Today is December 11th, 2025. It is 6:00 p.m. We are at the police station conference room, 64 Middle Road. It's a meeting of the master plan committee. Is there a motion to call the meeting to order? >> So move. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Second by Mr. Deinion. We are now a roll
call vote. Yes. >> Yes. Steve is a yes. Steve Bush is a yes. I'm a yes. Mr. Gasper is a yes. Peter Guy, are you on? Can you hear us? >> Yes.
>> You're a Yes. >> Yes sir. >> We're having a hard time hear you, Pete. >> Yeah. >> But okay, so the meeting is now open. Um forum attendance. We just kind of did that. Mr. Bush is present. Mr. Peter
Gambi is on Zoom. Kevin Gasper is here. Dave Deinion is here. Peter Benoy is not here. Ryan Rosendi is here. Jesse St. Jaz is not here. Paul Sullivan is here. Melissa Cadera is not present either.
So, and we don't have Kelsey Janick or Jacobino on Zoom either. So, All right. The first order of business is to approve on the meeting minutes of November 13, 2025. Is there a motion?
>> Motion to approve as presented. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Second by Mr. Bush. A roll call vote. Mr. Rosendis? >> Yes. >> Mr. Sullivan? >> Yes. >> Mr. Bush? >> Yeah. >> Mr. Deion? I'll abstain. >> I will have to abstain as well because I
was absent. Peter Gamba. >> No, he was >> he was absent. >> He was absent, too. >> He was absent from >> say he was, >> huh? >> Oh, I'm on the wrong one. Is that October? >> Yeah, I'm on October. I don't have a I don't have a problem. Um I read the
minutes. I watched the video. I don't have a problem um being a yes as well. So, that'll pass through. I did watch the meeting. Um Mr. vice chair. Very good job. Thanks. Okay. And there's a second set of minutes for
October 9th that needs to be approved. Is there a motion to approve the October 9th, 2025 minutes? >> Motion to approve as presented. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Second by Mr. Bush. Roll call vote. I am. Yes. Mr. Rosendis. >> Yes. >> Mr. Sullivan. >> Yes.
>> Mr. Deinian. I'm stayaining. >> Mr. Bush. >> Yes. >> Peter Dyama. He was absent. >> Okay. All set to So the first order of business we have is public engagement
update OSRP survey responses. I'll turn it over to Sarah. >> Yes. >> Or Joe, whoever wants to take that. >> Yeah. Sorry. I'm I'm not able to connect to the team's meeting. So, I can read them to
you and maybe you can screen share. >> But yeah, we're just going to go over like the summary that we have for uh the writing. We have a big section within the OSRP about all the survey responses, but we have a couple summary paragraphs um just written up.
>> All right. Summary of resource protection needs residents. By the way, we received 74 responses from Aquishet residents. There were a total of
30 questions and most of them were about the OSRP and then the latter half were for the water resource strategy. Residents consistently expressed a desire for stronger protection of Aushnet's natural resources and rural
character. Many respondents emphasized the importance of preserving open space, reducing overdevelopment, and preventing the conversion of natural lands into large-scale solar installations. Several comments highlighted concerns
about the loss of traditional recreational landscapes, especially the former Girl Scout camp, and called for the retention of conservation lands, forested areas, and river corridors. Some residents also pointed to environmental health concerns such as
Lyme disease associated with certain conservation areas and requested clearer stewardship strategies to maintain safe and ecologically resilient open spaces. Others stressed the need for better communication and visibility regarding
existing trails and conservation lands along with improved connections to riverfront areas. and potential shared access opportunities such as beach arrangement similar to those found in neighboring communities.
Overall, the public sentiment strongly supported safeguarding remaining open spaces while improving responsible access to them. Here is the summary of community needs. A major theme in community feedback was
the need for more accessible, inclusive recreational facilities for children, seniors, and individuals with disabilities. Multiple residents called for accessible playgrounds, especially at Pope Park, as well as expanded public transportation
options to ensure that older adults and people with mobility limitations can reach the recreational amenities. Beyond accessibility, residents identified several recreational gaps, including a desire for pickle ball
courts, additional children's programs, safer walking and biking opportunities, and more sidewalks or bike lanes along key corridors such as Main Street and Lake Street. Many respondents also expressed interest in new or expanded indoor recreation
facilities such as an indoor sports center, community gym, youth and teen center, and indoor playground options for the winter months. Others suggested community oriented programming such as farming experiences,
maple syrup or apple cider demonstrations, and more outdoor cultural events. Collectively, comments reflect a desire for a broader range of accessible, multigenerational,
and seasonally adaptable recreation, parks, and open space equity. Respondents highlighted significant significant gaps in public awareness, communication, and equitable access to a Kushnet's parks and open spaces. Several
residents noted that the town website lacks basic info on local trails, conservation lands, parking options, and available recreational amenities. >> Sorry, I thought you were bored already. >> Making it difficult for residents to
discover and utilize these resources, a number of people expressed surprise at the existence of lost my place. A number of people expressed surprise at the existence of certain sites and
emphasized the need for clearer signage, trail maps, better promotion of facilities, and more consistent outreach to the public. Others expressed concerns about uneven access to well-maintained recreational areas, stating that some locations
appear neglected, under advertised, or difficult to find. The comments underscore the importance of improving communication tools, digital resources, public signage, and mapping to create more equitable access
to parks, trails, and open spaces. And this is the last paragraph. Management needs potential change of use. Many residents identified the need for more consistent maintenance, clear signage, and facility upgrades across
numerous parks, open spaces, and public gathering areas. Common concerns included deteriorating sidewalks, overgrown vegetation, aging facilities such as the Hamlin Street building, and undermaintained
areas like River View Park. Respondents called for improved general upkeep, expanded walking areas, cleaner and wider trails, and more inviting public spaces to support longer visits. Significant attention was given to
upgrades at the town golf course, including requests for a new clubhouse or multi-purpose space for yearround use and to generate community revenue. Some comments addressed broader land management issues such as the demolition
of the Girl Scout camp for residential development, the need to preserve historically important properties, and clarity around stewardship responsibilities for cemeteries and other public lands.
Overall, the residents emphasized a desire for enhanced maintenance, thoughtful reinvestment in existing facilities, and careful decision-m around future property uses. I wanted to show more. Ah, okay. It's finally let me into the meeting. So, now
I can screen share. And now I'll show you what the raw survey results look like. The first two questions are demographic. Most people were answering on behalf of their family, but that was about 60%.
And about 57% did not have kids living with them. This question was, which if any of the following activities have you or your family members participated in during the past year?
And I'll show you the legend. It's quite long. So yellow is I can't read the whole thing. Well, you can see it here as well. And I have summarized this in our document.
It's clear there. Here's the same question. And in this table that I constructed, it's ordered from highest to lowest. So you can see the most popular activities up top.
Walking, running the neighborhood. Outside of Kushnet, swimming was very popular. In and out of a Kushnet, it was walking, hiking, and trail running. People were saying that they wish they had fitness trails and sailing and
boating options, picnic areas in a Kushnet. And these three were not of interest. These were the most unpopular activities that folks are not interested in. Youth summer camp,
hunting, trapping, and soccer. And this goes on and on, but the most significant results are the ones up top. >> And this is part of the OSRP document, right? >> Yes, it is currently, but um my boss
advised me today that it's best if we move it out into a separate appendix document just to avoid this from getting too cluttered and heavy. >> Okay. >> But you'll you'll receive that too separately. Okay. >> Great. Would you like me to go through
all of these results or do you feel like you have the gist? >> Can you go back to that screen where you said people weren't interested in certain things of the last call over? Because I find that interesting. That's I think it was 67% said they're not interested in soccer. I don't know what
60 what is that 67% of the 77 participants because >> you drive by our schools on a weekend, the place is mobbed. So I would I look at wherever that what is the soccer that I'm are not
interested I guess maybe they didn't participate but surely they're interested in soccer um because >> I would go to the uh the question where it talks about age and then go back to that question because it might have been a much older crowd like
>> out of 74 participants that's all that this is shared is what 74 people yeah >> has suggested So it's a small sample. >> All right, I get it. So it's only, you know, 70% of 74, >> right? >> Does it state that at the top of
>> Well, it stated that clearly that this is a sample of 74 people out of 10,800 or >> the top was also youth summer camp. So it might be just a much older crowd was uh taking it, you know. So, >> and there's this another option that was
a little more popular, youth sports leagues. So, maybe where people were thinking like, yeah, I want that for my kids, but for myself, I don't want to play soccer. >> Yeah, it's kind of convoluted the way I guess I don't know exactly how the I see it. Which, if any, of the following
activities have you or your family members participated during the past year? Again, it should it should show the demographics of whoever was pulled in that 74 >> group of 74, you know, age-wise. You know, I don't know if you have it broken down with 10 of them were, you know, 15
to 25, 25 to 35, you were five people and then, you know, the rest of them were all 50 plus because people look at that and they're kind of looking at it going like I just did. That's really not a representation of our town. I can tell you looking right at it. you sports. I mean, when you add up the little league
and the basketball league, >> the place is smoking. >> I mean, that that number's upside down. It really is. >> Yeah. We're we're I mean, I'll I can tell you this as far as sports go, and I think Mr. Dominion um can can test to it as well, but when my kid was, you know,
I'm talking 20 23 years ago, when he was playing at a Pope Park, the place was a disaster, right? We did the best we could with the resources we had at that point, but then the town made a heavy commitment um in rehabbing pole park and and bringing it like it is today. What I
call it pretty much state of the art facility compared to what we had 20 23 years ago. We used to go to state championships and other places and you were actually embarrassed to come home and play and bring those teams from outside of town here because we just didn't have what they had. And that's
kind of what spurred that generation. I was included in that to make some investments um at Pole Park along with many other great people in his community and really brought that to fruition. So and I know that um my colleagues like Mona was instrumental with working with
a Kushet Fame and soccer league to bring it over um to the schools, soccer fields over at the schools. And like I said, Mr. Deion, he lives not too far away. I mean, I don't live far away from the schools, but Mr. Dominion's a lot closer than I am. And he drives by on the
weekend just like I do and the place is just rocking. I mean, we built additional parking lots and it's still overflow out to the street. >> Both sides of the street this summer. I was like, "Wow." >> I know. We built an additional parking lot for us. So, it's really like athletics have really taken off
>> um in cushion it. Would you like to see all of the raw results um in Survey Monkey or >> No, we know it's we know it's a small sample of 74 and that's that's what this is. >> Always send me the data and I can always send it out. >> I think for clarity if it's going to be
posted in the master plan and you see it down in the bottom corner 74 response responses. I think maybe it should be a little bit bigger and more highlighted of what each survey and how many respondents you got for each one. So people aren't looking at and go, "Well, look, it's so important. It's so
important." But then when you look down at it and you see, well, there was only 30 people responded to that survey. There's 74 respond to this one. It's a small sample. They matter. I mean, everybody matters. Everybody's opinion matters. I get it. Um, but you don't want to put too much emphasis on
something when you have a small amount of people speaking on it, right? Like Mrs. Davini said a a population's 107 108, >> right? >> So that's a a tiny sample. >> That's why it'll be in the appendencies, too. It's just like a reference, you know, won't even be the main part of the
plan, the summaries and stuff of like what the survey was as far as like all the data, all this stuff. It'll be an attachment at the very end. >> Okay, cool. >> So, >> very good. >> What's next? of water resource management strategy
all the draft. >> So, we're going to do the same thing we did last week, guys. Um, just going over the uh water resource management goals and strategies. I'm not going to read through it this time. Um, but uh none of these goals and strategies are really
new. Um, these are just like the narrative writings for each one. Um, they're broken into four different sections. And this is how most uh water resource management plans are. Quality, quantity, ecological health, and then
recreation. Um so I think you guys have all seen like the main goals um before. And then these are just kind of expounding upon the narratives to each one and what each section is kind of going to be like when we talk about these things. So, if you guys have
comments on the way we're talking about it or want something changed, definitely uh let us know. I'll let you guys read through this if you haven't yet. Um, but as far as quality recommendations, 1.1, Improve wastewater infrastructure by increasing metering accuracy, reducing
losses from inflow and infiltration. 1.2 explore a potential intermunicipal agreement with the town of Fair Haven to expand sewer service. 1.3 continue to pursue sewer expansion consistent with the town CWMP to address
nitrogen pollution and enhance the town's ability to attract and retain commercial businesses. Just Joe, I would divert that statement to Mr. Deinion. He's really the uh go-to guy from Board of Health and he understands a lot about
nitrogen. I don't know Dave if you have any thoughts on I know it says about expanding sewer. So to limit the amount of nitrogen pollution, but I don't know how you feel about that kind of verbiage and concerns. Any concerns over that verbiage?
>> To be honest with you, I I have to read it um through. I didn't before I tended tonight, >> but I will. And um >> Okay. Yeah, pretty much all the writing on this is referenced from the 2019 C
CWMV. um you know obviously sewer has a bunch of different um benefits to it but nitrogen pollution and then also um to retain commercial businesses. So there's economic development and environmental uh benefits here and there's just
general conditions that we're talking about in there and then but mostly it's going to be from the CWMP and just talking a lot about that. Um so yeah, if you >> that's fine. I I would just ask you Mr. Dominion if you could review and pass on any comments you may have to Victoria on
especially the nitrogen discussion right you know what we went through a little while back with the buzzard beta coalition right in the state with this nitrogen crap so and I get it it's sewer we could you know trying to expand sewer and things of the like it's great um you know there's always cost associated with
it for residents and you know that's the biggest hurdle is trying to get things approved by taxpayers right >> but um I agree I think you know we need sewer if we can do it at a at a affordable rate. Um I think a lot of people will be interested in sewer expansion, right? Just
>> cost drives demand, right? >> Yeah. And that's one of the other goals we are going to get into this education campaign of what is the benefit of sewer? Um why it's good for the town and also good for individuals. Um I think that's it. >> Okay,
>> it's actually the next one. um develop a public education campaign to establish cost of sewer tie-in versus septic repair and upgrade for the 2027 meeting town meeting. Um that's 1.4 uh
1.5 reduce storm water pollution through naturebased solutions/green infrastructure. Um then we're moving on to the quantity section after that. Um 2.1 address flooding concerns through a variety of
traditional and NBS interventions matched to specific priority sites where these interventions are feasible and have high potential for impact. 2.2 update the drinking water intermunicipal agreement with New Bedford to support continuing services.
>> You slow down a bit. There's some kind of lag. >> Oh yeah. >> Yeah. Let's just take >> they have it all in front of them. Yeah. For for the people listening to slow down a little bit. >> Uh and then the third section is ecological health recommendations. Um
3.1 take ownership of New Bedford reservoir to manage maintenance and stewardship from ecological health purposes especially invasives removal. 3.2 two, implement best practices and strategies for managing the Kushner River to restore fish habitats.
And then for recreational recommendations, um take ownership of the New Bedford Reservoir to manage maintenance and stewardship for recreational purposes. So 4.1 and 4.3 are kind of similar because obviously um
the reservoir is neglected because of the current ownership right now. So 3.1 is for specific to removing invasives and then 4.1 is for uh maintenance, stewardship and recreational purposes of
the resour. >> So there's nothing in there about um the city of New Bethford dumping uh sewage overflow into the river. Every time we get heavy rainstorms, there's a notification sent
to the board health. It happens like a dozen times a year. >> Um, so basically when their systems overloaded, it dumps into the river. >> Mhm. >> And the cost of >> Yeah. the CS Yeah. the combined sewer overflow. So we do actually have some
writing on this. We have a map of where the combined sewer overflows are. >> How many >> They're all on the other side. >> They're I know it's all on the other side, but the tide comes to us. Yeah, >> by the uh just just the sawmill. >> Yeah, >> I believe there's one over there.
There's a sign when you walk down the path. Don't go over here. >> Yeah. And like as far as that can be like a frustrating thing for us to write about cuz like we can only make recommendations like you guys. So it's like New Bedford like we can't we can
write about like >> I know. I just think it should be it should be out there in print. you know, >> we have we have writing on it for sure. For sure >> because I I somehow I don't know if we implement it at the planet. >> Mhm. >> So it's it's just there because
>> down the road, you know, D tries to >> jam us up for, you know, nitrogen in the river. >> Yeah. >> And we're not the source. >> They're they're 90% of the source. >> And they're going to try and >> D9 systems in our way, saying that's one thing they could attack people with, you
know, and control. And one of the things you could do for that is just do testing above the where the CSOS are in the river and then do it below the road. Like do a little water testing that it's not very expensive at all, but you could pretty much see how
much would be coming from the CSOS depending on where they are in the river. If you did testing above and then below, >> you could see like how much of it is actually coming from those as well. >> So Joe, I uh it was Dominion. I didn't realize that the one of the overflows is
that close um in the aush and saw that's only right down the street from here. But I had the our MS4 engineer, storm water engineer um conico engineers um I had them test for nitrogen on all
our falls while they were here testing. I asked them how much would it cost us for the simple fact that Mr. Devin's um talking about right now because we've they've come and tried to say it's because of septic systems, nitrogen levels in the Kushnet Harbor River are so high.
>> Um and you know, we argue, Mr. Deion did a great job argue and I argue that that meaning as well is I think before you start blaming every Tom, Dick, and Harry that has a small septic system along the riverfront and anywhere really in the community and you start telling us we're spending $40,000 on nitrogen systems for
our small little yards. you have to go after the big fish first, which is the city of New Buffett and the town of Faven because they both discharge into the harbor, right? So, at that point, after we got through that meeting and they kind of backed off a little bit with some help from our state reps and our state senator um sending letters to
them, I specifically asked our MS4 engineer that I wanted to start along with the board of selectment start monitoring all of our outfalls for nitrogen. So, we nitrogen test now yearly. >> Mhm. >> So, we can see what's happening. I can have another conversation with him to make sure that as you just spoke with
Joe going a little further upstream to measure the water quality and nitrogen loads there before they enter into I'll talk to Mr. D a little bit more but that was news to me that one of the overflow um outfalls are right here at the
sawmill. That's that's that's a bit alarming to me. I didn't I wasn't aware of that but now I am. So um I can follow up Miss Dominion off camera. We can have a little discussion about that. U maybe him and I can take a walk out there and take a look at it. I can bring the town's MS4 engineer out there to make
sure he's pinpointing that and the sampling test as well because I ask him every year I would want to do it so we can measure and see where we're at, right? Whether we're going up or down. So when they're out there telling us, "Oh my god, you've gone up 20 points on nitrogen." I can sit there and say the
town of a fishing retest every one of our falls and we're pretty much stagnant. So we know it's not coming from us. Yeah. >> Right. So, and stop picking on our residents because Mr. Deinion brought up the point where you're going to just collapse every resident that is required
to put a nitrogen system in and he does this stuff for a living. So, >> you know, >> heavy rainfalls. We got to test heavy rainfalls. >> That's that's when the culprit comes out. >> So, what we'll do is I'll have them do double sampling, right? And I'm going to have them do it on under normal
conditions. And then I'll have them come back and I'll have them do it under heavy rainfalls as well and do sampling here and see what that difference is, right? >> And we'll just keep that monitoring effect in place. So if we have to do it twice a year, so be it. I know it's not that expensive and we have funding for
our MS4 engineer. If it's an extra five grand to protect our taxpayers of a cushioning, I'm all about it. >> Yeah. Yeah, you can really pinpoint like where that source is coming from cuz if you're like half a mile up and the you know it's this much nitrogen then you go
down a little bit and then it's way more you can be you can point to you know where it's coming to Lake Street then Hamlet Street. >> Yeah. You hit >> all the way down. Yeah. >> Where we have access points right >> see the increase as you roll down where
the river might get bigger but >> Right. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. anybody who would be blaming a question when there's all those csos on the other side that doesn't make sense like everybody we when you look at the map and see how many combined sewer
flows are all on that side that's that's where the majority of that is coming from >> Mr. Chair Mr. Solivan, >> um there's so many things that have to be understood about where everything's
going with sewer and septic and all of that. There's a lot of time going to be developed. Um things things to to develop over time. But I I think one of the biggest things here is section 1.4
for once we do um get some answers or some data developing the public education to establish cost uh for sewer tieins versus septic repair and upgrades for the 27 town meeting. So
that's a couple of years away or actually a year and a half. Are we really going to be have be able to get enough data to know that? And is the input of Buzzard's Bay Coalition
and the Mass D going to be involved with all this, too? Who knows, right? >> Yeah, there's a lot there. Um, >> I I might I I tend to agree with Mr. Sullivan. I think 2027, knowing where we're at in the town of Ausha, I would
>> I think that's a very aggressive date. I would I would probably, you know, give us some time because of >> there's so many other things happening right now and Victoria knows that, you know, >> there's a lot of things that need to be done and and a lot of organizational
um steps need to be taken within the town right now. So, I mean, I think putting a 2028 date on it, I mean, by the time you go to print, we're going to be at this meeting. >> Yeah, we don't even have to put a year in there. Um, we can we can keep it we can do two 2028, but we're going to go
over that, too, as far as the um the action plan, the 10-year action plan. We'll we can go through that as well for 1. >> Yeah, if you just on that 1.4, it's a good catch. Mr. Sman, I would just say septic repair and upgrade for a town meeting. a top meeting
>> something like that right I mean there is a lot of amongst all the other discussions that planning's having border healths um pretty easy conversations with border selectment and border health um to narrow things down and then over to planning have those
conversations and depends on the scope of development and things of the like right but >> but I certainly believe that that education campaign is going to be so important Yes. >> To the town residents. >> Mhm.
>> So when you do and I've done I've seen prior Mr. Bush could talk on and I know he was I believe he was on the board of public works back in the 08 era when we did the last sewer phase. the betterments are just coming up ending up now on that betterment but and I've
advocated for years where if somebody if we're going to do it and it take requires a town meeting right so for sewer phase for a betterment it's got to get approval by town meeting and then the board of select with the ultimate borrowing authority right >> um so I've always said if you're going to do a sewer betterment it will never
be in a blanket town meeting where you have if I'm going to so we did two phases if you look at the CWMP the be nice lane down to basically right over here in front of the the fire station where we're at PD right now. Then it's building over where the sewer stub is
right there. It ends there. Um we'd have to go down about a mile down the road to nice lane. We have roughly 320 residents on the east and west side including middle road. And then if you go to when we moved phase one over here versus phase one was identified as CWMP for
South Main Street. And the only reason why we did that is because we thought there was development a lot more land down here for development that might be possible open space for development owned by private land owners and it's easier digging here and the majority of those residents are on the east side
which is all gravity fed to Middle Road um and versus trying to get through the ledge going down South Main Street. And I know South Main Street is now being discussed from the state with the town to look at design factors and maybe the town taking over South Main Street
somewhere down the road. It's it's a it's a very touchy conversation. Depending on who you talk to, I can talk to 20 people. 10 might tell me it's a great idea. 10 might tell me it's a bad idea. The next time I talk about it with 20 people, all 20 people are saying hell no. The next time I talk to 20 people,
they all might be saying hell yeah. So, it's very that's a whole different subject matter. But to go back to the CWMP, it's very difficult digging on that side of town because of the ledge, hence the quaries there. >> Yeah. >> Um there's a ton of ledge on that side of town. So we thought if you were going
to bring it in and try to drive down cost on the current sewer users, which we have about roughly a thousand sewer users, this would be the place to go first because it's a lot easier to get it in. we could bring on 33% more sewer users and drive down the cost of sewer rate um and fixed cost from the budget
which equals rate >> um on those current users because our sewer rate is is is pretty exorbitant. Um we don't have a choice. We have a fixed rate from the city, but we also have fixed costs in the budget. And that that's how you make up, you know, you get maybe I think our rates like 550
from the city, call it 550. Right now we're at like 10 bucks is our lower rate and we have tiered rates, right? It's like 10, 11, 12 depending on usage. So you can see how that rate is almost double just from small amount of fixed cost in the budget. >> Mhm. >> You know what I mean? So the more users
we can get on the system, the further down we can drive rate at least stabilize rate um without you know crushing the current thousand users. And I know Mr. Bush is a current sewer user. Um and he can talk about rate and how much that hurts on top of regular tax
increases and things of the like. That's what a lot of people don't realize is you have water rates increasing, you have sewer rates increasing, you have tax rates increasing, um i.e. value of homes increase tax rate can go down with your tax bill still going up, it starts
to hurt people, especially those on fixed incomes, right? So, that's why I've been a I was the advocate who used money um to approve the CWMP. I think that was at a 2017 town meeting. I got $300 and something thousands approved at that
town meeting. Fought tooth and nail to do it so we could get the CWP and start moving forward with more sewer. So Sue is uh is something I'm I'm extremely interested in in expanding. It's just you got to be very careful on how you do it and you got to you got to do your
best to educate. And when we do do a town meeting, if those if we did this section from here to here, I would invite the 320 people only to that town meeting to vote on whether or not they're going to get sewer stuff down their throat, whether they want it or not. I'm not going to allow people from the other side of town to come to town
meeting and vogue in favor of me paying an additional 15 or $20,000 for sewer in front of my house. That's totally unfair to those users. Right. >> So, as long as you do it right and you you're as honest as you can be and transparent as you can be and you give it your best shot.
>> Have you heard anything about Fair Haven's sewer project? Have you guys >> I have. I actually uh we had a Veterans Day parade not too long ago. I spoke with a gentleman from Faven that's responsible for Faven's um sewer systems. He's a very intelligent man. He actually lives here in town. I was
introduced to him from one of my colleagues. So, we shot the breeze and he's he's uh looking forward to having a conversation with me. And I did tell him right off the rip, we we we did look at this back in 1415 when the board selectman took over sewer from the
town's people dissolved border public works. Um, but their rate was so much higher than the city because again I talked about this before. We're we're hand tied to the city of New Beth's sewer rate because of a grant we got in the late 60s early 70s with the federal government for the first phase of sewer
on slop area. Right. Yeah. >> So they can't whatever they charge their residents they have to give us that same rate. >> Um Haven's rate is a lot higher. Um and they're going through a sewer treatment plant upgrade. Um, and by the way, he
talked to me about those costs. He said, "Oh, we'd be extremely interested in talking to you." Sure you are, because your cost is so expensive. You want, you know, that burden to come here. I said, "The problem is if your rate is already 30% higher than what we're paying from another from the city and now you get
all this nitro." And I know the city's going to hit us with the nitrogen thing as well too cuz they have to upgrade their plant. But I mean, it's just even if the factor is the same amount, you're still yet that spouty remains the same, right? >> Yeah. So, it's a tricky balance. It's kind of whatever we can get out of
people and maybe Fabin would say, "Well, we'd be willing to do this if we could get and again that phase is like 300. It was only like 20 or 30 less at the current households that are are there versus this phase that was only like 20. I think that was like 290, 295 and this
one was like 320." >> Okay. So it would be a lot easier to punch through and from for Haven and even some of it might get a little tricky but not as tricky as if we were coming from where we stop at POD and >> down by Sentry House
>> Shambado and all that stuff that's where stops right and then you would also because of it's tough because the east the west side of Main Street you would have to have pumping stations down there cuz you can't gravity feed uphill right so you
have to pump um up and perhaps even the east side, the way the slope of the roads go, it's possible you might need some sort of pumping station on there as well, just to get out to South Main Street and push it. But um that would be engineered. Obviously, we'd have to have
somebody come in and engineer that system to design it. That's part of the betterment cost, right? What you do need, what you don't need, blah blah blah blah blah. Did he did he say whether they they would have to like they can't lower the rate from what they charge or can they
do a separate deal with us for a lower rate? >> So, we haven't gone that far, but I would think that that would be a really ugly situation if I put myself in that person's shoes that says if we're charging my I'm going to charge my taxpayers 10 bucks per 100 cubic feet in
that new community that's coming on board, we're going to give you a deal. We're going to give you it at eight bucks. if it lowers their rates that they currently have because they got to pay for that. >> Yeah. Yeah. The D, you know, the solution to pollution is dilution, right? >> So, I get it. >> They got for Haven. I mean, M poison
too. And now poison they they have allocated like 500,000 but they only use like 300,000 or something like that. There's there's like they want the business, you know, the the door the door is wide the door
is wide open, right? Um, we could do it because it's a sewer system. You could never do shared water, which they wouldn't do anything because mostly drink water as well. But the city of New Bethford, the second you do that, it's crosscontamination. They shut down every main coming into the town of Aushing and
say you're on your own. Hope you get enough water from Ven as well, right? >> So that's something that could never be done. But a sewer phase for the south side of town is definitely dependent on certain economic developments that the town is exploring now out back of the
quarry >> um punching through a bypass road to get back there. Um I think that that's something that the town has to at some point at least acknowledge and have that conversation with a so I was again um asked to sit down and start that
dialogue with them and see where it could lead and bring it back to the town at some point. Right. That's what I'm hoping we can do. I >> think there's some junk over there. >> Who knows? >> Some man that would would take advantage of it. >> Yeah, I know. Somebody's already had a conversation with that man.
We'll call him ahead. So this here is our spreadsheet, the action plan similar to what you saw last time for the OSRP focus discussion, but this is the action plan for the water resources strategy. And it reflects all
those same goals and strategies that Joe just went through, but in this format, we can get a little more granular. And I'd like to do that exercise with you again where we selected
the priority level high, medium, low. And I also want to confirm does the timeline make sense? Some of these are will take a whole decade ongoing effort. Some of these need to be attacked more immediately. >> What's that first one?
>> Let me zoom in. >> Improve wastewater infrastructure. So that can't just say DPW, that has to say B selectman. And I would actually add B health. I think board of health
anytime we're talking about sewer and septic systems. Um that's a dialogue as far as I'm concerned as one member of the board of select and I would like to have that open dialogue with the board of health too. They have a lot of knowledge when it comes to that. Don't you have a metering um a policy where
you do so many meters a year? >> What's what's >> says increase metering accuracy? >> Oh, that's what that is. I I just seen wastewater infrastructure. I apologize. >> Yeah. So, border selectment, you can get rid of board of health on that one. I apologize. I didn't realize, but yeah, we do. Well, yeah. So, we're learning
more and more as we don't have our um water and sewer administrative business manager in the office anymore. We have some new people taking over certain things. We're learning a lot of things, some not so positive, some positive, but
um yes, we do have a meter in plan. I adopted that when we first took over. The board of selectment took it over. Um there's a meter fee in there. We're supposed to do roughly 300 meters a year over the course of 10 years because we have roughly 3,000 plus a little over 3,000 water users in town.
>> So, and the meters they say are roughly good for 10 years. And so, you know, we get a lot of, you know, the MTUs don't work right now and they're supposed to be a program. They're supposed to be spreadsheets. We have them for so much, but we don't have them for so long. So,
that's kind of what we're uncovering right now. And we're trying to figure out everything to put a better policy and plan in place to make sure it's actually happening versus what has been happening. >> When was that metering plan developed? >> 2014. and I spoke on it right when we
took over the board of public. So we can say 2015 if you want >> give me a little leeway time on it. Um but when we took it over we did did all our rate settings and things of the like you know I was um instrumental with the town administrative back then Mr. Cino
developing you know how the billy was going to be done and I also broke out the um this $27,000 of debt cost in the water budget. um that translates to $80 a year on each water user for debt service. And we
broke that out individually because the old over the last two decades prior to that, the old board of public works was just manipulating rates and trying to guess at what everything was. And now what accounting and gasby rules, which is an accounting rule, um they don't
allow you just to stop manipulating rates and having guessing games. You really have to have your your deck of cards in order of your house in order. So, we were really definitive and that's why we started breaking all of that out on a water bill. You'll see a meter fee. Um, you're going to see the debt service
charge fee of $20 a quarter, right? And then you get your water rate for the amount of water consumption you're using. >> So, that could just be a continuation 2026. >> Yeah, it's in place. I mean, we're internally already doing it u meter
accuracy because we've just I've just updated a couple of bills actually because things went out and people get estimated water bills and I'm like and now that I'm more involved cuz we lost that employee and I'm working with a new employee cuz I know a lot about water and sewer and I'm like why would we have
an estimated water bill if we have a MTU which is a meter read system and we have new meters being installed and I get good question. So I'm like, "Okay, so we'll get to the bottom of that, right? It's either one or the other, right?" Yeah. >> And then I have to hear the old song and
dance about cogs in a meter and it clicks. And I was like, "It doesn't matter. We know there's a fault in the system and our machine's not reading that meter. Go fix it." >> I mean, everybody's meter should be working because we know we can look at that machine. We get alerts. We got an alert uh two days ago. Someone decided
to put a water line from their house by themselves out to I guess it might be a pool shed. I was just told a shed and I was like, why would you have water in a shed? So I said maybe it's a pool shed. I'm still working with my water my new water person that we have doing the job,
but they blew the line cuz they didn't bury it far enough and with a cold it bursted the line and they used 500 cubic feet in like a night. So not our problem. That's on their expense. But that's what happens when you put a water pipe in the ground 68 in instead of 18
plus inches deep. Right. So I mean the the system tells us that I mean you show up the next morning it's we we there's overusage and that's we we have a pretty neat system >> designed specifically to work a certain way. It just
it was being utilized. I don't think it was being utilized at its fullest potential. Let's put it that way. >> You know what I mean? And people do have other responsibilities so they're not sitting there babysitting the machine. but it's in the background and we set an alarm now. So if something's going on, you don't have to have a visual. It'll just beep beep
>> and it shows who it is. >> Okay. So since this is ongoing, what do we think setting setting for the priority? High, medium, or low since we're already doing it? >> I I I think it's a high it's a high it's a high priority. I mean, we're working on it um constantly.
>> Do we have an INI plan? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yep. Yeah. Yeah. We just, if you remember, I don't know if you remember, but God, I I know deal with a lot of this stuff. It was a month and a half ago, we we had our team was out doing iron cuz they go out in the middle of
the night and they can just drive over the road and they can hear leaks. It's pretty cool. Um, and they found one over by the VFW and we ripped up the whole road to the VFW and it was pretty ugly cuz, you know, the piping.
>> Yeah. But, you know, I I we just we just did Silk Street, right? It's a multi-million dollar project. I had we had to do that main. I said, "How old are we going to let that pipe go?" It's a it's a main coming in from the city of New Buffett.
>> Um the pipe really it was it was 120 years old. Nice Street, Cleveland Street, the one where we the VFW just blew that line over there. Um but they the INI program found that leak and thank god it did before things really
got bad and you know that's how you have collapsed roads sink holes >> things of the like right >> so we do have a plan on that so >> our DB uh DBW superintendent um and the our farmer employee was always really
good with staying up with all that stuff. So hopefully we continue to do that job as well as it was done in the past when it comes to that. You guys just want to look at like the first section so we can just um as far as priority and then the timelines
1-4 add more health to that >> what >> and Laura Slackman as well. >> I mean I don't the expans fade to me it's high priority. I mean, one dash street to me it comes down to grants. If you can't find
grants, expanding sewers is difficult. >> So, Mr. Deion, as you know, you were very instrumental in helping me lock down and secure what we call a host community agreement with PJ Keating. Um I negotiated on behalf of the soil board
for 2 and 1/2 years um with PJ Keating and we get a 50 cents a ton with an escalator now um in in a host community agreement and I made sure that those funds couldn't by be diverted for budgetary reasons because god forbid if
something were ever happened to that company and you have to close down or whatever we lost that revenue it would extremely our tax um our residents on tax bill. So, it all goes to infrastructure. So, as we as PJ
Keating gets up and running, we're moving the plan out back and um crushing plant out back. But once they get back up to full full capacity, which is roughly a million tons a year and if we're still at the 50 cents a ton, it's a half a million dollars a year that can go to water, sewer, roadways, storm
water. It's all infrastructure related. The funds cannot be diverted anywhere else. and I made sure I locked that in. And I also to protect a a resident of a cushioning, um, you can't borrow on that money for more than a 10-year period. So, if you were to go out and bond a
project, you can the maximum amount of time you can bond for is 10 years. So, again, you can't kill my taxpayer, >> right? If the money goes away, what do you do? So, it's great. We can think about the money today and say, "Oh, let's just throw it all around and do
whatever we want with it." um in budgets, but when if the money ever disappears, it's gone. And once you put it towards a budget, it's gone forever anyway. You get you get an advantage one year and it's history for the rest of its time. Now you're relying on that revenue stream where the way we develop
that HCA, it's reoccurring every year. The town, the town's people and the town see benefits, reap benefits every year from that revenue, right? It's it's an investment in the community for 30 years. It's a 30-year agreement. So, it's really uh pretty amazing stuff, >> Mr. Chair.
>> Yes, sir. >> Good job. >> Thank you, sir. >> Okay. So, these next two 1-4 and 1-5 for the for >> 14. You got to change the date. >> You got to put something in 2028 plus.
>> Yeah. >> 2029. >> I mean, you can put you can put for like Mr. Devin just said, what's the harm? I I mean, we're going to put, you know, high priority obviously, >> but the extended dates out, it doesn't
really matter what that is. If if an opportunity comes up, like, you know, I'm very active with water and sewer and we have Victoria in the planning um office. She calls me up and says, "Hey, Kev, look at this. There's a grant or Elizabeth from Serpad could do it or one of you could do it." and say, "Hey,
there's a bundle of money out there, 0% interest for the first 10 years or 20 years, whatever it is. Want to go after it?" I' I'd be all over that, right? We would then just go, let's go get the money, right? And we can make things happen. The biggest and this phase right
here was I I have a lot of visions. Um, and I won't discuss them all because I don't want people taking my ideas and getting credit for it. But if you put this if you put this main down middle road to nice lane and and I'm working with a a private company um trying to
talk to a private company about doing that um cuz down the road it could benefit the the individual but 90% of the 320 users on that phase right here from nice lane down as I told you 90% is on the west side of the road which is
all gravity fed down. So, it's like a sweet spot, an easy go. And if I can get somebody to blow the main down middle road, my DPW staff slowly but surely could do all the side streets, just run the laterals down to the down to the
road. Um, and the cost for sewer for uh 320 people at least I'll say 275 because this side gets a little tricky because of Wall Street's going to have a pumping station. But everybody else on each side of Middle Road and all the west side which is the majority of them um you're
probably talking 7500 to $10,000 for sewer which is an absolute steal. Um, I think if you read through that CWMP would occurring at a projected price of going out with these projected goofy costs, it was something like 35 $40,000
per household. >> No, nobody's doing that, >> you know. Um, but if we if I started knocking on doors, which I would do to sell a project, I would absolutely go to 320 homes personally and sell the project to the people. I guarantee you I
can get 90 plus percent of those people to say sign me up. >> You know what I mean? At a reasonable rate. It might not even be 10. It could be 15. Could be 175. We did 2008 sewer phase and it was like 145. >> So if I can tell people I could do it for the same cost that they did it 15
years ago. Why wouldn't you do it? >> Who can say that? >> Right. >> Anything to go and buy a brand new car for 50 grand. You can't get a subject that lasts 5 years, you know, >> but you can't get a subject down for less than 25 now.
>> You can't get a septic install for less than 25 unless you have >> ideal conditions. You might be able to get it, >> right? That's the whole thing with the education campaign and just talking about stuff like that. >> And then you get to pay it over 20 years. Yeah. >> Or you pay it off, you know. >> You pay it all off and you know.
>> Well, the nice option about that is if the if if you had 320 people, we'll talk sewer phase. this sewer phase, right? Um, this was two, it was moved to one, that was one, we moved this one to one. So, it depends on what number you want to use. We just call it middle road
sewer phase, right? Um, if if 320 people are on that sewer phase and then 200 people said, I'll pay you the cash up front, one shot payment, right? Bang. That's going to drive down the cost now for the remaining people on the
benefit that are financing it, right? because it's less amount being borrowed out. You follow me? So, it's all about that. That's part of the education and and being smart with financing. You need to be able to twist things around and and pull people and see who's going who's willing to do what. >> Yeah.
>> You know, I I just I'm really uh I would love to get the middle road phase done because the amount of expansion I can capture off the middle road phase is phenomenal. I could get it all the way over to Main Street >> like that. Yeah,
>> but I need to get that initial phase of pipe in >> and after that I'm off and running. >> I can bring on hundreds of more and expand that sewer line all up Handling and all the way to Maine. >> When you get there, just keep in mind
those you talk to that have new systems, they're like, "Oh, I want to pay a sewer bill now." >> You got seven years. >> Yeah, we gave we stretched it. >> 10? >> Yeah, we gave them 10. >> Good. that that's going to have some use. >> That's the that's the that's why I said
your the board of hell is important to have that with the board of select and that dialogue open dialogue because just like Mr. Deina just did now with me like we're talking about it. He goes, "Hey, I get it. You just had one." But I just had a neighbor um personal friend right
next door me. She tried doing she just lost her husband. She just tried doing a perk test and it failed miserably >> before they even put water in the hole. The water started bubbling out of the hole. Yeah, >> park test fail, >> right? And it's it's sad because the
idea was for the kids, the daughter with her family now to move in and either build up >> or build an ADU, you know, and that option is pretty much gone. >> Yeah, >> we're smart. She's got a double lot, >> but it still don't matter. They got a new ground pool and a double lot. It
just doesn't work. The water table's too damn high. You know, our neighborhood was built on farmland, right? I mean, I got two sub bumps in my cell that I con pretty much constantly run kitty corner in each corner. And when October, November comes, they just I mean, I can
sell water to the town, but I'm only but I'm only good for like 67 months. I can sell that water. So, but it's it in my neighborhood is small lot. Some of them pass with flying colors. You drive by other houses in my neighborhood, 65 67 houses in my neighborhood. Some of them
have ray systems 3 4t out of the ground. It looks ugly as hell. And all the ones are perfectly flat. Like Mr. Dein said, sometimes you get that spot where it's ideal soil conditions, everything's in place. >> It's ironic cuz the one right behind me, right next door to the one I said just failed, that one's a perfectly flat. It
was done five, six, seven years ago, Blank's house, >> 5, six, seven years ago. Perfectly flat. This one next door to me. And the one down from me, it's it's a it's not that bad of a hump, but the yard used to be really slow, so they just fill that in. And that's where a leecher field is, you know? So, it's it's like people like
that in my neighborhood, even myself. I mean, we'd love to bring sewer in just to get rid of, you know, septic systems slash back then was cesspools, right? They're not even real septic systems. >> So, I mean, I know I I I I speaking to
people in my neighborhood, I'll bet you I could get 80% of my neighborhood to say, "Yeah, give me sewer." >> And I know there's a few in my neighborhood that would be like Fall's one of them, right? >> Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I mean, it's all about for the right cost. >> Yeah. >> We just got to be creative on how we how
we do that. I think we got enough smart enough people to >> put it together and figure things out. >> I'm pretty confident in the people that we have that we could >> figure something out depending on different opportunities that come up. And I just alluded to the HCA with, you know, we have that.
>> Um, and I know there's a little stash of money in sewer that we can use >> that most people don't know. Yeah. I have a 1955 original >> because of what?
>> 1955 original system. Thousandgalon tank still working. >> We do have >> quite a bit to get through. >> Oh yeah, >> just for the sake of time. So for the rest of the priorities for
1.14 and5 >> I can't see why you don't put high and high. I don't >> Yeah, I'd say high for both. >> Yeah, I mean >> the first three was high. >> Yeah, >> probably the same. By the way, regarding storm water
pollution, um, combined sewer overflows and flooding, we are working on a regional storm water collaborative and we've been interviewing every single municipality in the southeast Massachusetts region.
>> I interviewed you, but was that for me or was it for Christian? >> We did both. >> Okay. Okay. Yeah. Um, we haven't gotten to New Bedford yet, but when we do, I will talk to them and make them aware of your concerns regarding their overflows
that affect your town. And we think that that regional collaborative would be a good way to convene the town administrators and mayors and the New Bedford DPI, DPW heads, all
those people, bring them together into a room so that what you expressed in tonight's meeting reaches them. You might want to put border selectment on reduce storm water pollution because the border selectment who controls our MS4 engineer which is our storm water
engineer. So without the border selectment you're not getting too far out of health too. >> Did you delete board health? >> It wasn't there originally.
Dave, do you feel I think maybe should be part if you're doing septic systems, right? It's part of storm water runoff and I don't know >> for storm water for naturebased solutions and green infrastructure. >> Yeah, I don't think that's our we'll stay out of your house.
>> Okay. >> How about flooding concerns? That's related to 15. Yeah, that seems like very complimentary. >> So, I imagine high priority then since it's a very similar strategy.
>> Yeah, you could put uh Goose Park on there. >> The River Park. >> Oh, River's End. >> No, the River Park. >> River View >> on River. Yeah. >> Well, whatever they want to call it. >> Yeah. >> But that road's flooded. >> That's
>> 16 hours after rain started. It stays flooded. I got a picture on my phone. >> It's because >> I just got it. I'm like, "Yeah, >> it's too high. I live in that area and a lot of the times when it rains, you can't pass through it. You actually have to go around." >> I know. I got a picture of my phone of your the corner at the bottom of the
road. >> Yeah. I I >> And I was like, "What the hell is that?" And they like, "That's 16 hours after a rainfall." And I'm like, "It was my It was my son that sent it >> to me." And I'm like, "Are you kidding me?" And he's like, "Dad, this his girl lives right by you." >> And I'm like, "Wow, that's crazy." And I
got I just showed Ryan it when when we started the meeting. >> That's the corner. That's where River Park is. >> Yeah. You can't pass through it. You have to >> It's crazy. So, >> did they do something like not that like couple years? >> Yeah. They put a nice pretty sidewalk over there and
>> I thought they put some blocked all the water from draining in. That's what we did. We got rid of country drainage is what we did now. So, so the town is doing Slowum Street and I've already thought of it. I'm like, "Oh boy, here we go. I seen that." So the town's doing Sloum Street and we have what they call
an alternate aid bid to go through the parking lot by the Sloum Street bridge. So it's all document. I just worked with the lawyers on that with easement language and all that. We're working out with the property owner and we already got approval through Hong Kong and the property owner with NOI. So I'm working on some easement language and we got it
all drawn up. So I'm thinking to myself, okay, if we get that alternate a done next spring or maybe through the summer because it permanent with US Army Corps, that pipe's going to go through the parking lot, run parallel to the bridge. >> So if that's the case, I'll put a st I'll have DBW, put a storm water basin
on that corner where it's collecting and just run like a 12-in pipe to that outfall pipe and it'll drop out there. >> Okay. >> Pretty easy to plum that in and do the job. It's only a couple hundred feet of plastic pipe. >> Yeah. with a storm water basin being whole. So, we can handle that. I'm
thinking that's the best way to solve that problem. The quickest, fastest way to help out everybody in that area like you that oh it rained I got to go up the street and down the street, right? >> It's dangerous for winter time, too. It freezes, right? >> It is. Yeah. True. >> Working on it.
>> Thank you. >> Um so, hi. I think we said it right because it's um complimented to be alone and then update updating the drinking water um IMA with New Bedford to support continued services. >> Yeah, medium because they they just
they're not very cooperative and >> okay >> we have it but they just they over the years I have the last three intermunicipal agreements. We haven't had a new one in a long time. I went through and sat down from like
decades ago and and watched them transpire over time. They just basically did whatever the hell they wanted to do with it and they presented it to the old board of public works and the old board of public works is like no we're not really in agreement with it. They're like that's okay. We're going to sign it
and that's your agreement. >> They kind of goes they have us what are we going to do? >> We're going to argue all they do is shut off the spigot. M >> we're kind of at the mercy of the city, right? >> That's the downfall. >> You know what I mean? But we don't have
any other way means of getting the amount of water we can the town's people consume. >> Yeah. >> We've drilled I've watched people drill border public works old boards of selectman drill this town like Swiss freaking cheese and we don't have a drop
of water to proof for it. Right. We got wells plugged everywhere in this town. never found significant water. >> So, and then you get wrapped up with the state anyway because they own the rights, mineral rights, right? So, then you need withdrawal permits and then you
got to go beg and plead with them and they tell you, "Nope, you can't take that much water out of the ground. This is what we're going to allow you to do." So, it's just it's a nightmare. So, you're better off just kissing the hand that's feeding you, right? 31. This is about taking ownership of
the new Bedford Reservoir/lake Street Ponds. >> 31 is closely related to 41 >> distinguished only by the ecological health >> invasives.
I say hello, Mr. Chair. >> So, we kind of talked about that too. I don't Sara I don't think you were here but I know Joe is here and Victoria can recall that taking ownership of the lakes sounds
great to a lot of people in the community if if they're not knowledgeable about the lakes >> and I have a lot of knowledge of the lakes and there's certain people from the old days before that first of all they're not really lakes they're streams
they were dredged in the old days and certain property owners on that, we'll call them streams, lakes, whatever you want to call them, own to the center line of those streams, deed to the center line of those streams. So, you're not ever really taking ownership. You
might take ownership of water rights, but you're not taking ownership of land rights. So, it's very convoluted. Regardless of what any new person from city's DPI or anybody within this town might want to tell you, it it's very
complicated and I don't think it's something that it's worth it's worth the town of Aushnet, you know, looking at and seeing what we could do to help the health of the of the lakes, right? >> Um, but taking ownership is probably next to
nil. >> I don't want to take ownership of maintenance bills. of the leagues. >> So, should we just cross this out al together? >> Well, you guys have there's a recreational agreement with New Bedford.
>> We do. We the board of selectment um through one of my colleagues, we put him in charge, selected a loan. I went and negotiated a 25 year recreational agreement with the city in New Buffett. Right. Um but that is you know
it was in great spirit but again uh we just went through a practice over this summer of trying to weed abatement and there's some different technologies that I'm actually speaking with some very interesting people on weed abatement that could be a lot cheaper. But we just
stuck two boats in those lakes for two weeks and it cost us 110 grand and they basically got I'm going to call it and I'll probably be generous because I have pictures of my phone where we brought the waste weeds to 10 triacles if you're lucky >> forund for 110 grand and it cleaned up
by the roadway so it's a lot better for families to go fishing >> but it didn't do crap to the conditions of those lakes. So, we have millions. The moral of that story is we have millions of dollars to spend and then you have probably a half a million
dollars a year on regular maintenance to keep them out once you clear them. And I don't even know if that's even feasible after you spend millions of dollars. So, there's somebody that I just had a conversation with. I don't know how that conversation was struck. Um, and she
alluded to some different technologies that we just have very short vague conversations. So, I will have more in-depth conversations with them on it. Um, but I can assure you that the the the guys from Connecticut with their little boats probably ain't going to get any more
money from the taxpayers of Cushion. I can tell you that because for 110 grand and I watched it all occur and I took pictures as it happened. I I wasn't very happy. It was a great effort to see what that would turn out as an experiment. >> Yeah.
>> Um but I I don't think it was very successful. >> So part of the recreational agreement, you can actually do stuff like that where you can remove a bunch of weeds and stuff from the >> You talked about chemicals, but then we got um in the bogs up for sale now. So I actually know the guy that owns the bog.
Um, he's trying to sell, but who knows if somebody else is going to buy it for a bog or I know they're not going to buy it for development because if you think per testing is difficult everywhere else in town, you try drilling a per test on a cranberry bog and you go down about a foot and you know it's springing water
out of the ground, right? >> Yeah. >> So, good luck with that. It was an old sand gravel pit. >> You took all material out. >> Yeah. When I was when I was a baby. >> All the good stuff, >> right? did it turn into a cranberry bargain. I actually know the guy that
owns it. Um, so I I'm very familiar with the property. It's beautiful. It's like 80 acres. Um, the problem is there's not much good use to it other than cranberry bogs and he's got beautiful bogs. Um, and he's got a certain kind of berry that he can sell with ocean spray, which
not a lot of people have those berries. I'm able to sell them directly. gets ocean spray, but he's just tired and he's got bogs up in Maine and other locations that he just, you know, he's at the age where he just can't handle the capacity of what he's got anymore. >> So, he's selling some properties off,
right? >> So, >> so the invasives first refusal for, right? >> I don't know if that's in chapel. I think it is >> the invasives removal >> 66,000 I don't designated. >> Was that the eco harvester you're
referring to? That was 110,000. Nothing. >> Yeah, the guy pulling the weeds, the the two boats. I don't know. I forgot the name of the company. Great great company, great people. They do it from I think they talked about from Florida all the way to Maine up the East Coast. But well, look, it's just I don't know what other people are doing and they're
spinning out, you know, suitcases of a million dollars to the company. But we just blew 110 grand for basically 9 days of service. And I went to Quaker Mills where everything was brought. And I do have the pictures in there. And I'm telling you right now, I spoke to certain individuals that were responsible for it and I said, "This
ain't going to work out long term for us because we're talking millions of dollars." And I can tell you right now, >> Kushner taxpayers are not going to pay millions of dollars for only the people living on the lakes to benefit from the lakes, right? And that's pretty much what it comes down to outside of a few
people fishing, >> right? >> But you guys already have like the capacity. You guys already have the ability to remove invasives from the reservoir. You wouldn't need to take ownership of the reservoir to do that. Okay. So, we can change the language of that. Just >> we've done it and I would I would keep it. I would keep it. I wouldn't get rid
of it. I think I think there's a lot of people interested in trying to you look the one of I call it the northeast pond, right? The one further up the hill. Um it's still that one's still owned. There's the one on the little baby one on this we call the southeast pond, right? You got the north, you got the
south, you got the northeast, and then the northwest pawn. Northuh south east pond. The little baby one. That's a mud pit now. But even that one could be really it needs to be dredged out or maybe there's no real weeds, just all dead weeds. But I think if we find a
process that can do it um without it just dropping the dead weeds in the ground and you know they keep growing and we keep killing dead weeds, they're going to end up like that little baby pond. It's just going to be a blade full of muck. >> Yeah. >> So we got, you know, there's different things always coming about, different
technologies on how to do things without hurting. And there's three different property owners I think spoke very loud at conservation about using chemicals because they have withdrawal permits from D. So they have water rights to the to the lakes as well. So you can't chemicalize the water because they're
putting it on their crops. Although the more and more people I talked about that the chemical is pretty much useless after 3 or 4 days because of the way it transit the beds and the water. I mean there he's far more people are way
smarter than I am on it. But it's pretty amazing stuff. But when you start telling people you're going to put a chemical and they're going to use that water to put on their bog, >> you know, the guy told me when my berries get refused from Ocean Spray, what do you want me to drop the truckloads of berries? What parking lot? >> Yeah.
>> So, was Keith one of the three or Keith's excluded from the three? >> Oh, Keith's Keith's going to drop them as well, >> right? But that's not operational anymore. >> No, not anymore. and I don't know what's happening on the other side.
>> But I got to talk to the girl that's easy. >> She's sping on me and I'm like cuz I started talking. >> Are we saying low priority? >> We're just we're going to take >> we're toss it out because take ownership. >> Ownership isn't necessary. >> Yeah. So ownership isn't necessary just
based. So we'll we'll keep it as manage and maintenance stewardship for recreational >> three too, right? Just best management practices to maintain them, >> right? >> Yeah. Essentially just continuing um like management of invasives to the best
of your abilities without >> I we owe it to ourselves. I mean the city in one of the intermittent civil agreements and I know I seen it there cuz I seen it somewhere and the only place it could have been was the original one from decades ago. They took ownership because they own the water
rights. It's in there that they would manage weeds. >> Yeah. >> And then over time they just said, "That's going to cost us too much money. Get that out of our agreement. Get that out of our agreement. Get that out of our agreement." Right. Like I said, our previous board of public works was like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We're not signing this." Like, "This is a crappy
agreement." And they just said, "That's fine. It's just it's signed by the city. You don't need to sign it, but that's the deal." >> Yeah. >> You know, that's how we ended up. But I I think we owe it not only to ourselves, to our future generations to try to do something and preserve,
>> you know, our parks and recreation as best we can in wildlife and habitat. Right. >> I was speaking to James Soua from the conservation commission about this issue of the invasives at Lake Street Ponds and he mentioned the eco harvester that
costs $5,500 a day. And then he also mentioned that the other thing they've been doing is removing invasives and weeds at the bottom of those water bodies by hand. Scuba assisted hand pulling.
>> So is is that familiar to you? >> I don't know. Maybe we could put a suit on Mr. Susan and see how he makes our >> Yeah, apparently he he does that personally. >> I don't know. I don't know. You know what kind of sounds like he just volunteered? what kind of what kind of cigar he had in his mouth when he told
you that. But um I I I can tell you right now, so that boat that you just talked about got $5,500. We had two boats at $5,500 a day. It was 11 grand a day. >> Okay. So you could Could you imagine an individual a diver? >> Yeah.
>> I mean, it's impossible. The the the ponds are just so overrun. They >> It's you know, >> we got I got pictures of the ponds, man. Especially upream. It's bad, man. I mean, it's >> I don't know what the answer is. I mean, there's a lot smarter people than I am
with weed being. It's just goes back to certain people and Mrs. Deini just talked about it. If >> Keith Street Farm was one with a withdrawal permit and they're no longer in business, right? >> And then you have Brayley's the orchard, they're using it. So, um, but how often
do they use it and what months do they use it? So maybe you could use chemical because they're not actually using irrigation in certain portion. I don't know. I we'd have to speak to the individuals with the permits and say what kind of window do you have? >> I mean if you have more than a 10 15 day
window you're not using it. You can definitely use chemicals. I know enough smart enough people and they own cranberry bogs and they use it in their ponds. >> Mhm. So, if it's good for the pond that I owned and I'm using on my bog a
chemical to keep the weeds out, why couldn't we use the same chemical in the lakes and they using that water for their bugs, right? I think it was just kind of a shock the way that certain people went about doing it, right? And I think again it's that educational
>> um period that you have. We talked about that with sewer, right? I think the same thing happens here is you do a little bit better job educating people before you just jump the gun and say we're diving in the water as scuba gear with our scuba gear and we're going to pull out the weeds. I mean that no way in
hell is somebody going in with a diving suit and pulling weeds. I mean >> I need one of them cigars. >> Okay. 40 years. >> Or two, identify and develop more
recreational access along local water bodies including the aquishant river and the reservoir. Who would be the responsible parties for that? >> Probably same as kind of same themes as the ones above.
>> Okay. Aside from >> you know it's a shame I I'll tell you what a shame is is is the Aushet River. It's identified in that line, right? And if you if you I travel, Mr. Rosenis knows about it cuz him and I have gone into certain
conservation land in the past um looking at um mischief going on. Um but the Aushet River unfortunately um nobody's ever taken rid of taken care of and getting rid of the debris that's falling
into the river, right? And that's creating congestion in the river. It's not flowing the way it should and holding back water in different areas where now we have places flooding because the river is not flowing naturally anymore.
>> What kind of debris is that? Is that from tree material? >> Branches um you know sometimes you get kids in there doing things and building bridges. I'll just bring it up. Bring building bridges out of pallets and >> yeah,
>> not really knowing what they're doing. the estuary at the golf course. The estuary that comes to the golf course, there's all kinds of crap. >> Yeah. So, that's one of them. Right. You drive Lake Street, you can see where the river goes through. You go down little road over here, right after the old mall property. I know Mr. Deinion knows what
I'm talking about there. The river goes underneath of the road there. You look on both sides of that road. Everything's just being grown in almost like Lake Street is with lily pads. It's different invasive species growing out of the river. And then you get crap falling from the trees and everything
else and the wind and it's it's it's a shame >> and you know I always wondered about that >> cleaned out so we kayak down the whole thing. >> Who could Yeah. Who we used to go from which the the Hamlin Street Pond's not even Hamlin Street Pond anymore cuz they
took the planks out of it years ago right trying to drain out the land but that didn't work out too well for them. And we used to canoe up from Hamlin Street Pond and we'd be able to go pretty far up almost to the golf course in a canoe.
>> That's how wide that river used to be. >> Um and it's like just I mean that river used to be call it I don't know I'll be generous I'll say 30 ft wide. >> It's probably 10 12t wide now. >> Yeah. >> Right. And that's a problem. I mean, it it sucks that over the last 50 years,
nobody's had the foresight to say we need to be in there cleaning this stuff out and maintaining the river, right? So that it doesn't end up this way in 30, 40, 50 years, right? >> You notice trash and litter as well.
>> You're going to get it from anywhere where there's a road, >> right? >> It's not not so much trash. more >> organics, more trees falling, branches and stuff. >> That ties into three too as well cuz sometime you know just for like restoring fish habitat just moving stuff
out of the river so that fish can be able to migrate like herring. >> You can I mean I don't know medium medium >> that's what if that's what we're discussing on 3.2. Can we add a line item to about >> Absolutely. >> developing a maintenance plan or some
whatever you want to word it to clean out the Aussia River to make it more to make it actually >> kayak canoe friendly. I mean >> it used to be a long time ago when I'm not sure how you do that mosquito control. Let them have at it for
>> mosquito and chick control. >> Yeah. I think we talked about this in the OSRP as well as far as the Kushner earlier. >> Mhm. I think it would be a lot. I agree with with Mr. Dominion, right? It would be I think our residents would enjoy
the river upstream versus putting yourself in the PCB harbor. >> Yeah. Oh god. Yeah. >> And paddling around out there, right? They would rather pick off at >> the sawmill over here, the buzz bait. >> I tried that. You take you get up just a
little ways and you're like, "What the hell?" >> Yeah. And you can shoot right up or you can start from up there and float your way down, right? And you never have to paddle upstream. I mean, some people, enthusiastic people that are trying to be in shape, they want to paddle upstream, right? Um, other people might
start at Hamlin Pond and just float down the river with a little in for a scenic route, right? >> Instead of nature trailing, they're nature river, >> right? Whatever you want to call it. But um it would be great if we could do something like that.
>> Yeah, absolutely. Probably similar responsible parties probably Hong Kong I think or anything to do. >> Yeah, that just ties into all the trail stuff. It's in the same same category. Whoever would be doing the trail
maintenance stuff should be responsible for >> and the conservation agent. >> Yeah. I I mean we personally it's one of the same a part of the commission but um >> the right way >> so developing a coordinated wayf finding
and signage model for water access within public publicly owned properties. Um I know we have a similar goal for trail signage as well in the OSRP right? Yeah, I think that was a medium >> priority
>> on that one. >> You thinking medium here as well? >> Okay. >> And all of these should be ongoing for the next decade. >> Yes. >> Yeah, we're put on all >> I mean that's stuff like that. I mean
that's that's in perpetuity in my eyes, right? If you if we you know we I say we cuz there's a certain generation that's going to fund it initially right and it's us and then you would hope that
future generations would um aspire to keep that um those resources for future generations to come. Right? >> You hear me talk about future generations all the time, right? Where we leave them behind for our future generations, right? So when it comes to
developing and all that stuff, but um you know I think we need to at least try to do a better job and getting inside the river. Maybe you do something we do we used to do in um years and years ago. Town cleanup day. I
forgot what day that was. Day Earth Day. Earth Day. >> So we would do a big uh town cleanup. You know, we put together a thing. You get coffee and donuts in the morning. You'd get a bunch of big giant plastic bags, some rubble gloves, some tweezy things, and we go along roadside and
pick up all the garbage and stuff like that. It was for Earth Day. I mean, you could do something similar in the spring and summer months in the river. Um, and you get a bunch of yahoos out there to in their kayaks and we go up there with
our machetes or whatever it may be and you know, the gas trimmers and you know, we make a a plan and you do several hundred feet. I mean, even if you did, you know, a thousand feet a year for crying a lot, at least you're getting something done. >> Yeah. We'll talk to we'll have to talk to Karen because like for one of the
things I did a couple months ago is we just went to they had some um a woman there who was an expert in identifying invasive species and we just went to a park and pretty much just pointed out all the invasive species and removed it from like one park and there was like I
don't know probably 12 volunteers there and like they moved a lot of stuff and >> then the the town uh DPW came and picked up all the stuff. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> They uh GBW does it for the Earth Day. We would just leave all the bads on the
side of the road and they come in and you know Monday morning pick them all up. >> So it'll utilize volunteers when you can. >> Yeah. >> Well, that's what I'm saying. We always talk I mean you've heard us and myself included, we always talk about everything's, you know, the almighty dollar, right? But there's there's
certain things we're identifying in a master plan that the only thing it's really going to cost is time. And if you can get good people, which I know we can, this community is a very strong community. When you ask for something, um, we're pretty powerful. Um, you know,
I always talk and Dave Deion where him and I pretty much >> I don't know where we a year or two apart and people laugh. My girl does it all the time. She talks about all the time like I don't understand how and Mr. Bush the same way and he's coming along. He's a little younger, but they always
laugh and they say, "I can't believe you guys have been friends for this long and you're still friends and you still hang out together, right?" I mean, I just My brother just had a party at his house, an ugly sweater party last Saturday and people that we hung out with 40 years ago were there. >> Mhm.
>> You know what I mean? We're still all good friends. And people are always out like outsiders, they're always amazed at that. They're like, >> I don't know anyone that I went to junior high school with that I'm still hanging around with. But a Kushna is that community where we're we're very
powerful when we want to be. And when we ask everybody to chip in, you you'll find a good portion of our residents are there to do it and they'll and they'll join in for the cause. They really will. >> Whether they do it physically or they'll do it monetarily. They'll say if you
need a donation, I can't volunteer my time, but if you need a donation, you know, I can offer this service for you, right? Oh, I can I can provide this money for you, right, if you need something. So, I think that these are things in the master plan that'll be great
>> and it'll give back like the nature trails, right? We have all this land, but we don't it's under utilize, right? To figure out a way if wherever our land is a way to get from one side of town to the other with just maybe a bendy road. We're all kinds of wacky trails so that
again we have police patrols that can just zip down the road. um the fire department on quads and and gauge our nature of public safety, make sure there's not bad things happening. But as far as a nice nature trail goes, I mean, you you always got to be in this in the
mindset about public safety um and not allowing like vehicles, motor vehicles getting down a trail, right? But we can design, >> you know, while we own significant land, we can design some pretty cool nature trails and, you know, design it in a way where public safety can easily access it
and take a cruise down on the quads. >> Um, the fire department's got them. The PD's got I think like mountain bikes put electric ones now or whatever they have. I think they even have a quad so they can easily be patrolled by public safety. Right. >> That ties into uh forestry management as
far as wildfire concerns, too. having these access routes so that if there was ever a fire like in town forest, you'd be able to >> We got some old ones. Um Perkins Lane, right, Mr. Rosenis? >> It's an old fire lane. Um it's funny cuz it still says no park in this side of
the road. >> Yeah. >> And it's an old fire lane and I drove down there in my truck and I got to a point where there ain't no way a fire trucks getting down here. >> You know, but I I made it down pretty far. I was like, I'm all set. I'm going to spin this puppy around. But
>> um you know if we could we can do a lot of things and do it right and and make it >> um so that it is safe for our public to use these trails without being compromised with you know some of the bad things that can happen in nature trails and wooded areas. Right.
>> One of the things that we were talking a couple of months ago was the Keith Farm thing and the land trust. >> Yeah. and all the possibilities with that that could open up from spring through early fall and the people coming there
>> and the people we can we can get to come and help us with these kinds of things. We just we just we just need to develop and I don't know how easy that relationship will be to develop with >> the Kushner fa land trust but it's something that that you know you know
the board of select are interested we talked to her not too long ago on that white factory thing on street >> trying to the board felt pretty strongly preserving that factory she really wanted it down because of liability issue so you know we have a whole host
of things that the board selectman in the town's dealing with right now. And you know, as we're going through and prioritizing this, that's what the board of select would have to do at the point that we're at right now is look at different things and say that's a low priority for us right now. We got more important issues to be tackling at this
at this current time like similar to what we're doing with the master plan. >> What you've been saying about supporting and encouraging volunteer-led initiatives. Earth Day could also be ordinary days. that's not currently
reflected in our goals and strategies so far. Would you like to add that? >> Yeah. >> Volunteer. >> I'd be glad to help out with some of those volunteer volunteering exercises. >> I mean, you just
it's not and I know everybody in the room is going to say something because I use this terminology constantly. It's not rocket science, right? There's certain things that I just told you that we the community, the town of Ausha is a very powerful community, right? Um if
people need support, families need support, if they reach out to this community, we will come and answer that calling, right? Um same thing goes for something like this. You have plenty of people that are in this community. They're just not being asked to do
something, right? But if we put an initiative in place saying every year, this is a schedule, this is our goal, this is what we're going to go do, I think you'll get quite a few people to share on that initiative. And some people might say, I'm not interested in getting in the kayak um and chasing Mr.
Deinion with his machete. >> But there's those people might say, I'm interested in doing walking trails through this part of the forestry property that the town owns, so I want to be on that team. Right? And then you have this team and you develop different teams, right? People can join a team
whenever they want. It's just about getting an initial half dozen dozen people on each team to say, "Let's go out and conquer this." And then the team will decide where we start and what the end goal is, right? And you might get certain teams like let's call it the
river team starting at the Buzz Cush Buzzes Bay of Coalition of the Old Kush and working our way up. The river team, you know, might get a mile of river done. the trail team's gonna go, "Well, we only got 300 feet of trail done. We
need to catch up to the rivet team." Right. So, now it becomes a competition. >> Yeah. >> This is music to my ears. You know, I want to tell you, my husband and I, we drive all the way to Somerville, Massachusetts. Somerville near Tufts University to do invasives removal. Why
are we going that far? Well, because we're new to this region, to southeast Massachusetts, and we just don't know about the opportunities. Where is that work needed? So, we're driving all the way to Somerville to do invasives removal on our weekends, our free time.
We did it this past weekend and the we founded this organization called Rewounding Massachusetts. And so far, our volunteer base of 50 people is all based in the greater Boston area. We just don't know anybody, enough people. We're not connected to the community
where we live now because we moved in January. But from our perspective, what's needed to organize people is you have to put it on a calendar like the town calendar and you have to have an email newsletter and be very clear that
in these locations, see the this map, these coordinates, these stretches of the Aquishet River are the areas that need help. And we're going to provide the supplies, the gloves, the the picker tools like that.
That is something that probably the town could help support because otherwise then you're asking volunteers to spend their own money as we've been doing. We've been paying out of pocket buying these materials and supplies. But >> once we came up with that, so that's
great, right? So if if we come up with a plan, that's pretty easy, right? We we have people like you that have have the experience doing these kind of things. You let us know what kind of tools that we need to purchase, right? and we say we'll take a wild swing and just say
we're going to have 50 people on a team. What kind of tools we need for this project? What kind of tools we need for that project? The town has free cash. Okay, it's for onetime expenditures. We could easily ask the town's people. This is the reason why we want $20,000 for this. This is the reason why we're
asking you for $10,000 for that. We buy the tools. We keep them in one safe location, right? And it's only used by the teams um and making sure everything's returned after every usage, right? Mhm. >> We just go at it. >> I know at least a dozen people I could
get >> now to help with this kind of stuff. That's one person. >> We We just got our first volunteer right there. >> Actually, let's talk. >> No, you and your husband. We just two people right there. >> Yeah. >> Fair Haven is close. >> We haven't even left the room yet. Joe's in. There you go. And I ain't doing it.
I went middle bar. Middle bar was further from me. I live I live down. I'll come and do some work. >> Bam. We got three volunteers. >> I'll join the river team. >> I'm I'm going to be on the river team. I I've got the swamp boat, the fan boat,
and all that obvious to float around behind all you guys with the kayaks making sure the job's getting done right. >> We're We finished with this one? >> Yes. All done. >> We're done. >> Okay. All righty. >> Is that it? Thank you. Yes. Unless
anyone has anything else. >> Motion to adjourn. >> No. Whoa. Whoa. >> Give me one second. I want to publicly thank Victoria, our town planner, members of Sured. I know Lizette's not here. I want to wish you um all a merry
Christmas, a happy, healthy new year. And the same goes for all my committee members. I wish you all a merry Christmas, a happy, most importantly a healthy new year to you and your families. And for everybody else that's out there that might be watching that. that's not present tonight that is on this committee. Same goes to you and
your families as well. Merry Christmas. Happy healthy new year. Um enjoy the holidays and be safe. >> Thanks, Mr. >> Thank you. >> And I'll make a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Yes. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Oh, wait a minute. Roll call vote. Mr.
Rosendis, >> yes. >> Mr. Sullivan, >> yes. >> Mr. Bush, >> yes. >> Mr. Dinian, >> yes. I am a yes. And Peter, are you still on Zoom? Peter >> and we'll just let him abstain from the last followup cuz we don't know if we
lost contact with Peter. But Peter um and the rest of you guys, thank you very much.