I came in oh I could have grabbed one for you good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the meeting of the armor select Board of May 7th 2024 this will be a hybrid meeting um that necessitates that this brief notice be read into the record this is the formally advised that is required by general laws chapter 38 sections 18- 25 in pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021 an act relative to extend extending certain covid-19 measures adopted during the state of emergency signed into law on June 16th 2021 and as extended by chapter 2 of the acts of 2023 the armouth select board will hold a public meeting on Tuesday May 7th 2024 at 6 p.m. in the hearing room yarma Town Hall 11:46 through 28 South yarm Mass public is welcome to either attend in person or via the alternate Public Access provided below and that access is um published on our website and gives directions how to join it by computer or by a telephone so we will begin our meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance please rise I pleas allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God invisible with liy and for all so an announcement um we have a couple a few um could I have the red folder please red folder oh I'm sorry there you go the first one is a proclamation issued by this board um joining many others at the federal state and local levels of town government um and the proclamation is in honor and recognition of Public Service week um and the citation is as follows whereas Americans are served every single day by public servants at the federal state county tribal City and town levels these unsung heroes do the work that keeps our nation working whereas public employees take not only jobs but Oaths whereas many public servants including military personnel police officers firefighters and others risk their lives each day in service to the people of the town the United States and around the world whereas public service include teachers Town heavy equipment operators mechanics health and building officials water division technicians Finance administrators Library Senior Center recreation parks and and golf staff laborers computer technicians and social workers and countless other occupations day in and day out they provide the diverse Services demanded by the American people of their government with efficiency and integrity and whereas without these public servants at every level continuity would be impossible in a democracy that regularly changes its leaders and elected officials therefore we the select Board of the town of Yarmouth Massachusetts do hereby announce and Proclaim to all citizens and set seal here too that May 5th through the 11th 2024 is public service recognition week all citizens are encouraged to recognize the accom accomplishments and contributions of government employees at all levels federal state county tribal City and town that is the proclamation that is been unanimously adopted by this board um in honor recognition in honor of these contributions of these various um people who service our government at every level thank you um just before the meeting I got a uh message telephone message from Tracy Post who asked if I would remind everyone that there will be a memorial day service here at Town Hall on Memorial Day and if I'm correct that dates May 27th and it will be at 1:00 in the morning 11 okay 11:00 in the morning I'm sorry yeah 1:00 yeah yeah you bring bring your own um at 11: I'm sorry 11 a.m. um will be the time there was there was some um glitch previously about the time that's been um that's been rectified it will be 11 I think a lot of people did know that but I just want to make sure that I carry out that message only because I was asked to um any other messages well I do want to make an announcement for um anyone that's here this evening for the harbor Club Incorporated doing business as tugboats restaurant which um had a hearing this evening for an entertainment license which will be postponed to the same time at 6:15 next week May 14 so if you hear for tugboats that's going to come up May 14 and I call to the board's attention we have received some um written U comments which we'll give you now and also have in the file for the for the 14th and just the reason for the delay is so they could comply with they they have a a notice requirement um the requisite number of days that the abutters notices go out so that's what they needed to correct okay we have an election coming up what's the date on is that the 20 is that the 21st 21 May 21 so May 21st is the town election okay um the polling hours I'm not going to mess with I would check with the clerk on that probably is I'm assume it's posted yes um all right but staying with that if we could um sure my understanding is there's a candidates night on uh May 15th being held at the cultural center is that at 6 or 7 does anyone know I believe it's 6:00 um I I got it I got a notice the other day if I can find it did you repeat the date sure it's uh May 15th Wednesday May 15th 6: p.m at the uh C Cultural Center we're just going to verify the time Peter's going to take a look at that see if I can find the note and I believe we have five candidates running for this position to fill two vacancies so we welcome all to come join us the at the cultural center right I I can't find it I must I must have deleted it um we'll we'll make sure it get gets posted again on the on the website so it's there and it's extremely extremely important to to vote for the town election um at the last election there was roughly 15500 people that voted total out of roughly 20,000 of registered voters in the town so be really nice if we get a nice nice turnout to make your make your opinion felt um you residents are the legislature and it' be great if you if you appoint who you want to represent you to and and stuff and there's there's some very good candidates running both for the select board and for uh uh the school committee so you know please come out and vote thank you and I will affirm that it is 6:00 [Music] p.m. and I underscore also please come out and vote this is your chance to really have a a voice in local government so and this is two members of the board and given that the board is a total of five people that that's a good number of people that you'd be in okay public comments does anybody want to be heard on public comment I'm not sure what gets aired at that time these are just general public comments um if you're here for a hearing you can address those comments at the time of the hearing right that's why I was asking okay all right yeah public comment is for you to voice your opinion on not only anything that might come up here tonight but just in general about town government it's related to town government and it might be a criticism it might be in Praise of something it might be well we think this should happen or that should happen or have you ever thought about doing something this way you know it's pretty open um but what it does not do it does not invite AC cross dialogue with the board because yeah there's um there public meeting laws that necessitate certain things being on an agenda before they can be open to um the kind of discussion sometimes that people want to have and the the proper thing in that case is to say can you get it can you get something like this on the agenda or pretty much that but even though you are commenting on a specific item that's coming up tonight preferably that's the best time but there's nothing that says you know you can't make a statement a public comment I understand that I I just want to say thank you to all of you guys so thank you of recognition for your public services thank you okay do have a hand on the big screen who is it VA Morris VA Morris VA can you hear me yes and can you hear me yes I can and you are recognized okay uh so um I I'm going to continue uh on the subject matter that you were just discussing um uh uh with regard to the um uh candidates night uh uh I looked uh for any kind of uh information on the website this morning and I couldn't find it so I ended up having to call the administrator's office this morning to find out that there is such a thing scheduled already and you gave that information U uh right now but I'm surp I'm a little bit disappointed that it's not been uh you know posted on on the website the town's website for everyone to see uh and in the same vein um I thought that someone was appointed to um keep tabs on what was going on with the illegal aliens while they were here and we were supposed to get updates on that situation and now it's but getting to the point of almost two weeks since they departed and here again I I don't see anything at all on the website to inform the public that they have indeed left and and you know uh and probably left the school district and everything so uh I'm a little bit disappointed that neither one of those uh uh issues uh has been uh posted on on the um um um uh on the town website I hope it will be so fairly soon thank you thank you VA anyone else no one else on the screen I don't see anybody either um I know we announced the uh postponement on tugboats nobody's they're not sending anybody here tonight are they no but it would be um a good idea to open the hearing and to um make the motion continue it to the 14 so what's the next date on that it's May 14 okay I make a motion to to uh extend the hearing for the tugboats to May 14th 2024 at 6:15 okay let me just open the hearing on that I'm sorry first read the notice and then we will um address your motion um [Music] here it is all right noticed for 650 15 was an annual weekday and Sunday entertainment license the harbor Club um Inc doing businesses tugboats restaurant theaters Ellis manager 21 Arlington Street West jth Mass this is the public notice on that matter the armor select board acting as a local licensing Authority has received an application from the harbor Club Inc doing businesses tugboats restaurant theodor's Ellis manager 21 Arlington Street West charmouth Massachusetts for an annual weekday and Sunday entertainment license for live and recorded music up to uh to include up to two musicians or singers amplification system and or uh dish chalky live music in all areas shall be from 11:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. these hours are for both weekday and Sundays only one musician with no amplification shall be allowed um in the upstairs bar area one to two piece ensemble in in in only one area in the restaurant at any one time is allowed there will be no entertainment on the deck area unless there is a protective icing glass allowed there will be no entertainment on the deck area unless there is a I just said that it is a protective ice and glass barrier around the deck the specific requests are for board of appeals petition decision number 5063 so the board of appeals has actually put certain uh limitations on this application already hearing will be on Tuesday May 7th 2024 in the hearing room at the Town Offices 1146 Route 28 South yth Massachusetts the select board's meeting begins at 6: p.m. written comments will be accepted until 4:30 p.m. Friday May 3rd 2024 in the administrator's office at Town Hall verbal comments will be um accepted at the hearing now I'm informed through our Town Administrator that additional time is needed to comply with the notice requirements on behalf on the applicant's part and that they've requested that it be uh continued for a period of one week from tonight and I'll now entertain selectman um Smith motion I I make a motion to um extend the public hearing uh to May 14th 2024 at 6:15 at Town Hall I second that motion have a motion in a second any further discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I anyone opposed by nay the eyes have it three to zero the matters continued to May 14th is it May 14th 6:00 p.m. 6 p.m. thank you okay [Applause] now we have a hearing on a special all alcohol license in special entertainment license Christopher Schultz Cape Cod Pirate festival at the Joshua Sears Memorial Field cestors map 50 parcel 130 South Arm Massachusetts you ready to go on that one come forward to the table hi good evening just introduce yourself for the record and tell us how we can help you with this uh these licenses certainly uh Christopher Schultz I'm the producer of the Cape Cod Pirate festival which I produce uh through my company new latitude events uh on behalf of pirates and Patriots of Cape Cod and uh basically we are looking to host the event again this will be our fourth time for this event uh for the past two years we've been doing it at the old Drive-In site which is currently under renovation and construction so it's not available to us this year uh and the only practical alternative that we found was the Joshua Sears field just across the street which we're hoping to be able to use this year for our event for our two weekends okay um so it's pretty much going to be the same operation just a change of site correct correct and just for the sake of the people out there the Josh shears field um is the field outside of was behind the old Ezra Baker School um it's behind the old s simkin school I'm sorry what I say is our Baker I got to hang up on Baker my daughter works here Simpkins behind there and in adjon also to the uh now the uh Bridgewater State University which used to be the Lawrence car shorthand where we where we have the uh Fall Festival yeah exactly it's exactly going to be in the same general footprint yes when you be using pretty much that same area yes okay um any change in um the production at all no aside from a few different entertainment acts we're still going to be uh posting uh four different stages of entertainment throughout the day um live entertainment at each location uh some of it music some of it magic some variety some comedy uh we're excited that this year we're opening up our uh kids Cove which we've had children's activities before but this is the first time we're going to have a dedicated area with stem focused nautical focused crafts we've partnered with the Cape Cod Maritime Museum in hyanis and they're going to be conducting programming in that space uh as well as uh crafts games and entertainment for them um so that's a nice addition for this year and we're going to be locating our treasure stage which is basically our family entertainment stage right next to that which will be near the front gate um aside from that we're looking to uh basically keep things the way they have been there's not a lot of extraordinary growth we're going to have some of the same games we're not going to have any rides this year but we are going to have uh many of the games that we had last year uh and I'm excited for the new entertainment that we're bringing in as well okay um approximately how many people do you get that where they buy a ticket to get general admission ticket to get in yes yes um how are the last couple years sales what kind of numbers were well I'll tell you over the past uh three years we're actually really excited we've seen 150% growth year-over-year in our audience and we've had a great audience retention uh we 128% audience retention which means the people who come to the show come back um and what's really exciting about it is about half of the folks who come to the festival are local residents who live in the midc cape or in the lower upper Cape areas and half of them come from off cape and several of them actually come from out of state which I think is really great uh our first year we saw about a thousand people um and it has grown dramatically each year and we're we're hoping to see more this year I think we're we're hoping to get between uh we're hoping to get for about 1,500 to 2,000 a day ideally how many, 1500 to 2,000 1500 to 2,000 well that's that's a good numbers um so we're talking for hours and I'm going to read that the notice to make sure we get everything right here June 1st which is a Saturday Sunday June 2nd and then Saturday June 8th and Sunday June 9th 10:30 :0 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on each of those days yes sir and alcohol service is to be between the hours of 10:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. correct um okay I should have read probably read this and at the beginning of our dialogue but let me get it into the record right now T Yama select board special alcohol entertainment license hearing the armor select board acting as the local license licensing Authority has received an application from Christopher Schultz for special all alcohol license and a special entertainment license for Cape Cod Pirate festival at the Joshua Sears Memorial Field assessor map 50 parcel 130 South the arm Mass on Sat on Saturday June 1 2024 Sunday June 2 2024 Saturday June 8 8 2024 and Sunday June 9th 2024 between the hours of 10:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. on each of those days Alcohol Services to be between the hours of 10:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. on each of those days entertainment will include a public show live music concert uh amplification system theatrical exhibition Andor stage play hearing will be held on Tuesday May 7th um at the 2024 Yarmouth Town Hall 11:46 throughout 28 South Yarmouth selectman uh meeting begins at 6:00 p.m. written comments will be accepted until 4:30 p.m. Friday May 3rd 2024 in the town administrator's office at town hall or can be submitted electronically to public comment at ym. us verbal comments will be accepted at the hearing before I break away to the um other board members um Bob do we get any written comments on this either way I'm looking [Music] through not the we received one block from tugboats no all my comments are for tugboats for Mr chairman may I ask a question certainly me um I see Chief Lennon in the uh audience and when I look at my paperwork here I see response from the fire department and the health department but I do not see a a response from the police department and I just wanted to hear from the chief as to the um Chief uh I mean the uh police department's um feelings on this [Music] event good evening Uh I that paperwork generally goes to Lieutenant Bryant so I don't know why there's not a signature on it but I can say in the past uh we have approved it and there have been no issues with the private festival at the locations that they've had it at so I don't have any objection to it right now but I can I can sign it for you right now if you want me to so it's official no that's a and just one other question are there police details that are um assigned to that event yes if there's alcohol service there's a police detail there great thank you very much Chief welcome many many police offic that depends on the crowd so you will add as needed I think for the sake of the public that might be uh listening there was a question that came from the audience um that was answered by the chief and it was a question as to what the number uh of the police detail would be and the chief's response was that is determined by the number of um attendees at the event correct corre thank you I see you got all the tip cards and with your your application which is nice to see um from uh bo of Health just says all food vendors must apply for a temporary food permit one month prior to the event um and the health department will inspect all food vendors that's their only comment um tent and sign tent and sign permits need approval um that's not signed but I'm sure that's probably from the building department um fire department says they support the event has presented in in your in your packet they they reserved right to require Fire EMS details should the attendance rise above Pro projected level so it's the same thing with Chief was saying what the requirements going to be just going to depend upon what the occupancy um level is going to be or attendee as as darkus say the attendee level U no overnight fires for cooking and uh maintain fire department access access per 527 cmr1 chapter 18 that's those fires comments I don't see any other comments from any other board so I think from a board point of view everything's looking good um questions comments let's go with Peter um I hope you have a very successful event do you have any have any rain dates in mind cuz you didn't list any in here we don't um we actually ran into that issue last year the we our first weekend was pretty much a wash out because of the weather we had that Micro Burst and we were not able to open on our opening day because we prioritized the safety of our attendees and the safety of our staff and venders um the wind was just unacceptably dangerous so we did not open that day um the second day we did open we ended up closing early because again the wind was pretty pretty aggressive so we effectively only had one good weekend last year um but we don't plan we try to go rain or shine we don't really have dates because a lot of our performers are traveling they tour to other shows um so after they leave us they travel to North Dakota Texas Arizona wherever they're happen to have their next booking I wish you all a success in the world thank you dorus uh actually I had my question answered thank you good luck with your event thank you thank you Mr chairman I don't have any questions okay when when you time my rain or shine you should have said hey we're talking about Pirates here right it's exactly right sh come on guys are tough people out in the high seas it's true it's true um okay I'll have a I'll entertain a motion on this application I think you have some people in the public oh do I speak oh I'm sorry whoever wants to speak publicly come forward go wait to the mic talk about the parking Larry will parking in our lot hi I'm Mary Jane sakis I live at the simpkin school residences um we have to speak about number one what Arrangements have you made for parking we came up with an arrangement with the uh director of the Cape Cod collaborative and we have permission to use their parking lot in the back and the field Beyond um I Heard It mentioned from the crowd concerns about Simkins that was one of the conditions for our applications that we had a plan for that and we're actually planning on barricading that road that passes through so that anybody coming to our space won't be trying to drive through and park there um the uh we will have traffic attendance directing people to park and we are charging for parking as well so as okay but they're not coming through Simkins area no no they'll be coming in through the Bridgewater State area that was that was 28 correct okay all right we will have signs out in front indicating that that's the entrance for the pirate festival so people know um and there won't be any directions we in fact I specifically went out of my way not to say that the event is being held in the field behind simpkin school because that has been used a lot in the past and as a result people look for simin school and they parked your lot yes they do and and so well that's that's one that's the reason why we specifically said it's being held at the Joshua Sears Memorial Field which when you put it into your GPS it shows up there and it shows the entrance by Bridgewater State so people won't be getting and there'll be signage around with people would come yes okay um that that is at least good news because um we continue to struggle with people have events baseball um especially the the the seaside Festival you know um even the the tenants take the money and then say go park in the parking lot I mean so please make sure that they're all well trained yes we will and again like I said we're going to be directing people to park in the space behind Bridgewater School the the Bridgewater school right now and that field beyond that um and if there is any overflow we have indicated that we'd be directing them to the vacant Lots over here which are not going to be in service during that day but we don't expect there to be that much overflow based on the parking we've had in the past the area over there that we've dedicated for parking should be more than sufficient okay I know that something that strikes fear into all of us is this idea of liquor from 10:30 in the morning um it's it's it's a concern I think of of most of us um I don't know I don't know that I speak for everybody but I know my own feelings are you know um when you put liquor into the mix people are less likely to follow their rules and they get very casual and I would be concerned that we have enough police um supervision even in towards our direction as well um because we remain hopeful that things will go smoothly and I wish you success I'm concerned also about the noise and we do have people who are veterans and I understand that you shoot can cannons off it periodically we have for the past couple of years we are not going to have cannons this year okay that I know that our vets will appreciate that so will my dog um um I I think I've covered everything I need to cover because I I want to know that you know these are being taken care of is there a way of contacting the powers that be you or whoever else is in charge if we find that we need to contact somebody absolutely um so we will have people on staff uh who will be present during the day that if uh you need to reach somebody physically in person you can always approach our box office or somebody on staff there um however more efficiently if you need to um the email address on our website goes directly to me that's my email address so you can reach me through that if there's any issues would you be willing to give me that email of course of course um you can email ask buuck ask Buck ask bu CK CK at Cape Cod pirate fest.com thank you you're welcome okay um I'm all set hi my name's uh Deb Tustin uh I've been a resident probably for 11 years now um mostly at uh simin schools um I think if this event was a source of relief for so needs I probably support it but clearly this is an attempt to an event to hold Simpson schools residences once again at the mercy of functions that take away our space for parking adding live music concert amplification system none of which adds enchantment to living at 134 old main would you welcome that noise in your neighborhood all alcohol license beginning at 10:30 a.m. how do you control the supplies to miners if I leave my handicapped space to do errands visit family Etc what prevents Festival attendees taking a handicap space that I need and use every day events like this people who are totally with the festival activities should not be subject to the noise the booze and no parking options can you find another venue apparently the old Drive-In properties out of out of it uh tasty Buffet area but why in my backyard I mean the simin residences is a very nice quiet area we have these things come in on weekends and again the biggest biggest problem is we have no parking and people get in there and we say to them you know well that's where I usually park in that handicap space and they go and they just go off and walk so there's a lot of things that I think and not trying to be detrimental about the activity itself I mean I think it's great but it's like not in my backyard you got to you got to be able to find another place we have the uh baseball kids which are great to come in we kind of almost have them figured out now where they should Park so they don't just whip into a parking space and somebody gets out with a cane to try to get to their place it's just that that area of Simkins school should not have to cater to projects that go on that's not how it was built that's not what I pay for so essentially that's my feelings any comments anybody I agree I got a question do it you have to go over there I think well it's a simple question don't take your G I don't need a game just be careful uh Su some con school too retiree and we like it there and it's it is quiet uh again it's the parking that seems to be the issue here of course um I guess my question is is this something you were planning to have every single year in the same location or are your plans in the future to go back to um the movie theater place where they're working you said right what do they I can answer that I mean our plan was to go back to the drive-in this year we actually submitted the paperwork very early on and we were told that the space was not available and we did look at other locations um but this was the only one that was practical for us So the plan is I'm sorry what other locations uh there are some other locations throughout the town I'm not really able to disclose there were some private property areas that we were looking at but there really wasn't anything that uh um would have worked for us for this year So the plan is to do it this year with the goal of moving back to the drive-in because it's being designed as an event space specifically to host functions like this so there's a possibility that next year next June or whatever you could move back into that space as long that would be the plan unless we can come across a unless we can find a way to work with the town to find a permanent site that we might be able to take a lease out on which is something we'd love to do but uh for the time being um where using those those spaces well both Fields actually are in proximity to the museum too you know the Pate Museum and I know when the you know tourists come that's one of the first places they want to go so um but that that was my own question to see if you had plans to put it back to the movie it depends on what they end up doing currently Our intention yes is to move back to that drive Insight okay thank you Mr chairman question the question that came up was about parking and I believe that he discussed that the parking is going to be behind um Bridgewater not not at the school and in terms of the alcohol service the everybody who's serving alcohol is tip certified and so I they've had they've had good control when it's been at the drive-in site and I would assume um that they would continue to have good control at the at the at the school site thank you Peter no I don't want to get it back and forth I'll let you speak but not it's not not not I want to talk to him for a minute so you you're familiar with the seaside Festival I am so in terms of the parking layout the areas that are going to be used how are they similar to are different from what occurs at the seaside Festival certainly give me a visual on that so yes they parked I'm just giving you an example yes they parked at Town Hall yes they will be allowed to park at Town Hall this time or town hall has let us use that area to charge for parking no they will not be doing that this time give me an idea of that comparison of course So the plan for the parking right now is as I mentioned is to barricade the road going over to so that people are not traveling through that space um and to put signage out by the entrance of the Bridgewater campus that is uh pretty much right across from town hall that says that's the entrance to the festival we will have people with flags directing the traffic to the parking area behind the building uh the parking area that's currently used by the collaborative in the school yes that parking area and we have permission to use the the small field which is beyond that for additional parking um there's the the paved parking area and then there's a a field behind that which we have permission to park in that as well um the differences in attendance I would say the difference between us and seaside Festival Seaside Festival is really sort of a one weekend event so they get everything kind of in there at once whereas we're spread out so we don't see the same kind of numbers on a daily basis so I'm not anticipating the need for a great deal of overflow uh if there is they would be directed across the street to the town uh to the town hall parking lot is anybody going to be in control of our for meing the town hall facilities or is that kind of Open Season so I have parking attendants who will be directing people in through from the street to park and directing people to where they should Park once they're on the grounds um if that area fills up then we would move those parking attendants out of that space and to direct them across the street if we needed to use that space But as I said I don't anticipate having to you don't anticipate eating the town hall space I don't think so the field is is more than adequate and based on the parking that we had at uh the drive-in site when we used that it's pretty much the same footprint in terms of the space that those Vehicles would take up um I don't expect us to need much more space than that and we are going to be using the spaces directly in front of the main gate directly in front of the school there are a series of parking spaces I forget the number of them but those are going to be designated for handicap parking for people who need accessible uh parking or access to the front gate from there um that won't be General parking General parking will be directed towards the back of the building and and is the back parking paid parking yes how much is that it's $5 a car per day yes okay uh tcus going to go to you no other questions thank you Mark no I don't have any other questions okay there was a lady that wanted to be heard why don't you go up to the microphone again sorry uh again I'm Mary Janes and AIS I live at Simkins um what are you doing for trash uh we've already arranged we we were actually going to have a dumpster dropped off by a local supplier um but we've actually arranged with the collaborative to make use of their dumpster and we're going to pay for the extra polls so we'll be we have ground we have ground crew who'll be working the grounds and picking up the trash we'll have trash barrels throughout the space um and then each night we pull the trash or as needed we pull the trash put it in the dumpster and then the uh dumpster company will come and take it where is the dumpster going the dumpster is already there it's the one that's on site at the school okay okay thank you you're welcome think you're using the same vendor correct yeah and they gave us permission to use their dumpster as long as we pay for the removal service uh when they pull the trash so that that's what we'll do I understand anyone else okay do I have a motion on this on application I make a motion um to approve the special all alcohol license and special entertainment license Christopher Schultz Cape Cod private festival at Joshua se's Memorial Field assessors map 50 parcel 130 South Yarmouth Massachusetts I second for the for the dates for the dates listed second um any further discussion is the board prepared to vote on this hey all those in favor of the motion signify by saying I I I anyone oppos signify F say nay so the eyes have it 4 to zero um one member is absent thank you thank you very much y out there with my camera taking pictures of people illegally [Music] Park we have now a um we'll get when Dorcas gets back the next item is going to be a uh Communications discussion on fire police Regional dispatch we'll hold off on that for another 5 minutes or so till dcus gets back so how'd you do okay yeah did you get everybody these are yeah ConEd we were meeting the the program director for for major funding source yeah hopefully I don't have a cof thank you folks very nice to meet you okay goodin I'm looking forward to it I am too I'm very interested I mean need to have this kind cold or allergies allergies allergies killing me I think she's allergic to me yes it's very high alert today bad sounds worse than it is so I apologize no in advance not much you can do about it lot that's why okay we are ready Mr ch before we jump right in I just want to say that we've sort of organized this discussion to have kind of a a a two-step process that we were interested in I'm hearing from our our Communications team which I I'd like to welcome Paul chuffy IT director Lori Sullivan our communications director um to have a discussion about the public Outreach template to support the public policy decision making of the town uh generally and some very exciting items that they're going to be going over and then um we also have our our Chiefs on hand to talk about some of the immediate next steps for the Regional Emergency uh Communications Outreach um efforts and and hopefully meld those all together so um with that I hand it over to the communications team thank you U first of all thank you to the board for having us tonight to review the town's communication program I'm Paul chofy director of uh Information Technology Lori Sullivan the communications manager last year uh the select board presented to the town their goals for the year and goal number three was to develop a communication plan and increase the Civic engagement uh and and Implement of a Communications program that was the beginning of the town's communication uh plan on September uh 2023 lorri Sullivan was hired as our first Communications manager charged with the development of yam's communications plan tonight we would likely quick summarize why that was necessary how it was implemented how it's measured and finally how it can be applied and leveraged on tonight's topic the Emer uh the Regional Emergency Communication Center starting with why we need to look uh why I'm sorry starting uh with the why we need to take a quick look back at the really um not so distant future and let's let's take a look at um from where we came from and to where we're going now in the past we had press court that was sitting here in this room during our meetings and they were report on the good and the bad cable stations had a higher view of following and press releases carried a lot of weight both with the press and with media Outlets but things have changed today we in order to get our message out we have to do adopt new ways of communication the almost non-existent local press has been replaced with websites and social media our own channel 8 has had to evolve to include rebroadcasting on YouTube and Facebook as well as streaming to really to reach more people press releases are bolstered with post rails stories and memes local media coverage is only being done by a few brave souls and in a very limited quantity this is why the select board has this as one of the top six priorities and thus the creation of the comprehensive communication plan this plan is flexible and robust enough to communicate to our residents information about recycling such as our program that we have recycling with Roby and it's also able to handle more complicated programs such as our Wastewater construction program it's always evolving and tonight we hope to show you how much it has impacted our community Lori is now going to walk through some of the steps used to gather and communicate information so the first thing that we do when we attack a um a communication issue that a message that we want to put out to the public is we listen to the ask so we start by actively listening to the needs goals and expectations of the Stak holder what is the timeline how heavy is the left the next thing that we do is we come up with a plan we spend time outlining a communication plan that aligns with those needs and those goals we consider what messaging platforms will work best and we focus on what the key messages are who is the audience what is the frequency of the message and is it something that has to be shared daily weekly or monthly or once when we develop develop that plan once we have that framework we develop detailed content materials that fit that that specific um ask we tailor all messages to resonate with the audience and we take into consideration what style it will have will it be casual or serious message both are delivered obviously differently then there's engagement before we launch the communication project we encourage two-way communication by inviting feedback suggestions and questions from the stakeholder after the plan is launched we use feedback received through the engagement process and make the necessary adjustments to improve the communication Effectiveness we address any concerns or issues raised promptly and transparently and finally the fun part is measuring the results we use metrics and analy and analytics to measure the impact of our communication efforts were we successful what did we hear from the public did we achieve our goals what could we have done differently and better we analyze the results to identify areas of improvement and success and use this data to refine future communication strategies communication of information is is vital to a healthy Community transparency of issues helps ensure a well-informed constituency we kind of liking communication to a puzzle there are a lot of pieces that make up the whole picture and communic the pieces of the puzzle are tools such as meetings videos interviews Flyers tweets rails stories signs posters it goes on and on frequently asked questions so there's a whole a lot of them here we have listed uh the tools that we use to communicate out to our town residents as well as thousands of others as you'll see soon see these tools also help us to measure our efforts by documenting how many folks have seen the information we post and give the people a way to to comment and have their and voice their uh opinions as well as their concerns so in order to get the results that we are looking for in a communication strategy there are lots of platforms that we use to deliver our message no matter how big or how small the ask is these pieces are always part of the communications puzzle the first piece of the puzzle is almost always the website the website serves as a central hub for all Town information including projects meetings election information and press releases with over a million views and nearly 370,000 users it is clear that residents rely heavily on this platform for their information the next three pieces of the puzzle revolve around social media engagement we will start with Instagram despite being relatively new our Instagram account has shown promising growth with 158 followers and significant reach in the past 90 days here we share reals stories memes and posts that we feel will connect with Yarmouth residents and tie in with the message that we are trying to deliver while Instagram is growing Twitter remains a valuable platform as well for reaching a broader audience and Gathering feedback but it has been Facebook that has been the standout social media performer for the town experiencing a 54% growth in followers reaching more than 71 100 followers and engaging with a substantial audience of more than 149,000 people we are always sharing updating and carefully selecting the content that we put on our pages and our use of videos photos Graphics memes and press releases on social media have been effective in engaging the audience especially our younger demographic to give you an example the notify me campaign for Wastewater which included a me M had 4,700 views on Facebook and more than 1,600 on Instagram this meme was instrumental in getting more residents to sign up for notify me and it worked so well that we in fact ran out of licenses and we are in the process of getting more for the Town Live Events and educational videos have also played a part in our messaging whether it is the execution of a town meeting or the organizing of a groundbreaking or the production of an informative video we have made sure to leave no stone unturned leveraging platforms like Channel 8 and YouTube to broadcast these events and to showcase our video productions helps us reach a wide audience as well as fostering transparency if the select board wants a peak into how the residents feel on a particular topic all you have to do is sign up for Facebook Instagram and Twitter and look for the comments you can also do that when you go to our YouTube page the comments usually follow all of the Town meetings it is a good gauge to see how people are feeling about a certain topic and finally we are really excited about the upcoming upcoming town app and hope that it will further streamline communication by centralizing information and providing notifications and alerts directly to Residents mobile devices giving them accessibility at their fingertips and before we wrap up I want to just reiterate some of the numbers we just presented Facebook is up 54% to over 7100 followers visits are up 17.9% to 32,000 plus uh visits our reach has grown 67.5% to over 149,000 people but the most impressive thing for me was our website year to date we've had 307,000 unique visitors to the website and over a million 1,170 th000 views people are listening to what's happening in yth people are turning to Facebook Channel 8 YouTube Twitter Instagram and our website for information I believe a good indication of this was just at our town meeting last week look how smoothly the meeting went people knew what was on the warrant and had good information and had solid information on each articles to make a well-informed decision if you want to know what's going on in town follow us on Twitter Twitter Instagram or visit our website the Regional Emergency Communication Center proposal will be supported by the same uh communication public Outreach template and will'll make sure that the public is fully aware of what's going on and we just want to thank you for that this time to share with you some of those figures and numbers may I ask a question you may um first of all I want to say you did a great job for town meeting I mean all those little video presentations were great it's you know personalizing the whole thing I think you know getting the information out but kind of tonight we heard from V moris asking about candidates night and um I I did bring that up well just interestingly while you've been speaking I went to the town website and um I put into to search candidates night and what comes up is state representative candidates Night Flyer October 13 7 p.m. so it doesn't have the most current information and I'm just thinking you know this is where I'm talking about you know different things that we have like candidates night something really quick that needs to be on the web you like okay it's decided today that we're going to have it on the 15th at six how soon can we get it up and on the website so people can at least know where and when Sur that's a great question and to answer it it's simply this when when we first know about it it gets immediately posted at several different places it goes on the website and it'll be pushed out at social media at all levels this is the first we I've heard of candidates and I know we've heard about the talk about it taking place but we haven't been notified by it once we are notified and the date is such a short time period we'll make uh Lori is on it immediately using all our resources to make sure folks here and and understand what's going on it'll be up tomorrow it and it will be up tomorrow for sure I I Mr chairman if I could I know that Canada is is run by the chamber not not by the town um but we link to the chamber's website so we should be able to we should be able to if I'm searching and I searched just like Dorcas did I couldn't find it um we should be able to find the stuff from you know that's on the chambers website too because we pay them a ton of money to help link and run you know communication within the town in addition Miss Miss Morris asked about the the aliens that were staying with us um several of which are uh citizens of the United States from the from Puerto Rico um and I had received notification in a couple of different places but I couldn't find it on on our website the town website and and I know early on we were posting updates on a regular basis and I I didn't see anything so you know that's um we did um put out a press release that that they were being moved on the 23rd and 24th and it should it should be up on the website I know we did Bob and I work together on a press release specifically for that right I believe I saw the I saw the press release but not not on the website and I couldn't find it maybe maybe um the search functions need to be need to be enhanced in in some way shape or form and and Lori and Paul I'll leave that to you CU that's over my pay grade well there was a conversation this week as we're looking at this new application that's going out uh with the engine of Civic uh plus which is our web hosting company and these are some of the topics that we did have the discussion with how do we optimize our search how do we take the data that we presented tonight and how do we leverage that to make it easier and quicker for folks to get the information that they need and that's one of the reasons why delivering to the handheld CU we're looking at 48% of everybody working on our website are using uh their mobile phone so we're we're moving ahead with this new app to help that situation as well as refined search engines one other comment I do want to make uh one of the things about communication it doesn't matter who folks are uh or what they what they do such as the chamber and the town this should be we have started to work closely with the chamber with Communications one of the big things is Wastewater we just got out a meeting with them Friday how can we help them notify all of um you know the chambers members of information so we work uh closely with Mary we also work something else that's that's happened uh in the in since September one of the things we spoke with for example the police and fire have great websites that they utilize and what we weren't doing was cross-pollinating some of that information so lari takes many times in in our social media we do likes to make sure that folks are seeing what's on the police and what's on fire um websites also and we're doing that with many of the Departments who have their own website the process is to overcommunication little um isolation uh now if one thing comes up it goes across all of our all of our communication goes across all the website all the tools that we use everybody will get an announcement one one last comment um I don't see Tik tock on here and I I realize I realize there's um our good friends in Washington want the Chinese company to sell it um and Tik Tock has filed a lawsuit saying it's unconstitutional stuff but that that's one of the one of the largest growing social media sites in the world right now and I you know I would think that if it's considered kosher if you will that we should be linking to that as well let me put my it hat on for a moment um due to some of the known cyber security risks with the application itself until it's can be proven uh I I we hesitate going to tick tock for the cyber security reason only again over over my over my pigra and and a comment like that I I take you know very very much to heart and you know there's any any kind of issue like that no you do not want to be involved in and believe me we've looked at it we we have looked at it and taken a deeper dive to and we're constantly reviewing any type of soci social media application that might help us reason why we we didn't have Instagram up to I think 3 months ago the reason why we did it we we're missing a demography that we really wanted to reach who use Instagram um and we saw that it worked simply when we put out one meeme for um notify me notify me I mean 1,600 hits on that was pretty quick and pretty high pretty fast so we we know we we'll we'll analyze any type of media that we can use to to our benefit one last one look at i' I've seen a lot of comments recently uh from DPW about road closures and and work this stuff you've done but I haven't seen any of that stuff on the website but I've I've seen it noted outside probably on Facebook because I I do look at Facebook is is that something that would be it is actually on the website I'm commenting very positively on DPW that that this stuff is is out there and I've seen it yeah we're working hand inand with DPW as a matter of fact we've we' have a collaboration with ways currently knowing that we have an issue we have we're going to have a lot of street closures we actually can edit ways in our local area and and keep it up to date so um it is on the website also if you go to Wastewater and you look at the contract they're broken right now there's only two contracts functioning if you look at each of the contracts you have ways and you have all that information located on that page right okay you just told me how to get there I should be able to go to the website and go road closures and take me to it I don't shouldn't have to go have to go and search you know specifically I I it should it should be again that was my comment about opening opening up opening up you know your search function and stuff sure well taken and we're working on that the other thing is the new app will help facilitate those pushes down quickly to the handheld of device and last comment I I think all of this is very positive to to move forward with this stuff and I'm looking forward to the impli implication of all of this thank you Peter Mark uh thanks Mr chairman um just to for the folks that might be watching at home just a quick reminder um that you know it was this board that really insisted on having an overall Communications upgrade having a Communications plan having a communications director and having a real emphasis and focus on developing tools and Technologies improving our website and improving our overall effort in terms of keeping the public informed about what's going on so it's always good to get an update in terms of how we're how we're doing how we're working on it so but for folks that are following this this is all happening because we insisted on it and we have an administrator that's been very diligent in making sure that uh our goals and our initiatives are being implemented um I think it's great that we've got very capable people at the helm in this effort um you know when when I first first elected to the board I used to complain about Channel 8 being the sex offender Channel because that was the only stuff that was on the channel was basically information about sex offenders there was really nothing on it that gave you any insight in terms of what Yarmouth was all about as a community aside from you know the public meetings that we would held so um I applaud any and all efforts to turn the channel 8 uh into a more robust program programming uh for things to help people understand what's going on not just in terms of official government but in terms of where government in the community overlap and uh I think by using it in recent years to help people get educated on some of the things that we're doing at town meeting I think has been a a helpful addition um and I think the comments that you made Paul in the very beginning about why we as a board insisted on doing this is because of the changes in the regular media um we used to have select board meetings and have two two reporters here and usually a story the next day um I can recall you know not too long ago when the cape had two TV stations Channel 11 and channel 58 uh Don Moore had the uh had the wisdom to invest in a channel 58 and that was here for a while so sometimes we would have two reporters a radio uh person and one or two cameras in the room and if we had something really important who knows who else you might see here so the whole business of communicating to the public and helping inform the public has changed uh dramatically in recent years and um I think we I I think we just have to realize we're going to be playing catchup in many cases we're just not going to be a unless we get into the newspaper business and I don't see that happening but I think it's really challenging for us and that's why I think it's good to come periodically and have these discussions so that we can explore ways that we can um or explore new ways and different ways on on how we can get the word out in terms of what we're doing um it's it's it it is it is a huge challenge the other challenge with respect to communication is what I call public involvement um one of the things that you'll notice is that when we do um public hearings on some of our decisions um you know we will ask the administrator for copies of emails you know now this is a relatively new phenomenon right email at least Le you know in a in a broader sense but now when we make decisions the chair is asking what's the email traffic on it and we get copies of emails and now I think what we're going to have to start thinking about is when we use other forms of technology that provide input or comment on decisions that are up for review in public engagement we need to figure out how do we catalog that information how do how do we if we're going to use these tools to invite comments how do we collect that information and make that part of the administrative record so when the board is looking at uh having to make a decision and having public involvement we have not just emails but we have information about public concerns from a variety of sources I think that's going to be the next challenge for our it Communications team so that when you know in in the near future when we take up let's say a decision on you know this Regional U Regional Dispatch Center or any other decision the library um you know we want to make sure that we're hearing from the whole cross-section of the community and it's good that we we we get this because you know just the the traditional normal form of holding a meeting holding a hearing and almost demanding or inviting people to come to the podium stand up and speak is just one very narrow way of hearing from the public it's an important one nonetheless but it's a very very narrow one there are other people that are prefer to use other forms of Engagement so I think it's good to do that the other thing that I think we need to do is also when we talk about stakeholder engagement there going to be times when we actually want to rather than wait for the stakeholders to emerge almost go after stakeholders identify stakeholders go through a process of identifying who they might be and in some cases engaging them bringing them in and inviting them to participate that that that that's another challenging area so I'm glad that tonight we're doing a quick review of some of our tools and I look forward to uh the next discussion on how we're going to integrate some of these tools and utilize them for this Regional Emergency uh Communications uh Dispatch Center so I'm I'm I'm ready for that Mr chairman when you are thank you um for the in the interest of time I don't want to repeat everything Mark but I'm in general Accord with his statements both in terms of the problem in messaging the problem in getting the word out to the public what what is being done and and um what is being done to coordinate these messages throughout the various Avenues available to us um and what be what are the challenges that lie ahead I'm glad this was presented in a puzzle format because that's really where we are it's a very realistic um metaphor um however I think that you know going back in terms of the history of all this what Mark said with the virtual disappearance of print media you had to start somewhere we had to start somewhere in terms of um alternative means of communication and I don't think in the best of all possible worlds you're going to put through some instant um well-coordinated um well synchronized it's going to be kind of Hit and Miss for a while you you know because you're trying to do business as you go along you're not in the laboratory experimenting with what's the most effective we got to get this word out on this issue we got to get the word out of this issue and you do what you can but now I think you're taking a step back and and and looking at this through the right perspective as to you know what are the challenges how have we met them how can we do it better and what are the challenges that remain that have not been met yet and um uh like Mark I'm very impressed so far with what the work has been done by you folks and under the um management of Our Town Administrator and I I look forward to this process uh evolving um successfully over time thank you thank you thank you all right right with that um you know we're still evolving Outreach on Regional Communications we we have outlined some um next step and we have the there may be some value Bob in just having everybody here at the table I I I would recommend that Lorie stay and Paul stay because this is really it involves everybody if that's okay we can sit back here oh could you sit at the table by the mic please abely right on the hot seat Paul right there no CU there's both substance and the other aspects of this we got to get on and I'll say right off the B our first messaging challenges in terms of the the subject right we we're calling it an emergency Communication Center yet I see other slides where we calling it a regional Dispatch Center so that's one of the things we can work on in terms of what we're going to call this [Music] topic controls so now that I've got the remote I've got the power and and and I and I like that um so what we want to talk about are some of the regional dispatch Outreach next steps critical issues that that we hope to solve and and work with and it'll be interesting to talk about how that fits into the puzzle Matrix um of of Outreach that we've talked about through Communications and first and foremost um for members of the board of Selectmen and requested a tour of um a successful emergency Operation Center and we have that set up for uh May 15 we're going to be taking a tour of the Old Colony Regional em emergency communications center um and meeting with their Center director to talk about um how they implemented that program how it serves the the communities and that is scheduled for May 15 and um we're going to meet at the Yarmouth PD at 950 try to get on the road by 10:00 and I think we'll have um transportation um aligned for that day yes sir um the election is coming up the week after and there's going to be two new two new board members and I think you need to have either postponed this one or have a second one um so the new board members can can see what's going on as well I have I have communicated with the uh the director of the the rock up in ducksbury and this is our first uh tour that we're going to do and I told him that there would probably be a followup and he he said he would accommodate that for us good ab thank you so that that's our first um step in and also working with the communications team um what we're doing right now is creating a project website that is going to have all of the relevant information surrounding the issue of the emergency communication um and and we're also going to include a frequently asked questions piece and we're going to um fit that into the The Matrix of our social media to try to drive people to share information uh at that website so we're going to um ramp up that and we've got um additional reports in now um the that we feel will create um a very interactive um form of information that that demonstrates um a lot of the issues associated with the um emergency communications and in addition to that um we're going to work on an in-person educational forum and we're going to support that also through through the Matrix through through the website through the social media and we're going to be requesting comments and suggestions and and I I think that this brings to Bear one of the critical issues that surrounds I I I think Lori best described the the slide that breaks down each issue and each Outreach um you know project that that we um go off on and and I think that um you want to go now after you after you finish your comment I've got a comment okay great now um each individual project is unique uh especially each public policy initi initiative that comes before the board of Selectmen for decisions and um it's not a simple process that's one size fits all I think what's critical what we've learned in our sessions since we've um opened up these discussions is that the um the standard features that state the same are those puzzle pieces and it's how they're implemented that really shapes the um the issue and a perfect example is when you get into a a complicated uh policy issue such as the emergency communications um it's it does not lend itself to uh a simple survey process um you can't ask people in the community do you favor having a Regional emergency communications it it makes no sense whatsoever what um people need to be engaged around are the issues of the Excellence in our emergency response in the community and and I think that the the values that these professionals hold um line up kind of with the values of the community uh in terms of people are looking for um the highest level of experience with emergency communications the fastest response time the most professional response and and those are are are the issues that what we want to engage local residents around is evaluating our current um emergency communication system which not a lot of people quite frankly know the details about and organizing around uh potential benefits um potential concerns issues with a new system a regional system what may be gained um what may be at risk and and involve people in discussions around around those points and when we're able to present I I think the the largest issue is to present this technical information in ways that members of the public uh can um understand uh it's it's not you know just huge dense reports breaks down the various issues opens up lines of communication and a back and forth that enables local residents to be in a position to have comments to the board uh to the Chiefs that um represent viewpoints and and I I think that the the overall feeling is that by engaging uh local residents around that discussion of the quality of services and the response times that's when we'll get the most effective feedback on on an issue like this which is um a little different than say for example the way we approach the um graze Beach where we were being inundated with um you know people from out of town and other areas with too many vehicles in a small space and and that had to be managed and and we um you know were able much more easily to register uh residents concerns around those issues um whereas on the emergency communications a lot of it is the presentation of information so that people better understand what the challenges are there so my comment is Regional Emergency communication you've got town of Yarmouth sandwich and you've got the Seal of of the Town of Barnstable it's misleading in and of itself because it's only the Metropolitan District known as hyenas and that's I think that's very important that because it's just hyenas right now correct uh no it's thece Department it's the barnable police department and Hy's fire Okay so so but that that should be shown you know very very quickly that it's that it's this is what we're covering we're not covering the entire town town of barnable for part of it yes part of it no just you know make sure that those those details of what we're actually covering you know cuz you know someone could say well are we covering Olive sandwich or we leaving out Forest Dale you know cuz all all the all the towns have little Villages and and and I realize that bar Barnstable is is an interesting way they run some of their stuff okay and um other Outreach steps and um also suggested by the board at the last meeting we've um engaged the finance committee I believe the chairman is here although I don't have the best line of sight thank you sir for being here the finance committee um has jumped right in both feet we provided them tremendous amount L of detailed information and they're conducting their own analysis and will be um reporting back to the board of Selectmen on their findings um you know independently but as part of of the overall presentation of information and um we hope to supplement all of our um Outreach with uh some of the data that the the finance committee um is able to uncover in their investigation um and report so um we're very happy to to have um them on as kind of critical stakeholders in our overall public process and um before we move on to that before we move on Mr chairman um is the finance committee going to be able to participate in our field visits as well will they be given the opportunity to join us my hope is is that as we go through this process they have the same information that we have that we're all working from uh the same data set the same information set so that when they're presenting their Rec recommendations we have a general sense I I I don't want to speak for the finance committee but I wouldn't surprise me if the chairman or others may actually have an interest in accompanying us or those of us if there's going to be one or two field visits I think there may be some value in it um so I just want to put that put that out there as something to think about and consider Richard Simon chair of the finance committee yes indeed that was one of my followup notes so if you can make it or any any members on the on the 15th you're invited can I comment on something I know this is we're jumping around and I forgive me for this but I think the Town Administrator made an incredibly important point in the last slide can you just go back to the last slide B you said something that I think is incred that something that we need to really zero in on what's the goal of this and he made the point that and I'm sure it's it's based on discussions with the police chief and the fire chief but it's looking at coming up with the most effective response to emergencies right it's getting to the scene responding getting engaged and doing it quicker to to do it more efficiently right and I think that's something that um if that's the principal goal I think that needs to be we need to figure out a way to stress that in the communications related to this initiative what is the goal of this um in the past for those of us that have been sort of hearing this conversation about dispatch for many many years it was always the conversation was can we get police and fire in Yarmouth to be in the same room to be in the same place and to work together to be nice to do joint dispatch that's always been the conversation so you need to understand that in the community as we're communicating people the frame of reference is very different now we're now talking about a regional center but one of the things I don't think we've really ever really talked much about is the goal of a Communication Center or a Dispatch Center the goal being finding a more effective and efficient way to respond to emergencies that's the goal if that's the goal I think it's important to emphasize that and then when we look at the metrics or make comparisons because you know we all hearing of the other options out there the sheriff wanting to expand or maybe us doing something on our own um you have to get to the point where yes savings are important there's no question about that and those efficiencies but also I think there's going to be huge interest in that goal and so I think I I'm glad Bob mentioned that because uh it's rarely mentioned in the and I'm not being critical of anybody but it's rarely mentioned and I think it's an important point that we can't lose sight of so thank you Bob for bringing that up I just just want to add that our response times now are good so we're uh I don't know if we're going to see a huge increase in that but I think if if you go back to the presentation that the fire chief and I made and I can let the fire chief speak like his Co concern Co the word you were looking for the co- concerns of uh uh the co-occurrence of calls rather uh almost 70% they're handling multiple calls so what a regional center will do for us it will have more people in the room at the same time to handle those calls and take the workload off of the fire department right now because PD runs two dispatchers and a supervisor FD runs one so we're we I don't we don't want to lose sight of that as well like we're looking to put a Communication Center together that's going to alleviate some of the problems that we're seeing right now where they're getting inundated with calls because if you have a fire dispatcher sitting next to a police dispatcher it's going to pick things up a little bit but I don't want the public to think that we're going to decrease our call response tremendously by doing this it's going to improve our overall um performance can I walk you through something Chief um in my f previous role as um as the Director at Heatherwood uh Senior Living Community in town I made frequent calls I and my staff um 2 911 and when we would call in with um let's make the example I have someone that has fallen and potenti has fallen and I dial 911 um we would hear what you know this is 911 what is your emergency and you know you start to say well I've got somebody that's fallen and then we're going to transfer you to Medical please hold on we eventually at Heatherwood knew that the minute we were hearing 911 what's your emergency we just said medical to immediately take us over but this would be one step that would be removed correct with regional center uh no the regional center the well it depends on how the center is set up so if you look at Holbrook if you call into Holbrook they have call takers and then they have dispatchers and the the efficiencies you see in there is the call taker is the one that's taking the actual telephone calls triaging the information and sending it over to the appropriate dispatcher which then leaves the dispatcher free so I'll use police for example if the police dispatcher is working and the call taker is handling the calls coming in that police dispatcher is now free to just handle the radio traffic and I would assume would be the same for the fire as 911 calls are coming and you've someone answering that call taking the information then pushing it over so the person who is talking to either the uh the police department on the police side or the fire department on the fire side you're not trying to do two things at once you're not trying to answer the call and then dispatch information so as they're putting the information into the screen the other dispatchers are reading it and that's the information that they're laying out so it's going to be interesting to go to the Rock and ducksbury and see how they handle it and because right now we have that model in Yarmouth we have uh just for the police department we have a dispatcher that's designated to answer the phone and we have a dispatcher that's designated to use the radio now as call volume increases those tasks commingle but when they come in they pick I'm either in position one or position two and that's how they've set it up that's how they like to to do it so you have a call Taker and you have a dispatcher it also streamlines who's entering information into the computer so they're not stepping on each other when multiple calls come in so it's going to that's how we do it in a very small scale it would just be a larger scale we would have up to six or seven dispatchers working working barible PD Yarmouth PD henus fire Yarmouth fire and that's where you see the efficiencies chief of correct me if from wrong but that's where you see the efficiencies in in moving to this model but let me going back to myself or my staff at the time at Heatherwood when we would call in here 911 what is your emergency in this new process we wouldn't have to be starting to go medical or police we just identify what our problem is and internally your Center would be Des determining where that dispatch should go to so actually there would be less confusion for the person that's making the 911 call CU you know like for instance now instead of going medical I'd just be going we've got someone that's Fallen the information would be taken and then that would be dispatched to the police of the fire so actually from The public's perspective it would be much easier the public should not see much of a change because what we see now too with calls as someone says medical our dispatchers police dispatchers will stay on the line to listen to the call because not everything that comes in in a medical is strictly a medical call we have people to call in and say say medical transfer it over and there's a car accident and somebody's injured M so we are now sending people but the the the flow is going to may change a little bit but it's the increased efficiencies by having uh call takers and then dedicated police dispatchers and dedicated fire dispatchers working uh hand inand actually in the same room so that if Fire gets overwhelmed the police dispatcher can literally turn around and start working we don't have that relationship now because we are dealing with phone system so if Fire gets overwhelmed he could be relatively quiet and fires working a couple ambulance calls and even you know a structure issue we might have someone down there a traffic but they're getting hammered and we have two dispatchers sitting there that can't help them this is now going to take that away and we're going to have people in the same room working together yeah no and and something I like to stress I think we've all said it is all of our dispatchers do a fantastic job I think we've seen the the results of that over the last couple of years they do a great job what we're hoping to do is giving them the ability to do a better job um and a lot of that translates at least in the ambulance side on the fire side is exactly that where they do emergency medical dispatch where they're giving instructions on medical care and at the same time dispatching vehicles to calls and answering other phone calls and dealing with people at the window so again they do a tremendous job it's just going to allow them to split those tasks a little bit and actually uh do things do that part better and also get the vehicles and and and keep track of things uh in a smoother fashion Enrique um on the calls on fall I was reading an article yesterday a town in Missouri has several old folks homes and they're getting so many calls from the old folks homes that they cannot handle local emergencies and what they've finally done is they have told the old folks home you must hire people that can lift people up from the ground we cannot handle our local emergencies are you finding that this is a problem in Yarmouth or is a potential problem in Yarmouth with a lot of calls to Heatherwood and the and similar yeah I I think the volume is there I um you know I think it's it's a demographic thing I mean you're putting a lot of people with with medical care and obviously uh who are older uh who have a tendency to fall and to have those types of issues um and I think we're handling it at this point but the the other issue is uh we have had a lot of discussions with those facilities on on what they can or cannot do for their patients I think they have a lot of uh protocols and and legal requirements as to what they can or cannot do based on the staff that they have uh you know they don't have all you know I want to get too far into the weeds with it but they don't have all uh nursing facilities sometimes they have like a lower level of care who are there to help or to supervise but they don't have any medical training so that's why if they call 911 for help obviously we have to go I I made a call last last year in bar in Barnstable um somebody got somebody a car hit a bicyclist and there were about 15 or 20 of us I immediately pulled over called 911 and and the Barnstable I could hear all the calls coming in off of the same accident and stuff and oh my God I don't see how you guys can handle some of these calls coming in like that cuz I could hear them and you you could hear people you know on the radio you know calling and you know because they're all calling on them for the same accident which is good that they were doing that but it just it's got to call craziness when they're calling in like that when folks are calling in it's better that they call in than not believe me again I think it's important to be clear on the goals and the problems we're trying to fix I think that's clear I I I appreciate all this information I just think as if we're going to be in the public Arena and having the ability to engage the public in this I think it's really important to be clear on what is it we're really trying to accomplish what are the problems that we're trying to solve what's the goal of taking this approach I think we can say it we just need to be able to be focused on it there's so much information that I mean every time we talk about this there's just volumes of it and it's clear that this is a topic that we can either have people's eyes glaze over because it's too overwhelming or or we can find very discret ways to break it down so it's readily presentable and at the end of the day when people hear more about what's going on they can make sense out of it all um I you know I agree with my colleagues the complexity the volume all the other I mean you can get a sense that being in this position is incredibly challenging so I think we need to be able to explain that uh both to the new members of the board ourselves as well but also to the public um I don't think anybody would dispute your assertion about the call about how we handle calls Yarmouth does a great job but that's now part of the problem okay if we're doing such a great job why do we need to make a change you know the old adage if it ain't broke why fix it that's what we're running up against in part of this conversation so that's why it's this is a very challenging exercise and I'm glad um uh members of the board wanted to put this out there and have a discussion about it because this is the challenge that we Face how do we we have two terrific departments in the town of Yarmouth who are engaged in finding a way to reach yet another standard of Excellence and see this approach as a way to get there so we need to figure out what are our goals what are we really trying to accomplish here um and and what are the problems that we're trying to solve uh I I would agree with with you chief that when you look at the demographic um yes we have some problems now but part of this is anticipating the challenges of the future right is that and and you mentioned before Chief at the last meeting about just the intensity and the demands that this puts on Personnel I think that's incredibly important information that um the stress you know having multiple calls on the same call all of these things there just all this information so um it's it's really challenging and I'm glad we're having this discussion tonight about how we're approaching this how we're breaking this down how we work together to present it so it's very digestible easy to understand and we can arrive at a decision Point within a relatively orderly with an orderly process in a fairly rapid amount of time and and the the collateral that we can't forget is there there will be some savings which is which is important the people that are working the phones they will now have ability to for advancement which is which is important um you know so they they're career things that that that are helpful um and it's going to take stress away and and that was that was one of the things that I found very important in the discussion a couple of weeks ago was the stress that would be taken away from the folks that are answering the phones because there's there's going to be more people more people you know covering and stuff and and I I I can't remember the figures but it LO looked like you know the potentiality of two to three to even $4 million worth of savings o over a period of time um which is not nothing to sneeze about I was going to make a snide coming but you were offset some of the cost from the from the school but I wouldn't make a comment like that but also the expertise you know that um as you very um wisely were telling us that the your president presentation you have a a sergeant who is in charge of dispatch um but he's also in charge of other departments at the same time as opposed to if you have a regional Communication System people that's what they do that's what they are trained to do um it becomes much more efficient uh and it gives people an opportunity for advancement the other thing too is and wouldn't hurt for the folks to know this and our uh finance committee of course would jump in on this as well is that looking down the road we're not going to see that monies will be available for an individual 911 system in an individual town that we've seen that going forward where the where the grant monies are going to um we're all of that is really looking at it more from a Regional perspective and also that it's tied back into the cell phones I think shows people that this is a this is money that's going to be around it's not money that's going to be available this year and next year and then suddenly it's going to disappear people have been hearing so much about the covid money and how it was there and then it wasn't there anymore this is going to be completely different than that correct correct and just sorry no no I just wanted to add one thing as important and I don't want to speak on behalf of the police chief but as important as the site visit is to uh to the Rock uh I think it would be also very important for you guys to to visit our local uh come to the Yarmouth fire station and spend spend a few minutes there and you have yeah it's it's impressive I I I'd love for you guys to see it the Yarmouth PD myself it's unbelievable the folks that are there are incredibly talented I can understand the Dem there enormous demands on the Personnel I get it I get done but I I would for those that may have not had that opportunity or for the for the new people that will be coming in I I would agree with you Chief I think it's incredibly important to have that experience I have and I would say that for the 27 years that I was associated with Heatherwood um we had amazing service from both the police and the fire department um never once were we let down in any way I mean it was and we could throw some tough things at the police in fire department I can recall one day when we had uh five calls within 1 hour that came out on 911 from Haw it can happen so that's that's going to be your biggest challenge you have you have a large community of people out there that are incredibly impressed with the work that you do that like what you do that believe in what you do that support what you do and want to help you do what you do all right so that's that's part of the problem right because you want to you want to do things better so we need to be able to paint the picture in terms of what's the problem we're trying to fix what are we trying to address what's our goal so we need to really figure out a way to sort of break down this whole presentation in in ways that people can comprehend it because be it' be a different conversation if you weren't doing a good job right but because you you have such high standards because you train well because you're incredibly responsive that becomes something we need to address I guess it's a happy problem would you call it that no this is not a happy problem and to the chief's credit I I you know I I also want to say I mean a big part of the process is is really bringing out some of the risks that we face um tremendously hardworking highly skilled individuals in all other departments these are career people yet the way we resource the way we coordinate the uh standards that are used um they're not best management practices in this particular industry um the concurrent calls the um problems that that we face as the intensity and level of calls continues to increase at a very rapid rate it really places us at a lot of risk for the future um that you know we haven't had uh the types of uh communication gaps that lead to a lack of service the service is people are working overly hard to to get it done and and so um I've learned a lot from the Chiefs throughout this process of um some of their their goals in terms of having the Professional Standards and best management practices for the communication for for both sides and and I think that there's a very very compelling argument to make and um selectman forest's comments really hit home on on and that needs to be brought out of how these actions now set us up in the future for continued excellence and best management practices at a very high level in areas quite frankly that are life and death so um I I think that that's something that we'll have to focus very strongly and um as the Chiefs continue to focus on on those performance um issues um some of the things that I I think could help the overall policy process process um we we wanted to um make a a presentation um available uh to the board of Selectmen involving Our Town Council who um I feel represented the town extremely well in hammering out some of the details of the intermunicipal agreement and and how that works to create the partnership um some of the benefits of it some of the issues associated with the operation committee but also how it differs from some of the other Regional agreements that we have such as the the Dy school it's really a a a night and day type situation um that I think gives us a little bit less risk um and also the opportunity although it would take a tremendous amount of investment to try to replicate all of this on our own uh the idea that that the town is not tied to it that the town determines its own future if if it wants to pull out if it wants to go another Direction but we feel that that there's benefits to the town for being in an intermunicipal agreement and and how that works and um it was attorney Elizabeth Liden who had experience with um these issues in the past and I thought brought a great deal to the table and and it was our insistence on having the Chiefs represented at the table for all of the performance and protocol issues associated with how dispatching occurs in our community and and a vote on that so um we feel you know for the public but also for the board of Selectmen on some of the mechanics of that intermunicipal agreement how they work especially I think given where there's some new board members coming um some have a lot of experience in these issues others haven't really been too familiar with um you know inter missal agreements how those work so we'd like to um potentially have a presid a and take questions on the specific mechanics of that from a sort of a comparative legal process that um and and so so that's the intermunicipal agreement um another item is that we're um committing to working closely with our regional team we we talked about um keeping everything together and you know with the state and the whole funding process and we have a you know the grant app application that has been filed and with the way the emergency 911 funds are set up is that they place the intermunicipal agreement first which technically should be you know down the road but but they want before they open up their pocketbook they want evidence that you have the agreement in place and we talked about the the timing um trying to get this wrapped up by July but um what we're going to be working on to see is if we can get a little more time to you know fully vet out um a lot of the community outreach and you know we feel potentially where um there is an intermunicipal agreement currently between uh two of the three members that that that may be enough uh to sustain the the state funding while we continue the Outreach and that we can set it up so that um hopefully we don't have a a you know a really quick drop dead date but that Yarmouth can do all of the Outreach that we need to do to ensure that that people fully understand this and that we vet it and we're not under an artificial time crunch and but but that's something that we we'll be working with the regional team we've expressed to them um our values in terms of the Outreach and and the board's input and so we're committed I just want to say we're committed to that and we're trying to make make that happen and happen and put the timing in association with it and um also I just want to say you know on behalf of the communications team um you know we we've sat and um Sarah's hiding in the back there you should be up at the table I guess our table wasn't long enough but another key participant who has been um the person that's been our our gatekeeper to supporting the interests and the needs of the current Town employees that are performing this function ensuring that they're um automatically offered jobs in the the new session um Sarah deserves a tremendous amount of credit she's been a a key person in in working on this planning and um since the meeting with the board of Selectmen we we've had the communication team with Lori and Paul it sat down with the Chiefs and with Sarah um and I and and we've run this process through the steps that they've outlined and and came up with you know additional ideas and how to leverage and how to support and so at this point I think we're poised that um everyone is fully engaged and committed to the Outreach steps and um working with the board of Selectmen working with the finance committee and and our idea is to you know focus on those performance standards issues Outreach um education and and develop uh you know a broader Community consensus on exactly why um an improvement would be needed in in and how we would work that so um that I I think it just some of the next steps in a nutshell okay anyone have anything else um my only comment is um now that we've identified all the pieces to the puzzle have you figured out how you're going to apply the pieces to this I think the first steps were taken earlier this week Y and the start being I'm sorry those discussions under uh you know Mr whitn now has really brought us into the mix now and we're listening and and we're developing a plan that draws out the information from the Chiefs who the experts are and then how do we put it into a package to make it available to the public to have comment so you're working on that we're we're currently working with with the team right now so that we'll get an update on how that's going to roll out I'm sure in short order thank you Mr chairman all right thank you thank you for coming in it was a great discussion um you guys were well prepared we're well informed and we look forward to continuing with this thank you so much you thank you thank you very much next item excuse me there annual town meeting recap there we go you want us to each jump in with no no no you don't want to at all um what we put this item on for is to take a look at um what things we think went well with to meeting or did not what um Preparatory steps we took that we thought maybe um better prepared citizens for participation in the town meeting any fo feedback we got from people either positive or negative um challenges that still remain um with our messaging and the broadcasting of the event um and anything else people feel that um are matters of importance that we should address well that's kind of what I was talking about with some of those items um sure I I have been out and chatting I'm not limited to that right I I've been out and chatting with folks and just asking for feedback from them on how things went what they liked and what they didn't like um I Heard overwhelming positive about the large screen being used this year uh instead of the smaller screens that people really could see what what people were talking about that that worked out very well the placement of the microphones having microphones both in the front and the back of the room I heard a lot of positive about that um I also heard a lot of push back about the fact that uh there was no egress from the end of the Rose in that Auditorium I mean for folks if you just kind of visualize um the way that that's set up there's a wall against the the seats at the end of the rows so everyone has to come out to the center and folks were feeling uh that it made it difficult uh for instance that they were sitting close to the wall and they had a feeling that they'd like to say something but then when they looked at how they'd have to climb over all these people to get out of the row they didn't want to bother people so it may have curtailed some of the discussion in some of the items that folks weren't feeling comfortable um getting up and speaking whereas um in our previous auditorium at madaki there are many different exit points on on both sides of the aisle for people to be able to hop out and speak if they want to um I also was hearing again concerns about the fact that half the room is um is staircase in in the you know the the upper level um you know that folks again were feeling concerned um about going up those stairs um and not just the senior citizens quite frankly I was hearing from other people about their concerns on that too you know like somebody might have had a sports injury or something like that and and you know um they found it a little intimidating uh but overall uh folks felt that it went much better this year um and uh as I say a lot of of feedback about that large screen and how fantastic it was this year very good Peter I Paul I think I think I heard several people in fact I know I heard several people saying that channel 8 wasn't working for at least part of the meeting yes during some of the during some of the communication uh they lost power at the desk a cord was kicked brought us down uh we were down for about 3 minutes with our video and it took uh about 12 minutes to get audio back okay so I mean not great but not horrible for you know you're able to get it back up relatively quickly it was it was well up back in 12 minutes right um there was there was some discussion about some of the people in the audience getting off track you know could the moderator keep the people to the to the comments of the article that's in front of them um and I I I realize you know that's a that's a tough road you I mean these are speakers these are residents that need to speak about something but if it's if it's offline you got to reach a point where you got to get back to the TIC article at hand um most of the comments that I heard were were very good most people like like the the physical facility I did hear from a few people about the wall and not being able able to get out on the on you know one side of the aisle which which made it tough um I was also a little disappointed this is me personally that we didn't get a bigger bigger turnout CU we got a very good turn out the first first Go Round And I'd say that we've got maybe three4 of the same number of folks folks out um my wife doesn't go she stays and watches at home and said said the video at home was was good she could she could see she could hear she could understand so you know those are those are all positives Mark thanks Mr chairman um I echoed the the comments that have already been made um the the technical side and I'm you know I know we all we look at you on the technical side a lot of this stuff has nothing to do with the town's end of things but the sound problem the video Pro my my text my my text messages were going off the roof people wondering what's going on what's Happening and and uh you know it's just yet another town meeting where we have technical problems and and I know we have to be part of a network and a team and there are others that are involved but that was that was a big complaint um the uh I would agree having the large screen I think is a huge help that's one of the advantages of being in that particular site there's also the Comfort level with some of the seats the downside is obviously the the the inability of people to exit from both sides of a row you're restricted to getting in and out from one so you're always inconveniencing somebody um the mics worked well people could hear one another um and I do think in terms of the commentary there were moments where perhaps the moderator probably should have said point of order or someone in you know the comment point of order is not a point restricted to the moderator if there is a town meeting member somebody in the town meeting the body that wants to raise a point of order anybody can raise the point of order um I do want to point out that um we have a lot of new residents coming in and participating I I noticed at every town meeting there are new faces that are coming in and I think one of the things we need to be cognizant of is not having town meeting be sort of like an insiders meeting um I'm always cognizant of the fact that we should be trying to make it as accessible to the broadest segment of the community as possible and that's why I heard some complaints about the shortness of the presentations particularly the school committee presentation there was very little substantive information that was presented so I got many comments on that um I also was disappointed in the brevity of the seal committee presentation I think the voters the people in town meeting deserve to hear more about the work uh of that committee and uh uh I I will say that the I was pleased with the wetlands bylaw presentation that was substantive um in many cases people do come to town meeting to learn and part of our job I'm you have to for I mean I'm coming from this is the adjunct professor of government who believes in Civics and has been complaining about the lack of Civic civic education here in Massachusetts part of what we do is civic's education in nature part of what we do is explaining how our democracy works at the local level now I know sometimes those of us that are in the business may be more interested in the outcome of an article and maybe it's in the interest of some party to make a a presentation brief or to the point and maybe not get into other aspects of a presentation and until a question is raised raised but I do think there's a fundamental obligation for those of us who serve the public that we provide the basic information that's necessary so the short presentations in in a number of cases I found very disturbing I hope it's not a trend I hope we can correct it in the future I did receive complaints uh on those and uh I find them very disconcerting um I will once again raise I like the idea of maybe it's an article that we need to put on the warrant next time where we change the bylaw and require at least I think this is an issue I would like to do it um I I know it's it's maybe I'm in the minority but I think there's a value cuz many other towns do this where the warrant is printed and made available you know a few weeks before the meeting and it's distributed to households with voters and um in Yarmouth I think it would cost us somewhere in the vicinity of $225,000 and you know I'm willing to put that question you know as a town meeting article and let the voters let the town meeting participants decide whether or not they want the warrant mailed to them and distributed to them I would put in it like chadam does and other towns do other there are other many other towns in Massachusetts that make the warrant available early so that the voters have a chance to study it and review it and go over it but you could add a talent Bank form in there you could add some Basics about um you know Municipal our municipal government maybe you want to even put the phone numbers of all the key departments and it you know there is a way to make that distribution a bit more useful by adding a few pages so um that's that's still an issue for me in terms of the early distribution of it I like the fact that we do it by PDF file right now now maybe we need to be more aggressive in the distribution of it but I do I do think given the number of registered voters in the town and the number of households with registered voters if if the warrant were made available to every household with registered voters um I think that may have I think it provides important information that people ought to have and and uh you know I'd like to explore that later on so th those are my comments I think to me it was a mixed bag uh some good things and bad things it's always good to be there to hear U what the people have to say um but I think one of the reasons why the previous town meeting the was the reason why it was so large is we had we were talking about adus which is a very very engaging topic and there were a number of groups that were actually stoking sending out action alerts urging people to show up awn meeting to vote one way uh or the other right so you got a lot of that so there also was the Wastewater I think that also brought out we did a great job of informing people in the be beforeand but I think they came out to vote I mean you know like they had all their information but they were present for that so it was both the Adu in the in the Wastewater um well we the big Wastewater article was that was the prior annual the last our last one at madaky uh the the the crowd I believe at uh at the Intermediate School the reason why it was so large there was largely principally adus because groups were out there stoking and beating the bushes to get folks out um the thing that I loved about the way that town meeting went was because um people on both sides of the meeting felt that they were heard both sides of the issue that left the meeting that I I heard from many people who said that they felt that they were heard and they had a chance so in many cases um the fact that they came out they participated even though they lost their or maybe they came out on top but people on all sides of that came out I believe they they came out feeling that uh this was democracy and action so it was a robust debate people were informed um and I think those kinds of town meetings where you can get really a better understanding of why we're recommending one thing or the other or or to be able to hear the debate I bet you there were people that came to that town meeting wanting to hear the debate they were probably somewhat undecided so I think the presentations the discussion the dialogue is incredibly important um because because I think people want to hear all sides of the issue they want to learn more um and learn about what the Committees do I I will give uh the moderator huge kudos for also recognizing the volunteers and asking people to stand um I thought that was very uh smart um and it gives people a sense a chance to say thank you you know we talk a lot about doing an appreciation breakfast or some other thing but you know what at the very least a town meeting being a knowledge so I I would give the moderator kudos for that I want to give him kudos for saying something about some of the people that have served uh particularly John Sears um in in his service to the town so I thought in that sense there was some really nice gestures of respect uh that were uh and appreciation that were made and and uh kudos to the moderator for doing that I think also kudos to Communications for um the the advanced work that was done you know and having someone speaking you having a video that somebody could go to and see them talking about the town seal or your the wetlands or you know like um one of the things that I think came out of that it was interesting some woman came up got up to the microphone and asked about the Quorum you know she said and and was surprised to hear that it could go down to one if it had to if I can add that's what I mean I think we're have we have a lot of new people that want to participate in town meeeting for many people is their first place where they're participating as part of the community that's why I think uh it's really important not to lose sight of that and to find ways to have people maybe get more information and and leave with the sense that uh they've learned a lot about their Community um picking up on a point that Dorcas raised and I think it's very important going forward is the videos um not just this town meeting but previous Town meetings I've had a lot of uh positives come back from people where they see Bob maybe on a video running through the Articles or one that caught my eye just by accident this year was a TI administrator talking about his misconceptions about town meeting and how he came you know to a recognition of what meeting was really about um any advanced information like that explaining the process or you know giving out as Mark said both sides of the debate on a particular issue and there's not usually when you look at the total number of Articles a lot of them are Finance based articles dealing with routine capital um items or uh operational items who's going to vote those down but you get to things like the seal Wastewater um affordable um housing um what was the other one you raised about um Wetland W there was a good video on the wetlands was out there you know adding positions subtracting positions in town government most people don't know a whole lot about that and um they're important issues and they're usually two-sided issues meaning there's some strong arguments that can be Advanced one way or the other I think on those um on those levels especially uh any information is good as Mark said Mark said this is a teaching opportunity it's a learning opportunity too in Civics but it's also helps people to start the wheels churning as to how they think they might want to weigh in on a particular article um do they have things they they want to bring to the public that they think is important that affect these articles or understanding them so they can vote more intelligently on the Articles that's where I think we have to continue our efforts um and that's why I think we're getting a lot of mileage I I've seen some of the worst critics of our town government say things like oh yeah you know that was great because by the time I got to the town meeting I figured out what I wanted to do with that because of these Advanced um videos so um as Mark pointed out earlier when we talked to the IT people we're responding to some dramatic changes in media coverage that we never faced historically before and um we can't do enough and we can't do it fast enough um but we can do it and I think we are doing it and I think we're lot getting a lot of good mileage out of it I I also um I want to thank the chairman uh for his comments that have made at the beginning of the meeting um at the previous couple of meetings as been some not nice things said from one one person to another at the meeting and you very made it clear that you keep it polite keep the ad harim attacks to a minimum and not at all so very much appreciated the the opening statement thank you yeah can I make just a couple of other points um I want to thank Paul for the fact that you know at any meeting you're going to have a problem right um but the fact that he was there and his team was there to to jump on things right away once my text messages started hitting and when I connected with him he was already working on the problem he was already on top of it um things are not perfect but the fact that you're there and on top of things is always a comfort to know so a good it team that supports that you do you have a great team it's good and I just want people to I mean we're here you know doing doing the wrap up but I don't want anybody to leave here thinking that we don't appreciate the great work that you guys do all right uh the other point is um I'd like to when we do this again at the next annual town meeting is to talk a little bit more about the Motions ahead of time um I I did not like the motion that I made on the municipal budget um I'm so used to in the past being very abundantly clear that we're going to raise and appropriate the sum of X for the for the following purposes and then we sort of we make it we make it much more simple I could see when I made the motion there was some confusion in the audience because I went to I I didn't say raise in appropriate the following amounts I basically or 49 million or whatever the the dollar figure is um we went right to the transfers and at the bottom of the transfers was 2.4 million and I could see some confusion out there people were wondering what's what's going on on you know you know how when you look at an when you're trying to read an audience um I I think we used to do it we used to do it we're very clear and very specific um but I think I don't know if it was Town C I don't know why why we did it a little bit differently this this is like the second year in a row where that that second article on the municipal budget the motion to move that is a bit a bit more complicated than it needs to be I think it we need to just be explicit the rais in the amount um I'm call me oldfashioned call me a traditionalist but I just assume get it out there make it very specific very clear what we're doing what the overall amount of the the operating budget is Raising and appropriating and then and then transferring x amount from the following articles I think that's great I think we should do it like that again and then let the moderator go through each section and determine if anybody wants to have a hold on any of the items and and then we address those questions that's that's how we used to do things right yeah there were there were a couple of comments right in front of me going I I'm confused I'm confused right so I would recommend as as a fix for next time is we spend a little bit of time making sure that we're all clear on that Municipal budget article what how it's written and what the motion is how we move it so well I think also Jennifer getting together with you Paul and Lori this is where you know she might be able to do some video that it's like um you know um Finance 101 for uh town meeting you know like um starting with the fact that again impressing to people that money is only spent at one place and that's at town meeting nothing is um authorized except there and um I think a lot of people still don't understand that you know like that this is where you sitting in that room are the one that's going to decide what money is going to be spent in the town and if Jennifer was just doing kind of a general you know like Enterprise funds people never know what an Enterprise fund is you know we bring that up just some standard ones and that way when people don't have anything better to do someday they can just you know even if town it's not town meeting time you know just be able to click on it and kind of learn having Ken get as the moderator get up and talk about what does it mean to make a motion or um you know like when we hear oh you have to put that in writing if you want to make an amendment what does that mean just some of those things that you see at the beginning of the um the warrant would be helpful I think um I think some there are some towns that's what they do is they they either in the warrant that's distributed they'll put some basics in it we are we do have a glossery in our warrant there is information that explains to people most of of these terms um but maybe you're right maybe adding it as a video item or maybe maybe making it clearer in the warrant is helpful what I what I get concerned about is is for most people they don't see the warrant until the day they're there all right and uh there are we do have some folks in town that would benefit from seeing it ahead of time and they may not be able to access it on the website or PDF or think about it um the value in mailing it is that we're affirming our existence as a government and that they there's as a voter and taxpayer uh they have they have It's Our obligation to at least provide some basic information on how their tax dollars are getting used and then it gives them something that they can take now I will admit some people don't always take their warrant to town meeting but a lot of folks will and they'll make notes they'll have their questions again to me there's the education the Civics part of it I don't I don't have a problem if town meeting goes an extra half an hour or an hour it goes a little bit longer that some folks can't get out fast enough to go see you know the um you know the voice or some other TV show I'm okay if it goes a little bit longer but they've left at least having a better understanding of how our town works and how our committees work had a couple additional suggestions as well because I have all can can you step up to the microphone please thanks Richard Simon Finance chair um one of the things that uh I also would suggest that we might want to consider for uh future um warrant articles is the uh adding QR codes again for a lot of people if you want to get you you mentioned find the link well if you have a smartphone all you do is take a photo of that QR code and it brings up the link and again that's another tool that we could potentially use for smartphone Savvy people it's a good point to get you know because then you can actually you know I don't understand click you see it you know it takes you to the actual information that you were looking for or the video or the Fillin the blank and that's something that is again in combination if we mailed it out again you just spot those QR codes throughout the document and people can look at it but I heard also my informal feedback uh number of people I had encouraged as New Town residents to go did go um and they all came back and said it was really well done um with you know the some of the suggestions and concerns that you've already identified thank you Rich Bob do you have any comments or no I you know I I do want to say that um I I thought that the work that we did with the the videos the pre-information and to get that out um was was really very helpful um you know I I thought the idea that all of those articles were voted virtually unanimously and and I thought that spoke volumes for the for the process and you know it's kind of interesting you think back to some of the Oldtown meetings I think one of the things that we brought as a sense of organization to these Town meetings um with the the presentations and the slides that bill works on and having departments ready with information um a a lot of times you know it's hard the balance on on the the presentations I find U especially um you know when you do the financial stuff people get impatient with you they don't want to hear your long presentation um but um in certain instances presentation is um is very helpful um but the the way the Departments are are organized and the amount of information that that people have at the ready um there's not a single item that goes into these Town meetings now that is not choreographed to a a a great degree whether it's between the the finance committee's um you know long review of IT the um the the Thunder slides that we have behind to bring out more information if people are interested in it um and the Departments being there ready to answer every single question um I I I think that there there's more information that backs things up in an organization level and and that's one of the things that you know I'm particularly proud of is the orderly fashion um that that the town meetings move in it's not just a free-for-all where no one has any information where throw up 70 articles and and then people just fight over them um there's detailed information on on every every single point and and I think to the extent that we continue to make that available to people use the Matrix to to break down each articles I I love the idea of of having a code that you can look up things um I think it helps and I think people notice it and and I get a lot of feedback that that people um prefer to have uh you know the articles well considered well thought out um information available and the ability to you know walk people through uh people don't like to go to town meeting and and to have it be a disorganized mess where it's not clear who's speaking who's answering questions what the information is whether it's been thought out um and then people just leave it and then um so um I I think we've come a long way in the town meetings and it's great to identify things to to do even better because you know it's evolving and I I think it's getting better all the time PA do you have any comments I think the pre uh pre videoos went a long way and uh I I do just like to offer up to anybody who's in a position to bring some education no matter how small or how large it is that is open most of the stuff doesn't have to wait till town meeting if somebody has an idea today that can already beun to be filmed and hold it in our pocket for when town meeting comes that we begin to put it out there and again we keep them short and sweet so that they can be put across the different types of media so that invitation is open to um I I know that the Mart already come down he did uh I think it took a couple minutes got some good information out there and uh it can be played next time also it doesn't have it isn't particularly focused on one particular meeting articles are but the information of how our government is run and how powerful that town meeting is and how any individual can stand up and bring us in a New Direction with the knowledge that they have there so I think putting that out early and often is is really a valuable asset to our contingencies here in in in in town you know one of the things that you've created Paul that I think needs to get out there more is this cablecast app that you have that's an incred I don't know if you've seen it or used it cablecast this app is fantastic it sure is and somehow we got to get the word out we need to push it out more Facebook Twitter X or whatever it's called in as many ways as possible this is an incredibly I have on my iPhone an app called cablecast you can go to the App Store you can download it and you literally have at the Palm of your hand all of the town of Yarmouth videos so if I wanted to for example let's say this meeting was getting too boring and I wanted to watch uh your Finance Comm your last finance committee meeting for example all right it's right here exactly um it's unbelievable the quality of the video is high so rather than me having to go home to my desktop and it's by having an app with all of our committees in their video right at your disposal is unbelievable um and I've used this quite a bit it also has the school committee meetings in the palm of your hand so it's an incredible it's an incredible resource so I love the fact that you're thinking about other apps CU I would agree with you the trend is clearly going everyone is using the iPhone or a portable smartphone uh as their way of inter accessing the web the internet and so forth and uh anything that again I I I commend you for figuring out how to do this I love the fact that you're talking about other apps that are Yarmouth focused uh that make it easier to access stuff on our website um but I I think we need to do more to get the word out on the cablecast because it's wonderful so good job I think T I don't know if you noticed on the puzzle each of our handles are the that this app was put in and that's going to be your blast out in all of our social media so that they see the different puzzle pieces and how to get to them and that is one of them right there great wouldn't hurt to repeat what you were just saying Mark in that you know to the folks that are listening because I just did it and I didn't know about it go to your um your Play Store on your phone and just type in under apps cable cast all as one word and it automatically comes up I have the town of Yarmouth and I have Dennis Yarmouth Regional School right there right there it's an excellent app or on your on your Apple device you just go to the app store and then do the same thing search for cablecast and it's right there and uh it's a it's it's a very well done app and uh it uh I think it's great so kudos to Our IT department for helping us leap into the uh this New Age thank you and I I'll take that thank you for the team because it's many of the team members who see something and they bring it to us we research it and if it's helping us we're putting it out there it's good okay we all set let's move on to the next item thank you very much Paul um rich thank you you'll be seeing me um Town administrative evaluation I had all but one of those in by Friday the deadline got the last one tonight just before the meeting so all I have to do is um input that information the rest of it's all displayed ready to go um and we'll have it we'll put it on for the next meeting on for that agenda also I'd like the full board to be here to hear the summary of evaluation so but the work's been done the biggest concern excuse me that I had was that you might be asking new newly elected board members to perform this function and I'm pleased to say that we got all of the requisite input from the sitting board it's just a question of um like I said putting in the input from that fifth evaluator summarize in it's showing the trends and the um strengths of of of the C of the Town administrator's performance over the last year so I I can tell you as a sneak preview that as was the case with last year without looking at that last evaluation um there are no unsatisfactory or need Improvement scores either on a composite basis or individually they all in the superior and above category which is no surprise um so I think I think it's going to profile very well for Our Town Administrator and we'll do that next meeting okay board and committee actions uh Mr chairman I move that we accept the board accepts the resignation of LEF freny um from the golf Enterprise committee and that we accept this with our thanks for his service was that a motion we a motion a motion a second all those in favor I I anyone opposed passes by a vote of three to zero two members absent Mr chairman I move that we accept the um appointment of uh Jerry Neer to the golf um Enterprise committee uh for a term of uh 3 years which would run through April of 2026 second all those in favor say I I anyone opposed passes by the requisite um vote of three to zero one two members absent and that concludes what we have for um appointments and resignations somebody want to move the of August 1st 2023 some move second all those in favor say I I anyone oppos that passes by a vote of 30 two members absent somebody want to move the um minutes of April 30 2024 moved second all those in favor say I I anyone opposed passes by the vote of three to zero in favor two members absent upcoming agenda review is next you now all of a sudden we're very busy D thank you very much for the comments that we received at the last meeting together with um we also you know took a look at everything that was on the docket and filled in busy week next week and then we've got some excellent items coming up um want to do a a labor update early in June before we get into June Bob can I just ask we were all sort of kind of on the edge of our seats regarding D and Wastewater discharge permit and we know that may is the big month so do we need to maybe have a I mean I don't see any other maybe it maybe it's an item on the June 4th agenda but I think yeah either it's the either it's our last I I just I I would say that if we need to do something in the month of May I hope we can find the time to set it to to meet if we need to meet quickly but um I know Wastewater is a big deal and maybe we need to bring that up I think June 4th June 4th would work would be fine and and you know I I have for my um since you brought it up under my update uh there's a a couple of items on the the D and and the Wastewater um permitting that that I I want to talk about um first and foremost um we had officially requested from the D the extension from the srf program you know that's not a lot we talked about you know having that uh we've been working on that May 29 advertising date but that's backing off from um a fall October contract authorization where the normal contract authorization is July 1 for D and so uh we had talked about um many many times filing for that extension so that we can take advantage of the Fall time frame and we have made that application and I received correspondence um today from Maria poo the director that we have been approved D to have the srf extension so that is one item that that takes a little pressure off us and we've continued to have the meetings with our entire team which is probably a dozen of us on on our team meeting with the D every two weeks and um I'm really happy to say I feel today we're going to make our deadline that um we are currently in the final phases of the permit discussions the uh D has indicated that um they've all already drafted our permit that's great and they're reviewing the details of it uh they're reviewing the details of our hydrogeologic analysis which um you know using the firm of horley and Whitten along with the designer CDM we've ramped up the wetlands work tremendously um we have our our meeting with the Conservation Commission on May 16 which we hope to get an order of conditions on the key issue is our monitoring Wetlands monitoring program that we feel we have strong support from the Conservation Commission and we also have strong support from the D we have a an excellent very robust to steal your term um Wetlands monitoring system and um so we feel that that that the way that they have characterized it their backtack documents um they're working they want to see that uh the final on that monitoring system get the um concom input on the 16th and the way um they termed it today it is a backto back issuance so they issue the um approval of the hydrogeologic monitoring program and then the very next day the permit's already written permit Falls and they indicated that they feel that we will meet our deadline so um I don't have any reason at this point for alarm I hope to be able to come in um with our DPW director for an update on June 4 and inform the board that we have received the um the permit and that we have been okayed and we are advertising for the bid and we're going we're going to try to do that by by May 29 so it's just a little update on that that's great good job good job team yoth on agenda items um Mr chairman I wonder if we should be looking at on June 4th when we have our new board members with us that we should discuss our um our getting together for our establishment of the goals for the coming year would be a good time I think to start talking about that pick a date day one that' be good yeah so that's an agenda item right picking a date to right huddle and discuss goals did you like doing it at the uh I think at the simpon school it's a a great location to do that I did too to yeah I really think that it um it fostered some really good conversation I think having it at that location great meeting space yeah it is we have to make sure we don't park in the spaces of the folks we did too well just don't dress up as a pirate no they bring up a good point that probably goes on for them at simin school like every weekend when there are baseball games and that kind of thing going on at uh the field i' love to see the pride in that Community you've created you you know what a successful development Neighbors coming in with that sense of ownership and Pride and where they live they'll tell you about life at 135 old main you know it's something they're very proud of so that was great to see so we got to put that tugboats on also for the 14th right correct that's coming all over what's what's going to be interesting about that hearing and why I don't think it'll be very lengthy is the board of appeals has already set forth certain restrictions which include hours of operation and and that's again it highly detailed decision from the zba and Senor packet to and thank you the the advertisement we made sure word for word it's it's um there's there's nothing that's not out of that CBA decision anybody else on the agenda um it would be helpful to I know we have to make a decision on the special town meeting date have we picked a sort of a deadline for when we should pick that date I mean I know I'm getting way ahead of myself here no usually go with October or November yeah L October early November usually I see it oh we have it on the August 6th uh agenda to make a decision right and we're looking at the 19th or the 26th right now yep it's what August 6 yeah that's already on the select board agenda items I see it special which we have for tenative dates on that Bob November 19 or November 26 19 or 26 double check what day is Thanksgiving we I I like to stay away from Thanksgiving week and Veterans Day week usually you can sneak it in between the two and it works perfect let's see November 28th is Thanksgiving right so so maybe the 19th is a good day to shoot for that that's what I would sound about right you know I would recommend that we not meet on the 26th Mr chairman well Thanksgiving the 218 yeah 28th it's two days later so I got to get my pies in you know the oven cuz if I wait till Thursday the turkey's in the way you know there only so much oven in space there you go I agree I think trying for the 19th makes good sense yeah okay so we're going to delete that 26th yeah um date for a meeting oh the problem that we've got in November is that the November 5th that's an election day no meeting uh November 12th we get the Veterans Day holiday right before it the problem is is keeping to our requirement to having two meetings in a month I think we might have to look at meeting on November 12th yeah I'm okay meeting we normally don't meet after a holiday but you know what that we may have to that particular month I think we have no choice because what do you think Mr chairman you think we should be yes huh yeah okay so why don't we put the 12th in play and take the 26 off yep okay is that it Mr chairman on the whole upcoming agenda items yeah I agree that's a plan yeah I think we got the new people going to be joining us soon so that's when I think we'll get into more of an in-depth discussion a future meeting great agenda we also talked about scheduling a county update we wanted to talk to you about that um before we put it on if yeah I think that's I think there's always a value in um one of the things that I think might be helpful on the county update for Christy senatori in the cape C commission is we know there's a lot of work going on in Yarmouth on climate change right low-lying roads Coastal High Hazard areas and stuff like that um there may be some value in um maybe having a county focus on that right just put that out there um I also was contacted by David Bernstein from the Conservation Commission who explained to me that a number of towns on Cape Cod are are able to by passing either taking certain actions can make available to their residents a significant discount not maybe maybe a 10 to 15% discount on their flood insurance policies if they participate in some kind of program offered by uh the federal flood insurance program so Shannon HST is a County employee she runs the uh she's the deputy director of Cooperative Extension maybe she can as part of that County presentation brief us on um how can Yarmouth um take steps to provide discounts in flood insurance for Yarmouth residents because I'm sure we have several hundred flood insurance policy holders right the rates roof and the rates are going through the roof currently uh we have a county update down as an agenda item for July 9th that's that's what that's what that's what Bob was bringing up about you know so I think it's a good idea to do it those would be two participants and maybe two subject areas that they could zero in on mhm you know um I'm really looking forward to the 6A to there's a lot of work been done on that and there there's another um Community Forum that's established for May 30 out in the neighborhood and so the feedbacks coming in but I i' love to see the um plans that you know have been going on with that and you know what's interesting is just you know put in the back of your mind when we have this discussion um you know it always comes up the that property in the back is all privately owned and I know the businesses hold it tight but you go to you know other communities what a good place for a public parking area that would be and I'm not saying you know to take people's land or anything but if if the local businesses needed help I I'll bet you you know if they turn that property over to us we could put signage organize it and you know that would the problem on parking on the street is that the back property is not organized properly you you've got the dimensions and if and if that was properly organized to the benefit of everyone and not just a few that would solve your your yport village parking but you know we can't just jump in there and and and take the property from people no they're going to want have to want to get behind something like that but it's just something to think about I I think that would break the whole thing wide open poor people sitting there they got no parking for their business well of course you're going to be crabbing that that you can't park on the the street that the state says you can't park on but but the the the key to that whole area is is the dimensions behind those businesses I'll just say that you know and it's something we haven't been able to crack that code but I love the streetcape proposals that they came up with I I I think they there a lot of work has gone into that great coming along good I think you like all right do anybody have any individual items no do you have no Mr chairman go to Town Administrator all right we have the consent agenda Mr chairman I would like to uh make a motion to approve the consent agenda second all those in favor say I I anyone oppos passes by a vote of 30 two members absent Mr chairman I would like to also uh commend Kathy Williams uh for the great work that she and uh I mean there a number of people that were involved in their work on this but I read the revisions and the changes uh I very much appreciate the s the additions and the revisions that were made based on our conversations uh at the board meeting very much appreciated um she does great work for the town and uh I just want to just go on record as saying thank you uh another job well done by Kathy thank you for saying that it it it means a lot you know because people people ask is that you know they wanted to know if their revisions to address the board of Select men's comments were adequate and how you felt about it so just thank you no I I think we all appreciate Kathy's work she's an incredibly talented woman we're very lucky to have her um she works incredibly hard she works long hours um sometimes it can be agonizing um I mean the work on the Adu stuff I mean to get a unanimous vote on the planning board uh in and of itself I could go on she's just done she's just done a remarkable job for the town of Yarmouth um I mean it took a while to gear up and get things going on a number of fronts but there's a lot of momentum there in her department and the work that she's doing so uh I'm I'm I'm I'm I've become a fan so thank administrator items updates I'm sorry okay um I talked about the um groundwater discharge permitting and the srf I have another Wastewater issue that I didn't want to address we had the meeting coming up and I and I wanted to really get some guidance from the board of Selectmen on this but we've received a request that uh Jeff Colby has forwarded to me from Robert B hour requesting uh to go with the construction the seasonal construction through June 14 on Route 28 they feel that that additional time past Memorial Day I think it's like two weeks or so a little more would give them a chance to stop off at a much better spot um school will still still be in session uh you the mot has done it in in the past as Jeff recommends it I don't have a major problem with it but um I was not comfortable in in addressing that issue until I um made the board of selectman aware and and wanted to see if you had any any feedback and um I I I think if if it's okay you know we'll run with it if there are more issues concerns questions we could always put it on as an agenda item but I wanted to get some feedback on June 14 for construction on Route 28 what are the sections on Route 28 that would be um impacted I know they're doing it in chunks right in phases so what would be that portion of Route 28 that would be worked on I think it's the the um more toward the uh Parker River area down that end um you know and we've got we've got the um uh the ravoli that's up near for stab and it's that next slug that's that's down further so it's headed west it's not headed east correct and it would be cuz they're pretty close to Parker's River already so it would be that area they're making slow progress but but that's the general area so in terms of the traffic detours that still would be one lane right one lane yeah I I'm I'm very comfortable with that I think as long as it doesn't go beyond June 14th um I think as we're getting closer yeah you know you've got your kickoff of the uh Chamber of Commerce the the sand castles and so forth it's coming up just after that so I think we'd be okay there MH all right and and the other contractor is going to be shutting down so um that that first part where revi is we're going to um that'll be cleaned up and and with that as well those guys need some time to uh you know I think get their program together a little better for the fall I know they've had some struggles um another item I I wanted to to mention this I I know it's been a long meeting but I I really want to thank um selectman Mark Forest um for some of his comments and uh you know sitting down and reviewing some of these issues with me and um I'm working on um a scope and a budget for um an issue that that he's brought up multiple times that we've you know gone through at one level or another and and this is for um posos Consulting that um would be associated with the plumes emanating from um the airport area the county uh area uh in you know coming through the mil Creek sort of uh Wetlands complex down into the into the bay um not directly associated with the water supply Wells which we have a consultant that's been working very actively and the DPW has just put an enormous effort into the issues associated with the public water supply Wells as well they should that's where all of the regulation is but there's this entire area that um has not been well regulated uh about the ecological impacts of posos in the the groundwater that is heading towards the Bays through the neighborhoods areas used for recreational um you know use for for Town residents and um I know there's been a tremendous amount of concern with any potential harmful effects of that what are the issues associated with um the plumes coming from the Gateway Airport I've attended personally all of the meetings um and vociferously demanded right that Wells be placed on the Yarmouth side of the Border all the way through there so that we can monitor that and you know they they recently published what they consider their final response plan that they're submitting to the D um no additional Wells no additional work and I don't think I think that you know the town of Yarmouth is really going to have to Advocate very strongly for I I think a a more just full analysis of the potential impacts the potential impact acts of uh groundwater levels in the the wetlands how the p is working and all of those issues that um you know I I I made the um comparison or metaph metaphor with with Mark that a lot of times with what we're doing with the water supply and the waste water uh you know we're almost like uh you know a big snake that just ate a cow right it's very difficult to be agile enough to jump on every one of these issues and and I I think the uh the scientific issues are so complicated that um just like we had a lot of success when we brought in that operations consultant on on the airport to make specific recommendations that would impact people's lives adjacent to the airport that that this posos thing would really uh you know the town needs to be in a a better leadership position in so potentially um you know that's an article for the fall town meeting but we're going to work up a budget and a scope and try to share some information and um I I I think it's it's the way to go and we were just talking about it so I wanted to kind of bring your up to speed on that and just make sure you were aware and supportive of that effort and we'll come back with a scope and and see what it looks like and have the D DPW help us with that yeah I'm I'm happy to answer any questions I'm just I'm very worried that we have pasas coming into Yarmouth and EP sort of overseeing all the cleanup efforts and I just want to make sure that we're aggressively advocating uh our own interests sometimes it's very difficult to leave that to a lay person I I think you've heard me kind of Grill the Conservation Commission you've I've grilled other people on what they're doing to to address this I think it may very well be that we need to have a consultant kind of like like Bob said we had a consultant help us deal with some airport noise recommendations and us straight on some things that we should be insisting on on the airport um I think having someone that can help guide us in terms of what we should be insisting that D do to make sure that groundwater and Yarmouth is protected I think is important um and uh I mean I I still am concerned about the rates of water withdrawal in the mar Wells I mean it's part of the excuse me the mar Wells basically are drawing a significant amount of water they're s drawing a significant amount of posos I will admit that that's an issue but it should it shouldn't be the central thrust of this consulting firm it should be focused on posos and what should we be providing guidance and advice to us so that we can aggressively Advocate on behalf of our municipality because we have conservation land there but also our residents who are concerned about pasas in that area um there's some regulatory holes so we need to figure out what we can do uh to make sure that that stuff gets properly investigated and remediated no I agree with you I I think that um it's almost like every day something new comes out on posos it's it's like a continual learning curve and to be able to have somebody that this is their area of expertise to help guide us I think makes a lot of sense well the town of arnol at one of their Council meetings I think about a month or so ago had pasas and what the what the town's doing about p and I was surprised to learn that um that the marw wells are being pumped at a fairly High rate now they're saying that they're complying with the water management act but um I think that needs to be checked um but nonetheless it's in the The Fairly High rate of pumpage is intentional and they were arguing that it's designed to draw Puss into and towards the wells which to me just seems so so unusual and again that wellfield is literally right next door to the town of Yarmouth line and it may very well be because it's of the pumpage it could be drawing the P into Yarmouth we don't know we need an expert to help us figure out why we're ending up with posos there if it has nothing to do with that site then we need to be informed about that as we know pasas can come into our groundwater and impact areas not from an airport but can can come from septic systems so there may be a signature this that can help us figure out what's going on but we need some expertise we just can't I can't we can't keep I can't keep going after and urging the Conservation Commission to do something it requires a technical expertise so that's why I've been picking Bob's brain what should we do so that was the that was his recommendation which I I think is a good idea mhm it's a great idea m I agree good so having come to this point in the agenda Mr chairman I'd like to make a motion to adjourn we second I second all those in favor I I we are adjourned