[Music] good afternoon everyone Today is Tuesday April 1st 2025 It is 3:45 p.m Is there a motion to call the meeting to order so
move Second All those in favor i This meeting will be audio and video recorded Please rise for the pledge of allegiance I pledge algiance to the flag of America to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with
liberty and justice for all Have a quick executive session to get through First uh executive session under Mass General Law Chapter 30A subsection 2183 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining assistant treasurer collector if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the
bargaining position of the public body and the chair so declares and the board will return to public session at the conclusion of the executive session Is there a motion to enter executive session so moved Second All those in favor roll call vote Mr Wer Yes Mr Gasper yes And I a yes We are now in executive session There a motion to
return to open session So moved Second All those in favor roll call vote Mr Woner yes Mr Casper yes And I'm a yes All right First on the agenda we have a poll hearing that was continued Uh this hearing is on the petition of NStar
Electric Company doing business as Eversource Energy Cornerstone is submitting information information in support of NSAR's plan to install an additional 115 kilovolt line within Eversource's rights of way number 143 Eversource energy and national grid
proposed to extend the 115 kilovolt transmission line from a Kushnet mass to Fall River mass to improve system reliability The preferred route will be 12.1 miles long and the Eversource section is 7.9 miles long running from a Kushnet through Dartmouth and ending in
New Bedford The new transmission lines will cross above the following public ways Main Street at a location approximately 425 ft southwesterly of its intersection with Heritage Lane Middle Road at a location approximately 331 ft northeasterly of its intersection
with Fairway Drive Park Drive at a location approximately 446 ft northeasterly intersection with Wild Rose Lane Okay This is already been No this
is this wasn't continued on this one Motion Yeah there's a motion to open the public hearing So move Second All those in favor roll call vote Mr Wer yes Mr Gasper yes Yes Okay Mr Chairman can I have a question yes Mr So whoever is
here from Verizon Ever Source that can answer to We don't have maps of poll locations which would be really nice if you start giving the office maps of the exact location instead of giving us 500 ft northeasterly crossing this bound and that bound I'm not going out with a
measuring stick looking at where Northeasterly is from Fairway Drive Park Drive Bros all that stuff My name is John Pin with Cornerstone It was part of our submitt package It was in exhibit D The uh the mapping show pen profile So I
was but it doesn't show us poles You talking about these these goofy looking things yes sir Yeah Yeah But that's not showing me the road and with the pole location Okay That's what I'm talking about I can resubmit that Well it's fine for right now I guess we can continue to
dialogue to see where we end up Okay just for clarification too is this does this include new poles or is this just the main transmission lines it would include new poles The new poles be installed within the existing easement So outside of the road right away
can I chime in for a second sure Hi How you guys doing there's no it's not distribution poles like on the streets It's transmission poles in the right of way So you're not you wouldn't necessarily see poles This is just for the crossing over the streets of the actual wires themselves That's what I was going to ask Anthony is It seems
like where these are like it's so the one that says like 400 and something feet 45T I think I said north easterly of wild rose or whatever it is So that would get you down into the high tension lines where the deep estates is
being built Yes Right And that puts you I looked at it and I was like the proximity would put you somewhere and land you somewhere into that area So is that like those big transmission poles exactly They're not telephone poles No correct Which everybody knows is a telephone pole You call it a utility
pole but And so they're weighing in It's already an existing right away There's no distribution poles associated with this Right But so why are you here that would be my next question because it's usually when it's only in the layout of a road Are you in the layout of the road or are you deeper in your easement so
the poles are deeper in the easement like a couple hundred feet off Um and you're right we'll do better mapping next time But the wires go across They have to go across the public road So that's okay That's where the gran location comes into play cuz it's got but transmission wires already go across the existing road But these will be new
ones They'll be in addition to what's there now There'll be three new 115 conductors and probably some optical optical ground wires I think in there How are these wires higher than the the ones that are there they're um anywhere from 40 ft over park to 50 and 52 feet
high I checked it while I have you Yes sir I've received numerous um I'm not going to call them complaints I know Anthony you come here often and usually get hit with that word quite often Um in regards to the supplementary poles it looks like that
are right on the edge of the easement Um especially in the Heritage Drive site when these smaller poles are being put in in the easement that are abunding people's properties there's a lot of gravel rocks and sediment left over that
are being picked up by lawnmowers and being shot across people's yards potentially into the roadways Um and I think any pull any setting that either company does needs to pay better attention on their fill when it comes to
stuff like that because residents shouldn't have to sit there and see part you know trucks pull into the easement back up they touch properties they're putting ruts in people's yards too Um I'm not going to go out and survey a piece of property I can only go off of
what residents are telling me Um but I think we need to do a little bit of a better job paying attention to clean up after polls are put in Um in that particular area I drive by it every single day multiple times a day And there's a lot of traffic over there now And trucks are pulling across people's
yards regardless of the easement They're turning around now I noticed you have some subcontractors Um Mitchell maybe Michaels Michaels whatever it is um you know they're not familiar with our town and they're backing into people's property from the easement and
putting ruts in people's yards and that is completely unacceptable I'll take it back Um so pass it up to chain as we say once a month to you Anthony Y um but you've had some pretty good success with getting people to listen Um you know if we hear the concerns we have to share them with you guys as well Of course
Yeah I'll take that back Make sure clean it up Gentlemen any other questions i do not Mr Chairman Is there anybody in the audience anybody in the audience questions about transmission lines or a motion to
approve the rightway 143 plan to install increased capacity 115 kilovolt transmission lines Motion to approve as presented Second
All those in favor is there a motion to close the public hearing so move Second All those in favor roll call vote Mr Wler Yes Mr Gasper Yes Ryder Yes Uh gentlemen not sure if you read the meeting minutes I did Um I had given
some corrections to you update them Uh is there a motion to approve the March 4 2024 regular meeting minutes second All those in favor i with your own changes With the changes
All right Hero Act exemptions and workoff programs Uh Mr Kelly we're kind of piggybacking on this Correct Correct Um as as you folks know the town approved the senior work
off program back in the year 2000 They f finally funded it 3 years ago It had never been funded before that It's a fairly successful program Uh however uh
the funding that we've uh been appropriating yeartoyear uh and whatever is not expended goes back into eventually free cash is
approximately half of uh is expended of what is appropriated And so uh when we did some research there is another section of
chapter 59 that allows similar program for veterans and uh we are asking that the uh town uh adopt chapter 59 section 5N
uh for the uh veteran cost program Quick question and this might be a question for you Brad If a veteran was enrolled in this prop this program and they already have an abatement in play exemption Exemption Thank you Um is
there any conflict can a veteran They can get both They can get both Yeah they both looking that way I'm sorry Um so they can get both I'm okay with that So I guess I'll direct my question to Mr Fish
Podium Yep The way we do things here Yep So which one of these options we were just given a sheet of paper before our meeting Which one of these options is this one of the options that you're trying to present to the board is that one you just quoted mass General Law
Chapter 59 subsection No this has nothing to do with it Yes So just the just the work program that we've already kind of endorsed the last meeting right so we just have to figure out what the article is going to read from free cash to fund whatever it is right this this
59N And the only thing we're changing it I believe for seniors it's 65 years of age So for the veterans it' be any age It won't have they won't have to be 65 or older to do the work off It'll be any age So they could be 50 years old
disabled So And and if they're totally disabled and have a spouse then the spouse is allowed to do the work off Sure Makes sense Well that make I mean makes perfect sense right so what I had
given you Mr Gasper was uh this is for the Heroes Act That paperwork that I gave all of you before the meeting started I know you went on vacation so I tried popping in but I remember that when I got up there I'm like "Oh he's on vacation So I'll have to catch some other time and that just didn't work out for me So yeah but this is for the
Heroes Act So the Heroes Act that they passed in the state of Massachusetts allows for the real estate tax exemption to either be doubled or to go up by the uh 3% inflation Yeah the exemption the
right now it's 3.4 I wasn't sure if they were going to go by the federal 2.5 like social security in January or if they were going to go by the state So I ran these numbers before I left at 3% But come to find out they're going by the state So this would actually be 3.4 for this year instead of the 3% But I
figured this gives us a guideline to go by and it kind of shows you how much it's going to cost the town if we double everybody's exemptions or if we go by the percentage So and that's a decision that the board has to make I just wanted to give you the figures so you have an
idea of what it would cost the town I I don't quite honestly I mean I I'll answer that question right now I have no problem with the 3% with the inflation factor right yes I mean right now it's a $1,000 exemption It's $400 and a,000 and which one is a th00and because I was
on I was in the assessment that's talking I was in the assessments I was looking at the ch I seen $1,000 exemption but I didn't get to keep reading cuz Kelly and I were working on something else So I was like "Okay so it's 1,000 bucks." And that's what your analysis breaks down right off that thousand 1,000 and 400 It's two
different types of There's two different types of exemptions So I see the one below Right now we have approximately what I looked at was between 32 and $36,000 exemptions in the town And the $400 exemptions
uh what did I figure out we had for $400 ones i think it was 52 I total in the towel Did you get paperwork in relation to this that I had prepared or no no You mind if I It says for 10 10 to
90% disabled veterans at $400 times there from Kelly May I May I approach absolutely Sure It's $412 for the first year right $1,000 So Brad it I don't know what we did So it's just in the
back of the book Oh so it's 12 bucks on one and on the $400 exemption and it's $30 on the $1,000 exemption Is that correct correct Correct And then the following will go up I'm fine with both How's that sound
fine with me It's good to me Yep And Kelly I just want to specify we did get this just tucked into this whole memo here that I I think catch the page that you the most condensed and probably the best information is on the grid Just to
answer to Kevin clause 22 has many different subsets So the lowercase letters 22 have one credit amount The uh capital letters for each individual specific reason have other amounts So currently in the town of the question
the bulk is mostly um I would probably say as you can see from what I gave you um the 100% which is the 22d is are 33 there for fiscal 2025 those are fiscal 2025 figures there are
33 applicants but just to keep in mind if u either clause is accepted by the town of a kushnet through the heroes act which would be 22 I or 22J Um both can be accepted one or the other
Just to uh throw out one of the senior exemptions already falls under the guideline of increasing BCOLA every year which is the clause 17D and it it grows it grows at a good rate Uh and that would be if the town adopted 22I which
would cover all it's 22 It covers all veteran exemptions whether it's the higher credit or the lower credit Question for I'm seeing here says total abated 100 grand It says reported to do for reimbursement So do we get reimbursed only at a portion portion the
only one that's 100% dollar for dollar is the full exemption uh which we have four right now that qualify for that Got it So we're not it's 100 grand but what's the the bottom line have to be we haven't submitted for FY2025 April 30th
is the uh deadline but I pulled 2024 figures And for the 22 capital E which is 100% disability 1,000 credit uh basically for this one this is for dollar but it's a it's only a percentage
The lower the the lower credit reimbures less the least amount But we're not funding we're not footing the whole bill No a portion is coming back But realize as if this new clause is accepted that difference is not reimburseable too Got
it So the gap gets larger and larger unless the state changes their guideline on reimbursement All right And that gap is covered by overlay One piece of just just to reaffirm to uh Mr Fish the second half of this based on inflation
3% 3.4% you said Yeah I did it at 3% but it's actually 3.4 this year So that falls under the 22 I clause Yes Okay And 22J would be the first half of that No 22J would be the
article would have a specific percentage of what it would go up and it would be uniform unless changed by town meeting Okay The exemptions you talked about seniors and then you talked about veterans They're a separate clause So what happens if I'm a
senior can I claim a senior exemption and then claim a veterans exemption and then the new if we adopt this Heroes Act the new veterans exemptions can I claim all of the above or I don't believe so
Uh it's specific to the situation I can get back to you on what it is I don't believe they can It's one or the other or the higher credit Right So in in excise up um for veterans if you have 10 vehicles which I do know somebody with
10 vehicles that's a veteran in this town they can only they can only have one credit on one of their vehicles and they have to be the registrant as well Just to reiterate too on the real estate exemptions they have to own and occupy the property That's also another criteria
So I'm just saying you can't like bundle exemptions right to get like zero tax dollars no believe it's not me It's it's one or the other Correct Either I pick the senior exemption or I go after if I'm a veteran I can go after my veterans exemptions What could happen though in a
situation where there would be two and I think it would be uh fall within the guidelines of being approved would be if the husband or wife one is the disabled vet and qualifies and the other is a senior and qualifies then I think because it's two separate owners then
both credits would come into play Right the veteran would get his and and he or she the spouse right he or she would get if they fall under but it's income and asset guideline as well for the seniors but if the properties on the double ownership you wouldn't be able to do
that for both yeah they would qualify under different clauses different clauses of exemption credit one would be a veteran one would be under the 22 and for the seniors it' be under the clause 41 or 17 so me and Carol are both on the deed for our house I get the $400
exemption Now Carol when she turns 65 could put in for the senior work off and we would get both Does that make sense senior exemption Senior exemption Exception is different Exemption is different but they can to your Yes There are situations they can get two
different credits from two different clauses of exemptions Yes For the same household For the same household if they both if they fall under they meet all the other guard Same household but not same individual I think correct Correct Yeah Yeah Yeah
I mean at any point if things got the cost started getting out of control the town can resend can't they buy an article but this but you also it's also subject to
uh as far as the workoff goes it's also subject to appropriation in the article but this is this is different so program is something that we fund from free cash The exemption is not correct Right Correct So that's two different species
You fund that from the overlay Right Correct Correct Overlay covers abatements and exemptions So whatever the state doesn't reimburse the town has to fill the gap with overlay But then does So it's always a catch-up thing It's kind of like the regular
veterans benefits right you look at veterans benefits Let's just call it $100,000 for the town of a cushioner right the following year we get reimbured 75% of that Correct Yep So you're really only on hook for 25 grand right but realize the problem not the
problem but to keep in mind that this is if this is passes and grows the gap's going to get bigger where Oval is going to have to make up for it and it'll grow It grows pretty quickly We do have a clause for seniors the 17D which is for widows and age over 70 only with an uh
asset requirement that's been in play for with the colar increase for over 10 years and it's grown quite a bit It's about at $290 right now the credit where it started at 175 not that long ago So it grows pretty quickly It's based on
the CPI the index right it just keeps compounding Same compound interest right same effect Correct I I just look at the numbers that Mr Fish has given us and I mean it talking dollar terms it's it's $12
in the first year right you're already getting $12 each applicant Yeah it $12 each applicant each you know So right now but the higher the exemption the high I'm sorry the higher the gap's going to be I get it like 30 bucks with
the $5,000 I I I don't know what to tell you but I support my veterans 1,000% Right So for me to to be able to give a little bit back to somebody who served this great nation I'm not that guy I have to say
yes You have to you have to figure out which one the which way the selective want to go which clause or if they want to adopt both or one or the other and how they want to you know proceed I think the 22i was the the 22i is based on the cola The 22J is a set percentage
set by the article Okay And the 22J caps at where they would have to uh there would be liable for the tax of at least 10% of the assessed value of the property Uh a lot of communities that on our uh
chat are going with the percentage J rather than cola No a lot of them are going with cola A lot of them are going with cola The other towns are that's what they're adopting Okay So I know I believe quite a few other towns that I've been reading about and we've been
going back and forth about uh doing the cola So it'll be the 3.4% 4% this year Yeah Is what it would fall under But we're we're still talking about two different ones Does you start off saying inflation at 3% property tax 100% disabled veterans times add $1,000 and
you give another one 10 to 90% disabled veterans Is there two different options that we're doing here there is because you can double it So the two options that the Heroes Act gives you is to double it So anybody I'm getting $400 a year Mine would be $800 Now if you
adopted both clauses Yeah And you don't have this is just the two types This is 100% disabled This is 10 to 90% And one's double property tax and the other one is inflation at 3% There's two ways to
go and most towns are adopting inflation because a lot of towns are in financial have financial issues because of financials This is a separate this is the Yeah that's the only looking at this too high I have the bulletin Kevin It might it
might answer your question You want to just look at it it's pretty They give you an example Would you like to look at it yeah I I don't know what this This is the thing Yeah What we're doing here so this one right over here Oh you want
me to read all that we need to table this Do we have to do this today like do you guys need more information on this no I mean you don't have to As far as I know we still have to accept this at town meeting You do we can we're just going to floor you to give you the information That's
rather than I was saying I'm like I'm coming to sit with both of you at some point just and just roll this thing around and see what what it means and what it does and better understand it right cuz things are being thrown at us five minutes or during a meeting actually on this one But and it's kind
of tough to get your arms around and I want to try to do everything I can for my veterans right but absolutely you don't want to make it as Miss Costa is saying is so explosive that in 10 years from now it's you know it's gone from 100 grand to $250,000 cuz let's face it there's other
people making up that difference I I would ask that the board if they uh want to put it on an agenda very quickly because we have to write the articles and put them in the
warrant and uh part of this came about and that's why Lauren's here too with the cuz she handles the senior
new work program We were looking to get an idea where we were going so we could then hold a meeting for the veterans and the seniors tell them what's available
especially when a number of people are facing what could be a very large debt exclusion coming down the pike And if this is assistance that is available to
them then they can use it cuz God forbid uh a debt exclusion cause someone not to be able to uh buy pharmaceuticals food etc because they're worried about their
taxes We're giving the board the option of helping out the seniors and the veterans Mhm And and I think we've always this board's always supported first of all our seniors We do a youth program Now we're talking about veterans programs This board's always done that
Right Right And that's under the assumption that a debt exclusion will pass Correct But we'd have to put this all in place And I know the board uh has been
in favor of helping the veterans If we put this all and package it and then we're going to go and tell everybody what's available Yeah No I get it Kind of like a job fair but it's a exemption fair
100% I get it Yeah So we'll just make sure we get it handled I'll sit down with you tomorrow at some point and we'll we'll figure out a date even if we got to hold a separate meeting just for that before our next meeting We need to bang it out We have to do some cleanup stuff next week some items Correct
Yeah Are there with Lauren here are there any questions uh that the board would like to clarify about who's eligible for which program etc I think we've done we've we've we've been doing the senior work off program
here There's just there's some language inside this packet that was just dropped off at us that I I do have a concern about but it doesn't need to be addressed right now in this meeting But there's there is something that's written in this packet Nothing to do
with if we're supporting senior programs or not It's more to do with other language that I've just notice noticed and could become a problem for the board So we could talk about that some other time Cool
Lauren do you have any questions for us job is normal procedure for you right nothing's changed from our current senior work off program right um the only thing that did change was the income guidelines have increased given current times We go off of um HUD's
recommendations for the income Okay So what I was we'll just go through it each and each one of us can go through and and once we figure out if we have any questions we'll set some clean up meeting for next week and see what we come up with and we have any other questions We we know where everybody
works so we can come visit you As long as Mr Fish is not on vacation not for a while Okay good Not for a while Good Be smart He waits until it's snowing when he takes off All right Thank you Thank you Thanks Kelly Thanks Brad You're welcome Thanks Lord Are you
going to keep the bulletin Kevin you can You told me I could read it at a later time If I give it back to you I can't read it I'll give it back to you That's okay Thank you Thank you All right Uh Civic
Plus down website migration options Um Mr Kelly I believe you said Tony was not going to be available to answer any questions tonight on this Correct and Tony or Nick but it's a uh they're changing who they deal with
and so there is going to be uh changes to the standard and the premium website If we wanted to we are on the standard now If we wanted to go to the premium it would be a discounted price
now versus later I do not have the technical background to deal with a lot of this but I will uh say you need to talk to the experts or their questions
Uh the simplest way is just to stay with the way uh the package we have now as far as the increased in cost and we all know they always increase in cost Uh
that would have to be a question for uh Tony and Tanya who dealt with it Right So Mr Chairman I know we've got a lot going on with you know budget season but at some point I think it would be worth setting
up a a session with our IT department right which I guess is Nick and Tony um to just talk about our whole IT capacity right like you know we've got Uni which seems to be you know I
throw that in the equation right like playing paying bills online you know what are what our uh financial software we're using You know for instance I actually saw a demo of a company called Open Gov that has some really good
financial software where they able to run reports real time and they use an example of I think in Maryland for the city council they're weekly providing reports on what's being spent and all this stuff So I just you know this is great that we're looking at this but I
just think we need to have a larger conversation about it Um there's a actually a grant program We missed the deadline We missed the window but it's a like up to $200,000 to upgrade it So I just think
we need to have a broader discussion on what we're doing it wise And that could even include the golf course like you know booking stuff online And you know I just think we're I feel like despite our best efforts we may not have the most
modern Yeah stuff right and it's kind of good timing when you say that too because we're with Civic Plus now They're just changing processors essentially I don't know if that's the correct term So this is a perfect opportunity to see if
there's a better solution in general Um but once again without somebody from it here to maybe we can get that on the books at some point Yeah I I would suggest at this point you know like they have a Zoom invite for April 14th to go over some details anyway So I wouldn't
think that this needs to be resolved today Yeah Um we could just once we know for sure Nick or Tony can show up and we can go over this We can ask him questions I would just say Pat you know continue to the next meeting if we have to At least
we can put together some questions you got for it and if there's a better option there's a better option It's the it's it's the whole subscriptionbased model right so um I watch all these publicly traded companies and part of what I do Um and it's all about profits
to Wall Street right and you used to be able to I think everybody remembers going to Staples and buying their off office 97 disc and it was good for 5 years Y and then Microsoft come out and say "Yeah that office 97 we're upgrading in 6 months and your crap's not going to
work anymore So hurry up and run off and get another disc." Right now it's not like that Every year it's a subscription model right even into it books has done the same thing So it's all about profitability instead of they're making a surge in revenue every five years selling their software upgrades they're
doing it on a yearly basis Now this is uh this company actually bought out another company Um so once that happened and they merged together they said "Hey great opportunity to start increasing prices and there's some security features that were added to this that is inflating the price as well." So it's
just subscription models suck in my opinion because every year they once you subscribe to it they got you by the the toes and they just keep saying well yeah so it was $7,500 last year but now it's 10 grand and next year it's 125 and so on and so forth And you look at what
we're spending as a as a small municipality on you know u you know I call it renewable subscriptions right um it's getting out of control Absolutely Technology is right Technology has a great place in society but sometimes it just it's starting to
really hit budgets Mhm Right The town's capability to pay continue to pay for it right i'm a pen and paper kind of guy Don't have to worry about a data breach with that Here you go Nobody can steal that from
us unless you leave your back windows open Yeah whatever I'm just saying it's just we got to be careful of what we're doing with subscription models right agree 100% So I think it's so select said is spot on We got to start looking at things and maybe we can bundle services to one instead of having
separate bundles I think that's a good point because I think there's a lot of different facilities in town that use different things and a lot of it doesn't migrate well with each other or communicate well with each other There's got to be a little streamlining and if we can combine some of these overall
subscription services into even if it's one or two versus four or five that communicate really well with each other so there's not a lot of loss of information or data We're not capable of taking something this on in our own server base network right we don't have
that security for something that's this is more of like an online social media presence with our website and things of the like we don't have that capacity to handle that kind of cyber attack So that's one of the features inside this package is why they're getting you for
so much right they may have a much bigger Yep conglomerate control on that and they can spend the money on cyber security versus us small guys So excellent We'll see what happens Yep Cool Well if you guys happen to have any questions for either Nick or Tony uh get
them into the office or reach out to them directly and they can answer any of your questions And next meeting we'll just make sure one or the other is available to go over this If you do have any questions I'll let Mr Mr W seems to have some pretty good ideas inside of
his head So I'll let Mr WA run with the uh Sounds good this little package that we're dealing with right now and seeing what we do but I got other things that I'm working on So all right Uh next up DoubleTe Towing Anybody from Double T in the audience
come on up to the podium Introduce yourself I'm Tim Tvar from Double Towing Hi Tim Looks like you're asking us to
authorize a towing business storage yard Yes Or six towed vehicles Yep It's at um 95 South Main cuz I tow for uh you Kushner PD and I need a holding yard And um I also need to get
repair plates because any cars that unregistered I got to put on the hook and I'm on commercial plates So they require you to have a business license to get those plates Mr Chairman Mr Gas I spoke with the chief and um they've gone by and done
their inspections for this individual I've been by the yard um Mr Gardoza's yard and he's all for it as well And you know I made sure that I when I spoke with our building inspector that one of the requirements is from cuz I was in the business is you need to be fenced in
and have a sectioned off fenced in area Um and and this gentleman is asking for a small amount It's only up to six cars So it's not something that's you know and it's set way off the road You can't see back there So I don't see any problems with the uh with the
gentleman's request Thanks social No makes sense Is there any I don't know if there's any others or anybody at all if not thank you Motion is I'll make a motion
to approve the request Second All those in favor so just make sure that you're um we don't start getting complaints um for loud noises at night and things of the nature right just be respectful to your neighbors I know you have a business on the side of you um that's been here for
decades Um so um just make sure you're very respectful to your neighbors and you do have a couple of people out front that reside there as well So I just ask for you to be respectful to everybody um not only there but in the community right yes sir Um and make sure we don't get complaints because if we do we'll be
pulling it Okay Thank you sir Thank you All right Reserve fund transfer police department payroll software to cover cost associate training staff at the police department
for better utilization of their payroll software This has been something after I was speaking to Mr Kelly and the chief is this something that's been lingering out there for years eight years I think I was going to say five plus years but um
I guess apparently the software has been and we pay already for it We pay we've been we paid for it and we've been paying for it And when I and uh treasurer collector's office the accounting office
uh we went down on some issues some issues that were not associated with payroll as much as with scheduling and found out that all scheduling and payroll was being done by
pen and paper versus using software And then when we asked the question about well don't we have a capability in the software we have now we were told "Oh
yeah we bought and paid for a license over the last 8 years to use it but no one's been trained in it." And we asked and the interim chief was very
uh uh gunho about getting people trained and using this software So uh we he didn't have money in the budget so we
need to go forward with training Uh this is could be a little more than we need uh as far as the price but uh when you start to go into something like this you might need something above and beyond So
we asked for the fact that uh this be put in at 5,000 Is there a motion to transfer the amount of $5,000 from account 010111-578000000 reserve fund to account 01155-53810 0 training and testing to
cover the cost associated with training staff at the police department for better utilization of their payroll software So moved Second All those in favor i I would just ask Mr Kelly to make sure that we're not training everybody to do
payroll Correct Now it would only be a very small number but uh we want to make sure that not only do we have the appropriate people at the police department we have a couple people
redundantly trained here Correct Yep Excellent I was going to make that suggestion too We have somebody from our there as well You're right You You and I
have been chasing this for a while Yep All right 2025 at Kushner River Valley Golf Course R Danny you're up Good evening gentlemen Gentlemen thank you for uh taking the time to go over this year's
rates I think you have a rate sheet in front of you if I'm not mistaken Correct Um basically uh we went up basically $5 uh across the board on most things The put the the
increase on rates on the green speed the CS stayed the same and then for nine holes uh we went up a little bit less and leagues we went up a little bit less uh $3 respectively and the only real jump that we the largest increases that
occurred this season or are proposed we're essentially for our outing rates um through the years we've been more than aggressive on our pricing on on the low end and trying to build the business If you guys have been watching the e golf meetings over the last year or two
you've heard us speak of uh the the volume of outings that we're doing Um well we've pretty much got our our uh loyal base customer base at our at the rates and if you check our rates compared to our competitors we are
significantly below their rates So putting uh the increase that I've suggested here basically matches our current weekend rate So and I I was explaining to uh to Kevin I've mentioned it to to some of you guys in in uh ad
hoc meetings and discussions um with um with outings unlike other products that are sold if you buy in bulk you can get a discount When you do a golf outing it's actually a premium price because you're shutting down the
entire operation for one group You're then now you um you're servicing just them So your food and beverage operation is is guided is guided towards them as well as your staff and all the additional workload that's uh is taken
Um so the increase in in that rate essentially puts us at our current weekend and weekday rates and those are still significantly below our competitors So we're still priced in in the sweet spot so to speak Mhm Um and
then over the years the increases on the passes um we've kind of staggered those increases from time to time We do uh a every 3 years or every four years Sometimes we've done it back to back but
small increases Well when COVID hit we kind of laid off of the season passes uh we had focused conservative increases on our regular rates several of them but we didn't do any increases on the season passes So we were finding now that guys
were golfing our our local loyal golfers that were golfing at off- peak discount times were now buying our season passes cuz those prices average price were below our our off peak sale price So that's not what what that program was
created for Sure So we've kind of put that back in place Now our outings are in the right place Our weekday rates are in a decent place and um we haven't thus far we haven't had any issues with any um concerns from customers Obviously everybody makes a statement prices are
going up but as we all know dayto day anything that you're doing whether it's car repairs or shopping or anything vacations everything is going up So uh the prices at which we're offering are uh are not substantial jumps Well
they're still competitive too I think they're very competitive and the course at this point demands it because you have the premium place to play in the market area So I mean it's justified Now if we get to a point where we see play dropping off and in previous uh golf
committee members discussions they kind of want to you want to control the volume of play so you don't beat the course to death and then take on additional expenditures repairing the course and maintaining it So there's a fine line So if we hit that threshold we can sit down and discuss where the rates
should be and and where we want to be moving forward Sounds good Motion to adopt the u price adjustment I I would also like to if I could speak to the Faven resident rate I've had some questions regarding that and the the the previous uh program that
was set up I have people coming to me looking for uh some beach passes or they're looking for We haven't adopted it yet Okay we got some more conversation on that tonight on the beach bath side Um but we basically were a little different than last year what
information they provided us So um so we're not we're not giving resident rates to Faven residents anymore Correct Just yet until we adopt this program Gotcha Correct Very good That was my only uh clarification Yeah And once we get the
information squared and figure it out Yeah Let me know We'll let you know I mean I can change it It's basically one punch of a button locally and then I just call golf now They change it online to the booking engine and and we're clean Okay So all right So there was a motion Second it Second And all those in
favor i cool All right Rates are approved Dana once we get some information on any information involving resident rates for golf course for Fair Haven you'll be updated right away I'll probably have um Cindy just send you an
email Yeah that's fine Just just so you got it right away I'm sure you'll hear from one of us anyway Very good I appreciate that Thank you sir Thank you gentlemen There might be a stop gap on that too Yeah Where we hit a certain number and it's going to be shut down Perfect Cuz there's some discussion
around the beach passes where there only so many and that's that value stops So we're going to need to do the same thing right equal value Equal value We're not going to let ours run right and we can do that monthly will print up a report count out where we're at and once we hit that threshold we go "Program's over
Done See you next year." But that's fine And I got to say too a lot of Sorry Yeah Go ahead You can you can speak No no no Go ahead A lot of the customers that we were seeing coming in utilizing the the benefit we saw a few new faces but a lot of the guys were guys that were already
playing the golf course So I mean it is what it is Yeah I don't look at I look at it as a broader spectrum Yeah I know I understand So it's you know we've all taken advantage of discounts when we can Sure You know and if it means you play twice instead of once Yeah You know it's
it's it's a net benefit anyway It is It's a it's an amen an added amenity for both towns Yep So I understand it totally Miss Pua Yes Is this about golf or is this about beach this is about the beach Beach passes aren't on the agenda yet So we'll hold off on that You got to
wait until we get to the beach pass on the agenda My complaint is if it's about the beach passes Yeah we have to talk about it when we get to that on the agenda Do you know when that will be on the agenda it is old business number one So we have 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 more things to
discuss before we get to be fast Fine I will sit Sorry No worries We got to follow open meeting law Uh your office I'm unavailable Friday Is it possible we could do it tomorrow or or uh Thursday by chance
uh touch base with you tomorrow Yeah very good Yeah just give him a call tomorrow We'll figure it out then Sounds good Thank you Thanks for your time Thanks Dana All right next up Towards Deb Crim June 1st 2025 This is an
annual bike ride including ice cream Now on June 1st 2025 uh looks like Matapo at Land Trust and Friends of the Matapo at Rail Trail are putting on their tour to creme south
coast bike tour and ice cream extravaganza Um they did this was it last year and the year before just last year Yeah they've done it several years Yeah Make a motion to approve Second All those in favor i I
All right We have PJ Keating wearer appointment Uh looks like in addition to the current weer at PJ Keating uh they had requested an additional person to be on the approved way master list Is there a motion they
have and Mr Chairman during the year we we appoint several it's on the sealers weights measures Yep Um there's several people listed there They're just asking for an additional individual of Matthew Robinson And I'll make a motion to appoint Matthew Robinson as a weight
master Second All those in favor all right We have surf bed commission member appointment Um Mr Kelly I that's for the planning board representative
Okay So my question is because of the fact that this is a joint position does that have any effect on this because she's technically not an employee of the town She's an employee
of Mataoise and we utilize her services Uh you can appoint anybody to represent the town It's usually the planning board tells this board who they would like to have
as their representative and this board also has a representative which you're going to have to uh determine who you want upcoming Does she need to be like Mr distinctly saying she's an appointee of
she's a she's a resident of the town right did she want to be this the only reason why I ask is I get I get worried with already having a short schedule for her She she's on the doing the master plan right now She's doing this like I
don't want to overwhelm her She uh she asked for it number one and number two uh she's not only the serpent representative she's the JTPJ which is a subgroup of serpent
representative uh she has been on it for a number of years and she is the chairman or chairperson of the JTP Pete joint transportation subgroup there
So uh uh I would say with all the institutional knowledge she has of serpent and that group it would be a shame not to uh utilize it So is this taking the place of Mr
Francois no he's not on it Yes he was We appointed him last year Serbed You appointed actually France Oh Steve
Bush Steve Bush Sorry Steve Bush And he had resigned Oh okay Can we let it do it until it's a problem yeah I just didn't know if it would be a problem the first time Of course
Is there a motion to appoint Victoria Farro the town planner to the serpent commission member appointment so moved Second All those in favor i Uh letter of resignation from ZBM ZBA
member Thomas Whitehead Uh I regret to inform you that I experienced a sudden change in my work schedule which will directly conflict with the ZBA's regularly scheduled meetings As a result it will be nearly impossible to attend most board meetings Due to this I must unfortunately resign from the board with
immediate effect Um I'm glad he was able to reach out to us right away Um Mr Whitehead showed up to all the meetings and he he I appreciated everything he did Is there a motion to accept Thomas Whitehead's res
letter of resignation with regret from the ZBA so move second Uh with that being said uh we have some alternate members on that board Um I spoke with a couple of them Some of them were rather staying to the alternate
position but um Mr Smith who hasn't missed a meeting since we appointed him as an alternate um has showed interest in becoming a full-time member Is there a motion to appoint Kevin Smith as a full-time member of the zoning board of appeals
from his alternate position so moved Second All those in favor i just for a footnote Mr Chairman Mr Smith's position will be um up for an for renewal when Mr Whitehead's renewal comes up He's filling Mr Whitehead's
vacancy So that note should go to the town clerk's office Sure All right we got some letters of interest for the Kushnet Housing Authority tenant board member We actually have two letters here gentlemen I don't know if you both had a chance to read through this Is it for one position
or for two position one [Music] position We have actually Smith and Joel Souza Joel Souz is currently serving as a town appointed tenant board
member to Jerome as well So yeah Jerome was as well Joel is I am recently serving as the Akusha Housing Authority town appointed tenant board member to fulfill the term of a retired commissioner So looks like
Joel was appointed to fill a vacancy and Jerome might also be in that position I didn't even know there was a thought there was one tenant position not to
So I don't I don't want to make pass over Mr Chandler We can have that cleanup meeting next week or something We take this back up Let's find out for sure I can reach out to Lynn the the director down at the housing authority Cool This way we're not doing anything
Yeah I mean it's it doesn't seem to make sense the way these letters are So let's hold off on it It's only one more week Absolutely Uh we're going to pass over number 12 Jump to number 13 here Notary services Um this is more of an announcement So
our current liability insurance only covers us to notoriize documents that are for official town business not the general public Uh so we've been asked to announce to the general public that we cannot do general notorizing anymore
until we find out what the quote from the insurance company is So as of right now if anybody has any notary requests um our office cannot process them unless it's for official town business and town business only So under the notary services I made a
phone call to my girl with Mr Kelly She owns an insurance company She's a notary And we talked about it um last night a little bit and something just doesn't make sense because as a notary you are not attesting to the documents to being
accurate because nobody is an attorney as a notary So all you're attesting to is the two witnesses the two people that are between the agreement are there in front of you and you're witnessing that those two people are present and cognizant and all that stuff and the
signatures after you look at licenses are legit So I have no idea what this new insurance thing is but I can dig into it a little bit further as well because it any notary does this kind of stuff and there's no liability because you're not an attorney to attest that a document is correct or not You're just
attesting that the person two people in front of you whatever the document the parties are between That's all you're attesting to is are you Dave WA are you Bob Hley yes Okay Let me see your licenses Okay Sign on the dotted lines Make it sure that those two people are named in the document That's all it is
So I don't understand additional insurance request or anything like that It doesn't make much sense So coming from an insurance agent that's a notary So I don't know Mr Kelly and I can have further dialogue on what what's
it's a concern by the uh liability insurer Uh I'm not sure uh what the concern is It's also a concern whether our office
does it or town clerk's office does it So as long as you're a certified notary and your notary only lasts for so long you have to be reertified is the only thing a notary a person that's certified as a notary cannot do is notoriize
something that's for their own personal use Right so if somebody's Kevin's a notary I can't do the notary on my own document between two parties which would be myself and somebody else That is illegal You cannot do that You would have to take it to another notary and have them do it I could not attest on my
own behalf as a notary But other than that I've I've asked that is there a difference since the town's not charging a fee my girl does it for free
No but I shouldn't say that She'll get into the email But is is that the difference that they're assuming since some notaries do it with the fee that we were charging a fee versus the nonfee so I'm waiting for
the response She does it for her clients only Let me recre that on tape Oh yeah All right All right Okay Old business Beach pass update M McQueen before you come up and
say what you're going to say um I have some updates that I just want to read first Um we got some updates from Fair Haven BPW today So last year after they released a 100 passes at residence resident rates to a
Kushnet residents they still allowed people to go in and pay full price for beach passes So if you didn't get the initial run of the 100 you could still pay full price this year because of the increased amount of people parking
issues in Fair Haven If you get if we get 150 beach passes that's the only beach passes that a cushion is going to be allowed So after the 150 and last year I believe it
was 125 full price non-resident rates by giving us the 150 favor BPW will only be issuing 75 of the full price nonresident passes and if
you are from a Kushnet you will not be allowed to get a fullpriced non-resident pass from Fair Haven So the only way to get to the beach if you're an a Kushnet resident is to be part of this beach pass
system They also still offered up the transferable passes Um I know last time we discussed possibly having it at the library Um I did some more research on that I had a good conversation um with Jen over at
the library And if we offer them at the library we have to offer them to everybody in the sales network meaning that anybody that has a library card that says sales on it is allowed to use it And the library also opens at 10:30 So I think that would be a little tricky
to use the library as the focal point So Sydney put together and said "If we're going to do this we can handle it here Instead of actually giving out the passes we write them a receipt and we'll communicate with Fair Haven It'll be dated so they can only use it for that
day But she suggested rather than doing five or six we only do two Um which I have a tendency to agree with It would only be good for the day that you take it out If it's a Sunday that you want you'd have to come in on a Friday to get your Sunday pass Once the passes are
gone they're gone Um the other thing about the library is by law they have to allow them to stay out for up to 3 days and then they can start charging fees So I would say pulling the library off the table is probably a good idea Um simply
because of the logistics that would have to go into it It's just really not going to be beneficial to a residents in that aspect I got that phone call right after the last meeting Mr Chairman So I agree with
I agree with you 100% It's going to if it's going to create problems We don't want that We don't want to be allowing our beach passes Seeing now we're giving up golf passes to outside residents other than the Kushner residents So we can do it from our office in a blink of an eye
All right So we have to dive through this Um Miss Puitita if you'd like to speak first Do you mind if I don't stand behind that you just have to say who you are and what your address is Deborah Pquita 6 Pleasant Street at Kushnet Mass Every year for 15 years I have gone
I'm the first one there 7:30 in the morning I pay full price every year I've enjoyed that beach for many many years Every single day I go This morning when I got there my sister-in-law who's from New
Bedford received her pass The woman behind her from Marian got hers The other woman from Mata Poise got hers I was turned away because I was from a Kushnet Had no idea this was going to happen Then I was told I was going to be
have to be put into a lottery How is this fair so Fair Haven makes the rules We asked if there was a way that we could get Kushnet residents discounts on beach passes last
year Right I remember that And we I had already paid the full price Correct And nobody's ever going to be happy in the situation And I don't mind paying the full price I can't We can't dictate what Fair Haven does with their beaches
So we didn't know about the non-resident passes changing or not being offered as well So when we were told we were getting 150 passes last year anybody that didn't get the 100 was able to buy an extra pass ultimately the way it stands right now
is Fair Havens invoiced us for 150 passes We have 150 passes that we have to figure out the correct way to give them out the fairest way to give them out Doesn't matter if you've been in town for 100 years 5 years 12 years If you're a Kushnet resident you have the
same exact shot to get a pass And how is that going to happen randomizer The only way to be fair is anybody interested in a beach pass submits their name and their address confirms that they're in a Kushnet resident with a valid ID and it's put it
into a nonbiased completely random name generator And where is this going to be submitted live on TV If I have my way I don't know if that's going to happen I don't know if these guys are going to do it You'd have to We haven't even decided on the process yet We we may say first
come first serve and it becomes you know a bleep show like it was last year Y and you know where people you know doing whatever Well I I think it's very sad that Well I think in a I think it it it's tough because we're trying to do
something as a benefit to this community Unfortunately it's not our beach doesn't have a beach and unfortunately beaches should belong to everyone but that's another story Agre agreed And I tried to reply to your email this morning but for some reason it kicked it back Yeah I'm
having a problem The one thing that you know and I I we can talk offline about it but um you you were a little accusatory in your email and I didn't appreciate that And I was very angry I know you were and I could tell furious I could tell And and I want you to know
that the only way to be fair is to do something random That's the only way because last year we said it's a free-for-all first come first serve And the Fair Haven BPW was inundated with people and then people were yelling at us because they drove all the way from
their job and made it right before closing and find out there's no passes left So no matter what way we figure this out there's going to be disappointed people Yeah But life is disappointing sometimes Sure is We have we have to do it the fairest way possible And we haven't even come up
with the exact process yet That's why we're talking about it tonight And how will that be do you have any suggest let me just do you have any suggestions on what we should do i truly don't because I think there's there's going to be so many now that people know that you can get those passes Um I think there were
going to be many many people who want one who can't get one And I honestly don't know the solution to it I really don't know And how will you publicize that you can put your name in somewhere well that's part of this
process We're trying to figure that out today Whether it's a matter of we pick a date to start and a date to end You have to get the town hall between this date and this date this time and this time submit your name Once we have all the names
then we go through the process on how we But that's what I mean How will people know that if you're not on social media for instance So if you're not on social media in this day and age and this isn't a downgrade to anybody that's not I actually removed myself which is smart
because trust me social media is is incredibly hard to deal with This the only other way to really notice about town town business We can put it up on the board outside of town hall We can put it up on the bulletin board right at the front of town hall and any other
town building We we can do stuff like that but we can't mail out Oh I understand 8,500 letters to people to No but that's why I'm asking where would be the place So Miss Miss Puit we we have a town web page right we'll we'll post it
on there like a week in advance maybe two weeks in advance Like we said we're still digesting this information coming through I was actually when I read your email this morning I was actually shocked that that happens right where we got shut off from and I don't know how many Kushnet I mean for Haven did before
we implemented this a year ago right cousins that live in town and we all go together we we we've done it for years and they were like what do you mean I went this morning and I called them I was like we can't get a pass and they they were like what do you mean they
were on their way we got we got town web page right we'll put it up there We also have your contact information So a courtesy to you um knowing that you're not on so I'm not on social media either right i could care less about social media So the reality of it is we now have your contact information So we'll
make sure we put a note in So when we are going to start taking names we'll contact you personally so that you know exactly when it's going to be but we'll also put it on our town's web page letting people know next week we'll be set accepting names right and you know I don't know what we're going to do is you
know maybe we're only going to accept 150 people and I'll tell you to hurry up and get in here and you'll be one of the 150 and you'll automatically get one But that's fine that they're actually going to I doubt that's I doubt that's how this we're going to work it right so that was kind of a little piece of humor
We we might say you know to make the odds a little bit better we might say we're going to open up the window from for 10 days and we're only going to accept 200 so 50 people will get us No 150 of people will get it Do we go to 250 do we go to 300 i don't know what
the demand is I really don't know how you're going to do it I I They sold out last year and I Oh like half an hour That's why I get there at 7 I'm the first one at I can't even get over that Right Which it's it's it's I literally
am there at 7 a.m at the door It's not Siesta Key Beach So I don't I can't even It's a gorgeous beach that that many So what the other alternative is is a boat I have no idea I have no idea We can
bring you around drop you off on the beach We'll taxi you back Well I will go there to say goodbye to Brett who I've known for many many years now the head lifeguard because I wouldn't I wouldn't give up right to do
everything I'm not going to put any stock into it but um I just if I I have probably 7 to 8 10 years left in my life and I would have liked to have continued to do the one thing that give me the greatest pleasure Agree If it becomes if
if if it's an isolated you know one or two or three people like yourself there's not much we're going to do I I think if this board got overwhelmed with a dissatisfaction I think then we got to look at that and say maybe we can't do
this anymore Do this anymore right it's not fair I I just I mean I understand it's difficult for girls women or men who are working during the day They can't get down there in time I get that And I get that You know I worked two
jobs my whole life I deserve to be able to go to the beach at this age You do You do So and I've never asked anyone for anything I don't owe anybody anything I've paid for everything my whole life And I even said to the girl this morning "I will pay the
non-resident I'll pay $150 I don't care." She said "I can't give it to you because you're from a cushion." I was like and it was news to us as well I I was like how discriminatory is this this is like terrible but it is what it is I
don't think it was meant as discriminatory I think they realized last year she said they were inundated with people all day long And the biggest problem that they had the conversation I had was it did cause a lot of draw which is great You got a lot of people that got to enjoy the beach last year
Residents non-residents resident rate full price It's usually the same people you see all the time Correct But the biggest problem was by adding this option and really boosting the idea of going to West Island They had a lot of resident complaints about people parking
on the main street in different times and and the I get there early morning and well that's the thing You get there early you enjoy you get a parking spot I'm there at 8 and I leave at 3:30 3 That's why I don't go to the beach because I can't get out of my house on time By the time I go at sunset
nobody's there anyway Um which is okay You know I'm not a big And it does get crowded in the afternoon I know when I'm leaving it it's it's getting really they have to make sure that they have enough area for cars to park that doesn't interfere with the roads leading into the beach because of emergency situations And I think what they're
trying to do is just make sure that they can still provide a level of service to West Island residents and not cause any problems for any safety And I will tell you that the majority of the people who go to to the beach there are very
respectful of the beach of the people at the beach You don't hear any swearing You don't have ill behaved children that are just the parents are not watching It's it's a nice beach It's a great beach to go to And that's that's the
attractive part of it People are so respectful There's no garbage thrown up People pick up their mess They put things in the garbage They you know they they literally take good care of that beach And if it makes you feel any better I mean I've my family had a summer cottage
in West Island my whole life I've been going there since 1969 Last year was the first year I didn't go because I did not want to be accused of getting a pass because of some type of preferential treatment Well that's terrible Well just again just just to
level set it right so yeah But you had a cartage there so you were not not anymore Oh I see I see Okay Yeah Well because we put this program I I did not put myself in the mix because I did not want to be but you know how beautiful the beach is It's a great place The
water's clean It's a great place It's lovely And I think we can figure out a way to make it work for everybody Well sorry if I was very angry I could tell you were a little upset and like I was near tears when I when I emailed you and I just said I can't believe it I can't
believe the other part of it too when you sent that email I still hadn't even got the update from our office about the non-resident passes not being available for a Kushnet So that's I got that information after the fact and I was shocked I was just I was like
what do you mean and she was like no I can't give you any And I was like great you know but anyway thanks for the time of course and I will try to pay attention to see if well we have your contact now we'll make sure contact would you miss I can guarantee because
my email does not my for whatever reason my computer's ancient like me did you leave your contact information with um Tanya no write down your phone number sure I won't make you announce it on TV
though Um 508 My husband said "Don't go near angry." I said "Well I'm angry." Well I'm already there Yeah It's too late Then he said "Don't get arrested." I said "Okay."
Cuz he doesn't have bail money Sounds like good advice though Thank you so much We'll update you as soon as we figure out what we're going to do Mr All right Thank you so much I think this goes under no good deed goes unpunished pretty much All right So
now that we have all the details gentlemen what are you thinking i don't know Let's sit on it Come up with something Maybe there's a way to I I don't know what the answer is I feel terrible I understand Right Yeah Yeah Yeah I That's not the intent of this The
intent is not to uh disenfranchise people I mean I'm looking at the list from last year I mean to be honest with you I see some households with like multiple you know like come on what are we doing yeah Right And so I don't know I don't want to think out loud because then people think that's what it is but
maybe we can put some thought into it where somebody wants to I think we said last time right that people who got them last year ineligible to receive them this year right like Miss Puquita she purchased she spent 150 bucks before the program even started right so if
anything I would say like the people who were in that situation last year who forked over 150 bucks I would almost say let's give them first preference this year right like just as a um you know so anyway again I don't want to think out loud because then I'm going to piss off
somebody else So I don't want to do that And yeah I think it's it's safe to say and I've said it twice this meeting I think putting this together to give our Kushnet residents a cheaper option to go to the beach is the intention of this And we we were this program was entirely
to try to help our residents and by no means or any of us and I'll speak for all of us This is not to screw anybody over and make them not enjoy the beach And I think no matter what we knew what was going to happen last year not everybody's going to be happy but if we
can help out as many as possible that's the goal And that's why we have the transferable pass So like if somebody is knows they're only going to go a couple times a year use try to use the transferable pass Don't gobble up one you know like I don't correct So I mean
like I know when I said he doesn't want to speak out loud but I mean he he he said a few things that got inside my head right and I mean we do things for seniors and everything else and it's in and these things even even abatements for like EMS um you know the EMS runs is
is income guidelines right so you know maybe we looked at that first right and said okay let's do a lottery with if you know you only meet a certain income cuz I mean obviously somebody who's making you know is only on social security only making a limited income a senior citizen
right they have to they don't have the ability to pay the full price right so maybe day getting a thing and we do 50 runs of run of 50 that way and you know what I I think that you're on to something there I think that you know and then and then you can take the
remaining balance of them and say okay take the rest of the names that are on a list that we've accumulated for 10 days and we only allow 200 names to come in and we shut the list off I don't know that But I mean it's something that we need to look at and say can we do a a a lottery of get see how many people come
in that are seniors Yep Right and want to use like Miss Beu to want to use the program and would use the program as select said every day and not that person that's going to grab that pass and maybe go randomly you know two or three times a month or just on the weekends right and suck that pass up
from just for weekend use right i'll put some thought into it Maybe we can all collect separately put some thought into it and then maybe this a good idea pops up Yeah Um I'm sure we can figure it out And two I think today with new information it kind of screwed up the
the good feeling about how we're going to do this easily So I wouldn't even want to get to the point where we even set any guidelines tonight simply because I think I think we have to pivot and reevaluate the whole entire thing if it's not a lottery Maybe maybe maybe maybe it's we do cuz again Select Mona
said a few things and it made things go off but maybe because of the thought he just said is somebody might not be using it and they you know they got it seven days a week but maybe we do you know weekdays and weekend passes Mhm So there's a lot of families that can't go
to the beach during the week days but they're going to have the whole pass for the week right So those kind of things we might want to think about And you have the the senior program where you know your income guidelines and you would take presidential with these once the once the passes are out they're out
because they have to attach to the vehicle So if you get one of the 150 is a sticker that goes right on your window I got it And it's yours The only ones that we can really play around with is the transferable ones Yeah Yeah Yeah Well put some thought into it Like select one I said and go from
there All right Right We'll figure it out You guys have any ideas drop them off the city and we'll put them together All right Free cash articles The season doesn't open up over there until July Correct Or
still working on the free cash articles but I have if you can pass them on a snapshot of the budget I asked that the board review it I would
ask that sooner than later you come in and talk to me especially about uh any individual department that's in red uh we've got some options on how we can go
forward and uh but as you can see by a lot of the uh NC is no change by the way and we've cut an awful lot of departments
uh general government has an overall increase of 0.7% So so I ask you to look it over Concerns or whatever come talk to me please Uh I would ask that it not go public
because we're still waiting on responses from the schools on what they're going to do to help us with the fact that uh we have a substantial deficit
Mr Chairman Mr Gasper so I think Mr Kelly just said "Focus the ones on red." My focus is on every budget because I already can see certain budgets and I already know what the the total is and I already know what the salary is And I can tell you right now that that's not happening So there are budgets inside of
this proposal that will be chopped from whatever version we're looking at right now And I think the board's already agreed to that in the past So we're I'm just asking that one I've got a real uh you've got a quandry there And so I'm
asking at this at this point with the amount of deficit that we know we have all hands are on deck again And it's it's every budget's open for a cut Yep Right It doesn't matter whether you're level funded or not It's it's based on past expenses where you are currently in
the year and whether or not we the board feels it's appropriate to continue funding a department the way we have been funding it Yep And free cash articles That was first on the agenda Yeah Still putting them
together We're still putting them together because uh I know the fire chief dropped off all of his Yeah we've got town We've got town articles We've got uh articles that such as what we saw
today that when we coordinate with if you do changes to that free cash gets taken away Uh I also have to know how what the town wants to do with the school
ban on whether you want to uh take care of half of it take care of all of it Mr Chairman Mr Gasper So that's what I wanted to have a conversation about Um because we're the selecting so we closed the warrant So
we're no longer accepting new articles from many any departments but because because we're the board of selecting we can do what we want cuz we're the ones that approve it So the school band roof whatever the balance is left on that 600 or 5,000 600,000 roughly $600,000 we got
to look at and see what we have in the solar capital fund About 120 Well there was just 10 and something committed So I got to look at the balance that's there And then we had a conversation about using some free cash to pay that off So we got to look at see what that balance
is because I don't know if we have 4450 to take from free cash until I see what articles Mr Kelly's looking at But it would be nice to get rid of that debt That was a pledge that we made as a board to the taxpayers cuz
we comes up in May 23rd or something like that to rebond So we I'm working with the treasurer to see to try to do a threemonth band again a short-term ban to get us captured July and then have the available funds to pay
off or pay off a substantial amount of that money And then my next question for Mr Kelly would be is the current debt exclusion on the school renovations expires I think it's like
81205 and that amount is like roughly $93,000 that's left and we carry it on the recap sheet I'd like to get rid of that debt as well Um we could easily fund that from free cash to pay that debt off And then my question for Mr
Kelly is we should get rid of that debt Um and my question is is do we need to resend that debt exclusion that was voted 15 20 years for that school renovation if so we need an article for
this town meeting the spring town meeting to resin that borrowing to get it off our books It's the last year of the school renovations we're carrying roughly in that in that in the debt exclusion that we carry 400 and change on I think it's
425 right including the school the police department 93 of that 425 is dedicated to school renovations from the 20 years ago whatever the hell it was and and and due if it's due August 25
it is it expires in August of 25 which is the first second month into the new year So if we have a free cash article we rid ourselves of that debt We get it off our balance sheet But if it expires it's already included in the
money I believe I'll have to check it but the money that we were appropriating in town meeting for next year for a debt payment that was already carried in the last town meeting I want to resend that
93,000 this town meeting so we're not carrying that next year But if you're paying it off in August Uh-huh But we we might need to resin that that exclusion I don't know if that's something that we need to do That's a
question for town council I guess we need to find out So how do we close the books on that project after we pay it off that's 100% Okay Right And if that requires an article because we went via an article for the debt exclusion Normally when something gets voted by a municipality
it depends on how it was voted on is how you would resend something So it was voted on at a town meeting right and a ballot question but I think to resend it you might just need to go to simple town meeting I don't know that for sure Or does it just disappear on its own yeah
you might need just to pay it off That's how I've done in the past other debt exclusions I just want to make sure that we're prepared because I don't want to carry that into the new fiscal year I want it off the books So we're carrying 425 I want that number to come down to
350 360 whatever the number is going to be And we could stop getting taxpayers for that debt right and if we were to use free cash to pay it have a nice debt whatever We'll talk about that later Yeah I mean 932 it's in the debt might
as well at that point It's in the debt schedule now It's already been part of the tax rate that we certified back in November I don't want to see that happen again this year No but it's in the debt
uh line item It is sir And it's being carried in our debt and on the recap No it's in the debt line item in the budget But if I get rid of it I pay for it for free cash it doesn't have to be there in the budget anymore now does it
we have to see if we can pay it in free Okay Well we'll figure it if it's already in the bond Is there anything else on the agenda what did you want me did you want me to talk about well I saw your audience
going like that So well the Did you want me to discuss any of the IT stuff while I was here quick no I thought the beginning Okay we'll catch up with you later on Yeah Okay we'll run some stuff All right You didn't come in for that did you no I I was here anyway Okay Uh there are a
number of signatures that were left by the office for you folks Perfect All right Selections announcements So you ask me uh I do Um just to remind everybody as I did last meeting we had a meeting with um the construction crews
our town's engineers DPW staff Mr Kelly and I were in on that meeting um for the con the start of the construction on Sloum Street project that's going to start next week Um so we're putting up billboard signs to notify everybody But again if in case you're watching here
anybody that's in that area um please be patient There will be times you'll have trouble getting in and out of your driveways depending on when the construction when the construction crew is in front of your house Um I was very adamant about not shutting people's
driveways down but the construction company did notify me they're running parallel tracks with drainage and water They'll have plates to put down so it might take you a few extra minutes to get out of your yard So please be patient And if you do need to get out you can just go out and talk to somebody construction If you cannot you can
communicate with the PD and they will dispatch over to one of the detail officers to make sure they know your address to help you get out Um and there'll be there's a tab on the I work with Miss Tanya Tas from our office today She's trying to work it out a little bit better but and I talked to
Miss Silva from the DPW the town's web page You just go to the town's homepage Right at the bottom you'll see a bunch of tab pay your bills Right on the right hand side of that it said projects I clicked on it There's nothing there I asked to put the link to the DPW's website with the updates from the
project We'll continuously update that site So now if you go on to town's homepage you click on projects it'll give you a link Just tap that link It'll bring you directly to DPW's website and it'll continuously give you updates And we will get um updates from the construction crew every two weeks for
DPW to continue to update their website so everybody can stay a breast on what's happening with that project So again even if you're not in that area please be patient There'll be a lot more traffic on South Main Street Pay attention to what you're doing stay away from your cell phones when you when you're traveling down South Main Street
and anywhere else in the neighborhood because we don't want anything bad to happen to any of our residents or residents from other places eating at our local restaurants and establishments So just everybody's going to need to be patient It's a seasonl long project It will run right through summer into the
fall Um so just please again be patient with what's going on that this area is already kind of congested with a nightmare So I just want everybody to just put their patient cap on and give yourself a little bit more time when you leave the house Don't be in a big rush to get somewhere right um usually when
you rush it takes you longer to do something anyway So just give yourself a little bit more time when you're leaving the house Um and plan for that traffic congestion Yep It's going to be worth it when it's done Hopefully Like anything yeah Um just one reminder uh with
baseball season approaching We're starting with the at Pope Park thanks to the Fabian family There are three AED devices Uh the defibrillators they're charged up Uh hopefully nobody has to use them but they are on site and um you
know the bottom line is they're not as intimidating and so you know they're self instructing and uh again we hope nobody has to use them But um if you do have to spring it to action please do It's not uh as intimidating as you think
So excellent And I'll just I want to mirror something select just said Um he was kind enough to do a short video on our YouTube with Mrs Fabian in regards to the locations of them And he also had
Chief Farland give a tutorial on it and it actually alleviated a lot of my concerns with how easy it is You press a button and it tells you what to do and it's very straightforward Um but if anybody's interested if you go to our YouTube channel the Kushnet Cable you
can actually watch that tutorial and see how easy it is And um like Dave said nobody wants to use it but it'd be good knowledge to have if you have to Excellent Mr Chairman Mr Kelly
uh we discussed whether the board is going to have the next meeting in an alternate site You want to uh yes So next meeting on the 15th is a budget meeting with the school Um rather
than doing it here gentleman with you I'd rather do that at Council on Aging if that's okay What are we doing uh the 15th is the school budget presentation for us or the joint meeting with FINCOM Uh is
FinCom because last time it just said us and the schools but I'd like FinCom there as well Um I'll talk to them Okay Tomorrow night Yeah there you go But I see the 15 No the meeting
tomorrow night Yeah just to make sure But um Got it I'd like to do that Um I had a lot of people asking questions and at least there's some room there Um no disrespect to the school but um if that's all right with you on aging Sure
Okay We don't need that last piece do we we don't need that last one Is there a motion to adjurnn so move second All those get to sign [Music]