Uh I want to call uh our meeting of the Barnstable County Commissioners to order. Uh today is December 17th, 2025 and the time is 10:05. We have a quorum and uh before we go through our agenda here, I'm just going to read this uh preliminary notice and it reads as follows. This meeting of the Barsville County Commissioners will be conducted via both in person and remote meetings in accordance with applicable law. Persons wishing to participate may do so
either in person or by accessing the meeting via Microsoft Teams. For instructions on how to join the meeting remotely, please refer to the meeting agenda that is found on the Barnstable County website under the meeting center menu. Please use the team's quote raise hand feature uh to be acknowledged uh when the public participation is required by law or it's allowed by the chair. So, our meeting we are now uh in business and I'm going to
ask everyone to join the board in a pledge of allegiance to the flag to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And now I'd like to ask everyone to join us in a brief 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. Okay, the next item on our agenda is the public comment section. And I'm looking out in the audience and uh do I see I see a hand raised for public comment. Please stand and uh introduce yourself. Sure. My name is Eric Schwab from Baral Hyus. Uh I'm the administrator for Barful Unofficial, which has now 100,000 readers. And we typically talk about zoning issues
uh and the subject of 40B has come up most recently uh particularly the actions of the Haritch Select Board uh which voted unanimously last week uh to request a discretionary referral uh to the Cape Cod Commission. There are concerns that the Pine Oaks Village 4 is too large to be sustainable. There are concerns about the wastewater and as we were chatting uh concerns about traffic. Uh it's a little too much. It's the fourth in a series of buildings. Uh and
this last building is five times the previous. So they've gone from 40 50 units to 240. And that's a quantum leap that is just not sustainable in the views of the community. She good morning. Thank you. I'm sorry. No problem at all. Very touched. Thank you. Hello. Just to reiterate, my name is Eric Schwab. How do you do? How you do? Thank you for your comments the other day in support of
uis. That was very brave. We appreciate it. Well, I mean, it wasn't I didn't let go of it there, but I wasn't going to battle it out on Facebook. I totally understand. Right. Uh, so I'm here uh today speaking on behalf of Harriidge. Uh the select board uh recently voted uh unanimously to refer PV board pine village board uh back to the Cape Cod Commission. Uh they've requested a discretionary referral. Uh Commissioner Forest uh mentioned that there are potentially legal
constraints uh and that there might be some confusion. And so what we were hoping to accomplish today was just have you talk about what your concerns are and what you feel the commission can do uh to assist the residents of Haritch in having uh the Cape Cod Commission take a second look at that proposal and perhaps offer some guidance uh more than just an advisory letter, more than just as a bystander, but as uh we ask that you exercise your full authority
uh over projects of regional impact. I mean, you were chartered, rather the Cape Cod Commission was chartered specifically to handle regional impacts and we feel this project's just too much and it's right in the center of the Cape and it's going to impact an enormous area. uh if anything is a regional impact, that project has a regional impact and uh we would appreciate greatly if you could just explain your position and uh most importantly uh we would like to ask you to use your position to influence the Cape Cod Commission uh and ask them to take it up.
So as you know we can't really respond to public comment but I was later in um open business or to put on the agenda for future business. Now I won't be chair for commissioner farest will be but I know that we have actually looked at this property and we understand your concerns. So um we we will I'm going to I'm going to suggest this for a future uh topic. doesn't mean that we're going
to wait until then to actually have conversations and that sort of thing, but um with the with the appropriate party or I will we will individually, but um we do hear you and uh I think that you know it's just not that one project. There's a lot of these happening all of a sudden at once and um it is only so big and I've heard it expressed in many places and how much is enough. So that's about us. I probably already overwent what I should say. Just Yeah. Um, hi. I'm I'm both a
member of the board of commissioners and also sit on the Cape Cod Commission as our representative. We were very well your concerns. We've gotten your emails and understand it and I have looked into it as we have already. So, I'm not going to go over what we've said already. Personally, I'm not a big fan of 40B. I mean, I think it's time that's come and gone, but we we will work we will work when in in responding to citizens requests, we work within whatever authority we have, right? We'll
do what we can. Well, we certainly appreciate your concern and like to suggest perhaps uh a traveling road show. Yes. You can start in Yes. And we will we will be hearing so we'll want to hear those voices and um we appreciate them. Great. We'll app be sure to fill the room for you. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you so much. Yeah, I think you get a sense Eric that the board's interested in Yeah, we topic. So, thank you for coming. Thank you very much. You may just want to uh check that there is any other anybody else raise your hand. I
guess not. Okay, you might put that word out, though. Okay. Okay. Well, that was good. Um, that was public comments. So, now we're going to go on to the And my apologies for being a few minutes late. I got stuck. Um, approval of the meeting minutes, please. Madam Chair, I uh move to approve the regular meeting minutes of December 3rd, 2025. And I will second it. All right. All in favor? Hi. Hi. Moving on to general business. We are having a update on
uh from our public health department. Come right up and introduce yourself please. Hi everybody. I'm Echer Cattle. I'm the uh new extension entomologist at Cape Cod Cooperative Extension. It's very nice to meet you that you were on board. So glad to have you. Thank you. Uh, I'm going to go ahead and give uh Leah Hamner a choice a chance to say hello as well. Good morning. Leah Hamner, contract epidemiologist with the Barnesville County
Department of Health and Environment. Nice to meet you, Leah. Thank you for being here. We have a hand raised from Oh, does someone have their hand raised? And SB, we might have to revert back to public comment for a minute. Is there somebody we missed? SB, could you identify yourself and unmute? Yes, thank you. I uh Steven Buckley from Chattam. I couldn't quite locate the raise hand button. I appreciate you taking my time taking the time to go back. I'll only be a
few seconds, I hope. Um I want along the lines of the same uh as the previous public commenter. Uh, I want to request that the uh board um use its authority to request that the commission do a uh ERRI review of the Canal Bridges project which I think would yes trump almost any project in the next hundred years. And um and without uh without getting into material part of it,
um I just wanted to say that the uh uh executive director uh has indicated to um I believe the um commission Cape Cod commissioners that the uh DRRI is not required andor has been overridden or to the effect that they're not going to do a DRRI for the canal bridge. just because the state government says they don't have to or or or are not allowed to. It's not quite clear. So anyway,
I would like that to be an agenda item because I think the public should understand why a regional perspective uh is not going to be included uh along with the federal and state impact statements. Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay, now we can move on. Yes. Thank you for indulging our person from Mr. Beckley. Not a problem. I'm going to go ahead and get the presentation set up.
So today we are going to be discussing the Lonear tick and and their their cousins. The alpha gals. You'll explain that to us. All right. Pretty ominous. Sounds like something that's over in Mat's vineyard. Well, we will talk about it. Okay. Morning commissioners. Like I said, I'm cattle and I'm an entomologist working at Cape Cod Cooperative Extension. I'm here with Leah Hamner in public health for a collaboration between our two offices. We want to convey some
important information about Lonear Tech and Alpha Gal Syndrome to the commissioners, but also to the residents of Barnstable County. Uh from my side of the presentation, we'll talk about what happens before the bite, mainly information about the lonear tick itself. I'm going to assume a certain amount of familiarity with ticks coming in. Uh different species of ticks can spread different diseases. And out here on the Cape Islands, they're a long-standing and year- round problem. I'm sure you know about deer ticks and dog ticks by now, but I'd like to talk to you today about a
third species of tick that showed up a little more recently, which is the Lonear tick. The lone star tick or turkey tick is a round orange brown tick named for the distinct white spot on the back of the adult female you can see in the middle here. While it's been found in Texas, its range pretty much spans the eastern side of the United States from Florida to Maine and out west to Nebraska. Unlike other ticks that we know on the Cape, Lonear tick is a more generalist blood feeder. It can feed on a very wide range of animals from white-tailed deer to wild turkeys
to domestic animals like cows and dogs down to smaller mammals like apossums and rabbits and of course people. As I said, Lonear ticks range spans most of the eastern United States, but has expanded to the north in the last 15 or more years due to host and habitat availability. My predecessor, Larry Dapsis, first received and confirmed reports of lonear tick in Barnstable County in 2012, finding already well established populations at Sandy Neck Beach Park. Now in 2025, according to tick expert Dr. Steven Rich from UMass Amherst, Lonear tick can be found all along
Cape all the way out to Ptown. This coming year, I'm hoping through sampling we can get a better picture of Lonear tick population densities across Barnstable County. Uh, Lunster ticks live for a couple of years in good conditions, but they're not out and active right right now. They survive the winter by going into diipause, which slows down their metabolisms and allows them to go without feeding or moving around as much. However, as you can see here on this graphic, the Martha's Vineyard Tech program is put together. Once the weather warms up, coincident coincidentally, as
we start seeing tourists coming in, lonear ticks become active again and peak in the summer months. At this point, I'd like to talk a bit about Lonear ticks behavior. Compared to deer and dog ticks, lonear ticks are super tick. They're strong, they're fast, and they're aggressive. Lonear ticks are more robust and resistant to the kinds of conditions that kill other ticks. As opposed to being stuck in shady forest edges and tall grasses, Lonear ticks can survive in drier and hotter conditions like maintained lawns and gardens. Uh, larger stages of lonear tick can
follow you around once they sense you. Uh they're able to chase hosts up to 20 feet. And unlike our other endemic blood feeding ticks, they can be dangerous to humans straight from the earliest laral stage. So I'm going to show you a quick video to illustrate what we call a tick bomb. And while it's playing, I also have Oh no, I forgot my laminated sheet. Uh Martha's Vineyard Tick Project gave me a laminated sheet of a tick bomb to show you, but I sadly left it in my office. Uh, so this is hundreds of load star tick in the laral stage, only about the size of a poppy seed,
waiting on a blade of tall grass for something to brush by them. It's going to take a minute, but it's important that we watch the whole video so that you can get a good look. In the beginning, you could see all their little front legs. It was called questing behavior. Uh, they were waiting for something to grab onto, and you can see how they immediately dropped off that grass onto the metal clipboard and started spreading very quickly. Uh, that's hundreds of tiny ticks that could result in hundreds of bites. Bites that are more painful and itchy and last longer than those by deer and dog ticks.
Nasty, nasty picture. So, I know I've given you a bunch of bad news just now and you're probably a little worried or scared. But before I hand things over to Leah, I'd like to tell you some good news. The same personal protection strategies that you can use against bites from other ticks will also work to protect you from Lonear ticks. You can still enjoy outdoor activities like gardening and hiking if you follow a few simple steps before you go and after you come in from spending time outdoors. You can dress tick smart with light colored long clothing and tuck your clothes in so that it's difficult for ticks to get under them onto your skin. Leggings or joggers over
socks also work for the more fashion conscious. You want kind of a tight elastic band over your ankle so that ticks can't get in. They're known to stop at that kind of restriction. Uh you can wear skin safe repellent like off or picaridin over any skin that's left exposed. But the best recommendation is to also treat your outdoor clothes and and shoes with peromethine, a human-safe compound known to stop and kill ticks that come into contact with it. When you're ready to come in, you can take off any hitchhikers you see on your clothes
with tape or a lint roller and put your clothes in the wash as soon as you get inside and let them dry on high heat. Taking a shower in the first two hours after you come in can also help you find and remove any ticks remaining on the crevices of your skin. You can check out our resources for more tics on avoiding and preventing tick bites. But for now, I want to hand it over to Leah to talk about what comes after the bite. Thank you very much, Usher, and thank you commissioners for giving us some time this morning to talk about both Lonear tick and the human health risks that they pose.
This picture in this slide is an illustration of what the Lone Star Larville tick bomb looks like when they actually bite. Uh, a lot of folks don't actually see the ticks biting them. They are so incredibly small and they're also a lighter color brown, so it's actually quite hard to see them. Um, so this is why personal protection is so so essential to prevent the bite before it even happens. prevent the ticks from getting to your skin before it even happens because they are so small. These bites are very itchy. They last for
weeks and so if they cause nothing else, they're going to cause misery just by being itchy bites. Next slide, please. That person looks like they're going to be very sick. So, Alpha Gal syndrome is something that you might have seen in the news a lot lately. It's getting increasing coverage. Uh, alpha gal refers to a molecule. So, it is not just a girl boss syndrome. I like to joke. It is actually referring to the molecule alpha or galactose alpha13 galactose. If you could usher,
click next. Um, it's a carbohydrate molecule and it is a molecule that's actually present in all mammals except for humans and uh old world primates like orangutans and chimpanzees. So, it's in mammals that we eat, mammals that we pet, mammals that are in our medicine. Um, and we'll talk about where these different um exposures can come from. Next, please. And the syndrome part of this refers to the fact that it is an allergy,
not an infection. There's no infectious disease process happening, which is why the babies, the larvae can cause alpha gal syndrome. And the syndrome itself has a wide range of symptoms that appear 2 to 8 hours later which I will explain next. So the classic symptoms of alpha gal syndromes uh first of all usually it they show up 2 to 8 hours. The timing is very important with alpha gal syndrome and actually very problematic with alpha gal syndrome. So after eating and after drinking 2 to eight hours later people are reacting. Um for
some f some types of exposures like inhaling or injecting in medications it can be faster but usually it's a delayed response and so symptoms can look like skin symptoms like hives, rashes or itching. It can also look like swelling symptoms. Folks with alpha gal syndrome sometimes have a unique kind of presentation where the palms of their hands and the soles of their feet get very red, itchy and swell. um their lips, throat or tongue can also swell and their eyelids. Breathing and cardiac problems are of course more concerning uh and so that can include cough,
wheezing, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing and cardiac symptoms of a drop in blood pressure, dizziness or faintness. I have a star on a group of symptoms, gastrointestinal symptoms, because some folks exclusively have gastrointestinal symptoms of abdominal pain, diarrhea, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, heartburn, and indigestion. Some people um usually we eat our largest portion of meat or mamalian food at night. Um a steak, a hamburger,
a pork chop, a bowl of ice cream. And so sometimes it really helps people identify what their symptoms are from with the PSA kind of terminology of the midnight allergy. We often call alpha gal syndrome the midnight allergy because people will wake up in the middle of the night after dinner having these new symptoms and not understand why they're happening. Um, the gastrointestinal symptoms can feel like food poisoning at first, but then it keeps happening in the middle of the night. And and these reactions can vary person to person,
but they can also vary within the same person. The reactions can change over time involve multiple systems. Actually being in consistently inconsistent is actually kind of a hallmark of alpha gal syndrome, which is very frustrating for patients and providers alike. Next slide, please. So, alpha gal wouldn't be nearly as problematic if it was easily spotted. Obviously, a stake you can tell. Um, and really that is the common denominator is that to have alpha gal syndrome,
you must react to some form of mamalian meat. However, there's alphagal in so many more things than that. And so, depending on how sensitive you are in your allergy, it can also involve dairy. It can also involve crosscontamination from a grill that cooks chicken that previously cooked a steak. It for some folks they cannot even be around a grill. They cannot inhale the cooking fumes of cooking meat that causes them to react. Uh these are less and less common as I go. By the way,
some people react to leather and even touching uh mamalian products or animals. on there's untold lab numbers of mamalian products in beauty supplies. And what I argue is honestly incredibly problematic is is reaction to medications. Some people can't take their gelatin capsules. Some people also don't even know what's in their medicines because who reads medicine labeling for mamalian products? Um there are services like pill clarity that will help patients figure out
if mam products are in their medicines and find safer products. But this is a pretty uh troubling development. Next slide. So to recap, Alpha Gal syndrome because it is really completely different than anything we've ever dealt with before. First, we have a tick bite. In the United States, it's from the Lone Star tick. Internationally, it's other ticks. Tick bite happens. We don't know how long the tick needs to be biting you to cause this syndrome. Weeks to months later, you're then consuming some sort of mamalian containing product. And then hours after that consumption
you react and that's how alpha gal syndrome works. Next slide please. And who has alpha gal syndrome? Turns out a lot of people have alphagal syndrome. It was only medically discovered and characterized in 2009 and it was only linked to tick bites in 2011. So in medical history it's a fairly newly discovered um condition. But since then, uh, nearly half a million Americans are estimated to be living with alphagal syndrome. Um, especially where more lonear ticks are found. So you can see
the red on this map is in these South Atlantic states. That's where Lonear territory has been traditionally, but it stretches as far up to us. Next slide, please. And I want to talk to you specifically about Martha's Vineyard. I also work for Martha's Vineyard. And Alpha Gal syndrome has hit us like a sack of bricks. Lone Star Tick has hit us like a sack of bricks. Um, and so this is what testing has looked like on Martha's Vineyard. It went from relative obscurity in 2020 to a huge amount of tests run this year to date. Over 1,600 tests run in gray bars. Those are total tests
performed. And then pink are the total number of positive tests. And that is an exponential increase. We do not want to see exponential increases in anything. And so an exponential curve is very bad news. Next slide, please. Now, with testing data, I do want to preface because the Martha's Vineyard data is making the rounds. It was in the New York Times. It was in the Times of London. It's been on uh national news. However, something I want to just make very clear for both the commissioners and anyone listening on this presentation is that a positive test on its own
with no symptoms does not equal allergy. allergy. There's no such thing as an asymptomatic allergy. You have to have some sort of symptoms. That is what the allergic response is. And so people who test positive, which I was showing you in that last chart, number of positive tests is one piece of the puzzle. And then we need to figure out and this is the next level of investigation and project that needs to be pursued is of those people how many have allergic symptoms. Now, on Martha's Vineyard, we have actually a back of the napkin idea because there was only one
allergist on the whole island who actually recently retired in October, but he actively had 400 patients he was seeing for Alpha Gal syndrome in a community that's only 20,000 people, which is a huge amount of people experiencing Alpha Gal syndrome symptoms. Next slide, please. Now, this is also a really new thing again in medicine. And we've talked about this and and really healthcare provider education is the front lines of really making sure that we're meeting the
needs of our community because our physicians need to be aware. This data in front of you is from 2023 when the CDC did a survey and found that by and far the majority of providers had never even heard of alpha gal syndrome. 78% of healthc care providers at that time 2 years ago knew little to nothing about alphagal syndrome even though it is now the 10th most common food allergen that I'm sure if we repeated this information in this survey again that would be very different because
there's been so much coverage about alpha gal syndrome in the press as well as to healthcare providers but there's still a lot more to do and so I have the next slide for you about our plan of action we do have a Barnesville county tickborn disease advisory group. I've been largely spearheading our meetings in the last 2 years and healthcare provider education has been a big part of that kind of brainstorming and purview. So, we're going to continue to pursue healthcare provider education and outreach as well as community outreach and education on lonear
ticks now syndrome. We have a shared library of resources already with editable handouts, presentations, and materials. And we do have a strong partnership and we will continue to have a strong partnership with the center of excellence out of University of Massachusetts. And also planned for 2026 is a month-to-month week-toeek communication calendar based on the seasonality of ticks, diseases, and allergies so that we're communicating with our community before the bite, during the risk, and after the bite so that we're helping people understand what they
need to be on the lookout for and how to protect themselves. And so with that, we are going to end by saying that we do have a live website already. Uh we have gotten great feedback on our website already. Uh it was launched in spring this year, capecod.gov/tickprevention. Please check it out. We will continue to be adding to it, but so far people have found it very useful. And with that, I will conclude. Thank you. Thank you. This is scary stuff. So there isn't any antibiotic or any treatment as of now. Correct. Because it's an allergy,
it is not treated with antibiotics and there is no allergy treatment that is known to be successful. Actually, thank you for asking that question because for some people the allergy can go away in usually the matter of years like two to three to five years. key to it going away and having a chance to have it go away is not getting more tick bites. That's really important, right? Um now, correct me if somebody gets a tick bite, a deer tick bite, and they go to the doctor,
they're usually administered some sort of antibiotic for a month, and that seems to work, but there isn't such a thing to ward off any. So really the biggest um side effect of having a bite not only is it itchy and that sort of thing but it's this allergy that you get that's whereas in deer tick people will associate aches pains different other symptoms do they does
the lonear also give those in addition do we know lonear carries also other infectious diseases too um including bacterial ial infectious diseases and viral infectious diseases. Um, and so there's the possibility that someone can get an infectious disease from a lone star tick bite as well. Alpha gal syndrome again being an allergy and not an infectious disease has a different set of symptoms and so it won't look like what people are used to the aches and pains of Lyme disease perhaps. Um,
you won't have a fever, you won't have signs of infection because it's it's an allergy and so it does look different. And so that shifts a lot of our uh kind of preparedness and and collective um recognition of what could be caused by a tick. However, this is certainly something that I the whole point of this uh presentation is to launch our beginning campaign of awareness on really alpha gal syndrome on Cape Cod. Uh because there are certainly folks experiencing these tick
bites. When I was in Brewster over Labor Day weekend, I walked behind a gentleman who said, "I had these miserable bites all over my ankles. I thought they were like [ __ ] bites." He blamed chiggers. I didn't see an opening, but I was like, I bet those are lonear larvae. I bet they are, right? Yeah, they're I look back, although I haven't had any trouble with me. But I look back, I'm thinking back of the different itches and different little uh bites that I've gotten over because they love me. Um, and I also had a friend who had a dog that got
very, very sick for a year. We thought we were going to lose that dog, but the dog did rebound finally, but it was a long year and miserable miserable um to watch. I would also say that the lonear ticks are certainly a threat to pets as well. And so it's important to talk to your veterinarian about the best way to protect them against ticks. Um, but the lone stars, they are aggressive and they will they will bite dogs as much as they will bite humans. Does anybody have any questions? No. Um, I think Ron Ron died. Yeah. You know, if if if one gets bitten by a deer tick,
you can send it off to the lab and they'll tell you whether that deer tick is is infected with Lyme disease. But you're saying what you're telling me is that all the Lonear ticks are capable of of transmitting this this allergy. Yes. And you can and you can still send in your Lonear tick to figure out if it has infectious diseases. Like that might still be worthwhile for you. You might decide. Uh but the alpha gal syndrome part, no one's going to test for that because that's nent to the tick. The tick has this molecule in their saliva at all stages. It's our
bodies that decide this is foreign or not. Some people don't get alpha gal syndrome from a lone star bite. Some people do. It's really your immune system deciding whether or not this is a foreign invader and creating an allergic response or not. Yeah. You know, with Lyme disease, there seem to have been an argument for many years among various entomologists as to that, you know, how how how it transmitted the disease. Some people say that it was exaggerated. Some people say it wasn't. In other words, how long the s how long the symptoms last? I have a nephew
who you know he's 30, but he was diagnosed with Lyme disease when he was 18. And they say, well, is this a continuing of the Lyme disease? And you know, it took it seems to me it takes a while. It took a while for the scientists to get a handle on what the effects of this is and how long it takes. And I wonder what the status of the understanding of this particular disease is right now. I mean, do you feel you have a good handle on it and and as as to how it affects, you know,
how many people it will affect and how long it you know, I know you've given us good information, but do you really feel confident that you have a handle on this right now? No, thank you for that question, Commissioner. Actually, it's still very much so an active uh area of science. There's a lot of questions still to be answered and uh more resources from both the federal government and state governments are being directed to resolving those questions. For example, as I said, we don't really know who is actually going to become allergic. You could get a lonear tickbite.
I could get a lonear tick bite. who actually ends up developing alpha gal syndrome and why is still a mechanistically orally understood problem. There's a couple hypotheses but there's not a clear picture to be able to predict who is going to become the allergic person. So that's very much so under investigation. Um also being able to identify who's most likely to get over their alpha gal syndrome. There's people who do not and so there's people who have to live with this for the rest of their lives and it is life-changing for people. Um there's definitely folks who do
get over it, but we don't understand why. So there's a lot of still um investigation to be done. I talked to one of the alpha gal experts of the United States often. Um his name is Dr. Scott Cumins. He's out of University of North Carolina and there's still much to be pursued. Uh and I'm happy to keep the commissioners a breast of the information as I get it. Yeah. Do you think I mean it sounds like it might be a genetic predisposition to getting this this allergy or you know that it is certainly possible. Um they're definitely looking at different components. That's
going to take a great epidemiology study and a research study to really follow people over time. It's called a prospective cohort study to really figure out what at the molecular level is happening. And that's the kind of study that Scott Cumins works on. And so yes, that that still needs to be figured out. Thank you. So I I do have one other final question. Um so say I have this syndrome and I eat a steak, I get sick. Is that is that how it works? Like you have an allergic
reaction for most folks. So again the common denominator exposure the most frequent reactive food is like mamalian meat. So when people uh with alpha gal syndrome eat mamalian meat usually 2 to 8 hours later they have some sort of reaction. And now that can be also exacerbated by things like exercise and alcohol things that make you vaso dilate and make that food uptake into your system
happen more quickly. Um and so there's there's different pieces of alphaagal syndrome and I I do want to be respectful of time but yes there's um variability in people's reactions but the most common denominator is mamalian meat itself and then it can also include dairy or trace exposures as well. Yeah quick just a quick question then we got to move on. We're at the northern end of northern end of the range of this this particular organism. Yes. Is it is it sensitive to climate?
In other words, can we predict and say, "Oh, we had a bad winter this winter. Chances are there'll be fewer ticks or so on." Or do we not know have that information yet? Asher, do you want to take that question? I can guess, but I'm not the entomologist. Okay, let's see what you got. Sure. I mean, I I talk about it often and I work with another entomologist, too. So, I'm going to do my best here. Um, so really in terms of their hardiness in winter, I do think that that has yet to be tested. Um, we, for example, on Martha's Vineyard,
we have winters very similar to Cape Cod. So if you're thinking about is Cape Cod protected, I would not bet that you are um because Vineyard is considering is seeing an explosion of Lonear tick and they've consistently seen an explosion of the population across the whole island, all six towns in suburbia as well as in rural for the last 15 years. So I would not necessarily count Cape Cod safe as Maine safe maybe. Right. Okay. Yeah, we still have more research to do about the edge
of the range and their hardiness to cold climates. Uh, but we do know that they are hardy to heat and dryness. So, like just because you're doing regular uh maintenance of your lawn, it doesn't mean that lonear ticks aren't going to be on it. Right. Well, this is a lot of information. I have been curious about this not only because there are a lot of ticks around and we're usually in the woods and um and you know my friend with this dog it was uh pretty scary. It was a great dog and
um just get this word out to all those doctor's offices and clinics and libraries or wherever else. But um whatever we have we'll try to make sure we get out there. But it is something that people really have to be aware of and know that if they get these symptoms, they might associate um their visit to the doctor, you know, and be able to bring that forward. So indeed, thank you both of you so much for this work. It is so important and uh another great thing that government can do and help people with and help them navigate. So um again, very nice to meet you. Welcome aboard
and very good to meet you, Leah, and we look forward to seeing you again. and hopefully we'll be talking more positively with some sort of uh remedy for our Thank you for the time. Thank you much for your time. Very much for your brief sir. Okay. Uh now we are going to have a presentation on the fiscal year 2025 annual report by our stellar communications coordinator Sonia Cheesley.
I know you're hiding behind questions. Okay, let me share my screen. And there it is. There it is. All right. Okay. So, for the record, my name is Sonia Sheesley,
communications manager for the county. So, I'm here to introduce again the the annual report, the FY25 annual report, which is now complete, publicly available on capecod.gov. The report, like all of our reports, is a singular document that is um an accessible record of the multitude of ways that the county serves our region. Um that photograph that you have there on the screen,
um yeah, I'm going to tell you about that. That is the Chattam Lighthouse in Stage Harbor. I've been there. It hasn't changed any since 1935. Is that so that you go there regularly, Brian? I I don't I was in there twice in 50 years, but I remember it very vaguely and it's a it's an iconic shot, you know, like that that it is. So, I'll tell you something else about that photograph that actually is uh was taken by our assets and infrastructure manager um Paul Rousala. Oh,
so he's a he's an amateur photographer and so we decided that was just such a captivating photo. It is amazing. And he caught that sky. You can catch the sky now with these cameras. Yeah, he's really good with night photography. So, he showed me several photos and there are others of his um in our uh administration section in the commissioner section. Did you do a little photo gallery? Yeah. Yeah. So, thank you to Paul for for that photo and the other photos. Yes,
he does. Of course. Yep. So this report actually it's um it's about 200 I think 250 pages long. It marks the arrival of our new county not new anymore but new then county administrator Michael Dutton who came as you know in September 2024. He includes his message on page 12. just going to go to that which was so his message touches upon um many different county activities including our
role in sustainability, water quality, much more and of course the county's evolving role in in our regional problem solving uh as a regional problem solver and convenor. Um, some other highlights that we see in the report. I'm just gonna click back to the beginning here. More people will look at the picture than the report. Right. Was that Paul's picture as well of the uh uh I don't think so, but there are other ones so I can send you some of my Yeah, we always need we always need
good photos. But uh some of the uh highlights that we see in this report is of course the transition um of other leadership. We thank Sean O'Brien for his many many years of service and then we welcome welcome Jay Gardner who came on as our new health director. And just to give you a few snippets I don't usually do this but um there are so many interesting things. I mean the annual report people joke no one reads it but there are just so many interesting things that we see that the county does. Um uh Children's Cove actually um re received 278 referrals in FY25. That's a 74%
increase in cases. Um in FY25, the water quality lab became um mass DP certified to test drinking water for PAS. They analyzed 160 um PAS drinking water samples and overall they they tested uh more than 20,000 samples and conducted 38 tests. Um, and the cooperative extension secured new grant funding to expand local food access. They distributed 3.5 million cohog seed and more than
1.3 million oyster seed, really strengthening our shellfish industry. Americanore, they responded to 15 uh marine mammal strandings. I think it was like something like 62 total animals that they saved. Mhm. Of course, they supported disaster preparedness, conservation, education across the region. And during FY25, that's when they reached 1 million service hours um since 1999. And the
dredge completed 12 projects in eight towns. They removed more than 81,000 cubic yards of material. Uh of course, supporting navigation, but also strengthening coastal resilience on the Cape. Human Services managed more than five million in grants and continued their shared regional housing services pilot that serves all 15 towns. And just a couple more couple more, our fire training division at the Cape Cod Center for Public Safety trained um 595 uh students um at fire stations.
They delivering hands-on training. That's across the Cape. And in the annual report also we uh finance actually um gave me some very nice graphs this year. So we introduce more accessible financial graphs and visuals. So of course that makes budget and revenue and expenditure data much more accessible. And then I just wanted to quickly touch on some communications which I included in the administration section. So, you'll see in this report that um bless you. Bless you.
Capecod.gov um saw strong year-over-year growth. We have a lot more users. The data is in there. We're accessing a lot more people. Uh of course, we sent out 12 newsletters from the commissioner's office. Always reaching, you know, we have 45,000 contacts plus. Always growing. Um, our open click rate is far above industry standards, which is good. And now we're going to be sending out more newsletters. Um, something I did differently this year in the in the annual report was I listed out
all of our press releases that we sent out from the commissioner's meetings. So, it it's a nice snapshot of the many things that we're doing that show up obviously in the commissioner's meetings. I think I think by doing that, it also it's it's a great resource for staff, too. Oh, absolutely. I I would bet that we have staff that will access that on a regular basis just to Yeah. reflect on do some research in terms of what we've been what we've done. Absolutely. That I I I I think it's a great idea. We can have it for that too. Go back on those things. Absolutely. And also
remember Oh, go ahead. I'm sorry. No, finish your thought. I was just going to say that it's always um easy to access all of our press releases from our navigation bar on the website. So, there's a couple different ways you can do it, but the list just from the commissioner's office. I've learned through from throughout my career in government that having good external communications and and access by staff enhances internal communications. Yes. You know, and that's always our challenge.
We're so busy with all our departments. So many good things going on or interesting things going on. So our biggest challenge in any organization like this for the right hand and the left hand to know what everyone's up to. So being able to access this information is incredibly important from from a management point of view. Sometimes you're also um you know we like to think that everybody knows everybody, but the reality is in some cases, many cases they don't, right? And so it's also a way to better understand what our colleagues are doing and who they are and what
they're working on. So yeah, I think for a variety of reasons doing that is incredibly important. It has an external benefit which is obviously the purpose of it but it has a huge internal benefit that's often overlooked and it's also you know we have to always remember that even though uh we're growing and some people are living here you know year round more there is a transient nature to this to and there's always new people people leaving and new people coming in that have no idea that there's a county here. So always having to re-educate and try to reach out to people who have
no idea. And the more they look, the more they see um what what is available to help them navigate another issue. So yeah, the other question I was going to have, do we do any of these in print anymore? We don't. A few years ago, I can't remember how many, maybe it was four. Yeah, maybe four or five years ago, we stopped. Um but we can print on demand. actually this this report if you look down here um if you I can't do it from if you click on this the three yeah this little
ellipses here it's not working for me but anyway if you click on that then it will give you the ability to download the whole document or per or like by page gives you a lot of different options and in different formats um but yes um and I was just going to mention also that accessibility remains a really big issue and really important for us to to make sure that this is accessible. So this format that I'm using um you can view it in different um it's f flexible and like how you can view the text. Um and of course like I said you can download it. Um Ian, can you get a shot
of the report on the u on this so people can see it? We can see it but I think is the TV audience seeing that. Yeah, they can see it. Okay. And that's pretty much it in terms of promotion. How I manage promotion every year when I release this is I'll link it to today's press release. Um I'll send it out in the next newsletter. It's going to be featured on capecod.gov in the news feed and I'll share it on social media. Um sometimes I do I did this last year um and I can do this again.
I make a short video um and send it out to the local access TV stations and sometimes they like to get some content just to promote something like this. So, no, it looks great and I can't wait to open it up and look through all those pages and see I think we need updates on photos and sort of that sort of thing. Yes. But, um it is what it is for now and uh I'm sure it's great. So, thank you for all of your work of course. Thank you. And uh getting us getting the the good news,
spreading the good news. And I should probably just say too, thank you to all the departments and all the staff that contributed content, photos, and everything because this is a team effort. This is not just my work. Everybody does this. You wouldn't be able to do it if they didn't. My suspicion is you've been chasing people around nagging them, probably plugging them, but they'll be happy to see once they see all their work highlighted, they'll be and the county administrator to chase people around for you and then you finally get it together. Well,
I didn't say it. I heard that. Well done. That's very nice. Thank you so much, Sonia. Sure. Okay. So, now we are moving on to proposed ordinance 25 to be named transfer of unreserved funds to the capitalization fund. Um, and I will I will handle that one. This is uh quite simple. It's just taking uh some of our unreserved funds and putting them into capital stabilization. Uh good practice. Uh as you know, we've got um north of $70 million uh worth of um uh unmet capital needs,
um existing capital needs. Um and so, uh this just is good practice all around. And we're hoping to um continue to set aside money as we have have the uh unreserved funds. uh available to do that. We discussed this at our last meeting and this was one of our recommended action items. Right. I see Carol's now here. Right. You want to take front stage here, Carol? Well, she'll be up next. She's coming up on the uh budget uh revised. Madam Chair, I move to approve the introduction
of proposed ordinance 25- named transfer of unreserved funds to the capital stabilization fund. I'll second that. All right. All in favor? I I have a quick question for Carol or Michael. What does that leave with the UN in the unreserved fund balance after we make this transfer? Do we know that one I will leave for Carol? I could give you an approximate I mean if it's you don't have it at your fingertips. It's not like I need it right now, but just curious. Um so I um completed
some analysis to determine cash flow um and necessary cash flow that the county would need. Um um so we were just under um $11 million um when we close the fiscal year in June 30th. And so this, you know, we'll subtract $4.5 million from that and that is what would be remaining. Okay. So, we're here to talk about our capital budget. Revised a revised capital budget. Is that right? No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Our employee reimbursement policy. We just did the other
capital budget, right? I'm sorry. We just Yes, capital. Nope. You're on the on capital budget revis. So, correct. All right. So, we need to have any more discussion on this. Um maybe Ver could just walk through uh why we're proposing this and what's going on uh withund Good morning. Uh Vera Herik, assistant county administrator um predominantly worked on a capital budget with assist with with Carol. Um so two uh at your last meeting two weeks ago,
you um you you approved a proposed budget uh a proposed um capital ordinance of uh 1.029 029 million and that included a project um to replace in fiscal 27 uh two boil two heating boilers here in the Spir courthouse. Um on the uh t on the chance that the boilers would survive uh in uh to the summer of you know for replacement in fiscal 27. Unfortunately, that didn't happen
and the boil uh one of them has um one of them has failed and so we need to accelerate the project uh to fiscal 26. Um funding for the project in fiscal 26und estimated $125,000 is available as a part of the uh court this overall courthouse renovation that's going on right now. um and obviously would be reimbursible. But as such, we're uh we're withdrawing the uh this this particular project uh boiler replacement from uh the ordinance for fiscal
27 capital expenditures. And therefore, we go from seven projects to six projects uh for a for now a uh proposed amount of capital spending in fiscal 27 of $94,000. Okay. So, it's basically that's going to be replaced. It's just a different It's just it's sooner than what we thought be included in the courthouse renovation rather than this this capital um appropriation. Yes. That was good news. And we've invested we've well
yeah it's we've we've made sure that the uh you know the appropriations are in place you know and and there's appears to be sufficient u sufficient funding via prior appropriations for the courthouse renovation where this would fit. If not we'll be back. Yes. I move to approve the uh madam chair I move to approve the introduction of proposed ordinance 2025 to be named later fiscal year 2027 capital budget agreement the highest second. All in favor? Bye bye. Done. Thank you. It's gonna happen anyway. Carol, come and join us. How are you? Good morning.
Good morning. How's everything? Great, thank you. Good. Um, the county has established a um an employee um expense reimbursement policy and procedures. previously. We continue to review and update those on an annual basis. Um, and so we have a few changes to this document that we would like to propose. And I can just review those changes. They're not significant at all. Um,
we have added a tip reimbursement um um up to 15% of the pre-tax charge for meals. Um we have uh and and for um taxi or ride shares as well. We've added information in um advising um folks that have a pec card as we call it, a procurement card, a purchasing card. It's you know it's it's named uh multiple different ways. Um if it restrict we have some folks that we restrict their ability to
charge certain expenses on those cards. Um and so this just clarifies um the the use of those cards for travel. That's all. Um, we clarify that mileage calculation for reimbursements calculated from the employees primary work location or home whichever results in um the lesser mileage. We remove u public transportation or taxi or ride share from the list of travel expenses that are
not eligible for to be used for the pecard. Um and then we introduced a new standard for employees to utilize for travel when um we require GSA rates adherence to GSA rates but sometimes when a conference is held at a particular location that may the hotel stay may exceed those GSA rates. Um and so we require this is just a form that the employee would complete their department head
would sign off on that approving it and then it would come to finance to approve as well. Okay. Could you say what GSA is just for the general services? Thank you. And so they set rates for all over the country and it's really state specific or even locality specific like Cape Cod would be have a very specific rate for hotel stays um things of that nature. So those are the changes that we're proposing. Have we increased the reimbursement? So GSA rates change every year, right? Um and so we
we adhere to those um typically to those rates. I mean we have some difficulty here on the Cape and we have um folks that are traveling let's say to Martha's Vineyard or something and they have to stay over. Right. that they don't meet the GSA right and we can't expect an employee to pay for this out of their pocket. But we have to have a mechanism in place where there's a pre-approval process, right? And that's what this does, right? You go. Can we work Can we work out a deal with a
hostile build? Americanore project. There you go. Yeah. And Americanore. Do the mileage. Do they adjust the mileage rate every year? We adjust We adhere to IRS um standards on mileage rates which change every year. Has that been anniscal year or is it the calendar year? Calendar year. So, it will change January 1. It will change January. I don't know off the top of my head what it's going to be. I'm sure it's already Anyway. Okay. Any other questions? No, concerns. Nothing. Okay. Have
a motion. I move to approve the updated employment reimbursement policy as presented. All in favor? I. Thank you. There's anything else on your mind there, Carol? No. Okay. Thank you. All right. So, now we are um going to discuss authorizing a draft letter in opposition to Massachusetts House Bill 3971 directing a study on the feasibility of placing registries of deeds for county
governments that have not been abolished under the oversight of the Secretary of Commonwealth. So, someone explain this is to us. So, Madam Chair, the um this this uh bill was filed uh some months ago and it came to our attention uh through uh some of the work that we do with our neighboring uh counties. And uh House Bill 3971 uh essentially would create a study committee uh with the objective of transferring the registry of deeds uh that are still operated under county government,
the few that are operated under county government uh to operate under the secretary of state um state's purview and um and so the letter the draft letter that you have simply uh opposes that uh that and opposes the um the adoption of H3. 3971 um for a number of reasons, but uh but essentially uh the letter points out that we've operated uh as a county government since uh the late 1600s and uh the registry of deeds is uh operated very well uh for that period of time and uh no reason to
uh change the dynamic at this point uh at this uh at this point in time. um ran the letter by uh our current register of of deeds, longtime register of deeds, Jack me. Uh he was uh very supportive of the letter and uh so now it's in front of the commissioners to adopt if you so choose. Yes, I do remember this conversation uh last last uh time we met and um yeah, I I think especially on Cape Cod where deeds and roadways and paper roads and to track all of that, I don't think they'd be
able to do that there and as much as I can the secretary. Yeah. know there are some legislators that are not big fans of county government and they have no real awareness and understanding of what we do exactly and how we work and so um I think part of this is we're beginning to really get a better handle on the legislators that are pro county and those that aren't and I think we need to continue to make a statement and reach out and interact with legislators that are very supportive of what we're trying to do yeah I think that's a very good uh point and maybe we should
even uh kind of gather a list of who's who's who so that we can when we encounter people right uh or if we want to make a right a real effort to go out and re there's another issue here I mean this is deja vu because we basically the sheriff split from the county uh not that long ago 10 years ago and it seemed like a simple transfer but it turned out to be an enormous embroio when it came to the the um responsibility for the retirement benefits of employees. I don't
know if we're carrying his retirement benefits now under the county offices. Do you guys know the sheriff's? Sheriff for the registered county employees. Yeah. So, if if this were to happen and we we would be creating the same issue. Oh, yeah. Because I'm sure they wouldn't take that. Well, we don't Yeah. Well, we don't want it to happen. We don't want it to happen. We don't want it to happen for a number of reasons. And we've gotten along as far as I've been. I've been involved with county government now for nearly 20 years. We've never had any problems with Yeah. The least of our problems is the average, you know, we've gotten along the passive budget, right? You know,
this is so again, um I I hate looking ahead, but sometimes we need to ask as as you know, we're all committed to solving our financial challenges, but I'm sure there's some people that may I hate to say this, hope we fail. All right? Because it creates opportunities to change things, right? and change things. And this gives you a sense of the kind of things that are out there. Proposals that are floating around, right? Right. Yeah. Yeah. We have to keep up on
these. Right. So, I think it's important to keep keep aware of the the political landscape. Yeah. And who our friends are, right? And with the temperature, what's the thinking being floated, right? That's why I was so happy that we did that press release touting the way we manage the funds. That's why it's good to do that's right cataloging on our website information about the work that we're doing the accomplishments of the departments our top employees initiatives like today Lyme disease creating an awareness all of these things now it's not like somebody comes from Beacon Hill
and does a an audit right and we have interaction no people people watch us oftentimes from a distance they'll watch the meetings on YouTube or they'll check on videos they'll look at our agenda Aenda, they'll look at our website. So, um, there are a lot of folks that that do pay attention to what we're doing. And I think the more that we can continue to showcase the good things that we're doing and keep an eye out for the bad things, the things that can threaten county government, I think that uh I think if you go back now, it seems a couple years ago in response to the the COVID
crisis where we were able to inoculate people down here where the rest of the state was way behind what we were able to do. Exactly. when when we do dove into this um people would you you had people in their 80s driving to Gillette Stadium, give me a break. They were going to the Fenway Park because folks in Boston had their favorite dispensary or operations that they were funding and our people were really stuck. So yeah, I think it was great that we were able to step up and work
with our department. We had the capability here to mobilize all sorts of volunteers and resources. I I I agree with you, Ron. I think that was a shining example of just how good this county could serve the people here in Cape Cod. And uh we need to keep doing this. That's why Sonia's reports, the work that she's doing, getting that out there is incredibly important. It all it all fits in. That's why I like um for us periodically to weigh in with legislators, let legislators know that we're paying attention. Okay. So, we have a motion. Do we? Um yeah, we're here. Um, I move to
approve the the draft letter in opposition to the Massachusetts House Bill N 3971 as presented and I will second. All right. All in favor? I I All right. New business otherwise not anticipated by the chair. Well, that new business sort of walked in the door this morning during public comment and I did touch upon it. So, it's still new business since we didn't really do anything. Yeah. before you came in that new business, right? Meeting waiting for me outside. Yes. And so so I I think
that what I would like to say is that we hear um we hear the concerns not just in uh Haritch but across the Cape with some of these developments including on the outer Cape which you know is as you go down or up however you look at the Cape um the outer Cape uh you know it's thinner it's smaller it's less resources and uh they still want to act like we're in Quinsey or something and we oh let's just build an enormous apartment building. So, it's beginning to catch up with
everyone. And um is it really to keep the kids here in the end? It's all about keeping letting our children to be able to grow here. That was the first, you know, we need affordable housing so our young people don't leave. You know, I don't know if that's really solving that problem. It seems like a lot of these young people can afford what's being proposed. Yeah. just just like to jump in here for a minute and if we're going to discuss the uh the the new business the general yes the general comment public comment general comment you know we're often seeing a situation where
the executive authority especially in the federal government appoints people and expects them to do what he tells them okay we appoint the head of the kit cut commission but we have to be very careful that we use that authority to try to force them to do something that they're not that they they it violates their their protocol. In other words, so when we're asked to weigh in on it, we certainly have the right to weigh in on anything, but we have to understand the ultimate authority is up
to the members of the commission who are appointed by the 15 towns. You know, they're the ones who are going to make the decision. They are. But in reality, um, the act, and this is something that I did want to bring up and ask that our future chair follow up on this and put it on an agenda in the month of January. But, um, the reason that the Cape Cod Commission can't really just come in and say, you know, no, is because they that act limited them to that authority over commercial
development. and whoever wrote the act back then, I'm sure there was some developers in the room, but they did not allow it for residential, which was really upside down. And um so a lot of development happened. We didn't have sewering. We're now paying the price for that. But to me, we're the sewering is beginning to open up avenues of being able to do more of what we knew was hurting the place in the forest. So the bottom line is MA's vineyard commission does have purview
over 40s and that is a deficit in the act of the commission. So, I would like to pursue in the future getting that act changed to strengthen it to be able to have more say and purview over these developments, especially as you know, and let's let's be honest, we've all been on this train of we understand that there's a a housing issue. We all care about it. We want to make sure people
are housed. And some here where here the homeless has lost their voice. It's about affordability and the homeless cannot afford anything. So we can't forget that population as well. And um and we're not focusing on that and we have a significant population between us and the islands. So I think that um it's time for us to go and um face what we're fa you know look at what we're facing for
real and see if we can strengthen that. So, I'm going to put that on you. Um, as well, not that not that I know who the chair is going to be, but I'm assuming if all things go the way we usually work um and or whoever is the chair and uh and that we have to really take a look at this because we are we are the people who are sitting in these seats and uh we are here to keep a beautiful special place. Nobody, nobody I think we all recognize that housing for good or bad is going
to be the biggest issue facing us in the new year. Not just us, I mean collectively on the Cape. So whatever the whatever we can do as commissioners and and to weigh in on that and try to make it so that that the Cape benefits from that is what we should do. Well, we have a different geography here. We we don't have the capacity to build other roads around things. It's all about escape routes. I mean, how do we evacuate if especially in the outer cape, there's one road and one road only for
a long time before you get up to Dennis? And you know, you might have these other ones, but there's not very much room on these either. So, you know, there's other things there's other things other than just housing. And in in reality, this housing issue is because of the disparity, the income disparities and economic disparities of our country. And we're not going to fix it by killing a cash cow, which is really what Cape Cod is for the I mean, the state will not have the revenue
from this place that it's having now if they keep putting more people here and other people aren't coming to spend their money, enjoy themselves. We should probably move on from this. Get into trouble. Thank you. I probably have gotten into trouble, but anyway, I've gotten that far and I think there's a lot to think about. So, that's for future. Any other new business that we that came up in your lives that Okay. Um move to authorize the uh commissioner's consent agenda as listed and
we will take one. Uh Ron, can you make a motion? The first motion. Okay. I move to authorize the commissioner's consent agenda 8 items 8B through 8 I. No, no. The first one is just one is eight. Oh, sorry. Through 8A as listed on the consent agenda. 8A as listed on the December 17, 2025 agenda. Second. All in favor? I I and I abstain. Yes. And for that is because I move to authorize the commissioner's consent agenda items 8B through 8 I as listed on the December 7th,
2025 agenda. Second. I will second. Okay. All in favor? Hi. Hi. Hi. Commissioner's reports. I have a report. Go for it. Okay. I went to the human rights uh breakfast last week. Uh very well done. Um congratulations Leslie. Uh do Santos Domingos. Hope I get their names right. And uh who is the head of our human rights. Um, and uh, I want to thank it's Jackie just went right out
of my head and I had that list. Jackie who was um, the chair of the human rights commission. She is exiting and Marie Blackburn Younger is is stepping into her place and for those of you who have been here for at least 25 years uh, will know of her. She was a big She's been very big in um supporting women's issues. She has a talk podcast where she talks to a lot of people. She is a great
representative um for people of color as well as women and um I just think it's a great choice and it's gonna uh I think she's going to do a great job. So, it was well done. Um, somebody from the upper Cape uh, uh, Harriet Jerusalem Jerusa Quorum uh, received an award, the Tim McCarthy award. So there was a lot of people from the Arcade there and uh, it was just a very nice uh, and meaningful
breakfast. That's all I have to report. Well, I I think we probably So you you're telling us that Jean Morrison is Morrison. She's stepping down. Yes. is stepping down. Yes. So, I think we owe her a great deal of thanks to for her service and congratulations to the incoming chair and I would agree with you. She's an incredible sort of force of nature and I think she'll do a wonderful job. I do too. As the new chair. Yeah. At some point maybe Leslie can come in and introduce
Marie and we'll have a little chat. That would be nice. I think that be a great idea. Yep. Anything else? Nope. Okay. upcoming business. Let me Can I just chime in with something? Yes, please. Uh, the other day the Cape Islands Municipal Leaders Association met and Dennis Yes. and we invited I Googled. Go ahead. We invited the uh Cape uh superintendent, school superintendents from across the Cape uh to uh meet with uh county and municipal officials. Uh, Commissioner Bergstrom
was there and uh I was there online and and it was great to get us all there to listen firsthand to some of the challenges that the school superintendency is facing. I think they're looking for collaboration uh with municipal officials and the county uh on a whole range of topics. how we can work together to meet the housing needs of uh many of our school employees that are finding themselves challenged in terms of finding a place to stay when they when they get a new job as a teacher uh regardless of where they are. Um the other brief point of discussion at
the meeting, but I think it's going to pick up is uh the DUI superintendent Mark Smith, who who's done a phenomenal job uh for for DY, um he had touched on the need to really get a better handle on changing demographics in enrollment numbers and uh he's he's offering a letter looking for funding from our legislators to support some kind of further independent analysis. Um, I happen to think that just given all the money and time and energy that we've invested with our
housing studies and the housing strategy and we spent a fair amount of time digging into the weeds in terms of what's going on with housing that we may have the ability to provide some help and some guidance through the through the outstanding staff at the Cape Guy Commission in terms of analyzing what's going on out there so that we can get a better handle on enrollment numbers. Uh the town of Yarmouth is is faced with the need to um look at building a new school. We're doing a feasibility study on a new school in the town of Yarmouth. Uh when you look at new school
construction projects, uh that school could be anywhere from 50 to $70 million. Which is and and think about any other community on the it's going to cost a new elementary school could cost one town that kind of money. Imagine what it could be in Mashp or some other place. So, um, we need to take a hard look at what's going on, uh, and, uh, and get a realistic assessment on, uh, enrollment. Again, a lot of this is driven by the state. These enrollment numbers are state driven,
state developed using state analysts and state formulas. Um, and I don't want to suggest that the numbers that they put together um, are bad. they just I think we could benefit by providing some some county review, county analysis. So I think there's going to be more to come on this topic. So stay tuned. Um what I thought was interesting of that topic was in the end I think it was the superintendent overall the regional superintendent was talking about the uh school choice impact.
Yes. And I know that that has impacted the the town I live in uh wealthfully. And um you know I can understand I think school choice came um and it it worked in the urban areas of Boston and their their surrounding areas when you had schools that were dilapitated not really being invested in. I mean, the problem is we we base these schools, you know, we build them and the services
based on property tax. And if you're in a poor neighborhood, you don't have as much as you would in a wealthy neighborhood. So, school choice comes along. That wasn't really sort of like 40B doesn't fit on the cape. School choice doesn't actually fit on the cape. And Prop 2 and a half doesn't fit on the Cape. But these are all things that were put into place 25 plus years ago. and now they're realizing that that this has been a drag in many ways and not a uh something that was a positive
outcome. So, um there's a lot of uh a lot of things to reassess and reook at, but school choice is something to me is more of a I can understand if if you have a child with special needs and that school is excellent at that, I can see that. But all in all, as he said, the curriculum, the ability, the talent in all of these schools of the teachers are pretty much the same across the board on the Cape. And um so it's great if you could say, I'm going to put my kid in basketball because
I go to I go to work up there and I can pick the kid up on the way back or or you know, if the kid gets sick, I'm right there. You know, if it's being used for that, then it's not really being used the way it was intended. And um so anyway, there's a lot there was a lot of good stuff that came out of that uh interesting interesting um challenges that are ahead that will need some addressing. So So the other item would be our next meeting. Uh it will be at the Mass Municipal. Um we'll take to heart the recommendations of our finance team in terms of making sure we we're good
at how we manage our expenses. That's right. Our next meeting is gonna be the MMA. So, yes, for the keep an eye leadership is I saw that I saw that on the schedule. Yeah. 20 23rd and uh the we're going to have lunch and uh we're going to look forward to meeting with Lieutenant Governor. Now, I don't pick the time that the lieutenant governor meets with us and when we this is this is chosen by her and her staff second year, right? So I think it's great meeting with her, but there's
some things that other people like to attend or or and this is I think the the Weimo lunch is a very popular item and this year the it's an interesting speaker. Yeah. So I've asked to see if we can find another way to do this. Um problem is is that it may, you know, maybe a much later part of the day or maybe on a different day. Um, but I'm of the belief that, you know, sometimes the uh if if you've got a commitment for Friday at 11:30 and, you know, I don't want to lose that. So, yes,
we got to it's not I don't pick the time, but I've been getting some fairly angry calls. Yes. I mean, I you know, it's always and the time that's chosen, so I just want you to know I'm I'm doing my best. Well, just just another note on that is that traditionally at that meeting um the uh Mass Municipal Association gives give a excuse me gives us an update on what the legislature is going to provide to the individual towns as far as chapter 90 chapter 70. In other words, if they're going to
tell us what the western fiscal environment is going forward in aids to the individual towns. Now, doesn't doesn't directly affect us, but you know, we are we are product of the towns. have to know exactly what the Oh, and it's not going to be it's not going to be a good conversation yet. Well, I'm putting together a list of things to sort of raise in the meeting. So, if you've got something that we need to abone the pick uh with the governor's office, uh let me know, pass it on to me. Um dredging is on the list uh along with a host of other things. So, feel free to u Okay.
send me an email, Commissioner. We will. I I think that's uh brings it up to um Michael to our county administrator. All right. Well, thank you. I'll uh just uh for a few seconds I'll turn it over to Carol um because uh one of the things Commissioner Forest mentioned at this meeting was sometimes we don't know each other. We all work under a county umbrella. So, I want you to meet our new assistant treasurer and Yes. Come right up. All right. Get a little introduction. Just when we start the hazing
I'm so happy to introduce um Tim Cabrell um Tim he's coming in as our uh started on Monday um as our assistant treasurer. Our current assistant treasurer is retiring in February. Um and so Tim has come in early. Yes. Yes. Are you sir? Yes. Mhm. Uh Marson's Mills. That's great. Um so Tim is coming from Cape Cod 5. He spent nine years there at the banking and his credentials are
excellent to to bolster the finance department, the dream team we call ourselves now. So I just wanted to introduce you to Tim. Well, welcome aboard. Thank you so much. When when Carol gives us an explanation of all the responsibilities she has overseeing all the accounts and so on and the investments and so on, I think there must be like five of her in I understand she actually got she does have a few elves back there helping her out. Yeah, more sorely needed. And I'm sure the your
your dance part. I'm sure. Yes. Looking forward to the opportunity though. Well, we we welcome you and uh if if Carol's happy, we're happy. And um as you can hear, there's a lot a lot to think about and a lot to do and uh keeping us straight. That's what we depend on you for keeping us out of jail. So uh not doing anything wrong. So congratulations. I'm glad you were able to find someone. I'm sure it's Cape Cod 5's loss and our gain. So welcome aboard and thank you so much.
Hope you fit in and get comfortable real quick. Excellent. Thank you very much. Nice to meet everybody. Great. Enjoy your day. It's What is it? Is it a feather? This is the jewelry section. I'm sorry, but I've been It's just been We'll take a brief bash in Please approach the bench. I don't know. My mother bought it for me like 20 years ago. It looks Just vote now. You just have to
vote. Yes. Anyway, thank you. Time to hit him up. I know. Well, it's getting to the holidays. We can be a little loose here. I'm sorry. Okay. Yes. You, Mr. Dutton. Uh, just a couple other items. Just to let uh the board know, I attended the Yarmouth Select Board meeting last night uh to talk about transfer of the burn um the burn um we don't call it the burn building, we call it the fire training facility uh that that uh FEMA funds uh and and other funds had built in um in Yarmouth. So,
uh that will be coming uh authority for me to to negotiate that transfer or there's really not much to negotiate. It's all spelled out but to execute the the transfer documents uh will come to you uh one of your January meetings. So, it's almost Giannis. It's almost I had to abstain from the discussion. So, I I missed the thrilling presentation and discussion. Okay. But, uh I I should point out that uh our team was there. What's your on the agenda? at 11 o'clock. It was supposed to be uh 8:30. Yeah, we do. Yarmouth does a really notoriously bad job of having agendas.
They don't stick to We don't stick to anything. We loaded up with way too much stuff. And uh but I'm fine. I don't I don't have a problem staying till 11:00. I'm fine with it. But what it does is it gives mixed signals because I think Mike was Mike and the team were on at like 8:30 and supposedly and that didn't show up until 2 hours later. I'm glad to hear you're on board with that marketing. Oh yeah, you got with with the trans putting, you know, discipline that I have to make sure that everything's done on time. Well, I generally like to keep it on time. The problem is is that some
people don't like the times that I put on, right? So, I can have a long agenda, but at least I'm generally pretty good at picking the right time. Yeah. And I do try to I mean, I'm not complaining about No, I know. I try to put people that are going to something like this or if we have an appointment or whatever. Even last night we had people sitting there and finally I looked at Tom and me said yeah let's take these people so they can leave and not have to listen to I although we do try to be when I run an I definitely follow commissioner uh yeah try to get those people
in there particularly if they're a business and they hire attorney and they have to pay through the nose by the hour come on yes let's get that let's stick to the the time frame invest in a gavvel. I think that's what we need to take care of. Yeah. Well, we did in we did well. So anyway, so you want me to gavvel the meeting? Is that what you want? Well, only if there's disruptive people that we're taking all this time away from Michael. Michael continue, please. All right. Um, just to let the board know, uh, I convened, uh, a composting meeting, uh, with the four towns,
uh, and went well. uh there's universal buyin including uh joint base Cape Cod. So we will proceed to the next step which is executing a uh a intergovernmental agreement with the the five parties, the four towns and and the joint base uh on the next step of of securing the property and permitting uh permitting the uh the facility. So that that is in the works. Um, and then I would just add Jeannie Morrison, congratulations on her um her time with the Human Rights Commission. Um,
and and uh and the great job that Leslie did uh as well as Allison Carter. Yes. Who is her uh her assistant, they did an exceptional job uh with what uh with the human rights day. So that is all I have for right now. Excellent. All right. So, moving along here, I think we have one item. No, we have upcoming business. No, we already done that. Executive session. Executive session. So, we are going into an executive session. Are we going to go over our agenda for our next
meeting? Um, yes, I can do that. I apologize. You have uh your next meeting, as a reminder, uh is your reorganization meeting, which is uh on the first business day of the new year, which will be January 2nd, which is a Friday. It'll be a virtual meeting. Um, and I believe the time is uh 9 or 9:30. So, we'll we'll get you that information. 9:30. Um, and then, uh, so just the reorg meeting and I I sent out, uh, some, uh, suggested goals for 2026, uh, for the county and therefore for me.
And if you have a chance to look at those, go over those and discuss those. We could discuss those. That's your choice. That's your choice. I don't want I think it's an appropriate day to do so. Okay. Is that okay? Yeah. Yeah. Um, and so that's what we have for the second. Then coming up on January 14th, which is your next regular meeting, uh we have uh there are uh state senators coming in for a legislative update. Um and uh we've got Paul uh Rosala talking a little bit about um the
performance and test results from the uh PRBs, the the carbon curtain that we put up around the fire training facility, former municipal fire, the iron wall. The iron wall. So, uh, and then on the 28th, uh, we've got our Falmouth, um, visit to, uh, the Falmouth, uh, town hall. Late start on that one, don't we? I believe we have a late start. I think it's 11, but again, Robin will, uh, keep us straight. Keep us all the straight. Yeah. I just want to flag that for people that it will be
a late start to give people ample time to navigate all the wastewater construction on the road. Yes. Yes. Um and we'll coming from wealthy also have uh we're scheduled to have a budget presentation on that date as well. So um and I'm sure we'll have uh updates that are more particular. Yeah, that's January 28th. That is July. Sorry, I wish it was July. Uh January 28th. I I have one little thing that that should be put on a future agenda if if we have the information. Um there seems to
be some uncertainty as to continue funding for the shine program which comes from the federal government down to the state and uh I talked to uh Joe Pacheco and he said he didn't know but yeah there's some noise about that the the figure that we get from from the state department it's not a big number so like the like we had the debate with the Americanore if indeed it does I mean that's a valuable program. Exactly. it's respected across the Cape. So we should and in putting together
the budget case one year we should uh try to get that information expect not anticipating the worst but we got to one of the good things we have is that we've got at state house we've got legislators that are earmarking extra funds to us to cover any potential shortfall. So be good to know I think I think that's well I think we just accepted that grant was it our last meeting or the meeting before? So that was terrific and um I I think I think it's road wise to be concerned about what's happening at the federal level. This, you know, they haven't done the budget.
Um it's another continuing resolution, but once they nail down the budget and get it done, yeah, I think there's going to be a whole range of programs that we're going to want to take a look at. And because I find it hard to believe that there won't be some impact here in a variety of areas and which what's good is that our department heads and our administration are very much on top of what's going on. So you know I'm I'm sure uh you know once the budget finally gets taken care of we'll get a pretty report where all the impacts are and what if anything we might need to
do to address them. But you're right, China is an incredibly affordable. Yes. And you know, I would like to um I know that we have our department heads coming in and you know, really give some time to Joe of the human services department. Number one, I mean, uh it was even mentioned today that there's like $5 million that he brings in a year. I mean, he really uh has a huge portfolio of money that he brings in. Well, we talked about that during the budget, make sure that we identify
those funds, right? And I think that the HUD funds may be, you know, as always an issue. So, it would be nice to know that as well of where those HUD funds stand and um because you know, and he would be able to give us some update on what is the homeless situation here? What are we doing about that? They usually do a Christmas count or a Yes, it will be. Yep. And New Year's a Christmas count. So that will give us an idea of what we're not focusing on. Um well what I'm
going to suggest is that we as soon as the budget is done will look to the administrator to give us an update in terms of how the budget impacts us positively and negatively. You're talking about the overall federal exactly. Okay. So, we're going to be going into an executive session and um so executive session. So, a discussion pursuant to general law chapter 30A subsection 21
uh A7 to comply with and act under the authority of any general or special law or federal grant and aid requirements. Approval andor release of executive session minutes pursuant to Mass General Law Chapter 30 subsection 22F. Uh, executive session meeting review, approval and release of executive session meeting minutes. I have a second second. All in favor? I. So we will be adjouring
golf forest. I person and Lions votes I. So we are going to be adjourning from our regular meeting going into executive session not to return to our regular meeting. So with this we call for the adjournment of our regular meeting. Thank you. And that is at uh 11:42 we adjourn regular meeting.