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good afternoon chadam welcome to the February 18 2025 meeting of the chadam select board please note this meeting is being recorded and will be available shortly Hereafter for scheduled and On Demand viewing on any smartphone or
tablet device if anyone else is recording the meeting please notify the chair seeing nobody either here in the room or online I'll proceed Pro pursuant to Governor Healey's March 29 2023 signing
of the acts of 2023 extending certain covid-19 measures adopted during the state of emergency suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law General Law chapter 30A section 20 until March 31 2025 this meeting of the chadam select
board is being conducted in person and via remote participation um every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access assess the proceedings as provided for in the order a reminder that persons who would like to listen to
this meeting while in progress may do so by calling the phone number 1 158 945 4410 conference ID 2323 386 491 pound sign or join the meeting online via Microsoft teams
through the link in the posted agenda while this is a live broadcast and simal cast on chadam TV xfin Channel 1072 despite our best efforts we may not be able to provide realtime access we will post a record of this meeting on
the town's website as soon as possible first order of business is to establish a quorum I will ask Shireen Davis please to announce herself she's online with us tonight present uh Mr dykin present and
Mr Shell is present and Mr necastro present um our we have a bit of a lengthy agenda tonight we have two sets of minutes uh January 14 and Jan and February 7 uh we have then next public
announcements and agenda request we have a public hearing I think we have more than one public no we just have one public hearing uh an application for a new seasonal all alcohol uh holic beverages uh restaurant license
uh then we have public comments on the business agenda and I'm going to make one change here I I neglected we have we're accepting public comments on the uh the warrant article that relates to
um the um grinder pump um policy and so I'm going to invite and welcome uh public comment uh alongside uh the board for that item which is item c um the the business
agenda uh consists of um first a finance committee preliminary um fiscal 26 budget recommendation and report to the select board from um from the chairman of the finance committee uh Mr Daniel
who's with us this evening um next we will consider one day alcohol license um for Holy Redeemer Church uh third as I mentioned is the second read of the grinder pump policy continued
from February 4 and public comment will be welcomed and accepted alongside the board uh during that discussion uh fourth is considering a license enter and use real toown property um at 608 610 stage Harbor Road
uh fifth is a um fiscal 26 budget review of the general government and another undesignated section of the budget um next is a series of 2025 annual town
meeting warrant articles to be reviewed uh the first is um uh voting and recommending um posting the uh uh post employment benefits uh liability trust
appropriation next is a vote to place and recommend a capital project expansion and renovation of the um cfal and that also will um uh allow and welcome public comments alongside the
board uh third is vote in place a uh and recommend a um Capital project for the transfer station project and again public comments um accepted alongside the board for that one um next is uh
placing and recommending the Wastewater project continuation borrowing authorization and ballot question and that is uh we'll will'll accept and and welcome public comments alongside the board for that one next is placing and
recommending uh the fiscal 26 Wastewater and capital stabilization funding uh number six uh is um referring a petitioned protective zoning bylaw Amendment pursuant to Mass General Law chapter 48
Section 5 uh we've had that discussed uh in previous select board meetings um number seven is a vote uh to refer a proposed protective zoning bylaw and zoning map uh relating to the West
uh chadam Neighborhood Center um uh bylaw that that uh is is is comprehensively dealing with the with the neighborhood Center uh and we'll have public comment uh accepted alongside of that one as well uh next is
considering a request by the har harwit select um board chair to convene a meeting with um two of their select board members and two of ours alongside of the Town managers and the town finance directors and that will conclude
our evening uh tonight uh hopefully before it gets too late um item number one are the minutes of January 14 move the minutes second uh do we have any comments Mr nicastro yes Mr
chairman I have two uh first on page seven uh two-thirds of the way down uh the paragraph that begins with my name this is the motion uh in the second line the um Fifth Line from the right strike
the word from and insert for the an article for the May 20 25 town meeting and then on page [Music] 10 um I did not go back and watched the video on this so I could be wrong but
this is on the way down at the bottom Mr dyk's motion and maybe Jeff remembers this better than I do but I thought what we were asking um and what we voted was to change the speed limit on principal streets in thickly settled areas I
didn't know I didn't recall that it was all all thickly settled areas but if I could be wrong on that we had some discussion Dean I'm not sure was if it's principal streets or not um I thought we ended up with thickly settled areas to 25 I'll let it go that's s yeah I I I
think there was some confusion as to exactly what we were saying but I I think after we heard from deputy chief Malzone we concluded that we would create more confusion if we tried to reduce it anywhere where there wasn't a
sign okay so um if I may I just have one on page 12 um uh the uh eth paragraph second line the the line that begins the addition of one police
officer um at the end it says first of all we I think you want to say have not had full employment Chief Anderson made the comment that he hadn't had an increase since a year and I don't remember the year 86 I think okay well
then we should put in since 19 is that right Jill it was definitely 1980s I recalled 80 yeah I I I thought it was 85 or 86 but I didn't remember for sure okay fine if we could make that change with that um uh roll call uh Miss
Davis I uh Mr dykens hi Mr Shell says I and Mr necastro hi um the minutes of February 7 Mr chair they're actually the minutes of February 4th it was just a typo on the the agenda okay thank you those are included in the packet as
February 4 and it does say February 4th um okay um any I do I have I have one okay go ahead Jeff yeah on page 11 the very last paragraph starting with director lacrosse uh she noted a decrease in expenses due to Family Pantry of Cape Cod Duffy Health Center
and Independence house not requesting funds in fact Dey Health Center did request funds and uh was enumerated was granted $3,000 so that's that's just an error um so we should strike the not yeah strike it yeah yeah so that was
discovered after the meeting staff had looked into it and and found indeed that they were approved for 3,000 okay uh Dean go ahead I have some medits but we I don't think we had a motion on this so I'll move to approve the minutes second okay uh I had three page six
um up at the top the First full paragraph second line last word less I think it should read in installation costs including any potential electrical cost this is the $2,000
figure I was puzzled by the word less that was my understanding yeah I I think that's probably right um next on page seven I just wanted to clarify this is the one two three four fifth full paragraph there was a question from from some members of the board um the third
line Water and Sewer advisory committee was asked to review I would strike was asked to review um I would in certain in its place had considered scheduling a meeting to
review and then at the end of that line I would strike the everything from through the meeting to the end of the sentence and I would substitute but that was was cancelled so it would read Water and Sewer committee had considered scheduling a meeting to review the
proposed policy about a month ago but that was cancelled period that I think is more accurately what they did okay and then on page eight um the First full paragraph Mr necter
recommended I in the second line I would insert after the phrase in order to allow the water and sewer committee to review okay thank you those are the edits uh I just have a couple I'll try
to be real quick the first Set uh appear on page three and I've given these to Kathy so I'll I'll do them relatively quickly on page three first of all in the uh I'm really amending the that
um first big paragraph um beginning with the fourth line um put a a comma after the word agreement on the right and then strike the word including and uh insert
specifically and then um the uh line uh that begins with provided um each one of those should be at and below the percentage so it would read uh provided at and Below
60% Ami and um at and below 30% Ami and at and below um 100% Ami and then same change in the U the
the next to the last line current ACC current access and Below um uh the abutters to the north uh may not be impeded um sorry that access for the uh the
abutters then in the paragraph that begins the board asked uh about the language second line interest acred on the loan and then in the last paragraph uh at the
end I would revise that um those those two lines to say sold U access would be discussed at that time period She also said um she was unable to answer a question on on uh um about an easement
by necessity at this time on page also on page oh I gave you that one page five um the the First full paragraph next to the last line I I would I would change
that slightly and it would was stated it was the language proposed in response to um the amendment recommended by attorney palone um and I think that's it that's all I
have with that I will um call the role Miss Davis hi uh Mr dykens hi Mr Shell says I and Mr nicastro hi okay next public announcements and agenda
requests do we have any from the board uh any from the public I don't see anybody here anybody online okay moving right along uh public hearing Shireen do you
want to read that or should I ask one of my colleagues here to do that no I'm fine to read it okay at T town of chadam Select board public hearing notice notice is hereby given that the chadam select board will hold a public hearing on Tuesday February 18th 2025 at 5:30
p.m. in the large meeting room at the Town Office Annex 261 George Ryder Road chatam and remotely via Microsoft teams platform to consider a request for a new seasonal all alcohol beverages restaurant license for hempf LLC doing
business as chattam moods 16 17 Main Street Orlando h manager all interested parties are encouraged to participate sign the select board thank you um Mr hemings and Mr Norcross yes good evening uh Jamie
Norcross representing chadam moods uh this is Orlando hemings the owner of uh the restaurant um Orlando has been in business for about two and a half years now for chattam moods and he's looking to incorporate uh alcohol service into the restaurant um Orlando told me he's
asked quite often by folks coming in inquiring as whether or not drinks are available so he thinks it'll be a a nice addition to the uh to his business uh Orlando along with being the owner will also be the uh manager of record for the liquor license so we're happy to answer
any questions okay from the board is a seasonal license Jamie yes it'll be seasonal all alcohol seasonal seasonal all alcohol that's correct thanks anybody else um from the public
any questions I don't see anybody in the room anybody online I'll just say I've been there and I think that's a good a good addition so I I I think it' be a good idea U thank you I'll take a motion Mo approval second
second all those in favor Miss Davis I Mr dykens Mr Shell says I and Mr necastro I great thank you very much thanks very much good luck um so next we have public comments on the
business agenda with the exception of those items that I mentioned and I won't impose on you to reread those again so uh hopefully you'll remember uh any comments on the uh the rest of the business agenda uh
Miss um Miss Gibbs is on Gibbs Miss skips sorry yes thank you very much uh my comments relate to f8 and that is the uh meeting requested by hartch uh to discuss the municipal
agreement uh there's nothing in the this agenda item as to why the meeting is being called or any documents in the package however it has been in the paper and budget presentations that Harwich wants more money from us I don't believe chadam should consider any revision to
the agreement for a number of reasons as was discussed at some of the presentations the minimum local contribution is a number determined by the state uh based on property value resident income and Foundation enrollment when that was done chadam was
assessed 6.8% versus harage at 4.7 so we are paying more there and as far as the enrollment is concerned uh the total enrollment for the mod way School school district is
1728 students uh that's who are actually attending uh chadam assessment is 11.21 7 million Hart's assessment is 31.5 million harit has
1373 students attending and chadam has 355 uh so they have 79.5% of the population we have 20.5 the cost per pupil of those attend harch is paying under these assessments
$2,945 per student and chadam is paying $3,598 I think we're paying more than our fair share not included in these assessments is how much we're going to have to spend to renovate and repair the chattam Elementary School uh if you
recall we learned after it was turned over to us that it needed new roof boilers Windows pump generators and doors uh based on the numbers they're getting on the middle school I would say that could potentially cost chatam millions and we are solely responsible for those
uh repairs um I don't think we should agree to any further increases assess to chatam when we are already paying 31,000 per student um I reviewed the deese which is the Department of
Elementary and uh secondary education there are over 400 schools that are listed in there about actual enrollment and the most recent Figures were from 2023 but I think uh they're they're
pretty solid and of those 400 schools only three or four were over 32,000 and it was Cambridge and a few schools in the Boston area um I think that we can assume based on what Mr
Carpenter said at the last meeting in terms of to the middle school that uh originally the price looked like it was going to be 6 million but he said if the windows have to replace be replaced that could be an additional 12 million which is going to be 18 million which means we're going to
have to pay a percentage of that as well on top of the elementary school um I think we're paying our fair share I think uh the priority has to be our elementary schools I'm concerned that we are using up most of our fre cash uh and
I think we should save some of that free cash take a few off the list that you're currently considering we have to have money in the bank because we will know by town meeting whether or not how much it's going to cost us to fix the middle school and I think we have to have that
money available uh not because you know it it's public health and safety that has to be the the priority of government is public health and safety and certainly for our children children so I would hope that if you decide to go and
have that meeting that no nobody goes weak in the knees and agrees to any more money to harage at this point um because I think we've pay we're paying more than our fair share and I would hope since it's not an executive session meeting that it will
be recorded So the public can see it um either watch it live or see it on demand thank you very much thank you um if I may I have a a comment and a request I'll start with a request U it it's been my experience in the past that on
occasion your remarks are uh prepared and written down and you've you've shared them with us in the past if that's the case with these I'd like to request that you share them uh with us so that we uh not not only is our our knees strengthened but our our back is
strengthened um and second the comment is um if if you will I you know that's up to you but I think it would be very helpful um secondly I I I I believe my recollection I can be corrected but I
think that Dr Carpenter's comment on the the increment that's introduced by the windows uh might take the total up to 12 million not that it was 12 million for the windows so the total was now 18 but
um I I I think it's important that we have that be ACC accurate I don't know if anybody here remembers that but yours was my the same as mine I think the so why don't we just say that it's it's up in the air but it may be only 12 million
um and not 18 so uh any other um public comments okay uh thank you very much for all of that um turning to the business agenda I'm going to um turn the uh the the floor over to
Chairman Daniel thank you Mr chairman uh we appreciate the opportunity to present the initial thoughts of the finance committee to the select board um we received the town manager's budget about a month ago we
have met with most if not all of the department heads uh began work today on uh various articles CP CPC articles and um CPA articles and and some of the sewer and water work um the observations we have for you
tonight are preliminary and in summary the operating budget as we can see in the screen 44154 million an 88.9% change from last year uh the capital plan at 3.62 million
which is up about 31% from the prior Year's request but still only represents 6 6.82% of what policy calls for at 9% so well within the policy guidelines the mrsd is previously noted as 11.21 7
and 8.81% Cape Tech uh we're keeping our roster of 20 students at the tech and between the operating assessment and the capital assessment for the new building we landed 58
88,000 2.7 I'm sorry 2.17% increase for a total nut um of 59 million 12245 an increase of 9.26% that does not of course include Standalone warrant
articles um which which will be kind will be coming in turn um in general uh it's our understanding that wages are about 71% of the proposed budget uh the operating budget those wages of course
are contractual and step-based um expenses are generally level funded where possible which in this operating environment strikes strikes us as a admirable achievement and I think in a sentence we
think this is a good intentional budget um it should probably come as a surprise to no one that nevertheless we have a couple things to observe um so Carrie can you flick the next slide possibly please so the first
uh topic we want to give a little shout out to Is our commitment to um sufficient highquality potable water for the town of chattam we've made the observation repeatedly and I think it's shared by all the members of Select
board that that's the egg on which our Goose sits um I think too often in the past several years we've kind of come too close to temporarily exhausting that Supply um demand is High especially in the summer months as we're all aware
we're at the mercy of our well system and our rainfall um and between those uh too much demand uh what I will suggest is the mispricing of the ass of the municipal
asset and misuse of the M Municipal asset we think we are somewhat at risk uh in his presentation Rob failey observed to us that there two or three potential well incremental we well sites
in the town of chattam but he did not necessarily think that they would be worth uh the investment in term of how much gallonage they would return so if in fact that turns out to be the case we're essentially dealing with our existing Supply on a going forward
basis and while um water pricing is complicated one of our first or our first recommendation is for the water and sewer Commissioners uh to encourage the Commissioners to uh conduct a detailed
water rate review and an effort to appropriately pric the asset the chart up ahead of us there is based on data from the University of North Carolina environmental Finance center it's a survey of all Massachusetts utilities
with between three 3, and 10,000 water accounts and what I've pulled out of these uh that data are all the cape uh water districts or town distri Town water companies uh blue represents low pricing
so consist consistently sandwich is astonishing low astonishingly low especially compared to the sample Max uh and chadam is pretty much at the low end of things the high rates are in the orange and there are three columns
2,000 gallons 5,000 gallons and 7500 gallons and you can see that chadam is pretty much near the bottom uh all across the board and while again water pricing is a
challenging thing uh there's questions around the elasticity of water pricing you need to cover a high level of fixed costs with a variably uh priced commodity VAR variable demand commodity uh but most of the experts
around water pricing thinks that municipalities and cities generally misprice their water uh the state of Massachusetts has a really interesting website around water pricing um which has got some interesting information in it and some some models and some
conundrums um but all of which is to say that we think that it would benefit the town of Cham and perhaps the use profile to consider reevaluating where we are in the pricing scale to the extent we can we can mitigate some demand through uh
es in the pricing model um and hopefully perhaps a greater emphasis as well on conservation I know we have our little Streetside placards out in various parts of town when there's kind of a water emergency or drought um Proclamation um we're not sure how
compelling those are uh and how mindful people may be of them so we just think that some attention needs to be paid uh to this issue which of course we're aware that you guys are paying attention mention to but specifically around the pricing um the second heading
underwater uh I'm going to reiterate something we mentioned last year we have now uh 90 new units of housing kind of well in Trin uh over the next couple years if I'm not mistaken I think the select board has has noted that they
would like to have 200 units of housing over the next I think five years and we just urge all the stakeholders in that which is the affordable housing trust Community Development DPW Town manager select board to make sure that
we have ample supply of water for those 90 to 200 new homes um so that's the uh that's the first thing we want to flag uh Carrie thank you so from the town's budget and financial management
policies this will come as no surprise to anybody who's been paying attention to us for the last four or five years it shall be the goal of it shall shall be the goal of the town to achieve and maintain an annual certification of free cash in the amount of 3% to 5% of the town's general fund
operating budget next slide please so of these 10 free cash numbers it immediately comes to mind that nine of the 10 exceed policy range uh I've not taken the time to average these and arguably FY 25 is slightly
inflated somewhat inflated uh because of timing issues and things that should or should not have happened uh from a timing uh standpoint but even if the fy2 is half of what the number should be which is an approximation I think a fair
approximation we're still at 12% um we've been talking about free cash now now as I said for four or five years and we honestly just don't get why nobody really seems to care about this except the finance committee
um it's an unnecessary burden on taxpayers uh it can facilitate kind of the the skirting of the will of town meeting by requiring a 50% vote vote to expend funds rather than a prospective
2third uh vote and we are just sort of flx by why there's no effort to focus on this number and try to re it in um so that's uh of continuing concern
to us and we would hope that this chart might lead people to think maybe we should be a little more focused on what our policies are I don't understand the point of policies if we're not going to adhere to them um and I would I guess I would add two
that the Mass Department of Revenue uh the 3 to 5% is their policy as well so we we didn't make this up uh it's a Statewide policy guidance so um enough on that
but uh I think uh carry nothing for the time being um the center for active living we've not yet had a formal presentation uh that's next week uh on the the SE project but uh we are broadly
supportive of a resolution to as I think I've called it the pneumatic wandering of the the seaal project over the last four or five or six or seven or eight years um it would seem as though the proposed work on the existing Stony Hill
facility again not withstanding the fact we've not had a formal presentation um as well as its perspective budget seems to have a lot to offer uh and does seem to be responsive to the concerns expressed by um voters at Town meet at
the various Town meetings I think three of them now um so I think for for those reasons we're we're eager to get our presentation next week and more to come on that but we do think it would be a timely opportunity to try to get this issue nailed down once and for all or at
least for the next 20 to 40 years um the proposed operating budget includes a request for five new hires uh Community Development uh CPD troll officer natural
resources each getting one and DPW parks and grounds getting two uh that's an 18.4% growth 25 positions over the last six years uh we had a pretty good run of kind of Staff
stability um until as we can see there's been this fairly significant ramping up up since 2021 I think it's fair to say that the department heads the town manager Finance director have made the case to us for these hires but nevertheless we
knowe 25% 18% growth I'm sorry 25 positions 18% growth over six years is not insignificant um we knowe that unfunded mandates from the state continue projects are growing increasingly complex uh regul regulatory environment
is in flux and honestly the expectations for service from residents and visitors is high so we kind of get it but we would hope to keep an eye on this number on a going forward basis um in addition to the five new
hires uh this year you'll probably remember that we have three positions uh equating to two full-time equivalence at the adult daycare program which are no longer being supported uh in six by uh
the grants the grant that was initially received so while we're having five new employees we're actually taking on seven new or technically eight but um seven full-time equivalent salaries uh in the proposed fiscal year operating
budget um crawl Road one of our other favorite topics uh we understand that the craw Road realignment project is not a topic of current conversation but we do understand that the 25% design phase is nearing
completion um we do recall the reluctance of many members of the select board uh who voice concerns about moving forward with the project before nevertheless voting to advance it to the 25% design phase um it would be hard to
overemphasize the unanimous opposition of the finance committee to this project uh and what we believe to be the Everlasting adverse impact uh we believe this project will have on the face and shape of our community's public Gateway uh we knowe our prior police
Chiefs excuse me assessment that there's no significant increase in the incident rate at that in uh intersection uh we note that it is not on the Cape Cod commission's list of 50 most dangerous intersections on Cape
Cod um we know our former fire chief's assertion that the primary solution for their challenges of getting through the intersection would be a traffic preemption system which our emergency vehicles are all equipped with transmitters for the question is the receivers actually on the control units
on the lights themselves obviously there'd be some interchange with the state in that regard since much of that's their intersection but we and and and so we we fully appreciate the public safety concerns uh especially regarding fire department access but we believe there are materially less impactful and
expensive opportunities to clean this intersection up for lack of a better term um Public Safety recruitment uh we are supportive of the Town manager's recommendation of adding one patrol
officer to the roster of the police department uh we understand currently from the chief there's one open spot they have had some challenges in recruiting you're all I'm sure aware that we instituted both a referral bonus and a signing
bonus uh for new office ERS uh 2500 I think for the referral and 7,500 for uh the signing bonus um that was apparently very productive but apparently is uh other towns in the cape
have similarly instituted such policies so the arms races is on um we don't see a lot of value in two open positions on the police force um I think there's a few things
less helpful than that perhaps and we were wondering if there are ways that the police Command Staff the town manager the head of HR can think of other kind of incentive programs or something to try to draw more applicants to fill these
positions um we're cognizant that the police department as the town manager has reminded us the police department is about one Department in the town uh and any potential recruitment strategies need to be considered in the context of the town pounds overall recruitment process but we just hope there will be a
way since the need has been demonstrated for these two incremental officers to get these spots uh filled up as soon as we possibly can uh short-term rental fee increase the town is essentially facing an unfunded mandate from the
state um to perform inspections uh inspections pursuant to a recently update massachus State Building Code uh recollection is that the $75,000 position uh can be somewhat offset by
the current short-term rental fee of $50 it was the sense of the committee that we should look to increase that short-term rental fee from $50 to between 100 and 150 and an effort to further defay the prospective cost of
that position uh again very roughly if memory serves I think we have somewhere around 900 short-term rentals on our roster uh a quick look at the state registry shows over 1,600 so somewhere along the line we're
missing 700 short-term rentals um that if we could figure out a way to kind of track them down and get them in which I'm I'm sure we will over time certainly would add to the U add to the coffers to defay this position kind of going forward
basis um so we had a unanimous vote of a motion to support again an increase from uh 50 to be somewhere between 100 and 150 uh tangential to that uh the committee believes strongly that consideration should be given by the
select board to establishing more formal policies around town imposed fees uh including some consideration of desired cost recovery percentages uh as well as a formal timetable for the
periodic review of such fees uh it was pointed out by one member of the committee used to work for the town that I think our building permit fees have not been increased in 15 years she believed um so we would we would hope the consideration could be given by the
select board to creating some Paradigm around that uh as well as some goals around again cost recovery and that would that would have U apply to most everything building permits transfer station rates water rates inspection fees beach access fees
um Chamber of Commerce we have had as again a casual Observer of our work might be aware of uh we've been pretty displeased with the financial transparency of the chamber over the last several years the new leadership at the chamber has done a terrific job we
think uh in in unveiling more of that Financial transparency that that had previously been lacking um we have been frustrated by that lack of transparency and had been on the cusp of recommending either no
funding for the chamber or that we strictly fund salaries associated with the information booth we're keenly aware that 549 Main Street does not need a lot of tourists coming in asking where they can get their poodle washed on a Saturday um but we also don't think it's
necessarily appropriate that the town of chattam be paying more for the Chamber of Commerce activities than the members of the Chamber of Commerce itself uh one idea that we discussed was a matching program where whatever their
membership raised uh we the town of chatt would match uh we also discussed as I said just funding salaries and not funding the economic development um it's kind of hard we think to isolate what those Economic Development dollars
do the goal is to increase offseason uh economic engagement and activities in the town of Adam um but dollars for fungible so it's kind of hard to know exactly what we might be getting for the $220,000 Standalone
Economic Development allocation um where we landed on this was that given the work that's being done this year by uh the new executive director of the chamber and assertions she has made about what they plan to do
over the F the coming year we're content to sort of stand Pat Uh on the number but again depending on kind of how this all rolls out we um we will possibly revisit this next
year uh with respect to the town of chadam budget and financial management policies previously mentioned the last comprehensive review and update uh of that policy Suite was
2019 uh we have a new Finance director and thought that it might not be inappropriate um to have an update of the financial management policies before too much longer um again that's one of these things that if we sort of fit into a
schedule of fee review and just every X years we're going to review our policies to make sure we're doing what we should be doing we're not aware of any kind of omissions or commissions uh currently in the policies but again just think it's prudent that these things be looked at from time to time especially when we
have a new Finance director in house to ensure that we're doing what we want to do and how we want to do it um and then lastly uh before I'll take any questions that you guys may have um we learned of a
incipient undertaking to update the town financial management system we are using a apparently a creaky micro Microsoft database management system that's old uh not supported uh not upgraded for quite some
time and that doesn't make a lot of sense for us you know in a town where we variously spend between 60 and 80 to 90 million a year we think we should be running the state of a state-of-the-art financial management system uh the system is used by every Municipal
Department in town uh and we think that a new platform would improve efficiency and Report rep in uh with streamlined tasks enhanced collaboration and compliance uh lead to a reduction in manual data entry errors and
ultimately uh to better decision-making so I guess what we heard was that there was a again a sort of an incipient three-year plan to try to roll into this new system of evaluating selecting purchasing upgrading rolling out we would hope that
something like that could be expedited uh because it's seems vitally important especially given the complexities of what we're all dealing with here these days and the and the scale so it's not it's not going to be long before we have aund million
comprehensive budget whether debt authorizations and we've gotten quite close to that a couple years ago um and we again think we should be operating on the best available platform um that's
it thank you if I uh this is a process question would it be appropriate to offer um the finance director and the town manager an opportunity to make any comment they want to or ask it's your meeting but we'd be delighted by it may
maybe before the board uh has anything not not required but if you if there's anything you want to comment on or doesn't doesn't have to be Enlighten us about Jill any Carri sure Mr chair we
really greatly appreciate the input and um our presentations to the finance committee so some of the items you heard in the report um have been just a matter of timing in discussions with the fincom before we presented it to the select board for which you'll hear tonight mostly the the general operating budget
as well as um the technology plan I mean we we welcome any kind of um input and advice but we also are constrained by Mass General law of how much we can do and when it comes to forecasting revenues um
state law says that we can't exceed 90% of Prior year actuals so uh granted we have that in our forecasting model uh we have financial management policies and everything has um even with
the new Finance director it's uh everything is working quite well and so I don't want anyone to interpret the finance committee report is that there's been any wrongdoing and to miss a point on um a free cash policy where uh the free cash
policy from the do was meant for towns who did not certify any free cash and they were encouraging at least a minimum of three to 5 per. so that's something we want to take a look at we want to take a look at all the financial policies there's a number of them
including debt and um and as we talk at our budget summits we typically have those included in case there's any conversation so um again we we welcome the input and certainly your response you will be presented with the final budget next week to transmit to the
finance committee uh and then uh that's the actual budget that will be voted uh at town meeting I'm controlling myself and not getting more into the cow Road intersection project I having walket every weekend and it's um pedestrian
access and Ada accessible without a crosswater or um any kind of signal there but I I I feel that once we get the the final designs which have taken a number of years and anytime there is any movement on that Terry is really great
about including that into in his monthly report so we'll see what comes and certainly it will be up to the board um and I'll I'm having to turn it over to Carrie if she has anything new can I just jump in quickly before going to car I I in no way and in no fashion do I
want to imply that there was any wrongdoing or anything nefarious about the town's finances I would I would emphasize things work very well we are delighted with Carrie she's she's been absolutely terrific to work with um we think that
the the financial management of this town whether the finance director whether the town manager is beyond reproach um abs and we are so fortunate for it that doesn't mean we can't look for little ways to try to do better that's our responsibility but in no way
is there anything any wrongdoing nefarious whatever it's a very very tight ship Carrie um thank you I think Steven's report is very good and I appreciate all of the input that um all of the finance committee has done on the
report um and I concur with Jill on a lot that she has um already in said um I look forward to working with everybody on the finance committee and um also looking at our financial policies and
looking at those deeper and seeing what we can change if anything on those so thank you you're wel I'll go to the board uh Dean thank you Mr chairman and thank you Stephen for your report and and to the entire finance committee um
as a former member of the finance committee I greatly respect the independent voice that this committee brings to town government and I hope that continues uh and we have a um a wonderful assortment of um expertise on
the committee and its membership so I I I want that out there um let me just touch on a few things that you talked about uh with respect to free cash um as Jill has indicated um some of the um
sort of governmental aspects that have led to the town's um handling of free cash let me just add that um the items that have the agenda items the articles that have gone before town meeting for
Capital um expenditure uh that have drawn from free cash I don't recall any of them being particularly controversial items I think that should be kept in mind and I think historically um I don't
think it was not you suggested this but I don't think that there was ever a motivation to try to avoid a two-thirds vote on any of those items since I've been on this board it's just that we've had free cash available and we we thought we should
take advantage of it I'm going to try to take advantage of it later this evening and before your committee on Thursday when the cell comes up because I'd like to see that fully funded out of free cash um but I just think that there and if we're going to look at the financial
policies in terms of reviewing them which I think is a good suggestion we might want to think about whether the 3 to 5% um should be revised or should it be a minimum um I'm not saying we should go up to 10 or 12% that's that's a lot we do know that as you have recognized
before that the U accountants like to have free cash um but it's a legitimate issue that you raise and I would throw another issue into the mix if the finance committee ever wants to look at it and that's the um the $1.3 or2 million that is collected with the
community preservation act s tax maybe it's time that we take a look at whether we should be S taxing people 3% I'm not saying get rid of it I know we had two former Selectmen who tried to get rid of it a few years ago and I opposed its elimination but as you know Mr chairman
when we were looking at the op OPB we um were faced with the setting of the land bank tax and we didn't take all 3% of that and apply it to oped we took only one and a half% we gave the other half one and a half% back to the tax
perers and it's worth $600,000 this year so that might be something to take a look at um on Water I fully agree with you about it I think this whole board agrees that water is a number one priority in this town that chart that you presented I hadn't seen that before
um you perhaps uh are aware but if if others are not I would point out that the staff is currently reviewing water rates um and I expect they're going to come to the water and sewer advisory committee um because that committee is interested in looking at them as well
and we'll get a recommendation uh from them we revised them about seven or eight years ago um and obviously according to this chart way out of out of whack and I know that this board has emphasized in our goals and objectives
that we should also uh address seriously conservation um initiatives we do have some um material that has been presented to us by the Water and Sewer Committee in the form of a matrix which this this board has as a tool and with respect to
the additional housing units putting pressure on the water infrastructure I fully agree with you I have raised that question at this board and and that issue at the water and souit committee there's been some discussion be before them cruel Road
um Mr matters and I tried to kill this project several years ago I offered a motion to terminate it uh we lost uh two to three um when it came up for the 25% I'm I I voted unanimously with
unanimously with the board to move it forward and I was largely moved by the the urging of the the fire chief and the police chief that's what really um um got me to move in that
direction however uh it's going to come back to us when when it's um ready for the 25% for further review and I'm going to be very skeptical about it because I I agree with you that there may be some more limited things we can and should do
to improve access and safety there without possibly turning this into a cified look which I I don't as someone who lives downtown I wouldn't want to see that there um the number of employees that we've
added I've been concerned as well but at the same time I've supported every recommendation that the town manager has made for new staff um and I even pushed to have the the um school
resource officer position uh created a few years ago from this which was supported by the rest of the board but the growth in staff really reflects the growth in demand for services as you recognize from the public and um
unfortunately it's much more complicated to run a municipal government in Massachusetts these days than it was uh in the past um so we have to keep that in mind but we should also you know keep keep our eyes on the number of employees
that we have um I think I've covered everything uh um that I wanted to say other than I tried to get some an amendment to the W to the financial policies this year your committee supported it by majority vote
but it was not uh not passed by my board I intend to bring that back at some point in the next uh year so maybe that will be part of the review thank you thank you thank you thanks again thank you Dean Shireen is your hand
up go ahead yeah hi thanks um uh thank you Mr chair and um um Mr chair from the finance committee um I do uh I want to just reiterate a little more on the water um and and ask Stephen
if when you were doing your assessment on on uh the concerns for water whether you had um taken in consideration that we haven't been at full capacity um for for a while now that we have wells that are still coming onl line and that we
are in somewhat of a growth phase a lot of it around water safety but the town is actually put a bit more into water in the past few years than they have before and I was just wondering if in your analysis that you had considered that there were a few Wells offline because I
think the um term exhausting almost exhausting the supply may be a little misleading in the fact that you know we do have a lens our access is is is um you know we've had a couple of times
where we've had gotten low low low water levels and have had some alarms um but again we have a few other Wells that we have got to get online and we're just waiting for the again the state approval on some of the
permitting yeah I appreciate that Shireen and and I toyed with that language a little bit I didn't want to be terribly alarmist but at the same time we have been getting alarms as you knowe uh my understanding is I think the committee's understanding is there's plenty of water in the lens in the monomo lens itself it's our ability to
extract and how often how many hours a day are we running our pumping systems and it's the depletion I think is more within a a short unit of time rather than kind of a systemic depletion um but nevertheless I think we
I think we're all on the same page that we need to be mindful of what we have and how we use it um and acknowledging to your point that we've got a couple Wells Offline that will be coming online or benefiting from you know past and iron and mang extraction etc
etc um thanks so uh with our the selectman uh select board has done their goals and objectives and have talked about water and talked about um with the chamber um you know putting a goal that we want to see a vibrant year round
community and um I I think the Chamber of Commerce is getting that the new directors understanding um where we're at the town is budgeting for you know we are seasonal community so we're not just budgeting for the year- round residents
that we have here but we're budgeting for our visitors our second homeowners I think we're kind of having a unique um situation one of the things that um I I'd encourage is you know I'm not sure how you do your
evaluations on you know the select board setting policy side and you know what we've been working on over the last year or so after we've done our goals and objectives but I'd encourage um the the finance committee to review our meeting minutes um for updated
information on some of the stuff um I think with the police uh we have talked about um incentive programs and salaries and have I think done a lot to encourage
um recruitment and I think we're not the only community on the cape that is facing these challenges of uh Staffing um again we know that it's housing it's it's yeah is probably the number one
issue that we're facing and so I I I think we don't have a huge big fix on any of it um I think we we just keep plugging away and um setting our our goals the select board's goals and objectives to be able to get to a point
where we can make these recommendations to the town and um hopefully they'll understand where we're coming from I think that was all I was really going to say I appreciated your your um I appreciated your language around the um
the seaal I thought I you gave me a chuckle Stephen when you described it as a ever moving um um a nomadic wandering um and that did give me a chuckle but we are serious about uh getting a home for
a place of quality for our seniors in town and we've been doing our due diligence for a number of years and hopefully this year we can all be on the same page and we get get it over the mark and get a a good facility for them so with that I'm just going to turn it
back to the chair thank you thanks Shireen any anything from you no I I I agreed especially with respect to the cfal I think the the the you know again no details presented yet but I think there's General enthusiasm on the committee to see if we can't put this to
bed thank you um Jeff well Mr Daniel it's been a few years here and this is an excellent report I always look forward to your report your preliminary report um I I do appreciate uh uh some of the language uh extraordinarily uh
some of the diction um I I'm not sure everybody got a chance to read this and I also anticipate the annual tongue lashing on uh fund free cash I'm not unexpected and I have a couple I don't want to disappoint our audience no no you would not want to disappoint but the
could skip a year now you could skip next year but the language a more copian task than our annual cries into the wind about the parent complete and total indifference of our political class to the near annual dismissal of the towns and the state department of revenues written policy with respect to free cast
quote unquote you're wondering classic that's classic Stephen Daniel you're wondering what I really feel yeah so with respect to free cast just a couple comments um it's I'm not sure the select board during the course of a fiscal year really kind of knows where it's coming
from and and how it's building or not and the certification this is not a this is um you know not not you know an excuse or anything but the certification is after the end of the fiscal year we really don't know what's what's cooking during the course of the fiscal year and you know it would be
neat to have some kind of insight as to its Genesis so are we really you know we we get Dynamite local revenues and that certainly assists in building up free cash and we're getting more turn backs than than we should from the Departments that builds up free cash as well so I
think it's important on an ongoing basis if we're going to really try to manage this puppy um clearly uh hasn't been acceptable in the past um at least according to the fincom we really going to manage it we need to get clearer Insight more near-term insight during the course of the year otherwise it's
kind of a surprise to us as well um believe it or not um and there's never been any um want or inclination to every build up any kind of War chest to to circumvent the will of town meeting ever what Dean has said um I think we're in a
we're in a envious position to have the ability to to spend some monies on on certain projects without going to the bond market um so anyway those are my comments on free cash uh perhaps the bup up out to happen you know maybe we're maybe it shouldn't be 3 to 5 maybe it's
you 5 to s or 7 to n or whatever a lot to say on water this board in particular has spent a lot of time talking about water working closely with the water and super advisory committee and we've talked about revisiting rates in fact when we had our budget presentation we asked folks when
they're going to revisit rates soon so I think your comments on rates are absolutely spoton um we need to revisit them they are low I think and um I think also the the the work of folks putting in or folks installing their own irrigation also has an effect on kind of the
revenues Etc and that may have an impact on rates as well um we have had Wells offline 10's been offline it's been offline too long we're still trying to free it up and get it back online of course five and eight are going to be in the in the treatment plan so we're going to have three more Wells hopefully in
the next six to eight months or so six to nine months online so I think maybe the the the the pro proof is next summer I think to to kind of see where where we are not not that we're we never want to roll the dice and I always think that um I hearken back to what Bob duncanson
said about we there's enough water in the lens we just got to go get it I mean I remember that I understand um perhaps there's opportunities to drill another well I you know I'd like to to be honest with you we've talked about it here um quite a bit um Chamber of Commerce I
totally understand I totally want to fund the the the the visiting centers and I just I I too kind of scratch my head a little bit about the 20K that you know was on top of that what are we getting for um what are we getting for bang for a buck there cou love the language there growth in town Staffing
there wasn't a position um that I felt was inappropriate and I think you guys reached the same conclusion that every every ask was was appropriate and we're delivering services in the way they ought to be delivered so um totally agree on the short-term rental inspection feed it ought to go up ought
to be I think at least 100 bucks it's at 50 could go to a buck 50 but I think 100 bucks kind of is a round number um totally agree on upgrading the financial system I think it's you know it's a no-brainer if we it's really something really ought to happen if it's uh if
it's uh not up to Snuff um it should should help everybody along including the staff so anyway those are my comments I really do uh really do appreciate the comments I love reading them um I like the language uh and I appreciate I appreciate the effort of all the finance committee I was on the
finance committee in the m 80s it got me started in uh in town government a long time ago and uh work really hard they look at every single line of this budget and it's really appreciated thank you very much thank you Jeff I'm I'm going to take the opportunity of an open mic that I will point out that first of all
we recognize Joe to Jill's point about the 90% cap on on local receipts so we totally get that I love the suggestion of let's sort of Tuck into what the potential drivers of these overages are uh I think that's kind of all we're asking I don't think again there's no nefar a scheme to over tax the residents
but that's that's the implication of what happens right if we end up with $10 million in free cash that's a buck on the tax rate right if a penny raises $100,000 $110,000 it's a lot of money I will also
given that you like my language I said as we have previously observed we're fully cognizant that projecting free cash is part art along with a lot of science so in our defense uh but thank you one more comment just think of all the delicious free cash and
all the return turn backs and the reduction in the tax rate we'll have when we have paid parking downtown thank you very much uh speaking of open mics um I I I'm going to try to keep this brief I appreciate everything you've said it's very
thought-provoking uh as is the is evident from the reactions you've gotten from the other four members of the select board there's a lot to talk about here some of it is um axiomatic some of it is worthy of a lot more discussion I'm just going to try to be
very very brief and say um you know with water just going down the list with water uh it's one of the six goals and objectives we are focused on it as Shireen said um I think clearly the pricing is something probably not only
needs to be looked at but it is as your data suggest uh we're underpricing the the the the resource um I would like to say and and this is kind of my pet thing I I think we need to look at and I know Mr bardis
made this comment in the most recent Water and Sewer advisory committee I think we need to look at can we reduce usage excuse me by focusing on irrigation of private homes uh and and
encouraging either through pricing or otherwise um that to go to more to um to to private Wells and and I understand that there's a discussion as to whether
that um draws from the same um source of the the aquafer as do do the the the municipal draws um that leads me to my bottom line which is we need to get comprehensive data on all these issues
and then make some some policy decisions I do note that we had um a consultant in here sometime in the last year it was very impressive talking about um what what we need to do what we need to be concerned about with respect to our
water infrastructure namely Wells um storage um Etc so I I think it'd be useful to to keep that in mind as well free cash um I for another conversation I I'd like to know which
part of it is science I mean I I I don't understand how um you know you you make the the forecasts that are in line with um appropriate policies and then you end up with uh more than and there are a number of sources for that I think we
all agree on that um maybe there are some things that can be done on a tighter analysis of where it comes from that would make it more possible to be closer to 3 to five as opposed to your
numbers 15 16 whatever 20 um but I I at the end of the day from my perspective it it may be a problem but it's a high class problem and uh I say that with all respect to the the taxpayers um we'd rather be long than
short um finally I I absolutely on that subject I do agree I I don't think anybody's looking to avoid 2third votes um it just so happened that it was convenient it doesn't make sense to insist on what frankly I would regard as somewhat
foolish consistency to insist that we have two-thirds votes on things for which we have free cash to uh to uh to to to fund this year um I I I think the only other comment I would like let me let me just say with respect to policies
I think that's a great idea I'd like us to maybe share that with you the the maybe the finance committee might be a good starting point for a comprehensive review of Finance policies um and and or maybe in conjunction with us but I think it's a
good idea but it's something that um it it's more prophylactic than problem solving from my perspect and I think you've agreed with that uh lastly I'll say about the coll road project um what would we do without a year in which
we've got something that everybody has very strong views on and they're not all in alignment I I you know and the coll Road Project is as good as any I mean we've got the U may I hope the um seal behind us we've got maybe housing behind
us a little bit at least for the time being uh we need something to discuss one we need something animating for the off season there you go that's that's what we need so I I I I think Jill all she alluded a little bit to some of the counterveiling factors I I think we have
to take all of that into account when we have that conversation and I look forward to it but um it's not uh to my mind uh all one way or the other notwithstanding the unanimity of your of your group so yeah go ahead deam Mr chairman I had neglected one item that
Stephen had brought up and thank you for recognizing me again I on the subject of fees um just as a a suggestion with historical perspective um back when I was on the committee um your predecessor Ken summer appointed several
subcommittees to look at different issues I headed up the one on the hotel motel tax there was one on fees that never really got anywhere I don't think there was very much work that was done Jan might remember but um it it would be
I think helpful if the finance committee wanted to take the first crack at that but that's that's your call much as the chair has just suggested you might want to take the first crack at the financial policies but um I would certainly appreciate that they should be looked at
as you point out thank you Mr chair just a couple of observations I think Mike to your point about um all one way or another with respect to craw road we acknowledge that there are challenges and concerns down there we're just not sure that kind of the urbanization of
that that intersection is the optimal outcome we think there are things that can and should be done to improve safety and and erress and access access down there so I I I don't want you to interpret our our stances all one way or another no I I we think there's a good middle grounding that urbanization is a
bit of a pejorative term I'll well well we'll talk more about it offline but go ahead um oh I'm sorry I go and then to the to Dean I guess your point about the finance committee or Mike to your point about the finance committee uh reviewing the financial policies I would have to
defer to Jill as Town manager as to whether or not she wants our NOS in that book right now um and then similarly I suppose about um policy review you know fee structure review in general we're having to take orders from anybody but I would I want to be
appropriately yeah I I'd like to come back to that I have a thought about that but Jeff go ahead I just have one comment on cow Road I mean I don't share your V opposition but perhaps I share some some uh well- grounded ambivalence I I want to see what comes back with the 25% design and see what we can work out
in terms of safety that's why I voted for it thanks we look we look forward to that if I may just on the I did I was not focused on fees when I made the comment about the finance committee looking at Financial policy and that just a suggestion I don't think we have to resolve that tonight sure my question
about feed yes if something's been there for 15 years it probably needs to be updated is it does it provide a service that needs to be self-funding that's something that ought to be looked at I I agree with that but I think we do need to recognize fees fundamentally
in terms of the people on whom they fall or or we should look at that uh as well as um the the just sort of willy-nilly raising them it it is a regressive tax and and I you know we need to be aware
of the impact on on the people who are paying those fees uh particularly if they are disproportionate to their circumstances out with it so 100% we agree with that and I think that's of course one of the concerns about water pricing yeah right theity of water
pricing yep yep um and also by the way the why I am I I've sort of agreed to accept the $100 short-term rental increase in in fee but i' I'd like to see it stay there for that very reason but I'm sorry go ahead no I just
agreement that that some of these things are very regressive and we need to be mindful of that in this community 100% okay so um anything else thank you very much a good good uh very
good report good discussion and we look forward to further conversation on all these topics I thank you I I apologize if uh we are rocking anybody's shoe um but that's part of our job maybe a
pebble uh thanks very much okay uh well next we have if I let me make sure I have this right um a one-day alcohol
license for Holy Redeemer Church and I think Mr wiser is it is here to tell us about that good evening so uh Ron Weiser I'm representing Holy Redeemer Church and we're petitioning for a one-day alcohol
permit for uh a St Patrick's Day dinner that we're planning on having uh in the middle of next month so we've uh we've gone through covid pandemic we've gone through a year-long renovation of our church uh which and both of those events
have really limited our ability to get together as a community so socially so uh we're looking at the for the uh St Patrick's Day opportuni as a first chance to bring all of our community together socially for dinner and we'd like to serve beer and wine at it as
well um thank you any comments questions here from the board none other than the fact that you're having St Patrick's Day on the Ides of March um if there are no comments uh or questions Mr chairman I moved to Grant a
special one-day alcohol permit to Ron wear of Holy Redeemer Church from March 15 2025 from 5: to 8:00 pm at 57 Highland acham second I'll second uh all those in favor Miss Davis I uh Mr
necastro I Mr Shell says I and um Mr Dy hi thank you very much have a good dinner okay enjoy yourselves thank you uh next is the second read of the grinder pump policy
um and do you w to kind of give us an intro Mr failey sure thank you Mr chair Rob phy director of Public Works so after our two weeks ago at our last uh the last select board meeting uh we brought back
the um we convened with the water and advisory committee and they proposed some recommendations um basically to summarize I believe uh they were in support of it um they did have some additional
comments um and they had some additional um information that they wanted to be part of the recommendation but I believe that's in your your packet it is in the packet and u i I think um I would I would say I I
do want to take note particularly of the uh suggestion that we as as we go forward uh take up some sort of a uh uh policy discussion around supporting um folks for whom uh the the
um the cost of connecting is a is an unbearable burden uh or an unsustainable burden uh I know Shireen mentioned that in one of our discussions I support it and so I appreciate that coming from the water and sewer advisory committee uh I
also note the uh the whole question of uh maintenance which I'm I'm we we should take up uh promptly uh as a separate uh followon discussion um but I I I I think that's
we we recognize that that can't um drag Dean thank you Mr chairman I I I know you're going to open it for other comment but I wanted to make two comments one to follow up on something you just said but first um in the actual
recommendations um recommendation number one acquisition and provision where it refers to the elevation challenges I would like to insert the phrase or distance elevation or distance challenges I think that appears somewhere else I had mentioned that last time uh and I'm I'm fully supportive of
those recommendations and as was the water and sewer committees I think that's important for the record with respect to um assistance and you're you're correct Mr chairman Shireen has mentioned this several times um there was a a vote taken by the Water and Sewer committee uh at on February 10th
to recommend the creation of a sewer connection hardship program and I'd like to offer a motion on that in that respect after we deal with the main motion because I think it's something we should move forward with thank you
okay anybody else um Jeff very much in favor I would move approval uh and and I I'm going to Second it I would like to um just note for um our future discussion and before we actually vote I
think since we've invited uh comment from the public we ought to hear from them but in the uh the articles that we'll take up a little bit later I want to note that um the the policy that we have here uh under uh under
consideration and theoretically that we may uh approve here momentarily uh includes the stien the for U for inst $2,000 stien for installation and I think there's some places in the uh the the the warrant
materials where that fact needs to be added I'll bring those up when we get to them but I want to uh bring that to everybody's attention uh and Dean your your uh your or distance suggestion also Finds Its way into other other stuff uh
that that will come up later um Miss Gibbs thank you Mr chair these are kind of random because I didn't know we were GNA pardon me be allowed to speak um I know while apparently it is within the
purview of the select board to approve a policy without going to town meeting uh when a policy like this has such significant long-term financial implications in this case for 30 years uh it seems to me it should be
brought to town meeting for a I mean a lot of policies are put in place but they don't have serious implications I've previously express my concerns about this being one small piece that favors a particular group
over everyone else um and I think that's inappropriate right now we only know what it is for two years but the fact that it's being carried out until 2055 uh is amazing to me because we still don't have a handle on how long
it's going to take to sewer uh the town we should have had 2third of the Town connected by 2030 we only have 700 out of 5200 homes connected and all of those people have you know Financial uh
considerations um for every uh it goes back to this uh the fact that chadam is considered a wealthy community and looking at you know the financials for every there are three thou out of our 60 Reed 200 residences half of those are
summer residences and those people can likely afford uh to to do things but the other third half of the community are in fixed incomes and they have to pay for this and I would venture to Guess that
many of those will never get soared and they've been paying for the soar um for a long period of time since 2012 when we first broke ground so so um I I I I would like this to and I know it's not
going to happen but I I think the town should get an explanation because a lot of people don't listen to this and they're not going to understand what it means um and I'll speak later when we actually talk about um that part of the water and sewer budget but I I think
that you know and just to talk about free cash you know I got a real problem with that in that we appropriated that money requiring a 2third vote on on something whether it was employees or a project and then the money ends up not
getting used but it requires 2third and when it becomes free cash which is a misnomer it only requires a majority vote and therefore I think that we've got to get a lot better at doing zerob based budgeting because that's why we
end up with so much free cash we're not doing it we're not looking hard at the expenses we really need each year so that we don't end up with a lot of free cash at the end you know it's a wish list and that's how we get so much free
cash um so those are my only comments on this but thank you very much thank you um anybody else so did do we have a motion on yeah you moved approval and okay um sorry I I think Shireen also seconded
it okay uh Miss Davis yeah I just wanted to say that um I appreciated U Miss Gibbs uh comments on on um the equity part of of the you know seing the town but what I look at it from a perspective
of um that we're paying you know we are paying U we might not have sewer in our neighborhood but the environmental benefit to the entire Community has got to have some value and weight in the project and I just want to make sure that I
mentioned that and put it out there for consideration I also wanted to say that I'm really supportive of of Dean's recommendation um or Dean's uh wanting to make a motion from the water and sewer recommendation to do a sort connection hard hardship program so I
just wanted to uh just um just say that thank you thank you I I thought I saw another hand go up up um I maybe not is there anybody else
mine mine is up again it's aan gives I just have one more comment because I absolutely agree with the needs-based program that has been developed uh I think that's really important and I think as an alternative to the grinder
pump policy that that's what you do for everyone in town anybody who needs um uh has any problem s uh with affording it could take advantage of that and that would include people on grinder pumps so
I I think that that should replace what you're you're thinking about with the grinder pump policy I meant to mention that and I didn't thank you very much thank you um with that I'm I'm G to call the role here uh Miss Davis I uh Mr uh
dykens hi Mr Shell says I and Mr Nic Castro I uh and and I'll you go ahead and make the motion I I do want to give credit um for um uh to um uh Miss Aman of the water and sewer advisory
committee who I believe made the motion in in in that uh in that uh committee meeting so go ahead de yeah Mr chairman I move that the select board direct the town manager and staff to review and provide a recommendation to the select board on the feasibility of
establishing a chadam sewer assistant program as recommended by the Water and Sewer committee and I'll say as not as part of the motion that the assistance to be considered should not be limited to grinder pump situ situations but to anyone that is obligated to connect to
the Sewer yes agreed that's the motion yeah I'll second yeah all those in favor Miss Davis I uh Mr nicastro Mr Shell says I and Mr dykin resoundingly so I yes indeed thank thanks very much to
everyone um everyone who put that all together contributed worked on it over several years and now we have the maintenance policy to look forward discussing um next is the license to
enter and use real property at 608 610 stage Harbor Road uh is that whom do we have to help us with that uh is it is that you rob or is that you Jill or it's Kathy Kathy Kathy please unfortunately it seems that
the representative isn't available but um the town received um there's there's two parts to this item um the first is a little background history that the town received a request for an easement um to
run natural gas to the Old Mill Boatyard Pump Station uh located at 608 610 stage Harbor Road that item must go before for town meeting for approval therefore in the meantime uh the board is asked to consider granting a license
to enter and use real property executed by the town manager if approved um for that same use so that there's time for it to go for the work to be completed and that pump station to be brought online and then town meeting can then approve the easement if it so desires
Town Council has reviewed both the license and the easement that was drafted by um what is listed as the Boston gas company but is also um the natural gas company um GD um so that is Boston gas company
is the same as National Grid which is why it's listed as that the comments from Town Council unfortunately National Grid provided it only as a PDF so Town council's comments are the handwritten notes that you see um in both of those documents um but he did not see any
issue with other than what he noted um in those so I'm going to leave to the four here with first of all I you mentioned uh this is to be signed by the town manager but the signature page says by the select Board of the if it's up to
you if you want to sign it or if you want to have the town manager it's it's either way we can have that page Changed by the um gas company if if needed okay my second question is the count have has uh Boston gas Andor National Grid seen
Mr talman's comments do we know that they're acceptable they were um sent I haven't heard back but if approved I can ask them to review or we can come back at the next I know this was a little time sensitive um which is why it is before
you like this um I like I said I haven't heard back from Boston gas company on this yet so I don't have an answer to that at this time I I'm I'm just I mean I'll I I don't want to make it more difficult and I'd invite Dean or Jeff or
anybody else to comment i i two issues I have are one um is this sufficiently is the the license sufficiently reliable from the Boston gas point of view for them to
actually invest money when um town meeting May say no thanks um and then secondly you know the question is uh you know what does happen to the license if town meeting says no
thanks um and then of course there's the issue whether they are willing to accept the changes I I ideally we would not I mean we can approve this in form subject to the the council working out the details but um I I I signing it today
would in my mind not be be prudent so to your point about um the license Boston gas company is aware that I mean obviously they drafted the license so they did ask that we let them know if when it is placed on the town meeting warrant that was kind of one of their stipulations in terms of approval of the
license my understanding and the town manager can correct me but um my understanding is the license if this does if the easement does not pass at town meeting the license remains as a license correct um it very well could and and just a reminder this is for
providing service to town property so I I I understand but I'm and we've done it in and so there is some risk to town meeting as any Town meaning article might be we fashioned the article um on the last page of one that was signed a few years ago I believe it
was 2016 was the last time we had yeah um an easement granted so that's what the article was based off of or drafted from so we did that before we had a license so the license is revocable and well that's what we say I think there's some place where the Boston um gas
people said it was irrevocable I maybe I'm was imagining that but I I thought that it said that it was not subject to re revocation which is one of the reasons why I asked the question I asked I'm looking at what Town Council
had crossed out we can certainly put this in our form of license and come back to the board if you want to feel more comfortable about it I I I guess to try to move this along I would propose that we approve this subject to um the
the final approval of Town Council and obviously Boston gas but you know because if they don't approve it they won't sign it um but but subject to approval I don't know how you feel about that Dean but I I I I well I'll comment on that in a second I had the same
recollection that you did and I think uh it's the easement that lasts forever because it uses the word forever in the first paragraph um grants to um now I've lost the
word no I have no problem in the second paragraph the E being it's the the license and I assume these were Town Council edits that are in type typewritten form on the third page it says on paragraph 11th um re revocable
at the discretion of the license or that's us what we could do um is approve these either according to the condition that you gave or we could say we're approving them based on on the basis of
the language that's in front of us and if they don't like it they'll have to come back and we'll we'll change it and and I'm I'm we can do that I was trying to give a little more flexibility if Town Council approves anything that amends what we're approving here that's
okay with us yeah would be my Approach here that's fine with me I'll make that motion I was GNA say is that a motion yeah second uh all those in favor Shireen I uh Mr Dyk Mr Shell says I and
Mr necastro I okay um next I believe is is the um General government and other undesignated portion of the 26 operating budget
Carrie do you w to are you are you up on that or who's that thank you Mr chair yes Car masal Finance director um okay so General government and other undesignated
um the FY 2026 budget presentation um see if I have control of this mouse so as you are aware I went over a few of these things at the beginning when we did the um budgets during the budgets uh Summit
and in January when I was presenting the estimated proposed budget um so we're going to be going over General government um which is 6% of the budget um The Debt Service which is 14% of the budget um undistributed insurance and
Reserve fund which is 2% of the budget and employee benefits at 11% of the budget General government um consists of 10 departments for other on two committies we've got the select board Town manager Human Resources accounting assessing
treasur collector it town clerk elections and the sticker permit office we also have the town Town moderator legal audit Parking Clerk summer residence advisory committee and the finance committee so the budget for FY 2026 for
the general government is 3,546 470 up 126,595 or 3.7% from 2025 Personnel Services have increased 122,000 and operational expenses have
increased uh only $4,650 um so salary lineing increases are due to contractual increases step increases and Longevity increases um Town manager Department increased 16460 in salaries Human Resources
increased 876 accounting division increased 83,8 and I will go over that in a few slides aex assessing division increased 11,616 treasure collector division increased
10,475 it 19,22 town clerk 6,619 elections went down 8,677 and the sticker permit office also went down um by 2,58
um increases by Department uh slick board 1,50 Town manager increased 5,800 Human Resources increased 2,400 accounting division increased 1,300 assessing division increased
1,450 it division increased 7,750 elections went down 28,500 and the sticker permit office increased 13,400 can I just the the elections the 20 is that
because of the uh the special town meeting last year yep no no no no it has to do with all the elections in 2025 that we had but I'll go over that in the next slide but that's mainly what it is it's just um yeah the presidential oh
okay all right I got Itor I got it I got it thank you you're welcome and I have a quick question and stickers the sticking sticker office are we are we buling up staff there expanding hours weekend hours um yeah so I'll be going over that also you're welcome
um so these are the Departments that were level funded for FY 2026 we have the town moderator at 1,250 finance committee at 2,600 legal at 235 audit at 65,000 summer resident
advisory committee at 2,000 and Parking Clerk at 8,500 um there are no operation operational expense increases uh for Treasure collector or the town clerk can I this is not a budget question but I I
look at the legal and I remember looking at that number when we retain new Town Council have we had any expenses that have fallen outside of our uh basic um advisory agreement with them
no we haven't okay thank you um so the select board budget for um 20126 is 24,50 um salaries are at 21,000 and expenses are at 3,50 um the operating expenses are increasing 1,50 and that's for
advertising for $11,000 and office supplies for 50 and those are just due to um increases um that we've been incurring and seeing over the past couple years one is tempted to ask what we're advertising the select
board all of your public hearings that you have oh public okay okay thank you thank you thank you Joel uh Town manager budget is at 643,000 salaries are at
4219 expenses are 221,250townhouse operating expenses are increasing 5,800 um again just operational increases um to advertising we're moving um from printing to postage just just in
the line item um so that's a net difference um and then we have office supplies which we've seen increases for and um meeting dues and travel $550 and that's just for um increases for um that we've seen in dues and meetings and you
know the travel over the past couple of years human resource budget is at 234,50 56 uh salaries are at 204 206 and expenses at 3,350 operational expenses are increasing 2,400 um we started the employee
engagement um in F this current fiscal year in FY 2025 and we set the limit at like um I think it was $750 um so being the first year we've seen um the chili cookoff we've seen um
what other items that do they have um goodness so they've had movie night so the the itself is is not receiving any additional money or bonuses it's we had to uh rent the U VFW who in turn
then uh had donated uh the rent for that so um most of it has been funded by me and so with the committee being um more zealous and and um more organized there's a lot of events coming up so we
thought that having a $3,000 budget for supplies and and and trophies or whatever is needed for employee gaug it was a good investment thank you thank you contracted Services advertising and office supplies um the advertising is
just moving um $250 to the office supplies line and um contracted Services is up uh just a little bit $150 um the accounting budget is at $3,248 3,692 um in FY 2026 compared to 2025 um
and I'll go over that in the next slide um operational expenses increases are 1,300 and this is for continuing education and meetings do in travel for um the employees to be able to go and have professional growth um and just
we're seeing um the meetings dues and travel again increase um but this is more so for continuing education for all of our employees and accounting to be able to attend so in the accounting office
um uh I think there's been a little bit of talk about this position but um there's a position the finance administrative position that's been posted in FY 2025 and um what we did was reallocate funds from the conservation department and the conservation
department assistant of 57,000 toll and the sticker office lead position in the amount of$ 25,9 $56 um to the accounting office for this position um the conservation department
assistant was not um filled the past couple of years so um and then the sticker office lead position we just found a need that there was more of a manager type position needed in that office to oversee the
staff and kind of take the you know more of a management role that is needed in that um office um so this is a split position that is half the year in the sticker office and half the year in finance to
help with budgeting and day-to-day activities um maybe reconciling and kind of digging more into the budget like we were kind of having that conversation just a little while ago about looking further into expenses and revenues and stuff this position could help do things
like that and also help with um the budgeting software as well do you have any more questions on no questions okay um the assessing budget is at
361,000 salaries are at $272,800 expenses at$ 8,600 operating expense increases are 1,450 again um another Department that's asking for
increases in continued education and meeting students and travel I think this is kind of across the board in a lot of the Departments um advertising um went down $100 and purchase of services is up $50 um the it budget is at 965877502
50 operating expense increases are 7,750 um again we're seeing the increases here with u meeting dues in travel um $1,250 and continu in education for 2,000 office supplies are up
$500 operational supplies again um I don't I think that's a typo $2,000 um professional Consulting up $2,000 Carrie question was this segment of of the budget of this SEC section of
the budget developed off of a request that came from the head of it yes and and off the top of your head do you have any sense of of what the how much was was requested as opposed to the 965 that we're looking
at um you mean the 7,750 no I I mean I'm I'm going to assume actually I shouldn't have focused on 96 uh 65 I'm going to assume the the 458,000 of salaries is pretty much dictated by um contractual contractual
agreements um so I'm focused what I should have uh said was the 507 is what you have here how much would if you know or if you recall how much was actually requested by the department
head um I believe it was more like five what happened there um Craig is on here but I believe it was 500 and maybe 40 hi Craig do you remember how much you
actually requested yeah I think I uh I cred uh 540,000 and that is generally because uh we we pay for all the uh licensing agreements for all the softwares
throughout town and in general licensing agreements they don't tend to go up but General Municipal rates of 3% they tend to go up anywhere from 5 to 10% for example our um Microsoft licensing went
up about 8% last year so it was just an increase uh we'll be able to move some uh funds around to to meet the budget for this year okay I the the generally software the thrust of my question really was starts with assumption that
um this you know this section of the budget could do a whole lot with a lot more money um and we have to be um how do I say it we have to be economical but I was just wondering the extent to which
the you know the ultimate decision on being economical how that related to the the so-called wish list and I'm I think it's good to hear that it it's pretty close so I'm that from my perspective that's a good
answer yeah I would agree we we are moving uh we are transitioning some softwares over um and consolidating so we we're hoping to see um no increase uh or not a substantial increase by
consolidation so as thank you thank you Craig um the elections budget is at 57,7 78 temporary wages are um 7,668 and expenses are at
,110 the temporary wages decreased 8,607 and operating expenses have decreased 28,500 um and that is um again that's due to the ctions in FY 2025 and not so
many in 2026 um the sticker permit office budget is at 68,69 salaries are at 31,32 and expenses at 36850 um again the salaries are decreased 25508 um that goes back to the
accounting uh Department um just reallocating the funds and um um the operating expenses increased 13,400 um and the operational supplies increased alone $113,000 and that's due to um
Civic plus um software that we have that we a company that we use um and the purchase of stickers have increased as well so those that's for that line item office supplies um increased $1,000 this
would be for any operational supplies that the new employee would need we want them to kind of go through the office and look around and see if there's any additional stuff that they need or want uniforms I decreased that line by $200 I don't think um the department really
needs uniforms so um I took that out meeting do some travel I reduced that by $400 I um by increasing the accounting office budget um I reduce this one and I don't think they're going to be going to meetings does in travel any of the SE
seasonal employees so I left $100 in here just for any um around the town driving going back and forth from here to the town hall that's pretty much that's any questions on that no thank you
okay um the ELD the library assessments for FY 2026 are at 71424 Aldridge Public Library um their proposed budget increased three and a half% within an assessment of 700,000 701 to 44 and the South chadam
library's proposed assessment for 2026 is $113,000 um which reflects a $1,000 increase compared to 2025 other Department's budgets the Veterans Services um is at 129,90
for FY 2026 um 3072 72 increase to the veterans benefits in 2026 over 2025 um the assessment for 2026 is
69,99 and the veteran veterans benefits is at $60,000 um just a little bit about this last year um when I did the budget for FY 2025 um they started um
um paying out more for benefits and stuff for surviving spouses and Veterans themselves from this benefits line um so I um going to be asking for a supplemental at town meeting for the veterans benefits um but just over the
past few years this line has increased um due to the just to the request of the benefits itself not necessarily the the assessment but just the benefits in general that they get they get a lot of
um medical and stuff like that help paid for that they can't afford so that's why that's that's you're seeing that increase overse EXC yeah yeah sorry who oversees that program is it is it um is
the the COA so it's um a regional I believe um program cap vets so it goes to the Cape Cod veterans yes it does yeah but these in particular
I think the assessment is just for chadam like okay thank you so you're welcome please we pay an assessment to yeah the regional correct which I think is headed in harch but we also pay 60,000 directly
as benefits to our veterans yep okay all right yes sir Carrie did you say you're going to have a supplemental atel meeting for this as well I am yeah it's probably this from last year you mean or for this current fiscal year for this current fiscal year what's that amount you what that amount it's probably
around 20,25 okay so is that one of the reasons why you bumped it up as well for next I did okay thank you thank you're welcome thanks um public ceremonies um 21,000 for FY 2026 this is actually a
$2,000 decrease um they have they haven't been spending that much so um we reduced their line item by $2,000 it's not a lot of money um other public events Chad and ban that's level funded at $10,000 and then the railro railroad
museum is um requesting $5,000 um so qu benefits budgeted at 7,861 188 for 2026 um the increase of $825,000 up
$5,000 Medicare employer share is at $240,000 up $440,000 um police fire injury 27,2 25 up $2,475 retirement assessment is
$3,114 947 up $369,700 685 so all of these um the only change on here compared to the proposed post budget is a retirement assessment um we
received that maybe a few weeks ago um so I think my original was like 2.8 or something like that I can't really exactly remember the exact figure figure but um we received their assessment and it's at
3,149 47 um a lot of this on here is due to um increases um in staff increases of their salaries and their compensation and the more that we pay the more we're going to
have to pay out for Medicare employer share um and also the retirement assessment is based on that as well the health insurance um is the same as the proposed the health insurance rate came in increase came in at 6.5 for Cape C
Municipal health group but we also have Medicare that we pay for which was a percentage increase between 12 and 24% we also pay for dental out of this fund and then um for FY 2026 we'll have all of our
employees on the 70% share so this is just taking into consideration all of our employees that we currently have that are taking health insurance the the work workers C is that just a retroactive uh um experience
rating um yes just a rate increase that we get from the company Maya so but it's based on actual experience is that yes okay mhm you have an annual audit on workers comp we do have an annual audit on workers comp actually we just had one um
so and then Carrie the Medicare employer sh that's it's strictly because of the increase in FTE um it's based on what our salaries are for the year so um it's the 1.45 %
yeah got it I got it yeah thank you yep okay big number I know $826,000 increase anyway insurance is unreal thanks yeah that's one of the largest
things that have increased besides salaries undistributed Insurance um the insurance budget for 2026 is 1,100 $2,835 an increase of $144,950 which is um just about a 15% increase um when I talked to the
insurance company they said they were um increasing their rates based around 15 to 20% so I just went with a 15% um across the board so um we get our insurance wholesale and
it's also based on what what's going on in in other states and stuff as you know we've had a lot of uh disasters happen too so our rates seem to be increasing a lot based on that um The Reserve fund for FY 2026 is
level funded again at $100,000 um this is for unforeseen um expenditures that come across this is the fund Mr this is the finance committee finance committee gets to approve these unanticipated
expenditures with the town manager I don't think those come back to the select board do they for vote no they no they don't so we did use this um last year for our insurance we didn't use the whole fund but we were approve some money from them um the FY 2026 um debt budget is at
8,576 227 and this hasn't changed at all principal is at 6,821 163 and the interest is at 1,624 64 and the short-term interest or
interest and short short the shortterm borrowings or um we also use this amount to pay for the costs and fees that are associated with borrowing at the end of the year um I take it nobody has any questions um
so I'll get into the capital um so the town manager's requests for 2026 is Consulting and Engineering this is an annual request of $100,000 um so this is just a line item that we use to um for townwide
expenditures on engineering and Consulting costs um these are um it requests um do you want to talk about your I can talk about that um sure yeah okay so um it we we had a large number
of capital requests um a lot of this is just uh maintenance of of some of annual ongoing maintenance of of our um infrastructure for example I'll start with the um annual cameras as you know
we have about 150 cameras around town um the oldest building that we have cameras in is a community center and that is uh they've been online since the building was actually built so we uh we need to
upgrade those cameras so this fund is to is to start to put all the cameras on a fiveyear plan cameras range in price depending on what we're looking at anywhere from 600 to about a th000 so we're hoping to replace um you know put
start to put the cameras on a a 5year cycle and we'll start to do those as we uh move through the town as buildings get older and we need to update them um the same is with the annual requests for access controls we have cards that we
access the buildings with um these cards uh the doors are the bigger concern um for example the Annex Building they have bar strikes and and the doors need to without replacing the whole door with need to replace the mechanism for the
control card so um this will be beginning the process of starting to replace those doors uh we have probably about 50 to 60 doors around town that do have strikes and require this type of Hardware um and we need to start to to
upgrade those annually uh chadam TV equipment that's just a relatively standard um request for the chadam TV Department um this goes to towards purchasing uh Hardware anything else
they need small uh non large items that Mark may need um the next one's a financial management system um Step Daniel had uh we are looking um this would
begin phase one of the project uh which would be a new chart of accounts and Carrie can go into that a little bit more after I kind of give you an overview a new chart of accounts and to get the general ledger accounts payable accounts
receivables and the tax and assessing modules up and running what I had done is I went out and I found the most expensive software and I've kind of based the process uh the the purchasing of this process without going out and
getting multiple bids um based upon the number that I got for the most expensive software in Carrie do you want to comment on the CH of accounts uh yeah so I can just speak about it a little bit so our current Financial software is um just about
almost 20 years old now um it's built on Microsoft Access so um it it when you run reports it's it's slower than some other systems that I've I've used or even compared to cleargov that we use
right now for our budgeting um it's inefficient um it has limited functionality um the reporting um I know that you guys are already in favor for this but um and Steven already had it in his report so I'll just kind of be brief but um the
reporting is very um limited as well so when you have to when you run a report you have to run it year by year you can't run it from multiple years um so um also um there's integration
challenges with the software that we currently have um and I'd like to be able to just have something that collaborates better with all of the Departments um and I just want something that's you know I think we all want something that's more efficient in town
to be able to use um but anyways that's for the financial software ju just a quick question um and not details but how H how flexible will it be to transition and
create a bridge so that we still have some retention and ability to do comparative analysis with prior years under the old system so it's going to take a while to get onto something new like uh Craig was saying we have to build a new chart of accounts
um we're going to have to put together a team and kind of like go through and figure out what software we want to use first because there's there's it is limited to what we there is available for municipal Financial softwares there's probably only three or four that
I can think of and the one that we already have is one of the one one of them um so um as far as a bridge I can also comment Carri go ahead I can also comment on some of this too okay
generally what happens is there's a large migration process which takes the data um on previous implement ment ation I've done we've bought over anywhere from 10 to seven years worth of
historical data off the old system and then the vendor will come up with a process so that we can still gather the other historical data um at any point in time so um that that's one of the big larger parts of the project is migrating
the data over so that we can run uh you know up to possibly you know as as minimal as seven uh years of historical data in one conversion um so that that's part of the the data migration and the process that
that answers the question thank you okay thank you Jeff yeah I just quickly um RFP this year you think or and and is the current vendor going to be going to be one of the candidates do you think no okay so you're you're down to three okay
but you think you're get an RFP out this year is that is that the plan or not if if it's not this year it would be um early next year the the chart of accounts it's kind of like when you are um putting together regulations you you look to make sure your house is in order
and everything you know interacts with each other so uh we have a a chart of accounts that been um it's been fine for us but we need to expand it in a way that we're able to um track annual town
meeting warrant safe per say for um a project um the the towns typically recycle some of the account numbers and we're finding it's just too constricting and and we're not getting um good data there's there's there's no data flaws but for us to do our analysis so uh
Charter of accounts is probably going to take about a year and a half uh to get done and hoping uh to get we'll do it another set of funding requests for next year through the capital program and hopefully as soon as possible the the
system we have now is is just becoming web- based and and so some of the limitations there um don't really provide us any kind of growth in the future totally get it and it's probably overdue um so this this is teeing it up
this is do planning dollars or whatever or trying to do some planning here and yes you very familiar with these efforts they're um lengthy involved and take a lot of close attention in management um might and operations and financial
operations but anyway okay have [Laughter] fun uh Craig I think you have more a couple more Yep so our next request is for uh GIS migration curently we are using a software called people forms um
we've made the commitment to move to an EZ platform which was um a pretty a pretty high level uh type of GIS software uh just for informational purpos GIS software provides us uh
basically takes a map of the town and it just integrates layers into it and those layers can be water sewer sidewalks uh any infrastructure assets um and pretty much be anything that you that you can
build into it realistically uh Public Works use it for their streets sidewalks uh water and sewer infrastructure for example when the uh guys get a call out to do a Dig Safe um
they will look on the gis system they'll look at the parcel address and tell you tell them the information about the property they'll also look at the uh the laterals which come off the main waterline and any sewer water lines and then go out and mark them and they can
actually see it um the accuracies generally submeter So within 3 feet ballpark so um we're migrating off this software over to a new software and the larger portion of this is to get
assistance from a company um to help build out these maps and then our GIS coordin maintain the maps and also build upon that um all the layers that we require in town and we do have a lot of layers in town um as I say anything um
uh conservation land uh Waterfront infrastructure private roads uh easement everything is in the system so this money is to help us build it out and make it more accessible to our staff and
uh build out some maps for the general public uh Land Management assessment GIS this is the an annual fund this is where we take the money for all of these land BAS uh mapping and anything infrastructure uh that needs to go into
our GIS system um we purchase some Hardware to do some planimetric mapping where we'll actually go out the field and we'll we'll plot a point out in the field for example we're doing hydrants right now we have a few hydrants that
aren't on our GIS layers they either they've either come back online or they they have been updated um that'll be to you know we use this account when we need to to purchase hardware and additional softwares to do that
process uh Network upgrade of equipment this is our this is primarily in our um it's actually Solly in the water uh pollution control facility as you know that went online uh
pre me coming to town so it's been at least 12 years not 15 um and some of the network Hardware needs to be updated uh these are small switches that control all the traffic that comes from the skater system which is the monitoring
system within the buildings um we are upgrading as a large uh purchase that we did last year uh the servers so that this is all part of the next phase of of updating all the network there uh
generally we like to run the network at that specific place for about 7even years then it really becomes end of life uh anywhere from 5 to 7 years so this is to upgrade those
switches uh Studio Hardware upgrade uh this is for the CH uh chadam TV um this will be upgrading the all the boards and any infrastructure needed uh for for Mark and Brianna at the um at the studio
this funded from uh Peg funds um so we it it is time to stay on top of this infrastructure and we're trying to get that updated uh and then Town computer technology um this is our annual purchase of trying to keep our things
like printers laptops uh some of our infrastructure switches that control the traffic around town this is where we purchase um that equipment out of generally as a I say anywhere from 3 to 5 years some staff
members require um a little an upgrade in three years some staff members require them in five a desktop at the sticker office doesn't need to be upgraded every 3 years but it should be upgraded every five years so that's the
total of all of our Capital requests there's any questions uh that I can answer for I think they're good thank you Craig I appreciate it awesome great thank yep thank
you and the last thing on here is the FY 2026 Capital warrant article request for OPB um liability trust fund appropriation um this is the article um it's an annual article every year for
$150,000 to be transferred this year last year we took it from stabilization and funded it that way but this year we're going to go back to the overlay Surplus and fund it that way it was approved by the board of assessors
um for this um so do you guys have any questions on the OPB then I guess we'll take a motion to place okay yes please thank you move to
place second all those in favor Ms uh Davis I Mr nicastro Mr Shell says I and Mr Dyk hi who would you recommend second uh Miss Davis I uh Mr necastro I Mr
Shell says I Mr dykin hi okay so that was the end of all of that thank you you're welcome um who is up next uh I think uh
Terry and uh Cal I guess Terry it's you or is anybody online we do have is online okay do you want me to introduce you okay so this one uh just noting that public comment
will be accepted yes sir welcome great thank you uh Terry wellan projects and operations administrator and basically here tonight following up on our multiple meetings in January uh closing in on putting a or
requesting placement and support for an warrant article um as you may recall in the previous um uh well in the staff report we were um charged to go back and look at the
overall total project budget number we looked into that um in the staff report have laid out multiple um items that we looked at for um review and consideration uh with some of the
concerns that were raised and some additional uh considerations when we drilled down um looking at it in the context of the schedule and other um concerns with bidding um as as we move forward so what I'm going to do and
maybe just in the interest of time I'm going to pull up the um the revised budget uh for the benefit of the public as well uh um to point out some changes um that we're proposing here to the
budget if remember we had a um budget U it was around 4.4 million um now with the new revised contingencies we looked at uh some scheduling concerns some potential areas in the market where there might be
some challenges so on on this sheet um that uh basically we looked at uh expanding a couple of the contingency line items so for the broader uh project construction we in have increased the project contingency and this is really
to to get at some of the concerns that were raised about uh challenges in the market place so that would go from 10% to 12.5% and then also a design contingency increase here as well from 2.5 adding
another 2.5% on top of the 5% um um and that would bump up that number uh for the um the modifier and escalation project excuse me there um and then we also looked at in a little more detail the
the values that we were carrying for the uh temporary relocation so we broke out those numbers I think I mentioned it at the previous presentation that we had um some numbers in there um co-mingled with
uh other Furniture furnishings and um the it equipment so we've broken that out and also added another $50,000 to account for uh the desire to rent trailers um and some of the other concerns with that were discussed at at
the previous meeting and then also due to some of the potential challenges we also bumped up the contingency for the soft cost as well another 2 and a half% for U some of the items um that are are outlined in the report and and and I
don't know if I want to defer to the town manager but we did talk this morning about um the the the schedule and moving forward uh we did look at and I think we mentioned this
previously as well this is a tight construction uh both bidding construction schedule um and this is going to be basically our recommended approach here I know in the staff report I laid out an alternate uh to potentially address some some concerns
but this really the Baseline overview uh overview schedule here is our proposed recommendation and as we did talked about previously uh basically is soon after if we have a project in the sense
that um the board will place it um on the warrant we'll start continuing our or or excuse me initiating our um procurement for the designer and the OPM so that we can get out in front of this and meet this meet this schedule um as
you can see again it's pretty tight and obviously dependent upon the um outcome of town meeting but using the free cash article we'll have the um funding available to jump right into um finalizing the design and getting this
bid um and under construction as soon as possible comments questions I just go ahead go ahead I think it looks great I think increases to contingencies make sense Terry and Jill but I was confused by the two different um timelines so if you just go
through that for a second thanks yes so the the timeline that that Terry has before you is going out to bid uh in July of 2025 and the other timeline that he included in the report board has a January
2026 uh bid date so uh what we talked about today was you know how how to catch the eye of potential contractors we were concerned maybe that they would be very busy in the summer and and maybe
not have the capacity to offer a bid I'm not really that concerned about it it's it's not a new bit it's not not a new building and so um with the projected cost or the allocation of funding of $5 million I think with our contingencies
we could do it uh one of the other things too is if we push it out to the January 2026 that means it's a whole another um or a later cycle of getting into the building itself and that presents some challenges with the
community center although Leah and Amy have done a really good job of coordinating that I think where we look at the contingency is probably we don't have a we're still looking at a a design concept and if we
could uh possibly invest sooner than later but understanding Town meting needs to approve the funds into our site engineering I think that's the area that has more unknowns to us so that if we can figure out the the traffic pattern the
parking if we can do that and we have some available funds and again talk talking to the board about your comfort level with investing in that before town meeting I think that would provide us more comfort in being able to get the bids out or if we need to do an add alternate for some of the items we
talked about some available grant funding that we currently have possibly go towards maybe the elevator uh project so again a lot of it is within the existing building itself that wouldn't be renovated but potentially a better
site design No Matter What would benefit um the facility even if it failed for town meeting so um I'm not sure if there was anything else Terry we talked about no and I think one of the other potential challenges with the alternate schedule would be also exposing for
additional escalation too for you know pushing back the project a year and Jill already touched upon the temporary relocation aspects as well making it kind of we we again our discussion this morning is keep the momentum going and and again work closely with the OPM and
the designers to um get out there and shake the trees that the project is coming so that it it's just that this is you know typically we're bit we're bidding on our larger projects in the winter as people lining up work but again we're comfortable with the the
Baseline schedule and with the caveat that Jill just mentioned sorry Dean yeah thank you Mr chairman so Jill and you and I talked about this today I just wanted to clarify this on the record so if we were to um give the okay tonight to a warrant
article um you on the accelerated schedule that that's the one you recommending yes and and the um the article itself the explanation I think is going to have to be adjusted to reflect that because was a little confusing um in addition to the site
work you which you would commence immediately I guess you would tap into your Consulting budget the town manager's Consulting fund that you have currently available but you would also uh be in the process of um looking for a um um a project manager you'd put out an
rf2 for that yes so that's a request for qualifications so that person if town meeting goes ahead with the project in May the next day you could presumably um be ready to get someone on board pretty quickly as the project manager yes okay
okay um I'm I'm prepared to offer some general comments about the article but I didn't know going to make this available to for public comment too um okay I I'll say they're not going to be long I I won't be repetitive I you know I I
support this enthusiastically the council and aing board uh which uh um met subsequent to our last discussion on this and voted unanimously to support the board going forward with this and to take the money from I think they included that taking the money out of
free cash um I think that the the the several meetings we had had on this the public forum we had on this um there have been a lot of hard questions that the members of this board have put forward and I think that's been very helpful to the process uh and we've heard from the public on that too uh in
in helping to refine the numbers I think this project represents a reasonable compromise uh for for the town to uh as the finance committee said put this put this subject to bed after so many years um and I think it will uh
I'm personally confident that town meeting voters will be able to recognize the proposal as a reasonable compromise of a major issue that affects U uh and benefits a major portion of the population uh as far as taking the money
from free cash um I support that because the money's there um it doesn't make any sense to me to go out and bond for this um I know that items charged to free cash are fungible those that don't get
free cash might have to be bonded um but this is a major project I know there were competing challenges uh that the town has um to deal with uh financially uh but it's our responsibility as a board to assign priorities uh according
to the timing of events and um I think this really merits coming out of free cash and it's in my I don't think anyone in this board if we do support this um by majority vote a unanimous vote um is doing this um because we want to avoid a
two-thirds vote at town meeting I would be supporting this if the free cash were not available I would be supporting a borrowing for it um I just think it's money that is available um and we should do it so I'm going to support um they
putting this on the Warren and recommending it thank you Mr chairman thank you um do you have anything to say no I well said Dane uh you know we've been around and around this has been the the project The Nomad project as was the terms were you used earlier this evening
I'm very much in favor of it I have some concern about the timetable that's why I asked about the the two Tim taes um it's going to take some some pre-planning which I think you're really doing with your comments this evening in terms of the site work that you're going to prime the pump if you will with that I think
that's helpful um and I think trying to get ahead as much as you can before we get a formal vote is is is smart um I I do think that if it we were go to town meeting and it were to be asked for a bonding I do believe this would pass so I'm very comfortable I'm comfortable um
I would I wouldn't mind testing that because it's been tested so many times however uh I'm not going to force that issue when Iota um I do think it would pass I think it will pass anyway I think it's a good project I think it's a really good compromise as you noted Dean and uh I'm certainly going to vote for
it and I will also vote for the use of free cash I'm I'm excited about really excited about it be honest with you Shireen do you have anything you want to say um I'm just concurring with the two comments made prior let's just move this forward okay um anything from
the public I I do have some comments but I'll offer the the public an opportunity to comment if they would like I I don't see anybody at the moment do you um I I I I am committed to this I want this to
happen um I but I want you to hear me and see me as a skeptic and I'm not a SK I believe town uh meeting will pass it uh I'm not quite as confident as as Jeff maybe that it could get a two-thirds vote but perhaps it could and I would
sure work like the Dickens to make that happen if that were the operative test I don't think we ought to put any more burdens on this project than it absolutely must bear and a two-thirds vote is not something it must bear so I
and I'm I'm in favor of the free cash approach the timetable here I I I I want to say please prove me wrong I I have real doubts that you can get this done the way you've laid it out here it is
absolutely not a solution to put this off to a winter bid you need to go forward if you need anything from us to do the pre-planning that you were talking about in the and the uh the site work and so forth I'm all for that as well and please ask us to do that or at
least ask us to put it on the table and vote on it but um I for example I still remember that August 22 pres presentation that uh Joel the architect I've forgotten his last name now bman
bargman made they had in there in the part of it that dealt with renovating um 193 they had a half a million dollars for the um the transition for the uh while we're out of the building segment you don't have
anything close to that in here I I I hope you're right I I just I want to tell you that I don't want to be around to say I told you so I want to be around to say I'm glad you got it done and I hope I gave you a little bit of an
incentive to make sure you do get it done the way it's laid out here because I'm a little bit of a doubting Thomas but I'm all for it so those are my comments Mr chairman um there's a prepared motion I don't think there
was uh I thought there was I I I'm there's a draft article subject to the revision and the explanation but the article essentially um authorizes the town to appropriate and transfer the sum of $5 million from
free cash for the purpose purp of expanding and renovating the existing Center for active living sea fell located at 193 Stony Hill Road so I move that um the select board place this motion on the warrant second the article
on the warrant sorry all those in favor M Davis I uh Mr dykens I Mr Shell says I and um Mr necastro I Mr chairman I move that the select board recommend this article to town meeting second all those
in favor Mr nicastro Mr Shell says I Mr Dyk Miss Davis hi there you go thank you go forth and succeed go forth all do El laity yes put your track shoes
on okay Mr failey welcome back thank you good evening Rob failey director of public work as Rob is teeing this up just note that Kathy had given you a replacement uh
there were just a couple of um irregularities in the the wording for the vote so this is um a transfer station appropriation from free cash it is not a bonding authorization just wanted to just make that clear there was
a Remnant sentence or two from a prior uh a prior staff report that before we had determined that free cash could be used so it's free cash as well as the tax rate so just um is is the article as
presented correct the yeah so the the article um right before the chart it says the additional funding appropriated on this article and subsequent ballot question X there's no
ballot question X did I refers toot yes the only the referral to ballot question okay so the new one is correct yes okay thank you the dollar the the funding amounts and everything is the same
okay okay so I'll just do a quick recap of uh where we've been uh spring 23 approved 4.82 million for the construction of phase 1 and phase two we still had 215,000 remaining from the design contract from 2020 so that left
uh $5 M35 th000 remaining for the construction of both phases um phase two was estimated at 2.1 million bids are open in 2024 for 3.85 2 million and the contract was awarded to JJ cardosi I think it was a unanimous
decision that the staff um building was more important than the recycling area so we were moving along as just some pictures to show um you know was construction began in September 24 um with demo and um hazardous material
abatement um construction continues through the winter um slight utility Work Foundation walls um phase two also with the steel erection um uh they did the building enclosure is started and the concrete
waterproofing on the blocking the foundation has been completed and so here we are just a few days ago with the uh building envelope um being installed um we've had some change orders to date um and in addition to the construction
Administration bidding design OPM material testing Etc um is taken up another $336,600 so that leaves uh a smaller portion remaining but I'll get into those details in a
moment so phase one is the recycling area so phase two is the red circle and the building and phase one is everything else pretty much um so it was estimated at 2.72 Million last year uh bids are open and they came in at 3.17 two
million and uh we didn't award the contract because we didn't have enough money to fund both phases so we looked at the design took a harder look at it again we talked about the stump dump in that green circled area uh we talked to
um we talked look at it looked for efficiencies we did exploratory tests and we look to refine the design to what it is now um we did uh conducted interviews with transfer station staff
we looked at looking find um improved customer flow with vehicular traffic and we also integrated The Tipping floor I think you may have all recalled that um but the Tipping floor is the big blue building um commercial haulers residential trash all gets deposited in
that building and back in 2020 the building renovation was proposed at 1.22 million um that would have been much higher nowadays but we've reduced the scope so it's only the concrete floor and the picture to the right just isn't a kind of a closeup of the concrete
floor as it exists today it should be smooth concrete you can see all the grooves the exposed rebar um we've popped a tire on our uh loader for $2500 to get that repaired um it's just a it's just an area that
breeds bacteria and odors and things like that it's actually pretty nasty so we would like to get that as a smooth surface workable surface again and so I'm looking at the as bid design on the left and the revised
design on the right um and I will get into a few more specifics uh just to have a closeup of that so this is the revised phase one layout uh phase two is the
um if I get this mouse to work now there we go phase two is the building up there is this not appearing on the screen no there it is uh so phase two is the building up here is the Tipping
floor here's the gate house and the scale the scale currently is on on the upper side of the building but we figured we'd move it to the Lower Side so uh transactions can occur from the driver to the gate house attendant instead of having to the gate house
attendant has to go up here and have you know get out of their vehicle and it's just it's just more efficient uh this way the swap shop has been relocated so it's outside of the stump dump uh was here previously um so we reduceed that
impact plus we can get traffic uh coming and going much quicker uh currently the swap shop you know is all the way down here so everybody has to drive through the recycling area and this is the recycling area so we tried to to make it as efficient as possible one way in one way out uh
angled parking you know five containers or dumpsters in this area um this is all that's like textiles and light bulbs and other smaller things if these spaces are all filled the person can drive around the other side and this is basically a
mirror image on this side as well and then they can go if they were to jump uh brush or leaves or anything in this area and then they can leave and exit the facility as they need to so just a breakdown to the cost um again the funding that was approved in
2023 uh 4.82 million U remaining from design so we had $ 5,35 th000 to spend um by the time it's all said and done with the change orders and uh we left $75,000 in there as a contingency even
though we're under construction we didn't want to spend everything without any unknowns so we have about $650,000 to carry forward to uh the next phase so if we take that um plus The Phase One Construction which is 3.1
million The Tipping floor repairs 48,000 and then again owner costs bidding and construction complete the design um material testing that nature um that's 30 335 ,000 and then we added
a 5% contingency on there just uh because there are some unknowns we reduced it to 5% because we've already had the benefit of going out to bid once so we really have a pretty good idea of what the number should be and we think we've been pretty conservative with our
budget estimating in the contract so um basically we're at 3.4 million needed to construct phase one so uh Financial impact it'll be funded with $3 million of free cash which has no impact on the track tax
rate and the additional $400,000 be raised and appropriated and funded through the tax levy with a tax rate impact of 4 cents for one year so um we respectfully recommend the select board vote to place the additional funding for the transfer station project in the amount of $3.4
million on the warrant and vote to recommend that transfer station project for additional funding in the amount of 3.4 million and that's the that's the draft article there I could answer any questions if you have any any
questions I just thank you Mr I just want to What's the timing of this so if town meeting approves this in May when do we begin we would like to have the design finalized over the summer and uh do a a fall bid to to have it constructed over the winter kind of like
how the building is being constructed it it would be completed in the June of 2026 we would hope to have it completed before summer yes okay thank you I'm I'm supportive of this again this is a long-standing project you know we've had some challenges with it because the bids
came in high last time and and um you know there's work going on now it's important to the people that you it's important to the town generally it's important to the people that use the facility it's important to the neighbors because we've heard from them over the years about the the noise and
the odors and um this is you know something that's long overdue thank you um Jeff it's a long overdue I Echo everything Dean just said um it's a PRI it should be a priority just we ran out of money we wanted to do it early we
just didn't have enough funds I have one stupid suggestion I had a little trouble going from balance less cost to get a balance balance less cost I mean kind of going back and forth if it's more of a more of a a vertical analysis of here's the
balance here the costs a net balance just do SUB totals I said where the heck they got anyway that's a net um um very much in favor of it and uh I know the Tipping floor is is a disaster um it looks like it's a disaster and it's unacceptable um so I'm very much in
favor thank you so you're you're comfortable that you're not going to be $ [Music] 4679 short when you to the end you'll you'll you'll figure that out we'll find that if we need to okay Michael he
rounded down uh yeah I'm I'm I'm supportive I I think absolutely um Miss Gibbs uh thank you um we had discussed this before but uh my feeling is that by
default we have become a regional transfer station because we're allowing trash and construction materials from other towns and uh I think we have three commercial haulers and uh through further questioning we learned that Brewster does not allow any
commercial haulers so they bring their trash to us um they don't personally but the the haulers that carry it for them so we end up with that and we learned that Orleans and harwit the same that it's cheaper for them to bring it to us
uh than it is for them to haul it off cape and uh we also talked about how we would tell them that they cannot bring any trash or construction material from any other towns to chatam but there's no
way to prove that and I believe that's why the Tipping floor is in the shape it's in because we have not only chadam Refuge but we have hares Orleans and Brewsters and we are paying for
this uh they are not uh except for the normal fees and I believe the same problem is going to occur in another four or five years where the floor is going to get damaged and there's going to be odors unless we do something at this point to control it uh and so we
have the luxury of paying for it ourselves to taxpayers uh but then chances are eventually our rates are going to go up again uh for us to dump trash and and various other articles um you know whether it's air conditioners or
Furniture whatever um so I think I think something should be in the warrant article to address that and say that we are going to prohibit trash commercial haulers bringing trash from other communities uh I I don't think it's
right they can take it to their own facilities and deal with it and not bring it to chatam we never voted on this to be a regional transfer station that was not the intent ever and maybe that should be an warrant article do we
want us to be I don't think we do and um you know I I am for the project it has to be done but I think we have to put restrictions on it or we're going to find ourselves in the same position in five years and there will be odors and the floor will get destroyed and uh
we're going to have to do it again thank you thank you oh and if I could ask one more question there are potholes there are po holes there right now that are huge particularly coming out of the um uh the recycling area
uh the car cars they get filled with water and you can't see them and we can't wait to have that those pool fixed until this construction begins because cars are getting damaged uh you know it it's going to ruin the alignments uh when people drive through them not
really how realizing how deep so if DPW can patch those uh as soon as possible I think that would be a good idea because they are really deep thank you thank you Shireen thanks Mike I I'm I'm in favor of the project and I have been all along I just
um briefly I just wanted to say that we need a safe manageable uh clean facility and um this is how we're going to get it done I'm really happy that we're finally here and um let's move
on I'm GNA say what she said um and with that unless there's any other comment um I'll take a motion Mike I know that Mr Mets would be extremely pleased good has been one of his projects for a long long time so think
he'd be very pleased good I thought you were going to offer a motion well I you know yes go ahead I'll second it Mo approve and move approval as as as present uh do is this yeah we don't excuse me and place this on the on
the warrant second uh all those in favor uh Miss Davis Hi Mr Dy hi Mr Shell says I Mr nicastro I recommend I move to recommend Mr chairman second uh all those in favor uh
Mr necastro Mr Shell says I um Mr Dyk hi and Ms Davis I thank you sir I think are we done I think we're done I've got two more with that oh you you want to stay there for the next one um I think it's
sewer capital is the next yeah sewer Capital yeah yep so yes presenting on the $32 million Capital sewer request another brief overview of kind of uh where we've been um this map represents um sewer uh status as as it
exists now phase one is the dark blue area approxim 4,500 Parcels um phase two did I say phase I'm sorry phase two is a light blue area approximately 2,300 Parcels um the area in red is sewer that's already been completed and the
areas in green are either underd design or under construction uh since 2010 108 million have been spent on active or completed sewer projects uh the current construction activity if I can get this m to work
thank you and so 1 d2a um is nearing completion it's just a few punch list items it's over here on Meeting House Road and mhill Road general areas um 1e2 is the stage Harbor Pump Station
area and the Old Mill Boatyard um that is uh all the sewer work is done we're just working on the pump station behind the harbor Master's garage um 1 C5 is the oyster Pond sewer extension area that uh covers this area a couple of larger pump stations um
includes the oyster Pond condo development and down here is the mil pond pump station which is a replacing a 50-year-old original Pump Station those are the four active sewer construction projects we have ongoing right
now so looking for the future we're going to continue to address nitrogen loading um in the short term we're going to look at uh expanding the gravity collection system and for the long range we're looking at uh strategic expansion and
including critical pump station locations so for the next phase is Phase 1 F1 it includes bidding design and construction um we would finish I'll get into some more detail on these but it's basically finishing the Cedar Street and
the Cedar Street Pump Station design uh bidding it for construction and a construction schedule of spring of 26 to Summer of 28 and this is the phase 1 f one um Cedar Street Pump Station the pump
station is down here in blue it's on a town-owned parcel of land um it includes another 69 parcels and Sewer going down a lot of the side streets as well Phase 1 F1 also includes the route
28 Corridor which um this is Route 28 here and there's already a gravity sewer M down Route 28 and some of of these smaller neighborhoods in green were overlooked uh in previous sewer development so it was kind of an easier to get some of our numbers built up
there get some folks hooked up to gravity sewer and um and get 138 Parcels uh on gravity sewer it's pretty easy to manage a project like that to get those folks hooked up so um we're looking to develop
that also as part of this is Phase 1 F2 which includes uh design bidding and construction we'd like to work on the design um starting the summer bid it for construction in the spring of 27 and hopefully have that completed by Spring
uh summer of 29 um phase one F2 includes the Barnhill Oyster River area um so this is Oyster River here and this is Barnhill Road up here um there is some challenges with
this um you know specifically locating pump stations you know need to locate pump stations at the lowest elevation and that's down by the water so um we do face some challenges there but we do have a few proposed prump stations there is a uh as a town-owned parcel here and
then there's a culdesac here on chat field so um so there are some opportunities depending on how fast we can advance this we may have to partition some of this off and not be constructed at an accelerated rate um but it's it certainly be in the design
uh criteria when we start um we start developing it also in Phase One F2 is um the KY Ford Road area so this is George Ryder Road here the airports up in this area so this is Katy Ford Road uh we would
propos a pump station down in this culdesac um pump up low pressure here but the rest of these Parcels would all be on gravity and that would that would flow to the existing Georg Road Pump Station down in this area looking at head into the future um you know we've recently submitted in our
srf application we would look to submit another one in two years um estimated cost would be around $40 million it would address a critical Pump Station in this yellow area which is sewage area number 20 and it would contain Pump Station Number 20 that's a
critical pump station for north chadam um it would also immediately after Pump Station 20 was developed we would look at the blue areas um 17 and 18 here connecting those areas because they're in Phase One um the green areas
are in phase two but in the future all of these areas would also pump to Pump Station 20 Pump Station 20 would pump directly back to the wpcf two years in the future from that point in 2029 we would be looking at an srf request of $30 million and that's
for Pump Station number 73 and the 73 pre sewage area um this is all Pleasant Bay up through here this is um just off of 28 um nether critical sewer area um we would pump this directly back to the
wpcf as well the area is ajacent and blue would be connected soon after 73 was done and then the areas in future in the green would be connected in future years so the draft article to see if the town will vote to appropriate $32
million for paying the cost of design renovation and construction um I think you've all seen this is pretty similar language than a lot of the other uh sewer Appropriations we've had in the past items funded for this article would be the design and construction for Phase
1 F1 part of 1 F2 which isn't listed on here specifically but preliminary and design for the planning for the future vital pump stations and also the purchase of sewer grinder pumps for residents who need them due to Elevation or distance challenges that restrict
their ability to connect to gravity sewer so Phase 1 F has been submitted to the state revolving fund 2026 it's on the intended use plan for 0% funding the iup ranked chadam third highest in the state for the points eligible for
funding so we received 554 out of a possible 599 point so that's it's really good status so um it's almost guaranteed we'll have the funding you know for number three uh there were quite a few applicants and so this being being
listed on the iup uh tells us that we have to have uh submitted plans no later than October 15th of 2025 they don't have to be final plans but they have to be largely complete so that's that's what we're up against right now to get this article passed and uh a town
meeting and get it funded uh construction contracts must be signed no later than June 30th 2026 that's really good so this is the the question that would be on the draft ballot and um guess that's the last
slide so I I just want to make an editorial comment here before we get into the substance if you go back well it's the same here uh the language where you get uh where it says including but not limited to land acquisition costs
etc etc purchase of sewer grinder pumps I think you need to add the phrase inside that comma after pumps um and related installation stiens and that goes in this and it also
goes in the um in in the uh the article and there are a couple places in the description where it should go as well agreed thank you okay
just just a question you don't need to have the dollar amount in the B question no I'm sorry no we don't I just just wanted to suggest this is a it's an excellent layout of what the long-term plan is um uh C can this be forwarded to
the water and sewer committee for their information maybe the S might want it as well um just Cur out of idle curiosity who were the what were the two projects that beat us out I don't I don't remember which towns they were from but um okay but but we're you know third is pretty darn well we
beat Le they were number four okay thank you well if you happen to encounter that make a note of it and let us know when you I've got the list I just didn't bring it with me okay um I really like the overview um I think for town meeting would be really
important to note exactly what the $30 million is funding I know the two is kind of being allocated for grinder pumps some related costs but what's what's the 30 actually going to accomplish and if you could show that on a map the maps were great and the maps going forward were great as well I think it's really important to tie that back
to money this is what this $30 million is going to fund guys this is what you're buying I think it's really important to make that very clear so I can break it down by Design costs and construction costs and you know see where we go from there I mean just I just want to see a visual of this is you know in the town this is this is the
area you're going to be searing and this is where we're going to be working and these are the these are the pump stations we're going to be constructing blah blah blah I but really the present the presentation is excellent that is it asking too much to put this I mean in in the explanation in the
article I know it can't be color but right so um that's something we just need to fine tune and then the presentation at town meeting could be very similar to this in color so I I think it's important for this reason on the whole business of grinder pumps we went back to 20101 if you go to the town
meeting vote you don't find anything really be nice to have this for the for the future Boards of Selectmen is there any reason you can't have that as an exhibit I think you could we can include it it's just the the difference in coloration we print the warrant in black and white it gets
mailed to each household but certainly online it is in color and for the presentations at town meeting and and wherever else that we need to go um Rob was at the fincom today too and they were very impressed by the presentation well maybe you can um you know take the
things that are I mean there's a lot of really good information in there that doesn't depend on the color um slides so maybe either grayscale some of that or or just uh give the information without the color um
additions um uh okay Shireen did you have anything to say no I this was really informative and really good presentation and I agree that the town's people would really like to see this um and I think it should be part of the
visual um presentation that's presented um by I guess Rob would do it um so I'm I'm really happy to see it and it explains a lot so let's do it good um comments from the
public I don't see any hands raised either here in the room or otherwise okay so can we get a motion to place I move to place the Wastewater Capital Bing and amount of $32 million on the 2025 annual T meeting warrant
second second and and I and I'm gonna I'm going to just remind everybody that we're adding the language and related installation stiens following the word pumps and with that amendment I
I I will call the role uh Miss Davis I uh Mr dykin I Mr Shell says I and Mr nicastro I Mr chairman I mooved to recommend the Wastewater Capital borrowing in the amount of $32 million second
uh all those in favor Mr nicastro Mr Shell says I Mr dykens and misss Davis I Mr chairman I move to place the Wastewater Capital borrowing in the amount of $32 million on the ballot for the 2025 annual Town election second uh
all those in favor Miss Davis I Mr dykens hi Mr Shell says I and Mr nastro I okay good to go thank you uh uh next we have
the uh Wastewater Capital uh stabilization funding warrant article yeah you're almost done with me okay so yeah these are the the three capital projects that we want to uh want to fund under that program um first is
the stage Harbor Pump Station I would add a third pump to the pump station for $700,000 the second is the water pollution control facility denitrification filters air system for $200,000 and the third is the original sewer collection system repairs which is
an annual request for $170,000 so regarding the stage Harbor Pump Station um it's located here um backside of the Town parking lot behind the orium theater it's part of the original sewer system it was
reconstructed in 2014 the original Pump Station had three pumps but when it was reconstructed uh only two pumps were installed they were larger pumps they were able to handle the capacity but now as we have more sewer
coming online especially with the Cedar Street Pump Station we'll need to install that third pump so it would be a similar setup as this um it would also include integration of new electrical gear piping scaa
programming things of that nature so the total cost cost is 700,000 for design bidding and construction the nro denitrification filters air system so this is an important part at the water pollution control facility of converting nitrates
to gas um chadam uses upflow filters in this process I know is compressed air and a sand media don't I don't you know I don't know all the details I leave that to the people that deal with that dayto day but I know it's an important
part of the whole uh denitrification process and removing nitrogen from um from our effluent so that's the compressor that we need to replace it's uh it's large um it's old and it's it's re reached the
end of its useful life and we don't want to have any failure so it's just part of our normal replacement program to get that replaced is the nitrogen gas then released into the air is that what happens it's recovered and I'm you know I'm not sure it's it's more to release
to remove the nitrates that are going into the groundwater but I know a lot of it is all recovered through that whole process so it's $200,000 to replace just the air system and then $170,000 for the original sewer system
repairs um many times this is spell spent rebuilding manholes and at Route 28 the manholes take a beating every year and it seems like we're out there um every couple of years rebuilding those but heavy truck traffic uh tends to wreak havoc on this and we also have
deficient sewer pipes that we would address uh so the draft article to see if the town will vote to appropriate and transfer from available funds the Wastewater Capital stabilization uh in the sum of $1,700,000 uh Jeff go ahead Mr chairman I mov to place the sewer
request article for $700,000 for the stage Harbor Pump Station $200,000 for replacement of the electrification filters air system and $170,000 for repairs to the original sewer collection system in the total amount of $170,000 on the
warrant um before I call the role here I just want to say um with respect to the article and the explanation I read through this thing and I'm asking myself what's the $700,000 for your first slide says it's
a new pump the third pump if we can get that into the article and the explanation I think that'll explain to people why we're spending $700,000 there so with that suggestion um I'll call the
role Miss Davis I uh Mr dykin I I think it's important to note that the funds are coming from the Wastewater Capital stabilization fund as well right good I uh Mr Shell says I Mr nicastro I Mr chair I about to recommend the
sewer request article for $700,000 for State Chet Pump Station $200,000 for replacement of denitrification filters air system and $170,000 for repairs to the original sewer collection system in the total amount of $170,000 second all those in
favor Mr nastro Mr Shell says I Mr dykens and Miss Davis hi I think that's it thank you thank you okay thanks very much Rob
um uh this is the petitioned uh protective zoning bylaw yes sir welcome good evening uh my name is th Aldridge I'm with impact chadam um just to start with the previous article the gaseous nitrogen
would be released into the atmosphere about 79% of what you're breathing is N2 it's in it's everywhere so that's the end product that's the good thing thank you so we have in 1966 we adopted the consern
consy District in 1979 we expanded the Conservancy district and this is a zoning feature that is um protects every wet wetland in 1985 we expanded to the flood plane and in 2014 our flood planes
expanded Conservancy districts have a lot of rules associated with them um you're not allowed to fill regrade or excavate them and this comes from the original where these were the wet Wetlands that we really wanted to
protect and we are allowed to put in gas water sewer electric communication septic systems and piping for swimming pools what we're not allowed to do is put in storm water we're not allowed to regrade to
redirect storm water into low points um so it's really something that we would like to address I have a number of slides that show that yes we do need to treat our storm water before it goes into the into the water into the wetlands or
into the groundwater but what I really have is a map that shows all of the properties in chatam that are subject to the bylaw and thus we're not able to put in
storm water systems radically treat the storm water traditional storm water systems there'll be a catch Bas and leech pit these areas are low um you could say groundwater is high there's very little separation that's possible between the
bottom of the leech Pit and the groundwater um and that's where treatment would occur these are also the low points just like the pump stations have to be at the low points in town all the water is going to run down to these
areas so there are a number of older subdivisions there are well within the flood planes and we're looking to just enable developers to be able to address these issues when they when they redevelop
sites obviously no new construction can occur within but for example we're allowed to put driveways and modify driveways in roads but we're not allowed to regrade in order to put in the storm water systems for those roads
so if there are questions I'm happy to answer them I have a question yeah go ahead t on the The Turquoise areas can you can you no go go the other way so I'm just looking to see now the the real
turquoise areas are saying we can't direct storm water in those areas is that what you're saying so the turquoise areas are the flood plane the conserv district the brown areas are all the roads that are within yep we can't regrade the area to direct
storm water to conserv to things to holes we can't dig holes there in order to put the storm water into and and with the storm water regulations and and the um handbook in these cases we're really looking at bio retention basins
or other basically a hole in the ground with plants in it that will help to trap the water help treat it and then flow it further um one of the great a couple of the great projects that we've done have been in the oyster Pond area technically
prohibited by zoning uh for the regrading that occurred in order to help clean up oyster Pond all the work done in the town parking lot would have been in violation of zoning and obviously the town is more exempt than a private developer
but when the zoning bylaw applies it would be good to be able to or when the storm water regulation applies it would be good to be able to meet it what what what if I may are you done Jeff yes I am what what do you what do
you do now and what would you do differently if this on Redevelopment projects we leave things the way that they are so if there's sheet flow coming off of a driveway going directly into a wetland or flowing over a little bit of ground before it gets to the Wetland it
stays as is okay we don't have the opportunity to regrade the area to ENT trap the water direct it to other things D would would you have underground piping that carries the uh the water
into like a catch Basin in the street if the the next the nearest so it's it's capturing the wall water yeah and then it's putting it through treatment systems and again in most cases this is going to be a bior retention Basin hole in the ground with plants in
it that will hold the water helping to clean the water and then it will move on to either another Basin um infiltration into the ground okay so the water whatever water does wind up back in the ground
that's treated that's the important thing is to be able to treat it before it goes back into the ground all right thank you so um I I mean this sounds to me to my
naive uh relatively uninformed uh mind like a terrific idea and something I guess all we're really being asked to do at this point is refer it to the uh the planning board but um and and there'll be a public hearing planning board will
act and then it'll come back to us when we will have to say yay or nay um the the question I have really is why this is proceeding The Way It Is by petitioned article as opposed to um what
would be the norm more Norm the way our next uh zoning bylaw uh discussion has preceded is it just a matter of there being the difficulty of getting the planning board's attention um and the
the need to kind of accelerate this or is there some other reason it's why we're here um the planning board is dealing with much larger zoning items we started impact chadam to be able to take care of some of these small
items this is one paragraph that goes into the bylaw that enables people to be able to clean the environment and you would anticipate that this will be um favorably uh uh received by the planning board I can always hope
okay um I don't have any mo referral to the planning board Mr chairman um all those in favor Ms Davis hi uh Mr dykens Mr Shell says I and Mr nicastro hi thanks very much sir thank
you and speaking of which um we have Mr spru and M ogrady with the West chadam Neighborhood Center protective zoning
bylaw presentation welcome hello hello good evening please hello I'm Christine ogrady the town planner and I'm here with art sprw the chair of the planning board we're here because um we're presenting the West chadam Neighborhood
Center um District bylaw it is a zoning bylaw that has been being worked on in the town for a few years um it also comes with a change to the zoning map as part of the um another article within
the package um basically the West chatam neighborhood um District runs from runs along Route 28 from George Ryder road to Barn Hill there are 54 Parcels within it um they are currently Within two of the
existing zoning districts being the general business 3 and the R20 um there are two roundabouts at either end of it um as you all know um this will be a whole new District entirely um I'm sorry which one that one
what's going on here I don't know that's really weird here we go oh that way okay I'm sorry about that I'll just hit that yeah um this is my first time presenting up
here and sharing a screen and everything so I apologize um but I've got it down now thank you Gary the purpose of this has been um expressed to you numerous times over the years basically there are a number of goals that go along with this they are
to implement the goals of the comprehensive plan stronger connections um with the vision the regulations and the development plan um and it's to enhance the character of the West chadam Neighborhood Center to promote um
multimodal transportation or multimodal um methods of transportation I should say to give the planning board an opportunity to do more flexible parking standards within this um District to have a range of housing types to increase the supply of affordable and
attainable housing and um to include a 20% inclusionary component to this piece and um it's to provide more yearound housing for the town um the next slide shows the boundary the the graphic on the right is the boundary
the graph TRC on the left is the sub zones within that District uh basically what we're going to have is a mix of commercial and um residential along the um Route 24 uh the route 28 Corridor we've increased it
from 100 feet to 150 ft based on the last couple of studies that they've done with this um and that's pretty much it for this one I would say for the next one um this started with
uh the planning board after coming up with the initial concept they applied for a dlta grant um and with the assistance of the Cape Cod Commission um they drafted the zoning bylaw and they did a um a what they call
a form based code so they kind of see some of the concepts here this form-based code is is used within the actual bylaw that'll be presented and it's just to help the developers to understand better what what the vision is board what they want um so that is in
there in a couple of different places I would say next the planning board um hired a consultant BSC group and um they did a buildout analysis they did this with the um zoning bylaw as it was drafted by the Cape Cod Commission and
it was for 12 units per approximately 40 thou for 40,000 square feet which is approximately one acre in size um they decided after doing this when um that the the the density of this was probably
a little bit too big so then they um worked with Union Studios and developed a visualization study this visualization study looked at three Parcels along the Route 28 Corridor that being 1652 Main
Street 1671 Main Street and 1589 Main Street those were picked because they basically have three different concepts you know some have constraints on the property due to you know topography and things like that one is within the um
the airport uh the The rpz Zone um and then one is at a corner near a um near one of the uh roundabout sections um what I would tell you is so the one
at the the one up at the top top right the 1671 Main Street um basically that is the post office building and what we've what we've done here or what union Studios worked with the planning board to do is to um kind of reimagine how
that that that particular property could look these are all just examples you know it's all dependent on what developers come you know come to town who's uh selling their properties all of those things but basically what we would have here would be the front half of the of the parcel would remain or the parcel
the part of the parcel closest to the Route 28 um would remain a one-story building and that would remain the post office right you don't usually mix a post office with other things in a lot of cases um the second building further back from the uh Main Road would be a
multif family um unit and it would have um May or maybe a commercial there would be a commercial component to it maybe maybe not and then the back half of that property would be tow houses so what we would be having with these
um if it was just the post office and then the residential units we'd have 3,000 ft square feet of uh post office then we'd have 25 units of multifam building and then we'd have seven additional Town townhouse units so we'd
end up needing parking approximately 70 72 parking spaces with that reduced parking option that we were looking at from the beginning um and so eight of those would be res commercial and the other 64 would be
residential the next slide is just what the next steps are going to be we're trying to keep this moving obviously um if you refer this back to the planning board we're going to hold the planning board public hearing on March 10th and get the recommend recommendations back
to the select board on between the 11th and the 18th which what I know is when the warrant closes um and uh we would have a potential uh meeting with the finance committee we don't have a date for that yet um and obviously all in
preparation for May 10th the only other thing I would say to you is that the planning board has um they have discussed the potential for information sessions um after the public hearing depending on how that goes but no dates are actually set yet and those are the
highlights um I don't know if there's anything you'd like to ask of uh the chair or if you'd like to add anything um just just just a few things um this of course has been in the works for a long time uh the comprehensive
plan and the the route 28 visioning study is what kicked it off I I think the idea of the form based code which was shared with uh with the board from cap cide commission is what
we really gravitated th we were looking for the village Village Center concept of what we want the image to be and this was a a good way about giving that information out so that it's developed
in the way the visualizations are shown here uh that's not what we have today uh what we have today is pretty much uh the BW allows a strip type uh development with parking in a front and that's not
the concept of Village Center that we're looking for very much like what the downtown area is so uh that process was started off in 2020 with uh the cape cide commission and it's just been a refinement and a
refinement since that point um we pushed through quite a few different things over the last three or four months and that had to do with uh um several different elements uh the build on
analysis that BC group indicated to us said that we need to do some adjustments in how these sites were developed uh we made some changes to um the first A1 Zone uh the distance back from Route 28
we wanted a 50% commercial space in in addition um to the residential development we don't want all residential development in um The Village Center area uh that was noted component that
BSC uh emphasized very much that uh we may not get as much commercial as we like so we we try to do a balance there the rest of the A2 zones and B zones do allow much more robust um multif Family
development um we took a look at um how we could manage that that type of development um five units as of right and then then if there is a an additional amount of um residential that
a developer wants to do that would be a density bonus certain criteria special permit criteria and at the same time we took a look at how we how we manage that component of it because it may not be able to happen all all at once um we
added um uh that additional distance in the A1 Zone that helped us with that balance we ask that the um parking uh be adequate for the
development uh that is proposed this is not like our Our Town Center area we we have additional parking adjacent to Su development that is owned by the town there will not be any at this point that we can visualized so therefore we wanted to make sure that it was
adequate um and that these were interconnected so that people could park someplace and then walk that's the best thing that we were trying to achieve associated with this we put in a component to allow uh more green space
in the residential area so that and certainly other uh streetcape components in the frontage area with uh any any of the development along Route 28 so all of those changes occurred we
had New Town Council IL we had uh several items that were raised by Town Council that we we pushed through and adjusted we wanted to clarify and make sure that we were identifying and um
revising anything that was an issue that uh Town Council was bringing up that took us a couple a couple of months to uh get through I do want to compliment our um um Community Development staff Christine and Katie and Gloria and the
Town Council because um we were pushing a lot of things through and I was asking them to turn things around within days or weeks instead of months and months uh that's what got us where we are right now uh we got a un unanimous support from the um from the planning board on
this uh at our last meeting that this is the direction that we want to head in it's not it's not perfect because we couldn't answer all the things that Council wanted us to do so we have a list that we are going to create and resolve those um as soon as we think
it's viable but we believe that this is in the right form and the right shape to present at town meeting at this point so we're requesting your support for that thank you very much uh Dean thank you thanks to both of you
appreciate all the work that you've done I I haven't really watched much of what you've been doing but I know you've been working on this for a long long time um just a couple of quick points these pictures are very pretty I just the one up on the right you were
talking about the post office which building is the post office is well that's this is this is the post off current post office site this is what a Redevelopment could look like look like okay so if you take a look at that building there you're looking toward the
South the existing building would be on the right side and it would just pretty much line up on the right side of that property so the whole concept of this is to redevelop it to look like this uh we could see in this one since we've
expanded the area to about 150 ft that there could be a couple of buildings that were u a commercial and residential mix and then some uh multif family uh residential and a rare so but the the idea is if you're just going to comply
with the as of right you have a two-story building that you can build that's another concept on how to manage this if you want to go with the density bonus you can go with two and a half stories but there's some lots of other criteria that have to apply okay um
thank you um and of course if if this were to be passed a town meeting and it requires I think a two does this require two-thirds vote do housing involved in it it's still 2/3 an existing property owner who doesn't want to change and doesn't want
to sell his property they're they're they're grandf fared in absolutely they are so it's really up to them um I just had um a question about the um the use um prohibited
uses uh and the very last one on on your chart in the material one single family dwelling per lot and I know there was some discussion about baring single family houses in this area o in the over the past year or two has that and and
you've had a lot of public you all your meetings are public have you had any reaction to that I just wondered what the response was I I favor sending this to you obviously but um not too much but the idea that we had is that the town
has residential development and like 95% of it single family residential R20 R40 r60 the concept of single family can actually occur here it could be uh for example because we're allowing multiple
structures on a single development all right so you could put um what look what would be like a uh a single family like Cottage there and there could be multiple ones of those uh uh not
necessarily the most costeffective for a developer we think the a developer would want to do something closer to what union Studios has introduced here but it they could come up with a way to actually pursue something like that okay
but it wouldn't be separate individual Lots with single family homes on it would it would be multiple structures on a single property and so if I if I were the owner of 40,000 foot lot it's currently
undeveloped in that area yep I don't know if there is one um we have we have several that are three acres okay and I want to put a single if this is passed and adopted by town meeting and I wanted to put a single one single family house on it that would be prohibited that's
correct okay I just want and my final point is I I don't know if this is an edit or not I I couldn't see it in in that use chart there's a footnote two on the second page residential uses are allowed but I didn't see the antecedent of the two in
the um in the chart itself and and in the actual um table yeah two is on um on the left hand column um next to residential down at the bottom of the so it's those it's the text that goes
vertical okay I don't you can't see it on this because of it it's dark I think it's just because it's a little see that was a mistake the other thing I would I would tell you all is that um part of what the chair had referred to with with some
changes that may be required is because we're still awaiting sure some of the things with the seasonal communities from the state level we don't know when that's going to come so we don't want to wait upon that and all we're being asked to do tonight is to refer this to you so you get their process moving right it would come back to us for a
recommendation to town meeting our intent is to have a a public hearing on it the 10th on the 10th 10th of March and then we would uh uh bring it back forward assuming that is it is voted on
by the planning board and uh for war well the the board and the staff and M Mr sh is is your liaison and he's more conversent with it's amazing he's there all the time but it I you know I served on a planning board in another town uh
and it's a lot of work and you all are to be commended you and the staff for the work that you do on this and I appreciate your explanation tonight thank you Jeff thank you Mr Shell um yeah I know you guys have been working really hard on this for a long long time and it's uh there's a lot of compromise
Etc I'm wondering if you go back to say the the 1650 the visualizations please and and the visualization for 1652 in particular knowing the owner there has anybody vetted this with any developers at all about how ATT TR you know so so
you've got a visualization um is there a developer that's interested in in even achieving that kind of vision and I understand that if the developer did want to achieve this kind of a vision this zoning would now would allow it is is what the visualization means that's
correct now he wouldn't have to do all of this no no I know but but but the the zoning the particular changes in the zoning bylaw that you're suggesting would allow a developer to do that type of a development if you will that visualization that's correct and and you're driving I think the one of the
driving um assumptions that you're bringing to bear as a planning board and certainly have listened to the town and its needs is that a need for some greater density in areas that still could handle greater greater density um that's done Tastefully and and it's you
know done Tastefully I I I I think the form base which is this visualization is what the vehicle was that we said um tipped us over so that we we felt comfortable with it and it we
didn't didn't want to put a box up there right that was not the concept that we saw on behalf of the town for a Village Center type I do I do recall the Cape Cod Commission came in and did presentations with many of these Concepts you know centering on
a on a Village Center if you will and I I really do kind of understand where you're coming from I'm going to support the referral back to the planning board but I do own property in this area and I'm quite conflicted here um and I'm quite conflicted with the with respect
of not being allowed to build a single family home on property that I've owned for a long time and paid taxes in a long time so um I'm not certain of my support going forward I likely recuse myself but I need to be very clear about this um now and then going forward so I'm I'm
comfortable voting for referral back to the planning board however I'm not going to be able to attend that particular hearing which bothers me greatly to be honest with you um I'll be out of town I'll be away um but I
I'm just conceptually it bothers me that you would not allow someone that's own property for a long time to to not do with that property what they're allowed to do now um you're denying folks the right to build a sing the GB3 District
it's not allowed now yeah okay then it's not allowed now yeah okay so anyway more to come again I'm going to vote to refer it to the planning board I'm not I'm uncertain about my support going forward and again I'm not going to be able to be at the hearing our our view on this is
we need to establish a Village Center we also looking at the adjacent areas too what if the Village Center passes and this is the what the district will look like we're looking at um look the edges
of what would be the the future boundary area and looking how development can occur there there might be a more um residential density that could occur there we could actually come up some Concepts that you're talking about that's where we would Focus the next
phase of our attention um once this passes as well as working at the other Village Center areas well I'm on the periphery so we're on the periphery anyway so wouldn't mind further conversation again I'm going to be away I'm not going to be able to go to the hearing and so I would tell you that um
the planning board web page has been updated to include all of the past um the past studies and presentations that have led up to this um and then there is a description of of what will actually happen along with draft bylaw so you can
follow it that way too as part of it since um we've initiated this after the uh r28 visioning study we've had over 20 Outreach meetings with the public and we're still going on they'll probably be another three or four before evening
town meeting okay good thanks all thanks guys you guys worked hard on this I get it worked real hard Shireen do you have anything you want to say I'm good okay I I'm I'm just going to say I I have been I I've watched this for the the
entire time that I've been on the board um the early days um were extremely difficult and and these were early days for me um and but but as art has suggested um this comes out of the uh
the the comprehensive plan which goes back U I don't know 15 years or more 2003 yeah yeah and uh visiting study was more recent though 2014 and so but the the in terms of the the community input and and indeed some of the divisions on
the board itself um getting to a point where conversation could even productively be had uh let alone um beginning to work on drafts uh that was some tough going in the early sledding and I I just want to
say that um I mean you've characterize some of the late stuff as being kind of a Sprint to get to the goal line but um and and I've seen that as well but you've you've uh also Incorporated um a lot of back and forth
a lot of input from the community among yourselves uh and and this is a product that that really is uh uh very very deliberate and and so I you know I'm obviously i' I've had the benefit of being there to watch
uh but I'm very supportive and u i I want to commend you and the rest of the board and the staff and everybody else that had anything to do with it including the people who come to all the meetings Time After Time After Time the public and have given their input so um
thank you very much and of course I will support the referral as well if we can get a motion unless there's is there anything from the public I don't see anything I don't see anybody here I'll take them a motion Mr chairman I move that the select board
refer the proposed protective bylaw amendments as presented to the planning board for a public hearing I'll second that uh all those in favor Ms Davis I uh
Mr dyin hi Mr Shel say I and Mr nastro I thank you very much well thank you we look forward to seeing you when you come back we'll be back okay next um do you want to present this or do you
want me to do it so uh Mr chair um the hardwich select work chair had reached out to requesting that a meeting be set up to discuss the monoy Regional School District um also
asking for two members of the chadam select board to meet with two members from the harch select board as well as the town manager Town Administrator and the two Finance directors and so uh in getting this um request uh late
afternoon on Thursday the chair and I decided to put it on the agenda so that you could designate two members uh to participate in the disc discussions presuming that we want to be good neighbors and participate in the discussion so I'll turn it back over to you Mr chair yeah I I I don't remember
remember the precise language of the email which was addressed to me uh by their I I think he's the acting chairman um Mr Handler um the clear implication was at least I inferred that that they they
want to talk about the um the allocation of expenses and and the formulas and so forth um that um you know were put into place when when the Two Towns regionalized back in 2010 11
12 um and I my reaction was uh let's I mean we can we can take a meeting uh we we don't have to have any pre-judgment about what we would say or what we think uh I think you know in my own view we we
there's a sentiment in town that uh um you know feels that number one that this was established back in at that time and and the was cut uh an arrangement was a new Arrangement was uh was made in 2022
I think when the elementary schools were separated and you know that was at some significant cost to chadam but that being said um we can we can go and we can listen so I and I in answer to the question or comment Miss Gibbs made
earlier um I I think their concept is that this would be a non-public meeting that's the reason reason for the the two members uh that that again my inference there was nothing said about that in the email so with that I'll open it up to
the the board to see if you have any thoughts or comments well we certainly don't want to send any weak need Representatives I I I would love to participate yeah I I that's I want to
add one thing I I think in light of your long service on the on the the the um um School Board school committee and your continued interest your role in getting the regionalization um thing uh up and and
considered and pass you have to be one of the two that's that's my view Dean thank you Mr CH I Echo that uh you know I only know what I read in the papers and and I I read the um article about one of the more recent meetings of
the harage select board and we know they want to talk about they want to talk about the Middle School um and uh I think anytime a a neighboring Community wants to talk with us about anything we should talk with them as a matter of comedy and courtesy we would expect the
same uh and I think the proposal as structured in his email to you Mr chairman um um is a sensible one um I I I think um you know I think I said at the recent me recent meeting meaning I don't favor making changes to the
formula um if they have something constructive they want to talk about we should listen to them and and I think Jeff is a a logical person to the logical person to be part of this this team thank you Mr chairman yeah thank you
Shireen hi uh thanks um I agree uh Jeff should be at the table he's got the institutional history and that's important to um uh to I think reiterate um to maybe those that might not have
that um but having the meeting is is a trust Builder uh keeping conversations going is important um one thing I do want to just put out there is mono Regional District um agreement isn't the only agreement we
have with hartch so if they want to you know open up one maybe we open up another uh but I'm I'm not in favor of any of that I I think uh I think what we I think Miss Gibbs uh spelled it out very nicely if that's what they're
thinking um but again uh it's always good to sit down and talk about it especially with the issues going on with the Middle School uh that we continue to have an open dialogue with uh the select board me uh select board in howich so that's my
thoughts uh I'm just gonna I yeah sorry go ahead yeah oh I we need to have another person and and I think Mike um if if you know I'd like to see that the chair meets with a chair that's always a good protocol and that Jeff and you be
the folks that take the meeting no I appreciate that I I was just going to add something um which is an anecdote to make the point that I think needs to be very fundamental in in in our approach to this meeting uh and hopefully we'll
be theirs as well um uh we we um we have a friend whose daughter is a senior over there at monoy and uh we happened to run into her and I asked her about her College situation and um she said oh I I've I'm
I've been admitted to um Virginia and uh Southern California and one other of equal um uh uh you know stature and and she said I'm waiting on some of the other ones that I applied to
and I said well you know where'd you apply those are pretty good schools she said well I'm waiting to hear from Yale um and I tell that story because I my impression my sense is that that that school system is uh doing a hell of a
job uh with the kids and the education and the culturation uh and they're they're coming out of there very very well equipped to to to do well in school and and and later in life so I think that's something that has to be considered as
well or not as well uh front and center so um I I Michael well said I just want want you to know that I'm not back until March 11th yeah and and I I just think the I'm with the suggestion here in the
in the staff memo that we'll just turn some dates in that we that will work for us um and um you know we'll give those dates to them and and uh we'll have a meeting whenever we we you can be there and uh the rest of us can be there so uh
that would be my and we can take a vote on that or we can just make that the consensus of the board I think consensus is fine with me yeah um me too and I I I think you know I'm I'm happy to go I I take your point
um I don't know is Corey I don't know when he comes back but I you know let's get his input and if he has a strong feeling about his being present we can we can work that out but uh let's wait till he gets back so good thanks all
right I think motion toour second okay all those in favor uh Miss Davis I uh Mr dykens and Mr Shell says I and Mr mccastro hi we are adjourned at 9:24
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