##VIDEO ID:GjylQSMI_n4## [Music] good afternoon everyone today is Tuesday February 4th 2025 it is 4 p.m. this is a meeting of the board of selectman is there motion to call the meeting to order so moved so second all those in favor I this meeting will be audio video recorded yes Mr gas I'm sorry to interrupt Mr chairman but I believe seeing all Mr Wes um from on remote we have to do everything roll call vote oh good point roll call vote for the uh meeting session y i i i uh please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance Dave you can stay seated I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republ stand one na God indivisible withy and justice for all all right Mr Gasper for the 7th and the 16th yes and I am a [Music] yes and you said you abstained from the 21st you want me to make the motion for the 21st uh please I make a motion to approve the minutes of January 21st I'll second that all those in favor Mr wner yes and I am a yes all right we have a timeline here for town meeting um today we have to establish the town meeting date um after going back and forth with Mr Kelly everyone else and um the town clerk it's looking like June 2nd 2025 is probably the best date for this gentlemen have any questions or comments I do not Mr chairman is there a motion to establish town meeting date of June 2nd 20125 so moved second all those in favor Mr wer yes Mr Gasper yes an i me yes passes uh once again as we don't have everybody in the same room um and Mr Gasper missed the last meeting due to illness um we just put town administ search on here um we've added some stuff in here ultimately what I want gentlemen is if we can take the best information from all of these job descriptions and really put it together so we can get this process started as soon as possible um we have a pretty hectic timeline leading up to the end of the fiscal year so uh the quicker we move on this but I also want to make sure that what each of you feels should be in a job description for the town administrators in there um so I don't think we really need to worry about voting too much tonight other than just making sure that you get your information and any modifications you want to make to the job description to Mr Kelly as soon as possible so we can type it up and come up with the job description for that role so we can roll this out and advertise as soon as possible very good Mr chairman uh number three Department board Fe schedule um this is more of a a blanket thing that I wanted to put on here for ultimately anybody that has a fee schedule for permitting um to ultimately run through we've had some department head changeovers and a lot of fee schedules and costs for different things haven't been updated in quite some time so I want to have Mr Kelly reach out to each commission or board that has any permitting fees such as conom building Board of Health anybody that hasn't updated their fee schedule in a while to take a good look to make sure we're not losing anything Mr chairman Mr Gasper we can have uh Department of Public Works Department heads do that as well excellent yeah I think everybody so I think it would be important that every Department puts a list of what they're permitting what the permits are and what the fees they are that are required right and whatever research they've done from other municipalities um surrounding area of what they charge versus what we're proposing to charge so we can see where we're at in the realm of fee schedules Y and I think it's important that each department make their own list of every permit that is um provided by that department with a fee attached to it agre and what other communities are doing as well Mr Kelly is that something you need a motion for no Mr Mo Mr chairman I think it's a great initiative um can we put a date certain as to when we need to get this report because I think you know I know people working hard but without some type of deadline you know it becomes one of those things that sometimes it doesn't get the attention it deserves 30 days yeah 30 days sound good by me shouldn't take that long people we can have a little Grace yeah first meeting in March whatever you want to do right yeah make sure everybody I mean everybody has a fee schedule now but let's just let's just break it down Department by dep pment right we and then our office can put it on one sheet right for everybody yep look at it report to the board first meeting in March sounds good to me you want the department heads there if there's a proposed increase in fees that would be nice on why yep or if there's any change to anything in either direction as long as there's a justification but it would be nice to have them in the meeting all right thank you gentlemen uh we have some appointments so we have to unao a member of the finance committee um Christia ruso we'll make a motion to an appoint chrisa Aro at the finance committee unfor uh all those in favor roll call vote Mr wer yes Mr Gasper I am a yes and I am a yes extremely unfortunate for Mr diara but he has a an expanding family and expanding responsibility in his personal life that just kept him away from doing the job so he would have been a great individual for the fincom but I thank him for his volunteerism but I also thank him for the phone call that I received from him with regret for the resign yep uh with that being said we also have a letter of interest for an appointment to the finance committee from Lisa olowski Tomlinson uh she is a she has a master's in business um seems like she has some pretty good Financial understanding know if gentleman got a chance to read her letter accept an a motion to appoint Lisa Orlowski Tomlinson to the finance committee so move second all those in favor roll call vote Mr wer yes Mr Gasper yes and I am a yes can we send out a letter to her yep to get swor in sound clerk's office ASAP yep budget season we got to go all right uh a batement a betterman uh this is something we do every year Mr chairman I'll make a a motion to Abate the principal and interest for pel 24- 17779 and 24166 SE Phase 2 betterments is there a second no thank you uh roll call vote Mr Warner yes Mr Gasper yes and I am a yes all right we do have a letter of resignation from the zba clerk gacosta dear chairman Brown and members of the board of Select I'm writing to formally resign from my position as Secretary of the chrisan zoning board of appeals while this decision was not made lightly educational and professional commitments require my attention at this time thank you again for this opportunity I wish the board continued success in all its Endeavors uh Miss Costa is entering leaving College still going to college and uh she's got a lot of commitment so uh she did this for as long as she could but she has priorities in her professional life and I just want to say thank you very much for your time on the zoning board of appeals um I appreciate it and I would take a motion to accept the Les letter of resignation from Cara Costa with regret so moved second all those in favor Mr wer yes Mr Gasper yes I yes okay and with that being said we have a letter of interest from Mr Paul Sullivan to get the zba caught up um Mr Sullivan is currently employed by the town um has done minutes and he was the former Clerk of the planning board and he is willing to take over as the zba secretarial clerk is there a motion to appoint Paul Sullivan as the zba secretary clerk so move second all those in favor Mr Warner yes Mr Gasper yes and I am a yes all right all right as you guys know we have quite the new Conservation Commission um lots of new members that need to get Mr soua Mac training MCCA MCCA there's a various acronyms worth of training um and at this point based on their training budget it doesn't entirely cover all the new members plus also with Mark our new conservation agent also going to training um I was diving through the wetlands protection act in general and we collect fees from various applicants applicants throughout the town uh for conservation and we have a fund that allows us to spend fees appropriately and one of the big parts of that is you can spend it on any training relating related to Wetlands protection because there's so many new members and even the ones that have been there for a year still haven't gone to training yet because it's timed right am I correcting that it is Bob is we get um Tim B we get to go to uh class last year so last year I took my fundamentals it was my first year so this year I'm looking to advance and go to the next classes so I can keep advancing in it and learn more and more every time I go sure excellent so with that I'd like to authorize the conser Conservation Commission through Mr Kelly to utilize the Wetland protections act funds to fund training so moved Mr second all those in favor roll call Mr wner yes Mr Gasper yes and I a yes Mr Kelly can you just make sure you get something from the training program to show that our members have participated in attended those meetings it's at Holy Cross for reimbursement in the in the winter that's fine the more training the more training they can get the better off we're going to be as a community so hope it doesn't snow that Saturday we got nine people going this time good that's really turn that's excellent especially depending on where you park because Holy Cross just goes like this in the snow it would be CH absolutely very good uh next on the agenda Reserve fund transfer Council on Aging furnace um looks like we got a quote here 80 plus gas LP furnace instulation with 4 ton condenser and coil the amount of 9,940 7 um Mr chairman the director of the COA would have been here except there is a death in her family and uh so uh she and I have vetted this out and I would advise that this is the most appropriate way to go not tapping into the articles uh and uh also she has attached just a free summary of what she was going to address with the board as far as some of the repairs that have been done down at the COA in the last since her appointment uh cuz uh she was planning to address the board cuz I know the board likes to hear from department heads on this but certain uh I think especially in the winter uh and we're operating on uh short uh one device instead of two correct not to mention the Council on agent is technically a shelter and a heating so shelter play it safe Mr chairman I make a motion to re uh approved the reserve fund transfer in the amount of $99,950 for set purchase and repairs second all those in favor Mr wer yes Mr Gasper yes and I am a yes with that being said I'd like to offer my deepest condolences to miss Golda and Eric from the town clerk's office uh for their loss um and if they need anything absolutely we are here for them 100% Kush at Lakeville animal shelter agreement this is also something we do every year pretty standard um Becky asked for this I assume yes I ran a buyer and she said please okay uh is there a motion to accept the aush at Lakeville animal shelter agreement so move second all those in favor Mr Warner yes Mr Gasper yes and I am a yes all right gentlemen back to some old business here um we had Mr tibbles in a little over a month ago to discuss some uh projects He had going on uh so with that Mr tibles going back to discuss the bunker repairs and the golf sprayer yes good evening um we have uh as you we discussed at the last meeting we had one bid um for our bunker project um the bunker project came in for the three holes the 6th 7th and 10th at 137,000 um at that last meeting I was instructed to contact the uh bidder and see what would be his last date of um contact in regards to um securing his Services um there were two time periods uh delineated in the bid one could have started in April with a completion date in June the other would would was quoted to start in August at the end of August and with a completion date at the end of November um given his schedule when I contacted him basically the April or early portion uh of availability was booked um so we're looking at the project to take place in August or start to take place in August of 2025 so the golf committee asked me to come back the golf committee unanimously approved the project but they asked me to come back before the board of selected to get verification of undertaking the project in that time frame and uh so that's why I'm here for that particular item Mr chairman Mr Gasper so Steve under under the old contract schedule of unit prices it just said talks about contract time and that's basically what we're talking about right because the contractor can't get that work done because it says work can commence in the spring anytime after the 31st of March and or be complete by June 27th or start anytime after the 18th which doesn't make sense because let's say the 18th or whatever right 18 August 2025 the only available time is is for in the come in August by them and you said H six seven and 10 correct there's two bunkers on 10 that we had talk there's one bunker on the sixth hole one on the seventh and two on the 10th the 10th is a little bit more of a involved project because the approach is going to be expanded um up into the right side of the green to Encompass the front bunker um so that's that will take more time than the other than any of the other two so can you you know on on this spreadsheet I don't know if this is correct but we talk about six seven and 10 but it says whole number 18 Fairway concept B and it gives this outline and it's Incorporated in this 137 137,000 but we're not doing anything with hole number 18 Aly no but it's on your description so can you just re take a good look back at this before we you move forward with the contractor um this is right so the first line on the breakdown you need yeah I'm looking at I'm looking schedule of value it says whole number 18 Fairway concept B I don't and then it doesn't mention anything about H bunkers for whole six seven existing layout H pipe Earth bunker shaping bunker edging bunker compaction yeah I don't know why he would have listed whole number 18 Fairway concept B but that but basically what he's given is the the breakdown of the particular steps that are going to be undertaken to do the bunker work that's fine I'm just asking you just make sure the paperwork is then I will get yeah I will get a before we sign clarification from that on him from him tomorrow or maybe this afternoon if I can get him on the phone okay so the last time we had this conversation gentlemen it was you know more of a financing issue right because it was it's $137,000 for the bunker work we have left remaining roughly 101,000 in the article which means a shot fall of $36,000 and in the same uh meaning he made a request for I believe it was a$ 75,000 somewhat dollar sprayer that we were putting on hold cor um on that however after talking with Mr tibbles in the crew the maintenance crew down at the golf course course this work is now being kicked into the new fiscal year so it opens up an option for the board without scrambling for funds throughout the budget we can go for an article as long as the golf committee's on board with the board of Selectmen but we go for an article in the spring town meeting from the surplus of golf for the bunker work for the new calendar year we can use the current $111,000 article to purchase the sprayer so clean and and free and clear of that expense there was some options that Mr tibbles laid out to us in that previous meeting several couple months ago um and it was a financing option and quite honestly we have the money to pay for it we should just be paying for it the the finance option is actually it would cost us 20% more for this piece of equipment to finance it which is absolutely ridiculous it comes out to 15,000 in change which makes no sense that we can use that $155,000 somewhere else so we have the funds we have the um funds available in the reserve um to purchase this piece of equipment move forward with another article for the bunker replacement um my opinion is let's fund the sprayer from the article and put an article on town meeting floor for the bunker work in 2025 which would be fiscal year for the town 20126 correct okay that sound about right Steve yes does right and Steve I I uh popped into the end of your meeting the other day and overheard you guys discussing putting together your articles um I assume the chairman of the golf committee is going to work yeah we put um Mr Kelly had provided that schedule I presented that to the the golf committee so they knew what the timing was I think one of them may have been copied on on the original email I'm not quite sure um they will that will be uh a point for discussion at the next meeting I believe perfect so I can update them on on this information that give them some direction um as to where they might go with the article absolutely Mr chairman Mr G when I was with the maintenance crew Mr tibles um I also did look at the older machine that we have and it's roughly 15 years old Steve somewhere 14 15 it's going on 15 it's 14 years old now and when I was talking to Mr tibbles in the mechanic down a we went I was looking at the pots that they replaced in the rear end of it the last go around and the expenses of those components along with some other valves for the sprayers that were leaky that Mr tibbles talked about and you know we've come up with a rough number of somewhere around $30,000 20 That's not including the cost of the time for the mechanic to do the repairs so if you look at that and you say the machine's probably good for a few more years you know 30 grand cost of ownership is 10,000 a year you look at 75,000 if that's the maximum price on this on this new sprayer and you get 10 good years out of it plus I mean your cost of ownership is 7,500 or less that machine it's in good shape the older machine is still in decent shape but you don't know what else will go wrong with a machine that's 15 years old to spend 30 grand now plus I have a I have a little bit of an issue with that so you know at this point I'd be fine with buying the new sprayer with the ticle money so I'll make a motion to purchase the sprayer we talk about trade in too Steve and they want to give us a small amount of money for the trade in I think the the value of the machine is much greater than the 4500 that the company's willing to give us for a trade in off the $75,000 price so I talked to Steve about we'd have to the board of Select that need to declare it Surplus all something for sale we have a special um form that we have to fill out the board would have to determine it but there is a thing that municipalities use a website municipalities use called Min bid where you can put equipment and things like it anybody anybody from home can bid on stuff you don't have to be in municipality be bidding on it so it be worth a shot to try to expedite that get it to the board of selectman to say that we'd like to put it up for auction post it on that website and give it a trial run and see if we can sell it for more than we can get it as a Trader so what you need is is something that ask for it to be declared a surplus and then put on that so the same form does it we we pick which one it will be so we're just going to say it's Surplus equipment and then at that point once the board agrees at Surplus equipment we could put it on that munity bid website and see if we can get better than $4,500 which I'm pretty sure we can um just in pots alone it's probably worth double that right there someone else that might have a machine yeah someone so that was that would be probably what someone would do they would you know they would come look at it and if they had the a similar machine then they could use it you know basically as a graveyard unit pick off it and and not have to buy new parts I mean if you had something like a you know a uh you know if you for some reason say you hit a tree and bench a boom well the boom's going to cost you about five or 600 bucks if you have to buy just the boom where you could just steal it off of the the extra machine so that might be something that someone would consider doing it's I think it's worth a shot to try and auction it off through that website H uh yes but uh let me check to see through oig in do if it's a single approval with the board or since it's an Enterprise account it might be a dual approval two votes necessary would that be from the golf committee and US yeah that's fine if it's just even if it does go we can put it through the golf committee as well I don't think anybody's going to say well no let's just take the 4500 we could probably get doubled out or maybe more who knows right you can actually put a minimum bid on it saying minimum bid 5,000 right and it rip and see where it goes from there people bid it up and you only leave say bid opening for 30 days and then Mr tibbles I've had a conversation with him the contact is at Toro yeah t products T distri talk to them folks and he's going to open that line of communication back up with them to see if they would be holding their offer of that training price and let us go off and do what we're going to do and see what we can do and if not the $75,000 machine will cost us 71 if we let it go for trading at the 4500 so sounds like a plan think it's a win-win all the way around yeah abut do you have that for I'll need a description of the machine from you yeah I can I can do that I just didn't know if there was a particular form that you need to send me we can take care okay Steve the other the one other thing I want to mention to you about is because I hear a lot about maintenance Munds yes and I know we've been doing it only for the last couple of years but I we're losing pretty sign ific Revenue by having maintenance Mondays and I talked to a lot of people that are aggravated about not being able to golf on Mondays and we've just started doing in the last two maybe three years Max but we hadn't done it in the prior 20 years so could you take a look at what it would take for you whether it be pot time Personnel an additional piece of equipment whatever it would take for us not to do and shut down the golf course on Monday mornings and have maintenance Monday yeah I can you know I can basically address that now the reason we had I requested maintenance Mondays twofold um One is because some of the Iration practices we have we are doing or have to do we can't basically can't stay ahead and by that I mean we can't get the entire course done in one day so my idea behind the maintenance Monday for ation was this that if we had the maintenance Monday with the new equipment that that was approved specifically that small sweeper that we picked up last year we could finish all 18 if I don't have the maintenance Monday then I have to do six or seven one day six or seven the next and six or 7 the third so what that means is I've got six holes disrupted on one day six holes disrupted on the next and six holes disrupted on the third most of the time the golfers are significantly more happy if you disrupt them all at once and then that way they're putting on the same surface for I don't know one or two days I mean actually the time that we use is a/ qu inch and by the time we go out there sweep up the plugs and roll it you you know it's going to be grown in within a day or two the other reason um was that we just don't that's why I figured it would be best to try to get that done I mean right now we have uh two air Raiders that are circuit 2006 um one's a PTO attachment the other's a walk behind um in order to accommodate getting that done we'd have to we'd have to park the walk behind and we'd have to get a second Air Raider basically the one we look at was a Toro 460 uh 484 which would right now run somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 to $60,000 um and we'd have to uh put that on our second tractor which we normally run the backo off of in order to accomplish that um I know some people are concerned about maintenance money days I mean it's it's a couple hour extra hours in the morning um I mean I think I mean this is something that the golf committee could discuss but um like gives give you an example if we were to review our starting times and for instance Monday we have 3 hours delayed from the original 8:00 starting time well if you start your starting time's in the te- sheet at 7:00 on Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday then you pick up four hours for the three hours that you lost um so I mean that's something for the golf committee to discuss but um I remember you know I've been here going on what this 2025 going on 25 years and uh they used to I mean used to start somewhere around 6 6 o00 6:30 in the morning they'd be right on my my tail so there's different ways to look at it and again again the other reason we had maintenance Mondays is for spraying Fairways we have 29 Acres of spray Fairways and even with two 300 gallon sprayers you can't get them done in 2 hours and then what happens in that case is that somewhat people catch up to you so they're hitting into the sprayer which isn't good for the spray person because when you're spraying you really can't shut the machine off in the middle of the Fairway and sit there and wait because once you shut it off the boom stop then you have to back up and you have to make sure that you get it turned on in the right spot you're going to overspray and depending on what you're spraying it could cause some Turf damage the other thing is that technically speaking golfers are not supposed to be on the playing surface till the material dries on the leaf blade that's state laws pertaining to pesticide application so if even if we weren't being hit then you know they really they needs to be that little bit of extra time so what we normally do now is I'll do uh I'll do uh one tank and Kevin will do one tank by the time you get the tank back turn it around fill it back up we're caught so we do the first six holes one day then we try to finish up the next day problem being especially in the cushion it usually around 8:30 9:00 the wind starts to blow wind starts to blow over 12 M an hour you get spray drift and your material is not going where you want it to go so instead of wasting material and causing a spray drift problem we have to stop if it rains we have to stop if the humidity changes depending on or if there's an outing or something that's why we try to get that again um I know some people are concerned some you know it's it's a couple uh early morning golfers as a matter of fact I think a few people have taken to that wonderful thing called social media to tell me I'm a criminal and trying to lose the Town Money by uh not uh not you know doing that um not that is a significant factor but maintenance Mondays is a common practice in the industry um some courses do it some courses are closed for the entire day other courses take two hours again um I will uh I can scramble if they if if this decided not to do it then I'm going to have to get the job done the best way we can get it done the only reason why I bring it up is because there has been people that talked to me I'm not a golfer but they have talked to me about that Revenue loss whip book gmack s right so I've done some calculations on those three hours we're losing roughly $80,000 a year for maintenance Monday that's my my calculations I've actually had a conversation with Dana and he goes it could be more but that's a pretty good number that you're using so with that $8,000 it's a lot of money every year we weren't doing it three or four years ago now we're doing it Steve I'm just saying can we start trying to think about maintenance Mondays and maybe how a different skin the cat a different way you just brought up something about maybe starting the day off half an hour an hour earlier to capture more rounds of golf if that's what it is let's figure it out right you do need time in the morning to get out they would do your job and sometimes in the well we're you know we're a public golf facility if you look at um you know Franklin Park George Wright two golf courses in the city of Boston check the tea time sheet Tea Time start I believe 6:00 6:30 you know that's where that's where you if you want you can pick up extra Revenue you and again if they want to cancel maintenance money I won't do it but there's going to be circumstances where I get out there and people are going to have to deal with equipment being out there and things being done and and you know like people complain oh the sprinklers are on The Fairway well if you put a wedding agent down you want to water it in use the first Fairway as an example you got six uh 12 rows on that Fairway you run for 10 minutes a piece to R water in wedding she got 120 Minutes that's 2 hours so somebody's going to be awful wet if they're run that in 2 hours but you know that's we're trying to do what we're trying to do is take our golf facility and our playing conditions and step them up the next step by doing Small Time ation frequently as opposed to big holes that people don't like we're trying to roll our greens more often excuse me we're trying to spray liquid fertility products and liquid soil amendments so we can cut back on our water use and times when we don't have uh when the state sends out a regulation that basically says stop the state of Massachusetts considers Fairways and green or greens and te's to be essential Fairways are not essential so as soon as you get a um the initial drought warning like we did uh was it 2020 we had a series of warnings actually we had a drought warning last year you have to cut off your Fairways and then you have to send notification to them that you've done it so what we've been trying to do through the use of wedding agents Kel products and other soil amendments is get our Fairways healthier earlier than you get in the season so they could make deeper Roots so they can substantiate or uh deal with that heat you're talking about the state doing that in the drought season because we draw enough pawns right well the state does they'll do it to all golf courses they have um as a matter of fact I just got the paperwork um our our water withdrawal permit was supposed to be um renewed and then the state ran into some issues where they extended the period for Renewal so right now it's on their books for Renewal I just figured I just filled out all the paperwork again and send in our drought man management plan and they actually ask you to choose whether or not you're going to go by time whether you're going to go by acreage and you have to give them for instance if you go by time say you run a green for 10 minutes normally under this grout non- drought condition you can run at that time when you go to a uh a uh stage one drought condition you have to cut back by X number of minutes then you go to the next then you have to cut back by that and once you give them that report they hold you to that schedule that You' come up with so that's that's because you're operating not keep keep talking about this but that's because we're operating off the withdrawal permit and we have a hydrant at the top of the road so we can put a meter on it and pump water to you too we have that as an off yeah I mean that that would be something had to be taken up with them I mean my point in mentioning that was just simply trying to say that we're trying to do additional things so we can bring our level of turf management up and compete with surrounding areas and continue to draw the people in that we draw um I mean if they you know if we don't want to be Innovative then you know we're going you know we're eventually going to fall behind but you know I'll look at that I mean you know we can cut it back either that or I'll just have to uh I'll just have to jump around I mean in order to aate you know in order to do those air airation practices it takes one man on the airator one person on the sweeper two people to blow one person a top dress and one person a drag so it's six people in order for that to move continually and um you know in order to put so you're putting 12 people out if you're going to run uh two machines um so you know normally if we have the extra time I can aate six Greens in two hour two and a half hours I jump off the airator and I jump on the top dresser and then I top dress for an hour and a half then I jump off the top dresser and back on the airator so I can finish before golf comes around there something to think about right yeah oh yeah a loss of Revenue if we we're talking club houses and everything else right trying to figure out and that's a big chunk I mean $80,000 not a small well I I I understand the the the calculations but i' I'd like to get I mean like you mentioned it's been done for a day or two or for a year or two now at least one year um we could I don't know if we did but we could have collected data on those years and see if we had an issue um with significant loss or not and how we could how we could recoup it but again I mean if that's if that's the feeling then then I won't do it but I'm going to have to find another way um which probably be more disruptive than not to to step up asking you not to do it Steve I'm asking you to to open everybody's Minds up to what I just said about the loss of the revenue and have that discussion and dialogue with golf committee with with Dana and and just see what the revenues are I'm pretty sure you'll come up with close to my number if not higher than my number um and that's a significant number right I mean if you if you're bringing in 160 profit 8 $8,000 it's a 50% loss in in profitability right so that's we I'm a numbers guy I'm looking at the numbers seeing how do we generate more Revenue without you know hurting anything we've we've had that practice for 20 years where we weren't you know maintenance Mondays and then we we jumped on it I guess two or three years ago it's been something that people have been beating me up a little bit on here and there and I say you know what it's things are working out pretty good we're still profitable you know we're not costing taxpayers any money but I'll look into it a little bit further right and we're buying new equipment trying to make it maintenance because of Labor is so difficult to hire I think that's some of the reasons why we're buying new equipment and making the job a little bit I don't want to say easier but more efficient for our maintenance staff because of the lack of Labor that we can fine right so we're we're making those Investments yeah for for Golf Course Maintenance it's always being hurry up and get out of my way but when you I'm going to buy you a bunch of big LED lights and you're going to work at night well that you I I've got no problem working at night you just got to figure out when you're going to water so if I work at 12:00 at night I can't cut Fairway sprinkle heads so I'll have to water at 7:00 in the morning you still get people wet no it's it's interesting I said we're just trying to to to make a uh to make a step up and then make an improvement and um I know that's always it's always been the argument you know hurry up and get out of our way you know no we don't want to spend the time to do this but the next day oh jeez your greens are rolling terrible yesterday today well that's because we couldn't finish or couldn't do anything we've always we've always had under your realm we've always had a good golf course right the greens everything's always been before me this Monday started I've talked to a lot of people the difference in the golf course condition from 3 years ago four years ago to today there's certain areas that are better there's certain areas you couldn't notice anything so I'm like okay whatever we'll have the dialogue let the dialogue Run free with the golf committee see what everybody's got to say what are the UPS what are the downs I'm just surpr because nobody you know again they're not going to you know you know normal course of action is not complaining to me because you know they're not usually there I I I haven't heard those types of things there there's two or three groups that you know consistently play in that particular window that have been been making the most significant amount of noise and um nobody has ever come mentioned anything to me well I know there's a Le I think it's a Christi League actually that plays Monday afternoons right it's pretty much the only ones we really get in other than a few people that might be able yeah they play they play in the afternoon 20 people get shoot off at 11 we don't impact them yeah yeah yeah yeah I know so I'm just saying that's the only one we can get out I think there's like 80 90 people that play in that League something like that what know just something to think about keeping dialogue going with everybody right trying to figure things out increasing revenues and how we're going to pay for things moving forward yep right and if I know I'm losing revenue from one segment of the pitcher right try to address that little segment and say how do we improve on that maybe we don't lose 80 maybe we lose 50 so $30,000 increase in profitability right just got to figure it out maybe we open up an hour earlier instead of 8:00 like you said you did say 8:00 right correct times you know they they we all alter currently tea times are altered on the on the weekends and of course a lot of you know the tea times will start you know um you know daylight savings has an impact on some of them sure um you know and then the weekends we usually there's usually a progression I mean this is something that you know the golf committee could could sit down and and and put put that type of thing together yeah um say okay this is our this is our you know between this block as you and I were talking about this afternoon you know about the whole half hour deal that that you would mentioned about the you know about the daylight savings from this particular period to this particular period this is our morning start time this is our weekend start time once we get into the summer I mean bloody it it times out there it's daylight 55 5:30 and we have I mean we don't want anybody hitting you in the head with a ball that early so we got to be careful no as long for my routine maintenance as long as I have an hour because I start I mean I'm out there changing cups at 4:00 in morning with a headlamp on my head so I don't have to worry about people doing just what you said you know and that's you know people don't that's the type of thing we do in order to not be in the way right and we can do that I mean I will be more than happy to start I mean because you know my guys are you know you know knock on wood hopefully everybody's back this this year I mean my guys have been doing this 17 18 19 years and you know my guys come in half an hour early just to sit there and shoot the breeze each day that they work they have no problem coming and starting work at 4:30 but like you said put you know spend a couple hundred on LED lights for all the Fairway mowers and uh so they can see better because the lights that come on the machine aren't that great um and you know we'll light it up and go I just have to change my irrigation practices because the system doesn't shut down till 5:00 a.m. guys don't like to get wet no 4:30 in the morning L it's 90° right thanks steeve yeah app make sure you that paperwork for the the yeah I'm going to talk to Dan I probably can't get a hold of him now but I'll get a hold of him for he's a morning person like I so I'll give him first thing morning thank you Steve okay thank you Steve good night see you all right next on the agenda accept golf accept golf exploratory committee mission statement uh gentlemen everybody got a copy of this and was asked for input um it looks like this is the most updated version of this with everybody's input looks good to me Mr chairman is there a motion to accept the golf exploratory committee mission statement so move second all those in favor Mr wer yes Mr Gasper yes and I a yes all right chairman yeah Mr while we're on this subject I raised at the last meeting I don't know if we do we we have if you all have the time next week but I was hoping that maybe we could set a a meeting just to deal with the golf uh committee and the uh exploratory committee to give them their charge and get them to work because if we're not going to meet until the end of February um so anyway I just want to throw that out there sure yeah I'll take a look at the schedule that I have and uh I'll pop a couple of dates out there originally before um you were going to be out of town this week we I was going to sneak it into this meeting yeah but I actually think it would probably work out better if it was just a sole meeting uh this we have to fill up the agenda with a bunch of other items and we can just tackle the one thanks from what I understand everybody has been sworn in Sydney and I have been bir doging that so everybody's sworn in and the committee is ready to roll excellent so to be clear on what Mr Warner just said is that is that to have the golf exploratory committee joint meeting with the board of selectman and the golf management committee No Love we would do M Mr Gasper what I would suggest is the board of Selectmen we have the golf management committee and this new exploratory committee and we charge them basically reiterate what this mission statement is that we just accepted um and say look you know here's your J of you've got 120 days or whatever we have in the mission statement to come back with a recommendation working concert with the golf management committee so on and so forth but really just to kind of kick off the process okay so the only reason why I asked um select v w hour is I if we're going to do that kind of a meeting I don't think most people aren't available during the day so if we were to do something maybe we'd have to do it maybe a 6 PM thing right to make sure everybody can show up and everybody gets it right cuz even 5:00 some people do work out of town um and they just can't get here on time so that's the only reason why I mentioning it if that's the way it's going to go I think it's got to be like a 6 630 thing and the way Mr W is describing it's probably 20 minutes it's half an hour max right that's right so I'm fine I'm just trying to throw out time you know we're going to do something let's make sure the time's accoma for everyone that's all yep perfect banging out right make sure it's not thsy I got a master plan thirsty thsy are gone and I I would just ask if we're able to Mr chairman to come up with a date that we work uh Sydney work with both committees because I guess they would probably have to post it themselves as well if they're all going to be here just those Logistics Perfect all right uh next on the agenda Revenue review uh I've given the uh board new sheets that in the margin you'll see the as far as the state aid it reflects the governor's figures as we know the governor's figures are usually the lowest and uh the House and Senate then will uh determine uh their figures and then there's usually a conference committee that determines the final figures uh every uh meeting I'll be giving the board a sheet to update them right now uh we're looking at an increase in revenue of total what total 4 what 495,000 that's not including 2 and a half yes everything can last year 2 and half went up $543,000 I got to be bor than that this year yeah but remember part of the revenue that is not reflected this year is 132,000 From overlay mhm oh you're doing you're doing bottom line year over year yeah yeah that's horrible yeah we can't do that yeah know I get I know what you're saying yeah that's that's bad I know yeah know CU of the way we have we funded different things last year right y so but we'll look usually there's about 100,000 difference between uh original governance figures and the final legislative figures I look quickly at state it doesn't look that big of an increase like minuscule yeah well this one is minuscule but it'll uh and we don't know the governor and the legislature are promising increase in Chapter 70 from the Millionaire's tax p peut in EN r with things promises promises peanuts in EN R of things though right same thing something about it during the new budget they're trying to rewrite chapter 90 as well to give towns more empowerment as they say but maybe have to release the figures on that so once again I think really selling overselling what we're going to end up getting it's a dangerous game and what that the empowerment mun full empowerment act that they just letting us tax different ways now so it's not really them giving us more it's just telling us them telling us hey you can go out and tax your people even more now y how's that working out for everybody and then I've uh given the board a second sheet that's from Southshore South Coast Town administrators that just shows uh what towns are relying on overrides or Deb explosions and as you can see my comment on the first line yep some cars car I said it first I mean there just so much money it's not a Rosy picture no it hasn't been for a long time right there's only so much money to go around and you know everybody needs to understand that but the problem is too many people don't understand that yep sad but true just do what we have to do to yep hunk it down put it together we'll figure things out y we always do uh selectman announcements uh Mr wer no it's not an announcement but um I guess I don't know what it is other than it's a random thought I got a call from one of the Selectmen in FA Haven who I guess has caught wi that the school department is looking at regionalization um and I don't know I don't know what's going on I've heard rumors of that but I don't know how accurate that is um I don't know if we can chase that down I just think it as I think if we're going to make the town and the school department School T is going to look at that the select should at least be a prize of that it's a major it's a major development it's a major initiative um so I don't know if we can reach out to them and figure out what's going on um but I think it would it was it caught me off card so you know just leave it at that gotcha just to just to kind of piggyback on that just to give you some insight um I spoke with um Miss Gomes in regards to that and they're actually very very much in the infancy period in this and they will be putting together a committee strictly for that and she asked she asked if I wanted to be involved and I said yes but we haven't even discussed anything yet um obviously you know she asked me as chairman if I wanted to be involved so I would bring that to your attention as a as a full board you know before I accepted anything like that but I did tell her in the preliminary phase I'd be more than happy to be involved with that um I just didn't have any updates because there hasn't been any updates yet and you know what then I stand corrected if there was Outreach made then that's great yeah at at this point and just to be clear it was just Outreach at this point like I have seen zero documents or any information pertaining to it just because this the process haven't even hasn't even really kicked off yet fair enough Mr gasman I have nothing Mr chairman all right for selection announcements I got a couple things I'd like to say happy early birthday to uh selectman Gasper this Saturday this Saturday do correct and thank you Mr chairman look good for 39 75 two different reactions there we go what the year I was born right um I'd also like to uh I also like to just bring back up the um uh police Assessment Center um I want to uh you sent an email yesterday um I don't know I didn't look at the recipients on the progress of it um but just if you could possibly give us an update where we stand right now all right we've been going back and forth uh the interim Chief and I have been going back and forth with civil service and uh we have determined that there was an inquiry from an individual in Civil Service who is not the person we've been dealing with for 3 months uh concerning the form 30 which is really the job description which you folks have just recently finalized and filing that with civil service to create in effect create the position and at that point it's a form 30 they call it that point then we get a requisition we go forward uh in the assessment center delegation letters and they've already the person we were dealing with has already been informed what the board wants in the delegation letters uh and at that point then the RFP they tell us we can release an RFP and give us the dates for what's going on as I put in the email to everyone and then we go forward with the assessment center and there is a 10 we uh study period for the assessment center so a 10 we study period back and forth I I just wish it could go quicker I don't know if it has Town Council been involved in this yeah so if the we got a copy of an RFP to send out for the assessment center for individuals to do an assessment center right can't we get that out we have to get the dates from Civil Service okay so we need to expedite that this week yeah uh we got to get civil service on the hor this week we got to stop delays as fast as much as we can from a board's perspective so we need answers from civil service this week whatever we need for dates get that rfpl out because that's probably a 21 days 30-day out for RFP however we expedite that process right and in that 21 or 30 days civil service can be working with you and fig in Town Council and figuring out delegation letters and agreeing to all that stff and they have to civil service has to talk or communicate with the chosen assessment center and determine the design and approve what the assessment center is proposing after the assessment center meets with this board and gets their uh view of what should be in the assessment need the first expedite getting out for an RFP the assessment center right we have to do before we do that we have to create the and have them approve the deputy chief position if you're going to combine both with the in the assessment yeah and you you said you've already let them know that this is the board's purview so they already have those documents correct what the they have to approve the deputy chief role they they have to approve the job description okay and do they have what we've decided on as a job description yet no they will as of tomorrow we have to fill out a form 30 for this new gentleman who's entered into the fry and as the interim Chief said as soon as we found out that there were two people at Civil Service who have not been talking to each other through the whole process uh both individuals went silent and so we've had to move them along let's expedite it tomorrow morning then y Mr Kelly sorry gentlemen the Civil servic is a state agency correct yeah can we contact representative s reps Senator Mony to see if they'll get in they'll make a call to help light a fire into these people uh yeah it's so we just found out about this gentleman cuz we've been dealing with a a woman and she's been extremely helpful walking us through it and all of a sudden this gentleman appeared and said he' been communicated uh and wondered why he didn't get anything back from Lisa Leonard jez yeah well priority number one assessment s it tomorrow morning right y yep get on it we to get that ball moving to be fair to everybody in the department and they got a 10 we study period we got to go out for an RFP just for the assessment then the board's going to meet with these folks to talk to them right so there's some lag time between then and then and let's we should be having lag times overlap each other right exactly so that we're not going too much further out I mean this whole thing started off sloppy under the the P Chief you know with civil service oh the deadline for criteria is September 1st that was that didn't happen and September 30th that that didn't happen and it just keeps so let's get it let's get it done and over with talk to the new guy tell them whatever we need get a punch list say this is what we need to do this is what we're looking to do give them everything that we're looking to do and get feedback ASAP on them we I actually talked to the interim Chief and he and I agreed we're going to have to get both of these people contact both of these people even if it's a conference call and find out who actually has jurisdiction over this yep yeah get everybody on the hall and find out who we need to deal with streamline it and we'll just make it happen first thing in the morning list of stuff we have to get make sure Darren Klein if he needs to look at that RFP for the assessment I looked over everything over there's one page I don't think it's going to be included I can show you later on the correction that needs to be made um but I don't think that goes into the RFP that goes out for public notice so I don't think it's a big deal but I've looked it over it looks pretty good to me and I know SEL and W has looked at over last time he we met and he said he was fine with it as well is that correct Mr W yes sir so let's get it on moving along yep yep all right we get the requisition for the new position yep and uh just for information gentlemen um I just want to give a quick thanks to Chief Farland again for securing a state equipment Grant um he's been going for these since he's taking taking over we actually did get him previously um but he was integral in that as well and he was able to secure some uh grant money so he can get new firefighting hoods to protect the firefighters necks and faces uh some ventilation fans to clear smoke and uh combustible gas indicators for the rest of the fleet which is a great thing and uh like I say every time uh Chief Arin has been on top of every possible funding source he can get and I want to appreciate show him some appreciation for always looking forward to uh applying for any Grant with our permission uh as possible so big thanks to Chief Arin on that one Kudos right uh last on the agenda gentlemen executive session uh executive session under Mass General Law chapter 30A subsection 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining finance department United Steel Workers Police contract and ask me if an open meeting may have detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the public body and the chair so declares and the board will not return to public session at the conclusion of the executive session is there a motion to enter executive session so move second all those in favor roll call vote Mr wer yes Mr Gasper yes and I a yes we're in executive session [Music]