I honestly feel there's no no no no criticisms of dentists out there but it was just not it was not the most it was like a it was a lot of Labor it was laborious it was a lot of time consuming uh and I think going in a relaxed environment sort of a workshop type setting where there we can have more conversation I thought that setting was perfect and then the way it was structured was good so um I think also having that third person you know the impartial third person that's kind of there to keep the flow going in the in positive moving keep us going if we get off track they get us back on track yeah right because as you know I mean it's it's very easy to go off on tangents on so many things because we all come to this job with all sorts of ideas and dreams and hopes and then they get crushed right so what you said earlier Mark about one of the things you find out is things take a lot longer yeah um than you think they would that's a really common uh observation of people that get involved in town government they they don't understand you know that the process can go through many revisions or many many iterations or it can be subject to getting certain approvals that aren't coming as fast as you'd like to see them um and it's true I mean things in any level of government right move at a snail's pace they generally do yeah it requires a lot of patience sometimes well just so you think about take a Wastewater for an example all the time we spent on the tri toown uh solution to Wastewater you think about that and all the all the financial consequences not only did you not get a reward but there was a big detriment waiting for you at the end of the tunnel because har walked away and in dentist didn't want to you know do anything at that point and finally we we came to the realization that we had to do it ourselves if it was going to get done well I think what we did was we forced the decision because we forced the other towns to say hey let's uh we need to know by now but I never thought when we get we enter these all these meetings with the two to other towns it was going to have that kind of a result I I never but but never thought of that for a minute the thing that you learn though is that these processes that do take time are important and you have to go you have to go through these processes to get to the end analysis and and it while it is fr rating there when you in retrospect there's always a lesson to be learned in it so like and there's often and not in this case but there's often times a benefit by going through um we never would have known if we hadn't went through it we had to do it there was you know I mean I think that the public wanted us to we didn't have an option it was it was it was a good option at the time and we had to play it out but I'm glad that we got to a point where we had it we basically had it answered for us and we were forced to go in a different direction but the processes are the same but I was going to say the same thing you know Wastewater is in in affordable housing as long as I've been around those are consistently goals and there's no there's no end tighten up finish put it off the thing that's never going to happen it's a it's a process that's always forever going to be at the Forefront of issues that were trying to address I mean as far as probably into the for decades yeah the thing I I would add to unaffordable housing as a as a priority is that it seems like the Situation's getting worse yeah you know what I mean as as the years unfold um I listened to Paul NWI give a presentation on on on housing in the cape economy and one of the things that he mentioned in his presentation that struck me was the huge increase in the short-term rentals um we've gone from last year we calculated 188,00 000 short-term rentals on Cape Cod and that was up almost 50% from two years prior so this is a part of the economy of the community that's just taking off and those are the ones we know about exactly think of the ones we don't know about so that number is probably quite higher so I really think that P Town's on to something with the stien for people to rent year round um I think it's analysis that we we need to look at I think all of those um Airbnb and second home owners are um you know if we could they're all what used to be yearound rentals for families here and you know I don't know what the number is but you know I I watched that with interest in what the dollar amount is because when you talk about affordable housing I remember you know years ago having a fit about $65,000 a unit to bring it down to Affordable and you look at the cost now you're looking at 300,000 per unit so I mean what's what's a stien that you give to somebody who rents short term that that you could get a a unit out of way less than that yeah you know so it may very well be on some of these issues or goals or areas let's let's let's say we want to just for the sake of discussion talk about affordable housing we may actually want to as a group talk about the kinds of things that we might want to assess or analyze or try to make as a priority in that category I'm I represent the board on the Yarmouth affordable housing trust I keep talking about short-term rentals all the time and I keep talking about the need for us to maybe have our own analysis or our own investigation to really assess what's going on here to sort of get between get into the weeds a little bit as as I'm I'm often saying get into the weeds to really find out just how big that number is in Yarmouth and work with people that do this kind of analysis to help us understanding where what kind of impact it's having because I think it's having a much greater impact on our community than we probably really know or understand and I think because Provincetown has done that analysis they're in a position where they can actually come up with very creative and very targeted approaches so I feel like that's a community that's kind of a I don't say ahead of the game but they're further along than maybe some other communities and so the short-term Reynolds when we had the cap and Islands Municipal leaders association meeting the other day um this was the dominant conversation so it's not just us but there may be things that we might want to push on County government maybe the count maybe it's not just Yarmouth that should be getting into the Weeds on this some more but maybe it should be the county as well maybe we should you know because Tracy brought you brought this up at the um at the cap and Islands Municipal leaders Association it's an important topic that maybe we need to also are articulate to some of these other Regional boards um just so that you know I I serve as I serve on the board of the massachusett select Board Association so that gives me a place there where I can speak to Cape issues and and try to get MMA uh more involved um I'm also uh the vice president of the Capen Islands Municipal uh leaders Association I know Tracy's had a leadership position on that group in the past and sometimes being active with these groups is an opportunity to build support among other boards but also work together to maybe get the county or other groups to actually do things more analytical provide more analytical tools to help us tackle some of these things so there may be some value on some of these not all of them but on a few of these where we might want to sort of get into the weeds a little bit and think through what are some of the things that we might really want to push forward on or what are some of the suggestions we might want to think about for future future meetings to talk about so like I I would I would want to you know rather than at our go at at this goal Forum rather than getting into the Weeds on short-term rentals what I'd like to do is make a pitch that this is an area that we maybe bring up as an agenda topic and maybe come up with some suggestions in terms of what we might want to do and and have a conversation as to whether or not other board members think it's a priority um and the thing I've also learned is I like listening I I really enjoy hearing what other people have to say about goals and priorities and um so I think the more we can have a chance to dialogue and con have a conversation about some of these things I think I have the last two times we were able to do that quite a bit and I found that incredibly helpful so the dialogue the time the space for it I know with some of these things you have a facilitator that likes to sort of be a task driver and sort of get people to do this and to do that but I I do think we need to have a little bit of uh flexibility so we can actually you know talk through some things you know obviously not everything but at least some of these things are worth sort of flushing out as a group right I'm going to go to Dorcas our board and committee actions ah yes sorry okay yes uh actually this uh is right in line with some of the discussions that we've had earlier this evening I moved to appoint Amanda Lima as the town of yarma Representative to the C Cod joint Transportation committee this appointment is for a three-year term which will run through June of 2027 second motion second all those in favor I I anyone opposed it passes unanimously I move to appoint Jeff Colby as the town of yarm's alterate Representative to the Cape Cod joint Transportation committee this appointment is for a one-year term which will run through June of 2025 second all in favor I I anyone oppos passes unanimously I move to appoint Gregory wheeler as the town of yarmus Representative to the Barnstable County Home Consortium advisory Council this appointment is for a three-year term which will run through June of 2027 second those in favor I I anyone opposed passes unanimous see move to appoint Joshua Trot as the town of yarm's alternate representative to the county home Consortium advisory Council this appointment is for a one-year term which will run through June of 2025 second second those in favor I anyone opposed passes unanimously and I believe we have uh appointments appointment yeah we have the concom okay I move to reappoint um Ellie Lawrence as a regular member of the Conservation Commission the appointment is for a three-year term which will run through June of 2027 second those in favor I I passes unanimously move to appoint Paul Huggins as a regular member of the uh Conservation Commission this appointment is for a three-year term which will run through June of 2027 second those in favor I I passes unanimously and that concludes it Mr chairman thank you dcas next item is uh upcoming agenda review I'm really excited about this she um I want I want to have a big no meeting on the 18th or the week yeah the 18th June holiday so next meeting is 25th we have yarma scholarship presentation always a fun thing da gallboys is coming in for uh an update um second hearing on the C CND D fees request uh request for endorsement paint stewardship program legislation what is that about um it is um the recycling of paint old paint not just leaving it at the you know they they want to get a a a new law that establishes programs throughout the Commonwealth to help keep paint out of our waste stream for solid waste so it's a gentleman he's got a Statewide program and and he's asked to there's going to be a comprehensive Plan update a Riverwalk Park update those are both for the planning board is the planning board invited for those yes oh yes okay update our links course construction um we need that again going to say we need that we just had a comprehensive that I don't know do we need that no we don't need it we move there's new information that's fine check with him and see what he has in mind on that if it's we put it on in case he was going to be delayed in opening we wanted was so we can strike that is that a yes yes coming in on time and under budget and we're going to talk about um we said we were going to put on your uh discussion of Merit pay based on your evaluations for um 2023 Cor we just put ta Merit pay for now before the other two board members left we do evaluations every year and we did complete them and I got all their input we got all the composite scores we we presented that publicly um he did very very well and um so Dorcas and I were appointed as a committee to look at what we wanted to do i' been I was talking to Bob about it today we'll talk some more and uh address that on the June 25th meeting and that'll be retro back to I think it's April your anniversary date yes some date in April but we knew that the board was going to change and um it wouldn't be fair to have uh members come in here and then you know do an evaluation right away so I we made sure that we got the evaluations done by Dan and U Peter myself Mark and Dorcas oh we just didn't get around as a new member I would have been happy to have him enjoying his Merit raise from April on we uh but he'll get he'll get I know he'll get it retroactively yep well we um you know all everything was public we went through the evaluation in in in depth and um now question just is what are we going to do in terms of the Merit pay okay and and there is a uh there are some guidelines on that that the town publishes based on how well you do and what the percentage should be um so we'll take care of that we got that on what else Regional plan for uh the 911 Regional plan isn't that supposed to be at our next meeting Regional Emergency July 1 deadline yeah but are we going to have a we going to have a we have to yeah yeah we have to have to we have to hear the finance committee said that they're going to go in the weeds and come back to us so we can submit the application by July 1st and that we're also going to have legal consultation yeah they said Jay was going to be involved too right right so um be a long meeting M Regional Emergency we get the fun part in the beginning with the scholarships that's always a good meeting looking at the future the future of Yarmouth yes okay anything else for the 25th I think that's that's pretty full you bring a sleeping bag right anybody got anything else they want to talk about on agenda review no no okay let me move then um individual items does anybody have an individual item they'd like to bring up Joyce here Tracy yeah um thanks to the voters um I hope I serve you well I will try my hardest thanks to Dorcas for switching seats with me I very much appreciate that I couldn't stand it over there and I came in I saw my name tag and my legs were I always had like a little snuggy on her blankets around my legs over there so I appreciate that Dorcas very much you're welcome I look forward to the work thank you Mark uh welcome back Tracy and uh welcome Joyce we're gonna do a lot of good things together so I'm looking forward to it okay great T ministrator consent agenda I move the consent agenda second okay all those in favor I I I anyone opposed that passes by a unanimous vote um and then any updates Bob um yes in fact I had a couple of real interesting things I am absolutely delighted to inform the board that we just received notice of a $236,000 Broadband Grant under the state's Broadband program and we're going to be using those funds to replace the town's inet which is the fiber optic cabling that connects every Municipal facility back to this head for the and you know we have um an inet now that was originally set up by exfinity and it's nearing the end of its useful life and uh this was a a major issue you know we were looking at some serious Capital money we'd have to put out and I I really want to thank Paul chaffy for his leadership as our it direct oh there he is all put this together what a tremendous job and likes to hide Paul stand up stand up and wave Take a Bow that that involves this in working with open cake to hopefully use this money as well to leverage some additional Broadband capacity for this area of the community um and we were just talking about this and Bill's had a lot of experience in this um as well is really trying to leverage a comprehensive fiber optic program for our community to get that infrastructure in place and it's every bit as important as the you know the bridge to Dennis is is to have that fiber optic capacity and um I've learned so much working with Paul the way he approaches these things and um that's a tremendous Grant I'm I'm real happy um about that and so um we're we're going to be you hear a lot more about leveraging that capacity working with open Cape to kind of push them to achieve their mission which we still really haven't um done yet there's a second grant that I was in the cedc uh work plan that they presented to the board um that were working on and it is is tied in a little bit with the it's much smaller program but with some Broadband capacity working with the DNR and bringing that into the packet landing park so that they can do educational programs um for one involving um for instance we have the brand new upweller uh they're working with the school system in to create some space where they can bring students down to learn about environmental issues to learn about the upwelling process and also to have um Wi-Fi there that is at packets landing at packets Landing that people can um access um I will say there are a couple of elements of their work plan program that I did not approve I just approved the um this collaborative working together grant for the um it special access there I there's a couple of things they need to come and present to the board if they'd like to move forward one of them is um the putting up an awning at packet landing park for um I I think it's more for visibility but they say you know for protection to people that might want to go under it but um that to me represented a little bit of an alteration to the um sort of landscape of the park beyond my ability to to you know to approve them but I did indicate look if you'd like to do any these physical improvements that we'll have you in in front of the board of Selectmen discuss the pros and cons and see if they wanted to move forward with that but um um the one part of it I I think is a a real win is that program that's working with education DNR to to bring the technology to that area and hopefully that's the you know the beginning of our overall strategy too to just really leverage more capacity for high-speed internet access in our our specific regions so so that's pretty important um I I was delighted with that that groundwater discharge thing and it has been a bear I'll just give you one um little tidbit you know and Jeff's done such a great job on this but um our team you really have to hit thep like with both barrels between the eyes in order to even get them to to listen to you we we had a meeting uh these bi-weekly meetings today's meeting 19 people at the meeting and 12 of them were ours we we had a team of like the 12 apostles you know and and these are um you know in addition to the the town people there there's only maybe four of us or so this the staff but we've got the you know the project manager Engineers the designer Engineers the hor Le Whitten firm going through every facet to prove to De that you know were the most knowledgeable people on issues it was incredible the process but it's it's good to see it's moving let's hope those bids come in let's hope they come in um we talked about the June 13 Forum um things were a little bit going fast tonight we're going to have um we we have a new Deputy fire chief Captain Scott Smith was here tonight and he was here we didn't get a chance to formally introduce him to the board but um I've spoken to the chief about that we're going to get a formal um introduction as soon as we can hopefully at at the next meeting and I I just want to say I personally participated in you know the days long Assessment Center where we had the professional Consultants come in and develop all manner of the scenarios that we walked these candidates through we had five candidates all internal and you know they were pretty strong there were some very good candidates in the mix that did a great job people that um you know we don't get a chance to see every day like Chris McMahon Mark Abu very talented people in our own department and there's a whole culture shift that's going on over there to just you know better prepare them for for leadership it's it's been tough you know we saw the differences between um who was ready for leadership on the police side who was ready for leadership on the fire side and and things are happening uh things are changing and and I think Scott Smith will be a great deputy chief but um you know they need to bring him in here introduce him and um and he's already as you can see you know rolled up his sleeves and he's been working and he's been with the town for quite some time and um is very well qualified as well and just a couple of little quick things things that you've um worked on and done um we just recently um last couple of days received the approval from the state for the housing production plan which that's critical to get that approval because it protects the Town against the unfriendly chapter 40b developments so I'm having that HPP approved in place um very valuable tool thanks to the board of Selectmen for your leadership on that and one more is the um open space Recreation and conservation plan um has been approved by the state and I know the board of selectman had significant comments on that made some revisions we got that up to the state now that grants us eligibility for some pretty significant grants and some examples of the grants that we get under that eligibility with $300,000 for the water supply Grant um from on you know Higgins croll Road property uh the alsoo 487 th000 that we just received from the Riverfront Park project and and we rely heavily on those programs that are supported through that open space and now that we have that approved the eligibility is is renewed and um I'll stop there those are just some critical things that have happened since our last meeting but things are moving forward on like a million different fronts so uh Mr chairman real quick I I would like to um see if we can schedule another field trip to the uh that Communication Center I think that would be very helpful he's he's trying to coordinate it cuz he he U messaged me so he's got a couple of dates already out there but I asked him to do um like a late afternoon yeah good we'll do because I explained to the chief the other day that my my schedule for June is just filling up pretty fast yeah and I had to apologize because I couldn't get on my email until like two days ago so I only just responded to him I felt bad he probably thought I was ignoring him I wasn't motion to adjourn Mr chairman second second those in favor I I we're journ h