[Music] All right. Good evening. Today is Tuesday, September 23rd. It's a meeting of the accretion board of select. Is there a motion to call the meeting to order? >> So moved. >> Second.
>> All those in favor? >> I meeting is now open. This is this meeting will be audio and video recorded. Please rise for the pledge of >> allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under
God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> First item I gentle had a chance to look at the meeting minutes September 4th. Motion to approve the minutes of September 4th. Second. All those in favor? I motion carries. Right. Next
item is uh at our last meeting I believe we talked about Morningside A paving and signage. I know Mr. uh Hinckley and Mr. Gasper were going to work on this parallel tracks. What do you got? >> Uh so Mr. Chairman um I know Select
Gasper went with Dan out there to take a look at the road itself. Um but I don't think we've gotten an idea of what costs are. I wanted it on the agenda just in case. Okay. Um, I figure rather than talk about the signage, we'll just deal with it all in one spot. So, thanks for
putting it on. >> All right. Yeah, Mr. Chairman, >> on Morningside, after I reviewed that with Mr. Manard and spoke with some neighbors, it's it's unfortunately it's not a quick fix. It's a total reclamation. So, I said at that point, it's a substantial cost to do the road. So, I told Dan, I asked Dan if he could
put some numbers together and he's on vacation this week. So, >> sweet. >> We can revisit it the next meeting. >> Sounds good. Well, the next next one. >> Yep. Yep. Sounds like a plan. >> October 7th. >> Sure. >> Yep. >> As long as Mr. Man has the information. >> All right. Next item on the new business, appointment of police
sergeants. Uh, Chief Copper, if you come up. Um, first of all, uh, Chief, good to see you here. I know we saw you the other day, but this is sort of official, uh, official official. Thank you for, uh, accepting the the appointment. um you
know not easy just jumping in there but appreciate what you're doing. Um and you know one of the things like to say on behalf of the board is uh you know unfortunately over the last year or so we've had a little bit of un some unstability instability um as we're
trying to find a a permanent chief. Uh shout out to uh Tom Karu for jumping in there and giving us a year of his time uh to do that job. um and did a did a great job uh did it admirably. Um that said, the board has really tried over
the last year or so to put some infrastructure in place for the police department. You know, I think we've come to some favorable contractual terms to make it attractive to not only work in a Kushnet, but to stay here. Um uh also, you know, I think as we're moving
forward with the assessment with a chief position and deputy chief position, it's our intention to have an infrastructure that's in place that gives um some of our senior veteran officers, opportunity for leadership, but also gives some
light at the end of the tunnel for some of our younger uh officers as well. And you know, it's our hope that we have this is a place that people will look to as a career, as a career opportunity, place to stay. Uh the more stability, the more we have officers who are ingrained in the community, I think
that's just better for everybody. Um so that's what we've tried to do. Have we been perfect? No. Um but we're doing our best and we appreciate your patience as we go through this uh sort of growing pains, if you will. Um, we we want to meet with we've, you know, appointed a
uh badge quest to do the assessments. So, that's really important. We uh hope to meet with them ASAP to get them on our agenda for the next meeting to get that process moving. Um, and it's our goal is to have a a permanent chief, you know, hopefully by the end of the year,
you know, by year's end, beginning of the year. We don't want it to drag on like it did. So, that's where we're at. That's our intention and wanted to share that with you gentlemen. You know, I took the liberty of speaking on behalf of the board, but I figured that's trying to encapsulate
everything that we've talked about and what our actions are trying to accomplish. So, >> absolutely. Uh with that said, with the appointment of the retirement of Chief Karu and you moving into that slot, that has created some uh a void in the
sergeants and you know, wanted to we spoke about that. We want to get that process moving. So, I'll turn it over to you. As you know, we're a civil service department, so we've got to follow that protocol. So, with that said, Chief, uh the floor is yours. >> Well, gentlemen, thank you uh for having
us here tonight. Um it's an honor and a privilege uh to present these four candidates for consideration of be promoted as rank of sergeant. Only one of them will one of these individuals will be appointed tonight. They're aware of that, but I feel strongly that all of them will be incredible supervisors one
day. >> Um if if it's okay with you, I'd like to do a background on each one of them. >> Please do. >> Okay. It's really important. >> Uh Ryan, can you stand up? >> This is Ryan Hemp. Ryan's town resident who holds a bachelor's degree in criminal justice. He has a minor in
psychology from Bridgewater State University. He's currently pursuing a master's degree in criminal justice. Prior to joining our department, Brian served as a correctional officer for Bristol County Sheriff's Department. In 2014, he joined our department as a reservant and intermittent officer. In
2016, Ryan was appointed a full-time member of this department. Currently, he's assigned to the detective division where he investigates a range of crimes such as identity theft, property crimes, violent crimes, sex crimes, and narcotics violation. He also serves as a detective with the Southeast
Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council. During his career, he's served in many roles within the department, including firearms licensing, certified field training officer, public information officer, certified sexual assault investigator. Brian, thank you. Courtney
gentlemen, this is Courtney Sors. Courtney holds a master's degree from Fisher State University in criminal justice where she obtained it with a high honors. She worked two years as a campus police officer at Fitsburg State and transferred to our department two and a half years ago. She's a certified field training officer, a certified
sexual assault investigator, received a crisis intervention training, and as our department civil rights officer. Courtney's committed to growing within our department and looks forward to many more years in the department. Courtney.
Derek. Gentlemen, this is Derek Cathcot. Derek holds a bachelor of science degree in business administration from Franks State College, a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Fischer College. Sorry, go back. Uh he was appointed a
reserve officer in 2002, promoted to a full-time police officer in 2004. Over his career, Derek has also held many roles. Um he's been in the department uh sieges representative for many years. Um he served in the uh southeastern
Massachusetts law enforcement council swap member, a firearms instructor, a taser instructor. Derek is currently a juvenile detective and our school resource officer. And last, Matt. Gentlemen, this is Matt Melo. Matt's a
lifelong resident of the town of Aushnet and is a son of a highly decorated retired Christian police officer. He holds an associates degree in criminal justice for Bristol Community College. He started a law enforcement career in the town of Berkeley 6 years ago before transferring to our department in 2022.
He has taken on additional roles with our department. He is a certified firearms, defensive tactics, bowler app, and taser instructor. Okay. I think the town is very lucky to have such a deep pool of quality candidates
um to choose from. Like I mentioned earlier, we you have a lot of top-notch candidates in this for this position and a lot of towns do not have that opportunity to have such a deep pool. So town is very lucky. >> Great. Thank you,
>> gentlemen. Um again to the candidates here, thank you for putting yourself out here. Um and I know as you know, as you know, we've been told we can only select one. Uh we're civil service uh department. So for those of you who uh won't be appointed this evening, I appreciate you being here. I think it's
just a real testament uh to the quality of people that we have. Um and there have been many before you who also didn't get the appointment. Um but then become has risen to risen through the ranks. So if it's not today, I'm sure at some point there will be an opportunity
for you to achieve that uh that career goal. With that said, um it's my pleasure to uh to advance the name of Ryan Amhill uh to be appointed as sergeant. Um and uh if you will accept uh we'll ask one of my colleagues to to make that motion.
>> Yes, sir. Thank you. Great. Thank you. >> I move to appoint Ryan Mel to the position of police sergeant. Mr. Chairman. Second. >> All those in favor? Motion carries. [Applause] Thank you, uh, Chief Copper. With that said, right, when you appoint one person, I'm sure there's going to be,
uh, you know, that creates some chain of events when it comes to to staffing. You, you know, uh, nice enough to put together a memo for us. I think the board needs to digest that. But today's Ryan's night, and we don't want to We'll get into what's next in a future
meeting. Um, but really wanted to tonight's the night of uh Ryan and the candidates here. So, we'll we'll discuss that at a future future time. Okay. >> Thank you. Great. Thank you. >> All right. Cheers. >> Thank you all. >> Thank you. Good night. Congratulations.
Thank you. Congratulations. Congratulations. >> Is that your family there back there? That's my family. Yeah. Congratulations. Congratulations. My daughter Emmy, Zoe, and my mother-in-law. Awesome. Snag some pictures up here in front of the ceilt
often in good. >> Come on, girls. On your phone, too. >> Thank you. Do you got to do a family ones first, Steph? And then we'll uh just
like this. >> All right. Thank you. >> We'll do a quick one with the board. The chief, get in there. Just squeeze right in. Scooching. >> Beautiful. One more. And one more.
Excellent. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you, gentlemen. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next item, we have the uh
golf facilities exploratory committee final report. As you know, uh there's been a lot of discussion within the last couple years, maybe earlier than that, um about state of the golf
facility, not the course, but the building and facility. I didn't see you back there to serve our um our customers. And so the board thought it would be best to put together a committee to work with the golf management committee and the board of
selectmen. I thought it was we felt it was best to have a group just solely focused on the facility. Um, and as you know, we put together, in my opinion, a real all-star crew of uh folks contributing to that process. Uh, Dave
D. Ro, former selectman, and Rich Drado serving as chair and vice chair of the committee. We're a great great group. Um, I've had a chance to watch pretty much all of your meetings and was really impressed with the level of discussion
and and you know the but also understanding some of the financial constraints right is that you know you don't want to blow the thing up blow blow it out and then you end up um you know end up hurting your efforts. So, I
appreciate your your level of discipline in that process, not getting all goofy on us with uh you know, crazy uh ideas. So, with that said, I guess Mr. Dro, you're going to kick things off and then turn it to to Rich for the uh the actual
presentation. >> Well, gentlemen, thank you very much for having us here tonight. As you know, it was nearly 30 years ago that the town approved $6 million to create a Kushet River Valley Golf Course. And over the last 30 years, Kusha River Valley has
gained a reputation as one of the best and most outstanding town-owned courses in the state. Just like to read this paragraph from the National Golf Foundation summary on their assessment of the golf course that was taken last year.
The current circumstances provides an opportunity for the town to reset a Kushet River Valley Golf Course and then find the new facility operating profile that will help expand the appeal of this property to a wider segment of golfers.
The completion of a new permanent clubhouse would open a new level of quality the town can promote with a campus of separate buildings. And this will provide the town with an opportunity to reimagine the basic
logistics of the property, improving service, improving parking, practice facilities, and the covered storage of golf carts. These are the most important adjustments that need to be to sustain the golf course and enhance the
marketability in this competitive golf environment. And with that said, that brings us to where we are now. with the exploratory committees uh producing a clubhouse and I'd like to thank everyone with producing a
clubhouse plan that reflects the collaborative efforts of both the exploratory and golf committee uh golf management committees. Thank you. And with that, I'd like to ask Rich to come up and uh show us presentation of the new golf
>> great clubhouse. Before you do that, Rich, I do want to again remind people who are watching at home and will watch this meeting on on recording. The golf course is an enterprise fund which is separate from the town's general fund which is separate from the town's uh tax
base. Uh essentially the role of the taxpayer really is to provide the assurity of the town's bonding capacity. Um but really this is it it's self- sustaining. It's not a reflection. You know, this isn't something that will impact the resident's tax bill unless
some situation where we get over our skis. But to be honest, if that's the case, we end up selling it. So, this really is just utilizing the name of the town for for bonding authority, but this does not impact the taxpayer. I'm going to say it three times. Does not impact the taxpayer, does not impact the
taxpayer. Is a separate enterprise account. So, just want to make sure that we're clear about that. >> That's correct. It has zero financial impact on the taxpayers of Ausha. >> Great. >> Thank you, Rich. >> Thanks, Dave. Thank you, gentlemen.
Pretty excited about where we're at. Um, pretty excited to show you guys the effort that both committees put up for the last, say, eight months or so. Um, we hope this we hope we're to show you today aligns with your vision for the
future of the golf course and to the betterment of the town. When we first started, we were given this mission statement. It was it was the first piece of paper that Sydney handed out to us and it basically says, "Hey, our job is to to come up with a
plan to build a clubhouse and then report back to the golf committee and to the board of selectment and that's why we're here today. So, how did we get here? I'm going to talk a little bit about the approach we took and and the whole time and I think
either either selectman said or or David said, budget was on our front burner all the time and I think it was uh the most important part of the process. So, what do we do? We just conducted a feasibility study on how to build a clubhouse. We we we talked earlier about
put a team together to do that. a diverse group with a lot of good backgrounds made for good camaraderie and for good ideas. Um we met in uh our first meeting was February of 25. We entered a contract with an
architectural firm worked closely with Kurt the architect and also partnered with Tim Garish from Gardener and Garish who's a golf course architect. And the process the process was iterative right? We went round and round and round. We started with this big idea and eventually we had to pair it down to
something that was more palatable for for the golf course to pay for it and for the town to accept it. Um, one of the things we did that wasn't really planned for in the beginning is we went to other golf courses to see what they had done and what challenges they had seen along the way and ask them
questions like what would you have done better if you had an opportunity to do it. So that also impacted the process as we were moving along. We set some goals. We know we had to entertain larger groups. So for some inside seating, we needed adequate
seating. We knew we knew that the food and beverage opportunity at Aush River Valley needed to be improved and just an overall better presentation of the entire property. Where we are today, I know a lot of I know a lot of folks know where we are
today, but thought it was important to include this slide. We're in a nearly 30-year-old double wide trailer that's in disrepair. uh it's not representative of the Kushnet River Valley brand. Dave said earlier that the National Golf Foundation, which is a highly respected
worldwide organization in the golf industry, I've been reading their literature for 30 years in my career, um they rated the golf course very high. And one of the things I took away from the executive summary was
they said it's a a clubhouse is a clear mismatch to the highquality golf course. And I wanted to quote that because it's really time to move forward. I'm not showing anybody something they haven't seen before, but this is how we entertain folks when we have a large
outbreak. So, I'm going to kind of just step through these kind of quickly and we'll get to the meat of this. Um, we started out working with the architects and we in in the form of renderings and sketches, handdrawn. So, you see where the clubhouse is. I don't know if this
mouse little thing is going to work, but you can see where the clubhouse is currently in right in front here, you'll see the dashed red line. And this shows up a lot in the few slides ahead. That's where the current double wide trailer is. So, this is the first attempt at a
rendering of where we would place a cart barn. uh uh put golf carts and also where we would put the new clubhouse. Another version is with the clubhouse up on the top of the practice screen
overlooking the 18th fairway with a a short game practice area where the tent opportunity is currently and you can see where the dash red line is where the current clubhouse is and then a car barn over to the left side of the
slide. Then we got into programming like what's going to go inside of the new clubhouse and and when you when the architects build stuff they call it programming and they they do it in the form of block diagram. So basically it's what's going to go inside and you can move the blocks
around until you get to a spot where everybody's happy. So this is early in the process just trying to understand what the demands would be, what the needs would be of the clubhouse. Then we started to get into the meat of it where we actually took that
programming and started to build the actual drawings and and start to position. And this was part of the iterative process. And the whole time we're thinking about this is how can we get this into a to a number that's palatable for the town and for the golf course to to easily make the payments.
And again, this is another like, hey, we started to talk about and and and and to be honest, in the beginning, I was I needed to be swayed to move the the personally, I needed to be swayed to move the clubhouse to where the putting green is because I thought of costs and
it was really it was it was kind of an anchor on me for a little while. But when I started to see the passion from the golf committee and the exploratory committee, I kind of quickly jumped on board with them to to understand that that's the location we should put this So, this was our next to last drawing.
You can see a lot of deck space. You get a really good idea of what's inside of the clubhouse and kind of what the flow would be as you enter. When they when they gave us the number for this, it was pretty shocking when we saw this and we
and we were a little disappointed because all all along the way we and I know I've said this a bunch of times, but budget was a on our front burner. And when we got this number, we had to call an emergency kind of meeting with the architect and with uh with with Dave Flynn from the the golf committee and we
said, "This isn't going to work. You got to come meet us in the middle here." And we encouraged them to we couldn't really shrink the opportunity much more. But what we did was we made decisions like, do we need $600 a square foot for the dining area? It's an open
for an open place sheetrock and Cove Bay should work just fine. And so he went from $600 a square foot to a little over $400 a square foot which would significantly reduce the price. He also lowered the the amount of square footage on the deck. And I'll get to that.
Um so here's where we landed and why we're here today. This is another kind of rendering of what we recommend and we recommend this in a phased approach and I'll talk about that towards the end. But the clubhouse up on the putting green project one priority one and then
three other projects down the road where a short game area covered golf car opportunity and eventually fix the parking and make the parking a little bit more palatable for the the the customers. This is the most recent drawing. You can
see significantly reduced deck space and probably about 5% less of square footage and the pricing came out to like I said earlier around 400 a square ft square foot. We're going to step through real quick of some renderings of the outside
to give you a depiction of what this is going to look like. So, here's a couple of viewpoints of the pro of the uh clubhouse looking from the outside. I'm not sure if any of you gentlemen have had a chance to see into this. I'll give you a second to take a peek at it, but I
think it it dovetales nicely into a little farming town that we have. I think it's going to it's going to fit in on the property very nicely. This is a top down look at the the cart barn with the 80 golf carts in it. Here's
this the four-sided view of the carn if if down the road we decide to do this. And here's where we where we ended up with budget numbers, right? They the at the end of the day the last number on the first column is 3.5 million, a
little over that. Um we we know this is budgetary pricing. We don't have real schematics to really price this out. So right now that's the number we're working with. Um the other projects don't have to be in the order
that they're described on the slide. They should go in priority and you know I think that's up for future discussions. I think where where we are at with the 3.5 million is is a solid number. I think the design of the
clubhouse fits what we have in the town. It fits for making the golf course better, aligning with your values and with what the NGF had recommended. So, we're here to recommend a phased approach. Build the clubhouse first, put
it on the putting green. If we do that, it'll allow us to continue off operations of the golf courses. It wouldn't impede uh the operations with the the double wide trailer. And then the the last three phases would be the cart storage,
practice area, and parking. and we can the future can decide on what order of operations those three those three happen in that's all I have and thank you for the opportunity and just I'll turn it over just a couple observations I'm looking at cost the actual building
itself right you're looking at 2.1 million and then you add in some of these other things right you got soft costs and all this other stuff but I think you know as a we decide to go forward with this if there's an opportunity to leverage in-house expertise,
you know, and if it's a backcharging the town like, you know, using DPW to do site work or things of that nature, but I, you know, paying back the town for that service, um, I think we should, you know, look at that, uh, those opportunities as much as possible. Um,
you know, so any that's my only comment. Turn it over to my colleagues. Um, and get there, get your thoughts, gentlemen. Yeah. I mean, what's what's the total square footage of the building? 4,000 3,000? >> Because we don't have we don't have
>> 49 >> 4900. >> Yeah, >> that's where the deck that's with the >> uh it's I mean I kind of look I broke it down into different sections. You know you can >> you know
the the uh covered portion uh would be approximately 1,020. The pavilion would be 1460. The pro shop is about 600 and that's
with uh there's two offices in the back which is another 80 square ft. The kitchen area is about 665. That includes the bar, a little storage area. Um, and that's probably it. The deck is
about 1300 square feet. So, it would help from my perspective to see the blow up of the drawing with square footage in each room. I mean, that and it looks like the hallway. This picture is kind
of a tiny picture and you got the hallway coming through. I think the layout looks pretty decent, but the hallway and you only have a bar on one side, which looks like it's inside the dining room. Seating for the bar. Would there be seating at a bar? >> I think there is. Yeah. >> Okay. I don't know what the length of
the bar would be. How many seats are at the bar? And then we talked about, you know, I think in the past we've talked about accommodating the outings, which can go all the way up to 144, 150. And when I when I did the math on your
seats, I only see 64 seats in the internal dining room, it looks like it says because interior dining room is so tiny. And then it looks like outdoor covered dining. Again, no real square footage on this thing. 48 seats. I'm
only at 108 seats. So, it looks like we have a shortage in seating here. Unless you're going to just stick people outside on the deck. When we were originally talking about it, it was kind of you want to try to at least encapsulate everybody under something in case it's raining, right? So, I mean,
I'm just looking at a quick drawing. It's the first time we're seeing this. Um, I don't know total square footage. Can't see square footage of rooms versus seating. Make sure we're accommodating exactly what our needs are. Again, if
it's 140, 150 seats, I'm only at 108 seats. 112 main. >> We can definitely get bigger drawings and and and confirm seating capacity in both of those spaces. And and just with the the dining, if you're going to
have the interior and you have something going on inside of here with the seating on the interior of the dining area instead of on this side and dining kept, you know, peaceful and the, you know, our bar area can get a little bit rowdy and loud. And so having people in there,
if there's people sitting and down inside eating, doing whatever they're doing, it's how could we better serve that bar area? I mean, it's really where the money's made, right? So, I mean, >> I did break down the sizes of each room.
I mean, if you want me to make copies of this, I can get you one. This has all the square footage of each areas. >> Yeah, that that would that would help. >> Kevin, I also have it on my computer if you want to zoom in and out if you're curious right now. Really small, but I did blow it up and get sizes.
>> It's all right. I don't need I don't need to do this now. >> Okay. I mean, it's the first presentation I'm seeing. I know with what we're seeing and we're just having dialogue around this design. So, >> I'm going to make copies of this now. >> If she wants to, she can. That's fine.
>> We'll we'll reach out to Kurt to get a an opportunity. He just gave us PDFs and they're tough to blow up. >> I'll get a I'll get a raw drawing and I'll I'll print out a couple copies that are there and it definitely makes it easier to to review it. I think, you know, we're in the space of trying to
shoehorn a building into a budget that we really didn't have to start with and we just knew better and and I think there's probably some opportunity to meet the expectations you have and what the golf course has and I don't think this this isn't a final
>> Yeah. No, I I get it. I mean, it's a great start, right? It's just when I'm looking at the layout of the bar, it's it's going through a hallway and you kind of want to have people to be able to sell. I'm not saying you can't have people sitting inside the interior of the dining room pot area to be served and things of the like, but you would
definitely want to have this side of the bar as well, right? I mean, that's your bread and butter, food and beverage where the money's to be made if you do things right. Right. And like any restaurant that we all go to, I know I spend my fair share at
places. Um, the bars, the money, the money hole, right? That's where that's the money the glory is where the money's being. Is there any discussion about a um I like the idea of you know like a modest indoor space and you a little deck area but was there any discussion
about you know a pavilion type setup like you know how you have the tent now that accommodates the 144 but you know like more of like a wooden structure permanent structure nice classy outdoor space but you also still have you know a
modest indoor space as well for inclement weather. So like serving the the outings would be in that pavilion area, but you also still had, you know, restaurant air quotes for the either the person who doesn't golf, just wants to go chill out or whatever. Like was there
any discussion about that or you're saying like to accommodate the outings would be the combo of the indoor outdoor space? Is that >> Yeah, that's where we landed is, you know, that the two dining areas. One is kind of an open pavilion rather than a closed off area. >> Got it. And and again again it was we're
doing our due diligence to >> try and make this cost effective. Some of the numbers we got in the beginning were >> pretty high. It's like when So the first iteration of this as you as Rich was saying was 80 indoor seating 80 outside for 160 people total. Then part of
bringing the cost down the 80 indoor was shrunk down to 64. >> But then the same size that 16 whatever is now gets put to the outside. Okay. And there was the thought of do we just build a pavilion like I guess what's that the library kind of off to the side
>> but then it was did we want if you had a full outing of 150 people with your volunteers do you want them separate from each other or would you kind of want them all together from the inside and the outside so that's why the deck was made large enough to hopefully between the inside and the outside with the picture of big overhead doors making
it one contiguous space of 160 was the goal for the ceiling but right now to shave the budget a little bit. 64 inside and then 96 96 >> outside. All right. Well, Mr. Hank,
>> um, that was actually going to be my next question because I just noticed, uh, Thank you, Mr. Chairman. >> It's really tough to read it on this to see how close it is, but it's looking like this is roughly about 163 altogether counting the outside deck. Does that sound about right? >> Yes.
>> Okay, got it. >> I see. So it's just a transfer of moving some stuff from inside. >> Exactly. You take the outside rectangle which was originally drawn between interior building exterior space. They took the wall moved it over. Essentially took two tables of eight them outside to
make the inside a little bit. >> Okay. >> Yeah. I mean one more question. Uh just for some clarification from the inside dining area to the outdoor cupboard area. Um what kind of doors is it going to be? be
capable of is it just swinging doors or is it going to be open so you can have a nice smooth transition in between outside and inside dining? I think the design was >> I was thinking like a 12 foot or 16 foot slider that the two middle doors open,
you know. So if you got a 16footer, the two middle open, so now you've got a, you know, 12t opening or whatever that would be, right? Uh half of that 8ft opening. >> One of the golf courses I >> side by side. >> One of the golf courses I visited had glass floor to ceiling glass like a
garage door that flipped up this way. So you just again you could always see completely outside and then you want to close it for the weather or open it up. Right. >> So there's a lot of cool concepts out there, right? And and we look at the new restaurant that used to be the old ice house. They built that new outdoor
edition with the garage doors and stuff. You got indoor outdoor. You can lock them down at night. Everything's nice and secured. They kind of incorporating some mechanisms of that facility. And then you look at Black Whale what they did with their outdoor. There was a just a cupboard like what I guess what that's
kind of what's envisioned here is the outdoor what used to be the outdoor which is now it can be indoor outdoor cuz they have the heavy plastic curtains they can sip it down and shut them down for for bad weather. It's heated air condition and all that stuff. So that's all things that we can you know envision
and doing maybe they're add-ons later on. I don't know what profits we could be spending money to upgrade what we originally designed, but I I it's just hard to see cuz we don't have like really that's just bunch of black lines
right now, right? It's kind of hard to envision the the look of it all. If we could get something like that to be able to have that vision of what what does it really look like other than that? You know what I mean? do and I think that you know from what I'm hearing
>> you know I think we can all get into like design and this and that but the number to me like what's most important is that we we don't have a to exceeded number right so you're coming in at 3.5 and that's that's the number you know and I think I would be more concerned if
we were looking at like 6 million or 7 million which you had originally talked about like that might be hard to get this moving but you know from a mechan from process standpoint, right? The ask is not to exceed the 3.5 and then everybody
can have input and monkey around with how the final design design looks like. It doesn't sound like it would be, you know, like Mr. Gast was saying, subtle tweaks here and there, whether it's garage doors or these other things would add to the cost. If anything, it might, you know, shrink the cost in some way,
right? So I think is that what I'm hearing is that like the number is that a oh a hell no number 3.5 or is it like all right we can >> I mean looking at it >> given the revenue from the course it's something that I think is doable and manageable you just can't exceed it you
know >> I I don't really just first glimpse looking at it I don't know if 3.5's bad number or a good number at this point I think it's it's it's something that we can work within I mean you know we we I mean I know But I'll talk with
Mr. Kelly um with about finance, what we're covering in the budget now, what we've been putting in year over year, retaining earnings to make sure we can make this happen, right? I know that once we get it built, it's it's we'll be unstoppable at that point, right? Our revenue opportunity
there will far exceed what we're even talking about today. It's just getting to that point, getting it built, and bringing that revenue in. And then you know you look at kitchens and commercial kitchens and things of the like you have to look at costs associated with that staffing right what are we what are we
adding in staffing because when you add human beings you're also adding health insurance costs and things like that so that's going to take away from your profitability. So those are all things that we I think we owe it to the people to have that dialogue and make sure this can we can justify the cost at 3.5 and carry that principle and interest
forward. I would I would like to do it as short as term as we can um and being creative and we'll talk about that offline um revenue numbers and and what we're going to use from previous retained earnings what we have in the bank. So I I think there's some more
discussion to be had before we just say hey let's go not to exceed whatever number may be 3.54 million whatever the number is going to be. So and I everything's so small but contingency when you guys did this did you obviously I mean I know David you've been doing
procurement for a long time and projects for a while so you would obviously cover usually with contingency you carry 7% contingency of total project cost you have 10 down on that 10% I can't see it on my last >> project contingency it's uh 300,000 yeah
so it's a that's number 38 that's 10% % >> pretty close pretty close up. >> All right, >> Mr. Chairman, that may um to actually echo what Selecting Gasper said, I've noticed a lot of firms in general have
the capabilities of doing almost like a virtual walk through. Um if it's not possible for these guys, obviously that's no big deal. But next time you speak with um I assume it's Catalyst. put this together. >> If it's an option where they could build a model, even if it's just a rudimentary
model that kind of gives us a walk through just so it can help us really understand the flow. I mean, I can kind of get a rough idea. I feel like I know where I'd be walking if I walked in there just by looking at it. But I think
it would help us understand a little bit better on that and, you know, it might alleviate some of the concerns. >> Yeah. Yeah, I think that's a great idea. Assuming if you know if this gets to the point where it goes to town meeting, I think that would be helpful, you know, to have that. >> We we'll talk to Kurt at at Catalyst and
see what's I don't know how much we've spent with him so far. I don't have a number on that. Do you guys have any idea what we've spent? >> I bet you could probably pump this into chat GPT and I'm not joking around. I'm not I do it all day. I do it all the time. I put stuff in there and it it
cranks out, you know, I I'll take a take a stab at it. >> Well, Mr. chairman for our uh for the conceptual plan that was presented uh I believe the contract was agreed for for 25,000. So advancing from here and be
renegotiating finding out what the architect can do what they're going to charge for us and then proceeding >> okay >> in that direction. Okay. >> Do do we know where that current expenditure is from the 25 that was originally appropriated? Well, I believe this is it
because it was for conceptual study plans which originally started at two, you know, different locations and and as uh Rich described the process that we all went through to get there gave us numerous uh you know, numerous numbers
uh different plans, different meetings >> at this point in time. and they've met the deliverables that they were >> owed to us for the price that we agreed to then >> there are certainly have the capabilities of doing those other things. probably going to have to pay for them at this point, but it might be well worth it just to help everybody
envision it a little bit the next step as long as we, you know. >> Yeah. And I I know we we I looked at the warrant. We're going to discuss it briefly today. There's an article in there. Um I don't know if there's a rush to get this to fall town meeting and why there would be um again maybe spring
town meeting. I don't know. We'll have that conversation when the time comes. But um I've been I've been adamantly talking about a clubhouse for over a decade and I know that I always got push back because of the current bond that we have in place and we had to refinance
the golf course back in 14 I think it was Dave >> remember the year there's only one more large payment left next uh next July >> right we got the regular bond and then next year is the remaining balance of it but that's we carry roughly 360,000 it
was 560 but we rebonded for seven years because golf hit a brick wall back in I think it was a 1415 era and that's when we rebonded um just to save the golf course quite honestly and not turn it to the on the backs of taxpayers. So, um, we just got to look at the numbers and crunch
numbers. And again, I don't want to, this isn't something that we, in my opinion, I think we can turn this, if it's $3.5 million, I'm pretty confident, um, we could turn this over relatively quickly. And I would say probably nothing more than a sevenyear, but I would try to get it done in 5 years and
be done and over with the clubhouse payment. >> I think with you later, Kevin, I've burned my own projections. The seven is ex comfortable figure that I was at looking at it. Yeah, we can we'll you and I could talk numbers. We're pretty good with numbers, but I I see he's already comfortable with the seven and,
you know, pulling a few rabbits out of a hat. We might be able to get to five, but I I just I would like to get it done and over with. So, you go you you've got a price that's that really blows my mind over. We'll talk quickly about the cop buy or whatever it is.
>> We're all in agreement with that. So, you know, we was a placeholder when we when we worked with Kurt on this. I've already reached out to a local company, Kate Building Systems, who I've worked with uh in the past on some pretty elaborate projects, and I'm I kind of last couple
of weeks had a struggle to get in touch with them, but I finally did and sent them some of the drawings that we had already because we knew that including the car barn into this clubhouse price was going to push this project over the over the edge. We really didn't put a lot of time
in looking at a car park. I think we should separate the carpound from catalyst. I don't think it's a complex space. >> Yeah. No, it's not. >> My peers here would agree that the price per square foot of that space is going to be significantly lower than what he's got quoted there. >> Yeah. So, originally we the golf
management committee talked about going uh you know electrifying our golf carts, right? And we talked about a thing underneath with golf carts, right? That that idea is obviously scrapped, but again, quick lean to solar, have your drop downs if that's what you're going to do. And if not, I can tell you right now, you could put a steel building up
over there for $150,000 and have them all indoors with a steel building. Period. Not 1.5. >> Yeah, we're not,000 carb bond if that. >> We're not advocating for the 1.5. It's just this is the report that the architect gave us. >> We're focused on column one.
>> Steel buildings last 30, 40, 50 years depending on the quality of the building you're buying and they're dirt cheap. >> And this one, this one won't need much inside of it. if if it needs infrastructure for electricity, it's a it's a charger for every every car. So, that's that's about it, >> right?
>> Doesn't need running water. Probably needs a wash pad like we talked about. But >> we we didn't put a whole lot of energy into the once we realized that this project was getting expensive that we we put all our focus on the clubhouse and then that's where we recommended a
phased approach. >> Good. Mr. Chairman, if I just echo one more question about the car bond. Um, >> what's the current um, Mr. Flint probably good question for you. What's the current remaining uh, years on the leases for the current cards? >> So, they're actually staggered. They're
not all on one lease. There are some that like every year or so come up. We typically deal with three to five years depending on >> what's out there in the cost. But I'm also pretty confident that, you know, if we wanted to swap the fleet over to electric, we, you know, if we stayed
with the same vendor, we could get out of the current lease and swap at any point in time. So even if as this is going on, if we had to renew a lease next year just to get more carts in and then the year after that we wanted to swap them out, I'm pretty confident with the vendor we could at that point. If we wanted to get out of the lease and swap to a whole another manufacturer, it
might be an issue. But to stay with Club Car, I don't think it would be an issue. Just swapped out the fleet in this term. Okay, >> great. Thank you, gentlemen. We'll uh >> thank you all. >> We're still under review. I appreciate it. This is the first inning. This is uh this teing off the first hole, better analogy,
>> and uh we'll uh keep this moving. >> All right. Well, thank you very much for your time. >> Great work. Great stuff. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next item is to appoint uh Kushman resident William Cordville as a uh starter ranger.
Mr. Mr. Flynn. Mr. Dane is looking for a a replacement position of a starter ranger. Is that something that you already currently carry in your budget? It's a replacement. It's not a new position. >> That's my understanding that it's a replacement of a position already. Yes,
sir. >> I'll make a motion to appoint Mr. William >> as a starter ranger. All those in favor d one thing just as something to think about and yeah you
don't want to be overly restrictive like with residency and stuff like that but I think you know as applications come in or people looking to work for the course whether it's bag boys to cart girls to starters of rangers I think the more town residents is the is just a good
policy to have and to try to encourage that uh that practice I think would be really good in the absence of it. >> We've tried to carry that tradition over the years. Um Kushner residents first has precedence over everybody else, right? As long as they have qualifications for the job.
>> So, thanks. >> Thanks, Dave. Thanks for your work. Appreciate it. Um All right. There was some stuff we going back and forth about some articles. I guess we'll we're going to meet Friday. We can talk about that. Uh the next item on the agenda, Mr. Fish
is here. Uh but with regarding the Civil War monument, uh which was relocated, now's the time to put together a plan to tune it up and make it look presentable and really enhance that area. The layout's a little funky. We wanted to ideally have it with a little bit kitty
corner, but because of the the boundaries couldn't do that, but I think with some creative landscaping and you've got, you know, some signage can really turn that into something nice. But I wanted to at least get the board's input on it before we just said, "Hey, go do it." You know, we talked about
some private donations, but we also have money left over in the article. Just want to at least get some direction on how we want to do it. We want Brad to put together a plan, work with the beautifification committee. What's the input of the board? >> Mr. Chairman, I I I've reached out to some u private parties. I don't want to
use their names right now until they're willing to make a donation, but I do have two um parties that are out there that are interested in somewhere around the realm of $1,000 each. >> Sweet. >> So, for doing some plantings in in brick lay, you know, obviously this is not the season now.
>> We're too late to plant flowers and you know, we should try to plant grass and get grass to grow now, but maybe in the come spring, >> you know, that'll be the time to do the, you know, a nice little brick walkway at least. I mean, we don't have to put a giant patio there with a nice, like you had said, a nice, you know, walkway over
to the monument with a little peaceful, you know, little area where if you have a small group of people to be in front of it, you know, doing that thing with a walkway, that'd be great. And, um, you know, again, like I said, I'm very hopeful. One of the gentlemen's on vacation. He told me, I'm sorry I forgot about you and the donation. And I said,
"Look, it's it's fall >> too late for flowers and stuff like that now, but it looks like we may be able to get a couple grand from outside." >> Um, gentlemen, if you're okay with it, I talked to Brad. Maybe Brad can kind of work with some of like some of the
veterans in the big um beautifification committee to come up with a design and some ideas of what it would look like and then can bring it back to the board. That'll give us enough time to, you know, track down the money. Like I said, still got many left in the article, but maybe Brad, if you take that on and come back to us.
>> I can. So, what I'll do is I'll talk to the commanders of the BFW and American Legion. >> Y >> and try and get their consensus on everything and how how maybe it should look and how we should do a brick walkway. And then I'll come back to the board and >> show you what they came up with and then
you can put your input in and get going. It would be really nice, you know, like I said, if there's an opportunity to put some, we lost the tree cuz it was dying, but maybe put some more trees in that area and do something to really make it look special. So, anyway, thank you. Um, just want to get that conversation.
>> Yeah. No, absolutely. And, you know, obviously I'll try to keep chasing outside money with donations. I mean, I think all three of us can do that and talking to people if we >> That always helps. And I mean, the Legion and the VFW, they may put some money in too for it. So, >> you know, flowers, flowers and trees and
things of the like that that's that's sharp money, >> right? >> But the patio, the brick patio and things of the like, I mean, I've done them before. I don't know if I'm going to go try to do attempt to do something like that. Somebody may be out there that does this for a living and can get really creative in the colors of the
brick that we use surrounding the memorial, i.e. the red, white, and blue kind of thing. Maybe we'll see what happens. But um just try to incorporate that into the monument area would I think be really cool, right? >> Yep. Absolutely. And I'll talk around town and see who I get to donate
different things. So >> I think design services, somebody could do it. He was pretty clever with that stuff would be gossip. But anyway, thank you, Brad. And uh while you're here, we we did it while you weren't here, but just want to reemphasize the work that you're doing. Thank you for all you do.
Keep doing what you what you're doing. If you need anything from the board, let us know. um you do God's work and we really appreciate the work you're doing. So don't worry about people talking about you and you know whether you're there or not. If anything we owe you more than you owe us. So >> I appreciate the board. You guys have
been more than helpful and you've always backed me 100%. I appreciate it. >> And I think we always will grant no matter >> I appreciate that. I know I will. >> Mr. Chairman, just one more comment on that too. Um >> I think Mr. Gasman brought up a good point about getting grass seed down at least now.
>> Okay. um just to stabilize the area in it. There's a lot of dirt. We get through this weather, it starts getting windy, it's going to I'd hate to see anything shift. Um I think it'd be worthwhile to at least get some grass seed down just to >> get something to hold the dirt in its place and then we can
>> I can um I'll contact EBW tomorrow. They they just put down loom and grass seed on H Street with the storm drainage that they just did. They were over there today. So I I'll I'll connect with them and I'll see if they can bring some loom over. just put a couple inches or whatever of loom and get some grass seed
down. I know we're going to get rain for the next two and a half, three days, but whenever we can whenever we can get loom down and start planting seeds, hopefully we'll get it to grow. Right. Sounds good. All right. Next item. One day liquor license applications for Diamonds in the Rough or Ptova Fest October 5th.
We've done this in the past. >> Motion to approve the wine and malt beverage license for Diamond in the Rough. Second. All those in favor? I >> motion pass. >> Motion to approve the one day wine and malt license for the S gray lady. I
believe it is. >> Yep. >> Yep. Second. >> All those in favor? >> I motion carries. Next item, gentlemen, I asked to put on the agenda. Now that we've moved the Civil War monument, I think it's time for us to get moving with the library. Um, you know, we in
the past we've talked about doing something there. You know, I I keep reading in the city of New Bedford, you know, former schools, fire stations, libraries, developers are grabbing them for housing or whatever. So, want to get
some direction from the board on what we want to do with this. Um, I think there's a mech something from a process st standpoint, Jamie, that we got to get an appraised value. If it's over 35,000, it's going to be an auction, blah blah blah. Well, if it's over 35,000,
uh, you can use an RFP situation instead of an auction. The value to that is you can use additional criteria like the uh redevelopment
experience of the proposer, the quality of the proposal impact on the area and uh you can define certain municipal goals including
keeping the envelope of the building, the historical envelope. >> I know, >> but that's you've got to use an RFP process to do that. >> So, I think I've talked about this many times in the past and thank you, Mr. Chairman, for putting this back on the agenda because the longer we wait, the
more the building falls apart. And I agree with Mr. Kelly that um doing it through the RFP, but we should get an appraisal done on the property. Let's just arbitrarily speak. Don't get excited out there. People in the public listening to what I'm saying. I'm just hypothetical numbers. If an appraiser
says $400,000, we can put it out there, you know, minimum $400,000 so we don't get anything below that, right? You need the appraisal so you can qualify to use the RFP process cuz someone has to tell you
its value is over 35,000, >> right? Makes >> sense. But we have the funds for that >> almost like a silent auction where you can put in a minimum bid, right? We don't want to get shot changed, in other words. So, if we get an appraisal of $400,000, sticking the same number,
that's minimum bid we put in the RFP, right? And then people are going to see it and they're going to say, "Oh, well, I'll bid 500. I'll bid 600. Whoever really wants the property?" And I know the historical commission is going to be all over keeping that characteristic. >> Of course, that's right. A and
>> uh you cannot use for an appraiser the uh auctioneer that the town presently uses. We've explored that. The Commonwealth will not let us do that. So, uh, but we've talked to them to get
some referrals to see, uh, if it even needs to go out or if the appraisal costs are going to be sufficiently below the limit that we can just get three quotes. >> So, how do we get this thing moving?
Three quotes. >> Do we have money set aside for an appraiser or do we got to go get three quote? Can we go get three quotes? >> Well, let's get three quotes. See where we're going. >> Thank you. Can you do that? Yes. report back to us. I just my concern is we ring our hands, we ring our hands, nothing
happens and 5 years from now we'll still look at the same thing so we can keep this moving >> and put the building back to use really >> people get off the pot whatever the you know >> Mr. Chairman, on that note, too, while we're talking about getting the ball rolling, um, great conversation with
Pauline involving the time capsule that's still buried over there. Um, and the fact that it would have to get moved to the new library. Um, so I would strongly suggest we find out exactly where it is and get that process moving as well.
>> Okay. >> Um, and I have zero issues jumping in on that if you want. >> Sounds like a plan. Let's do it. >> Mr. Chairman. >> Yeah. >> If I can just go back to um in respect to Diamond in the Rough Ptof Fest. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Um we didn't tell everybody um at home
watching in TV land, Ptof Fest will be held October 5th, 2025 from 12 to 15 12 to 5:00 p.m. Okay. 211 Middle Road, better known as Whites Theory. >> Sounds good. All right. Good idea.
Sounds like fun. All right. Next item. Uh, I guess we don't we're going to have to >> Mr. Chairman. >> Yeah. >> Just briefly, uh, I've been in conversation with town council. Town council is drafting a
letter. uh he wanted to make sure of a certain uh real estate issue, but he's drafting a letter to cease and desist encroachment on town property. Uh the
letter he says will be finished by the end of the week. He's looking at uh comparing it to some of the other cease and desists that other bodies in town
have done uh prior to this on different issues on this property. >> All right, >> sounds good. He wants to fold it all in together. Okay, >> so we'll uh just keep monitoring that. All right, next item. >> Can I ask a question, please?
>> Yes. Um, so there were other orders that were issued. The board of health issued an order to him because there's a nuisance issue there. >> How is this going to be enforced? I know that he blew off the uh nuisance order from the board of health. >> He's blown off letters that I've
written, my attorney has written. >> How is this going to be enforced? Because this guy just I'm sorry, Mr. Kelly. I'm sorry. >> That's why uh Mr. Blake is going through the other enforcement issues and complaints. He wants to fold it all
together. >> You have to go to court, right? We file trifle. >> Well, he wants to make sure if he has to go to court, he's got it all lined up, right? >> And that it doesn't go in in drips and drabs. It's everything. >> Okay, sounds good.
>> All right, I appreciate it. >> Yeah, all right. Next item. Fall special town meeting warrants. um town council's reviewed this. I know Jamie, you can kind of talk about if you want to talk about it, but what I suggest is that we meet Friday morning
at 11:00. We can just totally focus on these articles um what we want to do, get a final final. >> Uh I will say, Mr. chairman that I included as far as the expenditure of
free cash every request so that the board can comb through it and then eliminate various requests that they do not see as valid as this time because if you grant every request you exhaust all
the free cash and there'll be none left for the spring. Okay. noticed that. >> I'm like, "This is not good." >> Well, fall town meeting is usually for housekeeping, right? Cleaning up stuff and everything else. And I'm looking at the dollar amounts and I know one of
them's a doozy, but we have no choice on it. But I'm thinking to myself, are you kidding me? >> That's why I I wasn't going to second guessess the board. And uh as you know
uh there are a couple items concerning the school. The school did return some funding and those items pretty much equal that funding. All right. So I ask that we uh keep our powder dry,
use the next few days to go over it, ask questions, meet with whoever we need to, and then we'll meet Friday morning at 11:00 a.m. Does that work for you, gentlemen? Sounds good. >> All right. Uh, Mr. Chairman, if I may, um, just for a time constraint on Friday, >> if we can just keep that meeting just
for the warrant, I'd appreciate that. >> That'll be it. Thank you. >> That'll be it. If you get that, we'll going to post for Friday 11:00 a.m. just >> town meeting. >> So, no other preliminary warrant or whatever you want to put. >> Now, if I call in and say, "Put this on this." Tell me no.
>> All right. Now for the time frame, we have to go to uh the newspaper the 2nd of October. >> We have to go to the printer the 8th and the 9th of October. Okay, >> sounds good. >> Sounds to me like we might be ahead of
the curve this time around. >> As long as you and I can sit down announcement. >> Yeah. So, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do have a selectman's announcement. Um it's for the uh 2026 graduating class of the
Kushnet public schools. Um Miss Jenn, she's part of the PTO. She's also on the library board of trustees. She asked me to announce if you go to Frontara on Wednesday, Fronta Grill Alen Faven on Wednesday, September 24th, dine in or take out and show the flyer or mention
that you are supporting the Accession Middle School PTO and Frontier will donate 15% of your total food purchase to the PTO. >> So, they made the It's great that they're doing these fundraisers on for the Kushner public schools, the graduating class of 2026. I'm a huge
advocate of fundraising for um schools because it teaches these young folks a little sense of entrepreneurship and how to raise money and things of the like. So, they're going to have continuous ones. I know they're planning on doing one at Captain's Place as well, but for right now, this one's on Wednesday when
I said October 24th. Tomorrow, >> September 24th. >> September 24th, which is tomorrow. So you can do you can order out you know whatever Uber Eats and all that other stuff whatever all those delivery services are and they'll still deduct they'll take 15% of whatever your bill is and donate
it back to PTO. It's going to a great cause 2026 class. >> So I appreciate you mentioning that you're an advocate of entrepreneurship. I'm an advocate of the margaritas at the very So >> right. some god buyerita and uh they
present yacht and matter of fact they do sir um this is going to be a good night for Jen Alves once again um I just want to give her a quick shout out again from her past weekend fundraiser that she did for the PTO um she did a incredible job
with the butterfly release a couple months ago when I mentioned approving a butterfly release um they released 200 butterflies at park on Sunday um weather was beautiful they had raffles face painting and uh it was really nice. The community was really wrapped around it.
It was a really cool process and uh I they did a really good job with raising money. So awesome. >> Uh once again to Jen, great job. Fantastic. Keep it up. >> Bravo, >> Mr. Chairman. Could I do another announcement? >> All right, guys. Let's go. >> So, uh I mean Mr. Kelly, I mean, I know
I was in the office yesterday. We we did advertise for a soil board meeting on October public hearing on October 1st. So I would just be I I'll read the abundance notices that we sent out. You are being notified of an upcoming public hearing due to your proximity to the
applicant. Please see the notice below. A cushion soul board public hearing. Notice is hereby given that the Kushner solo board would hold a public hearing on Wednesday, October 1st, 2025 at 6 p.m. at the council line agent 59 and a half South Main Street at Kushner, Mass. This is regarding the PJ Keating soul
removal permit application for the property located at 72 South Main Street of Mass. All right. >> So that's that. >> All right. Anything else? >> No sir. >> Sure. Going once. It's going twice. >> Thank you. >> All right. There a motion to adjourn. >> So move. >> Second.
>> All those in favor? Motion carries. Thank you. [Music]