road. Excuse me. 1394.5 at 53 Perry Hill Road. 1395.5 at 53 Perry Hill Road. Eversource request Verizon install five new midspans along Perryh Hill 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 Mendo road. The installation of these poles is at Eversourc'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 MA 2024-26. I I don't see it on here as 44, but there is a flag location.
I don't think it show the So that would be MA [Music] 2024264 road right here 2042-26 right across the street that 55 yeah there's there's a flag location on
that side of the road or 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. It's kind of screwed 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 typically 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. 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 is 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 a 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 poles, 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 polls 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 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 and 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 driver 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 ft apart, every other pole is 200 ft 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 mispan 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 at 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 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 minceman poles get put in. If that's that could be incorrect. Um I 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 Meno 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 guys 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. That's just like, hey, set the pole where it is. You ask permission for other new pole settings anyway. So why wouldn't 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 thing. I I don't you know I wish I could design them. I I don't. 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? Y 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 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 rationale 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. Yeah, 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. Got when's our next meeting?
I know what you ask. 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 13th, the beginning of the meeting. Sure. At 4 p.m. Is there a motion? So, 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. Take 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, auto. 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 10455. 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 showing? 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 if you can zoom in. Oh yeah, I know. I know where you are. They zip tied together. Exactly. So go back. I know you know who you are now. So this three or four lines
you see in relationship building, you know. 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. They'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 polls 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 notice 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 pole 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, 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 three 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 at least. Right. So I 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 all those in favor that's the case then
take my number down. I'm retired now. I can meet some 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 Ger said, if I can't get a you can't get a hold of me, get a hold of him, call Dave. Like we we can figure this out and
we 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. Should you bring the guy from engineering? He's coming. Y Okay. Very good. I already text him. Good, man. Very good. All right.
All right. Next order of business, reorganization of the board of selectment. Gentlemen, it was a pleasure serving as chair the last year, was it? It was um 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 would 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 anniversary is, 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 me uh, why don't you go to the to the court? Good afternoon, gentlemen. As you know, James Glas with 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. And you know um we're working on adopting
content manager um which is part of MUNICE 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, and 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 PAF documentation will be in the Harper's payroll. I've been working with um Jen Treasure Collector 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 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 we're 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 aation so this one is with the our auditors that we hire out we'll give them they're working on FY24 so you know they send us
a list of documentation that they're you going to want to review, make sure our reportings are accurate, you know, and 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 or analysis.
I mean, I don't know how the board feels about it, but look, we're going to be Mr. Kelly 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, 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 here 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 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 our 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 at town 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 departments 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. That's good. Great. 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 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. I'm grabb 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 was 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.
But 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 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 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've 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. Correct. All right. So, why don't we do that one? Uh under executive session one, executive session under Mass General Law chapter 3A 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 when 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.