what oh okay extras and then the ones at the bottom I'll leave you p i will step out during your session thank you thank you Mary do you know if there's any bottle of water floating around anyway do you have any upstairs I know gr we're on what good evening there you go welcome to the board the meeting of the armor select Board of April 9th 2024 um this is a hybrid meeting which requires that the following notice be read into the record this is the formally advised that as required by General Law chapter 38 sections 18- 25 and pursuance to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021 an act relative to extending certain covid-19 measures adopted during the state of emergency signed into law on June 18th 2021 as extended by chapter 2 of the acts of 2023 the armor select board will hold up public meeting on Tuesday April 9th 2024 at 5:50 p.m. beginning with executive session and then opening to the public no sooner than 6 p.m. could be a little later than that in the hearing room y Town Hall 11:46 28 South 02664 the public is welcome to attend either in person or via the alternative Public Access provided below and what is below the notice is the public access um for getting on with a computer or by telephone which you can go to the Yarmouth website for that um I'll entertain at this point a motion to go into executive session to to consider entering um pursu to chapter 38 section 2183 to discuss strategy with respect to litigation evolving Blue Sky Towers is that Roman number three I guess LLC 1044 Route 28 South y do I have such a motion so moved give a second okay well those in favor will'll do a roll call Mark um I vote I with the understanding that doing so in public would be contrary to the uh to the best interest of the town in litigation strategy for the town I think that's a determination we have to affirm and the board so finds and and Dan hi and I vote I and dgas I I okay so we have a unanimous vote by roll call to go and do executive service executive session for those purposes and for reasons that Mark articulated uh and and I made findings on as well we are in executive session good evening welcome to the public portion of the select board meeting the armor select Board of April 9th 2024 We Begin our meetings with a Pledge of Allegiance please rise I pledge allegiance 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 okay do we have any announcements announcements I don't I'm going to skip over public comment just quickly and go to the next item we have a lot of uh fire folks here tonight to recognize new hires and promotions and also to recognize those who have served on the department uh but have retired um during during um this this year in the last year I guess it was so first of all we'll recognize the our fire chief Enrique arasu who will tell us about the new hires and promotions within the arm with fire department hello thank you I appreciate you taking us out of order just wanted to get these in before uh these guys have to go on another call so I'm going to start with uh the new hires uh for this uh since the last time we were here um and some of them uh a couple aren't here so I apologize uh but I'd like to introduce you to uh at least four of them here uh Derek lampier is a firefighter EMT he was hired on November 20th of 2023 Derek comes to us from uh Cape cut Healthcare uh and is currently in his last week of the mass fire academy and will graduate Friday uh we'll have him back so you come on up dere yeah just you can uh maybe just hang there until we'll get everybody up here at the same time um Jacob Sullivan couldn't be here with us um he is also at the mass fire academy actually in the the sto campus he was graduate uh I apologize he was hired also on November 20th of 2023 and he'll graduate on May 10th uh and be back on shift at that point uh Christopher sharp is not with us he's a firefighter Mt he was hired uh in December of 2023 uh Christopher came to us from Brewster EMS and the onset call fire department he'll be attending the mass fire academy next starting uh in April Christopher shidi uh is a firefighter EMT he was hired on uh February 26 2024 Christopher comes to us from the east Manatee Fire Rescue uh Department in Bradington Florida uh he began in the fire service in 2015 and Christy Whitaker is our newest fire alarm operator she was hired in November 21st of 2023 uh she came to us from the sandwich Police Department dispatch thank you thank you good evening Mary mowy town clerk I'd just like to uh officially swear in our new uh fire staff if you would raise your right hand repeat after me you'll state your name you will also State at the appropriate time what your position is with the with the town being that you're um different and then once you're done you can sign each of those three papers you'll take the one in the green so please raise your right hand and repeat her after me I do solemnly swear and affirm that I will faithfully and impartially faithfully and impartially discharge and perform discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon Meb me as a alarm operator for the town of Yarmouth according to the Charter bylaws the rules and regulations of the town of Yarmouth the Constitution and laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Mass and the Constitution and laws of the United States of America the United States so help me God congratulations no kneeling thank God my knees couldn't take it CHS yeah make the rounds run theet here congratulations conratulations for thatc CHR thank you so much congratul welcome thank you congratulations no you're not my way congratulations very welcome thank you it's all yours thank you now I guess Chief we're going to proceed to some retirement recognitions yes sir uh unfortunately they've all kind of moved on on us already uh but I'll uh I'll at least mention them I did give some of these comments we had a uh very nice ceremony for uh for Deputy Sawyer and Captain Huck last week uh at station three so thank you all uh that could attend uh Deputy Sawyer uh started with the Department in July of 1997 uh before he came to us he was an active duty for the United States Air Force and crew chief uh on the rescue from July of 82 to May of '92 uh briefly working at West over and Otis Air Force bases As A Firefighter before accepting a position at the Yarmouth fire department Deputy Sher became a lieutenant in February of 20 2007 and soon after took on the role of Lieutenant inspector he was promoted to Captain inspector of March of 2011 after serving as acting Deputy beginning of 20 uh 2013 he was officially promoted to Deputy fire chief on September 11th of 2015 Deputy Sawyer has contributed to the department through his vast knowledge of grant writing and successfully secured millions of dollars of grants for safety equipment training Staffing as well as apparatus so congratulations to Deputy Sawyer uh Captain inspector Kevin Huck uh he came to us from Alaska in 1995 he worked as a commercial fisherman in Kodiak from uh January of 84 to January of 94 he went on to work for the Kodiak fire department until June of 1995 after obtaining his paramedic license he began with the armouth fire department on July of 1997 he was then promoted to Lieutenant in November of 2010 and to captain in July of 2016 Captain Huck has been working as a fire prevention officer where uh he has been dedicated to the town uh in all areas especially education of the public and preventing loss of property and life throughout his many years of service thank you to Captain hu uh and in February we also lost uh firefighter paramedic Ray bombarder he uh worked for the town of Yarmouth for 28 years he was a dedicated member of the department and also had served his country prior as a marine prior to working here with the town so thank you to Ray the board board thanks you for that we have um citations that um we would like to issue to these three um retirees from the armed fire department and recognition of their uh many many years of service faithful service to the town first one's to Jonathan Sawyer on his retirement as Deputy fire chief effective March 27th of 2024 and for dedicated service to the town and it says and be it further known that the ti of Yarmouth extends its sincerest thanks and appreciation for over 26 and a half years of Tyler's service and the arm at the fire department this citation is duly signed by the chair of the yarma select board on behalf of all of its individual members on the 9th day of April in the year of Our Lord 2024 and I signed it on behalf of my colleagues in the board that was that's for deputy chief Sawyer and then we have a similar Citation for Kevin Huck on his retirement as Captain effective March 30th 2024 and for dedicated service to the town of Yarmouth and the citation continues on and says and be it further known that the town of Yarmouth extends its sincerest thanks and appreciation for over 26 and A2 years years of tireless service in the armouth fire department this citation is duly signed by the chair of the Arma select board on behalf of each of its individual members on this 9th day of April in the year of Our Lord 2024 that's in recognition of Captain Kevin Huck and thirdly we have a similar citation to Raymond M Bombadier on his retirement as fire fighter EMT paramedic effective February 29th 2024 and for dedicated service to the town of Yarmouth excuse me and the citation reads and be it further known that the town of Yarmouth extends its sincerest thanks and appreciation for over 27 years see he broke the tip they were all 26 and a half we saved a good guy for the last 27 years of Tyler service in the armou fire department this citation is being duy signed by the chair of the armouth select board on behalf of each of its individual members on this 9th day of April in the year of Our Lord 2024 and I've signed that as well so make sure that they get these and that they the message gets conveyed to them that the board thanks them most sincerely for all that they've done for the town and for the longevity of their careers thank you sir I also oh sorry go ahead while we're here just wanted to also mention that uh due to these retirements and and others uh We've currently made some acting positions at the department I just were worth mentioning at this point uh acting Deputy Walsh uh he was a c he's been a captain uh with the Yarmouth fire department since 2010 30-year veteran of the department uh we also uh have made acting Captain kitla who has had many any stin in that role and has always been very successful uh and Lieutenant uh acting Lieutenant Brian Gro who's getting an opportunity to serve in that capacity so I just wanted to mention that to you as well thank you thank you okay it's always good to hear from the folks at the armed fire department and um I know I speak for the board I tell you we have our deepest appreciation for all the fine work that you do and we're aware of it and um we're happy to have all of you on the department so we're going to back up to public comment I guess anybody have public comment Joyce thank you uh this announcement is being read at all the town on the cape and the vineyard from the cape light compact um the capik compact has uh made a change in its program for nonprofits and it's a change that might particularly affect a lot of nonprofits and churches in the town of Yarmouth um essentially the compact is offering incentives covering up to 100% of the cost of recommended upgrades for qualified nonprofit organizations this includes in enhanced incentives to decarbonize the building such as weatherization and heat pumps and if you have looked at heat pumps you know incentivizing heat pumps that's a big chunk of money um if organizations were not eligible in the past they may now be eligible here are the requirements um in terms of the organ organization's energy effort they have to have received an energy assessment um concerning their headquarters uh the nonprofit must own the building or have a long-term lease um type and age um they can only be a 501c3 or house of worship and they have to have been in operation for at least five years um there's an upward limit on their electric consumption they have to have an annual electric usage for all accounts on the site not exceeding 1.5 million kilowatt hours in the prior 12 months and the active commercial electric account must be in the nonprofit's name as opposed to say a landlord's name so these enhanced incentives are available but here's the thing that might eliminate a few organizations um they're only available for buildings that heat with electric Oil and Propane if you heat with natural gas and you're an eligible nonprofit you go knock on the door of National Grid Accord according to the Department of Public Utilities division of responsibilities um the details about this are all online there's no application deadline it's one of those ongoing programs and the capik compact staff member who be in charge of this is Meredith Miller thank you thank you Joy Carolyn thank you um I just set my timer my name is Carolyn Bernett I could stay here all day and talk to you chitchat with you um but I wanted to come this evening thank you for allowing me to speak um I am here to represent a group um that is composed of multiple towns um our mission is to build an Aquatic Facility uh in the mid to lower Cape region uh we are a nonprofit and um if you care to learn more about this particular uh group it's Upstream Aquatics um but I'm not here to ask that this evening I'm here um first just to acknowledge um Our Town Administrator I have met with you I've heard loud and clear the town absolutely does not have Municipal funds for the idea of an Aquatic Facility I've spent most of the Fall kind of pounding the pavement um and and I have heard you laugh and clear um however uh we have the opportunity I think as a town um it's a very recently submitted ballot question um that has been submitted to the clerk to possibly be on the ballot um simply asking the question of our citizens a non-binding question would you support the building of an Aquatic Facility um I'm at one 30 29 seconds I'm going to wrap up um I think that Yarmouth has the opportunity to be a leader for the rest of the towns the rest of the municipalities which are eagerly interested in pursuing this this Vision um we could point to be a leader of let's just ask the town this question let's take the temperature on what our residents think um I think we have an obligation to take action and participate and and simply asking our residents this question um the whole board I know at least a couple of you personally have definitely supported the recreation efforts in our town and um I'm over now that's 225 um I know that that you care deeply about the recreation but I I guess it just doesn't end in this town it ends in our community so I'm asking Yarmouth if we could put this simply on the ballot this question which we would need your approval to do which we would also need your approval to do before next Tuesday I know it's a timing issue and it might not happen for this particular May 21st election but if it doesn't happen for May 21st it will definitely happen for the warrant perhaps in the fall or maybe even next year I think we're we need to ask the question of Yarmouth so that we have a better pointed answer of we don't have to spend any money on a feasibility study um we could simply ask our residents this question and maybe have uh a true sense of um where we could move forward thank you could we have our town clerk come up please so in terms of the which qu which does anybody have this is this in the specific question in here yes what page on the last page tap where the signatures right before the signatures the long the very last page handwritten up there okay I see it it's it's handwritten all right would you support the building of an Aquatic Facility in the mid to lower Cape region um obviously very very Broad and we'll talk about that in a minute but if this were to go uh on the next ballot with the with the uh override question which I anticipate will probably vote on this evening be on the ballot after time meeting when would when would a decision have to be made on that to get it on with the school override question so when would the board actually have to say yes or no the board based on your current schedule of public meetings you would have to vote tonight tonight to provide my office notice that you intend to put ballot questions on the ballot it is 30 5 days in advance of the town meeting that date is April 16th Tuesday so by the close of business so 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday April 16th I have to receive notice that you intend to put a ballot question on the ballot so for both the for an override question or for this question if you have to know tonight you have to know tonight okay so and what will happen is tomorrow morning I would simply ask that staff provide a a letter the board doesn't want assist it's too much too too much of a rush what is the next opportunity for it to go on so the applicants can pull another request for a ballot question for the annual Town ballot for next year and based on the statute when you say the ballot for next year you mean the annual annual town the annual Town election so they would be able to try again for next year the way the statute is written is that if the board chooses not to act on a petition question and there is more than 90 days in advance of an election a scheduled election then the petitioners can seek 10% of the registered voters within the town armouth to force a ballot question on the ballot again these are non-binding public advisory ballot question so they couldn't proceed with this with what they've got for signatures no it would start it would start they 10% or voters they would have to how many registered voters do we have I would say they would have to start the whole process over again if you don't vote it at this one because there is no this was specifically for this town election there's not 90 days so they can't move forward on the on those they would need to start new signatures again provide another petition for the next annual town meeting if you choose not to vote on it and there is more than 90 days in advance then they can okay seek more signatures when when did you when did you when did you receive this stuff I received that this afternoon it was it was um Miss Bap came and got papers maybe a week ago to pull it out so all right does anybody have any questions for Mary no the paperwork that is together with that letter does I know a little bit about the background of this because I've spoken to Carolyn directly last summer about it um but if I had never seen this before honestly I'm not so sure I know what it meant would would do you support the building of an Aquatic Facility in the mid to lower Cape region what's the mid to lower Cape region y to what I would say that's a question for the petitioner what would you specifically be supporting we are requ how B and how small and how much money you know those are the questions I would have just if I had know nothing about it and that's all the people would know and I'm not I'm not trying to Advocate anything I'm just trying to get some issues out there if the board indeed has to make a decision tonight anybody have any thoughts on that this is my first view of this um first of all let me say Carolyn I I am always deeply appreciative of citizens uh bringing uh suggestions and um ideas like this forward um I did it myself one time it's not easy um and sometimes you face an awful lot of opposition so I really appreciate the fact that you've done this um I guess my my main concern is just timing it's uh it's too late in the game for us to be able to make any kind of knowledgeable recommendations to our population about what it is we're talking about sight uh cost um what other towns might be interested it's just it's a little bit too late at least in my own opinion to try to rush this and not give it the justice and the ample amount of information to the people of the towns so that they can vote knowledgeably because it doesn't help you to put this on a ballot and have people say no simply because they don't know what we're talking about that actually hurts you um so I love the idea that you're doing this um frankly I'm supportive of a a community swimming pool I think it's a great idea um but there's just a lot of intangibles at this point that need to be flushed out a little bit more before we can actually put this at least in my imation in front of the voters so that they have a real opportunity to say yes or no to it um so you know it would be my position that I'm not against it but I just think it's too late in the game to try to push this out uh without more Mark um as Dan I'm sort of in the same boat I just received this and I haven't even had a chance to go through any of this packet of material I guess much of it has to do with the um the ballot procedures and requirements um and so I'm getting this at first blush I I I would agree with everything that Dan has said um and just leave it at that dcus I also feel that this has come to us too late for us to um to go forward for this current election I think that there need to be some more consideration on this um before we would go forward okay uh Peter I I think I think the way it's presented and the vagueness of the question um if it were on the ballot would work against you um again what is what is mid to lower Cape do you have any thoughts on location cost how many people that's going to serve um all all those all those kind of questions and and I know what you're just asking for is would you be interested in it yeah I think I think it's a great idea but what does it mean it's just it's too vague okay resp or no I I'll try to keep my comments very brief I think you've used a word that is appro is vague and I think people if they don't understand something are going to be prone to vote no only because I don't know and I'm not voting for something I don't know anything about that's what the way I would do it if all if this was all I knew about it but like Dian I admire citizen initiative and I like to see young people get involved in government and advocate for things that they want um so I I share that sentiment and I don't want to De incentivize you but I think this thing's Dead on Arrival as as a ballot question I really do um but that's that's all let's hold let's hold the vote until we reach that particular item I'm pretty much convinced what the board's going to do but let's hold it so it's in its right place when we we hit that bid question I think she did want an opportunity to speak to some of that if if you will well she can hang around if you want to with all respect because we're only have public comment right now and I'm just kind of pulling the board because of the time sensitivity and because of the lack of specificity and the notice um we'll get back to you hold your place okay all right anybody else on public comment you got V on the screen where's v v Morris and Christopher gearan also V would you like to be heard on public comment yes can you hear me oh yes even if we don't want to I I can't believe that uh you know this no I'm kidding you go ahead I'm sorry I said I'm kidding you go ahead okay no uh uh what I'd like to do is uh uh make some comments uh uh relative to uh what the town seal committee um uh uh uh presented to you a couple of weeks ago uh uh I was very surprised that uh uh they were uh talking about what the state uh uh was considering doing uh with their seal and what have you in various forms and they forgot to mention that the the the that is a dead issue in the U uh in the State uh Aspire in fact somebody at at one of the the committee's meetings uh announced that some time ago that that that's no longer uh being even considered and why they would be telling you that what the state was had been considering and or not because it is now a Dead Issue the other uh thing that uh uh I was very surp Ur rised uh uh uh was that uh uh they had sought uh opinions from the Native American uh uh leaders I guess or people in certain positions and they finally managed to get a letter from Mr David uh Weeden uh and as I told you I guess it was a couple of weeks ago uh Mr Weeden was his most uh uh uh pretty much I mean really seriously opposed to the whole project and and called it a historical eraser but by taking out the the uh Native American figure from from the seal and uh in fact you know uh he also this is a quote so how do you uh pay homage to those original people that are now gone in this new rendering of a seal you know this this is and so they didn't particularly like that idea the ideas that he was presenting and were I think are excellent comments um and they went further looking further and they found uh Mr weeden's young nephew Brian Weeden who was much more in line with their thinking uh but and I think that he used the a word inclusive uh uh and and that just uh you know I don't understand what this whole project is about how you can take something out of historical context and updated it it it just makes no sense whatsoever and and the the this lady's proposal about the Aquatic Center reminded me that this the whole thing what the seal uh when it came up from the very beginning I would attend some of the meetings and I would say please give us a an idea of how much this is going to cost and they waited and waited till the very last minute because I think sensing that it it is going to be a very rather expensive uh proposition uh and honestly I it's just uh it it's just amazing that they they have carried it as far as they did and put you know looking for getting some kind of approval from that this was of course it was never a a uh something that the Native Americans had proposed doing and to begin with and and and and to carry it this far and and push and push all the time uh now to by take just my own opinion considering that the uh the pilgrims set foot here on on the cape this area here uh I think to have and and the people that they first met were the Native Americans and to take that uh image out of the seal I think is is outrageous and the just to take everything out of context for goodness sakes out of historical context and and and updated that's that's the word I mean honestly uh I just I sometimes feel as though uh that famous uh uh uh painting of of Washington Crossing the Delaware is going to be somebody will come up with the idea to update that one if we're not careful thank you thank you VA you say there someone else Christopher garan Christopher yes hello can you hear me can you hear us okay yes thank you uh well first of all uh congratulations to the retiring five firefighters and to the new hires all the best to them in the future uh second on March 28th the Yarmouth zoning board of appeals denied Harborside Suite motel's uh appeal and found the motel in violation of the 30-day limited stay bylaw unfortunately since then the local media has not covered the story so hopefully Mr written hour can provide us a status report you know based on publicly available information about what has happened since then and um during the you know Town Administrator update later uh later on this uh this evening uh thank you so much yeah I can tell you Christopher that we did see receive communication from the state um official in charge of or or involved in that uh issue and also um Our Town Administrator got a call from lieutenant governor and there is a uh a move out date that we have been given so we'll have a little something at the end on that under Town Administrator updates what I thank you for that and I also want to thank the elect board for taking the uh using the judicial process the proper way to to address this uh and and I just want to thank you again all right thank you evening okay anyone else now Britney dienzo says allowed to talk um I'm not sure if she has a public comment I oh is it I've never seen that but maybe we could Elevate Britney and see if she wanted to talk later or now it's it's just a highlight on the screen you can disregard it okay excellent a disregard it for public comment I've just never seen that tab before all right let's then go on um to approve and approve review and approved ballot questions we talked about um Carolyn Warner's ballot question I notice she has absented herself I don't know if that's temporary or not um but I think the board there clearly indicated that they will not support putting that on the ballot this year with the school override question correct yes yes yes Peter I have no problem with them put putting on there but I I think that they're going to be hurting themselves if they put it on right now okay yeah I I don't think we should do it I think the questions on this ballot aren't going to come back to her they're going to come back to us and they're going to come back to our staff what does this mean well I and our staff and us are going to be put in the position that we have to go back to the petitioner and try to get details as to what this means it's not ready it's not ripe it's late it's vague as Peter said it's it's the best word for it um you can't put this kind of stuff out there in front of the voters stuff you put on front of Voters got to be very specific and they have to understand what they're voting for almost like a ballot question where you say if you vote for this this is going to happen and if you vote for that that's going to happen they have to have that Clarity and and this but like I said I don't like to discourage young people from like Dan says getting involved in the process and I'm always encouraged when I see that um it's just logistically I don't think this can happen so I don't think we need to vote on that do we need a formal vote Bob it just says um if you decline uh you're not forced we need a more formal vote Mary I don't think you do sir sounds like we do I don't think you do you don't think we do okay you're just not voting it to then let's declare that the sense of the board is that we will not put this on the on the um under ballot and leave it at that and put that in a minutes okay because that's my determination after conferencing it with my colleagues on the board and we will not be putting Carin Carolyn's article on but we still got to consider the school article and we have was there a formal motion drafted on this yes and I can read it for you yeah would you please it would be the proposed ballot question would be ballot question number one shall the town of Yarmouth be allowed to assess an additional $880,000 in real estate and personal property taxes for the purpose of funding operational expenses for the Dennis Yarmouth Regional School District for the fiscal year beginning July 1 2024 question mark uh indicating yes or no make it just has the question without mentioning two and a half it just has the number yes correct and that is there's a specific form that the state requires you to use and so we've used the specific goes on the ballot it will say it's it will say it's an over two and a half no it it reads exactly like I just read it and Mary Mary you want say anything I'm agreeing with our With Our Town Administrator it's going to be put on the ballot exactly as Town exactly as Town Council has drafted it with the um with the statements for what a yes and means and what a no means right so that so that part of it um and remember under the special legislation Town Council will draft um a very brief statement what a yes vote means what a no vote means and that doesn't go on the ballot but it's it goes um posted at the polling places okay it's not on the question but there' be an explanation there at the ballot there will I I believe the yes and no I'm not sure the yes or no under the new version goes on the ballot I will double check that but but we are required to put the ballot question and the explanations at each of the polling locations 10 days in advance of the of a question under the special legislation from 2010 I don't expect that number to change as a result of town meeting what if it did the um number has to be done first because of the 35 days so um it would still be it would allow the 880 um say for instance if if the budget wound up being cut um you wouldn't have to raise the whole amount but it creates additional Levy capacity the number was the same correct even if the budget were cedit to meeting that is correct okay so all right how do you feel about that Mark you willing to support that yes Dan I am Tas yes Peter I I support it and I would hope that the Dy school committee gets their budget together okay I would reported as well we need a vote on that we do we need a formal motion and vote make a motion that we approve ballot question one so Dan has a motion to approve ballot question one do I have a second second all right we'll do a roll call on that just to be very safe uh Mark hi Dan hi Dorcas hi Peter I I vote I as well so that's done thank you very much anything that we have to sign off or anything on that or is a vote good enough um I need to do a letter in the morning send a letter so so we write a letter saying on this date the board V voted 5 to nothing in that all right thank you that will do the job thank you very much all right we are ready I guess for the next item which is conservation restriction and Land Management plan for Higgin craw Road good evening good evening so um Bob is putting up a slide with um the location of the parcel that I think everyone is uh familiar with um so my name is Karen green I'm the director of Community Development I'm here with Kelly Grant who now works with the compact of Cape Cod conservation trusts um so back in November of 2022 the town voted to acquire the parcels on Higgins croll Road um that total close to 10 acres it's 9.6 something uh Acres um we negotiated and the Chairman's very familiar with this uh and closed on the property back in December of 2023 um over that time we've been working hard on um just fulfilling all of the different Grant obligations that we have if you remember we have a community preservation act grant for $600,000 we also received a drinking water supply program Grant um because we took the parcel for water protection and that money came from uh the Commonwealth um some of the requirements of those two funding uh programs are that we execute a conservation restriction on the parcels and ALS so that we have a Land Management plan in place so we called up the compact to help us uh put together those documents um Kelly's here to uh do a brief explanation of them and then it would be our hope that the board uh votes to execute those documents we can record them at the registry of deeds and uh we're one step further to being uh kind of completely finished with all of our grant obligations yeah I think I know the answer to this question but are these approvals a prerequisite to getting those funds they are I figured that okay they are makes sense yeah requirement of the CPA funding yes yeah so would you like a little overview of what's in the sure we miss you Kelly welcome hey good to see you um so this is a fairly standard CR document we use the um the state's model for conservation restrictions and um then adapted it to to this particular project so it runs through the purposes of the document the allowed and and um prohibited uses um and um then other than that it's really just the the standard language for um you know monitoring um the the property for to make sure that the values of the conservation restriction are upheld the um the conservation restrictions being granted by the select board through the Board of Water Commissioners to the yoth conservation trust who voted to to hold the CR for the town so that means that they're responsible for monitoring the property annually to make sure that the conditions are are of the conservation restriction are upheld um there's lots of signature pages for you to to to execute for us to um finalize the document and then what will happen is that we'll send the document up to the um state for final approval from the secretary she'll provide her signatures and then we'll have the um can have the document recorded um alongside that is the um Baseline documentation report in the Land Management plan um and this basically is documenting the conditions at the property as they are at the moment um using um GPS locations and photos and then just descriptives of the property and then that will provide the Baseline for the annual monitoring that the yoth conservation trust will will do on the property so um unless you want any other particular detail I'm really just kind of happy to answer any questions that you might have on any of the content of the of their document anybody have any questions or comments Mr chairman yeah um for the for the benefit of the people that are watching our meeting tonight um the history of this particular acquisition is is fairly straightforward um this was an initiative by the board of selectman to make sure that we take added steps to protect the critical Water Supplies in this particular area of the town uh the land that's being acquired is within the Watershed of Municipal drinking water supplies and um The Zone 2 is what it's called but uh it's an important area and the board I think this is is on on our list of accomplishments I think this is one one of many that we're we're very proud of and um I think we KN we knew more or less at the time that in receiving State funds there would be some restrictions of this sort so nothing that's being presented tonight as a surprise nor should it be to anyone um and I'm just thrilled that we were able to make this acquisition and I I want to commend the town staff Karen and Bob for their hard work in pulling this off this was not easy easy it was a little bit challenging in the beginning but we ultimately did it and I also want to thank the voters in the town of Yarmouth because at town meeting this was very strongly supported by the people in town I think it's a recognition that protecting these kinds of Open Spaces are incredibly important in terms of our future uh as a community and so um I think this is a very important night and uh I'm happy to support this uh proposal in front of us do we get any independent review of this by our Council he did review he did he did very good Dan I have no questions I'm supportive orcus very supportive Peter again very supportive and also also want to thank the dasis of Fall River to uh for their very good and clean negotiation on on the sale of this property and it very definitely protects uh the well that's right right essentially right next next door to this this this property thank you Selman stone is as well our chief negotiator we learned a lot okay do we do we have a um we need a formal motion on this Mr chairman I move that the board accept and execute the conservation restriction and Land Management plan as presented this evening for the 10 lots of land located totally totaling 9.68 n Acres on Higgins croll Road second okay we have a motion a second let's do a roll call because this an important vote Mark Hi I hi Marcus hi Peter I chair votes I that's unanimous do we have a um a clean signature page that we can sign in the red file you have it I think it one I have there should be three pages Mike in there in your border select and oh it's in here yeah okay there should be three separate signature pages okay this uh oh everybody's did sign it just waiting for you okay that's done there's three of them there's three of them three there's three here Mike certify the vote here and then here oh thank you Mr chairman while you're signing that may I ask a question I found it interesting that when I was coming down Higgins Crow Road uh this week there is a sign up for land auction north of um this particular property and does the town know anything about that because that is also something that would be um right in the area it was land auction J Manning h i not aware of it I will drive in that way tomorrow morning appreciate it dorcus could you a map roughly where this parcel is located I think where it is is it's um south of the uh of the dog grooming place place the industrial park is that on your map there uh I don't I think that might be further is it further north Kathy it's it's yeah no it's south of the dog park may I ask what's the what the parcel Land South of the dog park is is do I have the pointer on the dog park I would have to take a look Dorcas I can't really oh I I find it very surprising I just saw auction and immediately was thinking of maybe and I think the town did own one or both of these at one point where the pond is I think that's another that may be another croll Pond is it another CW Pond and to the right of um where your pointer is that you almost had it yeah down a little now to the right to the right over there there you are what's that I don't know are you testing me I it it is L is that across the street in the industrial park no this is a residential neighborhood I think Lumberjack Trail did I hear yeah this is anel Hallet right up is this an oh that's midtech drive I'm sorry my bad this is this is oh okay well then we're if if that's midtech drive then the dog park is um on the same side as Lumberjack but come down to the next space over I do you would you like the pointer oh my ey hand my ey hand coordination is awful but how do you point uh the Red Dot the Red Dot there that one this one yes okay is this what's this land right here wateri water department the well wellfield okay and this is the industrial park right here midtech drive yes so that means that the dog park would be I mean the dog um the dog groomer would be over here or would it be this way I mean I I don't know we'll take a look tomorrow yeah the dog the dog groomer the dog groomer is south of south of the property Lumberjack is um that you're on Lumberjack right there okay Lumberjack I'm sorry Lumberjack is south of the property the dog groomer is north of the property and it's the land in between okay I will drive that way tomorrow and there's an auction sign up right now J Manning all right thank you ladies we're ready now for open space and Recreation plant update at all our peeps hello I of you to join us ah what's happening than you good evening whenever you're ready Kathy Kathy Williams Town planner uh with me I have Christine marigliano she's the vice chair of the open space and recck plan ad hoc committee we also have Ellie Lawrence and then from Recreation we have Debbie Clark and then we also have Bill benetti uh who's been an active staff member I'm sorry conservation then also on the uh Zoom we have Anthony Bennett the recreation director and also Britney dienzo the conservation administrator all very important components to to the to the puzzle here um so some of the planning process the Conservation Commission developed an open space and Rec Rec plan ad hoc committee U they wanted to take uh different representatives from different existing committees that kind of represented everybody so we had will Rubenstein he's the chair and he's from the planning board he's not here this evening uh Christine from who's our vice chair from the open space Ellie who's Conservation Commission uh Steve sansy who's Recreation Commission and then gal sheret who is the disability uh commission representative uh we had lots of town staff that are involved that are represented there and we also had a lot of different Communications with um other departments as well and then we were also fortunate to get some funding from the Conservation Commission through the conservation fund to hire Weston and Samson to help us with uh this endeavor so the open space and Rec plan is something that we need to update every seven years and it also needs to be uh meet the requirements of the Massachusetts uh division of conservation services so it's very prescriptive with regard to the information that you need to include in it uh as part of that process we also need to have approval from the planning board the select board and the Cape Cod Commission and final approval from the division of conservation services or DCS we do have those letters from the planning board the Conservation Commission Cape commission and then we also have conditional approval um from DCs so we're kind of looking for your support this evening so that we can finalize the open space and Recreation plan so what is kind of the purpose of it uh as I mentioned we want to be sure that you update it every seven years because it also makes us eligible for a bunch of different grant opportunities which the town has been able to partake in through land waterer conservation funds and park grants both of which we did receive uh for the Riverwalk Park project and it's also a major building block of our local comprehensive plan we just had our kickoff meeting with BC group um last Wednesday with the planning board so we're moving forward with that with that part of um the project so we're really looking what are you going to look at we want to make sure that we're updating the progress that we've made um one nice thing about these types of plans is we have made an enormous amount of progress we have the Cape Cod rail trail we've got the packet Landing pav Pavilion we have pickle ball Courts at flax Pond uh we did the backer Gristmill dam in the fish ladder um so there's a lot of great things that have actually uh happened in the town since the last uh open space and wck plan we also want to take another look at all our community information our environmental inventory and Analysis and as well as all the conservation Recreation lands that we have as well as evaluating what are our Town's current needs and goals for open space and Recreation and ultimately we want to identify specific action items that we can do in order to meet these goals basically for these different components of managing protecting and improving our natural resources in open space and also being sure that we're providing a lot of active and passive Recreation uh for not just our residents but our visitors as well and then providing that framework for for decision- making as we move forward so we had a lot of public particip a and development of this plan we started off in February of 2023 with an open house uh we had an initial presentation and then we had four different topic tables with facilitators to Garner specific input from people uh attending the meeting we also had a winter survey we had 475 responses to that we're really looking at people's opinions of the current open space and Recreation facilities that we have how frequently are they using how well aware are they of all the different things that we have in town and what might be their interests in having for conservation and Recreation ation and programming needs we kind of also discussed a little bit some preliminary goals so we identified used all this information to help identify some very specific uh objectives and action items which were then vetted through the second survey uh that we conducted we developed a full draft of the open space plan and we uh went out for a 30-day public comment period last September uh we also gave formal presentations to the planning board and the Conservation Commission and and we did receive comments from the Cape Cod Commission the planning board the Conservation Commission DCS and then we got written comments from about N9 to 10 um members of the public uh the ad hoc committee met went through all these different comments and then they Incorporated the redline edits that you see uh in the hard copies that you guys received of the open space and Rec plan so one of the first things that we need to do is talk about our community setting where are we in in with regard to our um basically our locations our surroundings our three villages we want to talk about our history how we got start where we started from and how we got to where we are today want to talk about our all of our historic areas that we have uh our historical uh commission actually helped us rewrite some of this section so it be as as accurate as possible we also want to look at some population characteristics our demographics what's the average age obviously we all know we have a slightly older population so that might play a role in the type of recreational open space uh activities that we want to be promoting we also took a look at the growth and development patterns so kind of where are we with our patterns and Trends we obviously have our main commercial corridors on sixa on Route 28 and we're also very heavily residential so there's not a lot of uh open land left for any type of development so we also looked at the infrastructure with our transportation we have three main State highways that go through um the town we are going to have two major projects in addition to the Sewer but two major rout uh 28 mot projects that are going to be coming uh in the near future we also have obviously our sewer project that we're working on and then we also gave um additional information with regard to our drinking water the 975 Acres that are protected again I added the 10 acres from this evening conservation restriction uh our 24 Wells and then our different storage tanks and then we also talked about long-term development patterns you know really promoting more infill and Redevelopment over any type of green fill development and then also using that mixed use so we retain our commercial Corridor while also uh addressing some of our housing needs so we also did a very detailed environmental inventory and Analysis uh we looked at the geology soils and topography unlike some other places uh throughout our our state those are really not restrictions to or impediments to development uh here so we really have been able to develop rather freely based on our geology soil and topography we also looked at our land uh landscape character you 30 miles of of Coastline our over 12200 Acres of salt marsh we have our beautiful Scenic Vistas uh ponds Cranberry Bogs historic areas all of that is detailed uh um quite extensively in in this report we also talk about all of our water resources um our freshwater Kettle ponds all of our saltwater resources our our titled um rivers and tributaries we have all our beaches our marinas and there's boat launches and Mooring so all of that's very detailed in here as well surface water quality we we know that we have some issues with surface water quality that's why we're doing um our Wastewater program um but we also have some impediments that come from storm water as well as uh fertilizers that we need to make sure that we're cognizant of we reviewed our flood Plaines and our Wetlands we obviously have extens Ive number of both of those in our community and we reviewed our existing Wetland regulations we also looked at at our groundwater resources we know with the septic systems and storm water and fertilizer that we do have some uh concern with nitrates but our real issue is pias and we do have that um mobile reusable posos treatment for Wells number four and five which is it operating Lori right now very soon very soon we'll be operating so we're making a lot of progress with that and then discussions of the vegetation fisheries and wildlife not exactly my forte but it kind of talks about the different species uh that we have here in town and then also looking at very specific uh Scenic resources in our unique areas within our community we also looked at our environmental challenges I think we all kind of are aware of this uh somewhat already we looked at contamination sites we don't have an extensive number of contamination sites but we do have the former Town landfill as well and the as well as the Acme laundry we looked at the water resources which might be feeling some um pressures obviously from water quality as well as pressures from development um Wastewater impacts storm water and fertilizer as I mentioned previously uh housing needs we have an extensive housing need in town so is that putting some pressure on some of our open spaces and our environmental resources that we not also want to be protecting erosion and sedimentation and flooding as a Coastal Community those are things that we always need to be thinking of especially with sea sea level rise and as storms may be coming more frequent and being more severe uh in forestry we want to make sure that we're protecting our Woodlands from any type of of excessive development and then environmental Equity really making sure that there's fair treatment and involvement for everyone in our community and that also means access to Recreation and open space facilities we did a very detailed inventory and visited all of our um Recreation and conservation lands um we end up having over 1600 Acres of actively used Recreation and conservation lands including the parks um Fields golfs and and beaches so that's extensive uh number there's a detailed table uh 5-6 which goes over all of those in very detailed uh and describes kind of like the condition of each facility as well as um all the different things and amenities that are available on there uh most frequently visited sites I don't think any of those are a surprised to any of us we all like our smugglers in Seagull Beach as well as um flax Pond Recreation is very important to the kids in the camp grav Beach and bassole Boardwalk Peter Homer Park and and Taylor Bray Farm again we did the inventory the same thing with all of our con eight conservation areas and lands that we have in town and kind of detailed uh there so we developed through all of this information a broad vision statement which really U was relatively simple it was to maintain expand and protect our valuable open space and conservation lands while also providing yearr round multi-generational recreational opportunities to enhance the quality of life uh for our community we did do a rather detailed analysis of analysis of needs uh in our community and I think everyone really felt we needed to actively manage maintain and protect our natural resources in open space as well as improving our environmental resources uh either through studies that we might be doing or planning on doing or specific projects uh expanding our open space for recreation natural resource protection and just the great quality of life that we have here on Cape Cod uh and also maintaining an upgrading amenities at existing open space properties really focusing on projects that are already underway and are already funded or studies that are currently underway and as we get into the action items you'll see that we have a significant number of projects um that are making some very good progress uh we also want to be sure that we're offering expanding recreational programming and we want to incl include that to be year round as well and again uh for all ages and expanding it and emphasizing it into the fall and winter uh when we have less recreational opportunities we're looking to improve our signage and wayf finding uh at existing properties to help people get around once they get in there uh we also want to be sure that people are more aware of our open space and Recreation opportunities I think some some of the things that we found in some of the surveys is not people people were not fully aware of all the great things that we do have here in town and of course we always want to make sure that we're upgrading our accessibility uh Ada accessibility at all of our facilities one of the things that's required um in the open space and Rec plan is to evaluate how does our community uh stand up against communities of similar size and you'll see that we do fairly will very well with our recreational facilities and we're actually above um a lot of the median uh similar sized uh population communities uh around the country I think the one thing I would like to emphasize is like things for like Fields sometimes it was difficult to count Fields because one of a rectangular field might be the Outfield of a baseball field so even though you're counting both of them those two sports can't be happening at the same time because they're conflicting with each other and there's also a lot of fields that are done at the schools through Dy or or the Intermediate School that really aren't available for recreational programs um through the town because they're being used at the same time uh especially things like tennis courts uh that are available at DIY but they aren't they can't be used during the school time and they also can't be used during the uh tennis season when they're in use um by the by the students so compiling all this information we came up with four relatively uh simple and straightforward Community goals the first goal was to maintain and manage our open space and con conservation properties the second was to expand the amount that we have the third is to protect and improve environmental resources water quality and open space and the fourth is really uh emphasizing Recreation by providing that yearr round active recreational opportunities and increasing public awareness of our town-owned lands and Facilities so we took those goals and we tried to develop objectives and specific action items that we could take in order to meet those particular goals table 9-2 uh in the report outlines all of these in more detail and also uh identifies a timeline of when they might be able to happen what the priority is potential funding uh opportunities for these as well as responsible parties who's who's going to be responsible for championing and moving these items forward so the first objective one there is to pursue funding for maintenance at open space and conservation properties so we're really looking as an action item to explore use of Civic organizations or associations americore the scouts or volunteers for specific maintenance projects we've been very successful with using americore and the scouts on certain projects and I think we might have some opportunity maybe for some Civic organizations uh for the Westy armouth Parks moving in the moving in the future the second objective is to develop invasive species management plan the first action item there is pursue grants for invasive species removal on Town lands or water bodies you'll know that notice that there's two such funding uh requests on the town meeting warrant one from DNR and one from conservation uh we conservation also received funds from the tourism Revenue preservation funds also for invasive species management so that's actively underway the second uh item there is to develop educational programs to reduce unintentional uh introduction of invasive species and the third is to investigate and monitor known invasive species areas so obviously we want to um lots of times invasive species are introduced inadvertently or by accident so through education and monitoring hopefully we can prevent them or nip them in the bud um before they become a serious problem continuing with Goal number one objective 1 C is to continue ongoing Land Management activities and the action item is to continue applying for grants for prescribed burn and mechanical vegetation removal and this is something that really helps the wildlife habitat and the native plant Community to to flourish objective 1D there is to continue to enforce appropriate and legal use of conservation areas uh D1 is investigate and address illegal dumping and encroachments DNR conservation do regularly do that when they uh become aware of these situations uh the second action item there is to install signage um such as denoting when hunting seasons are being done at multi-use areas there's some areas like in calerie darling where there's a marsh where there's hunting that's allowed but then there's actually a trail that goes by there so just letting people know that certain times of the year there might be both of these things happening at the same time I believe that DNR also does that as well um item three there is installing the trailblaze and markers to keep people on maintained Trails so they're not going off the trails and getting into sensitive areas and again that's something that DNR is actively doing uh at this time the last one there is evaluate Town Land open for hunting and access assess if any changes are needed based on new land uses the last time the hunting map was done uh and investigated uh was back in 2013 and we have some changes in in land uses on town-owned property we have the water resource recovery facility that's going in we also have the Cape Cod rail trail that's going through some Town owned land so just might be um a time just to take another look at that and see if those Maps um still apply and then we also have additional town-owned land such as the land that we purchased recently on hiin scroll and maybe we can address that in in the um hunting map as well so going moving on to goal number two of expanding the amount of open space and conservation land uh objective 2A is there identify and preserve land for natural resources and drinking water protection passive Recreation and quality of life and Aesthetics the first one and I think Christine is going to take this on I think in open space Committee of taking a look at the annual review of our tax delinquent tax title properties and see if any of them should be designated specifically for conservation or open space or Recreation uh the second item there is to develop a list of properties that we might want to purchase because they have a particular value um like protecting critical habitats where and endangered species Wetlands Wildlife corridors undeveloped or private Recreation land so if a large parcel were to come on the market that might be something the town would be interested in if a if even if you have a smaller parcel but it AB buts of conservation land that might be something that we want to look at and then obvious obviously we want things to preserve our drinking water uh and also salt marsh migration and also if there's any archaeological or cultural resources on a property that we might want to purchase to protect this the the third item there is investigating acquiring a 10.46 acre property off whitew road uh owned by NSTAR this is near and dear to Christine's heart um to this is the property that's located near uh little Greeno Pond as well as the historic societies and the idea of seeing a giant substation there would be would be heartbreaking uh so seeing if there's some other way we can broker some type of trade with NSTAR was is something that would be valuable the fourth item there is to pursue grants and Acquisitions identified Parcels through either donations DEA gifts uh conservation restriction or purchase one of the things I did notice when I went through all of our conservation lands that we do have a lot of those lands were given to us as gifts um so that's something that's good the third uh goal here is to protect improve environmental resources water quality and open space the first objective there is to promote storm water treatment recharge uh and flood control with best management practices and the action item is to continue funding storm water management projects throughout town I think engineering Department's done a great job there's a long list of the different stormw water projects that uh we we have done in town and they've also gotten a lot of uh czm grants in order to do those particular projects uh the next objective there is to explore ways to improve water quality and reduce nitrogen and nutrient levels and the first action item there is really continuing to implement the municipal Wastewater program which is so important um for that goal for that objective the second one is the fertilizer education program that is something that we do now through the ms4 in the spring so we'll be continuing to to do that uh the third item is to assist the Cape Cod Commission on the freshwater initiative develop actions to protect restore the cape's freshwater resources um they've made a lot of progress on this they actually have a cape uh Cod ponds Atlas with an interactive map so you can go to the different ponds and get some general information in the town of barmouth they also are working on a monitoring program and I believe they're monitoring James Pond Dennis Pond and West Sandy Pond here in the town of Yarmouth they've also are working on an economic analysis of Cape Cod ponds like what are the values that they bring uh compared to the the costs of not um of having their water quality go down they've had multiple stakeholder meetings and they're also U some additional ongoing activities that they're working on um the last one item there is to complete the Long Pond study um to assess water quality and health of the pond and impact from nutrients the DNR has hired horley Whitten and they have been collecting data to do modeling of pollutant loading uh in Long Pond and they're hoping to have the report uh in September continuing with goals number three objective is to promote tidal restoration projects to improve tidal flushing and Foster healthy ecosystems uh the first action item there which you guys are familiar with is the um title restoration projects initiated by the friends of Bass River uh for the culverts and to change into bridges of the north Dennis Pond and also the Weir Road uh the second action item there is Advance the Run Pond title restoration project on Southshore Drive the friends of bath Bass River have actually put in a CPA application it's going to be on the warrant uh to have a fund to do some feasibility analysis on restoring that um title restriction number 3D pursuing Wetland restoration projects again the first action item there is not only are they friends of Bass River have been working on a title restoration project but they also want to do a complete uh restoration of the retired Cranberry Bogs and restore that back to Natural uh Wetlands up near hamlins Brook and the upper reaches of the Bass River the third item is helping to identify any future restoration projects and seek grant funding for um wetlands and restoration um I do know that the um the Bay View bog Wetland restoration project is something that's been going on with the Cape Cod uh Conservation District um so is always good to identify future Wetland uh restoration projects continuing with Goal number three is develop Educational Tools and best management practices um I think the more we know the more we can protect our environment uh so the first action item there is to distribute and publicize updated fact sheets and educational materials from czm uh these are very easy friendly very visual uh fact sheets that people can use to to talk about how they can address storm water and reduce erosion on their property next OB objective is to further protection of the Wetland resources through identification and regulation the first action item there is to conduct Vernal pool certifications each spring with the natural heritage and danger species program we have seven of them that have been certified on town-owned properties um since that program began and I believe the conservation administrator is going to continue to work on that the next objective is to further protect Wetlands resour excuse me the action item is update yarmis Wetland bylaw and regulations to expand jurisdiction um and add protection to vernal pools and land subject to Coastal storm Flowage I think you all know that we also have the uh Wetland byaw changes that are also on the warrant for the annual town meeting as well so the next objective is to pursue dredging projects and the action item was to complete the 10-year permit for dredging of Lewis Bay Parker River and Bass River completed last October after I don't even know how many years of effort uh that has gone into that and they have actually removed 7,000 cubic feet approximately of material from the Bass River and Parker River's approach and at the entrances of those channels and the spoils went to um to Bass River and Thatcher toown beach in Yarmouth and then also in conjunction with uh Dennis some of them went to the West um West Dennis Beach as well the next item is to address the impacts uh of climate change so the action item is to complete low-lying Road study and collabor ation with the Cape Cod Commission and Woods Hole um the two two roads that the town of Yarmouth were looking at was the Run Pond Road and also thore Road uh that that Shore Road is currently under design for the cover replacement that's been a long-standing project that's been a problem um and then run Pond I guess was ultimately determined that it wasn't going to be uh feasible in order to make uh any adjustments there but staff is also pursuing an MVP grant for the fy2 action Grant to look at vulnerable public um roadway south of Route 28 to identify whether there's any um actually cost-effective projects that could be done that would facilitate people getting out of that Community maintaining connectivity should there be some additional flooding in those areas number two on number two there is complete an infrastructure vulnerability assessment on Municipal assets and develop a list of highest priorities that has been completed with Woods Hole um they did a very detailed analysis um the good news is that in the near-term municipal buildings that provide um Town services are relatively safe but as you can imagine the bad news is that the highest risks are assets that are water or Coastal dependent so packet Landing Marina Wilbur Park boat dock Grace Beach boat dock Anglewood Beach pier and Swan Pond boardwalks are all acceptable uh moving on with Goal number three um objective concentrate development in suitable areas to preserve meaningful open space promote infill and Redevelopment over Green Field development and pursue natural vegetation the first action item is there to explore various housing types such as top of shop housing and seasonal employee housing within existing developed areas we have do have uh temporary seasonal housing options uh within our Dev developed areas but I think we need to start looking at maybe increasing uh the density allowed as long as it's top of shop again preserving our our commercial uh Corridor on the first level but then allowing for additional housing on the second level the second action item there is to consider amending land clearing and alteration permit criteria to limit clearings of lots and leaving them vacant uh which apparently uh can encourage invasive species and illegal dumping not an excessively problematic problem that we have in Yarmouth but something that we might want to take a look at the third action is to review existing cluster development zoning and consider changes to promote this use um which clusters the development but also preserves uh open space number four is all all related to our recreational uh facilities the first objective is to expand active recreational opportunities with an emphasis on completion of projects and studies currently underway and you'll see that we have about 12 of them that are listed here we're looking to complete the design and construction of the cape cot the third phase of the cape godod rail trail basically from Peter Homer Park all the way over to Barnstable U have a bridge over Willow Street and the railroad tracks it should be going out to bid uh this summer and starting construction in the fall and going through 20 26 want to complete the Higgins craw Road shared use pathway from Buck Island northward to the roundabout the first two phases have been completed and the third phase began in March uh unfortunately that required a lot of utility pole relocation so that's kind of what they're concentrating on now uh but they should be completed with the that final connection through phase three uh in May of 2025 this is another thing that we had on our list but we've actually completed it we have completed construction of the accessible playground and splash pad at Sandy Pond including restroom improvements I believe it was with electricity and and also to automated uh locking doors so we could expand the time when the restrooms would be available to people so this is something when we started it we were still working on it but then we've actually completed it something that's near and dear to my heart is completing permitting construction of the Riverwalk Park boardwalk and event space at the former uh Drive-In facility um We've Ended end up breaking the project into two phases phase one is the majority of the site work including the boardwalk and that is currently out to bid and the uh bids are anticipated to open on April 26th um the second phase would include all of the restroom in that little area on that null um which is being it's bids under a different Mass General law which is more restrictive um so we're bidding that separately and that's hopefully going to go out to bid in June of 2024 we did this hoping that we would get the best prices by separating the workout into two different uh uh compon components all work is anticipated to be completed by August of 2025 this is uh completion construction of the West Yarmouth parks's restoration and pedestrian brid bridge project um as you all know we buil we purchased 275 uh Route 28 the former Yankee Village Motel it was torn down and now we're going to be combining it with Chase Brook Park and mil mil Creek Park and having a 5 and 1/2 acre Waterfront uh Park uh they are having a project information meeting tomorrow Tom night here in this room at 5:30 and also remote uh access if you're interested in finding out more about that project which includes accessible walkways and basic species management and also some low maintenance uh Landscaping complete building improvements um for historic structures the Taylor Bray Farm barn and the Baxter grismill tayor bra Farm they've completed the foundation repairs in phase one uh with phase two contract has been signed for some exterior work to Windows Doors and siding and that work is supposed supposed to be completed in the summer of 2024 the backer Gris Mill we have completed the dam work and the fish ladder work that you can can see there uh but we do need to uh look at different ways of restoring the historic building on the site so some of the other studies that we have out there we do we are looking to complete the recreation Capital assessment and Improvement plan $120,000 was funded for that in 2022 special town meeting uh also we have funding for the M Middle School reuse assessment and during that analysis consider recreational opportunities and programming and maybe even possibly of a community center uh during that analysis um we want to under action item 9 is incorporate sidewalks bike lanes and shared D Pathways into roadway projects including all of our Mass do projects the two Mass do projects on Route 28 both have shared use pathways on the South Side uh of those projects number 10 is evaluate complete Street programs and consider establishing a ped committee one of the things that really uh was discussed a lot in the different surveys was people really wanted to be able to walk and bike around the community a little bit better uh and so maybe developing some type of master plan and how we might be able to make that uh happen uh is kind of what we're looking at in action item 10 there action 11 investigate needs and ways of creating additional year route indoor Recreation facilities programs using public private Partnerships I think the recreation department does that very well now um they will have swimming through the local Hotel hotels they get to use their pools so as a public private we're not necessarily investing in an infrastructure but we do have the ability to partner with people who have that infrastructure another item is obviously we golf is very important in the town of Yarmouth and we want to continue with the armouth golf 5year Capital Improvement plan uh at the two Town Golf Courses at Bayberry Hills and the Bass River Golf Course the next objective here is to expand the use of existing facilities and the first uh action item there is really improving that communication and the information so people are fully aware of what we have uh and also promoting that the second item is evaluating increasing hours of the restroom op operations in seasonality there's a lot of comments about maybe the restrooms closing a little bit too early in the day and also maybe not being out into the shoulder Seasons enough for people um we want to be sure that we have uh addressing our restroom accessibility issues we want to make sure that everyone can use the restrooms uh item four is there complete a comprehensive inventory and map of town wayss to water including available parking and then also conducting A needs assessment at the various public water access points and this is something that's also on the warrant for CPA DNR put in a CPA um request uh to get those items four and five done uh and it'll be voted on at annual town meeting so that is moving forward uh objective 4 C is maintaining and upgrade existing facilities so one of the first things and action items is once that Recreation and capital assessment has been compl completed we might want to take a look at the master plans that were done for fla Pond Sandy Pond and Peter Homer Park and really see if that's exactly what we want to be doing there now depending on what our current needs might be uh item number two is prioritize addition of pickle ball Courts at Sandy Pond people really wanted to have additional pickleball Port excuse me pickle ball courts and it seemed like Sandy Pond might have the place for it but they also wanted to look into maybe doing some tournament play so maybe that's something that that gets evaluated um when a m Keys gets looked at as well um evaluate year year round use of pickle ball Courts at flax Pond I believe that that's actually been going on now they were able to to make that happen uh and pickle Ballers are really looking for some additional amenities such as lights maybe some additional uh painting wind screens and and shade structures at those facilities uh action item three is you know per the updated Master plans just continue phasing in the improvements at those three major parks at Sandy Peter Homer and flax and then the last one there's ensuring that we improve our signage of trails for awareness but also wayf finding uh within a within a facility but also maybe to some other attractions and businesses that people might be interested in going to as well that was a comment that came out of um the review that was done of the full uh draft plan so it was a good one continuing with um objective 4C uh review and improve um Ada accessible water accessibility um by upgrading Moby mats and Moby chairs we have 12 brand new Moby chairs right now we have three available at seagel be three at Smugglers and then there's six that are available um to sign out at the recreation department so that is something that has been accomplished uh number six there is review and improve accessibility at the playgrounds including equipment and services so maybe this might be adding some uh handicap accessible swings and making sure that the surfaces are good to to be able to get to those swings number seven review and improve accessible parking and connections at Recreation fa facilities sometimes the the handicap parking doesn't really give you a nice route to where you want to go so we want to make sure that that's that available to people action number eight is increasing the number of accessible picnic tables benches and other site Furnishings we have a lot of benches in different places that have backs on them which are good but they don't have arms it'd be nice to be have some that have arms on them so people can push themselves up uh on the benches and we don't have um all that many accessible picnic tables in town Believe It or Not action item nine is consider incorporating historic uh an educational signage so that interpretive signage at existing facilities and again including that directional signage to nearby uh attractions and businesses objective 4 d maintain enhance yarmis recreational self shellfish resources so the first action item is continue or increase purchase of seed stock for shellfish replenishment and number two is explore the need for and possible locations for additional Town shellfish upw wellers well there is going to be a new educational and publicly accessible shellfish upweller in Yarmouth at packet Landing with the mass oyster project and they're looking to install that in May correct me if I'm wrong um and the oyster seeds anticipated to be added in late June and early July and they're going to actually have a a kickoff and unveiling of a community engagement event I believe um later in the fall so that is something that would be very interesting it would be more interactive people can actually go up to it and see what's going on with with the upw wellers and the last objective uh is expand programs and activities for all ages so the first item there is address multi-generational needs through cooperation between the town departments I think we already do a very good job with this between the parks recreation and library and the senior center uh they are very interactive with the programs that they have the second item is continue coordination with the schools for Youth and adult programs such as they had to have indoor pickle ball as well as open gym basketball number three um upon completion of the Riverwalk Park we can solicit periodic special events there to provide entertainment for our community and for our visitors an action item for expand recreational program throughout the spring summer and winter utilizing the schools and playing fields in the report there's a long list of the different programs that we currently do and there's also a very nice list of potential future programming that might also be uh possible in town so what are our next steps uh we're looking uh you know for any input that you guys might have on the open space and Rec plan and we ultimately are going to need some support from you in order to uh make our submission uh to the division of conservation services for final approval uh even though we were able to get um grants through conditional approval we can't get all our reimbursements until we have final approval and then of course keep working on all the great action items that we've identified in the open space inter Rec plan sorry it's so long it's a very detailed plan well thank you very much for a very comprehensive report um is there uh a deadline that we should keep in mind for the support letter there there's no particular deadline I think um you know we would we're very close to being done or we'd like to think we're very close to being done uh and we got some good momentum so um we just like to kind of get that off off the plate there and like I say it's also the major building component for the local comprehensive plan so it' be nice to say check that one's done so like the next couple months I imagine with um I'm going to turn this over to the board in a minute I imagine with the um scope of the update plus the specificity of the action items this should well position you for a number of grand opportunities as they come up because it's you know I I Selectmen do that we meet we have goals and then we have action items and it's not as easy to sort the two out as one might think um you know you might be blending objectives with goals and uh it's you seem to be able to walk the line with the way you did it and I commend you for that because I know that's not an easy exercise to perform so having said that I'm going to turn this over to Peter for questions or comments very very comprehensive plan um very well put together and thank you very much and and I use a lot of the recreation stuff in the town and I very much appreciate appreciate them um the signage is an excellent idea and also it would be nice if the signage in the maps could link to things like the phones and the internet and and our and our town website again thank you very much a great presentation thank you Peter dcas there was a lot of work that went into this um and uh excellent job excellent job thank you uh very very comprehensive detailed not only do you have your goals you have your objectives and you even have the action items you've really and as you've pointed out um some of them have already been completed one thing you didn't point out that was in the report that I just have to bring up is um with kind of a question mark is glow-in-the-dark paintt for the pickle ball quartz yeah that's one of the things that was suggested so would they be glow-in-the-dark um balls to go along with the um I'm G let Ellie she's the pickle baller of our group I don't know where that came from they need lights first before they get go but it was incredibly um detailed and I think it will be a great resource material for us there's a lot of in-depth information in there so thank you very much I support it completely yeah I'm exhausted just listening to this I mean comprehensive doesn't even begin to give Justice the work that has been done here um you know we so pleased to see the multiple departments that you've involved in this the multiple staff and just as importantly the multiple committees in the town you know you have really mined every bit of knowledge in this town to make this plan so good so full um it's astounding to me frankly um I I think the one thing that you said that caught my attention was the fact that I think there's a lot of people in town who don't know exactly how much we do have you know just listening to this it boggles my mind um the amount of offerings that we have for every age in this town it's what makes yth so desirable to want to live in and to retire to uh for families for senior citizens so I think you've done an amazing job of capturing that and putting it into a plan and making us accountable for moving forward you know the action items that's exactly it it makes us accountable because otherwise it's just a plan that you put on a shelf somewhere um and it allows us to get the grant funding so um just deep gratitude for the exhaustive work that went into this and the work that's still ahead I'm sure to make sure that uh these steps are are taken and that uh the funding sources are sought out but um boy I I'm proud to be a yoth resident after listening to this thank you I actually learned a lot about the town of Yarmouth myself and I do have to give a shout out to the open space and Rec plan committee they met diligently twice a month for seven eight months in order to get the draft done so that we would have it in time for the park grant for the Riverwalk Park so kudos to them for all their hard work as well as the staff well kudos to you for leading us through this whole project and the consultant we honestly have always been cognizant of that not only the work staff does but all of our boards and committees and commissions we could not run town government without them we could not do the kind of work that we are able to do without them and um they always have our deepest respect and appreciation for that work Mark thanks Mr chairman um I too want to uh uh add to the accolades of uh my colleagues with respect to this report did you have any engineering Consulting at all help yes we had Weston and Samson it was very limited we only had $330,000 so a lot of it was done by the committee and and staff yeah I would I would say that the the work done by staff and by the committee is of a significant value to this effort this is is something that you don't normally see done in a community for for that kind of money obviously you folks have done a lot um so I would grade the report in a but I'd like to suggest we shoot for an A+ uh all right you're going to tell us how to do that I'm going to throw in a few I'm going to throw in a few items that I think we should be thinking about um first of all um just a thought on the pickle ball I agree I agree that there should be a lot of enthusiasm for pickle ball but I've noticed ing in my travels with other towns there's a bit of pickle ball fatigue setting in and so we take need to take note of it and it's settling in in those communities where their pickle ball AR accommodations are near residences all right so my recommendation is is that if we're going to expand pickle ball and try to find ways to provide more opportunities that our priority should be on those sites that are not near residential areas where the the conflicts are the least in that s factor so just I would I would make that recommendation because I I I've heard complaints in other parts of the cape now I thought being from Yarmouth that everybody loved pickle ball but I realize that that's not the case that uh there is there are some detractors out there so please make a note of that um you can do that in a footnote they can they're up for re well I I just think it's while we're doing a plan I think it's worth acknowledging I mean I I I I hope the board shares the concern about making sure that we do these in areas where there minimal conflicts and I think that's something I want to raise um and in the interest of full disclosure um you know I am you know I work for the Cape Cod Conservation District I'm the chairman of that board I'm heavily involved in working with federal and state agencies to bring funds federal and state funds to the cape for Wetlands Coast restoration and we've been incredibly successful over the years money has come to Yarmouth for the Bass River work that's going on for uh the Baxter grismill and the fish ladder there we've had funds targeted to the Parker River Project and there are other potential projects that are certainly eligible and since this is a document that should serve as a blueprint to some degree or at least invite and open the door for other federal and state funds I think um I would recommend expanding where you can the emphasis on the coastal and wetlands restoration particularly with sea level rise uh the need to be accommodating in terms of other um Upland areas or areas that might be appropriate for restoration or enhancement in some way um I'm glad we're going to town meeting talking about expanding our our Wetlands bylaws because I think um this is something that we're just going to have to continually pay play more attention to um the save you bugs um as you know that's a project that I've been heavily involved in and I'm glad you mentioned it but even mentioning it in the report might be a good idea because who knows what additional funding that might bring in um I know I'm committed to helping get that project off the ground but I think there's some other funds uh that can come in here and there is um the district and the nrcs actually developed the plan and they're always looking to update it so Wetlands restoration projects I would encourage you not to be shy not to be bashful not to skimp um but I'd be probably more on the more robust side because right now I mean we've already been able to attract just in the program that I run uh over $100 million in federal funding all right so we were able to secure $30 million to get the Herring River restoration project off the ground in Walley that was our money that got that going and started that off and then State money came in after it so sometimes when you have one partner stepping in and making a commitment sometimes you'll have others tripping over themselves to participate as well so again this being a document that's very helpful in funding there seems to be a fairly um ample amount of funding for these types of projects so I would recommend maybe beefing up the section in the coastal and Wetland restoration um and also fish ladders I I know noticed that um we didn't identify any and I I would like to maybe take another pass at that another look at that fishways fish fishing Recreation is incredibly important uh in in Yarmouth we have a lot of people here who come here uh it's one of the values in terms of the uses of our ponds not just for the importance of water quality and ecological Integrity but also boating and fishing um I see it a lot in my neighborhood um but I also see it a lot in other parts of the community um and again fish ladders are projects that do get funded so I think working with natural resources to identify other we' got two new agreements yeah don't be sh all I'm saying is don't be shy that now is the time to load up Bill um where you can any other projects that are that can be identified that would be my recommendation yeah we as you know Mark we have the two new agreements with nrcs for um the fish ladder at the Long Pond Dam and um Tom Matthews Pond which we have a conservation easement on through the rotten Gun Club property all I'm saying Now's the Time where're the these windows of opportunity for federal and state funding often don't last long so now's now's the time for us to be greedy and uh make a full full court make make clearly identify all of the areas where even we have my potential projects I know there's been a lot of talk about the town Brook area and doing more restoration work down there I would I just I I'm saying is don't be shy um the final area I want to talk about is is um golf um I watched with some degree an intense battle in the neighboring town in barnable when developers saw an opportunity to develop a golf course into a fairly overdone Housing Development now we know we need housing we know we need to develop housing and affordable housing but what made that particular development compelling to some and attractive to developers is that apparently the Cape Cod Commission development guidelines don't look at golf courses like we do we see we talk about golf on our open space plan right we talk about the importance of golf we talk about the importance of that as a form of recreation but apparently the Cape Cod Commission does not View Golf the way we do and other towns do all right so I'm not suggesting that there are developers out there looking at our gol courses and looking at ways to entice development activity but I do think that we need to in the back of our minds be cognizant that development and trust in these particular Parcels as land becomes scarce is high and I would recommend that we be mindful of that and um consider tools uh to address potential development maybe the acquisition of I'm not making specific suggestions to be incorporated in the report but I I think we need to be creative you know do we need to be thinking about development rights and acquisition of some interest in property so that at least we can maintain some some of the conservation values that these areas represent because this was at the heart of the debate at the Twin Brooks development I mean they were essentially putting a massive Housing Development on a swamp that was developed in a swamp and wetlands that was converted to a golf course and then now was seen as Prime development property so talking about like a deed restrictions something like that yeah I think I'm all I'm saying is you folks do a great job I'm just sort of putting that out there as something to give some thought to because I am very concerned about golf courses on the cape uh being uh converted uh to developments or the attractiveness of it because you had this beautiful Golf Course Twin Brooks and now all of a sudden we're seeing developers uh fighting over it and uh and the again what made it attractive is the Cape Cod Commission in terms of their development guidelines because they don't look at golf courses like open space like we do it it makes the development of those areas very attractive and so what that means is that the the standards for review and scrutiny are are a lot uh more let's put it this way they're very permissible all right well I know the town owns some some properties that have deed restrictions for recreational purposes only perhaps we have to look at the Deeds of our golf courses and see if there are they have deed restrictions I think you're talking about private golf courses yes yeah yeah and we don't need to go into the details on that but I think you know what I'm referring to so to sum it all up I think this is an a I got a few suggestions Mr chairman where I think we can go to an A+ um I think they're very reasonable I'd be interested in hearing any qu comments you might have about some of the suggestions that I've presented Christine or if you if you decide to adopt Mark's suggestions I suggest that you try to do it early so we can finalize this and get our letter in cuz you know otherwise the committee can get discouraged the think can drag on and 6 months later we're having an update I think it's ready to be finalized and I'd like to see it get finalized can I just add one other point um the other area that I I do think we need to pay more attention to and I've mentioned this before is the mil Pond Marsh area that's north of the Bay View bogs that whole Wetland area that is Town conservation land uh that is right next to the town of Barn's Municipal Water Supply right they're pumping a significant amount of water from that area um I still have a photograph when I was a kid or postcard of the Treasure Island gift store does anybody have seen those with the moat in the front right remember the old days there was a moat in the front and you can take boat rides in the back well there's no water back there anymore to take boat rides so at some point that we need to do some kind of assessment we'll need to do some kind of analysis to find out what can be done to at least sustain or enhance some of the resources that are there because I think my own speculation has been that the water development the water supply is just taking an enormous amount of water out of that entire system but I do think it is conservation land it should show up on some one of our Maps somewhere because I don't see it in our inventory whatsoever there is a very detailed um public lands map that uh is contained in appendix a okay what you see in here is the active conservation and Recreation lands but all of the town-owned lands uh except for things like Town Hall you know um are included in that in that Matrix yeah but I would I would make as a recommendation if if just to consider a recommendation is at least studying maybe a potential CPA funded initiative to study and assess the ecological resources that are there because could reference that document yeah and say other conservation properties that aren't included here can be found in this yep other document I think I did mention that under table was it in there okay yep but you're right it's very detailed in the appendix but again I think you did an outstanding job I really want to commend everybody on this committee I think you're um fantastic well done thank you so much I agree so it sounds like maybe we should take these ideas go back to the committee see what tweaks we want to make and then maybe could we just come back through a consent agenda or would you want to see us again consent agenda be fine okay thank you thank you so much thank you so much thank you Bill thank you thank you thank you welcome welome thank you the next time we're going to ask for a lot more money we are ready for Water waste waste water water Waste Water waste waste water update chef and Lori are going to do that yeah no did you notice in your packet you got a waste of water thing M you on zo I just saw it here it wasn't in the other packet yeah I mean you got to you need a magnifying glass but at least it's a start really ever that so I'm assuming this was Bill benetti that did this right hey on the town all right Mr chair I think we're ready I think you got some info for us on the state of the Wastewater yes absolutely we're continuing a theme of water quality from the last couple of agenda items uh my name is Jeff Colby the Public Works director um joined here by Lori rosala our water and wastewater superintendent and we'd like to give you some information with regard to our very active Wastewater program uh just an overview of what we're going to talk about we'll talk about uh the Water resource recovery facility you heard about that in our previous uh topic tonight already at least that it's under uh it's in process and then we'll talk about the collection system contracts 2 through six and then the groundwater discharge permit which we've been having regular discussions with d on there's a lot of interest around that topic and then our Communications plan that's continued to uh evolve and we've built upon that we have some information to share with you about that uh program uh just a little bit of background uh for those that uh might not know what's going on with our uh Wastewater program currently the six contracts I just referenced in the overview are shown on the slide that you have on your screen uh contract one being the uh water resource recovery facility we'll go into some detail about that that's the the treatment component and then there's the six contracts that are uh five contracts that are collection system related that are shown in colors on this slide here just for background purposes so contract number one I'll turn this over to to Lori to kind of walk uh the board through the various contracts and the status of those okay so contract number one is the water resource recovery facility which is been in a bit of a holding pattern since November um when the plans were um completed for the for the treatment plant um as we wait for um approval from the state to bid to give us the advert the permission to advertise um Jeff can talk more about that part later but um so we do at this you say we're going to come back to that yes the delays and how those are getting addressed talk about that yes underground water discharge we'll talk about that um but um we have gone we've started the process again we do hope to bid it at the end of May so to do that we've reut out our RFP for prequals so that's available now that we have a lot of people interested and um we did it once before so um we've been able to contact all those companies that did the preall before and we'll hopefully get bids on all of those um in due May 3rd um and then those people who submit that will be allowed to bid on the actual treatment plan um so just go to the next slide um this is just um the layout of the treatment plant so the building on the left is the water current water department uh so this whole facility will be in that field that's behind the water department um the the hashed area is the sequen sequencing bat reactors which is where the real treatment takes place they're big tanks um where most of the wastewater treatment takes place the building right next to that is the processed building that will house some offices and as well as you know Maintenance Shop um it has the blower room and different um aspects that will help with the sequencing batch reactors um and then at the end of the treatment process is the dinitro nitrification and then UV fil UV um for disinfection back up closer to the water department is the headworks building which is where the sewage the raw sewage comes in and gets an initial treatment then it'll go over to the sequencing B reactors and then the sludge um comes back to the building next to headwork so there's several buildings on the site um this plan hasn't changed since the last time we were here um and actually I forgot to mention the final is those four squares to the right is where the affluent um drying beds are so that's where the groundw is just it's discharged back into the groundw um the next slide is just um a 3D view of the process building at the top those B sequencing bat reactors uh as well as the denitrification building at the bottom there Mr chairman I have a question just on this slide um is there going to be the ability at a treatment plant like this um to deal with pasas or is that something that we need to deal with on the front end with our water supply principally I guess what I'm getting at is we're getting reports that pasas laced sludge is being sort of difficult to dispose of in a number of states and so communities are wrestling with what to do with sludge that has pasas in it and are are having challenges finding places so I'm just curious in the design of our plan are we prepared is that a design issue is that something that we need to deal with in the design or is that something that we deal with in some other process or in some other way that's a great question that is something that we have a space on the site to deal with and that's up in this area here where abouts John right here this is just open space currently it's not part of the current design but as part of our groundwater discharge discussions which we'll talk a little bit more about in the future slide uh there is the potential to have to add some treatment components to that posos is one total organic organic carbon may be another uh Advanced uh disinfection may be another and there is plenty of room on the site for that to happen up in this area it's not part of the current design uh but if we are pushed in that direction we have the ability to do that in the future that's great thank you um so moving on to contracts two and three we have Broken Ground um both ceremoniously and in in actual uh construction um that picture there is the first manhole of the Yarmouth Wastewater collection system um it was installed on sell Shore Drive uh Bob in the hole yeah that's me yeah um are there namings on the holes the manholes that we name usually right it's a Forefront of things any any one of you could claim a manhole um the second manhole has been installed on Route 28 so um we're making progress uh so we can go to the next one um so contracts two and three um are underway um we have contract two is the contractor is Robert bow um you can see the current value of the project we started the project with a change order due to the delays on both projects so you can see what our current contract values are and they both are scheduled to be complet in 2026 so contract 2 just as a review is um Route 28 and Old Main Street so the section of Route 28 that is in between Old Main Street uh for the most part not quite getting to the Bass River intersection um contact 3 is Route 28 from the Parker River Bridge to um about Skull Island is probably the easiest Landmark um as well as cell Shore Drive and C viw AV um and one thing I just wanted to touch base on is the traffic um so far the only closures on Route 28 has been one lane alternating traffic for the contract 3 which is near Parker's River Bridge um starting tomorrow Robert hour is going to be closing the road to do their work on Route 28 uh so that is from Old Main Street to Forest Road is going to be completely closed um so uh traffic will be detoured around those areas uh the contract three location doesn't have a good detour so they are have to maintain a one one lane of traffic but all Route 28 all of Route 28 needs to be reopen by 5:00 p.m. every day um and all of our uh road closures are updated in ways so that if people are traveling through Yarmouth they probably just want to turn on ways um when wherever they're going even if they know where they're going just to know the best route what's it called again w w a y s w a z e yeah it's owned by Z yeah it's owned by Google how many people in the audience know what I was it's owned by Google so if you use Google you'll get the same information are we are we using that in our Communications to get word out to people tell them to use ways yes okay thanks before you leave that slide Mr chairman just a quick question uh I I I very much appreciate you putting the the dollar figures on this because it's important for people to see just how significant these commitments are um question for you Lori and Jeff is is um with respect to the engineering estimates how how close are the engineering estimates have they been with the actual bid prices uh both of these for contracts two and three were approximately 10 to 20% over the engineers estimates we did make some adjustments in the overall project uh so we know that we have $27 million been approved for phase one so we made some adjustments in the overall project to accommodate that for contracts two and three as we bid out the other contracts we'll have to see if the engineers estimates are solid or closer to the estimates or if we'll have to continue to make adjustments does it raise any red flags as far as you're concerned in terms of the estimating and the the bid the bids is there I think it's an that's a very good question I think it's an environment that we're in every every community that I talked with is is in the same situation that uh cost escalations have continued and are continuing maybe not at the same Pace that a year or two ago we were seeing but they're still significant especially when you talk about uh contracts that are 18 or 19 or $20 million uh just a 3% uh change is a significant number so there are numbers that we're trying to get a better handle on but we're seeing that uh across the board other communities are dealing with the same issues when they open we're not alone in terms of what's happening on the on the estimating is is there too much work going on is that what it is a supply and demand situation where contractors are in a more advantageous position these days than I think that's a component to that uh but we're seeing even uh issues related to the supplies so not just the labor but the pipes and the stone and uh pavement cost those have all been continuing to increase so we're not we're not really concerned about the quality of the estimating that goes into preparing these projects uh as we U get more information in the estimating will get better um you know some of these estimates are from a year or two ago and prices have not uh stabilized as much as we'd like to see but it's something we'll continue to work with thank you okay so moving on to contract 4 that is the contract that's right at the Bass River Bridge that that intersection uh we originally had hoped to do that with mass do but they have been delayed so we are moving forward with just the sewer portion of that project on our own we did receive approval from D to um advertise the project so we hope to have that out to bid in the next month or so um and that's just a small project at the intersection the water work that we want to do with that just as an aside will leave with the mass doot project to be able to realize those savings um with mass Do's project for contracts five and six this is the two contracts that are west of Parker's River um five being Parker River to Higgins coll Road and six Higgin coll road to the Barnesville Town Line um those two uh they're also a Mot project going on there but that's not until the 2028 tip so once again too late for us so we'll have to move forward with those um on our own um they are mostly designed these were the projects that had been previously designed back 10 years ago so there's not too too much to do there um we do have to work on the easement for one of the pump stations um and the um there will be a pump station at the River Walk Park um that luckily we've already had some perming done but there may be some redesign going on with that as well um so if if we were going to add a year or so I mean what do you think the cost increase implications are of the delays uh we're seeing continuing to see three plus percent increase per year so that's there and then now we're seeing the what you said 15 to 20 then some of our projections go as high as five uh from a a year-to-year basis I don't think we estimated it as high as five but I think we saw some real numbers that were 5 to 6% increases per year uh but currently we're expecting that um construction increases are still in the 3% range it has stabilized a little bit but even 3% is a is a big number on these types of projects 3% on a big number is a big number yes so if you were putting a number a dollar figure to the big number and the year delay what are we talking about for the for for uh a year delay I would say that uh we're looking on the overall project uh that our cost impacts are uh potentially as much as a million dollars a month wow so I guess it would be 10 to 12 million on a Year's delay wow that's incredible total total for the full $27 million project yes so we can write a bill to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts do you think Mr chairman direct that to you maybe we should so those two projects um we still need authorization to bid those um but we do need to have them five and six you mean yep we we still need to have those uh awarded by October 31st which is an extended deadline for srf assuming we get the extension um so those do need to be bid in um you know this summer um in order to continue receiving the srf funding is the srf funding in Jeopardy we still sort of on the on the edge well if we don't make the deadline it is but in our discussions and this is probably a good good spot to transition our discussion to the groundwater discharge permit uh D is well aware of our deadlines we meet with them every two weeks we've talked uh that through with them I'll let them know that May 29th for an advertisement date for uh the Water resource recovery facility the treatment uh facility contract one uh is a date that we have to make in order to protect that srf funding uh they're well aware of that they've indicated they'll work with us to to make that happen as of uh this week we still don't have uh as of today in discussions we still don't have authorization to advertise a permission to advertise for that but I believe we're getting closer with every one of our meetings and discussions with them uh what I will draw your attention to just to kind of cover some of the Jeff what sure what do they have to be satisfied with to give you permission to advertise what's what's the holdup uh issue there uh the currently the most significant component is uh potential to impact Wetlands that's what their uh major concern is it has been um for most of our meetings exactly it's the groundwater mounding where the discharge happens and that potential in the um the highest discharge periods for that to have a mound that could potentially travel and impact Wetlands as U you're probably well aware the 99 Buck Island Road Road Site has Cranberry Bogs uh mostly abandoned Cranberry Bogs but some active uh towards the West as well as the north but mostly abandoning cranber boxs to the East and the South and those are the areas that they're concerned about uh making sure we don't have any negative impacts too uh we've done a significant amount of modeling uh through our consultant team which is CDM Smith right Pierce is our owner project manager uh the other item I wanted to highlight on here is uh is just horley Whitten uh which is this last bull that has been added to our team uh to analyze that uh potential impact mentioned that before and they've been very helpful in our discussions F from Sandwich absolutely right they're well respected with regards to Wetland um delineation and impacts and how resistant different species within the Wetland community community is to those uh potential changes and fluctuations in in water table and it is important to note that we're really talking about a water table that is only in the highest flow periods and for a limited period of time uh but as we've mentioned all along this is DP is a very conservative group and so they kind of take that highest level and ask us to analyze that highest mounding level as what that impact might be so bringing that um environmental consultant firm on board has been a huge help in our discussions with d thank you uh so what I do want to say is um you've seen some of the these updates on this groundwater discharge permit the first three or four but I'd like to uh draw your attention to just the discussions we've been having about alternative discharge locations so what's become clear is that 99 Buck Island Road uh is our primary discharge location as it has been all along uh but we do need to seek other sites uh in our next best site is the Bayberry Hills Golf Course and we've been having regular discussions with our team as well as Scott Gilmore here about the use of treated effluent at that uh facility and that has some great promise to it but again it has the uh analysis that needs to be done associated with it to see that there's no impacts negative impacts to Wetlands that are in that area as well so we're being uh we're needing to look at that for just phase one we we knew that we'd need alternative sites in our you know big eight-phase program at some point but what we're seeing with these discussions with the is they need to look at other sites even for just our phase one flows uh between 99 Buck Island Road and that Bayberry Hills Golf Course are very promising to handle most of the flows as long as we can uh justify those no negative impacts to wetlands in those areas to and meet um D's address D's concerns about that uh another up update that I want to bring to the board's attention is uh since last time we were before you uh we filed the notice of intent with the Conservation Commission uh to get them involved and bring them to the table and have their input as to the impact to Wetlands issue uh and they've were very receptive to our first meeting uh We've continued that uh meeting uh in order to get an order of conditions from that process until May 2nd so May 2nd we will be meeting again with the Conservation Commission here uh locally in Yarmouth to get their support for a adaptive management plan for 99 Buck Island Road uh which is just a series of monitor Wells and uh delineations and um uh both for groundwater as well as surface water elevations and uh plant Community monitoring part of our adaptive management plan uh monitoring plan that we're looking to get their approval on so that we can uh satisfy DP with regards to that Wetlands the way DP is structured is they are very reli on the local commission the local um representation in order to uh permit things such as construction or in this particular case uh groundwater impacts I mentioned horley Whitten already uh in the last um exciting piece of news that I want to uh mention to the board is I had mentioned that we applied for a nitrogen sensitive area Grant previously but we were just notified by D that we received that so we're getting $70,000 from the Commonwealth uh to continue this analysis uh with regards to uh the groundwater discharge permit as well as some uh preliminary work with our Watershed permit so they've brought some funds to the table for us to continue this work uh and we are happy to receive that so those are the highlights with regards to groundwater discharge I I did want to mention I think you you heard from uh the Town Administrator previously uh another encouraging piece of our discussions is that they are starting to draft the groundwater discharge permit so we know that they're working on that uh they're just not ready to release that to us but uh each one of our discussions uh I truly believe is bringing us closer to actually getting that permit issued if only is there any questions or comments or thoughts on that before we questions or comments leave this slide just on the uh the Bayberry Hills um second site do plans engineering all of that need to be developed for phase one in order to incorporate that or how does that work because that wasn't initially part of the uh phase one good question the short answer is yes we need to develop plans with regards to where that water gets used is it just simply put in an irrigation Pond that then gets spread uh on the golf course through the regular process that we do with the current treated water from the septage facility and irrigate the the cores or is there some type of um subsurface component uh that needs to occur in order just to infiltrate the large volume of water we expect to have to um discharge and and it's probably a combination of both but the short answer is that yes we need to continue to develop plans um we've been very uh active in in keeping um the golf Department uh aware as least as much aware of the uh developments as we are and they are currently dealing with a project to uh increase the size of a transmission main for the reclaimed water so that will be helpful in in our process uh but the bottom line is we're still working through what all those requirements will be with d we don't have all of the parameters if you will but once we know those parameters we will have to do some additional design okay I I have a followup on your question I mean if it's okay um what's the likely cost of an additional facility to handle and you know this this this now this new discharge location it's not going to be cheap right it's not going to cheap but I don't think we can Venture a guess as to what that might be and My Hope certainly is we'll be able to use as much as possible for irrigation purposes and not have to build significant infiltration uh at the golf course but we just don't know that yet we just don't know that but that's something I think in the next update or at least at at the appropriate time I I think that's information we definitely want to what I'm concerned about Mr chairman is that between the delays caused by the state between what's happening in the industry industry in terms of cost increases and then these add-ons that are coming in forced on us by the state because for whatever reason they didn't look at these issues the first time around when they looked at our plans and approved them now we're having to deal with this that you know after well this all adds up and the reality is is that um no one's giving us any extra money for any of this stuff this is just additional dollars that we as a community are going to be on the hook on and I think I mean I think that's a topic that we need to discuss you know at a future meeting is is accounting for some of these add-ons and then figuring out we'll need to explain I think to the voters you know how this is impacting the project because obviously there are adjustments that are being made in the project in order to make things happen so um areas that we wanted to sewer I would assume we're not going to be sewered or we're not going to be collecting sewage from certain areas in order to so some of these areas are getting changed and modified now we haven't even had the time to even talk about those modifications and what we've done to fall in but at some point I'm sure at a future meeting we can get those particular items on the table to see how the dimensions of the project have changed um but what's happening in terms of financing is significant and it's something that uh you know we need to continue to be a breast of I appreciate the the briefing today but the costs um are are clearly significant and something that we need to be very mindful of there's not much we can do we're sort of um as a former selectman Bud gosr said you know that you know we've got you know almost a gun to our head so to speak I'm not going to bring out a gun or anything please don't but no the point is is that we're under a lot of pressure and um and you know I com I commend you for uh and our team our entire team for you know just being aggressive on this stuff this is a very very difficult job and I I think you folks are doing an incredible you're doing incredible work on behalf of the town so I want to thank you for that but uh I do want to revisit some of the added costs later on and how the project has changed in terms of its scope and terms of aspects of it because at some point we got to revisit that right yes absolutely we have restructured some of the contracts to add uh alternates so that those alternates could be removed if the bids came in high uh we've done that actually with the uh resource recovery facility we have some alternates that are in that bid when we do get permission to advertise and go out to bid that the plans and specifications are completely done on that but we've structured it so that in case there are um unexpected um High bids we could you know pull some things out um not ideal uh but they are components that we could deal with at a later point if we needed to uh same thing with the collection system there's certain areas or or streets that could be uh you know put on hold at this point while we build the backbone of the system uh again we we'd like to get you know the entirety of that phase one area done but uh if we um have to you know make some modification to get most of it done that's you know what we've been doing so far and uh we really don't know what the next piece is to um significantly modify the plan until we get that treatment facility out to bid and get the numbers in for that that's more than 50% of the overall cost and we can't just keep uh doing small pieces of the collection system until we know what the real ele in the room is if you will of the treatment plant cause so that's really what we're pushing hard to get the permits to get out to bid on that because once we have the big piece of the puzzle then the smaller pieces excuse me the smaller pieces will then be able to know where they fit Jeff if if just a hypothetical question I don't know if you can even answer it but if I the shake out of all these phas won contracts they exceeded the funding of the 207 million srf funding would the state still fund up to that amount or would they require you first to show that you can get that other money by an appropriation or some other measure we'd still need to make an appropriation at the local level but there is the process within the srf program to amend um costs if you will and we've seen that in other communities they've come in with a you know $25 million request that ended up after they went out to bid being $30 million so there is a process there is a process to amend uh the requests and it um you know we just need to go through that that process uh again that would mean needing a local appropriation and permission to do that uh but there is a a way to adjust those it's uh not ideal but there is a process in place to make adjustments based on cost increases hopefully that won't happen but right we don't know yet but once we get some more the contracts out toward uncertainty right right well if there's no other comments on this we do want to um highlight before we go on the on the permit are we reasonably I mean Bob and you have been cautiously optim Mystic that will be able to get through this has anything changed Bob B did you want to add anything no I think you know Jeff um has presented it um extremely well um I I've also been in on every single one of these meetings we I you have that's why I asked you the question it was October and you know um it is a little vexing dealing with the D on this issue we go to these meetings there's 16 177 participants D alone has um six or seven of those and you know each one seems to be empowered to bring up whatever issues that that they would like and and it almost seems that there has to be like 100% consensus on their part to move everything forward and that's never the case this will never be a perfect project but you know I I would say in my humble opinion the issue of um you know using the discharge of this effluent right that has already been removed from the water table as water right through our pumping Wells to restore that to the aquafer to call that an alteration of the Wetland I think it's a stretch of the wetlands act um and you know normally these alterations of a wetland are from um encroaching on the Wetland developing in a wetland um filling wetlands in in this case were really restoring the Wetland so we do have a little bit of a sense of frustration but I think that with horley and Whitten on the team now and some of the work that rght Pierce is doing um it's it's really becoming clear that the um impacts to the wetlands are not so detrimental as it was initially posited by the D the um specific habitats are not the type of endangered species habitats that are at any uh risk whatsoever so the farther we go along the technical route the more it becomes clear that from a scientific basis that there does not seem to be um alarm with respect to to handling of of of those Wetlands with with this discharge now the points of the capacity and I mean that that's a a very critical point the lower the capacity that they're going to give us the more money we have to spend developing new sites and and and that is going to be um a problem um but the U you know the the the key point and and we've discussed this I think in extreme detail and we've been very aggressive on this is that um they are acutely aware that we have a deadline that we've worked back from where we need to make that contract to to put the project out out to bid and um you know to today we review that in exceeding detail so um they indicated they're going to do everything that they can to get us on that date and we're going to we're going to push for that and you know we've um had you know the governor's office helping us we've had you know some of the D Boston people helping us but um you know they want to let that process for these analyses of these Wetlands um move along and and not have it interrupted by our side but I I will say this is is that this entire issue you know we've committed to this collaborative process and we're going to continue to stick with it but they it they do not have a methodology that will completely end this with at at a finite level um and you know by by May 29 that there will be ongoing analysis and adaptive Management program that needs it's going to extend far beyond so um a lot of what we need is U some type of faith on behalf of the D that this project should move forward because um after after the next um you know month and a half you know it'll be basically you know canceling the project if they don't allow us to move forward so uh based on everything that they've told us we feel they're going to let us put it out to bid but um they're never going to be 100% happy with with the level of detail because the data does not exist you know to um to provide a complete 100% guarantee doesn't the wetlands protection act really address more incursions into Wetlands from other areas as opposed to taking water out of these areas and returning them with much lower nitrogen content I mean I don't see how you can consider that an incursion into a wetland area it seems to me that it's an improvement of a wetland area well and and that's our position that that what we're doing is improving the overall water quality and improving the health of wetlands uh we just need to convince D of that yeah I I don't see the logic of what their position is I just don't no and it's it's frustrating because um uh sometimes you hear things you know when when we address specifically right the lowering of the water table from the pumping to the water supply Wells you know um again it's not D it's this um group of scientists you know they everyone gets to say whatever they want and and you know when one of them will say well you know uh it it's been drained for so long that uh if if you restore it that that will alter it and and so you know it's kind of you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't either you're restoring it or you're going to try to protect this um depleted State and but but we feel that the science is on our side and um our team at horley has been real clear on this and so we're hoping that cooler heads will prevail but um and don't they and when do the analysis aren't they losing sight of the big picture as to where are we without the mediation oh no it's worse than that starting point right they're risking the entire environment of the cape right if we're prevented from doing this project because it's not you know 1,000% perfect on um you know what happens in in every single groundwater analysis that means you're throwing out all of that environmental Improvement the problem with the cape has always been his water wherever you turn I mean that's the cape that's the hydro geology of the cape yeah that's our challenge yes okay all right so we want to highlight for you as well and this is the last slide we have I don't know if you can advance that it's not advancing on this is the communications plan it's so important as we move forward especially getting into Construction impacting roadways uh this is critical that we continue to build on our uh Communications plan we've had regular meetings with uh Paul chofy and Lorie Sullivan with regards to how we can improve this and enhance this information uh both putting out social media posts as well as enhancing our Wastewater construction uh website web page uh we have detour information up there we've got construction plans we uh have just recently uh added a page for Resident information about what the the con connection might look like for you commonly asked questions uh things of that nature um and as we mentioned before updating ways daily certainly that ways app is a great way to communicate how it's best to get around uh the TR the the impact with regard to the construction which your best way through uh the community or to arrive at any specific destination so what we wanted to highlight for you and and Lori is uh going to walk us through uh this is where you can find some of this information on our website that is the the town website I'm sure you recognize that on the screen and Wastewater construction is front and center up on that uh on that title bar uh we also have um the 3-week look ahead schedules for both of the active construction projects contracts two and three that are ongoing so if people want to see you know where are they working this week what specifically are they doing what do the next uh two weeks look like that's on here and gets updated every time there's a new 3-we look ahead of exactly where they're working and construction is very Dynamic and so that does change on a regular basis and we put that on uh the website uh as soon as we get that so weekly it's changing uh with what is the real information currently happening and what is the expected locations for the next two weeks ahead does the weather impact that at all absolutely so there's been days already that it it was raining and we had to take the days off but we were unable to to work those days uh so there's it's very Dynamic that's an ex uh perfect example of why it regularly changes but we want to get the information out to the to people to the public uh as best we can with those changes is there anything else you want to highlight on this Lor also created this resid information page which is four of the most frequently asked questions that we get at our office you might need this anyone can hear me does this work yes um so these are the top questions that we get in our office which are probably the questions that anyone else that's associated with the town gets the Board of Health whoever it is um so we have some answers here uh for the questions but we also have the number one question I think most people ask is what phase am I in um so we set up this pretty easy to use web page where you can just um let me turn on the there's the legend and you can throw in your address um and it'll bring you to it and you can easily see what phase you're in so first question answered um and Hope just want to get that out there um May save a few phone calls to the office so people are welcome to call um but um usually that's an easy question and there and in the explanation it does describe that it's a 40-year plan each phase is four four five years so if you're phase five you know you're you're 25 years out and that might just people a lot of people are like all right I don't care anymore so they they don't have to you know they don't worry about the details after a little picture of the five times table in there we don't have that that's something we could add um so I just wanted to let people know that that's that resource is there and um the basic questions of um you know do I have to connect how much is it going to cost me and um and then some more information at the bottom the water department number and our waste water email if people have more questions so just that's a resource for any of you who got questions you can send them to this page at least as a place to start and then they can call our office if they have more questions so so I think that's all we have for an update happy to answer any questions that you still might have Mike has a question Jeff you mentioned um that part of 28 is going to be closed um can you tell us for how long and what's the impact to the businesses along that stretch well that area that is impacted is currently in the Robert hour contract and they assure everyone they've gone door too with the businesses in that area that you will be able to get there your um uh employees will be able to get there your customers will be able to get there so when we say closed it means to through traffic uh there is an easy detour around that particular area if you're going from Dennis to Barnstable or some other you know West Yarmouth let's say uh so it's an easy detour to get around which is why that area was um need needed to be closed also the road's very narrow and they're digging very deep so it's a little bit of a safety issue if you wanted to get to one of the businesses get to one of the businesses there are um detail officers as well as construction uh inspectors that will easily get you into to where you need to go and tell you an the best way to get there within that zone so uh while it's closed to through traffic it's open to local traffic let's say okay thank you anyone else no I very much appreciate the well thank you for the update obviously this is very important information not only for us and and um the public I'm glad you're also going to be addressing this by way of the website give people as much information as we can give them on an ongoing basis and I want to commend all of you for the uh your persistence and your hard work and dealing with the EP I'm sure that's no Delight something that you wake up for looking forward to morning but stay on them and uh you know we fully support what you're doing and uh look forward to getting a resolution to this getting those contracts awarded yes absolutely all right thank you thank you thank you next item is meeting preview but what I'd like to do Bob what I'd like to do before we do that only because we had somebody interested in it tonight let's do that brief update on um migrants and then we could spend the pretty much the rest of the allocated time on the town meeting without worrying about running out of time Dorcas has some appointments maybe we can do those too okay so let's do this let's if it's okay with the board let's do the T minute up straight we'll do dorcas's um work we'll do the consent agenda we'll um we'll skip everything else and then go back and spend whatever time remains or you wish to spend on um town meeting how's that so Bob you're on for um administrator updates Under My Town Administrator update I want to uh brief the board uh I I know members have have seen the correspondence but we received uh correspondence from Tyler Newall who is the director of Municipal relations at the executive office of Housing and livable communities that is the program that has been responsible for operating the migrant housing uh here in our community and um he reports that in the interest of consolidating the unstaffed shelter sites the executive office of Housing and livable communities wanted this group to be aware Ware of plans to transfer all 39 families out of the Yarmouth Harborside Suites on Tuesday April 23 and Thursday April 25 2024 the families will be transferred into various shelters all staffed by emergency assistant shelter provider agencies and we will share more information on the destinations of specific families as we get closer to the transfer dates state agency staff will inform families of the moves today colleagues from the Department of Elementary and secondary education will also be in touch with the school districts to share details on the families to be transferred and determined logistics for continued education of school AG children please feel feel free to contact me directly should you have any questions and subsequent to receiving this email we received a telephone call from governor's office that confirmed all of this information and said that it it was true and and it was happening so um we've tried to get this up on the town's website I know we received a lot of questions and and concerns and that's the updated status as of today okay thank you very much Bob Dorcas you're up for board and committee actions okay we H um have received a letter of resignation from Dennis lucier um for his position on the Yarmouth Recreation Commission and I move that we accept his uh resignation with our thanks for his uh years of service second all those in favor I I anyone opposed passes unanimously 401 member absent and I move to appoint Margaret mover as a regular member of the Recreation Commission this appointment is to fill the unexpired term term which will run through July of 2025 second we have a motion in a second all those in favor say I I anyone oppos passes by unanimous vote of 401 member absent thank you Mr chairman that's all I have thank you very much Dorcas okay now we're going to go to the town meeting preview probably want explain briefly the um format of what we're going to be doing here tonight yes Mr chairman um first and foremost I I'd like to acknowledge our Our Town department heads who've worked so hard on all of the Articles the budget it's been you know it's a long haul it's this starts in in October and and it doesn't end till April and we try to rake them over the coals every possible chance that that we get there all here this evening and I I want to thank them I mean I I know it's a very busy time of year so folks have been waiting a while and and and thank you for all of your hard work now uh this is our town meeting preview which the town meeting will be held on Tuesday April 30 2024 at our intermediate um Regional School on Station Avenue the new school uh so we want to very much encourage all residents to um make sure you're registered as voters and and come out and participate in the annual town meeting um this evening we're here not to debate individual articles on their merits but uh to increase the awareness for the public we'll hopefully show this uh program and portions of it uh you know throughout the time period that we have between now and town meeting we want to make sure everyone knows what is on the town meeting what the articles are uh and we'll have um any questions that that folks have or the board has on on any any of the Articles to um try to answer questions just make sure folks are comfortable with the content of the town meeting so that when they come to town meeting they'll know what the issues are Bob can I just quickly ask you said uh register to vote can people if they are not registered to vote in town still be able to be registered and become and be able to vote at town meeting Mary's going to answer that and I think she's going to tell you no so Mary maslowski town clerk the last day of register to vote for town meeting is April 20th uh which is 10 days in advance of of the town meeting we will hold a special registration session here at Town Hall from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p pm. on that Saturday so anyone who wishes to participate in town meeting and vote needs to attend uh needs to be registered no later than uh 5:00 p.m. on that Saturday April 20th um people who are not registered voters are permitted to come in as a visitor they're required to sit in a visitor section and uh as you all know non voters are only um able to speak at town meeting if uh the moderator allows a vote and the vote is actually approved so ample time to register if you haven't already correct but remember you've got about 10 days left so get in there and and get registered so there are also links on the on the website uh to be able to do that under the election section under the town clerk's Department page all they have to do is come to town clerk's office there's no correct there's no specific time they have to do that nope they can anytime up until the the um 20th of April uh or you can do it online at the Secretary of State's website and there's a link to that website on our town page you can do it online and it comes into our queue and we register we'll get it the next morning they can do that online absolutely okay thank you you're welcome and then the last key goal for this evening is that you know as you've seen in our recent Town meetings we have a fabulously detailed series of um slides that we project at the town meeting to provide some very detailed information on the articles on the background to help it answer questions um and and what we'd like to do is run through that that slide presentation this evening to orient folks toward the type of information and the presentation of information they can depend on um at the town meeting now in in doing that the first and foremost I need to acknowledge um one William Scott the assistant Town Administrator who really does a masterful job in pulling information from every single facet of the Town operations to go into this slide presentation that is U very you know pleasing to see but very detailed and um he's really done a a fabulous job with that so as we look at the Articles um Bill's going to walk us through just the slides so you'll see the slides now all of these slides and we'll be able to make tweaks and adjustments we'll have up on the big screen um at the town meeting that will help Orient the voters walking through these issues and and our key thing is to eliminate you know all of the um you know potential confusion what's this about and make sure that folks have the information that they need to act on it as our legislative body um at the town meeting so with that we thought we would um go right through what each article is and then have questions from the board if there's any members of the public to have questions as well um I I really want to give department heads an opportunity to present their information as well but um very great it starts off with article one and article one will be the budget adjustments for the current fiscal year we have two key areas that we do need to adjust that folks have seen in previous years the construction and demolition account um for 100,000 from free cash as a result of the high level of volume and um anytime you see that construction and demolition uh be aware that there's Revenue associated with that that goes into the general fund so it's not all cost it is an offset um to have the the money to dispose of this equipment um and material and also on the revenue side that that we collect funds for those and we also have on the snow and ice although we did not have a lot of snow there were um many icing incidents and keep in mind we drastically underfund that snow and ice account because it has in the state law it's the only account that we have the ability to spend um overspend what the appropriation is so what we do we we keep that as long as you spent what you spent the previous year and we've kept that low because we've had you know decreasing amounts of snow uh but this will take care of any deficits that we have in the snow and ice account and preserve our ability to potentially deficit spend in the future so uh the budget adjustments are article one and from there we move into article two and as you can see with with Bill that there's an explanation of of each article that has a slide associated with it article two is the Omnibus Municipal budget and that goes on for 1 two three four pages and it has a total of all of the municipal operations um this year the recommendation from the finance committee is 49 m926 894 and um that also has um a number of funding sources do you have that I thought that was great build a slide that um you had that showed an example of some of the transfers I don't know if we've got that in there yet but when you see the municipal budget it is interesting that it it brings in the other funding sources not just rais in appropriate you can see where you know you have funds from Wetlands um the ferry tax the ambulance Reserve um to fund fire dep Department wages Peg access all of the various funds all go in along with the um tax dollars to raise the municipal budget so we're going to go through when we get to town meeting the various line items and have it open for any questions that folks have on the town budget and it starts with just the municipal budget now what's important to note is the town's budget is split over several articles the general fund is kind of article two has a lot of the um the general Municipal items but when we move into article three we you can see we handle the Enterprise budgets separately now these are completely separated out from the general fund and are 100% run on the revenues derived from the operations and um there's a series of these so the first one we'll see is the Gulf Enterprise budget which is article three and the total there is 5,159 403 now that is funded as you can see 100% from the golf Enterprise revenues and so it's separated from the general fund but it's part of the overall Town budget so we'll do a series of these articles that are on the budget article four is the water division budget which operates similarly it's not an official Enterprise fund it's a special Revenue fund but all of the funds that are derived from the water revenues when folks pay their bill are held in a separate account and that's what funds um both the capital and in this instance this is the operating budget for the Water Division which comes in article 4 and that's another 5.4 million in change and and Bill's got the the detail on the slides that breaks that right down hopefully answering a lot of the questions and then we continue in Article Five with the remainder of the Enterprise budgets the next one is the septage Enterprise and and again the town does operate its own septage treatment facility that operates completely self-sustaining as a a separate cost center outside of the uh Town's General budget and we also have figures uh on these articles and you can see it's uh up on that chart there that uh the balance in that account in terms of what the current Surplus is every one of these Enterprise funds is is highlighted and in this case the septage Enterprise retained earnings balance right now is 4,320 1985 um which is actually greater than their annual budget 3 million 126041 but that's an important number because this facility is capital intensive and and they do have a series of Capital Improvements that they need to make from year to year so it's important to have that Enterprise balance and then we move into item six which is a new Enterprise fund where we um created it I think two years ago and now we're beginning to fund it for some of the um costs that are coming in for Wastewater waste water will operate on its own complete Enterprise budget without subsidy from the general fund all of the Wastewater um expenses in the future will be developed once we get the plant online from the Wastewater um Enterprise revenues and it is being funded currently from our prefunding program um as you know we're uh building up a surplus of approximately $10 million which will help ramp up into The Debt Service payments when the system is built so these current funds are um being these are funds that have been transferred into the Wastewater Enterprise budget as part of our prefunding program so that's uh article six and and again we're still on the annual Town budget and then we move into another self- sustaining area um which is the cable television and Communications budget which is funded um 100% from the cable special revenues these are the fees paid to the town for operating a cable television franchise through exfinity uh total funding there for the year for um all of the local access origination programming whether it's public educational government plus the Communications system in the town is 510,000 346 um again not a drain on the general fund revenues only the cable revenue account and after article 7 we move into the component of the budget for the educational costs there's two articles on that and the first one is article 8 which is the Dennis Yarmouth Regional School District budget and this relates also to the ballot question that the board approved to put on the election and this level of appropriation certified at 43,7 56 567 um will be made subject to in the motion an override of proposition 2 and a half um for the 880,000 um to augment the town's um certified school budget so that number is inclusive of the override and it's inclusive how much is that number the um the override is 880,000 yes and the and the total certified budget for the school is 43 m756 567 so um you can see where we've been successful at least in getting the number of the override down lower proportion of that numers we can but but it is um going to be subject to that which you know a little bit in terms of background um that um you know what that means is that if um the override does not pass we will need to return to town meeting and readdress the U the exact amount that's appropriated with the plan and and I would say that that would be the case in any event if if the override does not pass we will need to have an additional town meeting before the town is able to set its tax r and we will need to address that shortfall um and you know I have been conducting meetings with our finance director and and we do have um a contingency plan uh it's not entirely pretty it will involve some reductions in the the budgets that we would propose for both the school and the town um that you know it's so it's not a situation where if we don't get this money that automatically only the school cuts and nobody else Cuts I I I think what is clear is that you know we're in this collaboratively it's collectively with the school department we have our our shortfall because their budget you know had the the increase and um but but if it doesn't pass we will have to come back and it will be subject to uh approval of the board so I don't want to say you know we'll do this amount here this amount here we have contingency plans in place but I I would say it would require reductions on both sides so um it B can I jump in here for a second and just once again because people tend to get confused on this is uh my understanding is that you know some people vote no and think that that means that the school is not going to get the money but that's not the answer if if folks vote no on on on the amount the school doesn't necessar the school can still go forward with the um with the amount that they request they just turn to the town and say you have to make up the difference yes would that be the simplest way to say it and it it if there's not collaboration on that process it could be it could be forced the school doesn't have to um cut their budget anymore that and and a worst case scenario would would be that all of the cuts would have to come on the townside which happened once and I think 2008 2008 and and it's it's not very pretty it at that time it caused the layoff of of a number of town positions that um you know created Havoc with Town services for many years after that well I say this because just for an informed vote I think people don't realize they think that if they're voting no then the school has to go back to the drawing board and you know cut their um cut their budget but that is not true it's not true you you could police firefighters DPW all the core Services everything um is is at risk so correct the school doesn't have to cut their budget but the town would have to cut their budget school doesn't have any money all they got to do is gave you an assessment that's it Mike I I didn't get what you just said could you repeat that yeah I said the schools that doesn't pay they don't have any money all they do is make an assessment to the town they don't have a budget per se well here's the question I mean why why get they get the money from the municipalities my question is what's the what's the remedy to this it would be for them to have their own assessing Authority right their own taxing Authority right their own taxing Authority yeah what you the property tax bill would have to be split they would basically be on their own well you'd have to if New Hampshire does it yeah exactly that would be the remedy I mean that's I'm not sure have to dissolve the district and go through all those minations which wouldn't be easy to do well I don't know about that it may be that's just to segregate and keep the the municipal tax don't forget any change to that Regional agreement has got to be initiated by the school district okay I'll just stop I'll stop I'll stop there there you go so that's article 8 is the Dennis Yarmouth and I hope that that helps it thank you very much Dr I hope that that explains for folks this whole issue of the override and and and how it works um but I I I think the feeling is if that we make the the appropriation contingent upon the approval of the two and a half it at least puts us all at the table to make the decisions because we have to go back and revote the school budget as opposed to if you don't make it contingent you don't have to do anything to the school budget and it everything would fall on the town side so what what this is designed to do is keep the collaborative process open and you know I could say from the town side we certainly um you know intend to continue maintaining that strong collaborative work in relationship because other than you know getting some kind of a messy divorce there um we're we're stuck communicating and collaborating so that's article8 now article 9 is the end of the annual budget process it's the final article and it's another education article for the Cape Cod Regional Technical High School budget and um you can see that is certified at 3,912 th000 which is what maybe 10% of the the district to give you a a sense of proportion between the size of the two um schools with respect to the the yarma certification and after article nine we move into the portion of the budget it is still the financial articles but now we're not in the operating budget anymore we're in the capital budget uh process and it starts and it's it's very similar to the way it works with the budget process that we sequester the individual cost centers so the Enterprise funds they all have their own separate articles and then we have an Omnibus article for the general Capital so it starts with article 10 is the golf Capital total of $310,000 and um has for those um are the projects and again it it is taken from their retained earnings there's a a $2.1 million balance that is in there currently um so that's adequate to support the golf Capital at 3 10 and then we move into article 11 which is similar to again that we did with the annual budget it's the Water Division Capital expense totaling 860,000 and again there is 1, 81,000 in their balance as of July 1 and um that is is all of the capital for water and then again just like we saw the septage budget we see the septage division Capital expense and we mentioned earlier that there it's a very Capital intensive program operating that Waste Water treatment facility but it's good to see they have septage Odor Control um some tank rehab and a a new loader totaling a million for all of their Capital to keep that facility operating strong and after that we move into some special project authorizations there's two articles that go hand inand um Article 13 is a Massachusetts Public Library Grant authorization to allow the town to apply to the mass Board of Library Commissioners for a grant to help the community study and develop plans for a potential Library Improvement program and they have a construction project to help walk us through those and um there's a great deal of information I know that at our last meeting we met with the Consultants to review the detail of that project and um hopefully at town meeting we'll get a chance to update folks on the the detailed study and the library needs that have been identified and um in participating in that Grant there is also a local match and in article 14 we seek to take the local match of 150,000 transferred from free cash and that is Town's share of that grant for the feasibility study on Library improvements so 13 and 14 go hand inand first authorizing the Grant application and the second authorizing the town's local match for that uh process and we move again state with the town Capital needs um we have Article 15 is the next round of police cruiser financing which we' developed that 10-year program now that um replaces all of the police cruisers through leases when they need replacement avoids spikes in the tax rate avoids spikes in um the expenditure for police cruisers and and keeps the um the process moving forward and uh there was some question as to um whether the town uses fully electric vehicles uh no the town does not for uh the public safety uh we have some um hybrid Cruisers but um we don't use the fully electric vehicles at this time they're just not practical for law enforcement um so that's Article 15 and it and it includes the three four-year payment program 25 to 28 at 111,000 per year and um that's for Cruisers similarly we get into article 16 is the fire department Capital expenses and um we have a replacement of an ambulance there and some fire gear and Equipment Plus that it says payment to stabilization that's repaying for loan from the stabilization fund to purchase um another vehicle in previous years so uh total of fire department capital 650,000 for the upcoming fiscal year and as indicated article 17 is the Omnibus General government Capital um that supports the various Town departments and it is a combination of Raisin appropriate through a previous override for Road Improvement uh that has been authorized in um the amount of 1,100,000 and with the remainder of 3 million appropriated from free cash for the series of per purposes that's listed in the article um and there's 35 independent projects totaling with the 1.1 million plus the 3 million a total of $ 4172 million um for Capital Improvements for the general operations of the town and so we'll be going through um each one of those projects um through a list and folks can ask any questions on on any of the projects that are included there there were um some inquiries that came in by email where people were asking what happened to the free cash article remember correct and and this is the article that's that's the article if they look at just below where it says various departments it says Source colon free cash I I I think they missed that line that caused them to be asking where that free cash article was because they just saw these amounts being funded and um so I you know I point out to those folks that were concerned about that that what they referred to as a free cash article is article 17 correct and if I may Mr chairman the entire CIP is online under the cap Improvement program committee and uh there is a portal that they can get into to look at each of the projects that are in the table with narrative and everything else photographs and background so with the end of article 17 that really wraps up the total budget uh between the operating budget and we did first then we moved did all of the capital items kept those together then we move into the section of the town meeting warrant that deals with some of the miscellaneous funding C categories that don't fall directly under the budget or capital and it starts with article 18 which is for collective bargaining wage adjustments in the amount of 27 $ 5,000 for there are a couple of um contracts with some of the larger collective bargaining associations that are under negotiation and uh we separate some funds to be able to U handle the wage adjustments for those collective bargaining settlements which subsequent to um this would fold into the operating budget in subsequent years um but it talks about salary and way it doesn't talk about any the benefits are not included is that correct correct so if we pay an increase in our insurance contribution that's not reflected in that article correct that would be in the um in the in the health insurance budget this is for the wage adjustments and then we move into Article 19 which we've also separated out from the annual Town budget because it's a specialty cost for the madaky building maintenance costs while we continue the study program for the next year uh there will be uh we forecast an additional $200,000 in maintenance costs to um operate that building uh and and continue to um take care of it so that it it doesn't um deteriorate in its condition so um that's Article 19 madaki Building Maintenance costs then we move into article 20 which is for a compensation and classification review which um is a review of the town's overall wage system to ensure that the wages that we offer are competitive in our labor market environment and I would hasten to point out is that this is the type of study that should be done every seven years or so and I think it's been far over 10 years since Yarmouth has has done such a study so it is is very timely especially given all of the changes in our uh General economy uh and the the lack of an update for this program in order to ensure that the wages remain competitive uh I I think it's an important uh review to make and we have experienced a tremendous amount of problems especially I would say in the ranks of our you know most professional and Technical employees where you see so many people jammed against the top of the wage grades that that no longer get step increases it's a warning sign and um that something that that should be addressed so article 20 is the compensation and classification review which a professional consultant that does this work is hired uh the estimated cost of the study is $30,000 and um then we would review the results Factor those into our overall collective bargaining piece that's article 20 and continuing with our miscellaneous articles we get to article 21 which is the vote on the proposed new town seal and um I would acknowledge Mr slamon I see in the audience the chairman of the Town seal committee or or vice chairman member member thank you for attending let's try not to a slight here there I know you work so hard Bob lon's on Zoom too Bob lon's on Zoom now now there's the chairman of the Town seal committee Mr lton good evening thank you for joining us and um I don't know if get any um questions or anything on the town seal uh it'll be the time to discuss that town meeting in detail um welcome back to anybody that has questions at the end of this for any article great including that one and I I would ask maybe since Mr Slim is here if if I did not have information I knew a town seal would be up and I wanted to get information that's posted on the town's website people can seek information see the imagery see some of the slides that have been discussed absolutely so um any folks in the public that have questions please start with the the town's website and we'll have a great deal of information to present at town meeting as well and um article 22 is we mentioned the Wastewater financing prefunding program earlier when we did um the Wastewater Enterprise budget article 22 is um this year's Wastewater financing prefunding and what essentially we're doing is taking $2 million from free cash and $1 million which we had already done prefunding with and placed uh in the Wastewater Enterprise and taking the total of that 3 million and placing it in the Wastewater stabilization fund and and I would say something very interesting by moving the million dollars out of the Enterprise fund and into the stabilization fund that enables us as we don't need that money um for at least four or five years it enables us to invest it more wisely than the um the Enterprise fund is handled just like cash where it you're not allowed to uh invest it to gain a return it just sits there so it's available but by transferring the funds into our stabiliz stabilization fund we're able to make investments that are very prudent low-risk Investments but carry some significant interest with them and CDs stuff like that yes CDs bond funds um that type and and I and I would um acknowledge our um new Finance director Jen Mullen who um came up with that strategy which I I think was excellent is is that look when when we do this prefunding we need to put it in the stabilization fund and then you'll start to see interest acrw directly to that fund um as opposed to just to the general fund so nice so that's um 3 million for the Wastewater um pre-financing and again we have a goal that when we start this project we're going to have $10 million prefunding program U because in the first couple of years of operation we won't have full flow so we won't be con collecting the full Revenue but over a three four year period of using small amounts of that 10 million will ramp up into our full uh collection of of revenues so it's another sort of belt and suspenders kind of rails for the Wastewater financing program that folks should feel feel good about that prefunding is a wise move um and then uh to continue on the Wastewater article 23 is an adoption of Mass general laws chapter 80 and 83 which gives uh the select men the specific authority to lay out the sewer sidewalks and drains um and and that also incorporates the authority to assess um the Vets which is a small but important part of the overall financing structure so it's a the acceptance of the local statutes that governs the Wastewater system construction and assessment and then uh the details of that you see come in article 24 is the establishment of a Yarmouth sewerage bylaw which provides the author Authority and definitions of creating a sewer district of um assessing sewer uh betterments what the district map is and how the um the process works and and again it it just continues to authorize the board of Selectmen to carry out uh the provisions of the municipal act but provides all of the details so it's laid right out for you um and have more discussion uh of that then we get to um article 25 and 26 again two twin articles uh and they are with respect to the police department's generator which was over 20 years old um and had a catastrophic failure and um the first article 25 transfers the sum of 300,000 from funds left over in the capital project to replace the HVAC at the police station so no new money here and devotes those funds to replacing the generator and in the meantime while that generator has to be ordered and then installed while that's being ordered and installed uh the the town has to have a temporary rented generator to keep the operations of the department um rolling forward it's uh we can't risk having no power at the police station that could impact Communications and um you know many other life safety issues for law enforcement do they have at the current time for a generator anything yes it is the rented generator that they've been carrying but in order this this increases the time frame we'll be able to afford this just is to pay for What's there now yes to 50 yes so um we've got is that like a oneyear lease or something now the the the lease is um maybe we've got Chief here can you help us um Chief Lenin on the time frame that the the lease we anticipate followup Chief uh when do we anticipate you know getting the permanent solution to that uh after we get the funding at town meeting so what we did was we uh we work with a company uh blw they put together a plan for us and they did a study on the uh the need the power needs of the station so what the generator we're going to need uh that came in at a little over $200,000 after town meeting we can go through the process of procuring the generator which is going to take about 30 to 40 weeks that's why we need the additional money so right now the generator that is in place cost us about $1800 a week it's a 255 KW generator which will run the entire department in the event of a uh of a power failure so if we need it how how long how how far out does this $50,000 payment extent Keeps Us in the in in a temporary situation for how long I'd have to do the math but hopefully until we get the new generator it's about they said I think the outset would be about 40 weeks to get the new generator once it ordered but hopefully hopefully sooner because we're going to hopefully work plans are as soon as we get the appropriation to get right on it and get the Department to fix that is correct thank you thanks chief then we move into article 27 which is the tourism Revenue preservation fund which again is broken down by their key u Focus areas and um I would also encourage folks we have U the committee that oversees the tourism fund will be making a presentation to the board of Selectmen at your next meeting um from which to to base the recommendation at town meeting on article 27 uh but that total appropriation in the revenue preservation fund is 54892 and that is a calculated portion under our special Act of a portion of the rooms tax receipts so portion of the rooms tax receipts is automatically set aside for tourism that um is devoted to article 27 and um another key demarcation point in the warrant is uh once we get through article 27 we shift into um the community preservation act funding as recommended by the community preservation committee and there are a series of one two three four five articles all associated with Community preservation and the first is Article 28 which is the estimated Revenue um which sets aside the statutorily determined percentages of the revenue that we collect for specific purposes um such as 10% is set aside for community housing 10% is set aside for historic preservation 10% is set aside for open space and then 5% is set aside for administration and that just um creates those reserves and then we move into the specific those actual areas through article 29 is the community preservation act affordable housing projects which is a subsidy of the Yarmouth affordable housing trust in the amount of 200,000 to preserve and support affordable housing development here in town then article 30 is the community preservation act historic resource projects and in that category we have one project for 45,000 to replace the cottage roof at the Taylor Bray farm and the next article is article 31 which is the open space and Recreation projects and there's three projects there totaling 42,500 um the first is a frag mighy management interestingly enough under the open space Recreation plan we reviewed this evening that's a uh component of that um as well as the town weighs to water um which is 198,000 to um identify and research and study and improve their ways to water and then we also have 27,500 to get the Run pond it's also called craw Pond um restoration project that um beautiful Waterway with an undersized Culvert that has been planned for so long we're hoping to um make that project a reality and um restore that Wetland habitat B do you want to explain um for the folks so they're not or they don't have questions about the town meeting why these um funds are designated as quote on designated reserves the um designated Reserves we covered it in in the first article now now remember there were the um the three or four categories that each has a minimum assessment of 10% of the total but that only adds up to a small portion of the total funds so the town has the authority beyond the the 10% so we've got um housing historic open space that's only 30% of the funding and by utilizing some of that additional 70% of the funding they're able to do on a sliding process so it would be fair to say that undesignated means and not required to do it but they're opting to do it correct and and as you see sometimes last year uh there was a um a larger Devotion to uh you know some of the open space projects we've had larger Devotion to housing projects from time to time based on the needs of the town and and that's really one of the key functions of the community preservation commission committee to look at uh what's in the reserves what the town's needs are and to make the recommendations so that's the undesignated reserve it's the the money that is not slated for one single purpose so that wraps up the community preserv ation which is always a a a fascinating part of the Town leading it is really critical to have the community preservation act because many of these important projects just because of the competition for funds underneath prop two and a half if they weren't reserved for those special purposes where would we find money to do historic preservation to do open space and things of that nature and so it's it's great to have the community preservation and so then at that point now we move into the last portion of the town meeting warrant that we generally reserve for some of the improvements in the local bylaws and there's two critical bylaws that um we're updating the the first is article 32 is our general Wetlands bylaw and we've had a number of great sessions uh you know detailing the need for this that this byaw uh hasn't been updated in quite some time and and there have been pretty significant changes in the state laws related to Wetlands and the local regulation of wetlands since this bylaw is adopted and two of the most important ones are you know firstly the rivers act which uh increased the buffer zone to a a river past what it is for a normal um Wetland that is not included in the wetlands bylaw although it's a state law that people are surprised to see when they when they file an application and and a second one is the vernal pools that have been identified in town don't fall under the wetlands bylaw although state law still protects them so by updating this bylaw and making it more um consistent with the state laws you're able to be more transparent with the local public and and folks that may want to U put applications in and uh I know that the Conservation Commission and um Britney D Renzo our conf conservation administrator have worked very hard on this and they have some very detailed information that they're able to present at town meeting in support of this uh but it is an important uh bylaw that that doesn't uh increase the um activities of the Conservation Commission as much as better notify the public of what these requirements are so they can uh do a better job with the applications and um so the wetlands bylaw is there and the last article after the wetlands bylaw is article 33 which is a zoning article uh related to the short-term rentals and essentially what what the key item here is that it extends the sunset Clause while the comprehensive plan is being completed while the planning board analyzes uh what future short-term rental zoning requirements would be appropr rate um and and that's a project that they're working on currently and um this extends the um the date of the sunset Clause through November 30 2026 so it's just a a short extension while the planning board continues to study the short-term rentals I don't know if I was complete enough that I miss anything there and um after that everyone gets to go home the short 33 articles okay does anybody um have any questions or commentary how about on the screen is anybody up there no no nobody on some okay how about the board does anybody have any questions or commentary Mark no Dan now we've been through this several times yes you have taras just to say Bob great presentation thank you I hope I hope I hope people have a chance to view this because in the past those who did have given us feedback from these types of um dry runs if you will and informative sessions have said it's really helped them at town meeting understand things and um it it eliminat Ates a lot of questions they would have otherwise at the meeting and we don't mind debate at the meeting or questions at the meeting but we feel that you know the more voters are familiar with the Articles the greater the level of participation the better it will be and hopefully um their votes will be uh more considered than if they just kind of wave their hand with the crowd so um this is important stuff um we we're trying to do everything we can to increase voter participation at town meeting and you know when you really think about it and I've said this over and over the real power of town government is with is with town meeting I mean they say yes or no to all of these things to the funding to the bylaws they are the legislative branch and and um we we make recommendations it's all selectman can do we recommend this we recommend that people frequently go along with those recommendations but not always and when they don't I don't have any problem with that it's the people's government it's the people's will that should Prevail so um I know Dan's done a lot when he was the town um moderator trying to increase um voter participation I've been to some of the forums he attended at the high school trying to educate the kids get them politically involved um and and I fully support those efforts because I I believe in what I'm saying that this is the people's opportunity to um do what they feel should be the right action the town should take on each of these individual items um Mark being a government teacher I'm sure agrees with with all of that he's taught government courses at the community college um so this is our effort to try to reach voters to exercise their power and authority um over these waren articles and I also will commend um um Bob and Bill for putting together what I consider was a very very nice informative and concise slide presentation thank you so I thought I thought it went well I I think it is going to be beneficial I do here he is um anybody have anything else you want to adjourn I have a motion to adjourn it's almost was there anything for the agenda review Mr chairman that we needed to look at for the next if you have any comments on that why don't you make them and we'll because I'll begin together with Bob on the next one only because Tom meeting is the intervening meeting um I had one question on the agenda review and it had to do with an item so we're talking here May 7th right 23rd no I think we have a meeting on the 23rd 23 23rd yeah we do the 23rd we have one more meeting before that one I'm sorry walk through we can cross out sorry we do have the 23rd say that again Bob you're suggesting we cross that out yeah that was um we rescheduled it to tonight the town meeting preview that's the wall was rescheduled the town annual town meeting preview that we held this evening so we wanted to be able to you know make adjustments with so we don't need to do that again on the 23rd so let me ask let me ask you this then because I do think I do think it's very very important for the voters and the residents to um get information about town meeting in our last and our meeting before town meeting um now if we're not going to do that then the question in my mind is are we going to pick up the pace on the video of this discussion can we like cut and paste the town meeting preview and just sort of make sure that that gets much more frequency on our government Channel just finding ways to get information out yeah in addition to that we're going to we're going to do that but in addition to that we're going to produce some additional other videos how that walk through the Articles so that we have those in and also um I know conservation is doing a great video on the wetlands bylaw that takes people out in the field and shows them some great things so there's a couple of independent ones and and I'm going to do one another General one and so what we thought that using the communication team um as we got closer we would continue to increase the frequency between this meeting and some of the other meetings and information that goes out yeah I know cuz I think that's ibly important one of the reasons why we would always do um a a meeting you know you spend a significant amount of time before town meeting talking about the articles is just it's that's generally the time people start to focus in on it so if we can pick up the pace in terms of the video coverage um I think I think that that's a huge help in overcome whatever we might lose on that um I noticed also on the uh the expression of Interest the I don't know what that's all about the expression of Interest submitted to the states regarding the underutilized building program did we did I miss that did we no no that just came in and we said okay when can it go on it it it you know couldn't it was too late to go on for what but what but what what is it it's a specific project what I mean to interrupt you I could no I'm just asking you what it is I'm just I don't know what it is okay so what it is is that the um the folks that are renting the MacArthur building um want to do continued improvements to that building which I think a good Investments um make sure the heating system is um are we talking about Bridgewater State or are we talking about the collaborative this is this would be the collaborative so the collaborative is the Su Lei from Bridgewater State is the Le and the collaborative has the sublease and and they're using the and and they have spent a lot of money um you know so that's still going forward that that's moving forward and they have in addition to all of the funds they've already spent and we've seen the building I mean it's fabulous what's been done over there um they have some additional improvements that they would like to make and they've identified um this underutilized building program that they feel that they're eligible to receive funding to directly pour into that building um and in order to do that they would need to come in and see the board of Selectmen and so that was a proposal that that they submitted we have some detail on it uh we'd like to show it to the board of Select and give a presentation and and essentially see how you feel about it so they're just looking to renovate the building they're not looking to do any additional programming no they they have very um high level of programming their programming is uh you know fairly robust but so what does the Waypoint Academy mean what does that mean that is is something that they're calling their collaborative programming that's that's a new thing it's the first time I've heard of their Waypoint Academy I I think it's a a way of describing their services branding type of a thing but it's but you're talking about the collaborative working under Bridgewater State to invest in the building top right there special I just it just looks looked odd Waypoint Academy I'd never heard anything about a Waypoint Academy that's they did do a tremendous amount of work over there Karen I don't know if you recall but Karen and I met them a year or so ago and we T the place the only problem they were having they were having some water infiltration near one of the doorways I don't know if they ever resolve that but but it's unbelievable the amount of work that they've done probably millions of dollars worth of work Mr chairman I know people are hanging around here I don't think we're not I I don't think we're going to I think you folks are free to go yeah thanks for hanging in there but here do you know that way point Jeff look at Jeff is hanging out in the corner there yeah it's go home we promis not to say anything about you or do anything all right so you're free to go is that okay Mr in there you guys so that's okay thanks for clarifying that Bob I thought thought there was some new initiative or something that they were doing they're just going after more funds to renovate the building okay that's great so we can delete the uh town meeting walkth through from that here's another question I know the um on there is the discussion presentation of the regional dispatch I know there's been a lot of press there's a lot of media um I just want to just float the idea with with the board changing in the election um does it make sense to put off that discussion until the new the election and the new board comes in because it's a pretty significant sure item for discussion I just wanted to sort of float that I'm not making the recommendation I'm just asking the question May May 16th May 15th May 16th May 21st is it the 21st yeah I believe so so it's coming up is that the election yeah hi 21 right so it's it's about 6 weeks away may21 the only problem is that um the state has a grant program so it's time sensitive so it's time sensitive okay then go forward and make the presentation I candidly I I was a little caught off by this too I I didn't remember that we had had these types of um discussions no so yeah I'd love to hear this and see what see where we're going yeah I just don't want to be a surprise I may not vote at all for an agreement period because I think with an election coming in a new board being seated it it it may not be appropriate so I I I need to know more but um I may not be prepared to vote at all for that so what has to be done to implement this agreement is it is it simply a simple majority the board Bob yes so intermunicipal agreement just agreement between the towns so each select board in in barnable well shouldn't we at least get a presentation on this as to where I mean regardless of a vote shouldn't we get I'm happy to get you a briefing on it but I'm just I don't want there to be a surprise because uh like I said we're it's it's getting at a point where it's close to an election and it's a pretty significant development and uh um it's just a concern that I have I know I'm I'm trying to separate the action on it versus an update well it just means that we're going to from my point of view if if we don't take action until after the board then why plus the time sensitivity is based upon action I think right when do you have to when when does a decision have to be made let's put it that way for your backwards yeah for the you're talking about um time sensitive so yeah well I think that the uh the grant has to go in sometime in in May by the end of May or something okay so it' be a good idea to um present it out there and and just get everybody caught up to speed on it whether you vote or not it's I I think it's a it's a good enough issue that I agree with that but I think we I think certainly we could hold the vote if you're not comfortable with a vote that's fine okay I'd also suggest we can always invite to find out what's in there what's going on the current status is you know the ins and out so to speak and if we were to hold it until we get two newly elected members we'll do that but I'd also suggest we send out an invitation to uh the candidates to remind them that they this would be a good meeting for them to all attend to get some information how do you feel about the intermunicipal agreement I wonder if they will have a candidate tonight they haven't had one in quite a while they haven't there was a request made very unfortunate it is maybe in the future maybe the moderator could take take that on or something actually would be a great idea try to start with Co and all that that yes fell apart then that's a great idea it was a good it was a good uh and the papers used to send out questionnaires too I always enjoyed participating in that yep absolutely all right so we'll leave that on the agenda Bob but understand that we may not have a vote that night um I got to check with u Sergeant Hennessy he was going to be talking to these folks at music room to see if there' be a possible resolution I I've got to give them a call see what that looks like if it's not we're going to have to have a hearing and I got to believe the hearing could be protracted I hope not but there's a resolution as Dan said it whatever they propos would have to be subject to your approval um I'm deliberately staying out of it in case there's a hearing right objective about this so I just kind of call him and check in say hey what whates it look like I would suggest that we just leave a little spot on the agenda potentially for Wastewater you know just that we have some time set aside for that if something should come up that that to me like Wastewater is kind of a fluid thing right now I agree I agree with you but we could also if we had to address that under Town Administrator updates so right you know we can do that any time really either way but you're right I agree with you that critically important especially with these looming deadlines yes yes absolutely um okay anything else Mr chairman could I make a comment can you do what can I make a comment she wanted to make a comment earlier do you want to comment on well and I'm sorry but is the meeting still still going or when you saided has it beened I'm sorry why you come up I speak in the microphone I can't hear you well okay yeah we're still on um so I just wanted to quickly apologize for having to leave before um I was I I did have I do have young children that I had to get to bed and it's 10:00 you have to explain you but I apologize for it was my intention to be here when we circled back to the agenda item so that I could appropriately make a comment um and I was driving home listening to the meeting and attempted to raise my hand once you got to that agenda item because sure enough it was two minutes after leaving here so I took a screenshot of it and I was going to email you and copy everyone on and say hey I'm so sorry I just had to leave but it was a critical time for me as a mother to be home in my household needless to say all of that's a moot point I just wanted to make sure that I commented on um the vagueness of the proposed question for the ballot um was actually quite intentional um and just making sure that it's obvious what I'm talking about the idea of a pool or Community Aquatics facility um it was really intentional for it to be so vague um anything regarding the location the funding the costs with the engineering of any building might look like the timing of it all of those things would be covered in a feasibility study that our group is privately funding um so again just to reiterate what I I don't think that I eloquently was able to share from the podium earlier the intention of this proposed ballot question was simply to allow us as the town of Yarmouth to perhaps be a leader and just pointing for the rest of the community to say yeah let's see let's see what what is the interest and I absolutely agree with with what Mr Smith said and what others feedback and hindsight the question could have been more comprehensive or could have been written perhaps a little bit more detailed than it was to say something like with costs to be undetermined or you know with costs not yet determined with location not yet determined with funding being private including all of those things in the question however I wasn't able to have that feedback from you all as a select board to help better point the question um I'm old enough to know that that life um is is all about timing so perhaps this just isn't the right timing to get it on this calendar years I think part of it's timing but I think the other part of it really is detail I mean people have to know what they're voting for and if they I've been doing this a long time I've been a selectman for like 11 years and before that I've been a town meeting member for probably 40 years if people don't know and don't have a good sense of what they're voting for they're going to vote no I I will bet you I will bet you 100 bucks we've never had an art a question like this put on our ballot something like this in this vague and and the other thing Carn is is the voters the voters don't even know who you are Mo most of the people that are voting so if there's questions or there ambiguities or this criticism of why did you put something like this on right it's not going to come your way it's going to come to our staff well I understand that and that feedback also was understood again I think had we started this had I started this conversation with you two months ago and with all respect I emailed you asking could I have this front this face-to-face conversation with the select board to get some feedback to better after the agenda was posted no this was in the in the beginning of March so I I did want to point this question better than than it is written pointed to you the process you should go through before you come to the board of Selectmen and go through groups like Recreation and get recommendations and support for people like that you are not going to I don't care what project it is you're not g let's take a wreck building for example something I tried to do when I was on the rec Commission you don't just walk into the board of Select say I'd like to get a Rec Center you go through the people that would have jurisdiction over that like Recreation you would you would talk about location you would talk about funding sources we get these things when they got a lot more meat informed to them we don't we don't go out and do this cuz we don't have the time to do it that's why we have a lot of committees and commissions and agencies that are working on these kinds of things just like madis we're not going to go out try to develop the madis site we're going to form a committee that's going to study that site with consultants and as these ideas materialize in gel and as Community Support is gained that's pretty much when they start coming before us the difference would be all of what you just mentioned sounds like it's a municipal funded facility if we're looking to fund this privately and with Federal grant money in fact we even have we got to get a site too correct but then why would you have it on a municiple ballot that's a relevant question and and that's where I am pushing you as Leaders of our community here's here's the deal all right if you're doing a private facility this has nothing to do with the municipal government why would we even put it on a municipal ballot fair enough because you might care about no but the point no but the point is is you might want to do a poll if that's what you're looking for how do you do a poll Survey Monkey you you do a survey we've we have 200 respondents then why then why do you need to use our ballot as a poll because I want 20,000 respondents but then you would do a poll that goes to 20,000 people you hire a pollster to do that that's what other groups do that's what we're we're looking to do that and in the meantime we just thought we would follow suit with perhaps what chadam in hartch and other towns on the cape are doing they have done ballot questions just like this they have it on the warrant in harch and they're looking to put it on the ballot and chatam and I didn't want my town our town to lose to lose this project no I understand it's just it's a very unorthodox approach it's something like I said we've never done anything like this here in Yarmouth and if you want to gauge a survey of 20,000 residents in a community most groups private groups do polls they hire someone to do a survey and find that out that's what we're looking to fund and in the mean you generally don't do it on a municipal ballot okay let's say orthodox thank you Mr chairman I move that we adjourn second you also move the question moving the question now all in favor I anyone oppose we are adjourned thank