[Music] Good afternoon everyone. Today is Friday, May 2nd, 2025. It is 12:00 p.m. This is a meeting of the board of selection. Is there a motion to call the
meeting to order? So moved. Second. All those in favor? I. This meeting will be audio and video recorded. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Have some continuations of some Verizon/ Eversource poll hearings. Uh first part of this um Verizon withdrew four
petitions so they could readvertise um due to scheduling conflicts. So I would need a motion to accept Verizon's withdrawal of petitions MA2024-22 MA2024-23 [Music]
MA2024-25 [Music] MA2024-40. Is there a motion to accept the withdrawal of petitions? So moved. Second. All those in favor? I. All right. So we
have petition MA 2024-23 from Verizon New England Inc. and NStar Electric Company doing business as Eversource to place five new jointly owned polls. 10230.5 at 35 Mendle Road.
10231.5 at 31 Mendle Road, 10232.5 at 27 Mendle Road, 1023.5 at 25 Mendle Road, and 10234.5 across from 20 Men Road. The installation of these poles is at
Eversourc's request for the purpose of cable upgrade along route petition MA2024-25 from Verizon New England Inc. and Nstar Electric Company doing business as Eversource to place five jointly owned poles.
139/1.5 at 634 Main Street, 139/2.5 at 27 Perry Hill Road, 1393.5 at 35 Perry Hill Road, excuse me, 139/4.5 at 53 Perry Hill Road.
1395.5 at 53 Perry Hill Road. Eversource requests Verizon install five new midspans along Perryho Road and petition MA2024-26 from Verizon New England Inc. and NStar Electric Company DBA Eversource to place multiple multiple
jointly owned poles 10218.25 25 1021.5 1022.5 102/26.5 1028.5 and 102/29.5 along Mendle Road. The
installation of these poles is at Eversource's request for the purpose of cable upgrade along. Uh so we'll take these first. We will have another one after that. So, we got Mendle Road, Perry Hill, and Mendle Road on this particular
one. Um, so we got a bunch of maps in front of us, gentlemen. Anybody from Verizon want to speak on these or ever? And then we'll open it up to any residents with any questions.
Good morning. Morning. Brian Simmons from Pike Telecom representing Verizon. So, we've submitted all the applications and Ellen Cummings of our public affairs department met with the board on Thursday, I understand, and went over
all of the double polls and hopefully that was sufficient in explaining the situation on each one. That's good. So, this isn't about the double polls. This is about new polls. Um, looks like Eversource is requesting
all of these. Correct. This is 15 or 16 new poles. All midspan. Anthony. All midspan. uh to stop sort of like the distance between existing poles
to cut down on the sag and support. So there's no polls in these locations now. Correct. Is there any residents here from these areas they have any questions or concerns? Uh, gentlemen, any questions and
concerns? Yeah. So, what what petition is 44 Meno Road on? Can you tell me that? I did take a picture of the map and I did go out to to look at some of these locations cuz it seems like a lot of your supporting polls that you're putting in are in the center of people's
properties. petition that doesn't show addresses is MA2024-26. I I don't see it on there is 44, but there is a flag location. I don't think it show the So that would be MA
[Music] 2024-264 road right here 2042-26 right across the street that 55 yeah there's a flag location on that side of the road of 44 and it's showing
it's on the opposite side of the road which doesn't make any sense. That's patio road. I don't know why they're saying 44. Maybe I don't know how these lots are coming out. This kind of screw with their maps. Yeah, I don't get their maps. You have 44 men
road because your maps are a little bit screwy the way you show lots coming out on Perry Hill Road. I don't know who does your maps, but we're looking for there's a proposed pole going right in the center of 44 Meno Road and there's no tree line in
front of that property like there are in front of other properties where these poles are going in the center of people's lots and I know I don't think we have anybody here from 44 Men Road or anybody from any of the pole locations, but I'd be very concerned if I was getting a pole stuck right in the middle
of my yard. When I look out my front door, my picture window, all I see is an ugly telephone pole in the middle of my yard. Normally, telephone poles are placed on the property bounds of the lot lines, right? And now you're starting to pop them in between in front of everybody's homes. We had
this problem on Manchester Lane a while back and it was resolved. So, I'm only trying to speak for the residents. Maybe they just can't make this meeting at this time. wherever it may be. There are several pole locations being put in the front of people's lots,
right in the middle of their lots. Some of them are not that big of a deal when I drive by and I look at it cuz there is a tree line. So when you look out, you'll see trees and the pole will blend in with it, right? I don't think there's that much of a hardship there, but when the 44 when I went by that one, there's no trees in front of
it. So, I can't speak for the folks that are here, you know, if they're not here, but I know that if I was living there, I'd have a problem with that. I'm looking at the map and I don't see us placing a pole in front of It's funny cuz your map on this one shows it on the
other pole's going on the opposite side of 44, but that's not the case cuz you have yellow flags on that side of the road where 44 is yellow. A bunch of yellow flags all down memor road. I figured that was where your pole locations are going. That should be the gas department. Yeah. Uh a stakeout
would be like uh today pink, right? It'd be orange and white for prizes. Okay. So those flags are for gas lines typically. Okay. We wouldn't use flags. We use wood to stakes. Okay. But I I'll I'll drive by and double check to make sure that's
And if a mitzvah is I mean you can clearly see your poles are going in the center of people's lots, right? So it's out of nature of what we what's been done in the past where your poles most poles are located on property lines. So these these are midspans so a little
different but I can shift. I understand the midspan poles for support. The problem is is, you know, aesthetically it looks like crap, right, for the homeowner and it's not their problem that somebody's making a bang on a buck on a
solar field and that's why misspan poles are going in for the upgraded wires, right? I do have some wiggle room. I can move it like a 10ft window. Question. Can we can we my eyes my eyes see wider than 10 foot span? Right.
That's like, you know, I mean, I get it. I mean, that's kind of a knock on the door type of thing for courtesy to the the property owners and saying, "Would you like me to set it more to the left, more to the right?" I get that. Um, some cases it would make the pole disappear from the visibility, but this particular home has nothing out in front. All
right. I'll take a look. So, the existing polls, are those being replaced? Tell you the truth, I mean, I look at polls all day, so I'm not paying attention to specific addresses. And you know, my feelings on the poles in the Kushnet right now. So, similar to what
Mr. Gasper brought up earlier involving Manchester where we had this discussion about one stuck right in a bay window. Yep. and they were putting taller poles up anyway and using stronger cross braces to make up the sag. Has that been
looked in for any of these or is that something that your engineering team decide that midspan poles are necessity? Uh that's a good question. I'll have to get back to you on that one. I I don't think it's the same as Manchester Lane for midspan poles. I think if these were
new poles going in property lines like on the existing poles that would that could be an option. I don't know if that's an option for us. I'd have to ask an engineer. I don't understand your I asked you this question a while ago about your engineering firm. You said I don't know. I'd have to check with engineering. It's the middle road one
that's on this agenda as well that I had a problem with. Right. Because I spoke with that homeowner being right alongside of the driveway the entrance for the driveway. It's kind of BS. And you said I don't know. I got to check with engineer why they would do that. Doesn't make any sense that you're putting a midspan pole randomly sticking
it over here. When you go down, you measure the distance between all the other poles north and south of where you're doing one midspan pole and there's no other midspan poles. So why there? I asked that question last time on the 244 I think it is middle road. It doesn't make any sense. You would think
that if you have to put a midspan pole there because the poles are 200 feet apart. Every other pole is 200 feet apart. But you're not putting midspan poles anywhere else down middle road or north and south of of that one. So why that location was picked is beyond me. What's what's the address again? That's
that one I didn't even pull up yet, which is it's not it's not on up for discussion right now, but it's uh Middle Road 244. I think it is 284 Middle Road. That's the next petition. But I'm
just bringing it up because all of these are midspan poles too, right? And it doesn't make any sense either because I drove driven down Men Road yesterday and I was trying to look at some of these in Perry Hill Road. Yeah. You're not doing it there either. It's just kind of randomly picking where you're putting midspan poles. It doesn't
the math doesn't add up to me if you're there for support. What what what I know the basis what I know is it's supposed to be kept at about 130 ft give or take. That's why the midspan poles get put in. If that's that could be incorrect. Um I can I'll but if that if that's if that's
the new protocol that's fine but the the problem is is we've been living with poles 200 feet apart 250 ft apart for decades and it's never been a problem. Right? So I asked the question why now? The wire is much heavier. This the potential to sag is much there's much more potential for it. The poles are 10
ft taller. That's that's the only reason that I know. But if the if for these some of these polls I can look and like I said the best thing that I can do is sort of I do have some flexibility to move them around a little bit and it might not work for 44 men but I'll do the best I
can to alleviate some of the problem and it's a courtesy knock on the door if that's what you want me to do. Then when we open up 284 middle I'm open to any suggestions and what you when you're doing a project like this doesn't make any sense though. So, if you have that pole and you have to do a mid-span pole in order to get that pole out from the
center line of somebody's property, why wouldn't you just be a little more creative and say, "So, this is an existing pole and I'm putting a new pole in. Let me just go in front of the board and ask them if I could take that existing one and move that one over." So, now you get this these poles 50 ft or 75 ft apart. Sure. So why wouldn't
you just your engineering people look at it and go well why don't we move this one over 25 ft because it's not you know in the sight line over here and then this one I can move 50 ft that way instead of just giving me a 10 10ft window and you still have that span now you're setting a new pole anyway so you
your engineering department's obviously just looking at things from a a Google Earth map from 30,000 ft in the air instead actually doing what they should and go out look at the actual properties and say you know what let's do this a little bit differently it's going to be obstructive to that family. Let's move this one over. We're going to set a pole
anyway. Move that one 25 ft. Move that one 25 ft. Now it's the it's a little further down the the yard line. Right. Right. Instead of giving us this, it's just like, hey, set the pole where it is. You ask permission for other new pole settings anyway. So why would you just ask permission to say we're going to take this existent bowl and shift it
over 25 ft, 50 ft, whatever it may be. I get it. And then you reduce the span between that one and this one anyway. But now you got this little 75 ft span between poles. It just it just blows my mind that nobody's thinking outside of a box. Yep. No, I I hear you. Um
I'll I'll take it back. That's the best I can do with the survey and engineering team. I I don't you know I wish I could design them. I I don't. So I wish the person that was designing them right now Yep. would do a little bit better job of thinking outside the
box. Right. I agree. instead of 30,000 square, you know, feet up in the air, right? This is a lot of poles. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. No, but this is the last batch, right, Stephen?
That's some silver lining. I just don't want So, it's a it's a midday meeting, right? Yeah. Um and and we don't know if those folks that live in these homes are at work and they can't make this meeting to speak on behalf for themselves. Right. Sure. And I'm going to make a decision for them that could impact
them. I've done it and I don't feel comfortable doing that. I've done it for other towns. I I'll knock on the door, work with the homeowner if for some and I'll go back to engineering, see if there's a little bit of wiggle room we have on moving some of these poles. But I'll commit to you guys that I can I can knock on the door and sort of work at
the home order on a little bit of an adjustment. It it's a little bit late for that on the road because you've already set the new poles in alongside of the other poles. They're already there. You're not going to go and pull that pole back out now and move it down 25 50 ft like I just talked about Anthony. The only thing you're going to do is go knock on the door. Hopefully
you get somebody at the door and they'll go, "Yeah, it would be nice if you could move it over 10 ft, but not really." Sure. You know what I mean? But if there's if there's a way and some of those are 75 ft 100 ft. There's a way to keep that span to not have to have that
midspan pole. Maybe there's a way to not even put it there. Right. That's what I'm saying. I know I It's just kind of weird that you're putting midspan poles. Let me go back to that. Right. Sure. You're putting midspan engineers putting midspan poles only in certain spots, but
they're leaving other spots with that 200t stretch. Does that make any sense to you? Because it doesn't make any sense to me. You're carrying the same load all the way down the road, but all of a sudden, boom, now I got a mid-span. But I don't have it on the first thousand ft. That's my I don't understand the
rational behind an engineering doing these kind of crazy things. I I totally hear you and I I know the guy to get these answers from. So I I will get those answers. I would suggest if we're waiting for answers, push this out again. You know, looking at some of the butters
list, I know for a fact a lot of these butters, especially for the Main Street and Perry Hill Road, are at work because I know they do work. We got When's our next meeting? I know what you ask. It's not
that way. on the 13th. Tuesday cuz I'm on Tuesday. Yeah, we do it like a regular I can do that might talk for me in the day. All right. No, we do it
at night. A regular get back to our regular. All right. Out of respect for Mr. Gasper's concerns. Anthony, I'm going to ask for a continuence of this uh MA2024-23, MA2024-25, and
MA2024-26 to May 13th. True. Okay. Is that what we just said? May the beginning of the meeting. Sure. At 4 p.m. Is there a motion? So move. Second. All those in favor? All right,
Anthony, keep in contact with us and let us know if that engineer or the person you're reaching out to happens to be willing to come down to town, call me and I'll go out there with you guys and we can go through it and figure it out.
I want to make sure we get some answers. One thing at a time. And if the chairman's not available, whatever day you can come, you have my number. You can call me and I'll do my best to get out there with you. Yeah, absolutely can do that. If he's a schedule loader, I'll go. Perfect. Help you out. All right,
we're going to jump to MA 20224-40 from Verizon New England, Inc. Instar Electric Company doing businesses. Eversource Energy proposing new facilities pole 1045.5 on Middle Road, Middle Road. install one joint owned midspan pole
10455.5 on the east side of Middle Road which will be approximately 860 ft southwesterly from the center line of Paris Lane. The new pole will be installed in line with and approximately 86 ft south of existing pole
10456 and approximately 106 ft north of existing pole 1045. The installation is being requested by Eversource to support the existing pole line and to keep the wire at a safe height over the driveway of the property at 284 Middle Road. Um Anthony, this is
exactly the one that we've already spoken about and Mr. Gasper did ask questions about in regards to placing it right on the edge of this gentleman's driveway. Yeah. Um and the last time we spoke on this, we were supposed to get some kind of
information. It was a while ago. I understand that. Um, but I know for a fact that the resident still I'll get this one is going to have an issue with that sitting right on his driveway line. Totally. Um, he's actually got two little driveways. He's got a long
driveway that goes in the back of his business. He's got another small driveway on the right side, which would be the south side of his property now. And if you put the pole anywhere between those two driveways, now you're smack dab right in the center of his house. Yep. So that's something that if you
want to go out there and give me a call and I can introduce you to them and we can have that conversation where maybe you have to go south. Yeah. By 25 ft or so. Sure. Oh, we can figure that one out as well.
Motion to continue MA to 2024-0 to May 13th. Mr. Chairman, before you continue that, can I just address one issue maybe? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I own the property uh from 3:30 to 308 Middle Road and I got a notice about
this. In the past, I've complained to at first it was a lineman. I have a driveway that makes entry and I have a boat and every time we go with the boat, got to go on top of the boat, push the lines up. It's mid uh between the sags actually right in the middle of two
poles. Um they've come down a few times. Uh when I see some linemen working in the area, I ask, "May on your way home, can you stop and see if you can do something about it?" Well, you get lip service saying, "Well, it's it's not our poll. It's the telephone company's pole or
and another group came and assessed it and uh I don't know if it's appropriate, but they zip tied the lines together. I don't know if that's an appropriate fix or remedy. I just like that answered that that is the appropriate way to address a midsag in order to get the
height for the driveway. Can we Mr. Chairman, can we get this gentleman? So, my name is Ted Chopper. And you said it was between three uh the polls that I'm in question of is between 10459 and 10460. Those are the two poles. And it
just happens one of the poles is uh compromised because they put the uh metal frame around it and so forth. another another group that showed up said the remedy to fix it is put taller pole a taller pole height and they said
well let's hope someone hits the pole so we can get a replace and I just said well I don't think that's a good answer unfortunately or fortunately I don't know which way to call it two poles away someone hit and they replaced it right
on Paris Lane not long ago uh this property I'm two two poles So their suggestion about hitting a pole was off by two poles, but I didn't know if somehow someone if they're going to be doing work on middle road in that
area could maybe address my my issue about the poles. And I have a picture of showing where the lines are and the sagging and how they zip tied it. Yeah. Can I can I take a look at the picture when you're done? Absolutely. Let me just bring it up on my phone here.
a second. They zip tied them together cuz if you look further down, you see how it was spanning? Yeah. That's they zip tied the four zip ties in the middle of the driveway. There's the driveway. And you can see where there's three or
four lines that they zip tied together. Yeah. This is the driveway. And you can see the line zip tied. You can zoom in. Oh yeah, I know. I know where you are. They zip tied together. Exactly. So go back to I know you I know
who you are now. So this three or four lines you see in relationship to the new found. The problem is it measures probably at a height that's uh within reason with them. The problem is when you come in with a trailer with something on it, you're coming in and it's tossing it. So, it's no longer a
level body that they're measuring like on the road. You're coming in and they're hitting the uh the approach of the driveway which is raised and the load shifts and you know, you got a few things on a boat that stick up. So, you you go through the activation, put
someone up there to push the wires up. It helped immensely by them zip tying it. You know, I don't know what'll happen. So Anthony, I I think we can help this gentleman at the same time, right? So I think what we need to do is look at what I just spoke of of moving poles around, right? So when we when we
go out there and take a look at this one, um well, we should be looking at the distance and maybe doing something and shifting the pole the existing poles, shifting them is see if we can jog the poles down to accommodate the address that's already here where you're looking to put one and Mr. Chopper's
property as well. If we could do a little shifting in between, you might have to do two poles, maybe a third pole, whatever it is, or shift the poles where where they where they're currently sitting, but I like to try to He's the next door neighbor to the the I got noticed about this and I was
just curious about what you have to go through to get the the lines raised. And you know, a a new pole that's a little taller would solve it. Not necessarily a mid post, but another poll if someone would just come out and I'm sure it'd be
assessed and easy remedy for someone that knows what they're doing. So, are there uh two poles there, new poles there now? No, no, just the old ones. They're old ones and one of them has that metal brace around it that I don't know, a compromised pole. I don't know what what other They put them
everywhere. They came in last year and the year before everywhere. I asked them what they were doing. I said because of the age of the pole and the uh structure of the pole, they're reinforcing it with this metal brace. That's the answer I got. So those two poles are supposed to be replaced.
Which ones? The two where in the middle of that stand where the two poles on the end? Yes. Those two poles are going to be replaced. This where you're proposing to put this where you're proposing poles away from where the pole you're talking about. He's he's he's roughly 300 ft from the
pole that you're proposing. Yeah. at least. Right. So, I would say so between the two polls in question that I'm talking about are 10459 and 10460. Yep. So, I'm a few polls away from the one you're talking about. Okay.
Okay. But it's it's still you made you made a motion to continue to the same date as the other one, which is May 13th at 4 p.m. Is there a second? So, may I? All those in favor? Okay. Well, if that's the case, then we'll still
Hey, take my number down. I'm retired now. I can eat something. 508 728 0861. Once we do that, thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you for your consideration. Have a nice day. See you later. All right. So, Anthony, we're going to
continue these to the 13th. Um, in the meantime, between then, reach out to the office and we'll see if we can get y down there and walk around. Like Mr. Gasper said, "If I can't get a hold, you can't get a hold of me, get a hold of him, call Dave. Like, we we can figure this out and we'll we'll just put
together a proper plan to make sure that everybody ends up with something that works for them and works for you guys as well." Sure. Yeah. Should you bring the guy from engineering? He's coming. Yep. Okay. Very good. I already text. Good, man. Very good. All
right. All right. Next order of business, reorganization of the board of select. Gentlemen, it was a pleasure serving as chair the last year, was it? It was um
had a lot of a lot of learning and I enjoyed it. Um but at this point, um we do this every year. I would suggest if we could accept a motion to make David Wer the chairman of
the board of selectment. I'll make a motion to appoint David Wer chairman of the board of selection. I'll second that. All those in favor? I congratulations. All right, we'll do this. Uh we got a ceremonial
uh move this thing over. He's already pushed me out of the way. That's how he rolls. Congratulations. Thank you. Um, first of all, before I do this, I just want to say over the last couple
years, I've watched Mr. Gasper um, and Mr. Hinckley lead this board um, beyond reproach. By far two of the hardest working selectmen that I've ever served with. And, um, it's really
pleasure to work with you gentlemen. And I know we all have different styles. Um, but I think without pumping our own tires, I think that's what kind of makes it work. I think we all complement each other in certain ways. Um, just as an FYI earlier, uh, prior to accepting the
position, I met with department heads, uh, today just to say hello. Um, you know, one of the concepts we talked about was getting some visibility for our department heads before the general public. Um, and I think that's a an opportunity for them to to tell the
taxpayer what they're up to, what they're working on, in turn, how their money is being spent on a daily basis. Um, so with your, you know, agreement, I'd like to do that on a routine basis. Um, more than just as needed, but I think it's good to get some muscle
memory in that department. Um, so with that said, um, if it's all right with you, I would like to take out of out of agenda uh, take the agenda out of order. We've got our finance team here, uh, Jamie, uh, Jen and, um, eventually
Tanya, uh, to just talk about what's going on in the finance department. Jaime's new to the position. Jen, you've been now going what, your oney year anniversaryish, right? Um, so I think it's just a good opportunity to share your findings, what you're working on, um, and what you see coming down the
pipe. You want me to stay here or do you want Why don't you go to the court? Good afternoon, gentlemen. As you know, James, assistant town accountant. So, in the last few months, I've spent a lot of time reviewing um all the 25 budgets and
making some a few adjustments, reclassification for anything that was, you know, an error, went to the wrong line. And this way it gives you a clearer review of the budget so you can see exactly what was you know what should be charged where. So going into the you know FY26 budget I've been
working on reviewing and posting invoices in the payroll making sure things are done properly again things charged properly. uh working with town uh town administrator Jamie Kelly on the FY26 budgets along with the department heads
and making sure we can come to agreements and we're all set for you know the next fiscal year. I work with the conservation and planning departments on creating spreadsheets for their uh 53G accounts which is storm
water and peer review. um they're a little disorganized so as to how much funding is in each. So we just you know we put it all together and now you know it's a much clearer view as to which each account has for funding
for you know when the engineering comes through for those. I'm working with the auditors in preparation for the upcoming audit the FY24 audit. Um, our office is trying to implement some more efficient processes for processing invoices and
more, you know, more in a timely manner, getting things done as soon, you know, bills paid as soon as they can so we can avoid the late fees, making sure we have all the proper proper documentation, W9s and everything in, you know,
um, we're working on adopting content manager, um, which is part of MUNS, which will be at the town meeting as an article. I believe this will eliminate a lot of the numerous copying. Right now, if a department head submits an invoice, they keep an invoice. They send us the
original, then they make a copy so we can use that as a remmit. Um content manager will allow us to streamline this where we can scan it straight into the program into Munis. At any point in time you want to review that invoice, you just click on it, it pulls up the
document right there. we don't have to, you know, store all them, all the invoices, you know, in files and boxes. And it'll be a lot easier than trying to, you know, look and find out like, all right, what warrant was it on? What year was it in? Everything's right there. And we're going to do the same
thing with the um payroll for PAFs, education, anything that comes in with doc, you know, for PF documentation will be in the Harper's payroll. and been working with um Jen, treasure collector all quite often working with
payroll, health insurance, trying to clean up previous um year outstandings on or fiscal year outstandings on the tax levy so we can try and clean that up and anything else that comes through the office. Can you
uh briefly talk about the uh past years and the encumbered but not spent? Yes. So um at the end of every fiscal
year, department heads will submit a list of outstanding invoices that they might not have the actual invoice for. It's like they ordered it, they don't have the invoice yet. And so it'll be it'll come after the fiscal year's ended. So we encumber, you know,
whatever their request is for that next year. So to pay those outstanding bills. Um we I had come across in the uh school budget that they had encumbered a large amount of money and were still charging
current invoices to that budget. So after I talked with uh Patrick and the school, they said that was just seemed to be a path practice where they encumbered, you know, a certain amount and kind of just charged to it until they were told not to charge to it for current invoices. So we've worked with
Patrick and we're not, you know, we put a kibos on charging anything else to that. So they have like a 210,000 remaining in that uh fiscal year 24 incumbrance that you know will come back at the end of this year and there won't
be anything else charged to it. So so you mentioned audit we're coming up on our audit. I do have it on the agenda. Um, you know, I think can you just talk about that process and you know, something I'm interested I know the board is interested in like using that as an opportunity to look at economies
and efficiencies and making sure that we're you know will that examine like redundancies in so this a so this one is with the our auditors that we hire out we'll give them we're working on FY24 so you know they send us
a list of documentation that they're you want to review, make sure our reportings are accurate, you know, done timely. Um, it's more of like, you know, you've got the commitments, make sure everything's just kind of lined up on that. Um Jen
and I we've been discussing of you know kind of doing a more our own audit in house you know to kind of she can explain a little bit more on that but that'll be more like an economical you know for an inhouse one whereas will we
use the existing firm to provide that support we can ask the firm we have now to also do an economy and efficiency analysis. Uh uh you can also have them
do a a regulatory procedure analysis. I mean, I don't know how the board feels about it, but look, we're going to be Mr. Kelly's is going to be retiring. We're going to be handing the keys off to to somebody new. We've got, you know, we've got what you're our most veteran
finance person probably right here. Um, I I think we owe it to ourselves and the taxpayer to provide a blueprint of what the hell's going on over here, what we need to do moving forward. Um, any department that touches money in this
town should be looked at and examined. Um, it's not to say that there's any, you know, shadiness or hanky panky going on, but I think it's just a matter of getting things operationally as buttoned up as possible. You know, I talked with the department heads today. I'd like to see
I'd like for us to all have an organizational chart like who's doing what, who reports to who that we can all refer to that the general public can refer to. Um, you know, another thing we've talked about is yes, we have headcount and we have a salary attached to that, but we all know that an
employee costs more than just what the salary is. There's benefits and there's um, you know, health insurance and all that stuff. I think I'd like to know that data like what a headcount actually costs the town because it's more than just the salary line item that we see.
So, you know, if we can work on that and get that information to the board and to the finance committee, um I think that just puts us in a better position when we have to make decisions, uh we can be much more analytical, right, about what we're doing versus just saying, "Well, this is the way it's always been done."
Like that that was an example, right? But what we just heard about, well, this is the way it's always been done. It might have been good 20 years ago, but today when we have limited funds, the way we were doing business before, we've got to turn this thing on our head. So, no, I agree. Mr. Chair, no, you're a
finance. I just I I just I would just while Jamie Lynn's um at the podium, I'd just like to say thank you um for taking the job after Mr. Kelly and I interviewed you. I was very impressed with your resume and I was even more impressed after you got in and started
doing the job. So, thank you very much for what you do every day that you walk through that door. I'm incredibly impressed with her work at work work ethic. She's she's she is looking at things all on her own, right? And just questioning what is this and what is that? What she she's, you know,
deep diving into all of that stuff and she's really scrambled the eggs, in other words, to uh to really get answers to what the hell is going on. So um I just I commend you and I thank you very much for doing what you do on behalf of the board of selectment and the town of Kushner residents. So thank you. Thank
you. Agreed. Thank you. You know at the end of the day like when we talk about you know um I don't want to say one department's more important than the other. Everybody contributes to the overall mission. Yeah. But the finance department is if there's ever a critical
mission or essential personnel, it's the finance department because if you don't have um solid finances, then you lose all credibility with the taxpayer. You know, at the end of the day, we've got 10 10,800 bosses. Y and whether you're a
vote, whether you voted in an election or not is immaterial. We've got taxpayers that we are the the stewards of their money and every decision that we make should be in the interest of the taxpayer. So whether you're somebody who's answering the phone or making the
business the business decisions or whatever it is, if it's not going to benefit the taxpayer and if it's not for the taxpayer, then it's not something we should be doing, right? So um so thank you. Hopefully we can get this thing up and running and and and get the get the
train back on the tracks. So, thank you for your work. Jen up next. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon. Jennifer Grant, treasure collector. Thank you, Jamie. You streamed on streamlined a lot of what we were going to talk about. Uh I'm big my
biggest thing is cross trainining. I am huge on cross-shitting everyone. So, it's if Jamie's ever out, I can help out in that department. She can help out in my department if needed. And then the FY24 audit, we just got all the
paperwork from the auditor. So, we're going to start working on that. Hopefully by next week, we can submit all of their information to them. We are in the heat of open enrollment and I am excited to help with
questions with onboarding any anyone onto the plan. Um the audit I would love to as Jamie said audit each department go in figure out you know their cash whoever's
handling cash. We're doing a lot of the online permitting now. So, um, selectman's office is on boarded with online building department, treasure collector's office, DPW just went online. So, all recycling payments can
be per paid online. You do not have to come to the office anymore. So, nights, weekends, that will help a lot of residents. Trying to get town clerk next on to the online. So, birth certificates, marriage licenses, all of that information they can get
online. Jamie took the spotlight. So, um, IMC with the police department, I would love to get that implemented sooner. I know it's there. I believe there might be an article or I'm not sure meeting. Um, but I know we have it
in place. It was just the training and for payroll. It's going to streamline all of the police department's payroll and scheduling. Yeah, scheduling everything. So, I don't know
how it works on the police department side, but for payroll purpose, it's going to be a lot easier. So, looking at a handwritten grid that we get now, right? Well, thank you, Jen. I know again it's been it's been a lot going on. You've done you've done, you know, you've done the best you can with some
turnover. I know. uh you know, your office, you got some folks there really doing great work and they they serve the public fantastic. You know, it's not popular to this time of the year when you're dealing with getting tax bills paid and you know, it's uh we have a great team, but they do it, you know, I
know Karen does a great job over there and so, uh, kudos to them and thank you for keeping everybody motivated and I guess that's the trick as a manager is that during the toughest times is to keep people motivated and productive. Um so so good on you. Um next item,
gentlemen, on the agenda when it comes to finance is that uh we've had a vacancy in the uh uh Mr. Chairman, while she's up there, could we touch on the ban and how we have to roll it over because it's in her shop. Okay. So we'll
just take item number eight, which is the ban renewal. Let me grab my folder. The school roof ban was up for renewal. The sale went through yesterday. I just received the paperwork from Hilltop FedEx half hour before the
meeting for the select board to sign. We're renewing it until October of 2025. And uh can I ask a question?
We we we messed up doing the band and stopping at Shaw in May where we didn't have a town meeting to get money to pay this thing down. And she just mentioned the month of October again stopping it shy of a fall town meeting if we're anticipating doing that. That would that
would be for the money we're appropriating in this town meeting. This spring town meeting would either So I haven't looked at the warrant, but I don't know what kind of money you're talking about. It would it would it would either pay off
half of the ban or the full ban up to the board's discretion. But this just rolls it over so we get past June and July. I understand but if you're going to just what's the balance 570 570 so the
balance on the band is 570 there isn't really anything I think it's like 50 grand available in the solar revenue fund so that's really not a lot so we would be depending on fall town meeting to pay this thing off off well uh so why
why would we want a ban to expire in October we would want the ban we would want a ban for more than 6 months at a time ban for 9 months, whatever it may be. So if you go in the fall, you can kill off the rest of that thing once and for all and not keep rebanding. Cuz I
don't think you'll have money in the fall to do it completely. As long as we get free cash certified a lot earlier than what we did this previous year, we should. So last year we didn't close out our books. That that's what screwed us
all up, right? It was an accounting issue. Yeah. Right. We we have Jamie Lyn in place now upstairs. She's taking the bull by the horns. I I I'm pretty confident we will close out year end a lot faster than what we did the previous
year with what we had to work with upstairs. So, but there is a possibility depending on what the board wants to spend, you could appropriate all the money this that's what I'm saying. So, we're going to we're asking to be make a
vote to October, but we don't know what we're doing financially yet cuz we haven't reviewed the warrant articles to see what we're doing with free cash. That lies the problem of what we're doing. And she just mentioned the date of October and I've already calculated in my head that we need to go 7 months
out to get us to November. You're only going to pay a chunk off. What's the chunk you're going to pay off right now? What What were you anticipating for a warrant article to pay the band? 200 uh 250 uh and then there's some other money
that we can clean up from articles. So, we're looking at 250 to 350. I know I got a copy of articles. I was going to have a discussion with the board when we got to that about cleaning up some outstanding articles because I think it's it makes me sick to my stomach that
people come and ask taxpayers to fund things from article money and then I look at the books and we're sitting on articles that are 5 years old. Obviously that wasn't that important to you, right? Because no money's been spent on a certain account. So I would like to dissolve a boatload of outstanding
articles and put it towards the bin. Yeah, we did that the last time and that's what I was going to talk to the board about this time. I just like to get I get I'd like to get rid of the ban because we're pissing away a lot of money and interest. I
think you can get rid of it in October. So, do we for this the question here this ban renewal, do we need to take any action or do we need to can we take this up at the next meeting? We have to roll it over. We have to roll it over. It comes on a May day. So, I just didn't
know if there was options of instead of banning for 6 months, which it appears we're doing, banning for 8 months or 9 months. And what does that bring into the equation? I think it's too late. It's always too late. It was too late last year, too. That's the
problem. Kind of like the engineer with the polls. Need to think a little bit outside the box and do a little bit better forward-looking thinking. I I think you can pay it off there. It might it would it's going to be one of my recommendations for the war.
That's fine. We'll go with I apologize. I just You said the word October and I already had November, right? Because that's usually when we do a fall town meeting, right? So, continue, please. So, I do have the I was not expecting to have the paperwork for you today. So, I do have the paperwork if you'd like to sign it or review it and then sign it at
a or you can just do a vote and sign it after the meeting. Yes. Okay. All right. So, we need a motion to renew the ban. Is there any specific language we have to use or No. So, motion to renew the ban? Yes. Do we
have to add the dates, Mr. Kelly? No, it's a six-month ban. Six month. So, motion to renew the ban for 6 months. Second. All those in favor? I motion carries. Great. Next thing, finance related. Um, I realize we
have some union stuff that we have to work through, but we've gone round and round on this. Um, and it's been a recommendation and interview uh to to nominate Tanya Tvaris as assistant treasurer collector. Um, I think just to
give the the department some degree of clarity, it' be great if we could make a motion to appoint contingent upon the union issues. I know Mr. Gasper, you're a running point on that. If you have any insight, but I I would hope that that wouldn't hold up our ability to to make a management decision and move forward.
So, I don't know if you want to any insight on I just I have a meeting. I believe it's Wednesday, May 7th at 1:45 p.m., okay, with the union on this matter for them to review the MOA to some questions. Um, we Mr. Kelly and I
have made some changes to the MOA. we we believe it's a it's a legitimate MOA. So, it's just they they would like some time to sit down with us and have a discussion. And I said, "That's fine. We'll set up a meeting. I need to get this position filled." Great. Um I mean, I don't personally, again, I don't know the inner workings of it, but I think we
could make a motion to appoint contingent upon this uh this discussion. If there's any issues down, we can rectify them at our next upcoming meeting. So is there a motion to appoint Tanya Taz as the assistant treasur collector subject to uh union
discussion? So move second. All those in favor. Motion carries. Great. Thank you. Congratulations. Congratulations. All right. We got the finance stuff now. You all can go back to work. Thank you. Um All right. We do have executive
session number one. Um and then we have other executive sessions. I mean I don't know. Do we want to? So the executive session one, we do have to come back to public session. Correct. All right. All right. So why don't we do that one? Uh under executive session one, executive
session under Mass General law chapter 38 section 28 subsection A3 to discuss strategy with respect to litigation health insurance alliance if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigation position of the public body. And the chair so declares on the
board will return to public session at the conclusion of the executive session. Roll call vote. Mr. Gasper. Yes. Roll call vote. Mr. Hinckley. I am a yes. And I am a yes. And we are now in executive session. All right. We are back from executive session. Is there a motion to
reconvene the meeting? So move. Executive session. So move. Is there second? All those in favor? I. I. Motion passes. All right. Uh first item under standard business is Alliant. Uh Alliant is our works with us on our
health insurance. So if you could introduce yourself and Absolutely. Good afternoon everybody. Thank you Mr. Chairman for recognizing. My name is Chris and I do work for Alliant. We are the fifth largest firm at what we do. But to put in perspective what matters to you. We have about 40 plus years of municipal experience. Everyone within my
office works with Massachusetts municipalities. But of course we backdrop on a national firm that that has all the sweets and service that you would need. I'm going to go through the packet relatively quick here. If there's any questions, just slow me down. The second page end in the packet here. It's it talks about the health insurance marketplace, but the reality is we're in
a very challenging time. Right. Maya had a a range of 9.9 to 19.9% um which is the highest range I've ever seen. SMHG, which is your local joint purchase group here, had an average increase of 12%. So, the reality is the marketplace is in a challenging spot. Moving on from there, we went we took uh
the town of a cushion out to bid as you're leaving a master health group and we got a fully insured bid from Harvard Pilgrim uh a bid uh with HPI and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts declined a quote. So when we when those sorts of things happens, of course, it's a shortening market. So the good news is
we able to secure a self-funded quote for the town of Aushnet within a captive where you'll still be able to share risk with several other municipalities at a stop-loss level. Right. Harvard Pilgrim came in at fully insured at 29.1% increase over current. Obviously, that's a increase that we could not sustain as
a town here. So, we continue to look HPI came in with a fully um reinsured quote at at 9.9% over current. What does that mean to the town of Aush? It means an insurance carrier is covering all of your risk above 9.9% above current.
Moving on from there, if there's no questions, the important part is is is yes, it's a 9.9% increase. What's going to change for our membership? Nothing is going to change for your membership by way of network, by way of um by way of plan design, um or anything around that
nature. The cost is going up 9.9%, but nothing else downstream from there is going to change except for a few augmentations to plan, and we'll talk about those in a bit. Uh, moving on behind the compensation disclosure forms, we're going to move on past the match the network because this the town's already used to this network.
You already have it in place. I'm going to move us forward to this pathway slide because it's important for you all to know. Um, part of your Etna plan, your Medicare plan includes retirey first, which a concier service that's now included on your active plan. There's a concier service for all of your active members. So, any issues they have now,
they have a a massively augmented customer service experience. It's not just calling customer service and asking a question. You call your your concier service, they follow up with you. It's it's more than just a oneanddone conversation. They'll help if if you need a prior off, they help they help
work with your doctor to get your prior off. If you need to uh schedule an appointment with a specialist, they'll look up the specialist to actually uh actually book it for you. So, a huge uh uh improvement to your plan there. Beyond that is I'm not going to really cover this one too far, but there is an
app that comes along with that concier service. has 24-hour messaging. Between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m., people can message a human outside of there. It's an AI chatbot that covers them until a human gets back in the next day. So, really powerful tool for your members to access their their care. I'm going to go keep moving on from there. It's no copay
tellalth. If your folks want to use it, it's voluntary for things like pink eye, UTI, sinus infection, those kind of things. They can call a doctor. They can diagnose a prescriber over the phone. It saves you an urgent urgent care visit or a hospital visit. Saves time, saves money for the plan. Any questions about what we've covered so far? I know I've
covered it off pretty quick. Very cool. I'm not going to go too much further on except for to say that you have now the best-in-class behavioral health network that's available in the state. Not only are we utilizing the Harvard Pilgrim Network uh for behavioral health, on top of that, we have what's called a spring
consulting behavioral health network and then on top of that members are allowed to see any behavioral health specialist and it gets reimbured at the network level. Right? The reason we do that is because behavioral health specialists are leaving uh networks by and large. We want to make sure people have access to people that they already are seeing to
keep keep that quality of care. Any questions about any of that from there? There's not really too much else to cover. Again, the most important things you have to hear from me today is the the the rates are going up 9.9%. Nothing's changing by way of plan design or network for your members. So, it should be a smooth transition into this
plan. And again, we're adding things like concier service and a whole lot of other bells and whistles to help support people uh get the care they need. Great. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Good day. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Cheers. Uh next item on the agenda is
Hamlin Street update. Uh essentially good news. Uh the road is open. Uh it's now open to the public. However, at some point over the summer, the DPW will begin drainage work uh in that area, but
that should not impact the bridge. Um uh but the paving will commence after the drainage. People are interested like what's going on over there as far as the quality of the road. I know, you know, all of us had a hand in moving that along with Mass DOT. I think the
workmanship is fantastic. Beautiful. Really, really looks nice. I encourage people just to go check it out. Um it really fits in with the character of the town and and that area there. So, um glad to see that that is is done and thank you to all the residents for their
patience during that process. Um and so, uh you know, I'm glad it's done and it was done well. So, thank you. Finally used it for the first time. Yeah, Mr. Jim, if I may, just a reminder to the public. I know you haven't driven down Hamlin Street in 2 and 1/2 years. Slow
down, please. Right. Um, people that live on Hamlin Street are used to seeing cars flying by their house. Um, just pay attention, please, and remember that people do live and walk down Hamlin Street. It's still got some curves, so please pay attention and drive safely.
Got it. Are you ready, Mr. Mr. Chairman? It does talk about paving. We we need DPW director to get us an estimate. We can do some calculations to prepare us for the forward looking year for paving because there's many other paving projects that need to be done. So, if we can have Mr. Kelly put in a request that
we like an estimate on paving cost um for Helen Street. Get get a jump start on that. Yeah, great idea. And why don't we do this for the next meeting? Um ask Mr. Manard to come in and talk about come up with a game plan on paving and what he sees and so on and so forth. So
yeah, it'll we'll definitely be going out the bid on that. Right. So um he can handle some smaller projects, but the larger projects cannot do. So I I I anticipate it's going to be a significant chunk of what we have left in chapter 90 funds. So I would have to if I was a betting man, I'd say that
road's anywhere between 5 and $600,000 to pay that road. So we need to come up with a number, do some planning for the the future drainage to doing that. He's already got all the drain pipe and stuff. He's running drain for what I anticipate. He's already run some drain before the bridge work was done from the
river over to the corner and then he's going to go up to the middle road area because a lot of people have sump pumps and they're pumping into the road in the winter time and it's creating a lot of havoc with ice um and safety issues. So, I think he's going to go up to the middle road area and tying in as much as
he can there and be pretty much done with it. I think that's actually there's a drain over there that started collapsing and dropping down. He put in the next one and it dropped because of all the water being pumped in there. It It settled way too fast. So, yeah,
there's a big barrel over it right now. Yeah. All right. Good stuff. Uh, this is a more of a housekeeping item. I know Mr. Mr. Hinckley and Mr. Gasper wanted a review of the uh where we are with fees.
It still looks like to be some work to be done on that. So, what I'd like to do is just put a um a date certain as to when we'd like a final report. Um say like the second meeting in June or we can come up with like June 15th is what the difference I don't look at my
calendar. Uh let's see. Second meeting in June would be June 24. Okay. So then, but we should have it done by then. So the fee schedule will be implemented for the new fiscal year July 1st, right? And start out of the gate with a clean slate. Right. So let me look at the
calendar here. Hold on. It's June 10th. Yeah. Hold on. Let's just look at the calendar in case you have to hold any public hearings. Yeah. June 10th. Um going on this for like, you know, 3 months now. So, let's get something to the board by close of business May I
mean June 6th and then we go on the June 10th uh agenda. So, this will have an opportunity to review it. Is there a motion to uh direct department heads to get us a final final
of uh permit fees by June 6th? Yeah. So moved and in a a format approved by the board. Okay. Which would be one spreadsheet. I don't know what that format is. I'll leave it up to you to decide. Um there's a motion on the
floor. There's a second. All those in favor? I I thank you. Why don't we create a template for them to fill out? Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. That's Let's do it. We We'll create it. They fill it out. Correct. All right. Next item. The one we've all been waiting for. Mos, I think
we have finally come to a uh a game plan on the West Island beach permit. Um I think we got a plan. So, Sydney, why don't you come up with a final final proposal of in the timeline and how we can hopefully serve our residents. All
right. So, as some may know, my name is Sydney Vaveros. I'm the executive administrative assistant for the Sleman's office and the town administrator. Um, so as a recap, we have 150 passes. 50 will be first come, first served with priority to the 16 residents who did not have the chance to
take advantage of the discounted rate last year because they purchased before the agreement was executed. And um, 100 passes will be put up for lottery. So I spoke with the treasure collector's office. They told me that the best date that would work for both our office and
theirs would be May 6th for the first come first serve. I'd like to propose to have that come through this actual meeting room. So, everyone will be able to park, enter this way. We'll be able to either to have a desk down here to take in their information or have them
go up through the selectman's office and then they can exit through the front door just so it doesn't disturb day-to-day uh business for the other offices. I would encourage you to keep it all here and don't have a line and people can come and then go that way you know and if it's a nice day do it outside you know fine with me good so
I'll have Karen to help me too just to make sure that everyone who is looking to get a pass they have paid all their debts to the town of Aushna that's important they'll have to be a resident of Aushna so they'll have to provide proof of residency if asked and also that they have a valid vehicle
registration so those are the only three things that I think should the valid vehicle registration for the vehicle the sticker will be put on. Correct. Yes. Thank you. Um and then from there we'll have the lottery system. So we'll have a Microsoft form
that they can fill out. We'll post that link on the town's website and the Facebook page. And I also created a QR code that people can scan with their phones to access that form as well. So, we'll have that posted online and at the town hall and party ways building. And that lottery registration time will run
from uh May 6th through the 13th. Yes. Correct. And the day the and the day that we're going to do the um first come, first serve is May 6. Correct. Yes. Correct. Good. Okay. And I'd like to encourage residents to make sure that their debts are paid if they do have any
the day before each of those submissions end. So, for example, if they want to do the first come, first serve, they should pay all their debts by the fifth so that everything's all set and they don't lose their place in line because they have to go pay their debts to the collector's office. Okay. Same with the lottery. So, you know, we could do too like not to
over complicate it, but we can have numbers, right? People are in line. Here's your number, right? I guess or something like that. So, we just want to make some make sure we have some order. Okay. It's a good idea. All right. I think it's just important. I mean, you got this spreadsheet. If you
just put that online because people need to know that if they do owe the town money, don't come here. Find out that you owe the town money. I think they need to do that earlier so they're not holding you up and you're not spending a whole day handing out a few passes. People need to be proactive. Make sure
all the bills are caught up. Make sure they don't owe town money. They come through the door and they can get Here's the deal, too. Like, if you come in and you owe money, you lose your spot in line. So that's that's why I'm trying to be proactive, right? It's giving people the
heads up if you if you're going to come in for a beach pass, make sure before that deadline comes that your your all your pass due amounts have been paid up and you have something to to verify that, right? You go to the collector's office, say everything's been paid up, have a nice day. I think maybe that
should be the way it's done, right? People should come in if they're anticipating getting a beach pass, get a slip from the collector's office saying no pass due amounts, right? They're cleared so that you can just go, "Yep, here you go. Have a nice day." So, one thing I'm thinking about,
Sydney, is a parking situation. I chatted with Chief Peru and I have warned him about this. Yeah. And I said that the date is still tentative. I spoke to him a couple of days ago, so
he's aware if there's any congestion going on, but if you have any suggestions on how we could mitigate that issue. So again, I'm thinking out loud again with this. We're just brainstorming to try to solve problems. Could we set up a satellite setup at
Pool Park? We could with a table. I would ask that we do have a police officer with us because we are going to be taking in larger sums of cash that day. Um but that that'd be fine with me. Have it start in the morning. Probably done in like an hour, right? I would
say. So yeah, I think it's a good idea to Let me get with you, Sydney. Let me get with you, Sydney, and we'll figure that out and we'll make an announcement. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. One more meeting, but we we'll get it right. We're we're building the plane in the air. So, sounds great.
So, would you like to not have the May 6th date and we can push it back for the first come, first serve? Let's just um So, for the for the first group, was it 50 of them? Yeah. technically minus 16. So, right people,
you could probably handle the first 50 here, but the other hundred that's crazy out here. I mean, you'll have people camping out signing up for the lottery. Oh, yeah. So, the first 50 is the only one we're worried about. The only thing I could think of is next week is supposed
to be very rainy. So, if we do have it outdoors, it'll be a little tougher. Right. Right. Unless we I know this sounds terrible, but we could do it possibly speak with Chad and use the concession stand, but then everyone will get wet waiting outside. Yeah. Yeah. Let's um
I'll work with you offline to work through these things and you can do whatever you need to do with dates. Okay. All right. Sounds good. Thank you. Is there a motion to adopt this plan? Council council on agent be that too. Is there a motion to adopt this plan? So moved. Second. All those
in favor? Hi. Thank you. I'll work with you, Sydney, after this. Thanks for putting this together. This is amazing. You did a really great job today, too. Thank you. The guy in the closet was yelling. Very good idea. All right. All right. Let's
see. Next item. So, I'm a little rusty, guys. So, if I'm going through this stuff uh quickly, it's Friday. We got We got nothing but time. That's it. All right. So, we've got ADA improvement grant which is submitted to us by the planning department in Victoria. Uh, she
was here earlier, but essentially there is no town match for this, so we're not on the hook on this. Jamie, do we know offhand how much the um the opportunity is?
I believe it's 25K, but have to check. All right. And that's just it's just a grant application to come in and we'll take a we review what we have in our facilities. What needs ADA upgrade to similar to what we did on Slo Street
when we were looking at the ADA compliance down in that project called the self evaluation transition plan. Is there a motion to direct the town planner to pursue this opportunity? So move second. All those in favor? I and I
do appreciate her giving us the heads up ahead of time. I know in the past, you know, like sometimes we go off and then we find out that we're on the hook for something uh that we didn't approve. So, good. I think that was good. Yeah. Now, can this notice of grants early to make sure we're on board with doing it? I
know Mr. Inkley, the former chairman, um did put out an email making sure that there was no strings attached to the grant. So, thank you, Mr. Inkley, for doing that. You're welcome. Because it was a question I would ask. Yep. And I seen your email. All right. Uh, next
item is communication sent to us by Chief Farland that the town of Aush. It's my honor and pleasure to convey to you and the residents of the town of Aushnet that the Accrushnet Fire and EMS department has been awarded $9,500 in a grant form from the
Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security in the Department of Fire Services through the fire safety equipment grant program. And this is a grant's final year of a 5-year plan in our fifth consecutive awarded grant
where we we received uh 15,000 in FY21, 16,000 in change in FY22, 19,000 FY23, 19,000 in FY24, and 19,25. So with an additional 9,500 uh
supplemental grant. So this is good stuff. Thank you uh Chief. This will be used for upgrading inventory, nozzles, thermal imaging cameras, so on and so forth. So, um, really good stuff here and we appreciate, uh, the chief's
diligence and hard work on this. Uh, also, there's been a $3,500 MIMA award as well. So, there's a motion to accept and place on file. So, move second. All those in favor. All right.
And then next is to and it's from the chief. I'm sharing with good news. Earlier this year, the department was notified uh that Chief Farland was awarded the Massachusetts Professional Emergency Manager Associate
level from the Massachusetts MIMA. Uh this award requires several intensive classes, planning development. This is a huge accomplishment that shows the dedication to training, learning, and improving in the role of fire chief. So, Chief Harland, congratulations. Thank
you to you. Um, I know when you took the job, uh, you know, you've done a great job. You know, jumping in there and, you know, to to follow somebody who' been chief for so many years was with big shoes to fill, but you've hit the ground running and done a have done a fantastic
job and exceeded all expectations. So, hats off to you for doing that, Chief, and getting this recognition. It's not only good for you professionally, but great for the town as well. All right, I think that is it uh
from a member of business standpoint. Uh we do have some budget items before we go into an executive session. Uh turn it over to Mr. Kelly for item number one under the budget. Uh Mr. Chairman, just a quick uh
thumbnail sketch. Our revenue uh estimate is [Music] $519,000 increase. Uh we've got almost no new growth. our uh as our building
permit revenue shows which is down uh 30% from past years. Uh as you know the tax levy is about 2/3 of the revenue and it's
88% plus based on residential. State aid is 25% and local revenue is approximately 11%. Uh state aid has been lagging. The state has not been helping the
communities. It's uh somewhere the increase between year to year a half a percent to a percent and a half. Our uh levy goes 2.5%.
sometimes three with new growth and our uh local revenue is about a 5% increase. Uh the staff has presented you with their estimates and a draft
budget. It's a draft budget where general government there's a cut from the previous year of approximately $2,000. public safety.
We unlike last year fully funded or the estimate for overtime and the increase is only 43,000 and change. I'll skip over education for the
moment. Public works and water. The increase is only 58,000 and a half and that includes the increase with the uh for new benefit of the
$115,000 for water costs. Human services $65,000 decrease. uh culture and recreation 6,000 increase that makes sure the library is still certified and joint benefit cost. You
heard about the insurance today uh went up about $150,000 excluding the schools. It's approximately $17 million for the town side of budget including the joint benefit accounts.
That's an increase of 181 $182,000. The increase for old colony is $347,000. right now the increase for and that increase includes them keeping in the
operating budget the $132,000 they told us last year was a one-time cost. So they really should be down somewhere around $200,000.
And right now the school is cutting their original budget request cuz their original budget request was $17,146 which was a $753,000 increase.
The two school budgets were $1,100,000 increase and with a $500,000 increase in revenue. How's that math working out? The math is
working out terrible. But the real thing that I'm I'm very insensed about is Old Colony not decreasing the 132,000 they said was
cost uh onetime cost last year and I am encouraged that when the school asked for figures for uh reductions, we told them to come in at
level funding and work their way up from that. So, we're hopeful that they'll come in and be reasonable. This is a budget year. When you look at the budget by
budget by department on the town side, almost every budget that we could cut, we cut. We've cut positions. We've looked at cutting
expenses, but we are at the bow. There is nothing more you can cut at this year and even come close to do providing
mandated services and I would ask the board to go over the budgets that the staff has given them. Admittedly, these are draft budgets and until the school is done
with their cutting, we're not ready for town meeting. Originally, town meeting was scheduled the beginning of June. I will ask the board at this time to schedule town meeting at June 16th.
Mr. Jim, yeah, I had a conversation late last week with Mr. Kelly and you know last year we had to uh move town meeting um back two weeks um based on what lack of information we we've seen as a board for
the the warrant your articles in the budget. I had much concern with Mr. Kelly last week telling him I think you need to talk with the chairman and see if you'd be willing to postpone town meeting by at least two weeks to give us some time to you know look through these budgets and and do another look around
and see what we can and can't do with the budgets. wait for numbers to be finalized. So I think it's crucial that we postpone town meeting by two weeks again. I I have no problem with that and I would even go so further if that if we don't have a budget deal in place that's
acceptable then we postpone town meeting and we go we revert back to the previous year's budget. If you do that, you can do uh do that. But we on the 16th, right? But uh that
would be a mess as far as 112th. It's in effect 112 budgeting. It's a nuclear option. But again, we don't have the numbers from the state yet even. We only have the governor's numbers. You know, I think you brought up a key point, Mr.
Kelly. You know, I as much as I like the the old Colony School, I mean, I I pointed out that they took out the debt, but they put it into their operating budget, right? It was exceeded $500,000, not just the 132. That was our share. But, um, and and they come in overall with a budget that was up roughly $1.2
million in today's times. We're doing cuts. We're we're doing, you know, staff cuts and personnel and supplies and everything else. And everybody's got to share in on that hurt, right? sometimes you you pain but again coming in $1.2 $2
million above the previous year's budget to me is is quite high. Um and you see the impact because we are roughly one-third of that school, right? We're like I think we're 34% of the school. So, right, I mean whatever you know that million bucks translates right to 333,
right? So, it's a little bit disappointing that they can't sharpen the pencils and try to bring that number down and you know they don't think of you know $40 $50,000 giving back to the town of Aush. It's a lot. It's a lot where we're sitting at, right? I mean, I I understand they need to have
increases, but so don't we and I don't think there's much left on our side of government that we have the capacity to do too much more. We're decreasing. We're not increasing. I know. I understand. I I understand that. But we do have certain fixed costs that are going to go up too. And that's a
percentage of whatever the number is that we have for revenue, right? I've been talking about that forever. I mean, you have Prop 2 and a half, you have new growth. Those are two your two biggest sources of revenue that the DOI says you could use to balance your budget. I mean, I've been telling folks for years,
we have roughly 750 to $800,000 a year to balance a budget. I don't know how people come in and say, I want 400 and I want 700. There's only 800 and you just asked for 1.1 and we haven't even dealt with this side of of government, right?
So, I mean, I I'd like to have a million dollars every year to be able to just spend, but the reality of it is you just don't have that anymore, right? Um, and we seen what just happened at town, um, the election box, right, in this town by an overwhelming no. 70% of the people
that voted said no to an override. I know it's not an override, it's a dead exclusion. The only difference between a debt exclusion for everybody at home listening versus an override and overrides in perpetuity and a debt exclusion for a set period of
time. So, you know, people are people are frustrated. Um, and and and I think all of us share the concerns. I think the new chairman just outlined that, right? We're doing everything we can to make cuts and he talked about a nuclear option. It's not something that we want to do, but we're out of time. We you
come in level funded. Last year you said we were rolling quarters. This year we're rolling pennies. Yep. It's a difficult task, but so I need a vote because we have to go and
republicize and everything for the uh motion motion have town meeting June 16th 700 p.m. the Ford middle school. There's a motion on the floor. There's a second. Second. All those in favor? All right. Just a we're working in tandem with the finance committee, right? I
mean, this is in all the parties involved. All right. Uh let's see. So, we are not we have two executive sessions that we're not going to return to. Do we have any selectman's announcements? Uh yes, Mr. Chairman. Um
so, there's been a lot of talk about random speed limits in town and um Mr. Gasper actually reminded all of us that there was an accepted chapter 90 uh situation in 2017 that gave the board of selectman the power to change speed
limits in town if depending on criteria. Um and I found out that it was never the accepted vote from 2017 was never submitted to do. So I reached out to Pam yesterday. Pam put it all together and
she has forwarded all that information to DOT. So DOT will actually have it on file sometime next week. Um so if there is any speed limit concerns on any streets um we can revisit that at a future meeting. Um so does that give us the flexibility to set our own speed
limits or is it like guideline? We we can set any any speed limit in town based on mass chapter chapter 90 section 17B or C. Uh I don't have the there's a couple of different subsection. There's a couple different subsections, but we
we did adopt it. Yeah. But um essentially it gives us the ability to if we deem like typical residential area where it's could be considered busy, you can deem it 25. Okay. Or you can actually dedicate it or designate it as a safety zone and drop the speed limit
to 20. Interesting. Um but it just gives us a little bit more flexibility. Um but in order to do that, the DOT needed it on file. So, um, thanks to Pam for, uh, answering my questions and getting it over to DOT. As of this morning, I believe it was sent out. So, well done.
Don't ask me why I look at 2017 report, but it is what it is. Yeah, Mr. Chairman, thank you. Um, I do have an announcement because I don't know if it's been made public. I don't believe it has been, but with my work um that I've been conducting with PJ Keing, they were kind enough to let me know that
South Main Street work will be there will be some South Main Street work done from the quarry down to the Haven line. They're going to dig some some patches in the road to test for soil uh for the composition of the soil to see what's underneath of the road for future
development of the road. So, they did tell me I think it's next week they'll be doing that. um if not the week latest, but they will be it will be all during business the business day business hours. It won't be night work. So, they'll go in and dig several different spots. I think there's three different locations. So, for everybody
that's out in that area, um it will be PJ Keating doing the work for the state, but it's mass DOT work. Um and they are authorized to do the work. All right. Very good. Thank you. All right. I do not have anything uh from an announcement standpoint. We've got enough talking today. Uh let's see. We
have two executive sessions. One is uh executive session under Mass General Law Chapter 30A21A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining United Steel Workers Teamsters Police Contract. Ask
me fire DPW 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 not return to public session at the conclusion of the executive session. Is there a motion to go into executive
session number one? So moved. Second. I will call vote. Mr. Gasper. Yes. Mr. Hinckley. Yes. I'm a yes. Executive session number two. Executive session on Mass General Law, Chapter 38, section 21, subsection A2, to conduct strategy
sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-UN personnel, town administrator search, or to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations with non-UN personnel. The board will not return to public session at the conclusion of the executive session. Is there a motion to
go in executive session? So move second. Mr. G call vote. Mr. Gasper, yes. Mr. Hinckley, yes. I am a yes. We are now in executive session and we will not return.
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