[Music] meeting is that we've got a uh application for a class 2 used car license for Jared's Auto Wholesalers.
And last time you were here before us, there were just some technical things that we had to make sure that we knew what we were doing. Um, you know, Bob, you're involved in this. So, I have no problem turning the conversation over to you and the research that you found and
sure why we're here. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. Um, first off, I'd like to say to Mr. Marinelli, I appreciate your patience. Um, once we got down to brass tax and figured out what we had to do, I know it took longer than, uh, you wanted to, but, I wanted to make sure it got through. Um, ultimately, uh,
gentlemen, just so everybody's aware, um, the current location had a class 2 auto license and we had some back and forth with the current license holder and ultimately after speaking with the current license holder and with Mr.
Marinelli. Um, we're here. Um, so the first part of this here before we get to Mr. Marinelli is when I spoke with Mr. Knox, which is Hay Street Auto Sales, um, he agreed to amend his license, which is currently at
50 cars, down to 25. Okay. Um, so I would ask I would make a motion to amend the current class 2 used car sale license for Hay Street Auto from 50 cars to 25. Okay. So moved.
Motion. I'll second that. All those in. All those in favor? You got me all confused right now. All right. Um, uh, Mr. Baronelli, if you want to speak before we get to the next part. I know you already went through some of this. Um but um we had also discussed a couple
of our concerns and questions. Correct. Um which we haven't brought back. Correct. Yeah. I'm only minimum probably 10 15 cars, reliable cars, affordable prices, and just looking to support the community. Correct. Uh Mr. Chairman, if I may. Yeah. U Mr.
Mayor Natalie, just for clarification too, we had spoke um offline about this, but you do have a section of office space. Yes. With uh facilities as well. Yes. For residents. Right. Anybody any questions?
No, I I do have one question and I will go back to the original owner of the property, Mr. Knox. Y your license was for 50 cars, used cars. We just made a motion to have your license amended to 25 cars. Correct. This this gentleman here just said
something about 15 cars. Would you prefer that we I I prefer that it stays 25 25? That's right. Even if he's only going to have 50. That's that's what that's that's what I was going to ask. So somewhere down the road if it comes back to you, correct? You're back to your original license that you had obtained through your the
previous owner at I'm going to hire Paul Train to come back salesman and so I'll make a motion to approve Gem Auto Sales a 25 car use class 2 license.
Second. All those in favor? I can't. Congratulations. Thank you. All right. Next appointment is with Badge West.
Thank you. Good evening. My name is Dylan Cogwell. I'm the president of Badgequest, Inc. And uh we've been selected to provide um promotional uh assessment center for um chief police chief and police deputy chief. And um
I'm here to answer any questions anybody have about that process. We work directly with um Massachusetts Civil Service HRD. Uh we follow all of their standards and protocols. Um it's a it's a standardized format and uh we we
strive to put all the candidates through a um fair and realistic process and provide uh HRD with information that they use to generate a list um a rank list that is provided to the hiring authority to aid them in their decision
about um who to promote into those positions. So, I'm here to answer any questions anybody has. When the process officially kicks off, how long does it take from like grade? So, when uh the first thing we'll do once we're put in contact with uh
whoever either at the department or at the town that's going to be our our um contact, we have someformational gathering uh that we do. We do a department profile and a t a job task analysis to understand the department, understand the community, understand the the uh the positions, the
responsibilities of the positions and um we will fill out a HRD uh vendor form and essentially it's telling civil service what are the exercises that we're going to use which is all um secure information. Obviously the
candidates can't know ahead of time any of that stuff. and uh civil service requirement is 12 weeks from um the submission of that form until the assessment center date. Uh and then when we get that turned around once we we uh
administer the assessment center um I submit the scores uh the score report into civil service on the same day and then civil service can take you know one or two weeks. has, you know, been improving. Uh, but so I can't really speak to them exactly what their time
frame is, but that's kind of my experience of the average. Uh, so that's kind of what the time frame is. Okay. Um, what do you need from us at this point to get this thing really? Yeah, I need whoever my primary contact is going to be uh their email or their phone number who I'm going to work with to get
the information that I need to uh provide to civil service. Does the board did we settle on that already or uh No, you haven't. And uh I would suggest that it's a board member. Okay, Mr. Chairman, I'm happy to do it. Fine
by me. Great. Uh Mr. Chairman, it's also this is the board's opportunity Since you've obviously had a police chief for a while, but you've also created a
deputy chief's position to inform the uh company that's going to run the assessment center of what your priorities are and why you created this
position. Gentlemen, Kevin, you were you went through this last time. I wasn't on the board before we went through this exercise, not for deputy chief, but um so you folks have it on your resume. Town of Ausha 2019. You did the assessment
center. I've read through everything you've presented here. Um couldn't be happier to have you back in the town of Aushnet to conduct this assessment center. So it was kind of as we were mulling over whether or not we were going to go with us, we were rolling around, deputy chief, second command,
whatever it may be, talking to the police department, the former chief, and then the provisional chief having that discussion. We thought it would be wise to incorporate that now into the chief's assessment center to have that
on on the on the shelf, right? If we needed it, we had it. And I I was under the impression back then that if so and I and I still am and I know that it's only a two-year list like Sergeant's list are, but creating a deputy chief somewhere down the road, um I think it's
in the best interest of the department, God forbid if something were to happen or the current chief were to just say, "Hey, I'm done. Here's my notice. See you later." We're not stuck in a situation where we have that vacancy and everybody's kind of scrambling on what we're doing. and as we have done in the
past, I'm going to say year and a half now. Um, assign a provisional chief, police chief. Right. So, I think that's kind of where I'm looking at it from my perspective is to kind of have that second in command there. Um, you know,
it comes down to anything. It could be an illness from the police chief. At least then you have that second in command there ready to go um and take control of the department where if something else were to happen, you're kind of left empty-handed, right? Absolutely. So, we've we've done and I don't know if
you received them with the delegation letters, but we've done some work with job descriptions in both of them. So, I hope that you have them and if you don't, I have the copies that we've kind of done for job descriptions. So, kind of play that along for you folks and your assessors to be looking at um to
develop the assessment center. So, I mean, it's up to the board to decide what we're going to do down the road, right? And figure that out. Um I think that we all have an interest in doing it um at some point. Um, but that's kind of where we were at and that's where I felt it was important for the department to
have that second in command. Great. I think it's a good idea. Well, I think uh both of you explained this pretty well. Um, I'm very excited to get the process moving. So, as soon as we can facilitate that, we have to um
have some meetings in the meantime. And um Luke, current provisional chief uh Gary Coppa and so Dash Quest can get down to the station and get any new information they need. Uh I'd like to see that come to fruition sooner than later. Okay, Mr. Chairman.
Yeah, the the only the only other concern that I have is because Mr. Ingley just mentioned our provisional chief. He's actually here tonight, right? Y Mr. Gary Cop is our provisional chief. Um, and in in this it says that you'll be sitting down with the chief. That's kind of impossible to do because
he's in the assessment center. Okay. So, you need to be very careful of what's going on with our provisional chief, right? Yep. As far as trying to extract too much information um there's probably ways that we can get you information from the department
um without it impacting Mr. Copper and hurting the integrity of the process. Right. You talk a lot about the integrity of the process in here. M um I've read through everything. Um I've seen it before with you folks. Um I actually asked everybody that was coming in this time around. Were you happy with
Badge Quest? They all said absolutely. We're very happy with them. Right. So we're I'm honored to have you back um to do this again um for the for the sergeants that are taking this exam. I think it's important for them um to have that input and we're happy to have you back and glad that you uh came in at the
lowest bid. Yeah. and you have an abundance of experience not only in the Commonwealth of Mass but other states as well. So I did review all of that. At first I didn't see a cushioner. So I went back and looked at again like oh there it is. Um but anyways um that's it. I mean you
know you we contact select and loan but you can you can if you need to reach out if you want to have um individual meetings with members of the board um to to talk to us that's great too. I would like to I would like to have that opportunity um to have with you folks. But the lead guy selecting the chairman
Walnut. So here's the deal. This is my contact info, but I'm also going to have Sydney Vo. So I think you've Mhm. communicated. And then Jamie V as backup. I want double and triple backup. I get emails, but you know, I'm not addicted to looking at emails. So
Great. You know, my cell phone's there. I do not want this process. Do you prefer cell phone or email? Text is always good. Text. Okay. But email like over overcommunicate. I don't we don't want to see this. We need you to Yeah. get cranking. Sure thing.
All right. Thank you. All right. Just keep in mind what I talked about when you go to the police department, right? Obviously, you can get to by chief. So, we'll just keep a single stream of communication. So, there won't be any additional I won't reach out to anybody else. I just have a single
stream of Yeah. And then we'll then we'll coordinate individual meetings. You know, if you want we I can, you know, I'll figure out I can talk to Chief Copper ahead of time. You know, I can meet you down there to do a tour or one of the selectmen can. We can
do that. Um, we'll figure that out. Great. Sounds good. We can we Mr. Chairman, we could also so we don't just to be able to provide the most information about the department. I think it's important we we'll coordinate with Chief Copper um what officer that's
not taking the assessment center could be there with us as well to walk us through the station and give them as much input as they can to keep the the four or five individuals that are going through the assessment center out of that picture. Right. and we'll just bring in one of our other officers, lead
lead guys to be able to walk you through the facility, explain things and maybe the knowhow of the department, right? Okay. So, we'll leave that um you know, we'll we'll we'll have a conversation the chairman can have that conversation with Mr. Copper and figure out who that design is going to be. Um but again,
it's all about the integrity of the process. That's right. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Uh, while you folks are doing the minutes, uh, if I can grab a minute with Mr. Coxwell and Jamie B. Yep.
Will All right. Uh, we've got a bunch of minutes. May 9th, May 16th, May 22nd, May 27th, June June 16th, June 16, 2025. The gentleman had a chance to look at these, Mr. Chairman.
Yeah. So, I I'd like to um thank Mr. Inkley first of all for um getting in touch with um Patricia Mr. Inkley is that her name correct? I've never had the opportunity to meet her but I can tell you I went through every set of this minutes and as you know in the past I've done some
corrections just for not not necessarily correction just more information and I'll tell you I went through each and every one of these set of minutes and she's been very dialed in and she's doing an incredible job. So I just wanted if Patricia if you happen to watch this meeting which I know you will because you're doing the minutes thank
you very much for the job that you're doing and how you're expediting the minutes that were passed on. So thank you Patricia and I would a motion to approve all minutes as presented. Second all those in favor I from Mr. Chairman just uh to touch on
that as well. Um I also have to give credit to Select Laura for making it to the interview process of that. I had a a problem the day that we were supposed to sit down and he stepped right in. So, I'm glad that worked out as well. Thank you. All right. All good. All
right. Next, uh Hank Turjan with American Traffic Control. Um just by way of uh background, Hank Christian resident, but also decorated. Stealing my thunder. Just let me know. Now, you're stealing my thunder. It's my
um glad to have you here. Thank you, sir. Thank you. I just want to say nice things about you. I didn't want you to have to do it to yourself. So, I didn't want you to lie on, but um as I mentioned, Hank's in a res, but more importantly, um a decorated
police officer, a professional, comes from a long line of police officer and your son and your brother, and nothing but great respect for you and the Turan family. So, I'm thrilled that you're here today. So, now you can talk. Thank you very much. Um, it's an honor
to be in front of you. Um, I've been a resident in the town of Aushnit since 2000. I love our little town. I love that we have no real intersections, no traffic lights. Um, which leaves our police officers to do the duties that they do. And Chief Kappa, thank you for
stepping up in the position you're in right now. So, throughout my 37 years of law enforcement, I was a workaholic. Worked every detail that I had the chance to pick up. My father was a workaholic when he was a detail officer. My son, however, did not catch that
gene. My son is a police officer here in town. He is not a detail worker, which I'm extremely happy about because he gets to enjoy life and work 40 hours and earn his pay. But throughout uh the latter part of my career, we started to notice a trend where the younger officers don't want to work. They don't
want to work the extra shifts. I I commend you guys for taking the steps and going to one of the highest detail rates in the state. And now you're seeing that and I just spoke to Chief Copper about this. People are sucking up the details. They're grabbing them, which is good cuz the roads are safe.
But that's going to get stale. And you already had to have a flagger company come in. We're just here to make a proposal that if you're looking at outside flagger companies, we would like to be that company to take care of you. We're already on the DT DTS, the detail
tracking system that you guys pay for your officers to be on. We can already see statewide the traffic details that are going unfilled. Um, today you you guys had two traffic details that weren't accepted. Um, we're we're going to provide civilian flaggers to come in
and do that. And, uh, some of our employees will also be retired police officers. Um, I gave you a a pamphlet of not only uh what our job's going to be, what our flaggers can do, but some of our experience on the back combined the
owners. We have over 80 80 years in law enforcement. I take almost half of it. Uh we have a veteran in our in our group and a well-known business owner in New Bedford. Three of the owners are town residents and uh we're here to serve if you guys need that fil.
Great. Yeah, Hank, you know, as we talked about, we had just done a, you know, contract to try to create some opportunity not only for our officers, but you know, retired officers and so on and so forth. And I wanted to make sure that we were on good footing with them.
I understand you spoken to the union rep. Um, which I'm I'm glad you did. And so, you know, I think it's definitely something that we'll look into for sure. And, um, you know, we can do business with you. So in that conversation with the your union rep um
in my 37 years 25 I was a union member. I was union president for nine years and we always fought for the benefits of our officers but our officers starting to walk away from that. So we're there not to take jobs away from your people but when you have a void tarant got hit with two big bills because they didn't have anybody to work details so they can the
company $10,000 for asphalt then another bill a couple days later. So they had to go to a similar program. So we don't want you guys to be in a similar situation because I pay tax in this town and the liability if a detail goes unfilled if something happens at that detail site they come right to the deep
pockets which is going to be the town. Awesome. Well I think you know like we do we'll definitely do some research. I encourage Bob and Kevin to to talk to you personally get more information and we'll just keep uh keep you posted and okay we'll stay on top of it you know.
Thank you very much. I did best on the back of the flyer. Glad to see uh Krishna guys, Krishna people, businesses uh doing good things and hope you uh wish you well. Thank you very much. Thanks. Have a good day everybody. Thank you.
All right. Next item is Veterans Day parade. I just put this on here, guys, cuz we get a lot of paperwork that comes in and sometimes we see things, sometimes we don't. And I just wanted to make sure we all have
this on our calendars. Brad's here. Uh I wonder if you want to talk about the parade and what you have planned and you know. Yeah. So I had a meeting two weeks ago with the uh fire chief uh the acting police chief.
Uh the EMA director. We all sat down, went over what we're going to do. Kind of like what we did last year. These are the flyers that I'll be passing out and putting up everywhere. Uh, one's for Reese across Kushnet. That's another thing that we do. But yeah, as far as a
parade goes, we should be all set. Uh, not much else to talk about. So, we're going to have a parade again. It's great, great event. We appreciate you doing it, though. Mr. chairman of um Brad, last year bringing the parade back I think was a
huge deal and uh the turnout was awesome and I think you did an incredible job and I think the veterans in this town appreciated it. So thank you and anytime this happens as long as you're here and we're here I think we have zero issues supporting this.
That's my pleasure. I agree. It's what I like to do. So So hopefully it'll be bigger. So Saturday, November 8th, right? The Saturday before Veterans Day. I try and do it that way cuz we're a small community and everybody wants to go to Fhaven in New Bedford for Veterans Day. So this way I can get more people hopefully to show up for audits.
Awesome. Great. Thank you very much. You're welcome. I used to fish. Yes, sir. Before you run away. All right. Can we get that helicopter? So I actually put in through the federal government through Otis uh to have a fly over that day. I should hear something
this week. So nice. I don't know yet. It flew over right as we were uh right. Didn't like it was coordinated or it flew over. So hopefully we'll have one that'll fly down Main Street over the parade. That's awesome. That's the goal. So I put the paperwork in. Last year I tried I put the
paperwork in too late. So that didn't happen. So hopefully this year hopefully I'll find out this week. Great. It's kind of it's kind of like the big show. Yeah. For some reason everybody loves that helicopter. Right. Right. So that's why I get it for 23 years.
Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Good. Thank you. All right. [Music] Gary, chief, come on up. Good evening. pay for it.
I know we had talked that the last time we were here uh you were before us we had appointed sergeant where that creates a you know domino effect on how it impacts the department and there were some deployments and so on so forth. I know you had sent us off for
communication. So want to bring you in to talk about how we can what we need to do to round out the department so we don't have any gaps in coverage and so on and so forth. So floor is yours. Well, good good evening and thank you for having me here tonight. Um, I'm here
to just discuss some staffing concerns that I see in the department right now. Um, several years ago, the department was battling a staffing/overtime issue and the town took steps to hire several dispatchers and officers. Uh, and what
that did is allow us to increase our day shift and our 4 to 12 shift from one sergeant in two officers to one sergeant in three offices. That extra person allowed us some flexibility in not replacing the first
officer out on a sick day, personal day, holiday. Um, it helped us to reduce staffing orderins. It gave us flexibility in facing situations like an officer getting deployed or injur injuries or training or an officer transferring to another department. Um,
a year ago we had an officer transferred to Wham and one to Dartmouth. Um, and we also had the retirement of Chief Richmond. However, uh, because of the hiring of Colin Matten and Adrien Fonts and the return of Andrew from
deployment, we didn't have to add any additional staff and we still had one sergeant and one officer on each shift. However, with the retirement of Chief Gru, uh the deployment of another officer, uh we no long no longer have that buffer on the day shift and the 412
shift. The result is two open shifts a week and any days off taken by any uniform officer such as holidays, personal days, sick days, training, etc. are now have to be filled at overtime. Um concerns I have for the future uh is
that the town's taking steps to add a deputy chief. Uh this will cause the same backbone issues that we're currently facing. Um and there's a real possibility of several retirements in the near future. Um as far as dispatch, we are currently facing we currently
have four full-time dispatches covering our shifts. This is down from four full-time dispatches and two part-time dispatches. Uh the result is two shifts a week are filled at overtime and a huge amount of utterance on these four individuals. And as we all know, the
utterance um eventually take a toll on on the job. And the last thing you want to have is the over stressed 911 operator when you call for an emergency. So what you're So we've got to make a decision on or at least consideration on
some patrol officers and then also possibly dispatch. Gentlemen, any uh thoughts? Just you can go. Miss I'll just touch base on the dispatcher uh aspect of it. I can't get into too
much detail because it involves an ask me contract. Um, but part of that discussion for dispatch was working on competitive pay. Um, so tonight's probably not the best night to discuss dispatch, but I think we might have a plan that might help that out in
the country. Just so everybody's aware, Mr. Chairman, to go beyond what Mr. Hley said this has been an effort uh on multiple ask me contracts to bring
the dispatch pay up. The problem is uh it's not just uh to the fact that originally we had lower paid dispatchers. They're
in the range now. The problem is that the people that are uh trained and certified are not out there. And uh we actually stole well poached
two of our uh dispatchers from other towns because we had been adjusting the salary and it's a very difficult situation. But, uh, we're going to, as Mr. Hinckley
said, we are endeavoring to keep us, uh, competitive and recruiting, but it's finding the people that are willing to do that tough job and have
having them having to uh, recruit trained individuals. Okay. Mr. Chairman, so I don't disagree with anything that was said. That problem exists no matter what industry we're
talking about, right? We we struggle with DBW. We struggle with office people. We it's it's it's in every industry out there, whether you're in public or private sector. It I've I've said it before. Where are the people going? Where where are they working? Right? So, I mean, you can't just keep
blowing out salaries because we only have so much capacity and taxpayers um can't keep exorbing higher costs associated with it. I'm glad that um the chief brought up dispatch because I agree 100%. I I believe we need that fifth dispatch position um in there to
cover those shifts. Um I think he alluded to the um holiday um time, you know, I know vacation, um personal time, sick time, and all that stuff. Just with those four, let alone the shifts that are already open. Just with all of that accumulation of
time, it puts us in a really bad spot with orderins, as he said, and if they don't take them, and then we're we're putting police officers there. He's had overtime. We know already know what the problem is with the overtime. I did review the budget and we and I I I'm a little reluctant to talk about too much
pertaining to the budget and things that we've done in the past, but um we do have the capacity to bring on another patrol within this budget. So, it would be my recommendation to help out this department as fast as possible. We're going to have to have that dialogue with the additional dispatcher, additional
staff come budget season in January, February with the chief or whoever may be the chief at the time. I'm sure it'll still be Mr. cop based on the information we've just given now. But we need to have that dialogue and see how we are going to finance the operation moving forward. Um, but for right now, I
think I think the department absolutely needs to give the provisional chief, Mr. Coppa, the authority to get out and get at least one officer moving. We don't have in the budget academy. What I would like to do is at least
authorize the chief to be able to go after it's off the civil service list. Chief, well yes, the process from what I understand I'm only a month into the job, but my process I understand we the town would contact the civil service. They would send us a list and they would
also mail out to the applicants on the list if they would be interested in the job. they would then come here uh sign whether they accept it and then we go through the background process and so forth. So could we in that in that process because that's mandatory. We don't have a we don't have a choice but
to go to civil service for the list. But in that process, we could also be looking for a lateral transfer, couldn't we? We absolutely could be looking for a lateral transfer. We can actually I was reluctant to put anything out to about that until obviously spoke with you gentlemen. Um
maybe we get lucky and maybe we get a super qualified candidate from another jurisdiction that wants to come and work for us. Um I think it's a possibility if not a strong possibility that may happen simply because our last two contracts has brought our salaries in up quite a
bit and the detail uh rate like Mr. Turjan was just saying. Um so I think we're very attractive place. That being said, you're just going to have the right candidate. Um yeah, because I don't want the last thing you want to do is hire someone just because they're one body, right? So the
do you if we can't get a lateral I'm going to go off and assume you can correct me whenever you need to m um chief is we don't have money in the budget for academy cost because of budget constraints that we've been over the past two years right so we've been
trying to cut as much as we can to just stick with what we what we have and it was working out but of course here we go again we're going backwards and that's unfortunate because we made great strides to go forward with our PD and I think that's why you're here. You're trying to keep us moving in the right direction, right? Instead of falling
back behind again with the orderins, I was part of that. It was horrible. It wasn't fair to our officers. They did what they had to do and they stepped up to the plate and did it um on behalf of this community. So, I appreciate everything everybody did. But if we had to go to academy,
we'd have to figure out a funding source for that. What is that? Well, if we if we call for a list, then I would imagine we have to go to the academy. Um the other option would be I mean can you put out for I can see if
there's any interest on laterals but I mean if you're going to can you run parallel tracks? Well I think once we call for the list correct me if I'm wrong. We should do laterals first try. Yeah and I can put out like feelers and see if there's are saying that we are
interested in hiring taking the officer over and go from there. Give it a week. I'm sure you know the community you'll know pretty quickly, right? Well, yeah. I mean, it's one of those things that I think we we've all we all have friends. We all have friends that are police officers in other jurisdictions and we they talk and and you know, uh
this it's attractive place. It might be a law for someone from New Befford uh who's you know, just got on there, but and they're like, you know, I really would like a little safer community to work in. I mean, someone that lives in a cushion who's working out of town might want to come here just for that reason. So, do this. I think that's probably
makes sense is go look for a lateral, stay in communication with us and as you know, we're on call like if we have to have a meeting to get somebody in here, we'll schedule a meeting that's not two weeks from now, you know? So, keep us posted and if we have to meet next week to
figure it out, you know what I'm saying? Like you've got the authority that after we don't find any lateral candidates then to go for the civil service list. Obviously, if someone reaches out to me, I'd have to be in touch with you, gentlemen, to see what kind of benefit package you'd be willing to offer that individual as far as step rates.
So, Chief, we've we've we've done that in the past for a lateral, right? So, there we do we do have some flexibility within the contract to be able to do that. So, I mean, if you find whoever you find, don't just say, "Yeah, no, that's that's you have to have that
conversation with us, right? Give us the benefit of the doubt. have that conversation. What does it say where can we start this this particular person based on their experience? Well, I mean there is my concern because like I said I I haven't been in the process of hiring before but there's whether or not they have to be on the civil service list or not. I'm not sure
that comes into play. I know they have a merit-based hiring which is new to civil service which you can take someone outside of the list and then we have to replace them with somebody on the list but I'm not sure. Town Council. Can we just do a session with the chief and
Jamie? You guys sit in on it and talk to town council. I'm sure they must have some. Yeah, there's a, you know, one one off, one on the list type of situation. Right. There's a number of uh ways that it can be done and uh I'll contact Darren and
we'll but get a me, you know, do that and also get us a memo so we all know they have to be what they we're a civil service department. They have to be civil service department as well for a transfer. But there's also now a
uh and I've got to see if it's gone through the whole legislature where you can do one on one off that isn't on the list and then one that's on the list alternate. Call a town who's poached one of our
people and ask them how to do it. But it's but it's uh I think it's already passed both houses. I just don't know. I I am aware that they are there are police officers that are using that model. Um I believe it was made because it was a lot of the towns that were leaving civil service. So they came up
with this idea to make a little bit more flexible and higher. I'm just not sure the exact details of it. One more thing. Y Mr. Chairman, one more thing. So I I don't know if it was in the minutes that we just approved what batch it was in. I'll go back through it all. I'm pretty sure it was in here. There was some talk
from the previous chief. I think it was Chief Richmond at the time. Um, I don't believe it was Mr. Karu, but I think it was Chief Bridgemond, and it was only maybe a year and a half ago that there's a grant program out there for hiring
police officers. So, if you want to, I'll look in here for you, Chief, and if I can find it, I'll let you know. That was Chief Richmond, and I I can contact him to find out the details, but I do remember him um saying that they needed you need to have a commitment that you would keep that employee
employed for a certain number of years. whatever it is, I'm just trying to help the situation right now and we're trying to unclog the sink right now. So, any way that we can do that is the best approach. I just remembered that I'm pretty sure it was inside these minutes that I read something about that grant program. So, if it's out there and it's
still available, maybe you can look into that. If we have to go through the civil service list through the academy, maybe that's the band-aid we need right now to push us over the goal line along with another officer that we have budgeted for. Right. So, it might be a way to
capture another one. Mr. Kelly was talking about the one on one off thing. Maybe that's the approach we could take and get one free for the first I think it was the first year or maybe even two years and then after that we retain them for 3 years or something like that. I
forgot exactly how that grant program worked but I believe they paid a very large portion of the salary for the first year or two. I do remember uh Chief Richmond talking about that. So, let's explore that as well. We'll see if that's still out there maybe. Um, and it can get us a little further
ahead. Okay. Yeah. Thank you for watching. Thank you. Uh, Mr. Chairman. Yeah. Chief, would you mind sticking around for another two minutes? Sure. Uh, I just have a question on the next agenda item. Okay. Just need some clarification.
Rock, Mr. Hley. Okay. Just a minute. Uh gentlemen, so the next item and thank you Mr. Chairman. As you know with conversations with the former
provisional chief uh Tom Karu, we had discussed safety at the four corners intersection. Um and we put a temporary halt until we can figure out a process and everything like that. I had a gentleman from the Lions Club reach out to me. I told him I
would at least put it in front of the board. Um, in regards to how we could authorize something like that, I know there's stipulations involving um, you can't really say yes to one if you're not going to say yes to all. Um, but
according to this gentleman at the Lions Club, Mr. Doug Thomas, he said he had spoke with Chief Kappa in regards to is it possible to do if there was police detail or
I think Mr. Thomas said maybe a possibility where they volunteer their time to help direct traffic. So I told him it's a board decision. It's not something that I can approve, but my ultimate concern was the safety at this intersection. Um just for some
clarification points, I know a big thing was children running in and out of the streets. I did speak with Mr. Thomas and he said there'd be absolutely no children participating in this event. It's not really an event. It's more of a fundraiser. Um but doing something
similar to what all the other I guess you call them taggers do at the four corners which is filling a boot essentially. Um so I guess my question to chief cop would be like when you spoke with Mr. Thomas on this.
Are you comfortable with something like that happening if there's police presence? I would say it depends. Um my concern is not so much having adults standing with the boot, but how can you say yes to the
Lions Club and say no to the little league or to the dance studio? And that's who ends up calling. And what happens is there's children everywhere and that's a busy intersection and they're confused because people are looking what's going on. It's just a safety concern.
I don't know if I would want to take on the liability of directing traffic around all these people in the road. Uh if we have to Yeah. As far as volunteers, I mean the officers are straight out right now, but if they would be able to volunteer some time, I I mean we could
I'm not a hard no. I just I don't I have a hard time envisioning a way of doing this safely. Yeah. Mr. Chairman, I mean, is there another PL like, you know, if it was not this place, but like in front of Farms or Cumberland Farms or some other,
you know what I mean? Like, yeah, correct. The bank and and I think Chief just brought up a very good point. You know, I I don't think this could potentially, now that I I'm hearing what you're saying and and thinking about how we
phrase this last time, without rewriting policy, I don't think there's an actual way we could authorize this without forcing the option onto somebody else. And if somebody else like Chief just mentioned decides they want to do this and comes in front of us and
presents it and offers the same stipulations, but we can't say no if they're going to have little leaguers doing it. And I think it could possibly turn into a mess without changing policy and putting something in place. Um, of
course I always support support what the Lions Club does and anybody else that's trying to raise funds for any of their projects, but I would default to the safety concerns about I would say the same thing. Like the Lions Club is great for this town and I would I would love to help them out. I just in my position I just don't think
it's it's not just me. It's fire administration thought the same way. I just think it's a it's a liability of the town and department by allowing that to continue. I mean, if it's again, if it's a case of like that intersection's
terrible as it is without anybody in the street, but if there was another location, right, like if it was up the road, maybe that's a little bit more doable or, you know, somewhere else. I mean, look, we're about to look at review the annual an amend an event
permit form, right? And so, there's a bunch of stuff in here. Yeah, I agree. I mean, I I guess we feel terrible if somebody gets hurt and it's on us, you know. When is this event? When is that when
I was actually looking for the email that was attached and it's coming up in October, I believe. It was October 11th is was the requested date.
So I I got a phone call on the Alliance Club doing it as well and I I talked to Chief Copper about it. Look, and and no matter what you do, if you if you allow one group to do it, you're forced to basically forced to allow anybody to
do it. And and I share, as much as I know, they're all grown adults at the Lions, but as he alluded to, we had a dance studio do it a few years ago. We have people last month last month they called for it. It's every month I get a call for this.
I mean I I I know it's the four corners. I know that's why it's attractive. You got a four-way stop. There's a lot more opportunity from the traffic coming from here than sitting out over there because all you're doing is capturing really a Kushner residence over there. Here you're capturing everybody using as a cut through def.
I get it. There's that you can raise a lot more money with the four corners. The problem is is it does come down to the safety concerns. And when we heard Chief Karu talk about it and now Mr. Copper talking about it, you know, it's it's tough for me to say,
"Yeah, let's just do it and take that risk." I I don't think that's a good risk to take. And God forbid, I think from all of our hearts, we would love to see it take place. But in the same token, from all of our hearts, the last thing we want to do is see somebody get
hurt. It isn't the people doing it. It could be, you know, a car, somebody driving the car, right? Like that's the variable you can't control, right? There's no question. I mean, so this thing's October 11th. I mean, I know like during Christmas time, Salvation Army puts out kettles. People
can drop money in and all that stuff. I would have no problem whatsoever. you know, if the the Lions Club wanted to put something that town hall, there's a lot of traffic there and people want to donate, create some mechanism to donate, you know, uh at our the library there,
they'd have to be responsible for taking it, you know, going getting it and that type of stuff to provide them with the opportunity to do that. Um, you know, but I just never know a little bit nervous about it to be honest with you.
Thank you, Chief. Thanks, Chief. Have a good night. You too. All right. Next item, the event permit. Had a little bit of discussion about that for the last uh week or so.
Mr. Hinckley, did you want this on the agenda or I did. This is uh Mr. killing this day. We've had whether it was uh you know some Halloween programs or we had a um anything and everything the Charlie Kirk
memorial go on. Um you know I think the issue is again we don't want to get in the way of people either running a business or having you know appropriate uh expressions of grief or
whatever that might be. is just we always want people to at the end of the day be safe and whether it's for fundraising and I know Mr. Gasper, this is your baby, but we've talked about it. The the car show that the the center of town is just really treacherous, you know, and
uh to do events there is really hard. And so, you know, I guess with that memorial that took place, it was we had traffic and safety concerns, you know, this is the the center of town is the center of town. I get it. It's visible. We want people to see it, but by the same token, it is not the safest place
to be doing things. So, with that said, we had an event permit and there's some revisions. Jamie, what do you got? Uh, Mr. Blake and I, town council, talked a number of times
on this and the last sentence before the uh block that says alcohol permit. seems to imply that it's activities
on private property, but it doesn't say that that do not require a permit. Include funeral ceremonies, private yard sales, bake sales, Christmas tree sales on private property, fundraising, car
washes, certain retail retail sales, promotions, etc. Um, Mr. Blake suggested that we consider a rewrite where you specifically say
activities on private property that do not require a permit are and list them through. and then possibly add a sentence that says all events on public lands
shall require a permit. And that way all property that's owned by the town, a permit will come to the board for their approval since all private lands are under the opaces of
the board. public lands. Oh, public lands. Public lanes. Sorry, Mr. Chairman, if I may. Um, obviously, you know, I would like to see this simply because of the liability factor of it. And once again, to go back to
safety, I will never ever stop anybody from exercising any of their constitutional rights. Um, but interpretations aren't always what it seems. and anything involving public property that
could possibly bring large crowds. I'm not looking for the money. I think the permit fee is 15 bucks and there's other fees involved depending on size. I'm not even worried about the money aspect of it purely from a safety standpoint. You know, like you said,
this intersection's tough. You go around a blind corner and you have people crossing the street at night. traffic control worries. You know, the the police are always willing to help, but they shouldn't be, you know, put in a situation where they have to worry about
what's happening on any given night because there wasn't really proper communication in time. And you know, I fully support changing the language of this to make it work and make it so at least we know that we have all the appropriate parties informed and we have
the decision to agree if they need liability insurance, if they need police details, stuff like that. I think having the open line of communication is beneficial. I mean, we have the right to wave permit fees. we have the right to
essentially enforce this document as a board and I think this would add a little bit more teeth to it if you ask me and yeah and I think you know we've discussed and I know you' sense the communication but I think as a town if we were able to provide and suggest
places to do vuals peaceful protests what have you like Po Parking lot on aging um you know I I think we should look into that as well. You know, somebody wants to do a vigil and they
can use P park. I don't have an issue with that. Or, you know, our school parking lot. Um, you know, if the intent is to go respectfully, you know, pay your regards whether it's in the center of town or somewhere else like, you know, I think but safety is
the most important thing. So, um, agreed. So, I think, you know, Jamie's initial like to review it a little bit more. Um and then we can come back to this and yeah that uh as long as
that type of uh direction is what the board wants then town council can make sure it's constitutionally correct the language. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we got to get it right because Yep. You know, we got to
encourage free speech, but by the same token, we're going to do this safe man. Go ahead. All right, Mr. Gasper. Mr. Chairman. Yeah. I got nothing. That is first.
I'm going to Hold on. Can you sign memorial on the calendar? Yeah. Put that down on the calendar. You like I don't even know what to do. All right, good. Now I'm all I'm all flumxed. I don't know what's next.
I think enough was said, Mr. Chairman. Um, Mr. Chairman, if you want a minute to catch up, I'll jump on the next one if you want. Yeah, please do. Um, gentlemen, um, I'm going to ask that we don't address number six tonight, which is theou ratification. Okay. after
going through the red line, there's a couple of stipulations and stuff that I need clarification on before we do this. Um, and also in my haste to get this on the agenda, I think that there's some executive session discussion that should be had before we ratify this.
And I would ask if you gentlemen happen to have any open dates for a quick day meeting this week coming up. I would like to get this done quickly before our next meeting obviously. Um, but I think it's appropriate to have an
executive disc uh session discussion before we move forward on this. Uh, what works for you? So, we the earliest we could do it would be Thursday, but I'm down for Friday. That's usually a good day for me this week. Um, this week, unfortunately, I have
zero, so it have to be next week. Chips here. Wednesday next week. Next Thursday's uh holiday, Columbus Day. K. Oh, next Monday is the holiday. That's what I meant to say. What did I say? Thursday. So, public land, private land, Tuesday,
Monday, Thursday, Thursday, whatever. Ei. So, gentlemen, it's really I have pretty much anytime after 10 next weekend currently open depend doesn't matter what day it is. Tuesday or Wednesday, get it done.
Tuesday that works for Tuesday, Wednesday during the day. and and then if you need to catch up the next Tuesday at uh is a regular scheduled meeting that's fine that you can take care of it.
So you want to do Tuesday during the day? Uh that'll work. Okay. Good. Search. I would need 11 if that's okay. 11. That works good for me. It's perfect for me.
Yep. So if you get an email back from the email I sent out with Sloum Street people, you see my email that we need to get a meeting with the joint meeting with all these folks because I've had it up to here with that. Well,
and I put last in that email I put anywhere between 10:30 and 2:30, but next week to get a date. All right. So I mean Tuesday still available. I think we'll only be in executive for half an hour, 45 minutes.
I mean, I looked it over a few things, but nothing major. So, thank you, gentlemen. All right. Good work. Thank you. All right. Next is DPW. And that's an executive session, right?
Executive session. Tuesday at 11, executive session as me. And I think we could still technically put it on open. If we don't resolve anything, we don't have to do it. Correct. So, executive and open. Correct.
So, we've got uh DPW, Morningside A Reclamation Rep. We've got a uh detailed report from This is good. I don't know, gentlemen.
So, Mr. Chairman, you you know, I I went out here with Mr. Manard. I I talked to him and I in last uh meeting we were in two weeks ago, he was out on vacation. So, I asked him when he got back to make sure he could get us the information over to give the board a cost to
reclaim and pay Morningside a based on Mr. Hinckley's concerns with residents out there and things of the like. So, he did pro provide us with a number. Um, it would have to come out of chapter 90, but um, looking at his numbers, I'm I'm
going to say he's good to go. So, I'll make a motion to approve in the amount of Jamie, can I use a different number than what he's presenting here because it's coming from chapter 90. Can I just say up to instead to give a little wiggle
room on his quote? Or you can because it's coming from 90, you can use the higher number. And if we don't go up to it, right, it's chapter 90 funds. Y. So I'll make a motion to approve from chapter 90 funds in the amount up to
$110,000 for Morningside AL reclaiming and paving. Second. All those in favor? I. Now, are we going to do this ourselves or we going to put this up to Let's go. 12. So I have to check with the town administrator on procurement laws, Mr. Chairman. So okay,
I can get back to you on that. All right. Um not divulge too much information. Okay. Sometimes less is better. All right. For the sake of this. All right. Uh final review of special town meeting.
What do we got? We got one article, Mr. Chairman, which is in the latest version. It's the last article and it's article concerning
uh to vote to raise an appropriate transfer from PEG access and cable reserve funds. Transfer from available funds. File for accept or expend grants and or m
matching funds provided by grants. borrow or or otherwise provide a sum or sums of money not to exceed 49,000 to purchase and equip a utility van with mounted
aerial lift capable capability for the Aushnet CATV department or take any other action thereon or in relation to and this money would come out of the CATV reserve. fund which presently
contains 9996,505. It's at a request by the uh uh cable cat department. It would help for the maintenance and repairs of the town's fiber system as
well as uh various of their other uh events and uh um jurisdictions. Uh, I talked to town council about this
and he told me that the wording is proper. The motion will be specific and will say the 49,000
from CATV F reserve funds and this is the only article you have not uh considered in the past and I apologize that it wasn't in that before but we were trying to vet it with town
council and the CATV department to make sure uh it was what they wanted. It's not going to cost the taxpayers money. It comes out of the cable fees.
Mr. Chairman. Yeah, Mr. Kelly, correct me if I'm wrong, but this could only be used for cable areas such as fiber or like you mentioned in this description, videotaping like outside public events,
it it could be used for any activity that the CATV or their uh employees were involved Okay.
And with fiber getting more and more uh anything attached to the fiber is also included which includes alarm systems. [Music] So our own who does the the maintenance
and repairs to our fiber like who? Uh our people. So like Nick goes up he'd be going up Nick and Lucas and Luke. So they'd be going up on telephone poles. Yeah. Well Luke goes up on high wire for
you you see you. So, at first I was a little concerned, but then when I seen him up on the rickety ladder at Lake Street putting up security cameras, Dave, I was kind of like, I I don't really like this appearance, right? Cuz god forbid, hey, I need the guy that's holding a
ladder on a on a pole that wobbles like this, right? So you have a flat peg with a round pole, right? And they turn around and he's going to pick some up and the next thing you know. So I'm like, you know, how much use is it going to get? I realize I don't know, but it's probably quite a bit knowing
what we're doing with fiber and security cameras and things of the like. So it wouldn't hurt to have it. It's coming from the cable reserves. I I don't see a big issue with it. I think it's something that we can use and some of our personnel
work for other companies on installing the high tension wires on those big towers. We can we can paint the facade on town hall as long as we have a wire hanging out of the bucket. We have a paintbrush at the same time,
right? We can get creative. Not for nothing. We'll get creative with it. So if m Mr. If we don't have a problem, I'll make a motion to approve. I guess that's article 16, Mr. Kelly. Uh right now it's article 15 in there because Oh, cuz the back says 16.
Yeah, but we removed one. But uh that's why I'm saying uh PH access cable reserve fund article. Okay. So So can I Mr. Chairman before we get Yeah. because I'm seeing some change and I know that we did the change because of
the revenues and I think it's a do thing. The water is being pulled. That's not the one I'm talking about. I'm talking about CBC and it's $64,000. But that's just an amendment cuz you get an article 25 in here. But that's an amendment to the article 25 from the
June town meeting spring town meeting and we're adjusting the differences and that's where that number comes out to. Correct. There's no spending from it's just adjustment so that we satisfy do correct. Okay, Mr. Chairman, I do have one more
concern and I apologize but I thought of it when I seen badge quest in here. We don't have funding for badge quest. So my question to the board is before this sucker goes out, do we want to add an article for the 5,900 and change to pay
badge quest for the assessment center? Do you want to do it from there or do you want to do it from the reserve account since we're in almost uh October right now and there's been nothing that's come out of the reserve account
yet? Do you have either option? I I I understand that, but I made a comment the last time we talked about doing that. I don't really want to bring that back up on camera, but I have that concern that I spoke of last time. And I'm just giving the board the option of whether or not they want to. It's $5,944
to do an article from free cash and we pay for the assessment center. It's just an option. I'm trying to give the board so that when we come to that bill time, we have a funding source. So, it's up to the board. It's very easy
for us to put that in the chart as you know whatever is going to be the cleanest. I think you know reserves are for reserves. This way people know exactly what this is going to. So if you want to stick an article I need a motion from the board to amend first. Let's go back to the egg
motion. Okay. Yeah. So it was I'm sorry Mr. Inkley because I called it article 16. I think Mr. Kelly called it article 15. Correct. How about cuz it's everywhere. It's everywhere. It's article 16. So, what I'm just going to say is I'm
going to make a motion to approve the CATV reserve in the amount of $49,000. Second. All those in favor? And you can determine what article it's going to be when we finalize with council because I've seen an email from council saying he's reviewing this tonight. Right, Mr. Kelly? Uh, for the third term.
Yeah. So, whatever article, which one are we amending on that expenditures? Is it article two? Article two. Yeah, we'll add a line to the police department. We'll put the appropriate number. It's not. That wouldn't be article two. Not according to your chat in the back.
Article two. Oh, for which? I don't know. Your index is all messed up. So, article two for the ASB contract. So, it's definitely not that one on this index. It is Hold on. Operating budget. It does say article
two here, but your index is messed up. Article one's prior year bills as it always is. Article two, it would be under that one. Oh, you're just adding it through there. Total additional funds. Yep. Whatever this index thing is in the back, it's kind of messed up, but
whatever. You know where to add it. Article is set a motion. Current year budget amendment is what we're doing. It's article two, right? And and do you want to approve that article to amend that article
to an article for the police department assessment center in the amount of $5,944 because that's what the bid came in at, Mr. Kelly? Yes. Okay, I'll make that motion, Mr. Chairman. A second. All those in favor? Motion
carries. Anything else regarding town meeting? All right, gentlemen. Leman announcements. Mr. Chairman, if we could try to get old colony back in for f more discussions. I
think there was fin questions that were unanswered to talk about that. Yep. School building project. Sure. I mean, it is the biggest debt the town will ever undertake in my opinion. Um, I think we owe it to the residents of Ausha to vet that out a bit more.
Yeah, I know they've done a ton of, uh, you know, sessions at the school itself, but if you want to have one here in town, uh, we absolutely can do that. We'll, uh, get them on the on the agenda. I know they I I think they went over that's council on Asia, but I think they
did that at like 11:00 a.m. It's just nice to get them in the selectance meeting at the end. Sure. Have a little conversation with them. I mean, the last time they came in, it was they were obligated to be, I think, in Lakeville that night. So, it was only like an hour and 15 minutes. It was basically a presentation that they were doing. So, yep. You know, maybe a little bit more Q&A
and have them not have to run off to another community that night would be great. Sounds good. Uh, Mr. Chairman, sir. um a long time a Kushnet assessor's office employee Suzanne Sunnik passed away
uh on September 25th. Um just want to let anybody that didn't know her that um we missed the ceremonies already for it, but I just wanted to say uh my heart goes out to the family. Um spoke with a
lot of people that did work with her and uh she will be missed. Yeah, Sue is a sweetheart. She did a great job. Um, very great gentlemen. Under uh personal privilege, um, I wanted to make an announcement to you, my colleagues, and Mrs. Kelly and those I work with at town
hall and the general public who had an interest, but um, just want to let you all know that is made the decision to not run for reelection in the spring. Um, you may be saying, well, why are you telling us now? It's just it's a decision I've
made. It's been a long time coming and I just felt it's my obligation to let people know sooner than later because I think there'll be people out there who would want to run for the seat and I think to do it right. Uh it takes time. Takes time to talk to your family. It takes time to talk to people in the
community and supporters. Um and I want that for whoever decides to step up. Um you know it's nothing against I love working with you guys. I love working with the town. Um, but it's just where I'm at in my life. Um, between work and
being able to do it the right way. Um, and that's the standard I have. I just don't think I can deliver on that at this juncture in my life. So, wanted to make people aware of it now. And, um, you know, Christian always always has a place in my heart, but I will give it my
all over the next six months. Um, there's no such thing as a lame duck as far as I'm concerned. And I look forward to uh, we got a lot of stuff that we still want to get over the finish line. uh through the through the tape. So that is my announcement, gentlemen. Very good, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, just so you know, I'm still trying to convince my wife that it was a good idea for me to run. I think I think we're we're all at that, right? It's I mean, it's not an easy job. Most people think it is an easy job, but it's
not an easy job. Um especially the longer you do it, the more it takes a toll on you and your family. So, I get it from your perspective, Mr. Chairman, but you have you have several months in front of you to reconsider that decision. And maybe you will, and maybe things will change over the next several months, and you know, things could
change for you. We'll see. Well, I appreciate that, but I wouldn't have said it now if I didn't want other people to uh step up. So, but thank you. I do appreciate that. Uh, with that said, uh, is there a motion to call the meeting to adjourn? Motion to adjurnn.
Second. All those in favor? I sir.
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