So, let's start with um we have a quorum here and um I'm just going to read this brief notice that uh we're we're holding today a meeting of the Barnstable County Board of Regional Commissioners. Uh, it's going to be conducted in accordance with applicable laws when public participation is required by law or allowed by the board chair. Persons wishing to participate may do so by accessing the meeting link on the posted meeting agenda on our website at uh capecod.gov. Uh, members of the public may view the meeting via live broadcast at our Barnstable
County YouTube channel and on our website. So, we do have a quorum and uh I'm calling uh this meeting of the commissioners to order and I'm going to turn it over now to our our wonderful hosts, the town of Warren and Chair Melissa Fin. Thank you. Oh, wow. So, um yeah, thank you. Um we appreciate you being here and sharing your your meeting with us today. I'm I'm new as chair for this. So, I'm not sure how we start this project and how we get we do the pledge of allegiance, I would imagine. Yes. and our um very good silence for our safety officials.
Very good. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you so much. Welcome. I think we'll give you the floor um to So the next item would be to um on our agenda is for a brief moment of silence. Please join us in a moment of silence to reflect on the bravery and the sacrifices of all those who have put their lives on the line in service to our country.
Thank you. Uh, I'd like to take an item out of order and I'd like to just for a moment do introductions so that you get a chance to uh meet our staff and our team that's here. So, I'm going to start in the audience. If you are um part of the county staff, could you raise your hand and announce yourself starting in the back? Ian. Uh, Ian Roberts. I'm just county IT. Good. Mike Magcguire, director of the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension. Uh Carrie Parcell with the cooperative extension as well. I'm solid waste and recycling and I'm also part of Massie EP also part
of Cape Cod Cooperative Extension as extension entomologist and horiculturalist. Thank you. Um I'm gonna ask Wayne to announce himself. Wayne Samson County. That's great. And up here at the dis we have Michael Dutton, county administrator, Robin Young, executive assistant to the commission administrator. Ron Burkstrom, county commissioner, Mark Forest, county commissioner, and Sheila Lions, county commissioner. And then I'm going to turn it over to if you'd like to introduce and acknowledge your team. Maurice, select board vice chair. Melissa Fetti,
select board vice chair. Chairwoman Herring Pon Wern Mary Jane Mrangelo select board Peter Maya longest servant of the five select board members and somebody Jean is joining us my apologies Jean is joining us online Jean has her hand up yeah good morning yes Jean select board member that's great most recent member of the select board that's great good um and Melissa are there any people in terms of town Department of I think Marlene maybe we could have Marlene and do a quick
intro. McCall town administrator and then Barry I see Barry's here you could do a quick intro Barry Barry Johnson clerk. All right I think that's our and you have the assistant town clerk. Oh sorry I saw you beside her. I we have not met so my apologies. Elizabeth and Gazero the assistant. Very good to meet you. Thank you. Right. Very good. Well we're excited to be here in the town of Borne. Uh the county commissioners have been making the rounds. We we call it our road show
where we've been meeting with uh town officials and select boards from around the Cape since the beginning of the year. And um we have found it incredibly helpful to have a dialogue with uh our municipal officials and town officials to talk about the services that we provide in your community, the things that we're doing in your community, and quite frankly, particularly with select boards, have an opportunity to have a direct engagement and dialogue on some of the work that we're doing. Um and if there are things that we can do better, uh in some communities,
there are things that uh select board members have brought up that they would like to see us do. Uh and we also get a lot of very good feedback also from the town administrators. Uh Michael Dutton, our county administrator, meets on a monthly basis with the administrators for their association meeting. So we do our best to keep our administrators up to speed. But we have found that in these discussions uh we've had tremendously positive and helpful feedback in terms of the things that we're working on and perhaps some of the things that we might want to work on
and expand on. uh in the future. For example, um in a couple of towns, we have been asked uh to expand uh the work of our purchasing and uh our our procurement um operations into going into other areas, other services that we don't particularly solicit on. That's been helpful. Um so um the suggestions are is as small as that and then in some cases they're they're they're much bigger dealing with major infrastructure issues and so forth. So um I have found that
the these discussions have been incredibly productive mutually productive and we very much appreciate having the opportunity to be here in Bourne and to uh meet with all of you folks. So um the next item on our agenda is to invite public comment. I think you probably do that as well as the board, right? And so I'm going to just open it up. If there's anybody here that has a public comment either for the county commissioners or the born select board, by all means, uh, make yourself known. Do we have anybody on our teams? I do not see any either. So far
so good. All right, moving on to the next item in our agenda. Uh, this is authorizing the execution of a citation to Barry Johnson in recognition of his service to the town of Bourne and to Barnstable County. And so I'm going to ask for uh, Commissioner Bergstrom to read the citation. Excuse me. Okay. This is citation from the Barnesville County Board of Regional Commission to Barry Johnson. He had known that the Bartsville County Board of Regional
Commissioners offered such sincerest gratitude to Barry Johnson for over 50 years of public service to the residents of Bourne and of Bartsville County. Whereas Mr. Johnson began his career in municipal service as an elected member of the Bourne Select Board, serving from 1972 to 1984, during which time he was appointed to represent Bourne on the Cape Cod Planning and Economic Development Commission, the regional precursor agency to today's Cape Cod Commission, and the
Barnstable County Finance Advisory Board, a body established by the Massachusetts Legislature in 1973 to provide Cape Cod's 15 towns with statutory oversight of county expenditures. And whereas upon the adoption of the count Barsville County Home Rule Charter authorized by chapter 163 of the acts of 1988 and ratified by the voters of Barnsville County in November of 1988, Mr. Johnson assumed the role of Barnesville County Administrator of the Cape Cod Regional Government under the policy
direction of the board of regional commissioners and overseeing the day-to-day operations. fiscal management and regional service delivery of county agencies through the late 1980s and into the into the 1990s. And whereas Mr. Johnson has served as an elected town clerk of Bourne since 2003 and in that capacity also was appointed as the town's excuse me keeper of the records and oversaw
elections administration and maintained vital statistics which while concurrently serving as chairman of the community preservation committee evaluating local historical preservation open space and affordable housing initiatives and serves on the Open Space Committee and serves as general manager of the Bourne Recreation Authority, a self-funded independent authority that operates the John Gallow Ice Arena and the Bourne Scenic Park camping ground, in which role he has represented the authority in ongoing discussions with the Massachusetts
Department of Transportation regarding the impacts of the proposed new born bridge upon Bourne upon Bourne Scenic Park. And now therefore be it resolved the board of regional commissioners of Barsville County Cape Regional Government does hereby extend its formal recognition and serve sincere gratitude to Barry H. Johnson for his exceptional and enduring contributions to the governance of the town of Bourne and the Cape Cod region as a whole and does commend him to
his fellow residents and colleagues as a singular example of dedicated principled and multiaceted public service and it's signed by three of us Mark Forest chair myself vice chair and Sheila Lions so thank you Uh, welcome. I'm going to ask Commissioner Lance to make a a motion to formally approve the uh the citation. Uh, Mr. Chair, I move to authorize the execution of a citation to Barry
Johnson in recognition of his service to the town of Bourne and to Barnstable County. Motion and a second. Um, in terms of discussion, I just like to um offer uh my own personal thanks to uh to Barry. Um, I started on Cape in Cape Cod in 1981 in the town manager's office in Provincetown, uh, representing the the select board in Provincetown, uh, as assistant town manager, but I served on a host of county committees and, uh, Barry was my mentor. Barry was the go-to person for me as a
young administrator trying to understand the ways of Cape Cod and understand municipal government. Um Barry was part of that generation of select board members that gave uh they were working the job 247 in a multitude of capacities. And um but Barry was the one person that um understood county government probably better than anybody on the county scene. Um when he chaired the county finance advisory board, he had a tremendous grasp of the county's operations. Now, back then,
you need to understand the county had a hospital. We also had oversight of the sheriff's department and a host of other things, uh, which I won't go into detail on, but Barry had a really firm grasp of county's operations and helped us weather some really challenging financial times. In fact, Barry was so good at it that we had um it was basically Barry's budgets that ultimately got adopted by the commissioners and approved um to to to run the county. So, um I call Barry sometimes Mr. County.
He's Mr. Bourne. Uh he's been basically um our go-to guy for so many things. And I think we as a board um as we reflect on how far we've come in terms of providing county services, we thought it was appropriate as a board when we came to Borne to let Barry know personally and to let his fellow town officials know how much Barry's service has been appreciated uh by us all. So Barry,
really thank you so much for everything that you have done for us. Yeah. And I'm not going to allow my fellow commissioners if they have anything else to add, but um and I know Barry, I promised Barry that he would have a chance to get to the podium and to have rebuttal. Yes. And dispute anything we um I just wanted to say that I really became aware of Barry. Uh, I attended the Cape Cod Compact, conservation compact where they honored you in the last year and Robo Larry was there telling a very
humorous story about wanting to be commissioner and um, and I really got to appreciate all of the contributions you did uh, and have done for Bonstable County and the region. I mean, it really starts here, but you really thought of all of the cape. And I came back, I was so impressed. I was talking to Mark and he Oh, Barry. And I we have met but I did not know everything. And so I was very impressed. And I do think we need to have a sit down with you and go over history of the beginning because there's all these myths. You know, there's a lot of myths out there. Then
you might be able to set that set record straight. So I am committing that we get you in and uh have a have a series of conversations quietly so that we can present something this year would be great. Thank you for everything you've done. I'm very very grateful. Commissioner Bergstrom, do you want to Yeah. You know, people oftentimes ask me too often actually, well, what does Barnstable County do? What what what's it all about? Of course, I could go back to 1685, but generally go back that far. Um I try to give it in the reference of most of us who are still here
and I go back to 1988 and 1989 when we created the system that we have now which you know Harry Johnson was so important step forward because that was the initial beginning of what have county which is strongest count one of the most one of the remaining counties in Massachusetts but also the strongest county in Massachusetts that does so much for so many people, you know, with Cape Cod Commission and the county and the the other uh organizations that we oversee. So,
we owe a debt to the found just like in 2000, you know, 250th anniversary, we owe debt to, you know, Washington and all those people. We owe a debt to the people who sent us on this path now 11 37 years ago and here we are now. So, it's really appreciated very much. Thank you, Melissa. I'm going to turn it over to you before Barry we get we hear Barry's rebuttal. Um I'm going to ask if there's anything that you would like to offer or your your colleagues. Yeah. Yeah. I mean I just
want to start very quickly. You know I I came into this sort of you're not your typical politician. We all know that. And I can say that from the beginning of my tenure when I first got into office. I looked to Barry and Barry was always one of the people who supported me fully knowing that, you know, I might be judged because I was not really a municipal leader in the past. But Barry, just so you know, he encouraged me from the day I got elected and allowed me to feel capable to
do this job and that I was equal with everyone else on this board regardless of my experience in municipal leadership. being just uh taught me to be good good um good intentions often trump our experience and Barry really let me be that person so I want to share that with you Barry you may not know that so thank you for the acceptance and uh the understanding that we don't have to be hundreds of years in municipal leadership to be do a good job do the right thing and make decisions
that support the town without an agenda in any other way. So, thank you. Um, I'd like to give the select board an opportunity as well, Vice Chair Cerroneian to go. Thank you. Thank you, Barry. Uh, Barry and I go way back to uh when I was my first elected official as the library trustee and uh we needed a lot of guidance then because we were shooting for building a new library and um so Barry and I along the way have had a lot of heartto-he hearts. He's uh helped me through my uh career as an elected official, encouraged me to run on school committee
and I did that for several years and um so yeah, he's a real staple in this community and um I think he's been a mentor to to a lot of people. Yes. Um yeah, and he certainly knows a lot. Yes, indeed. Got to get it out of us. Appreciate Jean, you're up and um I don't want to forget you up there in um Cyberland. We're in Cyberland. Yeah, sure. Jean, if you'd like to add. Whoops. Yes, thank you. I mean, I just have to reflect upon what everyone else has said so far, but yeah,
definitely a mentor. And I was just trying to remember when I first uh met Barry and had a chat with him um at town hall and he explained everything to me and definitely encouraged me and um has just been there for everybody townwide, countywide and uh just an amazing history with the town. Really appreciate it. Wish I could be there. Thank you. Okay. So, I guess I first met Barry and when I was on the finance committee and worked with him at creating town meetings and town
meeting handbooks. And the thing about Barry is he is a shining example of people dedicating their lives to make their community a better place to live in. And he has been a mentor and a friend. and he sincerely um deserves this recognition. So, thanks Barry. Um I've known Barry since I've been a little kid and I actually like grew up here here in town. My mom was a town employee for many years
and um once I started getting involved into town politics in the mid 90s. Um first person I went to were the first two people were Barry and Bob for people at home. Bob Harry, a former moderator, former select board member, and Barry were best of friends cuz they served together for many years. And I wouldn't be where I am without Barry or Bob, you know, and Barry's still here. And I still go to him when I have stuff and we talk back and forth and sometimes I have to hear that other side other side of the opinion. So he puts me in my place more than you know.
So it's but it's it's constructive criticism. Barry is a perfect example of a public servant, you know, and a servant leader. You know, we've been watching uh TV advertisements of Mike Manugg saying how he's a servant leader. No, Barry is the example of a servant leader. He's been doing it his whole adult life. And uh it shouldn't shouldn't not be recognized. It should be recognized because he's made out of an old mold. you know, once he's gone, you're not going to be able to replace that. And and that's why institutional knowledge is so important,
you know, because you can't replace that once it's gone, right? The way we have a chance, soak it up like a sponge and document it all down. Not at all. Well said. And and I might add very quickly, Barry, you know, I have to say I was extremely surprised at how much Barry knew about Wampenog people and Wampenog history and born way far than I do. You went back years when I came on. So, thank you for that as well. You offered me a lot and thank you. Great. Thank you. Okay, Barry, it's your chance to rebut any and I'm gonna I've got the gavl. All right, so I'm gonna I'm gonna
keep you on a short leash. Everybody that knows me, Marcus, you're going to have to use it. Well, uh, all I can say is this is, uh, much more than anyone can is deserved to to be said today. Um, and I guess when you reach 82, I guess you get to a point where you just keep going and and I'm just can say thank you to everybody. Um, and my board of selectman, our town administrator,
Marine, who lets us just do our jobs, but she's always there to support us. the selectman and back to the commissioners. Um, I got some real people that I need to thank and I I had two good guys back here being a full-time selectman and that's what allowed me to go spend a lot of time in the county and there were two people that were really instrumental in that element
just like me. That's right. And um we did a lot of good things in the county. Um and some of those things we started are still going today uh for the benefit of everybody. And Mark, you made mention of the hospital. And uh that was probably one of the toughest things I had to do. The commissioner said, "We've lost just too much money. We can't keep it going. So you've got to go up there and and just kind of shut it down." But I want to tell you something.
out of that a wonderful thing happened because people forget it was a tuberculosis hospital. Fred also had a rehabilitation component and we had a license for that. So the day I had to go up and announcement to everybody that afternoon I got a call from the Spalding people in Boston and said we'd like to talk. So that is the outgrowth of how Spalding Hospital got here. state allowed us to transfer our license. So, out of that, it was a wonderful hospital for everybody. So, that it
was a tough day, but it ended up being a good day. That's great. And I just want to say thank you to everybody that's here. This is way over the top. And I also want to introduce our newest member of our family. Elizabeth Garo is our new assistant town. we stole her from Middle and we're very very pleased to have her. And lastly, I want to say to Michael Dutton, uh I haven't seen him in about 25 to 30 years. And I one after I left the county, I went out as the manager of Old Bl. And one of the
f first people that came in to say hi, introduced himself was Michael and his uncle and said, "Barry, anything we can do to help and make your job easier over here, we'll do it." So now, Michael, you and I have come full circle. So very small, a lot of papers a lot of way that my name down there. And and then I have to tell you that one last thing. I did leave OB and the only reason I left OB was because Sheriff Dlo called me up and said, "Barry, you got to come
home. I need your help. The commissioners are really raising hell with me." I said, "Sheriff, I'm on the next boat." So, I went from this spot to the hill. So, it was good. It we were able to work out a lot of things that needed to be worked out. Yeah. So once again, I I don't know how to say thank you to all of you here and all of you and thank you so so much very very much. We're going to ask you to come forward right up in the air. We're going to do a photograph. I'm going
to ask the board select board members to join us. I'm right in the middle there to you right. That's the great thing about being a chairman. You can, as Alissa know, you can pretty much do whatever you want. All right. So, I'm going to stand on one side. I'm going to ask Okay.
So, Barry, on that side on behalf of our board. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Get that one big smile. Cheese. Cheese. All right. I was trying to look at all this. I know. All right. It's not a retirement. Yeah, I know.
Okay. All right. Okay. The next item on our agenda, item six, is a joint discussion between uh the commissioners and uh town officials uh here in Bourne um regarding issues of uh concern and interest to the town. And one of the first issues that we wanted to sort of bring up was uh a status report. I understand
Dylan Fernandez could not make it, but he's represented by staff. And uh I think that's that's that's probably the first item we want to get into is to talk about this legislation uh which was drafted with the help of Senator Fernandez and um staff uh to transfer county property to the town of Bourne. So we've been on this for a long time. As long as I've been on on the commissioners and uh I understand we have someone here from I know the senator's
office. I'm gonna call you to the podium if you'd like and introduce yourself and uh feel free to give us an update on how that's progressing. My name is Emily Samkins. I'm the district director for Senator Fernandez. Um so I wanted to give an update on bill H4992. Um so it has passed in the House of Representatives. Um and it's currently moving through the Senate committee process. Um, it's been in Senate rules since January and the committee reports that they've been working with Senate Council on it. It's not abnormal for it to take a couple months in this process. Um,
especially since article 97 bill due to its con um constitutional requirements. Um, Senator Fernandez has flagged this to um the Senate President's Office and Senate Council uh to continue to push this forward. Um so we will continue to do that and you know we hope to get the this passed by the end of formal sessions. There is no guarantee um but we will continue to advocate. Emily, thank you. Are there any questions from the the select board and board? Yeah, I'll go around ask start
with um select board. I don't give you MJ. You go first this time. Any questions? Peter question. No. Thank you. Okay. Hey Emily, is there anything that we can do on our end to help move this along? Is there any issue, any questions, any senators that we might need to call to check in, weigh in? So, I will take that back to the team to see if there's something, you know, you guys can do to help advocate for this forward. Uh, we in our office are doing everything we can to do that as well. Um, so let me take that
question back to the team for an answer on if there's anything further that you all can do, too. Yeah, we're more than happy to help in any way that the senator feels that we can we can be helpful in terms of uh addressing this. So, please let them know. Commissioner Lions, anything? No, I'm just surprised that it's still we're still dealing with this piece of land. So, uh the more more help you can give the better because they have to have projects they want to do. Yeah. So, just for the record, it's zero county road Helen and 100 Dr. Julius. Yeah. So, okay. Marley,
do you have anything to add? Okay, just the house the house bill number is 4992. So, it's H4992. It's nice to get remind people that it has passed the House. So, we've gone through that hurdle which is times more complicated than getting it through the Senate. So, it is. Commissioner Bergstrom, is there anything? Well, just that you know, I've seen most of this process through and it was very complicated. There was some conservation restrictions. There
were there were other factors involved, you know, previous leases and so on. So, and it was a long process of negotiation born. I have to say it took a while, but it all went very smoothly. We bashed out our differences. We came to an agreement on somewhat smoothly. This is the way things should be done. Not always. We thought it was a day, didn't we? Waiting for the legislature is another part you have to deal with in Sounds like we're on Sounds like we're in the final days. Yeah. And for
the press that's here, we have a copy of the bill. If you'd like to see that, feel free to grab it. Thanks, Emily. Thank you. Nice to meet you. Thank you. Uh let's continue on. Uh I have a brief news item to uh to share with uh our our colleagues here in Bourne. Um, I received a message from uh Louisa Pawansky. As you know, she's been the project manager for the uh the uh the the the Cape Cod Canal bridge project, replacement of those two bridges. And she had texted me on Friday saying,
"Hello, Mark. I wanted to share some good news. This afternoon, the Federal Highway Administration issued a record of decision and approval of the final EIS completing the NEPA process uh for the Cape Cod bridges. It's the first record of decision for an EIS in Massachusetts since 1986. Let me know if you need any more information. uh thank you uh uh to us and uh
the Cape Islands Municipal Leaders Association for all of the support as well as thanks to the town of Bourne. So that's the latest. They're going to be coming out with a formal announcement, but I just think that this is a huge milestone to start before about big projects in the town of Bourne. uh what this means is that he can start moving on to the next phase of the project and that is uh moving forward with the actual this the additional steps to get it ready for bids and proposals. So I wanted to share that with you and uh feel free to comment or Sure. Go ahead Peter. We've been very
lucky since Louise has been u brought on board by the Huey Driscoll administration to be in charge of the major projects of Mass DT and Marie and myself and the select board and Mark as the um county commissioner um the three of Barry who's gone now but and Barry as well we've been going to these meetings since the inception three plus years ago and uh release is very com you know is a very compassionate person. She She'll sit there and listen and she'll try to do what she can
um to help us out any way she can. She was a major player and the delight at Uppercate Tech when um after officer Dobu was um got into the accident, but it was in the works long before that. But excuse me, saying just from my personal experience, Louise has been great. We're very lucky to have her and uh you know and hopefully she'll be there for a while, you know, cuz she's definitely the go-to person when you have any questions, you know, and with her historical significance as well. She's been around different administrations, so she knows where
everything is. So, we're very lucky to have her at our disposal when we need her. Yeah. Thank you. Um commissioners, any comments? No, I think Emory had Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. I I will say that at our last um advisory bridge advisory committee, we sort of planted the seed of um and we've excuse me um possibly having a more intimate conversation between this board and uh the uh reps from the mega project in regards to a memorandum of understanding. We've had subcommittee meetings on
um with the select board and our recreation committee. I'm sure you're aware of some of the hiccups um and um access to the canal road um Hong Kong uh their their concerns. So we're it's it's great conversation. A lot of decisions have been made surrounding it. a lot of promises and um so we we sort of ask you know and it is on our agenda for this select board meeting in in possibly having um just a smaller um more intimate meetings with respects to possibly uh navigating
anou it's on paper and we can follow right that's great because you know I mean I'm preaching to the choir but you know born will sacrifice many things during the construction process unlike any other community um with a project of this magnitude and you know we have that impact you know move positive and again you know we've already had some losses um just by the sheer nature of this
project. So, we just we just want to be sure that, you know, our town and the people within it um are are they they they're at the forefront of those impact decisions. Yeah. That are being made. So, let me make sure I understand. So, thisou as you envision it would be to touch on some of the issues uh that you want to see the overall project address. Yeah. I mean, we're like I said, we're going to do an initial conversation at our our select for meeting specific to that and what is the consensus of the fold and how we should approach MS but with this this memoranduming of
understanding. So yes, just in the initial stages um but it was important to sort of plant that seed or or you know put it out there that you know we have an interest in doing this. Brendan you know I I I really empathize with the town of Borne. Um, number one, it's a town that really is kind of cut in half and already and you're being uh really subjected to all of this. I was just thinking, wonder how it went when they did the canal, you know? I mean, that must have been there must be
history written somewhere there on how that went. But there's so many people affected and as you say there's changes but they really the changes but we you know it's it's a double-edged sword that there's some upgrades but you are losing land people's property people and and people and there needs to be a recognition and compensation of some kind and and an understanding of what that compensate how that is going to go just expectation responsib ability. Exactly. It
did. I mean, from what I've read, it sounded like they were being uh as thoughtful as possible for people who were being relocated and it seemed like positive outcomes in the end. They were surprised themselves that it was a a good transition, but it still is. You're leaving your home that you have for many years. It's it's a it's a really big um disruption to a town. It's it's kind of flipping it up and letting it fall down again. and but it where is it? So I very much empathize with you and we would you know support any if you come to these things and you need support we would
definitely get on board and help write letters and brow our shoulders into it. Commissioner Bergman, do you want to chime in? Well, you know, this is another thing we've been looking at for years and we knew it was coming down the pike and we knew we'd have to be ready. I think even 10 years ago, maybe more than that, the Cape Cot Commission did a traffic study because everything once you get off that bridge, you're no longer the responsibility of the Army Corps. Now the responsibility for the town and also um you know the people here on Cape Cod. So we have work to do
as well as the uh as the army corps and you know through the commission and also of course from us do everything we can to make it an easy transition to the new the new bridge and and the new travel links. I mean it's gotten to the point I mean us know that's gotten to the point where something had to be done. You know, as a matter of fact, we've had we've had people in front of us who say that we'd have to look at the entire cave because if bridges are replaced and it's easier to get
here that there's going to be tons more traffic coming. I'm not so sure that's going to happen, but I do believe that certainly going to help. Sure. Yeah. One of the questions I have for for you folks is um the railroad bridge. Is there any concern in Bourne about the health and longevity of the railroad bridge? because I know in the past there have been issues uh regarding uh maintenance of it and the care for it. Has that come up at all in any of your discussions? Well, I mean they're clearly doing some work now. Yeah, they're painting it right now. But but
overall the last major work that was done on that bridge was when Bill Gahun, Congressman Delahunt was around. So 2000s. Yes. I mean cuz it's right outside my back door. You know, I can hear the banging every day when they're doing the work over there. So, I mean, it's just nice that they're doing some preventive maintenance, you know, on it because if you were to go too long, it's going to be like anything else will start to fall apart. So, I think one of the concerns that I have is that as the Army Corps divests itself of some of the major infrastructure along the canal
like the bridges that this bridge which is federal asset. Uh yeah, it's a federal asset. um you know uh are we should we be finding some way to address the longevity and the long-term care of that facility? I I would suggest when you're talking about anou um I I would recommend having that in the conversation because it may very well be in your interest. I'm not suggesting a direction, but there may be some benefit for Mass DOT to take over that facility. Um, the Army Corps budget is
getting stretched and uh they're no longer doing the kind of dredging that they used to do on the Cape in the Islands. their host of other civil responsibilities that they have been divesting themselves from rather than wait for the moment where something needs to happen to the bridge uh the railroad bridge that is um there may be some value in having a dialogue and a discussion about its health, its longevity uh the condition that it's in and then whether or not there's some
value in transitioning the control over that facility. facility like you've done with or like has been done with with the bridges. I just worry about that facility particularly given the fact that here in here in Bourne you folks have been incredible advocates for rail transportation. Um and as you're probably aware Phil Ang has been the the the interim secretary of transportation has been making the rounds uh in in in the region and he has talked openly about making more investments in rail infrastructure. So they are very interesting pursuing and working on
getting more funding, more resources to improve rail infrastructure. This this might be a good time to sort of sort of have a have a conversation focused on the railroad policy. Just a thought, can I can I? Sure. You know, one of the one of the hats I wore is for quite a while I was chairman of the regional transit authority advisory board and uh shortly after I got that position, we needed a new director and uh looked around a lot of applicants. Right on the top of the list
was Tom. And I got to know Tom very well in in in our service together. U and he he was a tremendous asset to the town of Bourne. I know he was a state rep but he was a tremendous asset in transportation you know not only the bridges but also even rail transportation. We together rode on the first uh first journey of the Cape Flyer which he established you know he like so Mark is absolutely right rail rail and any along with all other means of mass transportation is
very important and Tom you know he he actually we established another bus line I think that came down here. So um you know you had a tremendous asset in him. Um we the Cape Flyer operates every weekend. Mark is absolutely right. We have to maintain those bridges and maintain the access that they provide to the Cape and to the town of Bourne. So uh you know many faceted issues here besides just the the Sagamore bridge that's being built but uh you know the town of Bourne unfortunately or fortunately is right on the right on the line for all this stuff.
Yeah. And and if I can just echo something that Ron said and then I'll bring it back over to you, Peter. Um I think we owe a a tremendous debt of gratitude to the town of Warren because um your advocacy, your engagement, your involvement. Um these are not just br they certainly have an impact in Bourne but clearly they are important regional infrastructure components. uh they play a major role in the region's transportation system. So we we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to
you for your leadership, your engagement, your folks being sort of on top of this and being fully engaged. That's why when Commissioner Lion says that if we can be helpful in any way by all means we are we are there to stand shouldertosh shoulder with you uh to make sure that you know collectively your interests are addressed as well. Now I know Peter you wanted to Yeah, I mean thank you for that. I think going forward we need to negot make sure that we negotiate a long-term maintenance or long-term plan and for the two um bridges to B the Sagmore bridge once they're
completed but as well as the railroad bridge and the reason why I say that is is uh the York Sammy course done great since the 1930s to keep those assets you know maintained where mass dot if you look at the bridge the four river bridge is a summer in Callahan tunnel deferred maintenance is like the last thing on their list and I don't want this to fall into the same trap. So I want to make sure that there's a dedicated funding source um in the state budget going forward to maintain these
bridges because especially the B sagore because they're the first they're the only ways on and off the cape by car you know by vehicle and the rail bridge the vertical lift railroad bridge is the only way on and off the cape by train. So, we need to keep on advocate advocating for a long-term um maintenance program because if they let it fall apart, I don't want this to be another problem like December and Kahan Tunnel where they had to shut it down for months, right? So, I mean, this is in our backyard and it's not only going to affect us around here, it's going to affect
the whole region, right? Good point. Point MJ. Um I think um you you always have to remember that every car that comes to the Cape comes through Bourne. Yeah. Every single one. And the same is true for the rail. It all comes through Bourne. And we as a town deal with a lot that puts a lot of impact on us coming on, going off. It it affects us as a community. anyone who tried to
go from Borne to Hyannis last week when we had that tremendous unbelievable double accidents. It was horrible. So I think we do need to plan and we have to have a vision. We have to talk about what is our future vision for rail. I mean we've got the Saga bridges. We've got advocacy for building that. We've got advocacy for building the board bridge but we don't have any money for it. And then how are we going to deal with the rail bridge too? So, this is a great opportunity for
us to talk about our vision for transportation on Cape Cod in the future and take this opportunity to plan for that vision because if you don't incorporate it in this planning, it'll be more difficult to do it later. So, I think a regional conversation would be really awesome. Commissioner L. Well, I'm going to go back to a conversation that went like, you know, fell like a rock when it was brought up and we had to kind of joke it out and that was the word tolls, you know,
and I keep reading there's not going to be any tolls. There's, you know, no tolls, no. And I'm like, why couldn't we put a toll on the bridge? And I'm not saying I do think you can with these transponders in the beginning when we used to have the turn styles. Yes, it was cannot have cannot have it. Yeah, I know. we cannot have it because it will be, you know, 25 miles of backup. However, now with um electronic, you know, scanning and all of this, you could have a ticket where every resident somehow got a P, you know, got flagged. They're exempt from the toll. Yeah,
they're exempt from the toll because you people go back and forth all the time, whatever. But people who are coming to visit and even businesses that come on a regular basis could have maybe by a half whatever it there's a way to do this and why not I mean you go through New York it can cost you $125 just to go through the city from one end to the other and never leave New York because you're going over all these bridges that are $15. And I'm not saying it has to be that high, but to have something to a revenue stream that goes to the maintenance of these things and the maintenance
of the surrounding area of you also put up with all Well, we're getting more electric cars, but you're putting up with all of the pollution that comes with all of that traffic coming over all the time. There should be some sort of um recognition. That was nice of you to pick a hot button issue to liven up the meeting. was brought up before. I remember it was like it went it was Clay Scoffield that said it and then the commission had to deal with it. He said no it wasn't talking about not
that it was commission commission lion it was trolls under not commission for commission. So we're really talking about the trolls the troll there. Yeah the trolls under the bridge anyway. Is there any other business? I know it's a dirty word but it's gonna have to be confirmed. No. Okay. The the the next item that I'd like to bring up is that in front of you is a list of the uh services that we provide in Barnstable County. Yeah. I like this. And um we've asked staff to
put this together for us so that we can um at some point this is this is not for today's discussion, but it's sort of maybe homework if you want to call it that. Think of the things that we're doing. This is this is the list. And I'm sure there there's some things that we've missed, but everybody knows about the work of the cooperative extension. People know about our dredging program. Uh they're familiar with a host of other services that we provide. Um we do obviously it is an important component of our relationship here in the town of Bourne. Um what we wanted to do is
have a list of of the things that we do. if you would like us to add to the list, if you think we should subtract to the list. And the reason why I bring this up is is that we've we've just done we've been doing some long-term financial planning for the county. And the thing that we're concerned about like municipalities is that when we look at our revenue projections long term and when we look at our expenditure projections long term, every municipality is seeing a huge disparity, a gap. All right. Increasingly, our municipalities are finding themselves having to have more overrides,
finding ways to keep up create and and looking for creative ways to keep up with expenditures that are going up at a an accelerating rate. The county's faced with the same thing. our revenue when you look at our revenue projections over a 10-year period, they're only increasing at a roughly 2 to 3% margin, whereas expenses are at least double that. So, we're projecting that in a couple of years, we're going to have to start making some very, very difficult decisions. Um,
and we've already had some discussions, we've heard from some in the community about the services that we provide that are important to the municipalities because there are many people who believe that the county's first obligation is just to make sure that it's providing the support services to the towns and uh so we want to make sure that you can any feedback comments that you might have um and and this is a discussion that's going on with the managers as well and that is that there things that in here that the town of Horn maybe we could do away with. We may not
necessarily need uh to do any more of their things that you do you have yours, Peter? Um you're looking else Michael, can you just make the rounds and even for folks in the audience feel free to share with anybody that you want? If you'd like one of these, we can we can hand it out to you. Emily, you might enjoy taking a look at this. If I could just add, I mean, I really do feel our role is to help alleviate tax burdens to the towns by providing services that could be regionalized. You
be something, but it's not going to be the same. And sometimes we think, wow, if if we just thought of that, we could have had and there's a lot of people a lot of towns would have benefit would benefit from this as well as us. I think that's really what we're looking for. And um cuz you know we could just keep on going saying we're doing a great job on what we're doing but there as as time goes on needs change uh technologies change uh approaches change and um we're going into dire
times so we really do have to stick together uh on a lot of this stuff where we can share resources and benefit everyone. So, uh, it's time to really start thinking about to working together as opposed to what do we just need? So, Commissioner, yeah, I'm sorry. No, no, go right ahead. Yeah, the Mark is absolutely right. There's there's there's darker clouds on the horizon. One of things, one of the things we have going for us is that the the current administrator and uh the commissioners,
the assembly very frugal and very fortunate. Um we received money from the registry of deeds which has made allowed our revenues to exceed our expenses for a number of years. We put aside um uh we put aside money for revenue contingency. zone at least for a year or two. I mean, it's not like we're going to be immediately up against it looking down the road five years and unlike a town. I mean, you know what, you know, the situation is you decide how much you need to
spend and then you set the levy. Okay, we don't do that. We we we have to anticipate revenue and work within that revenue because you don't have the ability to raise tax to cover it. And I I think that uh but we're all in the same boat. inflationary pressures, you know, protecting all of us. Health care costs are a big thing. You know, we'll I have confidence we'll get this with good leadership. Confidence and leadership in Borne and other towns. We'll just have to deal with what these storm plots on the horizon and we will take another look county does and if
we have to, we'll have to decide what services are essential and what we can do without for a short time. Thank you. Thank you. Did you? Um, no. Amber, did you go ahead and Has anyone had a novel idea on reducing the amount of time it takes to get a permit to dredge? Oh, that'd be nice. Well, we've actually we've actually discussed that. We have had meetings, conferences, right? We've done we do an annual dredging summit every year. We bring in the regulatory agencies to
find ways to smooth smooth this process out. Ken Cerillo, our dredging coordinator. Um, he he he he deals with us constantly. We've actually talked about do we add, now this is a question for you. We've actually had a discussion internally. We haven't resolved it yet, but there was a study done looking at the operations of the dredge program, and we've actually been uh considering and discussing, but there's been no final uh resolution on this, is whether or not
we need to actually have someone on board on the county dredge staff to be an advocate for um the town because the permitting is a municipal responsibility. Yeah. And but what it does is because it's a because we we're in charge of the dredge in the operations. If a municipality is having difficulty getting its permits, it slows down our operations. And because of the backlog of permitting and the difficulties in getting the permits issued in a timely basis, it has a huge
impact on our operations. For a while, we were seeing we were watching uh the dreads department continually go in the red. All right. because of these problems. So, it's in your interest, it's in our interest to take care of this. We do have a study that shows that there are a variety of ways that the county could play a leadership role in tackling the permitting problem. And um this may be worth a a separate discussion to go into the details on this because um the last time
we brought this up to the assembly uh we didn't necessarily get a favorable uh reception. Um so we've been looking at increasing the capacity of our dredge department to tackle this problem and um we we've we've taken another pass at the studies um and uh we brought a consultant on board who clearly in in in these studies has recommended that the county do more. We could actually save money, save you money. uh potentially there was even a a recommendation to consider consolidating
permitting services. All right. One of the options in the study was would the towns prefer that the county do the permitting? Um and there's there are pros and cons on that. I don't know if you have any thoughts on that, but that was one of the options. I'm gonna ask Michael because I'm sort of sort of paraphrasing the various options here and I I think I don't know Ken this is something that we've actually spent Can I jump in before you go to my book just for one second you know at that conference wanted to jump I'm sorry but at that conference um they they were explaining number
one they were down from 20 say 20 people to three you know at that point that the doge cuts were in place and you know we were hoping somebody was still there to do some permit to anybody. But um they did put out a way of trying to streamline that process and I don't think it's gone as well as you know they it looked on paper. It looked like you could just put this in and you know cut press a couple of buttons. So you know it does take money to make money sometimes and you do have to get that person hired to be able to pursue these things and that's really
what I wanted to say. I mean they are well aware of this and they're stretched. So what can we do under these circumstances? I'm sorry. Thank you. Yeah, just to emphasize, sometimes you talk about all the things the county does and then you come to dredging and they say, "Well, that's sort of an operations thing." But, you know, I'm live in Chadam, so I'm familiar with dredging pushing the same sand around for years, you know, but we, you know, I can't overemphasize the importance of the marine economy to the towns on Cape Cod. You know, I mean, it's a basis of a lot of our of an e economic activity. So we I know I and I know my fellow commissioners often well and the
administrator well aware of the need to keep our restaurant also we we also uh nourish the beaches you know I don't know if you do certainly do chat you know so the visitors arrive they have a place to put their flight so it is important and I I know we recognize the importance of that as Mark says it may be that we need somebody in an office in front of a computer as well as somebody on the boat you taking care of the operations because a lot of it the permitting especially is something
that we have to look into. I I think that central permitting I mean how many towns have someone in their office that knows a lot about permit permitting is legend we were fortunate chatam because we hired someone for the harbor masters department from the army corps who had experience in that so he Ted keon so he was able to do that but that's a luxury for a lot of other towns so if we had and we had someone at the county who could make sure that their permits are up to snuff and that they're they're there when we get there that would go a long way to make it a lot easier. So,
yeah. By the way, your harbor master is terrific. Yeah. All right. Um Borne does a you do a great job. We have a dredge advisory committee advising the county. Uh Michael and I are at all of the meetings and uh Borne's Borne's participation is has been superb and uh it's very helpful particular even on this particular topic as well. So, I just want you to know we are looking at a variety of options. may need your help as the come down to maybe picking and choosing them.
We may actually want to come to a board select board meeting with uh make a presentation on the options and to get your further input on this if that's something that you'd like us to do. Excuse me. We're a waterfront community, you know, and I think dredging is a must that should be budget, you know, budgeted for because and it's cuz it's rather expensive. I know that when we went out to bid to do a dredge project over by Taylor's Point Marina, which was very small, and it was so
expensive that we couldn't fill it, you know, so we had to go out to bid or figure out some other funding source to make it happen, right? It's just but you know we hear it every year from the shore and harbor commission which is experts that you know with Hannah Lawrence as a DNR superintendent right director it's just I don't know it's just President Dresen is is is is the fabric of this of the Cape Islands. Absolutely. And we Now, let me ask you on the topic of dredging, a question that
I have for you is is do you have you been able to get state money, state funding for dredging in the past? Yes. Have. Yeah. Were you aware that there's no sort of designated dredging funding in the state budget? Yes. Okay. Mark, I may be wrong. I talked to House Lage there. Well, no, no, no, there isn't. But what what we're doing is the Cape delegation, and I just want to flag this cuz Emily is here. The Cape delegation has been working hard with us over the past few weeks to
amend. We're looking at targeting two pieces of legislation. The Mass Ready Act, which is the environmental bond bill. All right. Hadley Luddy was able to get an amendment in the House side to put dredging in that because historically the way the way the administration has done dredging in the Commonwealth is that it's been usually a provision in a bond bill and then over a period of years they will draw they will get some of that authorization um activated and then put funding
in the econ development office the mass office of economic development. They have the dredging program parked there because they see dredging as important as Commissioner Burks said to the state's economy. So they put the money there. So there are some initiatives that are going on in the House that you should be aware of right now. Hadley Luddy is targeting and was successful in getting an amendment in the Mass Ready Act to uh to uh have funding designated there. And there's
talk about an economic development bill coming up and having monies authorized in the economic development bill for this program. All right. So, if Senator Fernandez can be helpful on the Senate side, that would be huge because the bill has been amended. Although I don't know if in the House they've approved the total bill as amended. Uh I do believe that Senator uh Representative Luddy Commissioner Biff have said she was successful but this is only at the early part of the process as
you know it's got to go through the Senate got to go to conference and my hope as chairman of this board is that we have language in both bills just to cover ourselves. Um we've done dredging in economic development bills in the past. So my hope is that we can continue to do that, but also having something in the Mass Ready Act, the environmental bond bill is sort of a backs stop as a way to provide some added insurance that we have funding there. So that's that's the latest
from my end on that. And and and and if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me or uh Mike Mike Dutton because we talk daily on this stuff. Commissioner Bman, anything else? Yeah, just to say that, you know, it did this would seem dredging would to us seem like a cape issue, but all of that economic activity that goes with boating and fishing and so on produces tax revenue the entire state. Yeah, they have a they have a stake in making sure that we have our estuaries
are open and that that economic activity continues. In the talking points that we've presented to the representatives, we've identified some of the economic benefits of dredging to the Commonwealth and some of the voting revenue that's generated as well. Commissioner Lions, did you want to No, no, I think everything has been said. MJ I just I'm just curious because I'm gonna say was um when you had done the dredging study and come to SIMLA with some of the questions for dredging um it was a real backup that the Barnesville County had dredge operations
available that couldn't be exactly that's how you ran into the deficit because you were ready to do it but the permits hadn't gone through. So, has that improved or are you still facing that issue that towns can't get their permits? So, even though they want to dredge and have money to dredge and you're ready to dredge, we can't do it. So, as Commissioner Lions said, one of the problems that we're encountering is at the federal level, um, with the federal cuts, the Doge cuts,
all right, we have lost federal agency personnel in the federal regulatory agencies. All right, that can help process this stuff, move this stuff along. The people that are left behind in many cases are doing the best they can, but they are in many cases short-handed. Shortand also sometimes there's a need for science. All right? And we have an administration in Washington that is not what I would call pro-science. All right? So sometimes our ability to get a permit expedited
depends quite frankly on the breeding habits of the flounder before some other right. wait to wait for, right? So, and sometimes horseshoe crabs sometimes that requires science and lately science has been difficult to get federal support for and even the winter flounder studies. All right, Mass Division of Marine Fisheries, they rely on winter flounder studies and that is something that has been challenging uh to get funding for on a year-to-year basis. So the division
of marine fisheries, I'm a huge advocate for the DMF budget because oftentimes they need help in doing this stuff. Flounder studies are incredibly important. We are learning that uh the flounder flounder have very unique uh breeding habits and they differ from the north side to the south side. And so based on those variations, we're now learning that we can have some uh windows of opportunity uh expanded for dredging in some areas. So the science directly leads to
opportunities to get the dredging equipment in to various harbors. So that's important. So is it where we want to be? No. But it requires sustained vigilance by us. So we are constantly just so that you know we are constantly talking to division of marine fisheries. Are they adequately funded? Do they have the studies uh the money money for the studies to do the flounder stuff? Uh we're asking for them for help to make sure that the towns have monies uh to basically underwrite some
of the at least some of the cost of dredging. Uh Ron talked about Chadam his community. they dred I mean the dredging if they had to do it alone they'd be pwning up almost a million dollars at least every two years that's a lot of money uh for a community and if you're on your own I mean you've got your own needs that are challenging to meet so we see the existence of the state dredging program as vital to the financial help of all of our communities and we'll continue to to advocate for that and so far the Cape delegation's been terrific to work with um on the house
side Everybody's engaged. When we drafted the amendments uh for Representative Luddy, uh she jumped on them. She shared them with delegation members. I called up on the House side most of the offices and everybody said that they were on board uh with her amendments. So, um very shortly, that's why it's great that Emily's here is because very shortly this battle is going to shift to the Senate and we're going to have a lot of discussions there on this. Peter on top of never mind funding for dregion but but something I think the county could advocate
for our Cape Towns is the outdated local aid formula. What happened is is Did you read our report? Not fully. Okay. Um but I'm just saying just in general um if you're inside of 128 you can print the money for your communities but once you start going to southeastern mass Capen Islands all to the Birkshars the formula doesn't work. Right. Right. And so I'm so happy that you brought this up. Right. And so is Senator Fernandez. Yeah. Because Senator Fernandez has taken a leadership
role in this issue. We are so thrilled that he has decided to tackle this and has had some success in it. uh we have prepared a draft report where we're doing the final touches on it with town managers and finance directors around the Cape showing the extent to which we get short changed in in local aid and I have to commend our delegation particularly Senator Fernandez for playing a leadership role up on Beacon Hill talking about how hard we've been hit and advocating and getting
successfully through the Senate budget. The FY27 Senate budget has language in it to create a commission to look at reforming and improving the formula so that it's based so that it's based more on need than on equalized valuation. Right. Right. And we all know that in town of born you have a lot of property that's very valuable but that is not a proper determination of your wealth and your ability to pay. Right. Right. So we need to have a more balanced formula that takes into account
median family income and other indicators poverty and so forth. So not only that but in B we have a lot of stateowned property that is subject to appropriation every year is when we get you know mass maritime joint base Cape Cod discussed beach and the list can go on and on and all of a sudden it's based on appropriation and it changes every year. I mean, and the more property that Mass Maritime acquires and takes it off the books, if it's through the nonprofit and donated to them, that's less tax revenue for us, right? I mean, going down Academy Drive, my home,
my my home street right now. Um, they have all kinds of construction going on with the GLT and with the new science building and everything else. And Mass Time is a is a tremendous asset. However, my own street is ripped apart and apart the whole 9 yards because of the heavy equipment. And who's going to get stuck fixing it? It's probably going to come out of our chapter 90 funds like the state. Mrs. P, this is another thing we got to add to the MOU is exactly, you know, their projects are affecting our town roads. Yeah. We shouldn't be we should not be stuck with the
burden of paying and maintaining for that damage. So, I got Commissioner Lions and then Commissioner Bergstrom. No, I mean, um, you know, I live in Wealthy. I do want you to know that Welley did send a letter on behalf of, uh, the lottery tax and this local aid saying and we did outline, um, not just, um, how it is more money has been spent on, less money is coming back. I mean, the the share isn't quite right. Um but also we we put out all of the different um expenses we have and
the impacts we have in those homes jack up the uh the value of a town. Most of them aren't lived in but we still also all the towns have to have the the amount of fire if there's fire in those areas. We have to be able to get to them. We have to be able to get into them. DPW all of those things are added cost whether those people are there or not and there the valuation what we're getting back in taxes is not meeting the need. So, um, they really have to look at Cape Cod there. It really is is,
you know, a working a working person's place for the for the year round. And as you go out in the outer Cape, it's a part-time working. It's a seasonal working. And that that revenue just isn't there. And now people, you know, they're house rich and, you know, dirt poor. So, it's just not working out as well as it uh used to. Not that it was ever quite what it should have been, but yeah, I got Commissioner B. No, actually I I I've decided that been set up by Okay. All right.
All right. So, we hit those points. Okay. In terms of the services that we're providing, is there any other hot button issue? We we can talk dredging perhaps for a whole I'm gonna cut that off. As you look at this, you will come up and say, you know, this could be expanded here or we could do something under that category and let's by all means feel free to spend some time with us topic for a whole separate meeting though. I know it is. This would be a good meeting. I know. So, we can revisit this in our future discussions. Okay. Okay. So, what I'd like to what I'd like to
do if it's okay it's okay is um we actually have a couple of items uh on the general business agenda. One is an update from Carrie Purcell on our composting initiative. She was here a moment ago. Um Oh, she must have just had the other topic is on Oh, we could go to tick board. So, um it looks like Mike Magguire was gonna at least carry. Is everything okay with Carrie? She she said, "Do you think it'd be okay if I use restroom?" I said, "Yep, of course they'll put you right
on." There you go. All right. I'll step up real quick. Um not the filibuster. I I do just a couple things. My I'm the director of the cooperative extension department in Barsville County. Lived in Picasset in uh 1999 and 20001. And um I see during that time I was an Americanore member and uh Mark and Terrell. Mark was a select board member. Yeah. Two children, Kerianne uh Terrell and Jeff who passed three years ago. Um I just want to mention both of them. They were they were
incredible community assets as Terrell's. Oh yeah. Um and I can't go without thinking about them. Uh and Lori York too who I've done a ton of uh beautifification improvement projects. I know her son Rick really well. He was a shellish constable in Ashby for a long time. Um, I was thinking about all the talk about railroads and when I lived here, I remember learning a lot about Forever Cleveland and I think he had a lot to do with the one of the rail heads getting established at Greg Gables. You know, there's a really rich and strong uh history here in this this community that as a
department head and director, I try to impart uh to our staff. And so they're spending um a lot of times doing different things in this community that maybe you don't hear about in the background with the Flounder study. I was actually at UMass uh Amherst Glouester research station. They just got it completely rebuilt. Beautiful. Um they're doing a lot of ED DNA work which is water sampling DNA from there's a presence of certain species there. We're trying to work on uh more dialed
in flounder EDNA research about with them. So, a lot of things going on in the background. But uh in the meantime, you're going to hear from two of our staff, Carrie Parcel, who's our solid waste and compost expert cattle who's enthologist can talk to you about big foreign disease prevention. You think about extension. Uh, Commissioner Forest, Chairperson Forest and I have talked a lot about sometimes cooperative extension doesn't ring true to what we do. So, think of
us as a natural resource department. Right. Right. Okay. You ready? I am ready. Okay. And by the way, while Carrie is getting herself set up, um, I want to just give a shout out to Phil Goddard sitting in the back there. Bill has been a tremendous asset for our advisory group uh helping Carrie sort of scope out and figure out how to tackle composting. And I just want to publicly thank
Phil for all of his input, his sage advice. That's very much appreciated. Can I just say something while Carrie's getting ready? Um in Wellfleet, we uh we we have a very good recycling team. we get kudos from from the county and and all of that. However, we do have a compost place where you can bring your compost and uh what what I believe was what Marky said um you know it's the best compost is when you do your own and because even though you're bringing compost there that is still
getting shipped off Cape and it's just as much of it. Well, it's not as much, but there is still an expense to bringing it to your local transfer station. So, I'm just setting this up. I'm setting it up for Carrie that this is such a needed thing. And when I talk about that they're trying to we're trying to build a compost here on the I think that that in itself is going to be a benefit to um you can hear my voice there. Um an echo uh a benefit to all of the towns once this is up and
running. Carrie, there you go. Carrie, share my screen. I could say more, Carrie, if you want. I appreciate all that I've had so far, especially the last few years. And uh um thanks for recognizing uh Bill, you beat me to it because he was somebody that I was gonna mention has been. So um let me just share my screen. I think my off mic correct to avoid.
Yes. Yeah. We don't want any echo otherwise Ian will throw something at you. Thanks. Here we go. Bingo. Great. Okay. Perfect. So, um I am very pleased to be here. Thank you so much to the commissioners,
the town of Borne. I have not had a chance to speak with the board yet or with the town management about this project quite yet. And uh thank you to the community at large for participating in this or watching it at a later date. Um this is something that's been kind of true to my heart as well as a lot of folks here on Cape Cod. Um and I'll explain why. Um but we've been working on this since about 2020 uh with my involvement and there's been some previous involvement with the town of Bourne and Phil Goddard um as well as um other efforts with
the town of Yarmouth. Um and so this is really awesome that we get to have this conversation and see it move forward. So some of the uh updates that I give it might be a little redundant for some folks, some of it might be new. Um I had just heard from KP Law this morning while I was driving here. um to be present. So, I don't have too much uh in that, but I do have some updates there. So, for those of you who don't know me hanging out with Phil right there, uh that's not my
professional photo. Um but, uh yeah, so I'm just really glad to be standing here today. um and talking about all the progress that we've made uh again since my involvement in 2020 all the way until now or in the summer of 2026. Uh there's been a lot of many moving parts have been the point of contact for that. Um so this involves uh not only the four upper Cape Towns, but it involves uh joint base Cape Cod and Mass Development as well as uh Barnesville County. So I
just kind of want to provide some background here. Um, so does everybody in this room know about solid waistbands at all? Many of you. Yeah. Terry, I hate to interrupt, but can you go back to that last slide? I think you need to explain a little bit more your background and and and the work that you do for the county because um it's very very important and I don't want to gloss it over. If you could just expand a little bit further on your Yeah. I just be humble but your title, your role and uh and and the because you interact with DP. You interact with a lot of people that
are crucial in terms of this discussion of solid waste, composting, food waste, which is increasingly a hot topic. Okay, great. Okay, so again, there's me hanging out with Phil. Um so again, I'm Carrie Farcel. I am with Mass D in Barnesville County. I've been in this position for nine and a half years now. Um it's turning into a 50-50 split with the county and D as of July 1. Um I will be also working with the south coast. So I will be the solid waste and recycling
coordinator for the south coast caven islands which is going to equate to 32 communities. So you will see me working with the Bedford, Dartmouth, uh Plymouth, Benois, Marian, Rockland, Wearham. So those south coast communities which we have a lot in common with although I think some of those are more citybased so it'll take me a little bit of time to get to know them the way that I know intimately what's going on here with the Capan Islands. Um my background I have a masters
of public administration and emergency management. Um I primarily work with um the DPWs and transfer stations. I work a lot with the solid waste and recycling committees. Um, and my main primary goal is to work with towns to divert materials that no longer need to be in the waist stream to find markets for those materials to lower costs and to protect our environment at the same time. So, if there's something that's a divertable material, I work with those communities. I sort of work with
them regionally. I know that's big word here on the cape, but we try to provide um access resource sharing. And I was recently speaking with a community um that was really really excited that we were going to be um you know connecting more with the South Coast and the reason being is a lot of our vendors and outlets are offcape. So one of the things that you know we were you know and I'll kind of go into this is you know why are we doing this? Why does it matter? And what does
it mean to our community and the members of the community and how are we responding to that need? Um so I've been sort of prolific in working with all the communities uh you know working with the the commissioners and um Michael Dutton who immediately supported this. The second I met him I was like hi I need to talk to you about and I got immediate support and I speak to him often and frequently. Um so that's been a privilege and then again with Mike and um you know his support
for everything that's been going on. So, I get to keep rolling with these things. Um, as of July 1, uh, my job description is going to change slightly. We don't know what the final outcome is quite yet. At least I don't. U, but see sort of how that manifests with not only this project, but other projects that I can assist on. Great. With the K. Yes. All right. Thanks. You're welcome. Thank you. Um, waistbands, they've been in existence since the 1990s. uh began with mercury
and other materials. Things like cold tires, white goats, which are appliances, things like that are banned from going into the landfill or to um a waste energy facility. Um one of the things that um has come up with waistbands is starting back in 2014, DP uh put a waistband on commercial food waste of one ton or more in a week. So there are some facilities here on the Can Islands that's my district specifically although it is expanding July one to the south coast is that any
uh facility restaurant uh packaging manufacturer base um uh campus if you will has to divert that amount of waste. The problem is we don't have infrastructure uh around here or any sort of lack thereof of it. Um, and I'll go into that a little bit more um, with the words composting desert. So, I use that to sort of say when we think of a desert, something is vast, but there might not be a lot of resources within there. And that again is if you look at Barnesville County, there is no
real um, infrastructure built to accommodate commercial waste. There is space however but we also have to look at you know our marshlands the environment around there permitting um and so going through all of this um we started with a study in 2020 and 2021 where I worked with the special projects team you know Patty D and this was sort of commissioned by um a former county administrator who had visited Copenhagen and Denmark and they had this beautiful waste energy
facility where a ski slope came down and it was promised to be very clean. We have a memorandum uh here. So, we actually cannot a moratorium, I'm sorry, um on these types of facilities. So, they cannot expand and or build. And in fact, they used to have nine when I started back in 2017. There were only five facilities that are waste energy. And then the other option is landfill. Landfills really aren't permitting. They're closing uh with the exception of town board. And then um we ship a lot of our waste outside of here. So the reason why food waste is so important is it's it's it's a
organic material that goes along with our shrubs, our leaf and yard waste. Um and it, you know, creates protective for our um our single cell aquifer with our water and our drinking water. Um it's a soil amendment that's not, you know, sort of as nasty as fertilizers and things like that. So, it's something that's very important. When you put the food waste and you put the leaf and yard waste and the stumps and all the other stuff there, you're looking at approximately 30 to 36% of our waist stream. That's easily divertable, very valuable in its use, and it's something that
we need to capture and divert from our waist stream in order to sort of save capacity for where our waste is going. Um, so that's sort of that that I use the terminology almost. Um, so I know these are kind of wordy slides, but I wanted to talk a little bit about this. Um, if you're unfamiliar with the national store, um, it's it's when the Chinese sort of closed down the ports because um, countries were sending them a lot of materials that was of quantity and
not quality. So they closed down the ports, they did more inspections, they limited the number of business uh licenses that they were handing out to the exporters of those materials. They made us clean it up. But while they did that, it created a backlog and the cost of recycling, the cost to do business went way up. And we all know, and I always say this when I talk to folks, is that services are not free. Even when a service is free to that individual, you know, take for example our hazardous waste events, your residents get to go to these four events between other towns
for free, right? If it's somebody somewhere else is paying for that on the back side. Um so again, um what happened was is after these prices sort of went through the roof, this is in 20, you know, 18 through 2019, and then 2020 with COVID really sort of uh backed up. And the reason being is we were getting rid of about 25% more waste because people were at home. They had time to clean out their garages and their basement and repaint their house. Say, "I finally I'm going to buy that recliner that I really wanted. Things were being shipped in and there was lots of packaging because people didn't want to leave their home and personal uh protection equipment. I know masks and
things like that were starting to build up. So we really saw this huge backlog. Um and people lost their jobs. Um so there was less you know trashmen trash people on the road that were actually going around and collecting this stuff um just for this you know the sake of protection of our our community. So with that, um, we dedicated a team. Again, it was, uh, Patty Daly and, Michelle White, myself, and then we sort of had a steering committee where we worked with, uh, the former county administrator, Jack Units, and Sean O'Brien, who has since retired. Um,
and we just really sort of put it together. Uh, the county paid for this study and they agreed to the $150,000, which is kind of a fun ask that I got to make um, back then. And we've hired a couple of vendors who really looked at hard to recycle materials as well as the basic stuff, you know, your tin, glass, newspaper, mixed paper, magazines, things like that. And then the cost benefit analysis of outofstate travel for our waste. And they came up with two recommendations. One was construction demolition, which is we have outlets for them. It is expensive. it remains
expensive and it is a high volume material that comes through but we weren't really worried about tackling that because there was vendors available. The other set of was food waste. Why are we not you know talking about food waste? Why are we not uh building infrastructure for that and why are we not looking at the other with leaf and yard waste and combining that as a valuable resource. So that was really the study. Um after a while following the study um we I was able to get permission from uh the the county um and um write a grant. It's a non D grant. I can't write grants for D not in
my current position especially when I'm 50 with them. Um but I can write grants otherwise as long as you know it's there. They're approved. So with 11 uh hour racing um I was able to procure about $80,000 from them. Uh 11th Hour Racing, if you don't know, is a private uh family funding source through Google or the Eric Management Foundation. Um and they were looking for coastal community composting projects that were in the works. So I I hit them up pretty quick. Um with that,
uh we were able to put out an RFP. We wound up hiring SCES engineers and contracting with them. We're looking at continuing retainment now, but July 1 is right around the corner. Um, so I just need to get a hold of him for so we can continue to work. We did earmark some of that. Again, the county is putting up about another $45,000 on top of that 150 to continue this project. Um, and then we just wanted to identify our stakeholders, which is again Joint Base, Cape Cod, Barnesville County, uh, and the four Upper Cave towns. Um the reason why we're not expanding further is because we're
limiting the permit under a mass general permit which only allows 12,000 tons or more per year or sorry less per year. Um but eventually as we prove the capacity and we have this proof of concept that the base is looking at we'll be able to expand um as we move through this. Um we were working with Mass Development as well because they have first right of refusal for military and other stateowned property that are not being used for those types of uh programs. So this particular
parcel is no longer being deemed. Mass Development had first right of refusal. Eric and I had a really really great, you know, sort of consensus that um we really wanted it and they understood it and they're they're more than willing to work with us, state, the military in that divestment process. Uh we've had lots of meetings on that identification. Obviously, we need to look at the um environmental impact, whether it needs to be mitigated, if there's any contamination. POS is a big buzz word that we've been hearing over several years. And then um outreach and education,
you know, attending those MCQ meetings at the base. Uh it's been in the newspaper. Um you know, we talk about it. It's it's a public project even though I try to keep as much hush- hash as a point of contact because I want to make sure that um the information that is out there is is true and ready to be shared. Um so we do a lot of that. Again, this is sort of a wordy uh slide, but you know, again, I just I knew it was going into your packet, so I think it's a little helpful. Um, so right now I would say the update is and I just received um an email this morning in conversation
with Michael Dutton and KP Law, which is the county's law firm and and sort of legal counsel. So, um, I have not had a chance to open that, but basically it's saying that, you know, here's the standard template. Uh, we're going to work through that and get through there. Um, and so we're working on that piece. Um I'm, you know, even though I've been in this position for nine and a half years, I I understand that governments work really slow because I want results yesterday, you know. So, um it's it's taken a minute, but we're getting there. Um like I said, we have a
project manager, you know, project uh developer that will be announced or hired on July 1. um as long as um we find out, you know, sort of what the the outcome of that um description looks like, the job description. Um obviously, we're going to focus on some future funding. Um you know, Commissioner, thank you for letting me know that um if it's okay to talk about some of the the folks we're moving in. Again, I will seek out some financial um assistance through the uh grant funds with 11th hour racing. We put an earmark in Congressman Keading's office. I've not heard
back on that. I'm not sure if anything's been announced. Um that I believe it was we went we went high to the sky and said 4.5. Um and then there are other grant opportunities um meeting with Bill Downing or I'm sorry Ben Downing of the Mass Clean um energy this summer. So we're looking at at that particular um we also want to make sure that we're speaking with operators as we put out the RFP and the funding starts to go in place. The reason being is, you know, speaking with somebody from the state, he said that if you build it and, you know, we don't know the county is going to
own or lease the property, we know that much. You know, are we going to be the builders of the facility and own the facility and then hire in third party vendors? That's still sort of a question. It sounds like the county wants to also own the facility. Um, I'm not 100% on that answer. However, if we do that and we build a facility and we put out an RFP and the operators come in and say, "Wait, we have equipment for a 30-yard garage and you only built a 25 yard garage, right?" So, we need to be able to speak to our vendors. And it's one of those things that in these projects
sometimes you don't get there. So, I like that I have a lot of connectivity with folks because I can find out the little things. I think that could turn into big things if we're not considered. Um, and then, you know, we're just continuing the review. Um, obviously it's going to have to go through permitting and legal for the divestment piece. Um, and then I took some renderings from, um, Greg McCarron of SCS Engineers. Uh, he was our contractor using that funds from 11th Hour Racing. And this is part of the final study. So, I just I just took a couple snippets. Um,
these are renderings of what that might look like. uh the the base as well as the county is requiring and asking that it's a covered area ecstatic pile system which means that it's not open windowross um it would have a receiving building and then you can see sort of the roadway construction. I think the facility itself would start with about two activeish acres of use with about a 2acre buffer. Um and then that can expand because the parcel of land actually goes a little bit more. Um again
this is from that uh the receiving there would be a wood chip stock. The base is already confirmed they have plenty of that as they you know clear and do things for storm prep and whatnot. There would be a scale for uh the operators and folks to come over. This is not a public place in the sense that you know born residents would drive onto the base and take their little bucket and drop it off the way that you would at a transfer station. This is very different. This would be an operator um pickup assessment. And then again, just some more renderings here
um from SCS. Uh this is a system in Maryland that you know, you can see sort of the rollovers that go in the cupboard and then underneath are blowers that help with that um you know, sort of cooking and development of the soils. And then um I just wanted to say again, thank you to everybody with the support and how where we're at and how exciting it is that we're you know we've got a template from KP Law that um they want to discuss this week. So I'll
set that up and do you have any questions? Keep us posted. Go ahead. Thanks Carrie. Questions? What do you think? Questions boy. Well, I'll say one thing. So, our um landfill, you know, I swim tons and tons of food waste. They've done a really good job with it, but having a facility on Cape to do the composting, I think would be really beneficial. And I I think that you're making great progress. And I think it's it's really be helpful. I think one of the points that
often gets overlooked is in the long run, it saves money, right? All right. At the end of the day, from the taxpayer point of finding a way to better manage the waste strength to save money. Got it. Yes. Melissa. Yeah. I think um for me, you know, I I started, you know, composting at home, right? I bought the bin. I'm trying to do the work, but I'm not nearly getting the volume that I really would hope to. And I know that there's like Black Earth compost in certain organizations. So, I think maybe putting that out more. So people like me who are just learning, you know, I have
a little bucket I keep on the stove and I'm trying right to make it better. But maybe a little more um if there were more companies or more of a way because I would much rather have a company where I could just dump all my waste in a bucket and then have them come and pick it up or put it in a you know my container semi doesn't smell but I know that's a big thing. You got to smell it and all the odors. Um and I know there's more advanced equipment you can purchase. So just you know a thought when it comes to you know people who are just learning to compost and really wanting to add to that. Yes. You know I see here these times when Phil comes and he sends us emails constantly
about all this food waste and I'm like I'm not contributing to that with my little bucket. Right. So if I could do it in a more a bigger stage I certainly would. So yeah and there are there are vendors out there that do do this. There's Black Earth and others. Um the the challenge for them um so you were just talking about the bridge right is they're coming and picking it up and then they're taking it over the bridge. So, you know, in an environmental standpoint and even a cost standpoint, that's not effective. The other thing is they will come and they will start a program. So, say the town of Warren wants to look at something like that and and choose
a vendor. The vendor needs so many households or businesses to justify coming over here and picking it up. And the more people that participate or the more businesses, you know, it's sort of uh pricing by volume, the better rates folks get uh when they have more of a, you know, a reason. So, they're not against um doing household pickups and and curbside pickup. Uh it's just about the participation rate and volume. Um you know, we've we've offered and and Phil, if you want to speak on this at all. um you know tours of Black Girth and and lately with you know everything going on
and all the projects work on the bridges and things like that every time I try to get sort of a a tour together so folks can see how even on a smaller scale there's a lot of productivity and a lot of turnover of this material um I haven't been able to get enough folks to to sort of get there to do it. So, um I know the summer is very busy, so maybe towards the end of fall, um we can get something going, but we're more than welcome to have the select folks and uh whatnot, any boards of health, town managers, whomever, if we want to join us on a specific date or have two
separate tours where, you know, we can meet here in Bourne and head over to the Wearham facility. We can even see Graten Grten. Uh they actually compost beavers there except beaver problem. So, very interesting stuff, but you learn a lot. Um Especially when you hear it buzz kill, huh? I think I think that would be great. You know, if I think you'd find it I think you'll be surprised at how many people really want to be involved that are really busy with their everyday lives and it it's like for me like if I had to bring it to the dump, I'd have to find put that in my calendar,
right? So having a program where it's picked up or you can get everybody in town to commit. I think we have a lot more people interested. I know I am specifically. out. So when we do a field trip, you've got some other folks to jump in. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Any more questions, comments? Commissioner Bergman, just to say that, you know, I go as I go around and people talk to people, they ask me, you know, what Barsville County does and I, you know, all you know, we have a sheet here tell all the wonderful things we do, but they also ask, well, what do you plan
on doing? You know, what what's going forward? And this is the project that I I emphasize. Here's here's another way that we are looking to save the town's money on the tipping fees. I mean, I've been around for a while. I know even when I was a selectman 20 years ago, they're talking about the rise in the tipping fees. They're talking about the closure of facilities off Cave and the more difficulty and more expensive it is to truck this stuff. So, a composting facility is right in our balance, right? Something that we can do that directly directly saves the town money
in their operating budget. So, yeah. And I would say in my district, and I'm going to leave South Coast out for now, but Capen Islands, you see tipping fees with zero ton board. So they have the landfill and they have that right. Um, and on the low end about 7274 a ton and that does not include transportation or any other types of costs. That's just tipping fee themselves. I've seen it all the way up and this is mainly the islands of over 170 per ton. Um and the cost of tipping the compost um depending on uh which model is viewed and it's in the the final you know feasibility
study that was provided by SCS engineers um it it's much less so it's definitely something that would save cost in the future you know when I go and I have K cut bee here and I have K cut potato chips I can go into Away and get Cape Cod compost okay that's the goal that's the goal We're just going into a paper compost right there. There you go. All right, Carrie, thank you very very much. That was outstanding. That's a lot of work. All right, Michael, did you want to uh introduce our next program?
So our next speaker will be Estra Cattle who's been with us for seven or eight months. Um many folks may have been familiar with two predecessors. First one's Larry Dapsis, the tick guy. Everybody probably knew there guy, right? His name is Dave Sims. Um and so what I will say is uh I I warn all our entomologists that they're going to become Cape Cod famous. So they will all their notoriety is none of the money. So right. Uh but Eshcher has has a incredible background in in insects and so um that would obviously include ticks and uh he's working halftime with
our horiculturalist and working on some wildfire prevention work and then is going to be talking to you specifically about uh tickborne disease prevention and the new disease profiles that we're seeing with climate change we're seeing want to steal a thunderhead. There you go. Thank you. And and my question is where'd you get that big bug that's uh in this picture? Oh, I hate that. Did you? Yeah. I thought it was something that you might have found out there in the wild is Oh, and then we have a It's shared here.
Security. I know. I know. And what bug is that? That is a
Perfect. As you all have heard, I'm sure cattle. I'm the new county entomologist, the new tip guy. I also work with culture program. As you can see on your sheets, the county cooperative extension does a lot of different services as well as the amazing stuff that some do. Um, mainly my job as extension educator in horiculture and entomology. Half of that
is the master gardener program. I do a lot of education and training for them. And then uh in the middle whatever time I had left for entomology and horiculture programming but a large portion of what I do is tickborn disease production. And you'll see that uh uh Commissioner Lions was talking about the grub that I'm holding in this picture. This beetle grub that I myself larger background um my educational background is in entomology mainly. I got a master's degree from North Carolina State University in entomology and fruitfly
phlogenetics. Uh I also got a bachelor's degree in insecticology and conservation from the University of Delaware where I mostly did a lot of outreach work as well as a bunch of science communication. uh you'll see that the breakdown of what I do is in that education and boarding involvement master gardener and horiculture. I do a lot of talks and workshops. I'm starting to look at insect collection of specimens for Cape Cod's local insects and I also
run uh insect diagnostics from my office in my tickborn disease prevention program mainly focuses on public education education materials and tick surely talk about ticks uh and tickorn diseases let's start with a quick review of 2025 as you may know We see tick exposure spike annually on Cape Cod in the spring and summer months and then again into the mid to late fall with cases of tickorn disease emergency department visits peaking in June and
July. Last year across Massachusetts we indeed saw more people visiting the ER because they've been bitten by a tick, but visits for tickorn disease remained about average for the season with a higher frequency in the fall. When nipple deer ticks molt into adults and resume the search for hosts to feed, that activity surrounding tick encounters does coincide with what we currently know about seasonality of our local human biting tick species. We're just seeing more of this year. The Northeast is at a record high for emergency department visits regarding tick bites since
2011. And we're no exception. Last year, from the end of December to late June, Capecock saw 91 emergency department visits for tick bites. This year in that six-month period, we're up 65% to 140 visits in that same time. So, week 13, including this line graph here, for taking counter visits in Barnstable County is the first week of over April and May, the number has hung comfortably around 200 to 250 tick exposure visits per 100,000 emergency department visits. And I imagine that number will continue to rise over this time. Keep in mind that the data we have on
tick encounters is based only on human visits and the number of tick encounters in pets and people who remove ticks from home may be higher. While we had an early start to our typical spring jump in tickborn disease in April, we can still expect our highest number of cases for our top three tickborn diseases to peak in July. Obviously, we won't really be able to see how this curve works out until it's already over and we have that public health data. But May this year saw heavier case loads of limesiosis and anoplasmosis diagnoses than May of 2025. As tickborn disease symptoms
can begin to present weeks after the initial tick exposure. This means that most of people getting tickborn diseases on Cape Cod are likely getting them during May and June. Based on that public health data as well as the case passive tickborn surveillance via tick report, our local tickborn disease frequency profile hasn't changed, at least not so far this year, lime is still in the lead in both diagnosed human cases and in tested ticks followed by bziosis and then anoplasm uses. That being said, neither of these more passive methods of surveillance can really capture the whole
picture. And like every year, we can't say for sure that's a better or worse tick disease here until it's already approved. Much current concern is related to alpha gal syndrome which works completely differently from our t typical tick diseases. I presented with Leah Hamner earlier this year on alpha gal but just to get uh commonal syndrome is the trajectory of carbohydrates the lactose alpha 13 galactose via the bite of a tick here in the northeastern US that's mainly the lone tick. Alphaal syndrome is not something we can test ticks for. uh alpha gal is a part of the
tick saliva and is present at every stage of the lonear tick's life cycle. So even a laral lonear tick could trigger alphagal syndrome. Alpha gal is in products derived from g mammals and alphagal syndrome causes patients to begin to present a delayed allergic reaction to interactions with products like mamalian meat, dairy, gelatin, cosmetics and other personal care products and even medications and vaccines in severe cases. In severe cases of hyper sensitivity, patients with alpha gal syndrome may have allergic reactions to mamalian derived products like wool,
leather, lenoline or even just scent volatiles from mamalian meat cooking nearby. The common food additive caragen derived algae and not at all related to mammals and also contain alpha gal and set off these reactions. Uh, one of the things that is complicated about alpha gal 8 is a call it a double delay and those two delays are the delay from getting a tick bite to beginning to present symptoms which can be weeks and months and then another delay of hours for exposures to
the allergen and then the reaction to the allergen which can indeed be completely imperceptible and range up to very severe. Alpha gal diagnosis uh is based on multiple different checks. One actually presenting those symptoms, a cerological test for immunoglobins to alpha gal and then response to elimination diet. So uh getting diagnosed with alphagin also take months to potentially a year. It can be long-term especially with repeated tick bites causing desensitization of the immune
system and management of symptoms can require antihistamines or in severe cases in as many people present anaphylactic symptoms. Uh one of the kind of hallmarks of alpha gal syndrome as we know it so far is its consistent inconsistency. uh case symptoms differ between individuals as well as between exposures and they do not occur after every exposure or follow an obvious pattern which is really really fun when it comes to diagnosis. Um up to 60% of people with alpha syndrome do have
these anaphylactic reactions. 30 to 40% experience cardiac symptoms that can involve blood pressure drops, dizziness, fatness, tachicardia. People can have uh breathing issues. They can have uh their extremities swell uh extremities swell as well as their lips or their eyelids. They can have skin itching symptoms. But relatively common is gastrointestinal symptoms which involve abdominal pain, cramping, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, heartburn and indigestion.
Emerging studies suggest that symptomatic expression may present differently based on sex, but that common symptoms like itchy skin, cramping, and nausea appear independent. Massachusetts, the Department of Health has made alpha gal syndrome a reportable condition as of beginning of this year. This means that new and pre-existing cases have been reported to help health agencies track where it's happening most and how it's h how it's affecting residents of that April. Less than five new suspected cases of alpha syndrome have been reported since the beginning of April. Other cases have been pre-existing but as I mentioned diagnosis
of alpha gal syndrome can take weeks to months even after patients started exhibiting systems symptoms and about 42% of doctors in the United States are unfamiliar with the condition. Uh the potentially enormous lifestyle changes that a patient must undertake to live with the condition often are left to the individuals as well. According to the CDC alpha gal is likely the 10th most common allergen in the US at this time. In February, a bill to codify alpha gals and major hallogens was introduced to the United States House of Representatives. It has not yet been
enacted into law, but if agreed upon would require that products containing alpha gal be disclosed openly so that those with alpha gal syndrome could more easily avoid these pro products. Regulatory support for alpha gal sufferers would relieve some of that individual burden, making symptom management via outage and avoidance more feasible and with less reliance on grassroots databases and participation in support groups. At the same press release in April about making alpha syndrome affordable, Governor Healey introduced expanded hunting season provisions as a means of
additional tick population control. White tail deer are an important host for most if not all our feed biting tick species and a reduction in host population would help reduce the numbers of ticks that the environment can support. However, these provisions were removed by the state house of representatives and citizens in support of the provisions are encouraged to contact their representatives the state senate to urge them to add them back. Deer hunting and callulling is a divisive issue of integrated tick management. much removing understory plants. It's difficult to get the uninitiated on board with the ideas of uh selectively and actively removing nature
from our environment. Making those means of control unfeasible on broader scales that would make a difference. Current research on Martha's Vineyard and Nucket on root cause tick control and tick for disease management will hopefully lend further public legitimacy to broader scale ecological management techniques that will allow them to garner more support and funding. Here in Barsville County, my work in preventing tickborn disease stems from education, training, and surveillance. As an extension educator, much of my job is science communication, taking in current knowledge and emerging research on ticks and tickborn disease in order to advise
our community on current best practices. I've gone to multiple conferences and workshops on tickborn disease ecology and management since starting my position in October of 2025 to learn these best practices and current knowledge. spend time every week reading papers on research outside the northeast as well. A part of my work is surveillance, checking the tick populations in Barnesville County by physically sampling different locations in our towns and noting which species we find. If you see me out there with my tick flag, feel free to say hi. The Cape
is a big place and it would be difficult to sample many locations across it alone while completing my other duties. Previously and during the period between my hiring and Larry Dapsis' retirement, the New England Center of Excellence in Vectorborn Diseases or NewVac sampled each summer on residential properties using interns and graduate students as well as our Americanore pet members as a part of project itch or is tick control helping to collect data on different methods of tick control and their effects on local issues. At the sampling period of project itch, it comes to a close. We hope to continue data collection with new support as well as from
the northeast regional center for textile vector diseases NB. This should materialize in a two-fold program with an extended seasonal surveillance with partners from Americanore using location data from project itch as well as a larger volunteer staff program inspired by NEBBD University's New York state tickets during season. These combined efforts will extend the reach of our tech surveillance program, allowing us a clear picture of the seasonal and geospatial distributions of Cape Cod's takes. We'll know exactly where our Lonear takes
are and when, allowing us to make management suggestions and give advice on how to best. Uh, as for educational materials, uh, we have two things right here for you to look at if you like. Uh the new business card bifold which is the start of our make takes take a hike informational campaign is now available in English, Portuguese and Spanish with the new fiscal year bringing uh Haitian creole and French. These biffold cards have information about uh what to do if you get
bitten by a tick, the species and their life stages and seasonality, as well as things you can do to avoid being bitten by ticks, like wearing protective clothing or uh avoiding tick habitat. as well as how to see a tick on your body, how to feel a tick that's there, as well as how to assemble a tick to remove and or prevent ticks from biting. There is also this little uh plush cat going around. We call him Scooter. Uh he is a simulator for checking a pet for ticks. There are
small seed beads planted on his body in different points so that people can really kind of get a literal feel for finding a tick on your pet amidst all that dense. Uh the QR code on the bifolds card also leads to the first of several new web pages mainly involving putting together a ticket kit. As of last week for public education, I've given 20 public talks on tickborn disease and
safety across Cape Cod with more scheduled for the fall and into next year. I've also had the opportunity to participate at broader events like the Haritch Health Fair audiences. I'm excited to report I've been able to introduce interactive elements of my talks such as scooter here uh as well as tick flagging and sampling demonstrations. You know, I've gotten to answer questions through these talks and tableling events across all different age groups and equip our community with the knowledge and power to reduce their chances of taking
don't attend talks or events may have heard or read about tick safety from my different media appearances this year. There's absolutely an increased interest in disease populations and therefore a demand for media coverage on the issues I'm talking about when I'm not sampling speaking at event or creating new materials and programming. I'm at the extension office in Yarmas answering inquiries and communicating with the public via phone or email. Part of this is insect identification and coordination with the master gardener program. But the lion's
share of my public communications, as you can see right here, is all about ticks. I identify ticks from photos and physical specimens and send resources and advice about tick bite prevention and provide information about disease testing for tick specimens. County most recently had a partnership with MedSU's tick report for subsidized tick testing services from 2021 to 2025 that allowed county residents to submit a tick for basic panel testing free uh and expanded panel testing every month. The basic panel covered our top three most
common tickorn diseases panels testing for newer or rare paths. The program initially funded by residual grant money through environment ran out just before my arrival in October 2020. While health environment found some more funding for the program in early 2026, the staunch public support of the program depleted those funds within a right uh currently tick testing by a tick report is $60 for the basic panel and 100 or 200 for more comprehensive panels. While there are conflicting opinions on whether tick testing is ultimately helpful for individuals, it's no question that
the county residents use the service and come to and came to rely on the subsidized fund. I easily get a call once a week asking about the program's funding status and I'm hoping to seek further financial support for testing in the near future. In the future as well, more programming materials and services will become available to the public. I hope to soon begin offering office hours where citizens can have their outdoor clothing, shoes, and gear sprayed with perme prevention. In the new fiscal year, shower cards denoting places to check for ticks on your body will be purchased for
distribution for cooperative extension and public health environment, as well as items like hand mirrors and lint rollers to remind and assist in looking for and removing ticks on one's person. We also plan to expand educational reach further by including printed web media for different targeted audiences in the form of print out educational zenes video tutorials on topics like building a tick kit and tick removal and interactive web media simulating tick identification and how you can integrate tick smart habits into your daily lifestyle. I am just one public servant and
I can't do any of this alone. I work closely with the department of health and environment here in Barnstable County as well as tickborn disease prevention staff on Marthus Vineyard. Our program also benefits from the support and expertise of the regional centers of excellence in vectorbor disease as well as the existing staff of local and state exemption organizations and thank you all for your time today. I'm happy to take any questions. That's great. Thank you very very much. Very good questions. Yes, the comment that just gets me thinking when you're talking about the diseases that are related to tick and I have two experiences that I was surprised it may
not have been there and it may fall under Lyme disease but Bell's palsy I myself had a tick bite back when I was five at that time it wasn't contributing to Bell's to to ticks at at that time they just said you had Bell's palsy right fast forward 15 20 years later my husband develops Bell's palsy from a tick bite that time we were able to identify the timeline at the hospital and they had stated that there was a lot of research being done related to Bell's palsy under sort
of Lyme disease. So I was just surprised not to see that in there because that was a real Yeah, it really it happens. It is does happen. I actually one of the I work with u one of the talks that I do actually have facial policy herself for Lyme disease. She managed to not get a diagnosis until quite late because she kept getting kind of bounced around on what her diagnosis might be. Yeah, it is absolutely a mid-stage symptom of blindness. Yeah, it's very important. I just
wanted to stress that because you know my husband still has residual effects from his bell's paly. Thankfully mine mine relie mine was relieved 100%. But his was not his eye and part of his face um from that sort of cranial nerve is still damaged. So, it's very slight, but you can see it. So, it's just a reminder how important this conversation is to check your kids, you know, wear socks, do what you need to, cuz I sure wish there was a tickborn disease that I could say don't worry about. Yeah. Right. Right. Yeah. Thank you. I just want to add that real experience. Real story.
So excellent if you don't mind. Um go ahead. So with with a symptom like this in a in an occurrence are the alpha gale alpha is there's not there's no treatment or do you does it last like her husband still has a residual does it normally go away I mean what are the there is a chance alphael syndrome like your sense guns receding over time if you get repeated tick bites after you can be reensitized very quickly and in fact your symptoms may be worse next Um,
alpha gale syndrome can go away, but it does take a lot of different kinds of management in order to have your symptoms actually go away. I don't know that many stories of successfully having your symptoms vanish, continuing to not have any kind of reprisal of Alan. Commissioner Bergstrom. Yeah. Um, we talked was quite a while back. Yeah, it was March I think. Yeah, we discussed we discussed the um the occurrence of these of the lonear tick and the symptoms that go along with
this disease as being concentrated more in this down this area here M's vineyard and the and the uh part of the cape but we talked about taking you know inventory of the cases and seeing how whether they were advancing further on to the case. It's still the case. It's more concentrated down here in the the upper cape. There definitely are like this vineyard as far as I was able to get from the health and environment data. Uh only under five new cases have been reported since April. Okay.
And now another thing is, you know, I I I know peripherally of the relationship between the deer population and the tick population because I mean for a long time we called them deer ticks. That's what they call them. And I also know that there is a a movement at the state level to increase the number of days you can hunt. Is a a movement allow you to hunt on on Sundays and and so but that's like you said that's a big issue. I mean there are people very very divisive and very emotional issue
because I mean some people like myself, you know, if there's a fly in the house, I catch them and I let him out, you know, but uh but I I just want but they but the deer population on its own must have boom and bust cycles like any organism, you know, but you has there been a study that would show a direct correlation between the deer population and population? I believe there are a number of papers by uh Dr. Kirby Stack that do connect tick populations to deer populations. Um
the title is escape. Now the other question is did ticks have any natural predators? Something goes eat something? There are things that eat ticks. Almost anything that does eat ticks eats other things. So they're not dependent on ticks for their general uh sustenance and ability to reproduce. The main two things that I have read that will eat basically only ticks are uh a paracettoid wasp and an enmma pathogenic fungus book. But can eat ticks. Uh numerous
species of ground dwelling birds can eat ticks, but those ground dwelling birds can also be hosted to tick. So, it's a complicated relationship. I'm going to ask another question. So, I remember the first time Larry um identified a lonear tick. Was it within the last eight years or it could have been even 12 years ago and it was at Sandy Neck. It was in 2015, I believe. 2015. And I don't know if you look at Facebook, but I wanted to go, you know, they go by I I I'm a voyer. I try
not to say much, but um I did see that someone on the outer gate had encountered one. They took a picture of it and I wanted to grab it and send it to the department, but I it went and you know I couldn't find it again. But so I do know that they're there. There is So you're Yes, I'm aware. I I do get reports across the Cape in various places. I know they're definitely in Mashp. I know they're definitely out at Sandy. I know they're definitely I believe there was a report that I got around beyond this. Yeah. Well, this was on the outer cape say around wealthy Toro area. So,
which would not and it's not necessarily I feel bad for the poor deer because it really is the mice in even the small field animals that can carry this that then carry it on to so always bumping off u these things and not really making a difference. So fantastic program where they're trying to actually combat the disease reservoir source in mice. Right. There you go. Well, that's that's interesting. There you go. Just one more question. You could I have a couple of dogs and they wander around by vacuum after the brush and everything. Of course, they come
back to soften that pick. So, of course, we have we apply this anti stuff on what it's called. Is it possible to in some ways to inoculate the deer population? Anybody thought about that? I mean, yes. Um, one of the problems with inoculating deer population at large is you have to catch every deer. Okay. And get them to eat something or stick on vaccinating the deer population against
ticks with the use of a medication that's like oral. Mhm. There are there are numerous little roadblocks in working with animals that are just in the wild. Just with southern pine beetle, uh a lot of lands that are not residential are tough to manage because the sheer scale of it is financially very difficult. I didn't think it was practical, but it's just I wish we could too. Well, Larry has a good replacement as far as I'm concerned. So, thank you for all of your hard
work and your wonderful graphics. Well done. No, really well done. Any more questions from from Bourne? No. That's Thanks. Keep aware. Keep aware. Stay aware. Yeah. To get any of these bfold cards, you can get them from cooperative extension or health environment. We both Okay. Excellent. So, the other question is we should look at our lab and see what we can do as far as testing. That's another thing. Put that as a as a as a future topic, please. Okay. Make it easier. Thank
you. Thanks, Esther. Thanks. All right. Uh we're we're getting on in time here. I want to ask uh Melissa and our friends in Bourne. Are there any other sort of issues unique to Bourne or things that we should be talking about before we move on to our I mean I think we all you know we all know that one of the biggest issues that he had for us is the bridges and water you know the watershed permit right conversation is you know it's new to a lot of us it's a lot of technical information
as is the bridges right so um I think our biggest that's my you know those are my biggest concerns as as chair right now. A lot of other things that they correlate with our goals and our goals. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. Those are the two main goals. I mean, we have some smaller goals like replacing a police station roof, things like that. Yeah. Oh, yeah. But um yeah, and we've got some great capital projects going on, especially at our integrated solution site. Got it. Fire station
coming. So, um but yeah, those are the three ways. Well, the reason why I bring it up is uh as we move on in our agenda, the next items you're certainly welcome to stay for items nine and the rest the agenda, but there typically are sort of contracting business administrative stuff. So, what I'd like to do, unless there's something else that you'd like to talk about, just take a fivem minute recess, give people a chance to uh the restrooms. Uh we can obviously talk
a little bit more and and uh and individually. Thank you folks for participating and hosting us and taking your time today. Yeah. So we'll motion to adjourn. All right. So we have a motion from Mr. Meyer. Do we have a second? A second from um um MJ. Um I'll have to do roll call vote since Jean is online. Jean, yes. Peter, yes. MJ, yes. Yes. Melissa chair says yes. But thank you very
much for hosting us. actually get. All right. And uh and I would be remiss if I didn't extend back on. We're back. Our recess is over and uh our next item on our agenda is item number eight. Uh
new business. I don't have any new business. Do either of my fellow commissioners have any new business to present or bring up? No, not Commissioner Lions. No. Okay, let's move on to the next item which is our consent agenda and uh uh our consent agenda that's before us. We have a number of items, a number of bid awards and contracts, a number of routine appointments. Um do I have a motion? Yes, the chairman. I move that we um approve the mission of consent agenda. And I
named several sections here. Items A through it's Roman numeral one through Roman numeral 5. Yes, that's a six. So that six is actually okay. Including all subsections as listed on our June 29th agenda. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion on the motion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Carries unanimously. So that is item
number nine. Now we'll move on to item number 10. Mr. Chairman, I move that we approve the um the June 10th, 2026 regular meeting minutes. Okay. Do I have a second? Second. Okay. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. It carries unanimously. Okay. Commissioner reports. Who would like to report on the Mercy Otis Warren Woman of the Year award ceremony? Well, um I think both uh Ron and I attended it was for Shireen
Davis this year who is a retiring select board person and many other contributions to the town of Chadam. and welld deserved. Uh Michael did a great job in uh speaking for the county and he did note that she went back 18 gener 13 generations 13 generations. So if we wanted to do DNA uh testing maybe she was related to Marcotus. However, that was a good comment and um and she is in the vein of that. So I thought she was a very appropriate uh uh uh recipient of that award
and I congratulate her and then I also attended the PAS as did you um and public health meeting uh and that was um oh that's right I was there I was trying to think of that and it was also the I was going back to our other meeting with the bridges but um Um, I thought that was, you know, there was something very informative about that. But the PAS, you know, uh we had people in to
see us at our last meeting and one of the um uh members of the Hyannis Association that's looking into this had her blood tested testing with Silent Spring and she was up way over like 400 people or I mean 400 points and like maybe the acceptable liver limit is 50. Mhm. and a um retired nurse from Cape Cod Hospital also um had a testing of like 500 and it bothered him and he didn't like
having that number. So he started reaching out to different physicians and one um did prescribe a medication that as it turns out this um attaches to fatty acids and fatty acids help us clean out the the bad stuff of our body and they stay. So um PEOS attaches to that. So it's identified as in the body as something it should retain and that's why it keeps accumulating in the body
and this drug helps break that identification down and his level went way down but nobody knows about this. So there was a couple of physicians in the audience and um they were talking about how you know doctors don't know about it. They don't know the relationship between this drug. Um, it does need to be brought, you know, this is going to be years before the medical association and insurance companies recognize it as something, but right now they are able to get it through a three. It's a big process to get it at a reduced cost. Otherwise, it's like $350 a month or something.
But um I did propose that they get in touch with our public health department and maybe start to organize some sort of medical symposium or forum uh for education to doctors and to the community at large. And this is going to take you know a year probably to put together and to really get the right people there. But I thought it was a good um opportunity for the county to help. I said one thing we can do is reach out. we're good at reaching out and getting out to the public and
convening. We're able to bring a lot of people together. So, um we could assist in that and they got excited. So, uh don't be surprised, Michael and U. Jay, uh if people start reaching out and that's where that came from. But it was um you know, I was saying, you know, we've had a lot of presentations on PAS and what's happening there, but this was a you know, sort of a different conversation which I found very interesting and I was glad I attended. That's right. Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Bergstrom, do you have your report? I um on the 13th I attended the 100th
anniversary of the old town hall building. I wish I had been there in downtown Hyannis. If you go by there, it's the Kennedy Memorial Center, right? But it was originally the first town hall for the town of of Hyannis when the people there found it inconvenient to travel across Cape to the Bar. So they decided walk reach into their pockets and build that very attractive building that sits there now as the Kennedy Center. So it was attend it was attended was an outdoor
celebration attended by some of the civic leaders from around and I was privileged to go there. Uh um Representative Kip Diggs gave a speech and of course the chamber of commerce from Hyannis also. So that was a good event. Now I know I didn't know that that was the original town hall and now I know you know Wendy told me that at the um Mercotus and um and that they were doing that celebration but uh in 1985 if you look at our history book of the history of Barnstable County that we found while we were digging out the basement um they had a parade I said gez they knew
that there was a county back then they had a parade from that building to the courthouse. Oh wow. Okay. And John Kerry was there. Andy Card representing the president was part of that. If you read the first part of that book, it tells about this celebration. I'm like, they like parades back then. Yeah. And there was much more. Well, that was 50 years ago. The difference in 50 years of a lot of things. All I can say is even though it's no longer the town hall in Hyannis, it's still a it's still a memorial to the the Kennedy to John F. Kennedy and the Kennedy
family. So right those who I visit I think it's worth going in there. Absolutely it is. Absolutely it is. So so uh any other No that's the commission that I have. Okay. So that ends up with commissioner reports. Um, as Commissioner Lion said, uh, there was a brief meeting, uh, hosted by the, uh, Cape Islands, uh, K canal bridge group, uh, at KitKut 5 and Phil Ang was the speaker and,
um, he and I spent we all had some time with him and I think it's important to note that um, He's he's very interested in spending more time on the Cape and he's very interested in rail, right? And so, uh, my hope is is that, um, what I think on the transportation side is we we need to be thinking through some if we have the opportunity to meet with him again. Um, you know,
what what some of the others issues are. They all seem how to me the most pressing issues all seem to resolve revolve around the canal the bridges here. Um I think one thing that I think should be discussed in the context of theou with the town of Bourne is um alternate transportation services to Cape Cod during construction. I don't think that's getting enough attention. For example, are freight are we looking at diverting freight traffic to other areas? Are we looking at
um taking more use of New Bedford Fall River as ports to move freight traffic to the islands? Anything that can be done to sort of reduce the pressure and the congestion here, I think will make life easier for Cape residents. So, and any I I just thought Phil Ang was an engaging person. Um, I know he's an interim. Um, but if he becomes the permanent person, we're definitely going to want to spend more time with him. If I could just add on to that, I was very impressed with
him. I said, I said to myself, wow, they actually looks like they have someone that knows what he's doing here. So, that made me feel better. But, um, he had extensive experience in New York and with bridges and transportation and the transit and was successful and if and that's huge. So he just seemed like a very serious, competent guy who wasn't afraid, didn't look at this as something, oh my god, it's overwhelming. He actually he was a guy that you could see could chip through it. So
I I was encouraged with that and um I'll be more than interested in following his career here and hopefully it is a permanent one. I would agree. Um upcoming business, administrator Dutton, uh our next agenda, uh you have a fair amount of uh end ofear uh votes to take at your next meeting, which is at end of fiscal year, calendar year, end of fiscal year. Um and you will also have um
a lot of stuff. Oh, on this here. Yeah. Um yeah, just confirming our our audit um and re actually reauthorizing the annual delegation uh of certain duties to the county administrator. Uh I'm working on revising that a little bit to make it a little clearer. Um upcoming not your next meeting uh but how about the storm after action? You want to can you give us storm after action uh as well? So you have a slightly more thorough uh presentation to give uh for the storm after
action uh at your next meeting as well. Um then after that you've got uh your next away meeting in Harwitch uh on July 22nd. Um, if I could go back to the Wednesday, July 8th, uh, meeting, that one, uh, since we are not going to cease, um, any, uh, contractor work until sometime after July 15th. Um, I was going to ask the board if you are interested in making that one in person.
Uh we had uh by consensus uh decided to do virtual a virtual meeting on July 8th, but since we still have access to your meeting room if you want to do in person. Sure. I think as long as we have access to it, I think that would be good. Okay. I'm still open to the comedy club as a uh alternate venue. Yeah, I like that. Well, we could something to think something to think about. Then they'll say, "Oh, it's so appropriate. You should just be there. No, we don't want to be. No,
we have to craft we have to craft the agenda. So beautiful city environ. Yeah, trust me. Give us given some of the All right, I'll start working on my my repertoire. All right. You know, I've always Go ahead, Commissioner. At the end of every quarter, of course, now at the end of the fiscal year, I'm always interested in getting a report revenues and the end of the fiscal year, expenses, and how we did in our budget predictions when we we put this budget in place. Well, Carol's going to be I think almost I think that's kind of baked in her the DNA. I think when she's ready to provide that that's going to be something that we do we do. Yeah. So, I think
um I think I think we can count on that. The town financing it would have to go up to the Boston and come back and they'd have to certify it so on. But we can at least get a heads up this you can you can and u yeah and I think she'll give you some indication. And I think uh this year is uh fairly good. We're in fairly good shape. I can tell you that. I can't give you the exact numbers obviously because it does take a while to uh get all of the invoices in, get all of our expenses
for also. I know another community that we'll be talking about going to is going to be Truro. And uh one of the things that concerns me about Truro is just the water supply issues out there. As much as I want to get a better handle on water supply management issues there, I'm also aware that they're pretty thorny and I think we might need to do some through the administrator's office more reconnaissance in terms of what we might be walking into. Um, you know, I when I worked
in the town manager's office of Provincetown, I spent a considerable amount of time looking at long range water supply issues there. And the challenges both in Provincetown and in Truro and um the reality is Provincetown and Turo share uh water from the same lens, the the payment lens. And uh that's a lens that has been impacted and I'm very familiar with the uh management uh some of the some of the problems in terms of sustaining the water quality in that lens and um so I I think
I would like to think that we're going to have a water discussion on that meeting uh date and um we talking about when we go to Toro. I'm talking about when we go to Toro. Absolutely. Um because uh you've got two communities, Province Town, Truro, there's a lot of development going on. Um one one of the things that concerns me is the is there a consensus? I know they have a two- town working group on water resources, but what what's unclear to me is there's a consensus in terms
of what the limitations are on that water supply resource and have the towns adequately figured out how those resources are shared and how they can be sustained and and sort of sustained long term. Um, that's that's that's the thing that concerns me. Um, but like I said, I've had a lot of experience over the years having to deal with that, both in terms of my work as an assistant town manager and town manager, but also as uh as an aid to both Congressman Studs and Congressman Deah Hunt,
we were always dealing with water supply issues out in that part of the area. So, I'm going to be relying on Michael and staff to help us do some reconnaissance there. And I'm and I'm also thinking that Commissioner Lions makes a good point about PAS and public health education. Um, I think when we are in communities, when we talk about water issues, I think there may be a
need for us to have at the meeting folks from our health department that can speak to uh, nitrates, nitrogen uh, in its effect on public health. Um, and I think we also need to be able to speak to public public um, more. or we have to at least have some capability in terms of being able to at least um deal with any resident questions or efficient because I I've in following some
of the public meetings in Truro these questions this there are questions about water supply and its adequacy and whether or not it's sufficient to deal with some of the development activity that's being proposed and then there are also questions regarding water quality and uh nitrates or nitrites. And so um there are some accepted standards. Now I watched a presentation from Truro docks and um these are a group of people with some fairly uh significant scientific training
and background uh suggesting that even the current standards that are in place accepted by D and EPA are not sufficiently adequate to protect public health. So, my hope is that at the very least we're up to speed on what those standards are and what the state of knowledge is. Um, because we may very well find people that have been attending these meetings and forums may have very legitimate questions um that center on some of the things that were discussed in some of these meetings
and some of these forums. So, um I wanted to just bring sort of bring that up. Yeah. When we go to Toro, I would like to have um Is it Steve from the commission who works on the water? No, that's No, you know who I mean. Yeah, he has a Greek last name. Yeah, I think let us let us work on making sure that we get a those types of conversations. Yeah, definitely. Well, that's the reason why I flagged it because I think we're going to want a lot of people there. The geology. Oh, yeah,
we are. And you know the on the outer cape if you start just really worrying about the water and the environment you know you get dismissed and it's not a good thing because people it's not about being nimi. Yeah. Now uh before we go much further talking about agenda items I did ask Steve Tupper to um be on standby to brief us on one small item that we adopted in the consent agenda. And so I'm going to ask my fellow commissioners to indulge me. Yes. Go right ahead. Bring up Mr. Tougher
to talk a little bit about the um population estimate uh business that we approved in the consent agenda. I just want to give some additional clarification. I don't have any problems with it and I'm glad we approved it, but I think it would be helpful if Steve just can give us a minute or two to kind of explain what's going on. I know it involves the Donahghue Institute. Steve, it involves uh working with the RTA. Uh and it sounds like there's something exciting going on behind the scenes. Maybe what letter are we talking about? The uh the contract extensions
or adjustments involving the Kit Cut Commission and the population estimate work season. So, I'm going to just turn this over. Steve, can we get Steve up? I see him on the screen. Steve is waving at us. Can we Can you hear us, Steve? Okay. I can hear you. All good on the audio. Oh, and we can hear you, too. Yes. Great. Thank you, Mr. Go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the board. Steven Tupper, deputy director at the Cape Cod Commission. First, thank you for
the approval of these contracts and agreements. I'm happy to spend a little time in describing what the effort is intended to do um and what we can expect coming out of it. Um so in short it's an effort to really dig deeply in the data and analyze our population trends over the course of a calendar year. Um so we all know that the uh year round population is fairly well established. We have a good sense of the number of structures associated with part-time residents. Um but it gets really technically challenging to start to understand how our population uh trends over the
course of the year. looking at those year- round residents, part-time residents, seasonal visitors, whether they be um staying overnight or day trippers. Um and it's really important in terms of planning decision and specifically planning for infrastructure to get a good sense of those variations over the year and then also think about what that means as we project out the next uh few years, next few decades. Uh so the uh important part here of this contract is to bring on the UMass Donahghue Institute um which is really a technical expert in um demographics. They do a lot
of work for the state in terms of developing their projections and really we want to be able to bring in as many data sources as possible and use their technical expertise to get a real comprehensive analysis. Um the hope here being that that can inform planning decisions through a number of entities. Um that's why you saw partnership with the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority and their contribution of funding as well because they intend to use this uh analysis to help inform their planning decisions and their investment decisions. And then to be very direct, we want
to use this to help um anyone who's advocating for funding for the region. Most funding formulas are based on year-round population. We build infrastructure to handle the real influx that we see in the summer seasons. So, we want to have a really reliable, robust um baseline for anyone who wants to make the case um that we need additional investment to serve all of those um people that are on Cape Cod. That's excellent. Thank you, Stephen. Does u any any of my fellow commissioners have any questions for Steve? I just it went right out of my No, just to say that it's
having discussions about housing and other future development on the Cape, you know, there's a lot of talk about what the future population would be and you know, it's all speculative usually and so on. So, it's good that the commission is actually doing a study to give us some at least some basis to make decisions on that are based on science and not just anecdotal. So that the usual the commission is right on top of these things. So So my question for Steve based on what Commissioner Bergstrom said, are we looking sort of projections out into the next 10 years or so? Is that what
we're talking about? Based on what we have? That's correct. So it's going to be two phases. First is to look at current day using all the available data to get that estimate over the course of the calendar year. And then the contract does include projections out to 2030 and 2035. Um and really the intent is to understand the the nuances of our our region as it differs from the rest of the state. Um to give a bit of a depth here when um population projections are usually done, you look at some typical indicators, birth, deaths, and migrations. Um we're a bit unique um
in the in the way that our population fluctuates. So having a better understanding of the way we are today will help give a more reliable estimate of what things are going to do in the next 10 years. That's great. Commissioner Lions. No. No, I I'm if I think of something if I have it, I'll come back to it much with Steve myself. I I very much appreciate the update, Steve. Um like I said, I think uh it makes sense to do this. Uh I the additional detail is helpful and and and the point that Steve made that needs to be emphasized is that this kind of work can be crucial in terms
of securing additional infrastructure dollars, federal dollars, transportation dollars, wastewater dollars. um because it's in we have to build to meet that larger uh demand right uh and seasonality. So the other thing if I may, you know, when you're looking at this, not just the populations, but when the commission is looking at these studies, particularly on the outer Cape, the the difference in the geology, which was touched on when we were in East Ham, but
um also the amount of erosion because even just this rainstorm that we had last week, you I don't know if you saw any pictures on Facebook about Coahon Hollow. I mean, this is happening. That's not a hurricane. That's not That was just rain and we we have to be very mindful about where we're putting people on the outer cape. Yeah. So, I just want that to be in your in the mindset of some
any of these reports coming out. But, thank you. Thanks. Where are we in the agenda? We're in the we're in the future agenda setting. No, I think so what I wanted to be what I wanted to be able to do is to make sure that Steve had a chance to update on this because it may relate to a future agenda item. Absolutely. And Steve answered the question and uh we don't we don't we don't have to address that issue now, but I did want to bring it up before we uh pass uh this item on setting our
future agenda. So Stephen uh unless anybody else has anything else for Stephen, you're excused. And thank you for being patient even though we got you. Yes. All right. Hopefully you weren't just Anything else, Mr. Dutton, on upcoming business. Uh that is it. That's it. Okay. Uh any other staff reports? I only have two things. Uh, one is that I just want to let the board know that uh, Bridgewwater State University and our IT department are working on uh, some basic uh, cyber security training opportunities uh, mostly geared towards uh, police chiefs on the Cape and
uh, town administrator, town managers and assistant town managers and administrator. So that is that is yeah that is going on. Um, and we're looking for a date uh in August or September to be able to go up there and use their uh pretty state-of-the-art facilities. Um, also just as a reminder, uh, Superior Court uh is has been moving over the last week out of the uh, Superior Court and they are spread mostly over in First District and also up in the uh, Harborview
conference room. Uh, is now a courtroom. So that uh that is in the works. They will start trials I believe a week from today. Wow. And it's going to work. They've kind of they're they're set. They're content. Nobody's happy. Nobody's happy, but it will work. They've done a great job. Uh the trial courts have done a great job, you know, reconfiguring spaces for their needs. And certainly our facilities department has been uh very system. Yeah. Just Commissioner Bergstrom,
my my memory serves me. This was all for half the month. We talked about January. It seems like it's been going on forever, but uh but we did not pull the trigger trigger until we knew when the contract I wanted to possible. We want to keep everybody in the building as long as possible. We can keep doing this this uh tour, you know, and then never think we might be doing That's right. Well, actually, I think we should keep this up. I think it's a good thing. Anyway, so uh one
item that I I have for the county administrator is um I am very pleased with the agreements that we signed off on in the consent agenda regarding Children's Cove. Uh Children's Cove, I think has uh not only done an incredible job in delivering the services that they provide here in Barnstable County, but also in terms of networking with the island. Yes. And uh it's important to note that they they also they're doing this, but there's money involved. There's dollars that come to
help cover that service. So it's not like we are because there there has been this impression out there that somehow uh we're providing services to the island and that somehow it's Barnstable County dollars. And I think it's safe to say that Stacy and her team at the Children's Scope, they do an outstanding job to make sure that those relationships are properly funded and supported. And uh I just wanted to give uh Michael a chance to comment on on that because uh I I I've been
saying privately how impressed I am and how much I appreciate the hard work that has gone into this. um and because because we've heard from some circles that there's been a little bit of static on some of the great work that they're doing. So, can you comment? I will. Uh Stacy and her team have done a great job uh on two fronts. Well, many fronts, but uh two in particular. One is uh securing grant funding from the state. So most of the grants if not all of the grants that come in uh certainly from uh the state of Massachusetts are for the Cape and Islands and that is true with
the many uh many of our departments uh uh across the county but in particular uh Children's Cove does does a great job incorporating the islands. The state gives this money on a regional basis not particular to Barnesville County. So we have an obligation to spread our services uh in this case to the two islands. Um so that's on the one hand. On the other hand, Stacy has also done a great job securing uh space in both uh on Nantucket and Arthur's Vineyard and uh and that
space is provided at at no cost to us, no cost to the program, no cost to Children's Cove. Um, and what you approved, uh, as well as acceptance of some of the grants today, uh, what you approved, uh, were basically three-year agreements at no cost, uh, for the space, uh, that Children's Cove uses when staff goes over to the islands to provide the services. up there. So, uh good a good u good all around both on the on the funding level and also curbing and making as efficient as
possible revenue and expenses making the program as efficient as possible. That's great. Thanks, Mike. Any questions at all on any of that? Is there support from the district attorney's office? Uh certainly cooperation right attorney's office and they have the legal and um law enforcement bola but no I think if you if you follow uh you know their efforts to try to get funding for a lot of the programs they're trying to do it's a challenge. So so the fact that Children's Cove does get the funding it gets is is helpful. In fact, uh Stacy emailed this morning. I think she's
still on vacation, but she emailed this morning to say uh that another grant uh through the state has actually uh gotten increased funding uh which offsets a little bit of more than offsets a little bit of a loss in some of the some of the other grant funding. Great. That's interesting. That's great. That's good. Um the only other question I had for Michael is that on our list of regional services um first of all I'm I'm very pleased that we have this I am very pleased we have this
very team team Barnstable and I'm going to make coffee for pulling this together. Yeah. Well, Michael also has some extras here too. Yeah. Um, but the it's important to just again emphasize as we talked about during our meeting here with the Bourne Select Board that the importance of engaging now a dialogue with our municipal officials and our municipal partners to make sure that there's a common understanding of the things that we're doing. There may be things that we do that they don't take advantage of, right? Um, on the other hand, there are things that we do do
that they think uh we need to expand. I mentioned before procurement and then obviously today in the discussion uh about dredging there there was a lot it was a very healthy productive discussion. Did we put on here the regional housing services? Uh we did. We did. Where did we put that? It's uh under the county commissioner's office. Uh second item. Oh, bingo. Shared services. Yes. Bingo. Okay. Well, I'm glad we're doing this and we have this. I think it's very important for our ongoing discussions with the towns. Um, are there any other administrator or staff reports? Michael,
no. Um, that is all I have for right now. Okay, great. Next item is 14. Um, Mr. Chair, I move that we adjourn. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. It carries unanimously. And it is 12:59. We are adjourned.