Good evening everyone. Welcome to the select board meeting. Today is Tuesday, September 20th, 2022. If I could ask everyone to stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Are there any amendments to the agenda tonight? No. No. I don't make a motion to approve
the agenda as presented. I will second. All those in favor? I. I. And chair says I. Any announcements tonight? Okay. All right. All right. Next up is public input. Public input will be limited to three
minutes and should be about agenda items only. If there's anything that is not on the agenda that somebody would like to discuss, please notify the town manager, assistant town manager, and then we will put it on the agenda for next time. So, is there anybody here for public input? I think a hand got raised. Oh, that's
this. Oh, yes. Stop that. Okay. Okay. All right. Well, we've got to wait another minute or so uh before we can start the public hearing because the public hearing has to be at 6:05. So, Susan, could we have
the town clerk come up? Sure. Is everybody in agreement with that? Yeah. Okay. Thank you. All right. Hello. Good evening. Um I had sent along um a memo. Um I just
wanted to discuss the November 2022 um in-person early voting hours for the town of air. Um once again we are offering uh this opportunity to our voters for the general election that is November 8th and um the requirements for
the vote act votes act excuse me um there's two weeks of early voting. So it starts on Saturday, October 22nd um and runs the following the first week thereafter and then we have them on Saturday, October 29th and then the
second week um is the following week after that until Friday, November 4th. Um the requirements are um that I need to have at least one weekend day and a total of six hours on the weekend. So,
um, in previous years when we've offered the in-person early voting, Saturday is the busier day. Um, so I was going to be offering it on Saturdays from 9 to 3. For the weekday hours, I need to offer at least 50% of regular business hours
for the first week and the second week would be regular business hours unless a vote of the board um would be willing to um make accommodations to that. um looking at the um last the 2020 which
was a presidential election that was also during the pandemic so it was a different time but since thankfully things are returning to normal um I feel in-person voting is valuable but I don't feel that the town utilizes it in a full-time full business hour capacity um
even in just in August when we offered it uh for the primary um we also have mailin voting So, it's another opportunity for folks to vote. We mailed out over 800 uh ballots um of which just
over 400 were returned to us for the mail and voting. Um and I had about 93 ball um people that received ballots in the mail but then opted to come in to vote in person whether it was during the in-person voting or on election day. So,
um the town of air um like to vote likes to vote in person. I mean the again mail and voting and so forth is great but um we're a town that like to come in we like to come in on election day which is great. Um but having this set up um
especially for two weeks where it's asking for myself and the assistant town clerk to be in two places at once and also offering our other all the other um services we provide to the town. So it's just
um it was very slow. So to compare um our in 2020 um again was a presidential we had a total of 272 um voters in 6 days. Um in in 2022 in
2020 did I say 2022? 2020 we had 272 voters. In 2022 we had 73. Um the Friday the last day of the voting was like the the heavier day. I think we had 31 people, but there were two days where we had two people and they were the people
working the polls. So, it kind of lets us know it's just a different trend um here for the town. So, what I'm proposing and asking for you to consider is that um again, starting on Saturday, October 22nd, we will be here
from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Um the first week would be Monday, October 24th to Friday, October 28th, we would offer the in-person voting um in the Great Hall from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Um again our my numbers from previous years is
that it's the business is in the morning the traffic is in the morning the afternoons um the numbers are really there. Um so then again we would Saturday October 29th we would be here from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Um and then for that second week um
which would be Monday October 31st to Friday November 4th I would want to offer an afternoon. So it would be Monday, Wednesday, Thursday from 12:00 p.m. to 4 pm. Tuesday would be our evening opportunity from 12:00 p.m. to 6 p.m. And then uh Friday would be 8:00
a.m. to 2:00 p.m. because it's the last in-person day and that's when I would see um a heavier volume of voters. Um, so if you um are so willing to consider this,
I would need a vote um from the board today um because um I would need the vote within 20 days of the first day of early voting and this is your meeting that's well within that 20 days. Um the next meeting's
outside of that window. So that's why I'm here today. Um, and I welcome any discussion or questions or I think that it sounds like a good plan. Straight forward. Any questions? Okay. You did say on the Monday to Friday, October 24th, it's 9:00 a.m. You want to
start time 8 a.m., right? Um, I think I originally had put nine. We decided I decided eight. Um, because I need to have 50%. Yep. So, I need to I do need to have it from 8 to 12. I just didn't want to read it. Yeah. Oh, did I? And I think I meant to go back. Sorry if
I didn't change that. Um, yes, it should say 8 a.m. Okay. Um, because that would be that would fulfill the 50% business hours requirement. So, I'll make a motion for the air select 4 to approve inperson early voting hours
for the town of air as presented by the town clerk as follows. Saturday, October 22nd from 9:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, October 24th through Friday, October 28th from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Saturday, October 29th from
9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Monday, October 31st. Wednesday, November 2nd, Thursday, November 3rd from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Tuesday, November 1st from 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Friday, November 4th from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Second.
All those in favor? I and the chair says I thank you guys so much. I really appreciate it. Um and I just want to say I have been um receiving interest on um electric worker recruitment. Um so I
just wanted to reach out um in an effort to recruit members of the community um to become more engaged and involved with the democratic process for our town, the Commonwealth, and our country. I'm reaching out to share my search for confident individuals to fill this role.
I feel the key to a successful election is to have members of my election team to be inclusive and represent all ethnic, gender, religious, social, economical, physical, and political backgrounds. So, I just wanted to again um reach out to anyone who is interested
in working. Um the requirements again due to the votes act is to be an election worker is you need to be 18 years of age and a citizen of the United States. So, not necessarily um only a resident of our town. So, just a quick little plug on that.
And that's all election talk. And then my next item. Okay. Yep. All right. I'm requesting a one-day liquor license for St. Mary's Church on the October 15th.
Yes. So, now here is a resident. Um the St. Mary's Church. We are going to be holding a Polish dinner um to raise money for our parish. Um it's going to be on Saturday, October 15th at 5:00 p.m. in the parish hall um at St. Mary's
Church on 31 Shirley Street. Um and we are requesting um a one-day um liquor license so that we can offer beer and wine um along with a lovely menu that I included in my letter.
It looks good. Come on. Bye. I might have to. I'm hungry reading. Okay. Any discussion? No discussion. Okay. I'll make a motion
to approve one day liquor license for St. Mary's Church at 31 Shirley Street on Saturday, October 15th. Um as presented. Seconded. All those in favor? I. Chair says I. All right. Thank you very much. wasn't contingent on what we
plate this. All right, that's it for me. Okay, thank you guys very much. I appreciate it. Thank you. All right, so now we can hold our public hearings. We can't start early, but we can start a little bit
late. So, sorry. Um, do I read it? Yes. Okay. Uh, town of air notice of public hearing air select board. The Air Select Board will conduct a public hearing on Tuesday, September 20th, 2022 at 6:05 PM to consider the
transfer of an all alcoholic beverages package store license from the Vineyard LTD doing business as the Vineyard 63 Park Street Air, Mass to Jalaram Bapa, Inc. The meeting will be held in person and
on Zoom. For Zoom call-in information, please contact atmirair.mma. us or 978-7728220 extension 100. Name of the applicant, the Vineyard Limited, doing business as the Vineyard
63 Park Street Air, Mass. Transferring to Jalaran Bapa Inc. doing business as the Vineyard 63 Park Street Air Mass. Date of public hearing, Tuesday, September 20th, 2022. Time of public hearing at 6:05 p.m.
Location of public hearing, in person, Air Town Hall, 1 Main Street. Remote participation meeting held on Zoom. Zoom ID number 897809 0793. Mean materials and information may be obtained by contacting Carli
Anteneellis, the assistant town manager at atmair.mma. us or 9787728220 extension 100. Will the interested parties please come forward?
That chair. Thank you. Do we have another chair? Okay, you got it. Okay. Is that because I'm old? No, that's the right. Okay. So, if you please introduce
yourselves and tell us what's going on. My name is Jeff Gendry and I'm owner of divine. My name is Peter Knox and I'm representing the um that name I can never get out the
Jamron Baba Inc. And I think both my clients, at least one is on Zoom, they both live a long distance away and they have young families and so they requested the ability to come in on Zoom rather
than Mhm. be here and plus they both have full-time jobs. Oh, no problem. We don't have a problem with Zoom. Doing very similar things that Jeff does. Okay. So, why the transfer? I'm retiring.
I have two bad knees and I have to have them done. Oh, that's Yeah, they're bone on bone. So, I have to have replacement. Okay. Well, hopefully come at the end. Hopefully the the, you know, getting the knees done and the retirement will go very well for you. And so, uh, are you
going to be are they going to still be calling it the vineyard? Is there going to be a name change? Okay. out of the transfers that they get their names and any intellectual property that he has and his phone numbers. They're going to run just about the exact same business that's being run there right
now. There was I going to be hard to even notice this change except Jeff won't be there. Um I I don't think they'll be there anyway. And they're young. They're both young and they both have experience in the business. One of them
already has public a license in for a very similar size store in Drake and the other operates a convenience store in Maine. It's kind of cute. It's right on the corner. It's through and they they sell
beer and wine. Okay. And they're both really nice young men and they have a very good reputation and I don't think I you all have the package. I assume we've all gone through it, but I'd be happy to answer any questions you have concerning my clients
and also myself too. I'll answer any question. Okay. Well, as this is a public hearing, does anybody in the public have any questions? Okay, seems pretty straightforward. You guys have any questions? No, no questions. So, according to the packet, you're not making any changes to the
facility or anything like that. You're basically moving right in. Yeah. Hopefully, we just move right in. He's handing you the keys and you're walking in the dark. Well, once we get through the next after this step, the next step. Okay. All right. Well, I don't see any
problems with this. No. And we had a relevant department review. Everything was okay. Okay. Yep. Excellent. All right. Well, doesn't seem like anybody has any questions. It seems straightforward. All right. We wish you
very well. Thank you very much. Been there for a long time. Like to thank here because my kids ended up going to school here. Yeah. And we're from Fitchburg and they had very good uh you know uh experience here and there. So it's been a great ride. Good. Good. Glad
to hear it. All right. Does anybody want to make a motion? I'll make a motion to for the transfer of chapter 138 section 15 all alcoholic beverage package store license from the vineyard LTE to Delaram Vapa Incorporated 63 Park Street as
presented. Second. All those in favor I chair says I congratulations. Thank you so much for retirement. Yeah, good luck with the knees to you. Thank you honey.
Good for you. And don't let him use the knees as excuse. Okay. Thank you. All right. Take care. All right. Want to close the I'll make a motion to close the public
hearing. What do I say? I haven't had a do one yet. I'll second that. Okay. All those in favor? I. And the chair says I. The public hearing is closed. Sorry. All right, Mr. Rivera.
Hi. So, Mr. Rivera has made it. He We had gotten an email that you might be a few minutes late, but it looks like you did quite well in getting here in time. Uh, yes. I was a little concerned uh that I would get here on time, but good directions.
Thanks for having me. All right. Yes. If you could please introduce yourself for the public. Yes. Thanks. I am Dan Rivera. I'm the new CEO, Mass Development. Um, I'm on the job a little over eight, a year and 8 months. Mhm. Um, I come to the role after being mayor
of the city of Lawrence. Um and [Applause] you know part of coming here in part of new leadership is learning what things are need to be done and uh what best direction to to drive the uh organization and but have found that we
have a very capable staff and who are working hard to build relationships with the communities and um as serious as we take um the task before us at Devons um it's important for you you know, um that
it's equally important us for us to have this great relationship with you all. Um and we probably don't do it the best as we possibly can every time. And so some apologies on that front um as we moving
to make change, but at the same time ensure we don't create um more chaos than is necessary in that process. Uh but we are very thrilled to have an ongoing relationship with the communities air uh is has been from what
the staff tells me something very important in in making sure um all the things that happen at Devons um as one of the communities that we look towards to to help us make those things happen. Well, we thank you for coming because as
I stated, the uh relationship between Devons and Air um needed some tweaking uh you know um because you know, as you stated, you've been on the job for a little while, but we hadn't heard from you. Um and this has caused some
distress. And as I stated, this caused some distress when we got an email, the Devon's jurisdiction framework committee saying that mass development was holding out. And I know you feel like that your email that the email explained it all,
but it didn't. So, let me just kind of give you kind of a background. Um, as you know, Debbins when it was taken over by the government, uh, took portions of Harvard and Shirley and Air and even a small piece of Lancaster, though they
kind of disowned it years ago. Okay. Air had the biggest impact with Devons out of the three towns. Okay. The entrances are in air. Um, they were coming to Tiny's uh, you know, coming to the little Korean restaurant that I can never remember its name. um you know so
when it closed it affected this town don't get me wrong it affected the other towns too but it affected this town even bigger okay so you know it has been a part of air um in fact a lot of people think that Debons has always been in air
they're surprised when they hear that historically where the border lines were okay as you know in 2033 as it states right now through chapter 49 498 as it's called um states that you know there should be a plan that goes in front of
the state delegation to say okay here's here's the idea here's what the three towns want to do um we have it all written out and everything and then you know the state delegation going okay so be it
but in order to get there we do need mass development's help and first of all I want to Thank you, Mass Development, for you know, the resources that you were using uh to help us um when you were meeting with us. Mhm. But when you
pulled out and then everyone was kind of like, you know, we're not getting responses to emails or anything, that was quite disturbing. So, we're feeling the feeling that's going on is that mass development doesn't care. um that mass
development um just wants to like run the clock out on we'll say Vixsburg Square for example um I believe that's a historical building and you know as you know um there's an affordable housing crisis in this area actually nationally
but we're going to concentrate on this area and we have this building um that really could do some good for affordable housing and Yet every time we start to talk about it, it falls apart. And it
kind of fell apart on Mass Development side this time. Wasn't it didn't even get to Super Town meeting this time because it came up in conversation again. So there's a feeling um that's going on is that Mass Development just wants to run the clock and let the
buildings deteriorate to the point where they can't be um fixed and then tear it down and thus kind of lose the character. Mhm. Um my father was army actually uh was on Devons for a little while and uh I was actually went to the
Navy and then ended up working for an air force. Army bases were always my favorite. There was something about when you drove onto an army base as to how it looked that just I always loved. Okay. Uh I drove on many a Navy base and I was
just like gh uh air force nice job but army the way they did their bases and that place still has that character. Mhm. But you also have people that live there that are feeling a little disenfranchised. Um, and that's the problem with that
whole chapter 498 deal. That is nothing new personally, just the representative, right? Because they're not even getting They get to vote in this town, but that's about it. Okay. They're just voting for state elections or national
elections. They really not involved in a local one because it doesn't affect them. Interesting. Which is a shame. Okay. Because it could affect them in the future. Mhm. So what we're we would like is for you to have allow mass
development your staff to rejoin the part of the conversation. If there is a problem that really was the straw that broke the camel's back as to why you pull out, please tell us right now because maybe we can fix it.
Yeah. Yeah, I mean I first and foremost um again I understand that the eventual um jurisdiction use if you want to call it that um or the end state is very important to the
lives and prosperity of of the communities uh that surround Devon. And so I don't want to for any moment to think that we're taking a cavalier attitude about it um or that we don't um that we don't appreciate the momental
the momentous nature of the conversations. Um, I will say that part of what we have before us as an agency is to ensure that we do what's tasked to us by the bylaws and that's to ensure
that we're doing a good job of the redevelopment. Um, and last um, a couple months back when we pulled out, I was having a hard time seeing that we were accomplishing that. So we were
making sure of that to focus on the redevelopment to focus on, you know, we had a bridge um a bridge issue that was almost falling down. Um and so we had to there was almost an opportunity that military vehicles were going to go through one of the communities and and so we wanted to make sure we were
focused on the right things. Um I would say there was one big thing that happened that made it like oh a crisis situation. That's not what we were dealing with. Um, but I'm I'm a real focused person and so I want to make sure that at the very least we're doing the things that that are before us. We have to build a public safety center.
Um, we have to support all the developments going on there. And there was there was an opportunity to be more focused and so that's why we were where we're at. I think this has brought up uh a good opportunity for the communities to have um a very poignant conversations
about what they want to see happen. Um, and I think it's it's great that that conversation continues. Um, we are at a situation where even though we have staff, um, unlike the communities, we don't have tons of staff. Um, and so
most of the staff is really in support of the community is support of Devons and the firefighters and DPW um, and the recreation teams. And so the amount of staff that we do have is not that big. So ensuring that they're focused on all the things that are
important across the agency, across the Commonwealth, um and not give you all short shift um or short shift any other part of the mission. And so we're going to uh for for the time being, we're going to continue this path of being supportive of the things that you all want to get
done um and and listening to the the product of those conversations. do feel strongly that it's just a thing that has to be done um three years before the time frame and that's not an a mechanism of trying to run out the
clock on on the situation. I think that the best snapshot that we're going to take is going to happen closer to the day. Even today, if you were to pull data, you're always pulling data that's a couple years back. Um and so we want to make sure we're showing the best possible scenario in all cases. Um
definitely want to make sure um that whatever we propose uh whatever we produce, not propose, produce um is something that gives it as much data as possible, as much timely data as possible. Um
one of the top tiers um items in the governor's uh economic development agenda is housing. And so I stand with you on that. Um, I also am I don't want to have the communities not know that we're not listening. And so we've heard
twice from the communities about affordable housing, about housing. Um, and I felt like we were rushing to do a super town meeting and we were not really prepared for it. Um and again I under mystead I did not want to present
to the communities uh a proposal that we didn't really feel great about um or that didn't really meet the the things that the communities were talking about. So I don't think we were prepared to go to super top meeting. It wasn't because we didn't want to. Um I'd love to do
housing and and uh at Devons if if the communities can agree to it through the process. Um, and I I totally think the process is a a good process considering that you could be, you know, whole groups of people can come and be living in your backyard that don't currently
live there. A whole ecosystem is being built back there. Um, and so I don't take it kind um lightly that we have to go through a super town meeting process and I think it's fair. Um, but what I want to do is when we do those things, so we come to you with those items, um,
that we're prepared and that we are that it's based on stuff that we've listened to you from. Um, and and so I think I tried all the one things that you talked about. Housing is still important to us. We're still, you know, looking forward to uh the conversation that leads us to
three the three years before. Um, the clock is up, but we are definitely not trying to run the clock out. We we would do it tomorrow if we could. Um, but I I think that I've seen the letters to the editors and I've seen the conversations we've had. We've had meetings with the legislators. Um, anxious to to be part
of education effort around what it could be like. Um, but I I feel that our role just like the DEX role is one of like the super licensing board um the planning all those things because they have that role. Um our role really is to
bring development and let you all figure out with support from us staff support um that will then inform the direction later in 33 Scott. Uh so one thing I do want to
point out is about four or five about four years ago mass development came back to the towns and said that they would be willing to listen to disposition conversations before 2033 and that started this whole process where each community was going to the
joint meetings which Janice is is our representative on. We were looking to get our um town specific committees going. Unfortunately, COVID hit about that that time. So, we haven't really ramped that up. Um, the challenge when you're talking about housing in the current situation in Devon, in my
opinion, is it's that it is super town meeting. And when you look at the proposals that have gone into Vixsburg Square, you have three towns that have to come together and wholeheartedly agree on everything. And I think that there's a lot of uneasiness on that within the public officials. Before I
was here, I was on the finance committee. So, I was part of the big um Trinity proposal, reviewing that, looking into that, and there was a lot of anxiety that came up around that proposal because you don't know what the
end result is going to be at Devons. So the ability for the communities to take a take the time in the next few years and have discussions do analysis and even if that analysis is using data that's a few years old there's part of a
leap of faith that you have to take based upon that where if the three communities can come together and agree on a disposition I think that opens the door for the types of developments that we do need in this region particularly around housing because housing seems to
be a hot button issue. in Devon is because there is a cap in place on the housing units based upon the original agreement and in order to lift that and move beyond that it kind of becomes a well where's it going to be and who's going to get that you look at Vixsburg
Square 75% sits in there 25% sits in Harvard you know um what is that even look like if we were if that was to be built are you going to divide the community in you know 3/4 and a quarter you know is one quarter of the kids going to go the Harvard schools, you
know, 3/4 going to come to air, etc. So, I I think disposition needs to be ex expedited so that we can have a view of what the future is going to look like um from a community perspective and and also I'll add from our community, we're
9.2 square miles and we don't have a lot of open space left to be able to put in affordable housing. we don't have a lot of space for recreational area to add on to what we have. So, there are opportunities that we do want to look at in the disposition question that go
beyond just simple housing. It's it's a generational impact on our communities, all three communities, based upon what what's decided there. Yeah. And I I I think that's critically important conversations to have around planning um
and um and use that I think that the deck and us together can support the communities in doing. Um, the jurisdiction question is about the final state and I and
and us talking more about how can we do the things that the communities want. I think that's a good use of all of our times from from a good use of the agency's time um to help in the that development. You guys come together and say, "Hey, we are going to we all want to support housing. This is how it's
going to look like. we'll go out and get that stuff for you just the same way we are actively out there trying to fill those buildings and that land with this the type of industrial use that you all want there. Um
I just have a difference opinion that you have to know the end state in order to get that information and make those decisions. I I don't the agency's um role is is to some extent because we were driving to those
kind of ended questions became more political than really we should be and we really need to be a just like the deck an an a broker an honest broker that can say hey we're going to you know we have this much it for because me a lot of these questions are binary we have a cap we have 14 14 spots left
that's all we have Um we had 8.5 square uh million square ft for industrial. Now thanks to you guys and your support really appreciate it. You know we're moving towards having 12 million. It's binary for us. You know we really feel like these conversations about the end
use is really from the communities to have um and who the leaders of the legislative. So anxious to be part again, we're going through some some staffing changes and so that um even before uh the more recent staffing changes was still an issue. We weren't
um we're trying to stand up our land bank activities or our authority. Um we have been very active in commercial real estate across the Commonwealth and I'm trying to bring the that power that they
use from skyscrapers and big big commercial transactions. Skyrim. I'm trying to bring that power to Main Street if I can help one uh a three a twotory building by you know so we're doing trying to do that at the same time. So the real estate staff who for
all intents and purposes had Devons and very few other um projects like that some in um Northampton and and Taton um we're trying to refocus them on something different and so that that caused a little bit of a burden on
staffing. Um, I say all that to say that those conversations are important to us because they're important to you and important for us in order to meet our mission of the redevelopment. So, um, if you were having that dur during the
jurisdiction conversations, um, maybe there's a place for us to have those conversations that doesn't really take that last question into account for the as the start. Um so sorry I was also signaling somebody else. Uh so first of all it's
greatly appreciated you're here because you now see people say mass development and it's an entity okay and quite honestly it's an evil entity as far as we're all concerned because it has no face but you sitting here and talking to
us okay puts a face puts a human face on mass development. And though we may have some disagreements as to how we're going forward, at least now you're bringing it back to let's have a conversation because unfortunately your email the well the email that was sent on behalf
of you um just was did not cover this. So I know you keep saying 3 years 3 years but here's the problem. Yeah. We've got about 11 10 and a half years before that 2033 date. Okay. each town,
we need to be able to sit down and say, "Okay, uh we need to be able to have all these decisions made or at least thought out. Not necessarily decisions made, but at least thought out as far as who's mowing the lawn, how many people do we got to hire to mow the lawns." Okay. Uh
he brought up a good point as far as these, you know, houses and everything. When Devons got built up, Fort Devons, they weren't the government, I guarantee you, okay, was not thinking like, okay, you cannot build that house right there because
that house has got the bedroom in Harvard, the bathroom in Shirley, and the living room in air. They were just plotting a house. Okay. So, we need, for example, the appropriate GIS map that Ed Starzik was working on and then uh CO
hit and we never got it. So, we need we would really like that completed because it also gives us a good picture as to what's federal land and whatnot. But then we can start visualizing what is because when it comes down to it, the property may go back to its original
homeowners. Okay. The property may get divvied up in different ways. But if I've got my bathroom is in Shirley, I'm going to ask Shirley, "Hey Shirley, can you give me that part? Can we move your territory line over so I can have that
math living room? But that's that's part of what we need to do. Okay. But we need to look at everything. We can't just snap our fingers and say, "Oh, we got it back." And this town does like to have a plan. So that's why we kind of need you
back. So we have I know you're busy. Okay. Um but it would be great. This is important to me. So, this would be greatly appreciated if you could attend the next uh Devon's jurisdictional framework committee meeting. So, maybe we can have a little better discussion and come up with a better plan. And
Dennis, I almost forgot you. So, we have a gentleman that if you could stand and state your name and everything for I don't want to give you my back. I apologize. Hi, my name is Dennis Car. I live on uh Pleasant Street in Air and I'm here because as part of the building
committee for the new senior center, what's been brought to my attention in spades is that there's a lack of land, open land, open space, but there's also a lack of developable land within the town of Air. Um, and we're looking for
like an acre and a half, maybe 2 acres, 2 and a/4 acres. finding that amount of available land to build on within the town of air is somewhere close to impossible. Um, so I know that attempts have been made to reach out to to uh mass
development and and one of my uh colleagues on the committee seems to have gotten some traction recently. Um but there needs to be follow through on that potential. Not because um you know we're trying to co-opt the
process, but there literally isn't that kind of space available in land. And there may be not necessarily so, but there may be uh you know properly sized lots within the um historical boundaries of air currently on Devons that might be
of at least allow us to take a long hard look at that. So, so that's kind of the first big ask from my perspective being on the building committee. Um, beyond that, I think it's important and I was involved in some of the discussions and this is going back 101 15 years
regarding the final disposition of of Devons and how that might play out in terms of the towns. I think it's important for mass development to be cognizant of is there's there are no fundamentally long-term decisions
that you can make without coming to us for permission. That is it's important to realize that we the town and our collectively will live with these decisions for the next
20 30 50 100 years. long time after mass development has ceased to kind of be at at all involved. So zoning changes um commercial industrial buildings the um the presence of housing or not how much
open space how much conservation land how much recreational space is available for future generations who live in this town. That will all happen in the next 10 or 15 years because we're not going to get another fight at this hour. Right. the land is pretty much all used
up because air only has what 9 and a half square miles. It's one of the smaller towns. Um so I would ask that you be aware that these things will have profound implications for the towns and I'm speaking for air but I'm sure the
same holds true for for Hartman and Shirley. um and and and you know make your have your decision making process revolve around what is the ultimate goal in terms of the people who are going to end up living here.
Well, I I appreciate that. Can I answer him or talk to you about? Yeah. Um so, two things I'd say is one is um we're excited about those conversations about the the senior center. Um, and I think that for for us, I think that's something that they they've always done,
even before I got here, is figure out a way to utilize the redevelopment process to support the communities and things they might need. You know, I know we're talking um about maybe some some access to water um from one of the communities that doesn't currently have it. Um, and
so in any way that we can figure out a way that the redevelopment process supports the redevelopment of communities, we're going to we're going to do um I would say the the um Council on Aging, you know, the museum, things like that that are that people are waiting to do that we would we would
prioritize ensure that we do those things. Um, I'm trying to not make us this faceless organization that doesn't um feel or um understand exactly what you are all going to and I and um having these type
of interactions will help us with that. So M Deloreia is is going to be talking with folks in there about about that and I I know that's as much about that I know about it um because it's in early stages but we're excited I think we're excited to to help in Manhattan. Um
I I don't take it lightly and the organization doesn't take it lightly that these things will be here long after we're all gone. Um and so that's why it's important for us that your conversations are happening and you guys are telling us what it is that you're going to want to do um long term.
And I I will commit to and I think I did this when we spoke at the Harvard meeting. um probably looking at more people um you know that any
you know I was a municipal leader and so everything that we do is public documents and so that's how I operate and so anything that any piece of information that you all need in these conversations we will absolutely guarantee uh to put that stuff out to you that's a it's a standard that we
should live by regardless of what the question is um our public documents um all the things we do should be, you know, open to that public document. Um we avail ourselves of the the um executive session rights because
sometimes we deal in real estate and not everybody wants to know what things are happening out before the the deals are closed. Um so I will I will continue to commit to whatever data we have. John Mariel who's our engineer he's a guy keeping count of a lot of the stuff making sure um all the boundaries are
are are being honored and then the other thing I would say is you know in this um conversation about where it will be we want to be a good partner in a way that when you guys have
come to a conclusion we weren't have we were um informative and not driving. We I I want us to not have a dog in the fight. And I'm afraid that folks believe that we may have a dog in the fight. You're absolutely right. They do. Uh they feel
that you want control, that mass development wants absolute control. You know, you're at some point going to take over the whole state, but that's going to be a little bit slower. Yeah. No, I I think I can tell you personally um that in my years sitting here and having met
some of your predecessors, this is the best conversation that I think we've had. You know, I think you're going to people have ideas about it. You know, I take everything that happened prior to me as a learning piece. They try to make it a town. Do it. They take they try to make
it a town. We heard loud and clear. I believe we try to do housing two different ways. We heard loud and clear there has to be other ways. Um, you know, I thought the prudent thing to do so folks did not believe that we were continuing to have these conversations
about housing is to stop talking about housing. Not because we don't want to do it, you know, like that's hardly hard. But we would hate for one of the towns to say, "Hey, you talking to wind? You guys talking to this developer? This other developer?" When we have that discussion, we should
have that discussion together. Hey, what do you all think? I think the the the senator's um oped about what type of housing goes where, I think that was really instructive. That's the senator's opinion of it. I would like to see what the town meetings are talking about because I I don't want
to go before you all with um with things that make you feel again, you're not listening. Um and so we're we're going to we're continue to do that piece of it. Um I want to make sure did I answered all those things right that that he brought up. Um, but we do that
take that very seriously. So, the next Devon's jurisdiction framework committee, way too painful of a name, um, is on October 12th. It's a Wednesday at 3 p.m. We'll send you the Zoom link. Perhaps you can join us or a representative.
And I would, if you're able to, um, I would like the discussion and I'll send the note to the chair as being, you know, how and where do we go from here? Yeah. As far as because we'd like to have mass development be a part of the
conversation. Um, again, um, but maybe we can do it in a better way than what was being done before. Um I also have a thought um that uh maybe um
some of our representatives from some of our committees the form of housing and CPC and all those committees and everything um somehow start having an interaction more than perhaps what they're having now um with mass development a representative. Yeah.
keeping those line my point being is let's keep these lines of communication open better than what they have been um because I think we're you know we're reaching um a more critical phase uh going forward and things that need to be
done and I we've felt shut out over the past few months especially and uh I don't think we want that. No. And I and I don't want you to feel that way. And I have a a personal stake in keeping my my former municipal experience in in my
heart. And so I don't want you to ever feel that way. And we don't, you know, we we have a role to play. I'm very clear about that. I'm not I'm an honest person. We're trying to try to not steer from that. And so if we can do that um in conversations in support of the
conversation you're having with um with the jurisdiction committee, but also in just general conversations with your planning board, with your housing committee, with your finance committee, I'm interested in doing those things. All right. Does anybody else have any
other questions? Any other questions? Mr. Rivera, thank you very much. Thank you. It was a real pleasure to meet you. Um and I'll come back anytime you guys want me to come back. Yes. if I can, you know, juggle it. Make sure I can I come back. Yeah. Maybe we'll set up something like, I don't know, quarterly or
annually or bianually or something. We'll figure out something. And definitely, but you're definitely invited back. And if you have something you want to say, just give us a call and we'll put you on the agenda. Sounds like a plan. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you for your time. Take care.
Next. Okay. All right. Chief Gil. Hello. Good evening. Hello, Chief. Hello. Hello. How are you? Wonderful. Wonderful. Wonderful. Um, so
I'm just going to kind of go into my uh my presentation tonight and I don't know really where we're going to end up as to what we actually need to do. So I'm just going to get right at it and go. So um several years ago um Detective
Barheight, Detective Kolarski, um and myself kind of brought on a program called Bring Me Home. It was kind of an uh something that we had designed and developed and it was uh geared towards assisting um bringing
home people that uh tend to wander. So they have some sort of cognitive challenge or or u uh uh some sort of some sort of issue that affects their ability to get home safely. Um so it was uh something that we've advertised for
several years. Um it's we've had you know families on uh you know that have taken part in the program and it was really a failsafe um kind of kind of a me uh program that if somebody had gone missing we already had all that information up front. So we had a photo
we have their we had their um likes, their dislikes um in in places that they would tend to gravitate to. So that would help us in in uh trying to find trying to find them if they had gone and wandered and gone missing. Um and uh
thankfully we've hadn't had to use that program uh that uh that much. Um though we've had you know people register uh with us just just in the in case. Uh recently we've had um the ex the uh the
opportunity to talk to uh one of our uh residents here in town who um and he he's he's in the audience here with us today. Mr. Matt Murphy in the back here. Um he was initially inquiring about the program and what you know the services
that we could offer and he explained that he has uh some family uh members that um you know do have some uh cognitive challenges that you know that they he would be interested in in this program. And in this conversation that Detective Bar was having with with Mr.
Murphy. Um he uh talked about uh this program called Project Lifesaver and if we would be interested in pursuing um a program such as that. We really weren't familiar with it. So they started a conversation and uh we started to learn
about it and the the the the things that it could do for uh members of the town of Air that uh their family could tend to wander. what we and and how that would help us. Um so we we looked at it
as with most most things and we tried to find out its financial viability. Um it was something that we haven't planned for and it's uh it does have a startup cost that uh you know would be would be challenging in in a uh in something that we hadn't planned for. Uh Mr. Murphy had
talked to us and said he has the unique capabilities to uh be a uh a fundraiser and he uh is that yeah I'm a professional fundraiser professional fundraiser so not only unique he's that's what he does. Um so he said that
he is confident that he would be able to raise our all of our startup costs um for uh this measure. um not really familiar with fundraising on behalf of the town. Um I started a conversation with Mr. Pompand in our uh
town accountant to find out the viability of this um and that uh that that it is a possibility and that it's not unheard of um for um uh fundraising on behalf of a town entity to to fund a project, a specific project.
Um, so what I'm here tonight to do, I think, is to I think just get the blessing of the board to move forward because the fundraising would be done on behalf of the town uh in in
essence and that that money ultimately would be donated back to to the town for that specific project. Um, just a little bit about what Project Lifesaver is. um Project Lifesaver. It's a it's an international program.
Uh and if you kind of see on the board, we have a map up there and this shows a couple of towns that are already membered towns, but um our particular area is avoided of um of uh registered programs there. And I pulled this number
off their website. Um this is how many um individuals had been rescued using this program. Um and this was just as of a couple days ago. It's updated every day. They every time they have a uh a recorded rescue that gets updated. So, um it's the program has merits. The
program works. And so, basically what it is, um a a family would uh approach the air police department and say that they have a loved one that has a tendency to wander um that they're concerned for their safety and they would, you know, they would like to get them into this
program. They would uh they would have a a bracelet that would be an RF transmitter or an an or an ankle bracelet. Um and we would have equipment at the station that could be deployed and bas it's you you would uh just kind of try to find the the strongest signal
and just kind of move that way rather than kind of guess and just kind of go out every which way. We would really focus our abilities. One of the things that I found super interesting in um in researching this myself was that they
have an average rescue time frame of a half hour. Wow. Which is is when when we're when you're talking about trying to find somebody that you're are could be walking towards danger. Um that's huge. That's real huge. Um so that's
what I'm here tonight to do is to to to I think get the you know get the blessing of the board. Um, I don't know if there's any votes that need to be taken. I I I'd leave that to the to the board, but um I I would I really just want to get the blessing and the support
of the board moving forward on those. I think it sounds awesome. Um I can't imagine a motion being needed, but yeah, I think just to echo what Chief Gil said through the chair, a we wanted the board to be aware of the the program, number
one. Number two, we greatly appreciate Mr. Murphy and his expertise and willingness to to do the fundraising. As the chief mentioned, he had a conversation with Mr. Aponte, the finance manager, as did I. And um Fred
Kin set up the the appropriate um accounting. will work out those details. But we also wanted the board to be aware of that is if as with your blessing if the fundraising effort begins those funds would obviously come uh to the
town of air specifically and only for uh the project lifesaver. So okay. So, do you need an actual motion or just us to say I think it would be helpful if the board took a official vote to support it because when we start the fundraising efforts often people ask you know is
this legitimate and so forth which it obviously is but it would be helpful with your support. Okay, Dennis. Um it it sounds like a wonderful program and I you know in our neighborhood I live downtown there have been ana couple of occasions where police officer has
driven by and they are in fact looking for somebody who has won. Um so it's it's great that there's been that um you know kind of presence downtown looking for people who are missing more broadly speaking in terms of
government involvement. One thing, one question I would have is the civil liberties involved with has this person consented to be trapped and well I think that would be I mean I understand your question but I think like that would be
you know between the with the family you know right right but I but I think that the family communicating that properly to the individual who would be tracked and that the police feeling comfortable that yes it's okay for us to be tracking
this individual. Um, you know, you know, that would all be great. What I would just say is that in situations where there may be some cognitive impairment, there may be familial relationships which are somewhat contentious perhaps or there
may be, you know, polite disagreements. how that is navigated between the police department and the family requesting the assistance and the subject of the search. It's just something I I think bears some level of
understanding. So I think when I speak as a parent, two children with cognitive disabilities, my child's civil liberties takes kind of a backseat from not worrying that my kids's going to run into traffic or end
up in a swimming pool, which is occasionally in a large majority of the cases when the kids wander off like this is where they end up and then we have a more tragic situation. So my 5-year-old civic liberties takes a real backseat to me
knowing that if he gets out of the house, and trust me, we live in a a fortress. Everything's alarmed. We take every measure possible to make sure if he gets out, we know about it. But if they slip out, his single liberties take
a backseat to be meaning safe. So Sure. And I understand that. and you as the parent of a 5-year-old are their legal guardian and you would be in a position to make that choice for them in terms of they will be in fact enrolled in this
for folks who are of a certain age. Um it I just think it's something that you know it bears some and again I don't know exactly where that uh line is but I think it bears some level of understanding if we are in fact
to deploy town resources to track down someone um who in all likelihood probably wants to be tracked has agreed to be tracked and is relieved when they are found. Well, based on the information that was in the packet, it does look like, you know, it's the
families who are getting this ID, uh, this, you know, bracelet or or ankle bracelet or everything and then working with the the thing, but I I I get what you're saying and I think it's important for the conversation. So, um, I would think that that would already be worked
out. I I think that one of the things that we'd learned during our onboarding with the training is that there would be some uh you know some familiar disclosures like you know that the you know the these tracking devices aren't activated unless the you know the the
family you know wants them activated. Um that uh and and I think that's you know not everybody in the town's getting issued one of these. It's families that are coming to us saying, "We have concerns with our family member that has a tendency to wander because they have a
cognitive challenge." Um, and they're concerned Alzheimer's or something like that. Exactly. Yep. And uh, you know, and and I'm sure um, just with any missing persons that we have, it's an official report. You know, it's not something that it's just, hey, can you go find my kid? He, you know, he hasn't
come home yet. It's, you know, like I wonder about, you know, mine when they're out driving, whatever. It's, you know, somebody with a cognitive challenge that their family's already made the, you know, the the predetermination that they're concerned for their safety should they get out uh
in and wander outside of their outside of their control. So, and this is already in Massachusetts, just not in this area like you were showing on the correct. Yeah, there there there are other as you saw those are just the dots in that kind of quadrant of uh of
agencies already using them. Uh so the cost is the $16,000 that you put in the memo approximately correct. Uh from the time that that funding is received, how long would it take the program to get ramped up? Um, from what
I can tell of everything that I have been able to research is that they're very motivated to get these um these this system online. Um, the the the the people that are um that that are with uh Project Lifesaver International are all
about just bringing people back that are that are in a danger. So um you you know it would be our uh our intent that as soon as it comes in we start making these inroads with project life uh project lifesaver to uh coordinate the
training uh and coordinate the uh the you know the equipment on boarding. Thank you. Have you had a chance to speak with any like of your colleagues in some of these towns that do have it? Haven't had it haven't had an opportunity to do that. I'm actually at
a uh chief's conference uh this week in Massachusetts and I'm looking for some of these communities. Um the days are quite busy so trying to mix and mingle amongst 350 other chiefs and find them is uh proving challenging but um I do know that there from from the
testimonials that they do have that are on their website that they're um referred to as the gold standard in uh in in in this field. Any other questions? No other questions.
Thank you. I I think it's a benefit. I I get the, you know, the conversation that uh Dennis brought up, but I think too that it's the families that are having, you know, the ones that are probably legal
guardians. Yes. Um you know, my father, he's been gone for a long time, but he had Alzheimer's and a couple times he started wandering. So, this would have been quite beneficial. So I think this is just another tool um for some families to have that may need it. So uh
I think that this is a good idea and I encourage you to look more into it with the other towns and everything uh to find out what they say because you know you can also learn you know best practices. from reading from the other things that I was reading is they they want to
create this net that you know so an area you know has these abilities so you're not having to go to Boston so to say and pull you know pull from their resources to have you know a local resource you know available you know closer I will make a motion that the select
board support um the air police department implementation of the lifesaver program. Second that. All those in favor? I. And the chair says I. Thank you very much. Look forward to bringing this to town.
Thank you. Hey, Johnson. Good evening. How are you? Great. Do you want me to pull your thing up now? Yeah, you can just Madam Chair. Yes. Threw you into the board just to uh frame this and and
through you then to the the fire chief. Uh as the board is aware um recently there were a lot of uh discussions and questions and so forth that had come up uh regarding uh the issues of mutual aid and so forth. that there was some discussion at town meeting and what have
you. And based on the instruction of this board, uh I did ask the the fire chief and the deputy chief uh to prepare a a public presentation on mutual aid. So uh this evening they have a brief presentation to to start that
discussion. There is a lot of information. There are a lot of variables. There's a lot of numbers. So we figured we'd start or the chief would start with a a basic overview and get into some of the the major issues and then in the interest of time and so forth there may at the future need to be
a a part two or further discussion I think is a fair way to put it as there's a lot uh here but um through you madam chair uh chief Johnson and deputy jennice. Thank you, Madam Chair. If we may, if we can give the I know you had a written
explanation on it. Um, we have a short PowerPoint presentation that consolidates it. So, we'll do that and answer any questions that we can. Great. So, as you see there before, it's just so everybody knows, at least for the public people watching, that's just a
diagram of our organiz organizational chart um of the fire department. I just see um at the top it would be myself and the deputy followed by the office of manager and then how the groups are broken down you know one uh four groups that work 24 hours a day followed by the
fire prevention and then our call department the combination company and you can see off the chain of command off the call department down there in the lower right and then exactly what is mutual aid? Mutual aid is an agreement between fire departments to help each other across
jurisdictional b uh borders. Um some of the things as we know we've been doing that for decades. Uh the emergency um and the reasons we would do that the emergency exceeds our local resources. So we have two fire engines, a ladder rescue that go to a structural fire. We
can always handle a larger fire. We ask our mutual aid partners which are surrounding towns to do that. And occasionally it could be just for manpower. we may only have the duty crew and a couple people that come back and we need more manpower than that. So, we would call more people in. There's also
the the second bullet point. There's pre-planned agreements um such as like in the north part of Shirley off of Route 2A. We would go automatically if they get a recorded fire in that area just because we have a real quick run and we would probably arrive before them. And the last one is there we get
activated and we have a slide on this further down on the uh statewide fire mobilization plan. So that's three ways we can get activated. And this is what we we it's a uh industry standard. You would have what they call a 10 alarm run card. What
that does is if we get a call for a fire, you'll see that one in red. So you'll see the two air engines. Um, we also have mutual aid started right away from Devons and Shirley if we get a reported fire in a building. And then as
each alarm works up, it can be anywhere from three to seven additional units that are called. And then over in the notes section, you'll see if you need the special call, if you need more than two ladder trucks, let's say, um, that's listed there on the side where where we
can get those ladder trucks from. And this is posted both over in the uh regional dispatch center at the police department and at our watch room at the fire department. It's also in our uh in our regional dispatch center. So we only take till about the fourth alarm for our dispatchers and then we turn that over
then to our district in westward with then start calling mutual because our dispatches we focus on the incident. And this just uh is an overview of what um the towns that surround us have for full-time staff. So you see on the left
where the towns are all listed and then the number of full-time staff and that's 24 hours around the clock. Um a couple notes, the towns that are highlighted in red actually have paramedic staffing and Harvard has only a daytime person I
believe now. That's why we listed them as zero. but they do have somebody during the day. And then the last note would be Lunberg. They're in the process now they're at the intermediate level. So they're between basic and paramedic. Um they're looking to get to the paramedic level maybe by the end of the
calendar year. And this is that statewide fire uh fire mobilization plan I talked about. Uh the state is broken up into districts. We're in that purple district six you see up at the top of the map here. Um so what
this does is this is activated only through MIMA. We've been activated over say the last 20 plus years to um towns and cities like Worcester Amesberry Springfield, Spencer, Haveril. Uh most recently just
this past summer to Sus when they had those large brush fires and the DCR property and then a couple weeks ago to Ashby they had a large um outdoor fire that they needed help with too. So this isn't something we do too too often. When we're mobilized it's a group of
fire trucks that are mobilized at a rendevous point and then you're sent on your way. Like I said I think the furthest we've been to is when the tornadoes happened out in Springfield. We went out there for a 12-h hour operational period, then made our way back. And the idea of this plan is that
if if we have a a longer event and we're going to be using, you know, eight or nine alarms, we don't want to continue just to draw from our area. So, they jump a district away and then draw draw resources from that away. So, at least we then have something else if there's another call or a fire that comes in. I
think we listed in the memo that uh I think we the only time I can remember that we activated for the response to air was when we had that brush fire up off a long hill probably 2010. Yeah. Cuz you saturated the resources at the beginning of that fire and that was
a week long operational period. So those resources came from say down the Hopkin Milford way then they reach out west and that's all dictated by MIMA because they don't saturate resources out of another district either. And then some of the statutory
requirements when we talk about mutual aid. Um as the fire goes on your left. Um master law chapter 40 section 4J. Um this is the mutual aid law. If the board may remember we you you folks accepted it again last year. So the fire marshall
sent out a memo asking if any city or towns had not adopted it to please look into that. So I reached out to the retired chief cuz I could not find any documentation of that and then uh I reached out to Madame Clerk who could not find a recording of it. So I came back to you folks just to um get that
accepted once again. And the important part about that is if we go mutual aid all the um this affords the same rights, powers and duty. So if we're not there, those same rights and privileges are afforded us when we're mutual aid by accepting that chapter. So, I think
that's a very important part that we did accept that chapter. Um, so now we know it's officially recorded. So, um, we know that that's done and, uh, that'll be good for its duration unless we opt out of it. Um, the one on the right, we
operate our ambulance service under the office of OEM is what it's called, office of emergency medical services. Under our licensing agreements, we operate under certain Commonwealth of ME of Massachusetts regulations and under the mutual aid part is the uh 105
chapter and that where the agreement is um that we shall uh not refuse care of any emergency dispatch of an EMS vehicle to provide emergency response, assessment or treatment within the services uh regular operating area. In short, when we have a license, we have
to submit a um service a service plan and part of that service plan is those communities similar to what that map was that we service. Um and those are the ones generally who call on us for that. So th those are the two statutory requirements both our fire and EMS.
Uh this gets back on the some of the issues on the staffing side. We certainly always have an increase of call numbers as we talked about here and everybody understands housing isn't cheap. So more of the uh firefighters that we're hiring now back say 20 30
years ago pretty much everybody we hired was from town. That is not the case anymore. Um and then we have a less availability of our call members. Um and certainly the training is a big part of that. there's certain training requirements that put a de big demand on their time that they're able to give to
that. So they have less time due to volunteer for training whether it's fire or EMS and certainly like many of us they have family commitments and uh they're not able to come back for training or the calls and certainly one of the things we find out too is we have
calls in the middle of the night that be 1 2 3 hour duration well they still have to get up and take care of their day jobs the next morning so they're unable to do that. This is just a quick look at our um call volume for 2021.
So these are the fire incidents. We had 771 events. You'll see them listed on the left of the mutual aids that were requested. We had five events we did which required 17 units. So the numbers
are we went we had a total mutual aid of 27 on the right which is where we went and those are the towns listed in how many times we went to them. So we went 27 times but we required 17 units to incidents that belonged in air. Yeah. So
when you look between the two that's just the way our NPR reporting is done. Um it does it by event. So when you're looking at the air numbers that's the five. Well, that totals us actually asking 17 communities to come to air, you know, over those five events versus
that 27 that is a singular air unit going to those communities one at a time. So, we have a we have a drawn out plan where, you know, we notify the district every morning what our availability is and we're one or one engine, one ladder. You you pick um and that's what that line on the right is.
So, you know, where it says a DevO three, we didn't have all three pieces at Devons at once. That engine went three separate times. And there are times we do have to say no. It could be we already have an engine somewhere else. Um both ambulances could be out. So we there is periods we just don't have enough manpower where the trucks
are already gone to different other locations. Do that one. So this is the call volume for the EMS side for 2021. Um so our our data reflects uh 1593 patient contacts. Um,
so what you see is the call type below. Um, so the 477 it looks like all the way to the left is labeled emergency. Those are predominantly air calls. Um, and then you'll see the next one over as ALS intercept. So that's when we go meet in
in in um a mutual aid community um in route to the hospital or if we meet them at the scene to provide the ALS level for a BLS staffed ambulance or neighbor. Um, the 911 BLS is a BLS call in town. The ALS 911 is a ALS call that is in
town. The reason you see it in the four like that is uh prior to 2021, we only used to track it as emergency. Um, our software defaults to that and that was the the previous chief always just left it as emergency. It was either emergency or transfer. And in 2021, somewhere
around February, March, we broke it down to, hey, we want to actually see how many ALS, BLS, and intercepts we do. So, going forward, I can give you more direct numbers yeartoear. Um, but for this year, it's an in it's inclusive of the emergency line, the BLS, and the ALS
is the air calls. And then that ALS intercept is your is your um mutual aid going out to intercept with the truck. And then the other two smaller ones are are mutual aid, but we're the transport agency. we'll actually go to the home, pick up the patient to complete the transport. Um, and then the slide, the
piece to the right is is the hospitals. It's where we end up. Um, so predominantly we end up in Ashoba. Um, you know, about a thousand of those runs. We went to the medical center here in town. Um, which, you know, for us is great because it's a quick turnaround. We can get our staff back in service,
our truck back in service. Um, the nulls can be a variety of things. Um, they can be canceled in routes, they can be refusals by the patient. um we might triage them. We might um or transfer them to another agency. Um so that's that whole that's at 474 and then every
other hospital. So the Emerson and the Lemisters are kind of a patient choice or within 15 miles is what the Commonwealth uses. You can you can pick and choose if it's your doctor. Um for every other one going to the right where it's the smaller numbers, those are all the specialty centers that we have to go
to by protocol. Um if we pick you up with a stroke um and we call into the hospital and it's graded a certain way, we might have to take you to UMass. Uh traumas go to you know a trauma center. So for us it's Lehey, UMass um STEMIS for us can go to LOL, they can go to
Boston, we can meet a helicopter, you know, whatever it is, but those are all typically specialty centers and that's all dictated by the protocol. So, we were just trying to tie this into how do we end up with the four? Um, you know, certainly it was, you know, we recognize that we we are busier than we
were when we we step we began the staffing at the um three per 24hour shift. Um that began in the town of Air in 1998 when I was hired. Um we went from two two around the clock to three. Uh it stayed stayed that way until until
we hired um these last four in February. Um, so we've been looking at the safer grant for uh quite a while. Um, you know, and at the end here we'll show you a video of what started peing our interest about it. You know, our fires have changed. They become faster. Um,
you know, we recognize that our call department was becoming um less reliable as far as numbers. You know, the guys are very dedicated and the girls are very dedicated. It's just they're not always around and, you know, and it's something that we can't control. Um so we started looking at you know um
through negotiations with the town you know as back then I would have been the union president and you know the chief and I would talk about it a lot about how do we get to that the uh added staff and so we looked at the um the safer grant and we brought it to the town somewhere around probably our 2018
contract and came to the agreement that hey we'll start looking for grant funding to try to ease us into what that cost is. Um so it's going to do a few things for us. It helps us with an adequate number of staffing to provide a safe environment for our people to work. Um there's been plenty of studies um
through both the NFPA and NIS that show that a fourperson engine company is is much more effective and efficient than a three and that's what we are operating. And the thing we were running into and that drove part of our grant narrative was that three was reduced to one when that ambulance was out and we had a few
instances where we sent an engine company to a multiple on fire with a single person on. Um, so part of the part of that grant narrative highlighted those events and then high part of it highlighted events like what happened on Fitsburg Road when we had the ABS explosion. We happen to have the three
on duty and a call firefighter that was still in the building. We could show what could be done with a fourperson engine company in that same time frame. Um, so we're trying to meet as a department the the 7 1710 standard which is four people on the apparatus. It's a 4-minute response to your house from the
time of the call. Um, that's probably about as far as we'll be able to go. You know, our department is too small. So, it's we can meet 1710 for that first engine. That's what we wrote the grant to achieve. Um, and then the department then follows 1720 for the remainder of
our operations. Um, you know, what the safer grant does is a three-year program to to match salaries. Uh, began in February and and so we'll get three more years out of before the town has to take over that that cost. Well, like I said, it was uh it was an
effort, you know, essentially to improve our our safety and efficiency and some of the next steps. We always look at our ambulance rates and what we get paid to transport. I myself, I talked with the town manager. I've done that the last two years I've been here.
Um, and a couple uh noteworthy points. So if we look at the town of air, 69% of our transports are Medicare patients. So that is dictated by a certain rate set by Medicare. So for instance, you'll see the top, it's an ALS1 rate. So that
could mean they could maybe do a monitor, an IV. It's just a rate, but it compares the two. So say for instance, I go in the ambulance and I'm an ALS rate. Um I'm not one of 31enter person that would get charged you know the 1205 and there's other ancillary fees as the
billing company would call them that get added on but these are just base rates. So if you look at that I would get charged that but the 69% we only get the 498 so it's substantially less and that's 69% of our transports. Um, we are
going to look at our advanced life support intercept rates which are a flat rate of 275 and they've been that way since ' 09. But it's just important we look at those ambulance rates every year and we also participated in our program. Um, we have for the last three or four
years. Um, Chief Prazi started it and it was probably an additional um, offset to Medicare rates. We had about 30 something thousand when we started and this past year we got an extra additional $62,000. So it's a program we participate in. It just takes a little
bit of from the town and us to put some stuff in and an additional reimbursement through Medicare. So as you can see almost 70% of us are always dictated by the Medicare rate. We have no control over that. Um, when we do ALS intercepts, it's generally it's a
general like it's all taken care of by the on duty personnel unless we end up having two ambulances out at the same time. Then we may need station coverage depending on the time of day and the day of the week. Um, as always, we continue to support paramedic programs. As a
deputy would say, he schedules we have a lot of um paramedic student ride alongs. We I think it's like there's a place down towards the social we do not choose it. Um, so we're always bringing those students on and what that does, it gets more paramedics into the program. So there's more people out there looking
for paramedic jobs. As we know coming out of the uh pandemic that there was a shortage of paramedics and that continues to be that way. Um, we also can look at the evaluation of a fly car, which is a non-transport um vehicle. That could be anything from a Ford
Explorer to a Tahoe. And that just takes the paramedic equipment, puts it in the back, and the um paramedics in the front seat, and you don't have to race around with a and what could be almost a $400,000 ambulance. Now, there's still a significant cost to
that, and that's kind of what's uh you know, there's the equipment just to equip us at the ALS level is in the $40,000 neighborhood. Um and what up until this point, what we were finding was we were doing a lot more transports. we'd show up and the the neighboring
community would not be able to supply that base of ambulance or whatever. You know, they didn't have around the clock staff yet. Um so we were we were running into that a lot. So it just didn't make sense for us to even pursue that until now when you have 24-hour EMS truckage on most of your communities around you.
And the last one what we found is uh monitor the availability of private ambulance service for inter facility transfers. So what we're finding of late, we're not licensed to transfer from facility to facility. What we're finding is the ER from the hospital will
call down. They have a STEMI patient that needs to get a low, you know, cuz they need to get a stint put in right away. And they don't have an ambulance for 4 hours. So myself or the deputy get a call from the captain and say, "Hey, can we do this?" And of course, all all about saving lives. So we do it. We run
the low and that's what we do. We save lives, you know. So it's important. We don't do a lot. maybe one a month maybe, you know, it might not be the LOL, it could be the UMass for, you know, it could be the weather, they might not, MedStar might not have anybody around, but we don't do it that often and
occasionally they'll end up flying the person out. So, that does happen. It's just because there's no private animal. We're their last resort for sure. Um, we have a pretty good relationship with our medical control physician. He's out of out of Nishoba and his doctors are pretty on board with, you know, call
last. you know, if we needs to move somebody and they have to go now, you know, they'll call and explain it. Um, you know, and the idea of, you know, if it's a STEM, well, time is cardiac muscle, so they want them out the door. Um, and so we try to facilitate that for them. Um, but they understand we're not licensed for that. We're not able to
build for that. You know, he covers us under his license essentially when we're doing that transport. Um, and it doesn't happen a lot, but it's it's something that the state's been warning us about. um for most of CO they put a waiver in place that you didn't need the training because there's not enough private
ambulances to complete all the transfers. Um they're not producing enough paramedics right now out of these schools because of that 2-year shutdown to fill all the jobs. Um, I hear about it all the time from our our um competing agencies that are trying to hire paramedics like how do you remain
staffed and and our paramedics come and stay and uh so it's it's something you know certainly it's great for the department to have that but it's you know it's the outlook is a little frightening going you know we we may struggle just like everybody else in the future trying to get paramedic so it's
good while it lasts. Yeah. And we're coming out of the pandemic. We're still feeling the residual effects of a pandemic out of that. We there's a bunch of mental health issues, substance abuse, and none of those are going away. We're probably coming off on our busier busiest year ever as an EMS provider
through the fire department. And I don't see that going away anytime soon. And that's not just air. That's like it was probably busy like all the towns around us also would probably give you that same numbers. Um, so I don't see those numbers going down by any stretch.
And the last thing we want to leave you with, and we can answer questions while that plays, as the deputy alluded to on the uh the video. So, what this will show you is this is takes us back to about when the conversation started with us about wanting to increase staffing. Um I don't
think that's planned. Should I start? Yeah, you can start it. So, this this is about 2014. Uh this is a test done by UL. Um so, the the room on the left will be, you know, what they call legacy furnishings. The room on the right is what you would find in in most homes today.
Um, and all it's showing is that the change in fire growth. Um, you know, the way we teach firefighting and fire growth is has changed dramatically in the last, you know, 10 years. Um, the the heat release rate of furnish furnishings today are dramatically faster. Uh, so that they they've placed
a candle in both these rooms up against the backside of these couches. Um, and this is, you know, takes about 3 minutes to demonstrate pretty pretty effectively what the difference is. and how this works. So, this coincided with another set of tests they did. Um, UL and NIST
and the FDNY did it. Uh, they they burned rows of homes on, I believe it was Governor's Island, and they set them all up the same way, testing, you know, how many firefighters did it take to a set number of fire ground activities and what percentage of efficiency did you gain or lose by adding adding personnel.
Um, so that's that's what started our progress to wanting to ask for the full. Um, so you can already see, you know, the fire on the left begins to flame earlier. Um, you don't see much smoke. It burns fairly clean, plenty of oxygen, where the fire on the left is is producing, you know, products of
combustion, but no flame until just about there. Um, certainly the product the products on the left seem to be, you know, fairly clean. You don't see them. Um, so there's a question. There's no sound to this. So I always wondered at what point would the smoke detectors go off, right? So if you know my home uh is
a 1970s, you know, so I have the one smoke detector in the center hallway. Smoke's got to travel fairly far. You know, if you're in a newer home, it's in every bedroom and then every hallway. Um so there's a question of, you know, where where is your alerting taking place? I would I would venture to guess that somewhere around now you have
potential of setting a smoke detector off on the right. The left still looks fair pretty clean to me. Um, and then what we educate our people and educate the the kids when we do Safe for the School is, you know, fire doubles in size about every minute. So,
it takes very little for this this fire on the right to go from what you see now to full involvement. Um, we're at the 2-minute mark. You know, presumably you're calling 911. Well, you're what we're wanting to achieve is a 4-minute response time. So, it's not from when that fire started, it's from when you
dial piled the phone. So if your smoke detectors went off in a minute and 30, presumably we're in the truck on the way just now and we got about a 4-minute window now potentially depending on where you live in town. Um and what you'll see in fire growth is the products of combustion come rolling out
of that room on the right. That's to us is all fuel now. That's that will eventually get hot enough to burn and spread that fire rapidly. And that's that's what was concerning to us, you know, as far as showing up with one or two personnel and wanting to push it to four to be able to make a faster fire
attempt. So, as you reach the 3m minute mark here pretty quickly, um you'll see that room on the right be fully involved and you're still barely burning anything on that couch. And that's just it's for the level of um
foams, um blues, how tight that home is. Now, um there's a lot of a lot of issues, you know, where we used to be able to to have a um a ratio in our head of about, you know, I got a window about 30 minutes to get to your house and put a fire out and I can contain it to a
room. Now, it's about 4 minutes to flash over, you know, from the time a fire starts. So, this is fully involved here just about you start to get rollover. That products of combustion we were talking about spraying through your home is now fuel. it's burning. Um, and somewhere about that 430, 440, uh, 340
mark, that room will reach flashover, which is when everything in that room reaches its ignition temperature automatically and will all burn. It's no longer survivable, you know. So, presumably, if that was called in right away, we're just pulling up to your house. So, that was what drove our want to try
to up that staff into a fourperson engine company. Uh, we wanted to be be able to have that pump operator, have an officer to be able to do the do the 360 and have the four people we require to begin fire attack. Um, so this will fast forward for a few
more minutes. I think it takes was it 40 minutes for that room on the left to finally reach the same state of growth. Um, but would be happy to answer any questions you might have or from the public. We'd be happy to do that.
Yes, madam chair through you uh chief and deputy. Thank you for the presentation. Chief on back on the um on the next steps. I know just for the public's benefit um chief had instituted
that every twice a year the fire chief finance manager and myself review the ambulance billing and the status of the ambulance accounts um in terms of preparation for not only the budget but the enterprise fund and in our
discussions if you could just I I think and you correct me if I'm wrong we're looking to come before the board in the near future with a recommendation to at least increase that advanced life support intercept rate. Is that correct? I mean at the 275 that is correct. Yeah.
So I've gotten the rates around. Certainly there's room to go up because as we know labor has gone up, fuel's gone up, supplies. So um certainly I would like to try to get that done so we can start that most likely at the beginning of um the next calendar year.
So by January, we'd like to go back and present the board with our new fee schedule and get that out. How many requirements I have to do to get that out to the people that we have agreements with. So yeah, that would be my recommendation as we've spoken with the I have with the town manager about that. I've gathered a lot of intel on
the rates. I think we're there. We're right where we should be. Um, and 70% almost 70% of it is based off of Medicare. And we wouldn't want to, from the conversations I've had with both other services that participate in that Medicare program and our billing
company, we're not sure if we changed our rates, whether that would bother the um return that we're getting from that. And I think that return is much better than any increase we would get, meaning the program that we participate in that gives us that extra Medicare funds. So,
we're not sure if we increased our ambulance rate whether that would take something else away when we almost just have to continue that program and we would be guaranteed some kind of rebate. I guess I guess the thing to point out is when you look at that ALS rate, that ALS rate is built to the patient if
we're the transport agency. If if we are the intercepting agency, that is built to the community that called us for the resource. So the town pays that not, you know, I'm sure it is passed along then to the patient through their bill in, but if they get the Medicare reimbursement, we still get our ALS intercept. Yeah. Because we're providing
that extra equipment. Dennis had a question. Yeah. I had originally Could you speak up a little, Dennis? Sorry. Yeah. I had originally come tonight just because Mr. Rivera was going to be here and I wanted to kind of talk a little bit about the the Devon's disposition. So I consider this kind of like a happy
coincidence from my perspective. Um, I'm glad that the presentation was made. Um, and the numbers as he's given you are the same numbers that I collected shortly before town meeting in late May.
So, you know, I I don't I don't quibble with those. Um, but my perspective on that has not changed. And in fact, I've done a little bit more research and it has worsened over the last three, four, five months. And the reason I say that
is that air prior to the grant allocation had 15 full-time firefighters. Um, which is at the high end or at the highest end of any similarly sized town
in the Commonwealth. There are 30 approximately 36 towns in the Commonwealth with populations between 6 and 10,000 which is where air falls. Now again you can look at um 8 thou you know you can
look at Shirley which has six or which has just about 12. Um so you can expand your comparison you know however you need to. But my point is that comparative analysis
is necessary in order to arrive at a reasonable conclusion as to whether or not heir's provision of these services is appropriate for a town the size of air. Um so just to be clear on the numbers
for the 24 months and again these are the numbers that the deputy chief provided and they're same same ones that you saw there. Um, fire had 1,400 responses. Um, they provided mutual aid 39 times. It received mutual aid nine
times. EMS 2992 responses. Um, and they provided 1,059 mutual aids. So about a third of all mutual aid, all responses was out of
town, right? A full third. Um and that's for the 20 that's for um 2018 through 2020. And again the numbers are consistent.
For 2021 the fire responses were 771 mutual aid five times um received and provided 27 times. EMS 991 EMS calls within air just about 600
mutual aid EMS calls outside of air. All right. If you do the simple math, add, subtract, multiply, and divide, what you come out with is about uh between for the town of air, which is our concern. For the town of air, there
are between four and on average between four and five calls per day. Per 24 hours, the town of air receives four or five calls per day, which is one every five maybe, you know, five hours or so, depending. And that's been consistent
for three full years. So I think that those numbers are fairly accurate. Um, so what we have is the town of Air and again for the surrounding communities, this is a wonderful thing, right? The town of air has become the de
facto goto mutual aid provider to the other towns. One of the one of the numbers I had asked for was how much ambulance mutual aid does the town of air receive. Right? We are going out
900 uh 600 times a year. Right? Once maybe twice a day, right? How many times are other communities coming to air to lend support to the citizens of air because we lack the resources?
That was the one number that seemed But isn't that the point? Isn't it the point that the that the town of air doesn't actually we have the resources and we have the the members that we don't need the other communities and didn't we have to help the town of Shirley a couple
years ago because they actually didn't have anyone in their fire station? We absolutely have to do that right so the problem the problem is the other communities don't seem to right that is the town of
air is responsible for the citizens in this town what I would suggest is that the other towns need to bolster the availability what what the other towns have done and I think it's as part of the business plan is they have
outsourced some portion of their ambulance service and fire response service to the town of air. They have reduced their fixed costs by not over employing or over equipping their fire departments. So if you call them, they
can't come because they don't have extra. If you call air, of course we can come because we always have extra, right? And we're all not only and again I as long as we have that level of excess capacity
other towns will call and we will be obliged and I support that we will be obliged to respond. We have a legal obligation to respond. We have an ethical obligation to respond to that request. The problem is that the taxpayers in
this town should not be subsidizing the emergency services for other towns. Now, when the ambulance service, the enterprise fund, and again, I'd just like to well, I don't want to belver the point. I I think that when the first I
would just like to make a few asks. One is that the public safety budget be broken out so that the enterprise fund, the fire service and the police are separately listed so that there's a clear understanding of where the money is going in terms of fire
um police and EMS because I I think at some town meetings, you know, that public safety budget gets kind of all pulled in together. Um, I would reiterate my request that a third party be hired by the town to because I don't
expect you to take my word for this. And it is certainly the case that on the floor at town meeting, nobody is going to listen to Dennis or Mr. Karen and say, "Well, he doesn't think this is a good idea. Maybe we shouldn't do it." Right? He is going to have you're going to have to hire someone who can speak
with authority about how is it that other towns of a similar size perhaps a larger population are able to keep their populations safe, right? Operating with far fewer people
and somewhat less equipment, right? You do not want to increase your fixed costs for the provision of a highly variable level of service. You certainly don't want to go into debt to acquire
additional equipment to provide mut because when the issue around the um the second pumper came up, I would have thought that a legitimate question is why do you need a second pumper? Well, in case XYZ happens, it's good to have a
second pumper available. Okay. How often have you had to request pumper assistance from outline towns that would define the level of risk we face because we don't lack pump? Has that number been going up? Have we been receiving
multiple requests um that we can't answer within town and have had to reach outside town? I you know and again nobody's going to take my word for it and I understand that. So what I would encourage you to do and I'll I'll end with this. What I would encourage you to
do is hire a third party to investigate these matters closely to look at the enterprise fund cost overruns because we were promised when that enterprise fund was was started that it would become self-sufficient and in fact the definition of an enterprise fund is such
that it is designed to become self-sufficient and in 2019 it went over 67,000 2020 86,000 2020 21 209,000 and 2022 63,000.
Um, so again, I don't expect you to take my word for it. The level of analysis needed to bring our department in not in line with equivalent departments of a similar population,
which is what ought to be done. So, I think you've brought up some good points. Scott wants to talk. Uh, I think you brought up some good points, but I think that the we can't tell the other towns how to run their towns because if we could, I think they'd all be run a
lot better. Um, so Scott, uh, thank you. So, my first question was going to be on the fire call incidents, the 27 outgoing, that's just for fire. That doesn't include the ambulance, correct? And I think the ambulance is
really the crux of the question here. Um, to Mr. Curran's point, you know, if we have a range of of dates that we're looking at calls and a third of those calls are going outside of our community, um, we're, you know, we're
footing the bill for an advanced life system ambulance. We currently have two. Um, that I think from my perspective when Mr. Jakar and I first had these conversations. That's what I was interested in was really to look at what
is the outlying cost that the taxpayers are putting out there. You know, if we're investing $500,000 in advanced life support ambulance that's going being used a third of the time at another um town, you know, what is what
are we getting financially in return for that to make sure that, you know, we are getting our money's worth and we're not being, you know, taken advantage of. And I also think from conversations with the town manager around springtime meeting we were kind of talking about this is
putting together hard numbers would almost give us the ability to perhaps go to the state and say look we are a regional ALS unit and we should get regional funding to offset the cost. So it is not just the air taxpayers that
are footing the bill for for the equipment and for all of that staffing from my perspective you know on the couple of the other points like on the staffing the four members I fully support that I know that that's been Chief Pedazzi had talked about that for
years um but to Mr. Karin's point, you know, I think the focus needs to be on the the ambulance side of things uh to make sure that, you know, we are not supplementing that service and it's an important service and if we are then maybe we look at other funding sources
from the state that has less of a local impact and more of a regional impact. Madam Chair, yes, a couple points for Mr. Curran. I know the town supported uh starting an ALS service back in 2004. Um we started off at an intermediate level
and slowly build up till like the 2000s like in the it was 2 or 3 years after we pe at the paramedic level for those surrounding towns. We were like a backup. We weren't local like MedStar was out of Nishoba, you know, which was great. They they kind of did the bulk of
the ALS. come to say 161 17 they started to kind of disappear and we started having to fill the gaps along with say Littleton and Westford um what's that in town in town yeah so so so we it's not something we signed up for the town of
air residents chose to want ALS service it's something that we're statutoily required to do so to fill the gaps and this isn't just a air thing this is like a statewide thing. I mean, I know our partners in Fitchburg and Lumper,
there's never enough paramedics around. Never. And and and what's the problem? There's no paramedics to hire and they leave the job fairly quick. And the EMS system is just overwhelmed with six pe sick people, you know. So, it it's a broken system, but we don't have the
answer to that. And I don't think I think of air. You can go back to the 1900s. You could say we're carrying everyone else in the back. Well, we had the first full-time staff back in the 40s and 50s, you know. Then in 76 it
went to two. In the '9s, we went to three. So, we've always been the leader. And I looked at it, that's what residents always supported and wanted, you know, as in that. And that's what we continue to do with the town's people and the board of selectmen backing us on the safer grant.
I mean again I I understand my main concern about this is that um a comparative analysis ought to be done. Similarsized communities with similarsized populations
ought to in a rational world have similarly sized emergency services, the availability of ambulances and fire staffing. Right? The town of air should not have twice as many full-time. Now, if that means the town of Grten needs
twice more or we need half as much, I mean, we can argue about that. The town of Air should not be supplying Rotten with 345 ambulance calls a year, one a day. Um, and well, again, there goes to I I understand what you're saying, but
then again, that goes back to the ethical issue, the moral issue. So we that that's what those residents have to talk to their towns about. Um so Robert and Madam Chair I here as I did at town
meeting Mr. current points and I appreciate it. In the comparative analysis though I do want to offer it would be great if we lived in a world where it was simple apples to apples black and white and I for example if you
go just by population the town of Grten has about 13,000 people the town of air has 8,000 but they are not you can't compare the two. Grten does not have freight rail commuter rail. It doesn't have an industrial park. It doesn't have
a hospital. It doesn't have the commercial and residential density that we have downtown. So, I'm not opposed to doing comparative, but I think it's important that we understand that it's not just simply looking at numbers in the comparison that there are
fundamentally unique characteristics to every town and and and I agree with that. So, if you want to look at u comparative commercial industrial, let's look at Devon's, right? Why is it that
we are going to Devons 145 times I want to say and and presumably the town or the entity of Devons would have a substantial that is we are we are sending out our
fire and ambulances to all the surrounding towns in their time of need. I think we are all but I and I and I think you brought up some good points. Okay. But I I think we're we're going to be beating a dead horse here. Um um so
I'm just going to add this. I think I may have lost my thought. So you know, go ahead. So I just cuz I it flew out my head. Yeah. Looking at the numbers, he's accurate in the in the respect that it is. Yeah. It represents onethird of the number, right? So cuz I
ran I ran this year so far. I was curious to see if where we were on track. Um and and that's about what it is. So like I I explained earlier, I broke it down to just three categories, you know. So now it's I can clearly tell what is air ALS, what is air BLS, and what is mutual aid intercept, and then
what is our actual mutual aid transports and we're we're holding true to that to that format. That that's about what it is. We're we're we're running about 900 calls in the town of air right now for this year. Um ALS intercept wise, it's about 450. Um so you know, there it's
your third. Um, the difference being though is when I run a medical in the town of air, it takes me between 1 and 3 hours. When I run an ALS intercept, it's between 0 and 15 minutes typically. I mean, so we're going to go build that community 375 275 for that ALS intercept depending
on where we land. and I'm billing them to meet them in in route, you know, in the majority of the time like I tried to demonstrate earlier coming to Nishoba and getting immediately back in service and being available for the community that pays for us. Like and and this the
second part of that is not everybody not every community in the Commonwealth can have paramedics. There's not enough of them and there's not enough patients. The idea that we're going to have paramedics that are good at their jobs and can take care of you adequately if we're only doing 900 runs a year is not
going to happen. You're going to have paramedics that have a lacking availability of skill and knowledge. And that's part of why you see Yes, it's a regional effort. I I mean, that's what the mutual aid system is, but that's what we charge that that fee for is to
try to recoup that 15, 20, 25, 40 minutes depending on on the call. You know, I I tried to run that report. I I haven't fig quite yet how to run that down to the minute. Um but I I can tell you just from experience there is a dramatic difference in length of call
and that's part of what it is. Madam Chair, if I could end on one note on that number two, those are definitely numbers where we go out, but a lot of times those are canceled in route and those don't it's just you show that unit going out. So that could be that could
be one every four potentially, you know, where we don't even meet up with them. So I just like and and I know it's like to end. So regardless of the town, I think for me this is a remarkable set of circumstances. Let me end with this.
air right has lower residential property values, lower per capita income, higher poverty rate, right? Much higher poverty rate than some of the surrounding towns. And yet this town is
sending out their services to the other towns while the other towns are in a more improved financial position to then spend their money on what? So, I'm going to end this conversation on this. Okay. First of all, it's been a great conversation. Second of all, I think
that the one thing that this town has always done is that we believe in safety regardless of where somebody lives. Okay. Um, I think that Mr. Curran has brought up some good points. Please take that information and add it to whatever
analysis you're going to be doing and so that maybe you'll have more answers to his questions the next time uh you come forward and bring this conversation. Okay. So, but I thank you very very much. I think this was very informative. I think it was a wonderful discussion
and uh great. Thank you all. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thanks. Okay. So, I going to be right back. Okay. Dan, you can go ahead. Okay. Okay.
No, I think you can run from there. Are you sure? Go ahead. Okay. All right. Hi, Dan. Hey, how are you? Hi, Dan. I'll keep it brief. Um, so I have three items on my agenda tonight. And the first one is the discontinuence of the bottled
water rebate. So in July of 2021, the select board voted to offer bottled water rebates to um the customers and sensitive groups for the PAS 6 and we've started um the spec pond plant. So now the water we're producing at both spec and grow for our whole system are PAS
free. So, um um the DPW recommends the board vote to discontinue the bottled water rebate program and that would be retroactive to our start date at Spec Pond of uh July 25th, 2022. That was when we officially were fully active
going forward. Do you have any questions? No questions. Neither do I. I'll entertain a motion. I'll make a motion to discontinue the bottled water rebate retroactive to July 25th, 2022. I'll second it. All those in favor? I I
All right. Um item two is also water related. So the EPA has developed um revisions to the lead and copper rule, the LCR, lead and copper rule revisions in 2021. And they're requiring all public water supply systems to develop
and submit lead service line inventories to mass D. And there's also a um planning component to that planning to uh remove the um lead service lines. So this is um a lead service line. A service line and your water system. You have your water main running down the street and then you have the service
that goes to the house from that main to the house. So um the town of air owns the public side from the main to the property line and then or typically our curb stops there and then the property owners own the rest. But our lead
service line inventory actually is required to take in account the entire uh length of the service line. So even the homeowner side. So we've hired um a consultant Kleinfelder to assist us um with our kind of initial sweep. But what
do we have for records? How big of a of a lift is this going to be? And to also submit an SRF application for us. Um and that's kind of what um the crux of this u um item I have is. So, the Mass Clean Water Trust has a SRF program for
developing the lead service line planning um and removal and it it comes with a 100% loan forgiveness and it's on a a first come first serve basis. So, they opened it up about a month ago and as you apply um you know first ones are
going to get the money and it's 100% loan forgiveness. So, it's it's essentially the SRF can't give out grants so they'll give out loans with 100% forgiveness. So, it's essentially a grant. Um so to apply for this grant um one item we have to take care of is I'd
recommend the board authorize um Robert as the town manager to uh file the application for the SRF as a um what is the title um authority to file form. So certified um authority to file. And then
the second component I was talking to Robert today as part of the grant application there needs to be a local authorization match. So we've done this before with previous SRF projects. Like for example the storm water asset management. It was called a grant, but it was through the
SRF that I had. We appropriated funds um about $40,000 that were just toward that grant. So, um, as part of this program and speaking with Kleinfelder, who's looking through our initial records,
they anticipate we'll need about $130,000 to do this lead service line inventory and um, replacement program. So, speaking with Robert, you know, there's a few options for us to fund that. And I think the real key is that this
application is a first come to first serve basis. So, we really want to get this moving now. So, I think we didn't um recommend using UDAG funds for that. I don't know if you want to speak more to that, Robert, or Sure. So, as a director Ben, we met this afternoon. The
two components, one which is the board's authorization to apply is the the the easier part. The second piece, as we looked at it in more detail, we need to demonstrate an appropriation of $130,000 for the application, you know, to move
forward. And it's on a first come uh first serve basis. So, the the thought was where it is infrastructure related. If the board authorized up to $130,000 from UDAG for this and in the motion,
we're going to get the refund. we're going to get the 137 130,000 back from the SRF that would replenish it, right? Um is sort of how we were looking at it, right? Otherwise, we don't obviously
have an appropriation in the FY23 budget, which we're in now for this. Um, also, you know, with town for town, it's it's basically again a timing problem because if town meeting was to authorize
130,000, there's a couple variables. One, that would assume that the certification of free cash would be available by October 24th, and that's unclear. Secondly, we'd have to wait till October 24th at a minimum to submit
the the application. Um so we Dan and I in looking at it as far as to expedite it um if the board authorized up to 130,000 from UDAG for the lead service line application uh to be replenished by
the SRF uh refund that would that would keep make the the fund whole if you will but allow us to move forward on that. Correct. Yes. So just to clarify,
sorry. Okay. Uh so just to clarify, so even so we use the we allocate $130,000 for EU DAG for immediate release so that the application go in when that money comes back it is going to go into the general fund but when we do the
budgeting it will be earmarked to go back towards the MUAC. Correct. And I appreciate that select and and for the record that's why the motion which respectfully I think you'd be prep the
motion should reflect that. So it the replenishment would be coming at the annual town meeting in 2023 and specifically the replenishment will come from the general fund specifically the SRF refund for this. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Did you have your hand? Okay. Any further questions? No. No other questions. Thank you. I'll make a motion that the select board authorize the town manager to file the
application for SRF funding. Second. All those in favor? I. I. And the chair says I. I'll also make a motion to authorize for the select board to authorize the use of UDAG in an amount up to $130,000
for the SRF funding uh which will be replenished once that funding is received uh in the spring. Second. All those in favor? I chair decide.
Um okay, ready for the last item? Yes. Okay. Um, last one's pretty easy. Agreement for Peron Park Playground phase one demo. So, at the board's previous meeting, the board awarded the contract to um, Bright Brighter Horizons
in the amount of $173,000. They've provided the required bonds, insurance, and the signed agreements. So, um, I'm requesting the board vote to execute the agreement with Brighter Horizons for 173,000. No questions.
I'll make a motion the board vote to execute the contract for the demolition of playground and soil red remediation project in the amount of $173,000 to Brighter Horizons. Second with signature by the chair. with signature
by the chair. It's still signed. Hopefully. All those in favor? I The chair says I so no. Okay. You just want to wait. Yeah, sure.
Thank you. Which line am I signing on? Uh under where it says buy under select board chair. Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Here you go. Thank you. Thanks.
Okay, Robert. Madam Chair, members of the board, uh good evening. Uh in the interest of time, I'll I'll get right to it. You have the town warrants that were reviewed and approved since the board last met uh in your packet and um I will
get right unless there are any questions from the select board on any administrative matters. I'll go right to the action items. I have no problem. Okay. Um so the fall special town meeting update. Um, as I put in the packet, the deadline uh for warrant
articles is September 30th at 1 p.m. as set by this board. That's also the deadline uh Friday, September 30th at 100 p.m. to the town clerk for any citizens petitions. Um, as of uh today, uh there are currently four warrant
articles. Uh I put the brief summary in the packet. Um, there are two community preservation uh funding CPC articles. Uh, the first one is for $400,000 uh for Noah's affordable housing 40B
project on Fitsburg Road. The CPC has gone through that application. They had the public hearing um and it was approved and recommended uh to come before you for inclusion on the warrant. The second CPC article has to do with uh
funding for the historic restoration of the howitzer at town hall in the amount of $31,000. Uh was the request of the application to come from historic funds. Uh the the CPC committee was uh receptive to the
presentation we made and has scheduled the public hearing for that project for September 28th at 7:30 p.m. And we're cautiously optimistic uh that that will move forward. So those are each an article uh article one and article two.
The other two articles are street acceptances uh uh the street acceptance of Woodland Way and Hemlock Drive uh from Woodland Way to its end. Um that's part of Pingry Hill phase 4 as public ways and street acceptance of portions
of the Riley J farm Jane farm as public ways on the Pingri Hill phase 4. the planning board has uh conducted its hearing and and recommends that on next Tuesday they are meeting on the Riley Jane farm and we anticipate you know
with their approval that will move forward. So those are the four articles. Uh as of today for the town meeting again the warrant is still open. The deadline is Friday, uh, September 30th at 100 p.m. Uh, after that date passes,
uh, the select board is scheduled at your October 4th meeting, to review and approve the warrant. Uh, upon your approval, that warrant will be, uh, posted officially by October 7th, which is Friday, October 7th, at which time it
will also be sent to printing and mailing to all of the households. And of course the town meeting will take place on Monday o October 24th at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of the air high school.
The next item uh that I have unless there any questions on the warrant at this point. Um number three the FY24 budget and proposed budget calendar. And you have in your packet uh the last several cycles uh this has worked well
to have a definitive schedule for the budget process with the major dates and of course any change of a deadline or a date is subject to review and approval by the select board. So it keeps us on that um process. So you have in your packet the draft that the executive by
board has been reviewing and discussing. Uh thanks to Miss Anteneellis for putting this together. uh it's a different format. We've used the calendar format in the past and there's been some some challenges with that. This is more of a a list format as you
can see uh which each month with each box with the major um dates that are proposed. We're not we're not looking for your definitive approval tonight, but respectfully by the October 4th meeting, the next meeting, um if the
board could um approve this, so it's in in in place, and generally that's the first meeting in October that the board has approved it, we would appreciate that. I don't know if there's any initial questions. Um yes. Could you tell me what time the rate review committee meeting is going to be on
October 11th? you. So, the rate the rate review and it does this every year. The rate review I I the the rate review, the buy board and what's the third one? There's a third one that we have is
these are just placeholders. So, you and I need to connect. Oh, okay. Capital. So, so the capital in terms of the actual capital meetings, rate review meetings, and the executive buyboard meetings, we will get those inserted for the four. So, that was just a
placeholder. Good catch. Um, and please look again at any of the um other dates. One of the things that selectman Hood is aware of being on the buy board, uh we're still discussing and would look for your input as far as um the public
uh the public presentation of the budget. Again, everything is a work in progress. There seems to be consensus that there should obviously and there will be an initial public presentation of the budget as we've done in the past. Selectman Hood has brought up an idea
that we're in the process of putting together a better tracking system that would show the changes to the budget as it moves through the process specifically for the public whether it's colorcoded and so forth. And we're still just having some discussions again subject to this board as to the
subsequent uh public hearings to the budget. So that's an area we're working on. The second area that remains a a challenge to to be solved is we still have a compression in time. It's sort of like the roller coaster towards the end
of the process leading up to town meeting. So again, if there are any initial questions for tonight, well, you have the tax classification hearing for November 15th. I have no problem with that. But historically, we've done it in the first meeting of
December. That's the way we've been doing it for like a decade. Agreed. And the um new finance manager and the new assessor from their experiences elsewhere say that's pretty late to do it. So that's why they'd like to move it up. So we've been doing it that way for
a decade and it hasn't been a problem. But now we're saying it's more problem. Well, just I just Yeah. than usual. Okay. Because that's the way this town has done it. That's all I'm asking. So Okay. So again, that's I would put in the placeholder category is subject to
conf confirmation there. Um so in the interest of time I won't go through the whole thing. It's in the packet. But I think what would be helpful is if um on the 4th we'll get those meetings I mentioned nailed down
and I'll talk to the specific chairs of those committees, capital and so forth. And then on the fourth uh we can do a review and and looking towards um approval. The last item that I have in the in the packet number four is an approval of a
CPC letter for the application for the howitzer. Um, as the board is aware, the CPC uh committee is often looking for letters of support for applications and projects and uh respectfully requesting that the board consider a letter of
support. What is in your packet is a propose of that letter. Um, of course, it's the board's prerogative if you want to change any aspects of that. Um, but we'll be looking for uh your support and signature for a letter of support uh to
the CPC committee. We also, just so the boards aware, we have letters of support for the project from the Air Historic Commission, uh the Fort De Evans Museum, uh the I think the American Legion, Allen has done a good job in getting um
support. So, we would be honored to have your support uh for the application as well. I have no problems with the letter. Enjoy. Make a motion that the board votes to approve the letter of support to the town of air community preservation
committee to fund the restoration preservation of the 1943 historic air howitzer air town hall. Sorry. All those in favor? I I and the chair says I. And madam chair, unless there are any members any questions for members of the
board, that uh concludes my report. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. All right. Any uh new business or questions? None for me? No. Okay. Meeting minutes from August 16th, 2022.
I didn't see any issues. Wait, that's wrong. What? What's wrong? Hold on. I think was it August 16th? No. So it was Sorry. September 7th. Yep. That was the typo. Oh, I was like I know we those
already. So it is September today. Oh, yeah. The 20th and these were the the September 7th ones were the ones in the packet. Yes. Okay. All right. Well, I didn't have any problems with the September 7th. Okay.
Okay. I make a motion uh the board vote to approve the meeting minutes from Wednesday, September 7th, 2022. Yeah, it says 2002. 2002. Okay. So, those need to So, as amended,
September 7th, 2022 as amended. Got it. Second. All those in favor? I my cheers to eye. We can still sign this page and it won't for 2022. I'll make a motion to adjourn.
I will second. All those in favor? I I. And the chair says I. Good night everyone. try and say,