of the Barnesville County Commissioners uh is being recorded and will be conducted by in-person means in accordance with the applicable law. Persons wishing people wishing to participate may do so in person. Those um who would like to be recognized during public comments or at the portions of the meeting uh please notify the chair to be recognized, raise your hand, wait to be acknowledged uh when that portion of the meeting begins. Um and
uh the time is 11:31. I'm calling the meeting to or order. We have a quorum present and I'd like to ask everyone to join us in the pledge of allegiance. The pledge to the United States of America and to the United States. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Now I would like to ask everyone to join us in a brief moment of silence to reflect on
the bravery and the sacrifices of those who have put their lives on the line in service to our country in protecting our safety, protecting our freedom and our democracy. Thank you. The next item on our agenda is public comment. But before I begin, I'd just like to make sure we introduce all of the county staff here on the Dian. I'm going to start with Robin Rob,
assistant county administrator. And I'm Michael Dav, county administrator. And I'm Ron Bster, county commissioner. And Sheila Lions, county commissioner. That's great. Thank you. and Mark Forest, chairman. Um, the next portion of the agenda is public comment. Is there anybody here who would like to seek recognition uh for public comments? Please come to the to the podium to the mic and speak your peace. Okay. Hearing none, let's move on to the next part of the agenda. Um,
we have anybody online seeking? That's just All right, that's good. So, the first item on our general business agenda is the u approval of the meeting minutes. Do I have a motion? Yes, Mr. Chair, I move to approve the regular meeting minutes of January 14th, 2026. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I opposed. It carries unanimously. Um leading off for our regular little business is a discussion and an
update with uh the town of Fountain. And uh I see Heather Goldstone is here. Uh Mike Grenaw. I see Peter Johnson's job. I see all the other movers and shakers here within the town of Fman with Doug Town. Can't forget Doug of course. And um we're setting aside this portion of the meeting so we can have a conversation with you and better understanding some of your priorities, some of the work that you're doing, and some of the things that you might think looking ahead we need to really pay closer attention to. So I'm going to turn this portion of the uh the meeting over to you. Is it Heather? Am I Am I turning it over to you? And Heather,
feel free to join us or go to the wherever. This is This is your place. Podium. Okay. And is that Jack Richardson? I just experienced things from the other side of the table. Um so, thank you for being here today. Um and I I really appreciate this effort to get out into the towns and increase um that dialogue. Uh I think a lot of uh what you're going to hear from me I already see reflected on your agenda and you're probably already aware that there are issues.
So just kind of uh reinforcing that. Um I think something that is really front and center here in Falmouth right now uh but I'll say I never anticipate it being a major issue that I would address from the select board in Falmouth um is immigration. Um our economy here in Falmouth um is largely powered um by our large immigrant community. We are a diverse community. Um and uh we have seen uh the impacts of increased immigration enforcement um and we are uh
seeing a lot of fear. We're seeing that ripple through our schools, through our community, um, and through our economy at this point and are really trying to grapple with what we as a town um, and perhaps what we as a region can do um, to ensure uh, the the safety and the continued thriving of all of the residents um, in our community. So, um, that's that's one really important issue um, right now. The other thing that I would say is really front and center
um for the select board is fiscal stability. Um a number of you were at the the MMA conference, the Massachusetts Municipal Association conference last week. Um that association put out a report uh I think that was a month or so ago um on the fiscal uh pressures facing towns and called that the perfect storm. I think the ingredients in that storm are a little bit different in Falmouth and perhaps across the Cape um than they are for a lot of towns. Uh some of the meetings that I joined to to hear from other municipalities over the past few months as they were putting together
that report really focused on schools as one of the major drivers and certainly our schools are feeling pressure. Um but I would say where we're seeing the greatest pressure um is from a few other places. our operating budgets are strained and increasingly will be strained moving forward um simply by uh salary costs. Um we have increased salaries rightfully so um over the past few years um to um fairly compensate our incredibly dedicated um town staff um who are facing
the housing and affordability crisis that all of our residents are facing. Right? So that puts an additional strain on our operating budgets. Um our capital budgets are dramatically expanding. Wastewater infrastructure, no surprise to you, is a major driver of that as well as um addressing aging infrastructure and uh new needs. And then we're also um feeling pressure that's that's almost I guess I wouldn't say those capital budgets are are status quo, but right that's that's kind of doing what we need to do when we're facing increasing pressure to go
beyond that. We have additional water quality and environmental issues we need uh to grapple with. Um we are facing issues of coastal and uh climate impacts um and needing to increase our resilience um go above and beyond and have some really hard conversations, make some hard decisions um that are are frankly long overdue. And then there is the need to uh try to address the housing and affordability crises that our residents are facing. um we are looking at ways to reduce the
tax burden to increase affordable housing um and and constantly thinking about what else we can can be doing um right so there's just a lot of pressures on the the fiscal front um especially addressing this body I want to say thank you um for the many efforts at the county level to address a lot of these issues um right so real estate transfer fee to help uh create additional revenue um for affordable housing that the efforts to advance that really appreciated.
um the ongoing programs at the county level to help municipalities and residents um handle the costs of wastewater infrastructure um improvements and uh advocacy for the um to make uh tax credits um to residents for wastewater infrastructure refundable um so that our lowest income residents can um be fully supported in in making water really expensive um and really important um investments in in their properties and later in your agenda today, the dredging uh system,
right? Uh I would say if anything uh and I'm sure you hear this from everyone all the time, um we need more, right? We're everybody's constantly um scrambling for uh the the resources within the time window to be able to do the dredging that we need to do to be able to nourishes on the the other end of that equation. Um so, but that that program obviously really vital to our town. Um, so I will I I do want to hand it over um to uh our town manager, Mr. Mike Grenaw, um to talk
with you about uh maybe some not so great news, a little bit of a a new and unexpected um challenge that that we're facing here in the town and then uh welcome conversation with you. So thank you. Morning commissioners. It is a pleasure. First off, I want to thank you all uh for setting aside time to come out to the communities. Um I think this is a great initiative. Um we're happy to have you hosting you here in Felman. Um as a former county manager um in North Carolina and Georgia,
I have a tremendous amount of respect uh for what you all do on a daily basis and I certainly have a lot of respect uh for Mr. Dutton and the work that he does and his staff. Um so I appreciate the uh the role that you play um and the important and the importance of it. Um, I want to uh in the two and a half years I've been here with town manager, I've had an opportunity to work uh very closely uh with a couple of those functions at the county level. Um really really pleased. I know on the agenda later we're going to hear from the Masttec folks. Um what a what a tremendous asset uh that is uh for the community, for the region. um and working with
uh Brian um and and the folks at Masttec um I've been nothing uh but impressed uh with the with the professionalism and the dedication and the amount of uh knowledge that they bring to the table. So um thank you all for supporting uh that effort. Um I also uh I'm happy to report that um recently working with Michael the county administrator um I think we're close to to uh to working out um terms for a joint composting initiative. I think that's going to be a huge tremendous tremendous upside. Uh so we're all excited about that um over a joint base I think is the uh is the
pilot site. Um so a lot of great opportunities um uh facing us but a lot of this uh the vice chair Goldstone mentioned a lot of challenges as well financially fiscally and otherwise. Um, Wanu was uh the vice chair uh said um recently last week um I was briefed on an issue that I wanted to bring to the uh the board of county commissioners attention. It's the southern pine beetle. Um we recently had a positive identification uh here in Felmouth. Um it's limited um but uh because of the
weather we can't really get out and determine kind of the extent of the issue but our tree warden uh Jeremiah Pearson met with myself and other staff and we had some membership representatives from the 300 committee and DCR that were on site last week to kind of talk about it. Um as you all know you may know um uh it's been over on the vineyard for some time and they've they've tested some different approaches. the uh the conversation I wanted to have this morning with the with the county commissioners is to find out perhaps um what resources might be available
at the county level. I know this is typically handled at the state and DCR level, but I think um importantly what we're what we're trying to do now is is I think community education is going to be tremendously important. Um we need to get a better handle on the extent I said as the weather improves. So that we got what we're trying to do now is mobilize a volunteer base, train some volunteers to to go out and kind of monitor and report through GIS applications so we can get get a better more definitive um understanding of where uh the these southern
pine beetles are. Um like I said earlier, it's limited uh geographic area now in town, but as you all know, um unfortunately they spread very quickly. um and there's just not unfortunately a whole lot that can be done um to uh to eradicate them um once once they take a foothold. So, we're trying to get an early start on it. Um and again, it was just reported last week. So, I wanted to get that on the radar so that uh folks are aware of it and certainly uh we're going to do some community outreach and education here in Felmouth and uh in the surrounding communities.
Hopefully, we'll will'll hear this and also take notes because again, they they spread very quickly. And I brought my our our tree warden and DPW director if there's any kind of specific technical questions that I can't answer once we if you have time for a discussion on it um so that they can help us out with some of those details. But again um thank you all for being here. Um it's a pleasure to host you and I understand we're the first um of of these meetings. Yeah. So the road show. Thank you and uh we're we're really honored to have you this morning. So thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Um, now to be to begin the conversation, um, I'd like to start off, if it's if it's okay. Um, I I want to commend the Falmouth board for um, having a very sort of thoughtful and respectful dialogue on the topic of immigration. I think, as we all know, this is um, a very challenging topic for discussion and uh, I I followed the meeting. have all the coverage in the media and I and I thought you did an outstanding job in creating a space and
a place for the community to have a conversation about this topic. It's a really challenging one and I think you really did a wonderful job in in bringing the community together to speak up. I I I even want to commend you from the the dissident from Yarmouth who was invited or who was allowed to give permission to speak. The fact is you've opened it up for people from all across not just Bmouth but from around the Cape which I think is important. Um my question for you on this and maybe it's best directed to to Heather is um I got the impression that you're thinking of doing a
series of these forums and discussions. I'm just curious if you could talk a little bit more and expansively about where you might see this go where and and obviously you know we have other select board members here as well. I think we're all interested in hearing from what you all have to say about where this is going and and if you're going to take a stand or a position or provide some guidance. I know our police departments are somewhat challenged by this as well. Um well, I'll take maybe the the latter part of that question first. Um we did issue a statement um in July of
this year um calling for um ethical behavior on the part of federal law enforcement officials. uh calling for uh traditional collegial communication um with local law enforcement um so that we could be better aware of of when and where um there might be disruptive activities. So we we have um to that extent I think taken a stand um and that is a a statement that um we in reading back
uh through that statement uh Jack actually uh Mr. Richardson read that at uh the forum that you were referencing last week and I think hearing that all of us had a moment of just going wow. Um the world has changed a lot in seven months. Um and it may be time to revisit that that statement. Um I think as um with many groups, individuals, other municipalities at the county level and at the state level, we're we're still really grappling with um what might be in our power to control and
to do um uh in addition to uh a statement and kind of taking a stand. But um that's what we have done to date. In terms of additional um meetings, I think we went into that forum uh with an open mind that we were um not that we had a a set plan for a series of you know five events of X Y and Z format um but really wanting to see what we heard from the community in terms of appetite and needs. And one thing that we heard was uh a lot of interest in additional training um in how to be
um effective bystanders and how to deescalate um tense situations. And there was an off offer from uh uh our police Lieutenant Hurt um who is our uh ABLE uh certified officer, active bystanders in law enforcement. Yes. Is that um what ABLE stands for? um he's trained to actually be a trainer um in active bystandership. Um and so we're exploring what the options might be, whether it's uh he he made an offer of collaboration to to help train um residents in active bystandership. So
we're exploring whether that's the right avenue or some sort of other offering to the community um so that our community members uh feel more um more equipped um to handle uh really tense situations that that they might encounter. um if anybody else wants to to jump in. I don't I don't think we have any more formal plans than that, but um certainly open to um ideas for what else could be done to to further this conversation. Hand it to Mr. Brown. Thank Select. Though I I
also want to just highlight the fact that it was more a community understanding of what the town's position is. We want people to feel safe. We want people that are documented or undocumented to know that the police department is here to support them if they're victims of crime, not to be afraid to come forward. That was a main part of it. What I thought was important, but also there's a lot of services. You know, sometimes people are fearful to even go out and go shopping. So, there's services like service center will help you with food deliveries. There's a lot of a
lot of infrastructure involvement that is helpful to people. That was part of the message as well. That's great. Thanks, Doug. Um, I'd like to stick with this topic and I'd like to invite my my fellow commissioners to uh to I'm just curious, was there any concern on part of the timeline that by making a statement that there would be blowback say from people in the federal government, you're bringing attention to yourself? I've heard this and I'm asking was that a part of a discussion?
uh Jack Richardson select work and now I guess a groupy for your guys' meetings. It's second in a row. Um yeah. Um look, I mean this is unfortunately where we are. Um but uh that doesn't mean we should be quiet. We shouldn't be there for our community. They want us to not do this and to have meetings like that and to have resources. So that's of course you know um there's any number of policies of which they're going after randomly depending on the day. Um, but you know, we really want to show that we're there for the for the community and and you know,
it's kind of Heather and Doug touched on this is really affecting, you know, our businesses in town. Uh, and you know, I had a meeting with Senator Fernandez and Paul Mizwiki, uh, president of the Chamber of Commerce the other day and, um, some of the impacts we could be seeing this summer, uh, if this continues the way it's going is the Cape is not going to be able to function. So it is important for us as a board and as elected members to to be there to to host the safe space for uh for for the community. That's great. Thanks, J.
So, uh, in addition to what, um, the slug board members mentioned, um, in in direct response to your question, um, board member Jones, um, the, uh, the intent for this, uh, meeting last week, Thursday, was to, uh, educate, you know, I think planning committee that was formed, um, and involved a lot of members of the community, and I thought that was important, getting different segments of the community involved in the planning of it. Um, was there any concern? Um we had reached out actually we were contacted by the attorney general's office back in uh early
November. Um uh they have a uh team as you all probably know uh federal issues and enforcement team they're kind of tracking what's happening throughout the common area and um so we were able to develop some contacts with that group. we actually invited them to attend, but because receiving so many uh requests to attend community conversations or forums like this, but really the intent for last Thursday and and we have the planning committee has talked about having uh some additional uh community conversations perhaps focused on different different topics,
different aspects. Um as Jack mentioned, um it has a tremendous impact on on our local economy, on the regional economy. um when uh and one of the great kind of anecdotal stories that I'll share with you um and I don't know if it came across in the article or not um but I received a couple of emails from people who were sitting at the tables. We had my bad guess guestimator of attendance over 200 people. It was it was packed room at the senior center and um a couple of the comments that we received post meeting was that how great it was that it was a safe space. people felt
comfortable coming out. Um and the fact that um people with different viewpoints um we had several you mentioned the gentleman from from um we had several people at the table that went into the meeting with different viewpoints likely came out of the meeting saying different viewpoints but the conversations that were had around we had roundts and literally had some small groupoup discussions after each of the pres at the end of the meeting after the presenters had an opportunity to share their stories. So really the intent was to um personalize um through the eyes and voices of
people who have have dealt with the issue um business owners, entrepreneurs, people that see the impact on a day-to-day basis and share that uh kind of experience with the members of the audience that some of them when they came into the meeting had mixed thoughts and maybe doubted um that you know the impact wasn't real. But uh we we believe it is. Uh so that that's what would be the primary focus of this meeting was for and and and hearing from the folks after the meeting thanking us for creating that safe space and allowing people of different viewpoints to sit around and discuss without raising voices. I mean it was the the meeting was everybody
u practiced perfect civility and uh and and and was just exchanging ideas and information. Um and I think that was the most valuable thing. The major takeaway that I had coming after following the meeting was that people could still go into a meeting with different viewpoints and perspectives but share information and perhaps come out with with some some some additional information that they didn't have before. Very good. Great. No, I just I just feel that um it's so ironic that we're going through this um at our 200th 50th anniversary year. Um it's almost the same battle,
but we're fighting ourselves this time. And um you know, for people who don't, you know, say, "Oh, why why do they protest? If they just got out of the way, these things wouldn't be there." That you hear that a lot from uh people in Minnesota, you know, they're against this just, you know, why are they there uh protesting and this is not the way America has ever conducted its business. uh we are we do have safety guards for the public. Some of them are flawed. Some of them aren't always executed well uh but they are there. So um I also agree that we cannot be afraid to back
down on that. So I really appreciate the whole approach you're doing and um I hope hopefully we'll be able to replicate that. And as far as the economics, I'm from the other side of the Cape way down at Wealthfleet and we also depend on immigrants coming, our seasonal our seasonal workers coming every year and now their families are being um you know there was a whole process. I worked in healthcare so I learned a lot about the immigration process and um it's not cheap to become a citizen and they work hard to get there and it's not like something we're just letting
people have. uh they do a lot of work to become a citizen and to have had the privilege of working here. So um we have to remember that that these are people just struggling the way our parents and grandparents did. So um kudos to Felman. So to date I really we'll talk to them but I'm very impressed. Commissioner Burster. Yeah. Um you know I think we have to be realistic about the situation. If there are hundreds if not thousands of people who came to this country without going through the process and we have a very aggressive stance you know by the federal government
uh chances are those people will ultimately be held accountable. So I think what we have to do is and I know Washington County has a human rights organization that gives people advice as to their indigenous regime. I think that appealing to ICE to be nicer is not is not going to work. Um, what we have to do is we have to deal with the people who are most affected, let them know what their rights are. We also, I agree, have to have people watching, make sure that their rights
aren't violated, that they're not. But ultimately, we're going to have to come up with an answer for this because I is not going to stop. But even if they weren't as aggressive as they are, they're determined to bring in literally millions of people in for none of the coal and say, "Okay, you came here undocumented. You climbed the fence, spam the land. Now, what are you going to do?" You know, and and I'd like to have an answer, better answer than what we're hearing from the federal
government right now to try to make these people, if not totally legal, at least give them some kind of temporary status. And I also believe that we should deal directly with employers here because it would be very disastrous if July came around they lost half their workforce. So they have to be up on who they're hiring and made aware of the potential of losing some of their employees should the ice come down and start asking for paperwork and so on. So it's it's a multiaceted problem.
It doesn't have an easy answer, but ultimately what's happening now is not the answer. That's all I can say. Heather, just want to uh add on to what you were saying about resources um because this is definitely something that we've um tried to be proactive about. Um we do have an immigration resources uh page uh linked from the FAT select board page on our website. And I say this not just for you guys, but for anyone else who may uh see or hear this recording. Can't say enough what the
resources are that are available. Um there are resources there, know your rights resources in multiple languages as well as the um advisory from the attorney general. Um, and we also through our uh human services department have a multilingual social worker uh who unfortunately is is only um uh we only have for one day a week. Um but she is is fabulous. Um and uh we also have other resources um both available through the human resources uh department where that they can um
help connect you to in terms of um immigration uh legal resources. There are any number of organizations uh found within the immigrant rights coalition, the Brazilian resource center, uh the human rights commission, right? A whole ecosystem. Um and it can be difficult to navigate that that ecosystem as well as the um the federal immigration uh bureaucracy. Um so we do encourage um our residents to reach out um for resources to to help navigate the the systems. Can I just jump in? I mean I think important what's more important is the point of contact between an immigration
officer and an individual and letting them know letting the individual know what they should do what they should not do what they should say should not say because you know those things can escalate real things and it's a very emotional situation for both the officer and also the the individual you know a pro for saying you know saying okay you know what something something you should say and something you should not say and the rights that you can appeal to say well be
a lawyer or documented or so I think that's that's really what we have to do is diffuse the situation as much as possible you know um there are you know I know that indivisible and other different groups that are organized around this issue are providing training and I thought of that right in the beginning because when you look at the civil rights movement they did a lot of training a lot of training about you're going to walk in there, you're going to get beaten, you know, you could be physically hunted and you're not going to fight back and that is how you win the day. I mean,
peace does it does prevail. Um, after but there's a lot of bloodshed between uh the episode and winning the day. But it is what's wins wins the day. And I really give it to Minnesota. They've been so unbelievable. these people, we should all be proud of them and all call ourselves motans. But um there is training and I do think that that's what you're alluding to is how do we uh you know, you have these officers, how do you do training and how do we prepare to be able
to resist and yet still be peaceful in doing so. Uh because it just escalates everything. And if they're going to escalate it, let it be escalated. Um so this is something that I think that we have to look at communitywide um as far as that but it's also how are we going to prepare and and assist businesses and the people who are coming here to work uh the reality of that. So um there's a lot here. Thank you. What I' what I'd like to do if it's okay with with my fellow
commissioners is that they have ask work with the administrator and the director of our human rights advisory commission to see what degree at the county we can put on our website we can make available some of the resources that the town of is doing you know here in this community and um learn more a little bit about how you planned and organized uh your forum because I think uh there are other communities where there's a need for having a dialogue, particularly bringing I
mean you you brought your police department into the forum and I I would say that based at least on what I read that it was incredibly helpful to have law enforcement there so that residents can understand what they can and can't do and some of the advice and words of wisdom that they can share. So I think you've done a great job with this. I think the county can learn more. I'd like to work with our staff to to to liaison with you to see where where we can maybe replicate or link
the information that you have on your website, stuff that you're making available. um maybe making that available on ours as well and look at other ways in which we can provide information and resources and support because I think what you're doing um is clearly a model and uh it's something that others should at least uh you know we if a neighboring town wants to do something similar to this it' be also helpful to know who is it in the town of Fment that we should put that person in touch with. So things like that. So I think they'd be helpful to have some followup from our
staff and our team with with with with maybe the manager's office here to see how we can collaborate more about this. If I can just add to that, um, at BMMA, uh, I was talking with some of the out of Kimman's administration and they did point to the county and said, um, it would be good for us to come out and to, uh, really give some guidance and support because other towns are very much uh, on on your page wanting to do the same thing. uh a little bit nervous and
there's always strength in numbers because you can either hang separately or hang together and uh I think I'd rather go all together and uh there is once you know Cape Cod can speak with one voice and I think this is the right voice to speak with so okay thank you in the interest of time yeah in the interest of time I'm going to try to see if we can pick up the pace a little bit I' I'd like to ask our administrator and staff if we can talk just briefly with with Commons, DPW, and uh maybe
the tree warden. Yes. Bingo. Um I'd like to talk a little bit about the southern pine beetle issue that you're dealing with here. And if you want to add some additional light on this problem because I want to make sure that our we have a cooperative extension program. We have folks that look at bugs and uh you know if we can have our bug people work with your bug people, you know, maybe we can get somewhere. We I have been in um communication with our cooperative extension. They found it. Um they thought we had it. I brought in So you're already working and talking to them? Yeah,
I'm working with the local I'm working with the um US Forest Service and UMass EMR and the Forest Health here in Massachusetts. So the the problem I mean I don't know if anyone knows what's going on in the vineyard, but it's devastating the vineyard right now. And uh how we're going to manage this is really unknown. They're trying different uh tactics there, mostly forest thinning. Um it's something we need to think about how we're going to respond because as you I mean they go after uh pitchbines and Cape Cod is mostly pitch pines um right and it's all unmanaged pitchbine right so
the density is very high and that that attracts beetle and causes a bit like a fire you got a lot of close proximity it's going to burn it's going to go right through does it create a risk for fire it it could yes it could if not managed if not managed properly Yes. For us. So, we're going to have to put that on our agenda as well. So, thank you. All right. Is there also a beetle with a lantern in it? The lantern fly. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's a completely different obviously um problem we might be having as well. I think you know there's been some of those on the odor
cave. Yeah, there possibly could be. They um we're just waiting for those as well. And with disease, our forest health is not really just to add one more in there is the Rocky Mountain tick. Yes. Uh which is also devastating Martha's vineyard as far as the virus and we had uh a discussion on that and they're trying to really kind of put their arms around where that is. So we have a lot of natural threats. I mean yeah and and unfortunately this could be moving very fast.
It could have to really get on. Okay. No. No. Okay. So, people should just Google that, I guess, and uh take Yeah, we're going to be putting out things on our website and I'll be sharing that with different communities and the other three wardens. That's great. Is there any is there any suggestion of a biological approach to this and and predator on these particular beetles? So, I think biological approaches takes a long time because that could be an issue down the road if it hasn't been studied long enough. I'm sure they're working on that. This past has been
around for like a hundred years. Uh it's been down south, but obviously it's a different climate, so they couldn't use what they used there here. They couldn't model the same. So, I'm sure they're working on that now. Um but nothing has been released. Um the other question I have is there is there a way of um can we track the advancement of these creatures throughout the Cape? In other words, if there's a sighting year, people go out and they they they know. Yeah. Monitoring and tracking it is what really all we can do. Yeah. As soon as we we identify it, we want to
we want to monitor it and see where it spreads. And if we take any action, uh go back to that spot and see if it's still spread after whatever action we've taken. So, we could see you could I could look at a map and I could see this this bug advancing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's what we're trying to work with. Uh there you go. uh Forest Service to help us with their aerial mapping, what they've used. We're going to put this on an agenda for future meeting so we can have a much more detailed conversation and I'm sure we'll be talking to you and the folks here in town in terms
of participating and helping us out with this. Clearly, it's a serious problem that we have to deal with and um um we'll be also having an agenda item on wildfire management. County receive some significant federal funding to help towns prepare for dealing with this. So, it's all more or less related to terms of forestry management and uh and and threats uh particularly fires. So, um I appreciate you bringing this up and bringing this to our attention. You're welcome. Thank you. So, in terms of the issues and the items that have been mentioned, are there any other items
that my fellow board members would like to respond to or comment on? I have one more to add if you think you have time. Right. Be a bunch of a discussion, but I just wanted to bring it up. It's definitely a fancentric issue and they talk about it a lot and don't seem to make a lot of progress. Steamship authority operates out of DMA to serve concert venue. We all know that the service expands every year by a certain percentage five six 7% depending how the economy is going. And it's getting to the point where Woods Hole has become a real bottleneck and it's
becoming public safety issue. For years, there's been studies saying that it only makes sense that at some point, New Bedford will have to be a host for freight service. Steamship authority doesn't seem to really get on board with that. There was a uh Martha's Vineyard longrange planning task force of which I participated as representative. We had many representatives from Arthur's Vineyard, from the commission and towns uh on the vineyard. And uh you know surprisingly within a matter of only a few months we came to consensus that really we would vote to direct the steamship
authority to develop plans to get a port operating whether it's private or under their own leadership out of New Bedford or some other port other than Woodall. That was the last meeting we had. They canceled the whole task force after that. They didn't want to see or hear from us again. I don't think they were anticipating that vineyard folks would get on board with the idea. So, it's been stalled ever since, never made a comeback. Meanwhile, they continue with their plans to expand the uh the Woodsole terminal. They've got a new building, another slip, which
was originally just for uh using for service and docking. And then as soon as they got it complete, they said, "Oh, that restriction went away, but we're going to use it full-time now." So, the story is always changing. Uh very difficult to work with. We tried to cooperate with them with the uh site planning to make their intersection with the roadway more safe. They put us off and put us off to the point where they finally said, "Oh geez, you know, it's too late. We just signed the contract to build the building and we can't move it down." You know, just it's stonewall all the way. So I don't expect that there's anything you can do immediately,
right? Uh I've gone to the Martha's Vineyard Commission and learned that they had interceded when they Oakluff terminal was being reconstructed and they held the uh steamship authority to do some things that they didn't really want to do. I don't know if it was architecture or what, but the uh steamship authority then took them to court and got an injunction against them because they are quasi governmental agency and had them removed from purview over the steamship authority. And then when the Cape Cod Commission was formed, they reused that court ruling as justification to
exclude the Cape Cod Commission from being involved. So all these planning agencies are being excluded. Uh the town's being pretty much stonewalled. You know, they gave us a little bit of opportunity to input on the new building. It's a little smaller than it would would have been. So um I've tried to intercede with our local representatives. That's challenging because the town's representative also represents the vineyard. I've tried other representatives that are outside the district to try to get a statewide uh initiative to, you know, challenge the uh
governing authority. And they're like, well, why would they try that? Because it's not broke, so why fix it? Because they're not asking for any money. But eventually, they're going to need a subsidy because they keep on blowing up their budget. They're going more and more in the hole. their uh ticket prices are the highest and they can carry service anywhere. It's only a matter of time before that becomes unsustainable. They're going to need to be subsidized anyway. So, what I'm hoping to do is build a coalition of political will and then take it to the legislature
and hopefully get some movement because I don't think the steamship authority should be licensing other carriers. Now that the wind industry has slowed down, there's interest from people in uh in New Bedford in whether or not there be a steamship authority, but yet anything that gets put onto the uh transit route has to be licensed by the steamship authority. It's a conflict of interest, right? I don't think that should be in place. So, it's a lot of things I think could be changed to be more approved. So, just want to put that on your radar. No, thanks thanks for flagging
thanks for flagging this for us. I think um as as you've mentioned, it would be important to take a look at how we can better alleviate some of the freight traffic that comes through here. There's no question about it. It it's a factor in terms of sustaining the longevity of the bridges. It's always been an issue that's been overlooked as well. So, strategically outside of everyone's perview, but do something. Yeah. Well, I think what we need to do is we need to stay focused on it. And as you develop your coalition and as you develop your recommendations, keep us in the loop. Keep us involved. Okay. Thank you. All right. That's great. Mark real quick,
commissioner. Yeah. There's a there's a ferry service that runs from privately own service. They must do well because they've been in business for years and years. You're saying that a private entity could not run a ferry service from let's say the veteran to the vineyard unless they were authorized by the secretary. Absolutely. Yeah, that's under the statute. Yeah, recently the the um one successful candidate was 41 North. They operate out
of the Bedford. Now, Mr. Packer has an operation that was in place before the enabling act was. So, he's grandfathered in, but he's limited as well. He he at one time he tried to move uh rental cars on his barge and he got sued and so the steamship authority sued him because they hey you're taking our business that's our revenue we need that revenue so they guard the revenue and they don't want to share the port they give 41 north one trip a day it's almost like they're trying to make it not successful because they don't want help because they want the revenue but they can't
have everything going through a toll right it just doesn't make sense so that's where the subsidies is going to have to come in. Subsidy is going to be needed to develop the port in in New Bedford unless private interest can do enough volume that they don't need subsidized. Now, do the wind industry's moved out. I've already been hearing from people that are interested to know if it's something that's possible. So, I'm hoping to set up a meeting pretty soon, but we'll see. Thank you, Doug. I I agree. Full too much pressure. It really is has been learned. All right. Um,
what I'd like to do is we have other found related topics that are on our agenda. Our next agenda item is an update from Brian and our clean water center to talk about some of the work that we're doing that is of direct impact here in FA. They're going to call Brian up. We also have other items on the agenda. Ken Cerillo is going to come up in a little bit after Brian talk about what we're doing bridging wise and here in Fman. And then I'm going to ask the county administrator to give us an update when his item when his agenda item comes up. Talk a little bit about where we are
with composting and that regional initiative that you folks have been incredibly helpful to us with. So Brian, well thank you for having me today. Uh Brian, I'm the director of the wastewater division of Barsburg County Parks and Health and Environment. Uh also Clean Water Center, our new Bars County Clean Water Center. U first I would like to thank Mr. Rhoff for the kind comments during his remarks earlier about the work that we do. Um it's our partnerships with our towns that really make what the work that we do meaningful. Um so thank you very much for that. Um
I'd like to run through a few updates on a couple of our programs. Um most of this is going to be found uh centric but some of it is a little bit um more tangential in nature. Um I want to start with our septic utility program. Um which is one that was established. Um I think we're on year three maybe working on year four of that program now. Um the septic utility program just to uh remind those who may not be uh who have heard about it and to inform those who aren't familiar with what it is. Um it is what is called in uh government parlance a responsible management entity. Um it
is an organization uh could be governmental, could be private sector organization that is responsible for the uh continuing management of on-site wastewater treatment infrastructure. So really looking at backyard systems in residential areas. Um when we started the program, we called it RME. Nobody knew what RME was. So we switched to septic utility program because it's a little bit more uh easily identified. But it is a suite of services that are associated with managing on-site systems. Um it can go from you know merely providing uh what we do now which is
database tracking support for on-site systems uh where uh private sector companies are providing uh operational data monitoring etc. Um that goes into our database which is uh beneficial to the town because they don't have to toll all that data themselves but they do have access to it. Um, and it can go all the way up to um, RME owning the technologies that are putting in folks backyards. They're managing them, they're operating them, they're sampling them. Um, which is much more utility-like in nature, more like you would think with like a a sewer utility. Um, this program we
had always intended would fall somewhere in between, you know, very little management and kind of what I don't think we'll ever be able to do in the state of Massachusetts because we're all too darn independent, which is that sort of uh ownership and management model. Um, so that's the basic concept of what the septic utility program is. Um, here in Fmouth, we've been working with the water quality committee for a number of years. Uh, we've spoken with the boards of health, um, town staff as well. Um so the town of Felmouth is right now and I won't speak for them but I will
uh for the sake of this discussion um they have been going through an exercise of identifying areas of town in which they believe that on-site nitrogen removing septic system technologies u would be beneficial uh to use as opposed to sewering certain areas of town. Um they've referred to them as geozones in all their meetings. Um and these are tend to be concentrated areas um which are in close proximity to some of the impayments where they don't anticipate being able to sewer in the near term or really at all. Um so we've been working with them to um identify
those suite of services that the county could offer through it septic utility program to help the town of Felmouth work through that process. Um and it's really focused more on the you know the sampling and operation aspect of things. Um, so as that uh as their plans start to shape up for the areas that they actually want to use technologies in because they're still in the process of figuring out where the best areas might be. Um, we will be there to provide services if need be. Um, and those services as I said could be, you know, management of systems. We can help run their um,
you know, run the systems, uh, operation and maintenance or, you know, as always in the county, we always fall back to, you know, we'll give you consultation. uh you know we'll help you set up your own responsible management entity program. Basic concept is we just want to see that these systems are well operated and maintained uh because we have a large environmental problem we need to fix with respect to our embayments um and if the systems aren't operating to their full capacity um which is only something that can be really affected by uh effective management of
those technologies. So if Fmouth wanted to go on their own we will help Fmouth set that up. they want to use our services obviously we'll be there for that as well. Um if you look Capewide um Falmouth has really become the leader in this area. Um we used to say it was Wellfleet uh but unfortunately Wellle is kind of rethinking some of their um their sewering areas. Um there's been a lot of discussion in the town of Welfle. Um there seems to be at this time less place for us to work. Um so we're kind of waiting to see where that um sort of uh falls and um and again
if Wellle fleet decided they wanted to use IIA technologies will be there to help well fleet as we would with any any town. Uh the town of Barnstable is also toying with um using on-site systems as an option. Um the reason towns have an interest in using on-site technologies uh you could say well they don't perform as well as sewers which I don't think anybody would argue sewer is the gold standard right um but as we all know sewers are extremely expensive and getting more expensive by the day almost literally more expensive by the day I did the calculation on
inflation for just like PVC pipe and like the main construction materials that go into sewers and on-site systems. So if you look at like CIP which is like our normal consumer inflation that's like around 3% right now inflation over the last four years for materials associated with sewers etc has been more like an 8 to 10% inflation rate it's maintained that um even up to the present time it's starting to level off a bit but so the basic point is it's expensive it's getting more expensive and as a region um if you look back to the 208 plan 208 plan said sewer is probably
sewing everything on Cape Cod is an untenable proposition, right? So, we've identified that we need to find locations where sewer is too cost prohibitive, look for those options that we can employ instead, which a lot of people um have argued are these on-site technologies. Um, so we need to have these technologies available. We need to have management options available. Um, and that is really the intent of the program to try to uh make sure we're lowering costs associated with on-site management. Um, and also raise the bar in terms of how we actually manage
them. Um, we have a new field technician starting in February and with that person joining us, uh, that will be the full complement of staff in our division which is kind of exciting. Um that puts us at 20 for our entire set of programs inclusive of the septic utility program uh mass TC the test center um and Aqua Fund. Um so uh looking forward to having him join us. We've been doing a lot of work towards workforce development. Um this is a drum that I've been banging on for a while with
respect to really the whole uh industry whether we're talking about on-site systems or sewers. uh we face a der of uh people who are entering the industry. Um and we need to fill those uh entice more people to come on board and to give them a set of skills to be a able to not only operate on-site systems but operate and maintain our treatment plants and all these billions of dollars that we're investing in treatment infrastructure. Uh that workforce as it stands is just not there
right now putting all this stuff in the ground and we're not going to have any money to run. Um so to that end, one of the things we've started working toward is to put together a set of certification classes for on-site treatment operators to sort of elevate their um their set of skills and knowledge and operation of systems uh and really focusing on those nitrogen removal systems first and foremost. But I think ultimately that is just the start of what we could do through the clean water center. Um, I can foresee the possibility of putting together a whole suite of educational
opportunities for any wastewater treatment operator, whether they're dealing with on-site systems or sewer systems, so that we can bring our local uh workforce up to where it needs to be so that we can actually make sure we're removing nitrogen when we put these plants in. make sure that they're functioning and also make sure that uh they're operated and maintained properly so that investment that we're making lasts as long as it possibly can. So that's something that we're working toward. Um and we're also working on putting together a set of um finance calculators
and things um and some finance tools to help towns identify the difference between sewering an area or using IIA systems in a particular area. Um this has been a really tough nut to crack. We've been working with the Nature Conservancy as one of our grant partners for a number of years. Um, and they had hired a consulting firm called Nature Vest who had put together this really useful calculator that the towns can use and they can say, you know, I have a set of a thousand homes in this area. Give me what the cost differential would be both short and long term using I systems
or um sewering in that particular area based on density and a number of other factors. So that's a calculator that's available actually through uh website. Um so that's my sub update. I have a couple other things and I'll pause there because I I'm going to a totally different topic. So I want to offer if you had any questions at this point. That's great. Commissioner L. Hey, I just want to point out, you know, when Brian, as he mentioned, well, they are is struggling with its uh it's nitrogen and what how are we going to approach this and um as they came down
and talked about this utility program and if you are going to go this route then you you know we're there to help you maintain and people are like this is just added cost and this is a business and you know everybody but it really was is a mandate. It's part of the mandate of the state saying you have to keep an eye on these things with whichever way you go you are responsible for monitoring. So it's not just you know because they feel like creating some sort of entity or uh another business because there's plenty to do without it. But um so I just wanted to clear that
up. And I do think that we have to start thinking um a little bit more clearly about you know how do we meet a workforce and still protect the environment. So anyway that's all. Yeah. You know, I'm amazed someone else in your position might be content to just play the end that they're dealt, but the number of initiatives that you come up with just the ones that you mentioned today are amazing have a stamp of 100, but I know that's not true. But each one of those initiatives benefits
us and it's also on the cutting edge and it not only benefits the people on Cape Cod, but it also benefits people across the country as we're getting into this new technology and we're educating people. So, you know, I'm I'm proud to this makes me proud to be part of Boston County having the work that you do and and and uh knowing that we are we are benefiting great many people beyond just Thanks, Commissioner. I'm going to uh invite Heather if you have a comment or question and anybody else from the board to board. So, I was uh remiss in not mentioning another challenge
that we're facing, and I I wonder if it's um one that either through the Clean Water Center or other resources um the county might be able to um begin to to get into, and that's freshwater. So, we know a lot about nitrogen and our coastal invitments and uh increasingly have more and more technology to grapple with that. Um it's becoming increasingly clear here in Felmouth um that we know a lot less and we have a lot fewer resources um for dealing with phosphorus entering our freshwater ponds from septics from fertilizer from a lot of the same sources. Um right but
our systems are not built to remove phosphorus necessarily or even to know if they do. So I'm curious if that's something that's that's on your radar that the county is starting to address or or whether that's a conversation that we could could open and continue. Brian, do you mind take a crack at that? I would love to. Honestly, if I started, I'll talk for an hour about phosphorus. Um, so I would I would actually invite that, you know, I'd be willing to come to the board and, you know, we could have a more substantive discussion about phosphorus. Um, you know, phosphorus in our ponds
is like the gift that keeps on giving. We put it in there, it doesn't like to come back out, right? Um I always say that um even if we sew it today around the entirety of our ponds, we've got a problem that's going to be sitting there that we still need to deal with, right? We can shut off the tap u but there's still a latent phosphorous source. So um I always say we need to look much more broadly than just the source. We need to obviously address the source, but we also need to figure out um you know, how do we address uh the phosphorus that's in the pond? um how do we address the phosphorus that's in the ground water traveling toward the pond? Um how do
we make sure where that phosphorus isn't entering the uh uh fertilizers etc. And every single pond is different. They're like little fingerprints, right? We have 800 little fingerprints out there in terms of our ponds. Um and you need to do a lot of the research ahead of time to figure out the best uh the best approach before just applying a single uh paradigm to any any one pond. So sewering is part of the option. IE systems are part of the option. Uh putting in bigger vegetated buffers between houses and the the pond shore is a really important aspect because when people come
through and they cut down all the trees and make their nice green lawn go all the way down to the pond front, you're creating a nice conduit for rain water and phosphorus just to make its way right into the into the water. So, it really needs to be um a a much more holistic approach towards the ponds. You know, our our marine embayments once we've shut off the nitrogen, they flush themselves out over time and they'll recover relatively quickly. We've seen that with the Marav Vista project and some of the EPA work that's been done. We're seeing some recovery on
that side. the ponds. Even, like I said, even if we shut it off today, there's still a lot of work that needs to be done and there's going to have to be a lot of patience on the part of the people who live around those ponds to say, "All right, we spent a bunch of money now. We're going to have to sustain our effort and do other things in addition to that moving forward to actually uh remediate the problem." And it's also educating the public that live around. I mean everywhere, but especially those that products they use, uh the impact of those products. Um seasonal people
who come and rent those places. I keep thinking we need to put uh some sort of educational flyer in every rental home that do not use these things. Just be, you know, respect where you are because um people come on vacation, they're not really thinking that they're having a good time and you know, I'm here. I just spent a lot of money for this for this vacation. I'm going to enjoy it. So, um, it's a huge, but we do have to educate each other and be very mindful about what we're doing. Commissioner Bster just you know um I to echo what the commission line says it's the responsibility
of the people living on those ponds to make sure that I had somebody come up to me once in chat he wanted to hire some lawnmakers to make the weeds out of the pond behind his house because it was good for swimming and I tried to explain to him if he watched more we more concerned about what he was putting into the pond we wouldn't have the the, you know, undesirable growth that he has in there. And it's it's an issue because, and I've seen this working on the water, you look around, there are a lot of lawns that come down to a lot of lawns that come down to the ponds and,
you know, they they they bring their their attitude what a a house and a property should look like from somewhere else. You can't do that. Okay. And the ponds are to me almost an untapped resource because it show you we have a canoe or a kayak. I go I go to some of these ponds that have some never been to and it's beautiful there and it's not crowded and so it's something that we should treasure and uh produce tech the information that people need to understand
why how they can keep it. I think Heather you've hit a nerve. Yeah. The reality is that we have a pretty good idea what to do about nitrogen, but we don't have really the game plan figured out yet on phosphorus. There are ideas, there are approaches, but we need to get that problem much further along in terms of creating a clear set of tools and options with financing. Well, for that matter to use the fingerprint analogy, yeah, we don't have the 800 fingerprints documented yet, right?
So even just testing, monitoring, right? Yes. You can only do so many per town, right? We don't have everything. Hi Doug Brown. I'd like to make a plug for Brian's program of monitoring the denitrifying septics. It would be great if that was a Capewide initiative. It was a county sponsored thing. Even better. In Falmouth, we're going to have probably about 7,500 folks that are going to be mandated to install denitrifying systems of some sort or another. Maybe your inverted toilets will save them some money, but we don't even know if that's going to happen. The uh problem with
these denitrifying systems is the owner has to be invested in making them successful. They have to be willing to do the testing and keep up on it. And if they don't, they don't work. And if you have people that are resentful of having to pay for it in the first place and then resentful of paying for the monitoring, it's almost a recipe for disaster because then the health agent has to enforce the the monitoring and people are reluctant and it's putting it off and it doesn't happen until they really forced. So if we had a program where the the county was monitoring all
of the systems, there was no expense. We'd have honest data. We'd know if it was successful. So, I think that's really the only way it's going to be able to be done. I agree. Good point. All right, let's let's move on to the How long is this going to take? I'm going to go through. So, I have some clean water center updates for you. I'm just going to sit through that real quick. So, our laboratory facility um which is funded through the mastc grant that Mark was uh worked with us on. Um so, we're working through an owner's project manager right now. We've got a design
RFP that you're probably going to see in the very near future for that. hoping that we can get the construction somewhere late this year and get that facility up and running in early 2027. Um, non sewer sanitation systems. So, this is what we've referred to as the Gates project. So, this is the Gates Foundation project. Um, give you a brief update on that. Um, we are deep into the ISO accreditation process to make sure that all of our facility meets international standards for testing laboratories. Uh we have a lot of site work underway right now to get the site ready
for the first test system um which is expected to come in March of this year. Um so we're humming along really quickly to meet that date. Um it's a it's a heavy lift and I've got the greatest staff uh in the county which is why we do what we do so successfully. Ron um that company is uh coming to us from South Korea actually. Um so we've had some really late meetings uh working with them. Um, I'd love to come at some point and give you a much more in-depth update on some of those things, but I'll kind of leave it at that um on that piece. And I want to jump over to talk about urine
diversion because that is one of the hot topics in Falmouth. Um, so for those the uninitiated um urine diversion is a very basic concept which says don't put urine into the waist stream that you need to do something with to treat it and remove it. Separate it out and utilize it as a resource rather than as a waste product. Um, we've been working with the town of Famouth on a project for, I don't know, three years. Peter has put in extensive time on this. Mike has really put in a lot of time as well um to get this project uh to where it is now. Uh but the ultimate plan is to
install a number of urine diver diversion fixtures within the town of Felmouth so we can get a proper assessment of how well or how not so well the paradigm of urine diversion works. Uh we've had an IMA with the town uh 233,000 total over the last few years uh to get the prep work done for the setting up this bigger installation project. Um, a lot of that is working through regulatory approvals and there are multiple levels of approvals for this project. Um, because not
only are we dealing with something that D has not really uh fully understood until recently as a as an option. U, but we're also dealing with the plumbing board for fixture approvals. And most of the fixtures we're looking at right now come from Europe and the plumbing board is like, oh, European fixtures. I don't I don't like that so much. So having to go through that process, uh Brian Horsley is the lead on this and I'll tell you he has done a yman's work on this project in just getting the regulators informed and to where we need them to be so that we can move the pro the
approvals along through the process. Um one of the major pieces of this was to identify once we've separated urine what can you do with it? Are there safe ways of using it? Um urine contains uh you know obviously water but there's a lot of nitrogen a lot of phosphorus within uh urine. It contains depending on the estimate you're looking at um somewhere between 80 and 85% of nitrogen um in our wastewater stream um and a little bit less on the phosphorous side of things. So if the
promise of urine diversion is that we can actually take out that nitrogen and phosphorus from our waist stream and turn it into a usable product, then it also would obviously reduce the amount of treatment we would have to do on the other side, right? Um but we need to find where that can ultimately go uh and utilize it as a fertilizer. Um there has been some significant progress there. um MDAR, I don't remember what the acronym stands for, but they basically regulate all fertilizers in the state. Um it's the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture. Thank you. Um they have actually
approved a couple of urine derived fertilizer products. So you can actually uh order these I think online or go into a store. There's one called Weebloom. Um there's another I forget the name of it. They're powdered fertilizers. So they've actually removed all the water and just kept the good stuff. Um so we need more of those types of product developments to come along so that we can actually put the urine somewhere once we've separated it out. Um as part of that again with the IMA with Fmouth, we're identifying uh the locations within town that would be most
uh beneficial for the project. We need certain um characteristics of the home to make sure we can collect the data that we need to demonstrate whether the paradigm works or not. Um and that set of assessments is in conjunction with a company called Nutrient Networks which is later on in your agenda. Uh we have a contract um we've been working on with them. They're providing consulting services to help us uh do those location assessments among other tasks in the project. Um and then more recently, um within the last round of Massachusetts D319 grants, uh county
received $417,000 um to actually install, operate, and monitor 25 of these urine diversion systems in uh uh Fmouth Watersheds. Um the 319 grant program required very had very specific stipulations on uh where we could operate. Um, and the wersheds will all be located in Falmouth. Um, so Brian has been working on identifying those houses and then once we've identified them using the 319 grant money, we'll be able to subsidize some of the cost of installation. We can further incentivize
what are frankly some very motivated homeowners already. Um, but give them an additional financial incentive to participate in the project. That will allow us to assess the performance, get better data on how much phosphorus and nitrogen these these uh fixtures actually remove and then also assess that whole management piece of it, the after separation and what you do with it. Is it cost-effective etc. Um is it a legitimate option? um with the ultimate um sort of deliverable of this whole project is that the town can then take that set of data and that information look
at their wershed plan and say well maybe we allow some inversion in this area it might make sense here um you know maybe we can supplement some of our IIA systems with your interversion there's a lot of different ways you can sort of approach it from that point um but that's the major uh year end diversion update there's a whole lot more to that and I could speak for an hour on that but I'm going stop there and invite questions. It's great. Thank you, Commissioner Lines. I don't have a question, but I do want to say that I can't have people talk about your inversion without
mentioning Matt Patrick because Matt Patrick was on this 18 years ago. He got a lot of a lot of uh god when he would bring it up from people in the state house and all around like, you know, go away. That's that's not even realistic. And um he was ahead of his time. As it turns out, if we had focused more on that, we might have had a better solution than sewing everything. But um I I have to always think about Matt because he took a lot of abuse by saying you're introversion.
But he was right. And God bless him. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Brown. Yeah. This is a topic I tried not to think about and I'm glad that we have you to think about. So I don't have any questions. You pretty much cover it. Yeah, I got to ask our Fmouth friends. Any comments, questions? Obviously, you folks are, as you can see, I mean, very active partners with the county in terms of doing some very exciting stuff. Doug Doug Brown again. I'm excited to have the
opportunity to have people that could have this lower cost option because as I said 7500 folks are going to be faced with either a replacement of their septic with an IIA which could cost 50 60 70 depends on where the existing one is and what the terrain is like in their yard could be really expensive whereas this could cost you know fraction of that. We don't know exactly because each house is different, but I expect it to be a lot less money and also could be useful. Imagine if we had Cape Cod fertilizer. You know, Cape Cod potato chips sell fertilizer. There you go.
But um very good. But you also have a demonstration on a yarn diversion um toilet on the site. So, if anybody is not familiar with it and sounds kind of scary and nervous, uh, I encourage you to take a visit up and see Brian. Yep. Yep. We have one at the Clean Water Center as part of the part of the Gates project. Um, I'll be I'll be very frank. We need to collect uh very raw human uh expert. So, through that, we have to deise these these basically fancy bathroom trailers to
collect material. Um, you will probably see those around at a beach or event near you in the coming uh uh months and years as we try to uh do those tests. But thank you. Anything else you need to add? That's that's it for my updates. I just want to as always thank you all for your support over the years and what we um without you know your your support we can't do the work that we do. Um further to Ron's point uh I just set a vision. My staff are amazing. uh they're the ones doing all
the hard work. They're the ones who uh I hope are providing that inspiration for you. They do working with they do. No, we appreciate that and we appreciate that we have a municipality here that's very sort of forward thinking as well to work with us to help put these ideas to to to the test. So, thank you. Thank you so much. All right. Next up is Ken Cerillo, our dredge star. It's a tough act to follow. Phosphorus, nitrogen, and three bucks each.
So, I'm Ken Sol, the director of the dredge program. Thank you for having us here. Uh, this is going to be a two-part presentation. The first one will be on kind of current projects, where we're at right now, and then we'll kind of roll back on some of the development work and stop me any time at all. So the primary mission of our program really is navigational channels getting them clear to their design depth. Secondary benefit has always been nourishing the beaches. And we also see a lot more that takes out depending on the
project rebuilding shorelines, improving water quality with flushing and building habitat. Uh this was a large project that we started in midepptember in Pmpesta Bay. Uh every year we usually do a very small project 5,000 7,000 cubic yards to um clear the channel. After 10 years the town and St. Poppy Bay had a permit to do longer, wider, deeper. It expanded the whole dep basin the prism of the channel. uh put a sediment catch
basin in a very very big lift for us. You know, we ended up using two dredges on this project uh for about three quarters of the time which helped on operational efficiency. Um the overall uh target volume, it started off very low at about 45,000 cubic yards and it ended up being um 57,000 cubic yards. So it's the biggest project the county ever did and incredible amount of work by the crew to pull this off in a relatively short period of time under really tough conditions.
We lost about 50% of the time of dredging days due to weather which is much higher than normal uh especially for this area. Uh but again you know the achievements is that we did two two dredges largest project and the typical challenges that we always have uh delayed stock because of shorebirds that were departed and we had to wait another two weeks into September when we were ready to go um a very hard packed sand which does impact the how quickly we can dredge. So we ended up
uh finishing this project and again for the county trench uh really a great achievement. Uh while we were there we took advantage of doing a small project inside what they call a 1916 entrance channel. So we finished this project very quickly. It ended up being much smaller than had forecasted about 2200 cubic yards. But since we had the dredge there since the pipe was there we decided to go ahead and do that. We did survey for another project on the inner channel but there was really not enough showing to justify doing that project. Uh then the long hall to Truro and Pam. This is
an annual project that you have to do uh for the town. Um it does require transit going from where we were in Panessa. It can be a five-day trip. It can be a two-e trip. Ended up portionally being just a two-day trip. This time we moved the dredge from Papa over to Bourne and from Bourne all the way out Pearl. And again, you know, we started late. We got there uh third week of November and it took us about a month to get the weather break there. It's a really tough place to work. Um the
project was reasonably large. It ended up being about 7,000 cubic yards. A couple two weeks ago, we ended up moving the dredge from Truro to Suitt where we are right now. uh the Panama project, you know, just to highlight, they have a very long a very big problem there. Uh the toe of the of the jetty where it intersects the beach washed over a few years ago. Uh they ended up building this core system where they put coconut filled with sand and large stakes to hold it in place, but it's
obviously not doing the job. So before we started the project, this is what it looked like. and the town's DPW ended up putting a lot of material on this one spot. Obviously, it's a band-aid and if not, you know, matter of if but when it'll wash over again. They're looking at expanding the breakwater, which really is the better solution there, but that'll take some time. So, until then, it's sand. Uh, as I mentioned, we're in Suitt right now. Uh, another annual project that we
do. Uh this project used to be done, you know, all the way through and up to May when really was needed to be done. Sand can move incredibly quick in this spot. We've seen in years past that uh we would be done dredging. We get a 3-day nor easter and then sand would just pour right back in again. The town wants this to be done, you know, as late as possible, but unfortunately due to uh changes in time of year restrictions, specifically winter flounder. Uh we actually have a time of year restriction that starts on Friday. We'll get waiverss to allow us to, you know,
continue to dredge uh to get it done, but um uh it's a challenging area and right now it's frozen solid. So, we are really, you know, kind of stuck right now with this week's weather with that dredge. Uh, same thing on the south side. We have our other dredge. We have two dredges, by the way. We have a Elcott 870. These are cut ahead section dredges and a Elott 670. Two large dredges. Uh, and the other one here is in Parker's River, but unfortunately, same problem. River is just about
froz. There's a lot of pack guys in there right now. Uh the guys have been spending the last couple days just kind of keeping things uh from having more damage, throwing out burning heaters. We're probably going to be even hitting the pause button for the time being because it's just not uh safe right now to be out in the water and and in these cold conditions. Uh this is a relatively small project for us um which we have two projects scheduled in Yarmouth. This is the first of two. Um so what else is going on? You know, sort of our motto is drench plans God lasts because we have a
plan at night and the next day it's changed. We start a great schedule in September and it falls apart within weeks. You know, it's really a tough tough job and challenging to think we can control a plan uh plan project. So, you know, we have a pretty big runway from now to the end of the year. We have a lot of time of year restrictions to contend with the winter flounder, the fur, the clovers, horseshoe crabs and everything in between and we really have to manage those and
I think they are you know really we are past the point of uh they are controlling us and we're not controlling them. So we have a project in Bass River the approach channel. Uh we have two projects in Chattam that are pretty large that need to be done. Mil Creek uh entrance and approach channel as well as Alidius Cove and a very large sh that's developed because of the break up to the north. Um the town of Chattam does not have their permit yet. They have 13 months now waiting to get it when it expired uh at the end of 24 but it's supposed to be any day now and we're
waiting to kind of position ourselves after one of these geomet projects to move to Chattam uh for those two projects with the dredge that's Parker's river Haritch has three projects and typically we do two out of three although last year uh we did two of the ones that weren't scheduled uh just because of some changing conditions and the dynamics of the sand is really uh affecting some of the uh the navigation especially cycle which is you know a federal channel. Um then after that you
know we'll see what happens and I'll talk about Fmouth in a second on the Fmouth project. So the uh oh so there are four projects in Fmouth that Greg Razer your harbor master has planned. Green pond, great pond entrance channels, damothth harbor and the uh eel pond approach channel. So we will do condition surveys where we go out and survey the channels and see what shing there is and then we will decide uh up to three of those projects will be done. What else we doing? Uh
we have received a grant from the match grant last year and we have until the end of this fiscal year to spend that money more equipment. You know we're constantly upgrading a lot of the old equipment that we've had. Uh we are going to be moving and co-sharing space with the former higher training academy which will give us cover. You know there's sort of a history lesson. We've been in a yard, literally a yard in Dennis at their uh small DBW facility with uh a FEMA tent and a couple of old
trailers and the guys out there doing the work and welding and cutting and heat of the summer and now this cold weather outside. So, this will be a welcome relief to give us some some storage. Uh we have a couple of other studies. One of them is to finalize the dredge permit optimization study. Uh it's at our subcommittee right now looking at some of the changes that we think we need to help the towns because permit that towns need is what drives our projects uh from the revenue standpoint. As we saw three years ago when the permits were all held up in
about four of the five towns you know we went through a period of no projects and no revenue and it was a couple of years of declining revenue. Uh so we looked at ways to help the towns from technical perspective not to manage the permits but to help as an interface uh to help ourselves and they're we're close to finalizing and bringing those forth to the rest of the uh groups here. We also just completed a wage review study. The county dredge did not participate in the county's uh dredge review that excuse me salary review that was done precoid
just changes have been made organizationally. So, we commissioned a small study to look at rates we're paying our deck hands and crew and to see what we need to help, you know, have a better uh compensation package. And another thing we're working on, soon we're working on is we need to have some way to adjust these dread rates because they need to have some flexibility in being able to move the mountain up and down as conditions change. And this will this is a this be a new project for us. uh just equipment here. Again, we're always always purchasing new equipment and
we're very fortunate to have received this grant from the state this past year. So, Falmouth, we'll move quickly through this and then we can have questions. So, we've obviously been dredging in Felmouth since the program started 30 years ago. Nothing new. Uh just about every single channel in town has been dredged. Uh a few new ones are coming up. uh waiting for some permits to be uh uh uh allowed for next year next season. So don't go through all of the pages here, but
uh quite a few projects. You know, most we look at as small projects, medium projects, you know, some of the larger ones might one that we recently did was about 4,500 cubic yards when we went inside of Great Pond and Bay. Um and that one was, you know, a good project, a lot of challenges, but um uh a higher volume project. Most of the other ones, as you'll see in a second, you know, can be very small. The last time we did Falmouth Harbor in 2023, uh you know, a shaw is a sh. So for us,
whether it's a small sh like in this case was 694 cubic yards. Um it's an important show that needs to be done because of you know what it does to restrict the the access in the channel. So we have smaller projects than that and we have much larger projects than that. Uh the green the great pond entrance channel again just about every single year this project is completed. uh volumes are again very low but a sh was a shaw and that's what we do and it'll take us you know a couple of three days to mobilize for this project a day of dredging and then a couple
of days to break down in 2024 this is the one I just mentioned this was an interesting project because we had to go under the bridge and under the bridge means a lot a lot of mobilizing we had to take the spuds off to go under the bridge and then when we got back on the other side put the spuds back in again and we dred inside uh of the embainment and then all the material as you can see all of your dump trucks were there and they piled up all the sand and moved it down along S drive to build up a burn along the beach there. So we think this was a you know very challenging
but a very successful project for us and then last year back to a smaller project 1400 cubic yards again the material was used you know to reinforce some of the area along uh the beach and Green Pond, as you know, has two marinas. One under the bridge that restricts the draft of those boats and the other one has larger uh boats with a deeper draft. Uh this project, just like Grave Pond, you know, Greg, they always want to have it done as late as possible in a season, which presents its own challenges because you want to have it done so you don't have a back filling
and you have it as deep as possible, but then you run the risk of planning and you run the risk of us being there. And as we've seen in other times, you need to get a waiver. We have piping clovers. There's one pair of piping clovers that sits on the west on the east side of the jetty there that um caused a little challenge two years ago. Uh but those projects again need to be done. It's a really important waterway. It's a very challenging spot when conditions can be rough, which typically in the springtime, you know, we're dredging right in the channel. A lot of
swell comes in, so we can lose quite a few days. uh in 2024 you can see about 2,000 and this really is the larger of the of the inlets that we do in the ponds and then last year again back to kind of that same 2300 cubic yard of volumes pond you know as you know this is one they are working on to open widen and remove bridge and all that really tough spot for us to work it can have some really high volumes very shallow you can't dredge there at low tides because it's so shallow that
the cuthead literally can't be on the bottom. The last time we did it was in 2024. It is not on the list for this year primarily because of the planned work. Uh Eel River last year, this was a very interesting project for us. As you can see, uh we were right inside right at the spit on North Island. We took a little section of the spit that had grown kind of like a mini version of what we see at Samson Island in Barcelona where massive spit goes out chokes the waterway.
You know, same challenge here. Uh we reduce the dredging footprint uh to go ahead and and about 5,000 cubic yards. Uh back to the embainment in Great Pond. Just a couple of pictures, you know, to show what we actually had to do. You know, removing spuds sounds a lot easier than it might be, but it's incredibly difficult. Uh they don't they don't come out much unless they're in a shipyard. Uh we had to take the muffler system off the drag, basically remove anything to give
us the vertical clearance, you know, be able to go under the bridge with very little room to spare. So back to the thalmouth uh our plan B uh right now you know we are trying to see uh to take take advantage of possibility of using the town drench to do some of the projects probably if uh if it's the green pond and great pond and falmouth they would the town would do all three of them.
uh if it is just green and gray most likely we would then you know be ill to approach change. So we're trying to take advantage of an opportunity here, you know, to manage the project as if it's our project. We would be providing the show offside services, the grading, excuse me, the uh pipe management and the grading and they would bring their dredge over. They have a much smaller dredge than ours with a much smaller diameter pipe and it's also kind of restricted on how far it can pump. Uh, but it fits perfectly for Green Pond and Gray Pond and and and found the pond or
not Yield Pond is too would be too far. So, we're talking logistics. You know, really it's a win-win win because it's freeing us up for us to do other projects and it's giving them revenue that they need and can use and obviously for us for the for the town to have those projects completed. Um, and this year is a is sort of a unicorn year. Last year they did not have any projects. They didn't have any projects permitted. So, their dredge was not in the water. And the cost of of mobilizing
and putting their dredge in the water really would have made it prohibitive. But now they just finished Taj Mu pond and now this gives them the opportunity to bring the dredge across and do a couple of these projects for us. And the pro the plan really would be that we would survey all four projects next month, February, and then Greg would determine which he chooses and then we'll see where we're at. You know, we're we're stuck in Suit right now, literally frozen. Uh but, you
know, hopefully we'll get a fall and that'll allow us to bring uh the dredge back over. But you know with the rest of the lamp that we had from Paritch and Chadam and now stuck in the arm with that project uh it's looking better and better that we might be using Edtown uh to do these projects and that is it. Terrific Ken thank you very much. Um what I'd like to do is just focus on questions related to the Falmouth dredging and I'll just start with our commissioners and then ask our
Fmouth partners. Ron just just quickly obviously if it would be in the interest of of the selectman and the manager and found that we operate this as an enterprise fund we've struggled to keep you know basically balance the books try to keep the cost down for the treasury I know we have a treasure advisory committee going to have to look at that fee structure make sure that we can cover expenses because we're faced with fiscal realities just everybody else so hopefully that won't happen
exactly aware of it. You make I mean we we informed them but yeah I mean the the reality is is the list of projects you know is unend the need is tremendous. It's really literally not enough dreading days in in any year to do what we're supposed to do. I'm talking about the rest of the challenges that we have. Thanks Ken. I'm gonna go to Heather. Heather you have a question? Yeah, maybe along with some could you say a little bit more about the flex rate program that you mentioned? Yeah, so we last year uh FY25 was the first year that we used the new that we
implemented new rates um that were approved by the assembly. Um this is the second year. What we had to do to get those rates to be changed, you know, really was quite an effort. uh study having it validated then going through the process and we really can't do that again. So the idea that we're looking at with a company that's called Anka QEA that specializes in dreading work better consulting is to see if they could design a flex rate structure taking in all
the variables that you would indicators that you would you would want to allow us to say okay we need to increase the rates 5 whatever the number is by x% uh to allow us to have the capacity to make more nimble changes I guess would be the point so so that we're not waiting for five years to do a full study and then we're in deeper and Michael I don't know if you want to comment on that thread. Yeah, I think I think thanks Ken. Um it's good presentation but I think you're correct.
Uh the flex rate is designed and it it'll go through a process in order to be approved, but the flex rate is is really an attempt to uh manage uh some of the uh you know some of the uh unknowns in in the dredge world as Ken pointed out. You know, you have uh time of year restrictions uh which can hit us any which way. Uh you've got weather restrictions, you know, as this week is pointing out. Um and so uh and then permitting delays which affect us too. So this is
it's an opportunity for us to just see if there's a better way to set a rate um and broadcast that rate to all the towns and participate 14 of the 15 towns. Um so really that's that's what we're looking at. Thank you. Jack, did you have a question? Uh yeah, I was just going to say the uh sorry, thank you. The governor's budget is supposed to come out in the next two hours or so. Uh and I know that you know the the last meeting um you know you brought up a concern with Senator France and Senator Seir of this the potentially cutting the program. So uh I don't think that
it'll be cut. We'll know for sure in the next few hours. I was refreshing my phone. They launched the website but then it says come back full. Yeah. Um but yeah um because this is so affordable as you for all of our towns. Well, we welcome any updates you can provide. Yeah, I'll keep Doug, did you have a question? I was just going to say I was glad to hear Ken say that the rates could go up and down as needed. Right. Yeah, that's true. Well, I think that's, you know,
the point is is that when relief is needed, then relief should come, but build up enough of reserve and we can absorb, you know, lowering back to some other level. I think that's the way it should be rather than just continuing to burden our program and and then independently the towns good but it's early stages. I mean I think we've identified that this would be something for us to look into to see if it's a better way to manage the rate structure. Thanks Ken. Thanks. Did you have a follow? Is there one other uh thing that you need to be effective? Got two dredges. Is that enough?
uh you know hold that question we always need more capital investment in the dredge program there's always stuff to do it's the challenge is you know is that adding equipment is rel is easy if the money's there but then the investment to support it is is really big you know we're looking at what we call explorations looking at okay if we need another dread what kind is going to be bigger is it going to be uh capable of being out in bigger sea conditions which then brings about other risks and brings about staffing. and looking at trying to see if we could have a a portable barge where
we could put an excavator with an extended arm on it and a big container to do a lot of these let's say smaller projects that are tough for us to justify bringing the whole dredge out the whole group and all the pipes and I think that's a great solution but again how does that impact the crew you know we are really lean we have seven guys doing all this work and I think you know at some point you have to look Okay. What's that impact of continuing to add and demand more? Uh because
I think that's that's a great solution for us to have. Yeah, this is something that we talk about all the time. All right. This is an ongoing conversation. How do we maximize the efficiency of our dredge program given the limitations that we're always bumping into, particularly relating to permitting and the challenges in terms of just getting to all the harbors that need help. The other challenge that we have is that the feds and the state typically are less and less engaged in commitments to to supporting this. Um the federal government used to maintain half the harbors and channels on Cape Cod. They rarely do that anymore. Um and so we're always looking to find ways to get
some financial support um to sort of keep things going and keep us afloat while limiting the burden on the town. So it's a big challenge. Ken's done a wonderful job in terms of balance the balancing act. Uh it's just unbelievable the financial pressures that he's been sort of wrestling with and he's done a superb job and helping make this all work. Um we don't want to have to go back every couple of years looking for new rates all the time. That's a that's an expensive process. It's very time it's time consuming. So my hope is that we can find more flexibility in our rate
structure so that we can deal with some of the added costs in in the future. I want to commend you for connecting with the Edgartown people because I believe that equipment is relatively underutilized. So, if we can partner with them, that's a that's a terrific opportunity for us. Um, what I'd like to do before I continue on much further, I want to acknowledge Vicky Lel, former county commissioner. Thanks for being here, Vicki. It's great to see you. Well, I'm about to leave, but I just a historic note, the dredge program was really the uh child of
John Don when he was county commissioner. He was the one who saw the opportunity, the need, and felt that if region could benefit from having a county service rather than each one trying to find a private contractor to do the work. Yeah. No, we appreciate the the efforts of the board back then. The push vote at JW. Yeah. There we go. I see former county clerk stay here. Phyis, thanks for joining us. And obviously uh former state rep Eric Turkington. Eric, thanks for being here. I used
to work with Eric when he was on the select board here in Fountain to give you an idea how old I am. Yeah. And what Vicki said that the first bridge that was paid for by the state of Massachusetts. Yeah, we've always had a good Cape Kai delegation that tends to work together on Cape issues even if they're different different parties and if it's not the delegation, it's the staff like Jack, right? We appreciate all that work. What I'd like to do in the interest of time,
we're kind of pressed for time here. I'm going to ask the county administrator to bring up on the agenda the item related to uh his report an update on the composting. Um, and then once we're done with that, that will pretty much complete what I would say our Fmouth related discussion and our Fmouth topics and board members, town officials are welcome to grab a sandwich. And if you have to go to another appointment, another meeting, you're certainly welcome to do do so. We're not we won't be offended if you have to leave. But if um if there's no objection, um Michael, could you
give us just a quick update on the composting? Absolutely. So, we continue to finalize the upper cave composting initiative uh with the agreement currently in draft form. Uh right now, we're looking at costs uh assessed to four towns of about $7,500 per town. Uh the county is uh will likely pick up uh about $45,000 uh which totals about $75,000 which will see us through
uh phase what we call phase two. Phase two is uh sighting and securing the property and permitting. Um so I I suspect um well that that process should take about 18 uh to 24 months. Uh we'll be working with the military. So could take 18 to 24 months or 24 years. That's great. um right now the agreement's uh in front of our legal council for review, but I expect it uh will be ready for
execution within the next couple weeks. Um and we will go from there. Um internally, I think uh as I mentioned, uh the county commissioners and the and the assembly of delegates will see a line item for 45,000 um that will uh come from the county to support uh this particular regional initiative. Um, we're also working within our budget to to budget for a project manager that will carry this project right through to completion. Um, and whatever that will actually
look like and um and as I said uh right now we're looking at a at a time frame of 18 to 24 months uh for review uh and permitting. permitting. We need to get permits from uh D, state D, federal EPA, um and if we need to go through an FAA review, and obviously the military will have its own its own process. So, so we are uh we're well on our way. Um the the entire uh working group and all the towns uh are quite uh aware of the potential cost and and where we stand. So,
uh we're ready to go. Can I ask have they finalized the amount of acorage that you're going to be able to use? Um there is a preferred site on the base. The military's uh identified a preferred site and it's uh I believe the site is roughly 10 acres. um it won't the the actual facility will not need that much space but but there's plenty the the military the towns the working group has has certainly identified uh expansion pos uh possibilities and so um so this particular site would be able to accommodate that expansion
thank you Mike any questions he okay let's let's move on the uh the next item on our agenda is the uh item 6D presending a proposed ordinance 26 to be named capital fund reappropriation authorized and introduced to the assembly elements on January 14th. Michael, do you want to give an explanation? Yeah, let me give a brief explanation this one and the next your next ordinance. Uh we're asking
you to resend uh this one because uh this came to you uh at your last meeting. passed it. Thank uh thank you. And uh and that afternoon we learned that there were other issues associated with this same project that would require additional appropriations. So we uh retrenched uh and we're proposing to resend this. The assembly has not taken this up if uh they have not uh not acted on this. So we're proposing that you resend this ordinance. Um and then the following ordinance
uh would be the alland amount that's needed for the same project. Okay, thank you. Any questions? I move to resendos ordinance on the capital fund reappropriation authorized and introduced the assembly of delegates January 14th. Do I have a second? Second. Uh any discussion hearing? None. All those in favor say I. I opposed. Carries unanimously. Thank you. I have a motion on further I move to approve proposed ordinance 26 day later capital stabilization transfer for first district
court repairs for introduction to the assembly of delegates. Second. Okay, I have a motion to second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. I opposed. Carries unanimously. Item F is ordinance 26- 2026-01. This is the uh capital budget. It was amended by the assembly. Um the administrator has approved the amendments and the adjustments in it. Um can I have a motion? Yes, Mr. Chair. I move to approve the ordinance 2026-01 fiscal year 2027 capital budget as amended
and adopted by the Assembly of Delegates on January 21st, 2026. Second. Okay. I have a motion to second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. I opposed carries unanimously. Item G. Yeah, Mr. Chair, I move to approve ordinance 2602 appropriating the sum of $3,719, excuse me, 3,719,215
to the capital stabilization fund established in ordinance 2020-17 by transferring funds from the unreserved fund balance as amended and adopted by the Assembly of Delegates. on January 21st, 2026. Second. Okay. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Carries. Unanimous. The next item is uh new business. Is there any other business that has not been
reasonably anticipated? Uh no. Great. Next item. A commissioner's consent agenda. Do I have a motion? Yes. Uh Mr. Chair, I move to authorize the commissioner's consent agenda item 8A as listed on the January 2028, excuse me, January 28th, 2026 agenda. Second and this is one that I am going to abstain from this. So all those in favor say I. I. Forest abstains. Let the record show. Thank you.
Passes. The next item is I move to authorize the commissioner's consent agenda item 8B through AG as listed on the January 28, 2020 six agenda. Second. Okay. Motion second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed carried unanimously. The next item on our agenda is commissioner reports. Do we have any reports from the county commissioners? Commissioner Ber. Yeah, I would just to say that considering we had almost 2 ft of snow, I think various
uh public works department on the Cape did a pretty good job. I the roads were clear, you know, even the side roads and they were plowed. I mean, we had some warning for this storm, but still I was impressed. I've seen other storms, but that didn't happen. So, this one was everybody did a good job. I concur with that. And um all I can say is that it's wonderful being found. So it's making sense. So other than that, thank you. Very good. We're going to move on to the next item. Item 10, upcoming business. I'm going to turn this over to the uh administrator. How does our
next meeting agenda shaping up? Agenda will be consumed mostly with county budget uh review uh for the commissioners and uh anything else the commissioners would like to talk. That sounds great. Okay. Next item is county administrator and staff reports. Are there any more staff reports from the administrator? I just have a couple uh of items I just wanted to uh again as Commissioner Bergen um alluded to uh recognize the county staff Chip Riley uh who's our emergency
preparedness director um and and his group as well as the Americanore uh members for staffing the MAC. Uh we did not need to open the MAC. the multi multi- agency uh coordination center. Uh but it was staffed. We did not have to open it for this store, but it was staffed and it was a great opportunity for for sort of a training uh to make sure that uh that when we do have to activate it uh it it is ready operating on all all cylinders. Um and I think that we've covered pretty much
everything um else. Uh I just wanted to let you know uh as it pertains to the dredge program, I did have a discussion uh with with a number of HOIE representatives and staff regarding um possibly figuring out how we can actually quantify the economic impact of the dredge program to the Cape. I think that's uh an important thing for us to be able to do. I think instinctively we know that uh the dredge program is important. It's been around for 30 years. It's really taken the place
of the federal obligations and and some of the state obligations with our navigable channels and and uh now is sort of focusing as Kevin alluded to on on um on some of the uh coastal coastal erosion issues uh mitigation issu uh attempts but uh but we've never really fully assessed the impact to the Cape in a in a quantifiable way. So, uh, I'm hoping that we can really do that, uh, in the next year and, uh, and if all works well, we can do that with the Louis staff. Um,
just a reminder for this group, the associate, the association of county commissioners is meeting in Plymouth. Um, the culinary arts department at South High School uh, on Friday, this coming Friday at 11:00 a.m. So, just a reminder. Um and then just a couple of items related to the meeting. Um our county entomologist uh is full is available uh to work with the tree wardens or balance tree warden certainly to uh to uh do anything that the county can offer uh in terms of
entomologist expertise and uh I'll make sure that that he connects u connects with the tree warden um in the manager's office. So, um, and I'll also connect, uh, with Mr. Ranchaw on the human rights, uh, issues. We do, the county does have a human rights advisory, uh, commission, also has human rights, uh, coordinator um, who does great work uh, sometimes very quietly, but really does great
work uh, countywide. So if there's an opportunity for us to uh share any information with you, but probably more likely uh you sharing some sort of process uh ideas with us and uh then we'll make sure that that communication happens. So I appreciate that. That's great. Do we have any questions or comments for our administrator regarding his report? Dr. Jess just like to say thanks for coming today and uh I really think that you guys are really operating probably the most
effective county government in Massachusetts and maybe doing Thank you. Thank you. Well um before we move to the next item which is the German I just want to thank the um staff here at town hall my grandshaw and your team for supporting us. I want to thank the select board for the outstanding work that you do in representing the community and giving us a chance to hear firsthand some of the great work that you're doing. As you can see, we collaborate a lot of things. We are vested in your success and uh we enjoy working very much so with you and your your department heads and your staff.
Um it's a very very productive collaborative effort that we very much cherish. And as you know, we're always available for a phone call. there's something else that we need to talk about and we have obviously a short list of items of things that we really want to with you on. So, thank you so much for being here with us today. Thank you. And I also want to thank our staff uh for the logistics making sure that we we're all organized and everything's working and everything's functioning. So, thank you staff. And um so the next item on the agenda is adjournment. Do I have
a motion? I move to adjourn. I will second. Okay. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. It carries unanimously and um we're ajourned. Thank you. Thank you so much.