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[Music] good evening chadam Welcome to the
February 4 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 no such notification I'll proceed pursuant to Governor Healey's March 29 2023 signing of the act of 2023 extending certain Co 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 every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access 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
so by calling the phone number 1508 945 4410 conference ID 203 386 491 pound sign or join the meeting online via Microsoft teams through the link in the posted agenda well this is a live broadcast and simal cast on chadam TV Xfinity channel 1072 despite our best efforts we may not be able to Pro Prov provide realtime
access we will post uh a record of this meeting on the town's website as soon as possible um first order of business is establishing a quorum Mr Mets Mr Dyk Miss Davis present Mr Shell is present and Mr necastro present thank you this evening we have um several items we start with our minutes from December 10 and December 17
uh public announcements and agenda requests um and then public comments on the business agenda but please note that the first two items on the business agenda we will invite and welcome comments alongside of the board um that business agenda consists of number one considering the land disposition agreement with Penrose for the uh project at zero Meeting House Road uh that is continued from January 2
2025 and as I said public comment will be accepted alongside of the board uh next is the grinder pump policy discussion also continued from uh November 12 and there again public comment will be accepted alongside of the board uh on that item next we have the fiscal 2026 budget review um and the 2025 annual town meeting articles review view first item
there is the operating and capital budget for the Department of Natural Resources and that will also include consideration of a warrant article with respect to dredging uh next is the operating capital budget for the Department of Community Development um and that will also include uh uh attention to the uh 26 Chamber of Commerce operating budget um third on that list is the
operating capital budget for the Department of Community Services um and under that heading uh as part of that discussion we have a warrant article to consider with respect to the child care voucher program and another to consider uh establishing a new revolving fund uh for the writers Cove respit adult dayare program uh and then finally and separately we will consider a annual town meeting warrant
article um for uh a capital item uh namely a new um ambulance and then finally the board will go into executive session uh to discuss strategy with respect to uh collective bargaining with the chattam Municipal Employees Association and the chattam Managers Association and there will be no um return to um open meeting so with that
um let me start with the minutes of December 10 and invite any comments or a motion Mr chair I move to approve the minutes of December 10th 2024 second do you have any comments I have one oh oh I'm sorry please go ahead yeah Mr necastro was present Not absent yeah I brought that to oh you did okay well I I wasn't sure whether he was president or abson but he couldn't pres be president one place and abent
another yeah did you what I missed I'm so proud yeah we'll put him down for absent tonight um quickly I have um on page six um the fourth full paragraph which begins with there was a discussion um in the second line I'd
like to strike the word considering um and uh then in the third and fourth lines I would put a period after select board and then um in the following I would create a new sentence in the next line this would allow the board to retain ultimate Authority etc etc and then I'd like to ask that we add a paragraph the right after that a paragraph that says um the board complemented the staff
for the detail and thoroughness of preparation for the presentation and I know that we did that because I said it so um with that um we have a motion and a second which I presume is as amended Mr matters I uh Mr Dyk abstain uh M Davis hi uh Mr Shell says I and Mr nicastro I okay uh next the minutes of
December 17 move approval the December 17 2024 minutes second um any comments y thank you Mr chairman I just have two small I think they're typos or proof issues on page seven uh third paragraph which is I which is bold and italicized I think there's a double negative in the second line I would delete the word no and then on page well don't you have to add the word any
well it says neither the select board nor the affordable housing trust oh took took AC action okay that's fine okay then on page um 13 the bottom there's a motion that I made it should say lodging houses instead it says loading houses there's a g that's left out that's all thank you good okay I have one uh also on page seven at the top um that sentence that it seems to um kind of be Miss missing something at the end
there was a question from the affordable housing Trust on the opinion of the Building Commissioner if the cost to renovate versus rebuilding completely and I my recollection is that the question was are they prohibitive but if somebody remembers the word better I would suggest we say our prohibitive not hearing any objection I will no that was the sentiment absolutely yeah call the motion uh Mr Mets hi uh Mr Dyk hi uh Miss Davis
abstain uh Mr Shell says I Mr Mastro I um okay public announcements I always screw this up I got it right this time um I I I just want to note uh I've been prompted to note that uh we should save the date Wednesday February 26 at 5:30 p.m. in the large meeting room this room uh of the annex there
will be a public forum on the proposal to to adopt uh Mass General Law chapter 90 section 17 C which allows the town to establish a speed limit of 25 miles per hour on any roadway inside a thickly settled or business district in town um on any way that is not a state highway so please note that um anything from the board yes sir quick question on that should we post post that as a select
board meeting to cover Quorum consideration or are we I would suggest that we do um I haven't spoken um with the chair on the format for the public forum but typically I would imagine the board would open it okay all right cool thank you good um and then I'll take any other notes from uh announcements from the board any from the public okay okay next
um any public comments on the business agenda other than items A and B all right um then we'll move to the business agenda uh the first item is uh the land disposition agreement with Penrose I note and I see her we have um Our Town Council uh Lisa me with us and maybe we
might start with you Lisa if that's all right to just give us a kind of Topline um summary of where we are and what this is all about if you would please sure thank thank you Mr chair and uh good evening uh members of the board um as the chair indicated this is the land disposition agreement for a zero Meeting House Road um I'm going to remind the board that actually the affordable housing trust is the owner of this property um but the board actually
is signing as to certain provisions of the agreement um that are relative to the town so while in a typical land disposition agreement you might only have uh the owner of the property signing in this instance it's important that the board also signed with respect to a couple of the provisions um and so I'm just going to tell you what those are before I go through the highlights of the agreement so um the board is signing with respect to paragraph 2C which um talks about their support in
addition to the trust support of other public financing that the um buyers are going to um seek um it goes to paragraph 4A related to project expenses of the town during the comprehensive permitting process which would be the responsibility of the developer and it will be the responsibility of the developer um it goes to um paragraphs 4 4 pointd point5 which involves the town involvement in the offsite imp
improvements uh which involve sidewalk improvements which the town will need to be involved with either uh through um cooperating with applications to do or giving permission on Town property if required uh it also requires uh the town to cooperate and work with the developer concerning the access of the owners who are adjacent and receive their current access through the property how we um resolve those issues uh and then also with the resolution of um OB maining
access off of Meeting House Road directly into the project so those all require cooperation of the town uh paragraph 5B uh requires cooperation of the Town regarding the applications to eohc and other permits and approvals uh paragraph six importantly um involves the release and indemnification by the developer of the Town related to any potential environmental matters um paragraph 7 uh involves the indemnification of the Town by the developer as as well as the trust um and
then uh paragraph 9B involves um how the property will be assessed it's just a representation based upon the Assessor's confirmation about how the property will be assessed so those are the paragraphs that the town is basically uh signing on to so to speak um as an overview of the project overall or the LDA um there is a purchase price that was part of the proposal from um Penrose um of 500 ,000
so that's the purchase price uh they are paying $300,000 in cash and receiving a $200,000 loan from the affordable housing trust they're required to pay a $10,000 deposit uh much of this mirrors of course the um except for the purchase price itself uh the the continuing uh Provisions mirror a lot of what happened on Main Street as well um again with the title if they don't perform and start construction um by the
date set forth in the in the um LDA uh they will have to uh provide the town back give the town the the land back so we have a reversionary interest if the designated developer doesn't start construction in accordance with the the time frames um as far as the restrictions on the development uh there's going to be as proposed in there con conceptual plan eight residential structures including a management office and community space
uh those will contain 42 uh rental apartments uh 14 one-bedroom units 23 two bedroom units and five three-bedroom units um they would not be permitted to change the number of units or buildings um or the distribution of affordability without prior approval of the trust uh and they have to be um consistent with the conceptual plans that were um previously accepted um 35 units will be rented to families at or below % Ami uh inclusive
of at least six but no more than eight units rented to families at are below 30% Ami and seven of the units will be rented to families at are below 100% Ami there will be an affordability restriction as well um on this um both a tax um credit regulatory agreement as well as a regular affordable housing restriction um and the tax credit regulatory agreement has the affordable writer that is the um titled the
comprehensive permit um regulatory agreement a writer which uh makes sure that the units will be um affordable in perpetuity in accordance with whatever the terms of the comprehensive permit are um then um uh let's move on um again uh the designated developer is supposed to design the three-bedroom units to include two full
bathrooms um we have the same solar provision that they shall install solar panels on as many buildings as are reasonably feasible um where rooftop panels were produce a significant amount of electricity given the location and condition of the site um and then if they can't do that they have to provide an explanation to the town who has the opportunity to review it by a professional of their own uh in order to determine what is being proposed as appropriate uh the designated developer
will also undertake off-site improvements including the installation of side Sidewalk on the east side of Route 137 from the qu crosswalk at the rail trail parking lot connecting to the Ross crosswalk across Route 28 uh understanding that the work is within Route 137 they have to work with DOT to do that and there's some language around that and that's of where we have some cooperation of the Town um also the designated developer and the town will work together to seek
approval from uh Mass do um to pay to pay for the realignment of the curb cut onto Route 137 uh to the north of the project to allow realignment and repositioning of the entrances and egresses for a Butters north of the property um so the town will work the developer on that along with the property owners uh and then during construction importantly the designated development may not um prevent access access uh
through the property for the um owners to the properties um to the north so um that current access cannot be impeded during uh during the development while um while the other access is being um developed or determined um the um as I uh noted earlier um the there is a discussion about the access into the site off of
Meeting House Road and it is possible that there will be an anr plan which would um shave off a portion of that so the town could assist with any potential grants to help uh construct that accessway and retain ownership uh but the long-term maintenance um would be required um by the developer and there would be a leaseback or easement agreement with the developer relative to that access um then just from a timing point of view uh the the designated developer
has to make good faith efforts like they did with the other project to file a project eligibility letter within 14 days of the execution of this agreement um but in any event uh within 30 days um I will point out an Omission that we have here we have a schedule attached to exhibit D but we neglected to reference exhibit D within the document itself so um we'll add a reference to exhibit D um after paragraph um uh 4 C6 I believe is
the appropriate site um just referencing the schedule in exhibit D um as these sections refer to that schedule and the developer has already provided that schedule to us uh then once they get their peal they have to file a a comprehensive permit application to the zba within 120 days and then uh they have to um commence um the closing has
to occur um excuse me construction of the project has to occur within 30 days from the closing date um by the designated developer um I think that those are the highlights um in addition to the noted previously the uh the um environmental um release and indemnification um and the regular liability and indemnification agreement by the developer to the trust in the town um with that Mr chair I'm happy to
take um any questions thank you um let's start with the board um go ahead Corey sure um basically have two at the moment one's more minor but it's more of a for clarification purposes on choice of words page three section two a the little B last sentence and U my question be is the the last sentence reads the trust loan bear interest uring
at an anticipated rate of 0% does that is that standard I mean 0% interest is nothing I mean I banked for years and if I tried to sell it to a customer you're going to get a great CD for 0% probably not going to make that sale um so I guess um I would look some clarification on on that paragraph for starters yeah so that is true it's a 0% loan
so why doesn't it just read it no you know it does not bear interest I guess that's what I'm I'm just understanding the choice of wording I I'm happy happy to put it won't bear any interest but I would want to confirm that with the developer from a financing perspective um that they right I just wanted to make sure it wasn't a typo no okay uh second question is and most
of this will actually come from um possibly some of the uh public comments I would like to get a little bit better understanding of the access um to the uh but Butters to the north um I guess I want to make sure I'm clear of you know during the construction they're not going to be uh it states you know the the the limitation of you know they're going to have access to the property uh reasonable you know uh efforts will be made to you know minimize any interruptions
and they'll work together etc etc um I guess what about I'm trying to think how to phrase I wish we had a graphic what is the situation with the ab butting property that is and I wish we had a map there was a parcel called um owner unknown oh I know what you're talking about the the orphan propertyan property to the west of the uh the immediate butter correct and Northwest
of the property that's being developed correct so one AC so this peti this proposal I guess kind of land loocks it and I guess if someone steps forward and says hey I own it and I want to do anything is there anything that we need to prep in in in for the future or be prepared to do um to address that parcel you know I guess that is the right so the parcel doesn't have access access now so the sale of this
parcel doesn't landlock it right because it's already landlocked um so access to that parcel would have to be figured out in the future um depending on what happened to it but the sale of this parcel doesn't landlock that it's already landlocked so has there been any conversations fast forwarding future thoughts on that parcel no well I I I think the answer is that
and I don't have the proper legal language either for it but my understanding is that that is a parcel where in in colloquial terms the owner is unknown correct and so in order for anybody to exercise ownership rights over it they would have to do something which is called Quiet Title which is a process that requires you to go to court and um essentially clean things up it's
a it's a relatively lengthy process by lengthy I mean in in years rather than months and um at the and that might be something that the town could be interested in going forward but at the moment it's beyond I mean it's contingent in the extreme so yes we're aware of it um at the moment it's it's lying fallow if you will but in terms of its relationship to this project project
um it's tomorrow's question if not Beyond so it's safe to say legal counsil has suggested there's no action required at this state is what I want to confirm basically for for for the town's interest I I I'll let Lisa speak that I would hope that's what she says but I she has to say yeah that that that would be the answer and in fact the town does not have an interest in that property at this point all right can I ask a question on that point you certainly can wait are you done just on that point I have some other questions I'll wait my turn would
wouldn't the town uh I assume nobody's paying taxes on this property so wouldn't the town be able to take this put this in tax title and take it with that quiet title I mean and it and in its current situation regardless of the ownership of the abiding Parcels would there not be en easement by necessity to whoever owns that prop property um um know where the agement
would run but whether it runs on on the subject property or on the abutters properties I'm just trying to get a little more clarification on the point that Mr Mets raised I don't think it's a major issue I just pardon me right I'm sorry um would you like to me to answer the tax title question please no yes well if I may if I may just one thing I don't I I if anybody here knows maybe
Jill or whatever how long it has been that this property has been owner unknown my understanding was it's quite a long time I've I've owned I owned the property of budding in 70s and it was owners unknown but at that time okay so with that perspective yeah please do answer so so the answer is yeah yes the town could acquire tax title but of course you've got all the current requirements and the changes in the tax title law but you could acquire title
that way and then run once you have an interest in it um run a quite title action on it can you answer the um easement by necessity question um I I can't because I have not examined it about where it would have access where where any other access would be and whether there would be a a more convenient access and whe they had rights of access um you know
back when it became owner unknown so I can't answer that question no but theoretically there is an easement by necessity principle that someone might try to tap into in the future um there could be I think it's very very very remote okay thank you okay um Jeff any questions you're good Shar yep go ahead thank you I just have a few
questions I let me um mention two um I think edits first um one on page 11 it's the fourth line up from the bottom the word it says unkn know it should say unknown and then on um
bear with me oh on page 16 paragraph L I think you want to begin that first sentence with the word neither neither the town the trust nor the develop designated developer shall be considered in
breach and thank you a couple of questions um just for my clarification here um on page four the support paragraph C support for other public financing refers to a grant award letter which is attached as exibit F although I don't think we've seen that what what is that and and how much is the grant what are we talking about there I just don't know what it
is that's the town's Grant to do the design of the access way so this is a um okay it's not a financial yeah no that's right yeah it's Mass development I don't know Kathy if you can uh show it's not a money screen it's the town was a recipient of it okay all right and and we're essentially dedicating that Grant um subject to making sure that we can do it
appropriately um we're dedicating that Grant to the design and um cost estimating and preparation for developing the exess 175,000 75 okay all right I hadn't seen that um then on um page um six and seven that paragraph I'm I'm a little confused be I just want to understand this it says on page at the top of page s that there were going to be two documents to
be recorded something called a regulatory agreement and then and then a tax credit regulatory agreement and the tax credit regulatory agreement is defined um on page six but I don't know what the other regulatory agreement is that's being referred to the the Moc um set of documents have two regulatory agreements one is the standard regulatory agreement that um eohc requires as part of a 40b or
comprehensive permit process but then the tax credit regulatory agreement is an additional regulatory agreement that includes the 40b rider because the underlying regulatory agreement can be um superseded by the eohc or the tax credit financing but the tax credit regulatory agreement cannot be and so they require both documents to be filed okay what is the so-called residual
analysis that's referred to in the middle of that paragraph that runs over onto page 7 sure so this is the analysis that we talked about on the Main Street project as well um where the um tax credit agency has to determine that the funds that are actually being given by the town are not considered a gift for tax credit purposes but are actually a loan and the residual analys is that they can support the project can support
it as a loan even though it's 0 financing so that the tax credits work okay my last question about this paragraph goes to the ISS the um timing of the recording I I was a little confused because it says that um until such on page seven until such time as the these two Agreements are recorded um that the deed and I'm sorry the provisions shall be binding um
but the um the housing restriction is recorded at closing are the these will all be it will all be recorded at closing okay so so the The Binding nature of of um the pro of the provisions of this paragraph last up till the time of recording and not Beyond is that correct am I reading that right
no so The Binding Provisions last until so you want to cover the Gap right so the binding Provisions the provisions of 41 Will Survive the delivery of the deed and be binding on all successors and interest and title until the Regulatory and tax regulatory agreement are recorded and then they supersede those provisions and they will include those same requirements th those are recorded subsequent to the deed
that's correct okay um I just wanted to ask a question in paragraph five uh regarding the um egress in the north um has there has there been conversation and discussion with the abuts and the town the trust or whoever because we know we they there's a long-standing interest on their part in getting this resolved I'm just trying to understand where this stands maybe maybe you're not the party to
answer that I don't know well I can answer part of it um one of the abutters uh attorneys um has reached out to um me and to the trust and maybe even to the board um and we have received their request for what they're looking for for Access um I believe that he might even be here this evening um and we have advised them that once the LDA is signed then um the developer and town will sit down with them to talk about those
issues and if I may just to clarify it's our understanding that first of all I think he we may have seen a picture of him but that he is present he expects intends wishes to make a comment during the public comment period um and he's welcome to do that on behalf of his client uh and there have been conversations also with the other immediate abutter as well okay uh and my last um I two questions the
um page 10 refers to the settlement statement is that um similar to the type of settlement statements you see at a regular purchase and sale yes is that what we're talking about there yeah closing disclosure settlement statement yes okay and um finally the uh Force measure Clause um which I think is on page um 16 paragraph l so in order for that to be effective
there has to be an agreement signed between the parties to offer the extension to to to establish the extension of time that is needed because of um acts of God and so forth is that am I reading that correct correctly that's that is correct is that common that you would have to get both parties to agree to that in this type of a situation I've used it in this uh type of situation so that it's clear that
both parties are clear about what the extension is um and how much time has been lost as a result of whatever um okay whatever occurred right all right thank you those are my questions thank you chairman uh I think that takes care of the board uh welcome comments from the public um in in the uh here in in in the room we have two uh microphones the podium and one in the middle uh there you're welcome to comment please
introduce yourself and um as well those of you who are online and since you've been quazi introduced maybe um yes um Mr is it poiner palone palone palone yes sorry um please introduce yourself and identify your client if you would please um thank you Mr chair my name is Jonathan palone I'm an attorney with sen
and Associates and I'm here representing Gloria Hicks uh she's the owner of property at 95 Meeting House Road and as I think you're all aware um she's had some concerns about how her access is going to change as a result of this development um it's very encouraging to hear uh just the comments that have come out this evening and I don't want to take up too much time but what I would like to propose is a very minor
Amendment um to section 4 D5 of the LDA which I think will just provide some clarity uh as we move forward through this process um and with a view towards the negotiations that are going to happen after the LDA is signed um so in regards to that particular section uh which is located on page seven um the paragraph of Interest I'll just read it it says the designated developer
and the town of chadam will work together to seek approval from Mast doot and the designated developer shall pay for the realignment of the curb cut onto Route 137 um and just that right there where it uh references a curb cut I'd suggest that we or you amend that so that it reads as curb Cuts with a parenthetical s and and that way um if if it will allow uh I think the parties to have a
more open communication about that without feeling like they're Boxed In by the language of the LDA and just for a little context um mix my client you know her property sits off of Route 137 on Old County Road and that's what is providing her access that's what we're looking to change and alter um right now that access is both vehicular and
pedestrian and once that's changed she won't have that same access anymore and so this one little change I think would make us very happy with the status of the LDA and um feel us make us feel much more assured about the conversations that we're going to have going forward with the developer and the town thank you so um Lisa I'm gon to ask you a question here
in an effort to be responsive um and and I'm going to ask you if you would be willing to recommend our amending that um in in a way that I think accomplishes um the the intended objective but is is a little less the legislative history is a little less um let's say dominant and my suggestion would be that we we change that line to
say curb cut or Cuts yeah I I'm I'm fine with that I I don't think I don't think the developer would have an issue with that my next question is whether you think Penrose would have any problem with that I I don't think that would be a problem I'm going to leave it there for the moment and invite further comment from the uh from from from the from the
audience yes sir Mr Phillips Brian Phillips 374 Orleans Road um I'm just wondering what is happening with the electricity generated by the solar panels are the tenants going to be able to utilize that or is Penrose just going to sell that back to electric company I I I think that may be a question that we really don't have a definitive answer to I I my assumption would be and I'm subject to comment from
the staff or anybody else who has better information that it would be dedicated to the benefit of the the project and the utility costs of the project so that it would indirectly benefit the the um the the the tenants but I I I don't think we know that for sure okay thanks you have someone online just guessed I'm not sure oh okay oh um is
that Miss Gibbs uh yes it is thank you uh yes I have um a question uh after reviewing state and federal regulations about the actual Lottery system my understanding is that um from discussions with the affordable housing trust and the regulations that after about three months uh for those who live work or have children in the
Regional School District that the lottery is opened Statewide um apparently chadam can request and have background checks for any outstanding warrants and or criminal convictions for proposed tenants uh I don't think simply answering no on an application should be sufficient uh without confirmation of that so I have two questions that I would like answered are P Crown checks going to occur in chadam and would warrants outstanding
warrants or criminal convictions preclude tenants from being Chosen and assuming that answer is yes uh when uh the attorney miss me was discussing occupancy before she referred to them as families but families the actual correct term is household because families can be defined as you know anywhere up to six unrelated people living in the same unit um so my
question would be if if criminal background checks are done are they done on everybody and uh or just like one or two people because I would think we would want to know that that is not going to be an issue in chadam otherwise you you know if you don't do it on all the people you have no idea who's living there so um and I think that if that's the case and it's going to be done I
think it should be incorporated into the LDA uh because I think it's pen Rose's responsibility to make sure that would be done and I could probably should have been included on the Buckley property as well I guess that's too late to do so i' just like to know one way or the other if that those are going to be criteria that we can expect thank you thank you uh I'm I'm I'm just going to say I'm going to ask Lisa to help us with that if you can to the extent that you can uh
uh in all events I I'm going to say I think the a definitive answer that we have confidence in probably has to abide some uh uh some research and discussion with Penrose which we're perfectly happy to do but for the moment if you can help us with that please do sure the terms of the lottery are governed by um e LC and they would be set forth in the comprehensive permit uh not appropriate for the the LDA so um those kind of
details would be part of the comprehensive permit and driven by the um requirements and um guidelines of uh the lottery from EC do you happen to know what those guidelines are I mean it would be nice if we knew that ahead of time if that was going to be done I don't know those guidelines off the top of my head no so who would I think it's important to know that and I think it's
important Lisa are those not a matter of public record in the uh in in the fair housing uh um statutes and and regulations of the state yeah the EC has the lot has has Lottery guidelines and forms of Lottery documents available online so whose responsibility is that am I supposed to do that or is there someone on staff that should do that and get an answer to that for the public I
think we I think we should know that and I've read them I'm not an attorney uh state and federal regulations seem to be different there are different criteria for different types of affordable housing and I think we should know if it's going to be done I can't even review an application unless you're actually applying I can't see what the questions are on applications they don't allow that unless I'm actually filling one out so I would think somebody needs to know that uh so that the public can know
it well I I I think the best I'm subject to different thoughts from the board here my my own reaction here is that that with your your concern your interest is noted it's obviously a community interest it's one that um is guided and governed by um rules and regulations that are used broadly across the state but uh we'll we will take it under advisement to make sure that folks
are aware of what those are and and specifically the concern that you've articulated yeah and I think it should be done sooner rather than later I think it's important for people to know that as we move forward and I I I I just don't understand how nobody knows this answer it's kind of simple and it's kind of serious so um you know we have a whole bunch of people here that are supposed to be Specialists and we can't seem to get an
answer a simple answer to that question it is a matter of public safety for chatam it's a small town so I'd appreciate it if if if it would be answered at some point soon dly noted thank you duly noted anything yeah uh yes Carol Miss Gordon yes Carol Gordon from South chadam I
just um I just want to say that I think it's sad that Gloria Hicks had to get representation in order to even get this far with the driveway that she had been promised I think it would have been really in our best interest to to work this out between the the affordable housing trust and the select board not everyone can really do those out of-pocket expenses and everyone needs to be heard so I just wanted to say that I you know I think it's I'm glad it's come this far I'm glad that you're listening to her representation but I think that maybe it
could have been done a lot a lot better by just working the boards together with a resident's concern thank you it anybody else I will take a motion if you're ready to make one and deal with it I move to execute the L disposition agreement with pen roll for the Sal development of housing at zero Meeting House Road as as
amended uh yeah I I I'm sorry I should have said that I I do I will recommend this uh tomorrow night to the affordable housing trust and I do recommend that we do it here tonight um as as I suggested second um further any discussion on the motion I just really wanted to make
Jan Burke um repres I also represent um Gloria Hicks I'm not clear on your vote are you incorporating that amendment that Mr palone okay we could not understand your words I I'm sorry that was my fault I I yes we're going to add or Cuts thank you in the spot that uh uh Council recommended yeah go ahead Dean yeah thank you I just wanted to note that there we received a communication from uh Carol Gordon on behalf of the South chadam Village Association just
wanted to make sure that that was entered into the records so that the staff and the town leadership can take that information into account as this progresses and um the only other comment I'll make is I made it I think when I voted to approve the LDA for the other property I view my role at this time is to just try to make sure as the best I can that the interest of the town are protected in this document and that's why I will support the motion thank you okay then I will call role and I'll start with you Mr nicastro hi Mr Shell
says I Miss Davis Hi Mr Dyk hi and Mr Mets I um thank you very much uh Lisa I think we're done so thank you very much um see you tomorrow night all right thank you all very much have a good evening thank you all right take care bye bye um next we have our grinder pump policy recommendation uh oh Rob okay go
ahead thank you Mr chair Rob failey director of Public Works so this is really a continuation of the grinder pump discussion as well as grinder pump policy recommendations uh back in November 12th 2024 the water and sewer advisory committee and the summer residents advisor committee both made recommendations uh to the board and we also heard comments from concerned
citizens as well these recommendations take into account um um the considerations were evaluated and um regarding equity and service and cost of the town uh so we we came up with the following recommendations the first is acquisition in provision it is recommended that the town pay for one grinder pump per household for those residents who need them whether from low pressure sewer and inst at the street or due to Elevation challenges that restrict their ability
to connect to gravity sewer uh the second recommendation is regarding installation it is recommended that the town provide a homeowner with a one-time Universal stien to help offset installation costs associated with grinder pumps now the fiscal impact is uh for 1,200 grinder pumps over the next 30 Years um we can go to this uh spreadsheet uh obviously the first two years have a greater fiscal impact uh that's because
there have been approximately 120 grinder pumps already installed in chadam um the second year accounts for another 120 grinder pumps that either have received permits filed applications or have received connection orders from the Board of Health so that would be in the first two years approximately 240 grinder pumps at a cost of 2.66
million um thank you um I I I'm if I may I'm I'm just going to make a comment and then open it up to questions uh as well as comments eventually from the public this has gone on for two and a half years or or more a lot of work has gone into it the the um water and sewer advisory committee um has had Untold number of meetings on the subject uh I know SRA the summer residence
advisory committee virtually dedicated their whole summer to this um the group that I know I think they've sort of identified themselves as the lime Hill group another uh group of concerned citizens who've done a tremendous amount of work and submitted all kinds of information um to various um parties but principally to town staff um it it's it's been a a big effort on all parts um a lot of different points of view uh I I
just want to commend the staff um I I I really appreciate how you've integrated and pulled that all together and come to what is obviously a compromised position from All Points of View but um something that I think represents a real um a real step forward and I I I want to say thank you for that so with that I'll open it up to the board for questions uh Shere thanks Mr chair and I concur with Mike
um uh everybody did an outstanding job on this I just so that everybody can get an understanding of um the installation recommendation of $2,000 Rob where did that number how did that number land at 2,000 so we looked at a number of different variables I know the town of Falmouth uh provided $1,800 but that information is a few years old you know accounting for some inflation we also had surveys that went out to
Residents who have installed grinder pumps we kind of took a mean average of their additional electric costs those that have detailed the information to us we broke out the electric cost we kind of averaged it okay was just over $2,000 thank you Coury um the question for clarification the acquisition both acquisition and instulation um Provisions that are put out in the recommendations is it strictly for uh
new grinder pumps or what about the 100 plus um grinder pumps that have previously been installed and are currently operating would they qualify for any of this that's the recommendation yes for clarity thank you so that's the first 120 that and the ones that already installed so I I think think it's a great policy um I like the fact it's been a compromise it's been vetted um water and SE vetted it stra spent as Mike noted spent the whole summer on it and and it's an investment
and it's an investment that actually needs to be in needs to be invested because we have tens of millions of dollars in our Wastewater system hundred million dollars invested already in our Wastewater system and this is the key to maximize our investment in the Wastewater system and to do what the Wastewater systems intended to do which is to remove nitrogen from our fresh and salt water so this is an investment in our future and it's an investment in frankly recing the massive investment we've already made in our Wastewater um
plant so I really love the notion that the folks that are far away you know and you know can't tie into a uh have to have a grinder pump to tie into a um a low pressure I'm really really pleased that that's been included and I think the $2,000 it's you know maybe it's 2500 maybe it's 1,500 but it's a it's it's a gesture for folks that want to hook up so I think I really like the policy a lot um we're going to going to use Bond money to to kick to kick it off and we'll see how we pay for it going
forward but again I just think it's a it's an investment in what we've already invested in that we're maximizing our our investments I'm very much in favor of the policy thank you thank you de yes thank you Mr chairman I I I want to Echo what um you said at the beginning of this item that uh I found U the information that we got from all three of the groups uh including the two Committees of the Town very very helpful um and sometimes it disag there was disagreement um um from one group to
another but I think it was all helpful to the town to get this information I wanted to suggest um the addition of two words in the first recommendation on the in the third line where it says um uh the town would provide the grinder pump uh weather from low pressure or due to Elevation I would want to suggest after the word elevation the insertion of the phrase or distance so would read I I think that's
the intent um Am I Wrong Rob that's correct the greater the distance the the greater the elevation challenge would be so um that was the intent of just the elevation okay we'll leave it as is um well I I the reason I asked the question was to say that your language just clarified what was intended so I I don't I think it's well language then I think it should go in it' be helpful um it doesn't
explicitly say what you said in response to Mr Met's question about whether this would retroactively apply to the folks that have already installed 120 of them or so that's the first line on the um so that's them on the on the spreadsheet yeah that's the 120 you've already installed okay and is the amount of money that they would get the same as those that are going going to install going forward has that been determin or after discussion with Town Council I
believe a a more consistent uh number would be desired okay and that's why we use the term Universal so regardless of of if it was for the 120 prior to uh this vote of the board or moving forward we wanted to make sure it was the same yeah stien that goes to the whole issue of equity I I I uh agree with what's been said I think I think this is a good
um compromise um resolution of the U matter that has been challenging the town for couple of years thank you Jeff I just wanted to comment that I think it's going to help folks that on the fence about you know tying in because of because of dollars I think it'll think it'll really help so again I think it's wise so I I'm I'm before I call for the vote with respect to that last point I I I I don't want to upset the apple cart I mean this is hard one but um I I would
like to I I I'd like to have an understanding that the principle of this approving this this recommendation is that we're uh we're doing what's appropriate um subject to council's opinion but um that if you know Council can get comfortable with it that with respect to those that are already installed a relevant piece of data would
be what the person spent on the grinder pump so if somebody spent $22,000 on the grinder pump and they've got a receipt to prove it or otherwise they can get something from the contractor they get 2,000 not whatever the number is 7,000 um and similarly if somebody spent 8,000 they get 8,000 not 7,000 I I I I don't want to change the policy I just simply want to say that in
this that that that I'd like the board to have the feeling that it in that Spirit we're approving this this policy may ask a question you know say somebody installed a grinder pump for $2,000 but it was 20 years ago they lost you know the time value of money they've lost that money if it was otherwise invested would be maybe $7,000 nowadays you know we can we can slice it anyway you like I I the answer is they get
$2,000 my answer would be they get $22,000 but look I don't want to upset the apple card I've made the point I'm going to ask for a motion on the the the um the recommendation as as amended oh I'm sorry yes please yeah uh public comment uh Mr oppenheim David oppenheim um first of all I want
to I think this is a very good compromise and uh sorry it took so long but I think uh everybody's better educated and Etc with all of this the question one question I have it's technical question somebody's put in a pump two or three years ago and uh whatever they paid for it um and I think one of the things you're going to find out is going to be difficult to figure out what to paid for cuz a lot of the bids just were installed without the specifics of the particular pump but that's beside the point um and it's out
of warranty now with I know there's an effort to extend the warranties um on these so if if it is this brand how will that warranty work that's that's a question could be answered so it's like in in my case in the case I'm asking my daughter's pump was uh about 2 and a half years ago um I think the warranty at the time was a year it might have been two I don't know EX exactly and you're talking about getting extended warranties I believe for 5 years as a negotiating point so
how would that work into the equation the reimbursement I understand which is great and I think that's fair Equitable do you want to have a go with that yeah no I'd like to hear that first sure so so the the warranty would be for new grinder pumps that the town purchased uh an extended warranty negotiated as part of the price of the purchase of the new grinder pumps um we can't I don't know of a conceivable way that we can warranty previously
purchased grinder pumps that's fine I just wanted that to be clear so somebody that's bought one two years ago may be at risk in some fashion um the only other thing that I just I I I think this is a good solution and I think it is uh the way fou did it and other towns have done it I think it's it's pretty good um and I think it takes into account inflation and things like that I mean people that put in their pumps a few years ago were paying three or four um I think it's important to point out that
every I think a lot of this has happened because the cost of doing all this stuff has gone crazy um and the idea that I think it's important to know that this was understood when we did abami run uh before the pandemic I think six or seven years ago um we certainly understood the grinder pumps were going to be taken care of so this this solidifies that and and meets what I we felt was the town's obligation along those lines I think the one thing that people still need to understand is those are on grinder pumps
are will never be and this was understood from the start on full Equity because when the power goes out those on gravity have can use their facilities and those uh on grinder prps cannot unless they have a generator and like everything else back in when this was started in 2011 and you can build a house run to $200 a square foot now you can't build a house run to $500 a square foot and these are specialty items that we're talking about here generators have gone from $2 to $3,000 you're looking at
8 to 12,000 so I just think that it everybody should also acknowledge and be aware that those that are on grinder pumps um the town has saved a lot of money by putting pressure systems in low pressure systems which is spread across the tax rates but there are people that even though the the electrical is is a relatively small a monthly charge or whatever it's going to be but the real issue is the use of their house which will be compromised unless you have a generator and I just think that needs to be understood and I also hope that uh um
while we're doing this and this solves this problem for installation I think the town should continue to study the idea of long-term maintenance uh not only for the good of the people on grinder pumps but the for the good of the whole sour system um I think maintenance we're going to invest a lot of money in part of our budget when we when we install things whether it's sewer systems or build schools or anything else is being prepared to
maintain them so that's my comments thank you thank you and I'll just note the the staff memo makes it absolutely clear that maintenance is a subject for future discussion so Mr bardis Bruce bardis Vice chair of the water and sewer advisory committee and I have a question for Mr failer um neither the chair or the vice chair of the water advisory committee were part of your your work on this I think you did a great job of uh assimilating
all of the inputs and information but I do have a specific question regarding the $2,000 dollar amount which I know is um a non-perfect uh arrival point I guess but did you have an opportunity to talk to any of the Su septic and Sewer installers in town such as uh uh T TW Nicholson or Robert bow I
took some of the information that you had provided previously Bruce for the for the water and sewer advisory committee and took that under advisement when uh when we were creating that that $2,000 number whatever wherever that should land okay all right because that's more than I got from input from those people uh the 2000 it's more than $1,000 dollar higher so I wondered where it came from all right thank you thank you uh yes sir
Mr Brown and then Mr burn hi Michael Brown uh abami run i' like to talk about the $2,000 um stipended if you'd like to um has nothing to do with ongoing cost of electric first of all it's just for the uh consideration for the electrical component of the
installation um comment was made right just before my my appearance is that um the $2,000 was about $1,000 higher than um some other sources well I have three sources from three local contractors within the past two years and I can provide that information of necessary who the contractors are one was 1,800
one was 2,000 one was 2200 for the electrical component of the hookup the average of those three numbers is $2,000 but um I I would gladly pay $1,000 if I had to pay it out of my pocket it's just not the going rate thank you thank you Mr burn sorry Burns it's okay Bob Burns 147 Li Hill Road uh couple
comments going back to this 2000 um there was a study done in Falmouth where they went back to all of the installations and they interviewed contractors homeowners and so this is public information and what they came up with was $1,800 and that was 15 10 15 years ago so recently I spoke with uh dubis and also with Speakman and what they do in their bids is they put in an allowance
for electrical for $2,000 so that $2,000 number is pretty consistent if you look at the data from fouth and you also look at what's happening here in in chadam a couple other comments I'd like to thank this board for listening to us as uh the chairman said it's been two over two years so it's going to be two and a half or three years in October so appreciate you listen listening to shk and to the Lim Hill group and to some of the other
people in this room about this whole thing I think we have what we've come up with is a good a good plan I think one thing that is going to happen down the road has got to be this whole thing on service of the 125 uh pumps that have been installed I think they've been installed after the the mandate to connect those pumps were purchased directly by the homeowner from F Mahoney they have a one-year warranty
I've heard some of them get got a two-year warranty so those pumps are now out of warranty most of those pumps are out of warranty and if I talk to homeowners on Lime Hill and abami there are seven that went in pumps three on abami four on Lime Hill they have no idea what's going to happen once they're at a warranty and they're looking for for answers do they stick with Mahoney do they do something else and I think that's important because if you look at the Mahoney charges for coming to to chadam for service calls astronomical on
that on that spreadsheet so so homeowner with a problem could be paying a few thousand dollars if you have a problem the other thing to keep in mind is uh I think the goal is to in this whole process is to get people to connect and there are a lot of people that are sitting on the fence Speakman has bids dubis has bids people are saying we're waiting for the town to to make a decision on this so I think that's important the other thing is important
is this service issue because you want to make sure that as people start to connect they're happy because the word's going to Sprint over the next 20 years you know I have a gr a PO yes it's working great great service everything's working great I think that's an important issue and what happened in chensford and we've talked about chelsford chelsford they aut a warranty is back in 2005 69 what happened is it didn't get off to a good start and that's when the citizens
got upset and they they instituted this fairness committee where they got some legal advice and they really started to raise cane within within chelsford chelsford backed off and chelsford uh fixed it they took ownership of the problems they they bought in a third party and this was Weston and Samson uh they've had Weston now for I think 10 15 years Weston's doing a good job Weston fixes the pumps on site so they get the
parts from Mahoney fix them on site they swap the pumps out so chel for 600 pumps they're in pretty good shape so again I think this third leg of the stool is this whole service maintenance and I think that has got to get decided sooner than later because we don't want to have problems with the people coming off of these oneyear warranties from Mahoney we're asking for 5 years which I think is great that we're going to get five if we can get five years so those are my
comments so I hope that helps but again thank you for uh for taking it this far and listening to uh to us thank you thank you very much um I'm going to go online I I think you're asking to be recognized Jeff spalter yes yes I am can you hear me okay yes yes please hey thank you Jeff spalter chair of the the SRC and while I I don't want to be too redundant and unfortunately I'll be a bit redundant uh first by just thanking um for everyone who was
involved in this for for getting together and working towards uh towards a really good solution uh the fact that our town is willing to listen and and take some real strong actions just really uh makes you feel good as as a resident of the town that they're listening so thank you very much for that uh the outcome I think where we're headed is great uh I just wanted to Echo briefly um what Bob Burns had just mentioned about um making sure that we don't lose sight of service and maintenance long term uh there are a lot
of a lot of models out there that we can learn from and emulate and uh we we shouldn't have to create anything from scratch there's a lot good work done so I hope we take advantage of that and uh and get back to that Rel relatively soon uh but thank you all so much for getting us this far we really appreciate it um thank you um I'm going to go I is that an Ryan asking for recognition yes it is thank you Mr chair
um I'm an Ryan can you hear me yes we can hear you thank you I I'm a member of the water and SE advisory committee but I'm speaking tonight as an individual and I appreciate the effort that's been put into the grinder pump policy recommendations however I expected that the water and sewer advisory committee would have a chance to review and discuss them before the select board's
deliberation um after two years of work on this issue that opportunity would have allowed us to provide some additional meaningful input I believe and while I understand that the town manager followed the board's directive it's important that our committee and the public who have spoken this evening to have time to review provide feedback before a final decision and also given
the complexity of this issue and the unresolved maintenance and replacement policies I would respectfully urge the board to defer action tonight uh to ensure a thorough and well supported policy thank you thank you um is that Mr Suter that's seeking recognition uh yes it is can you hear me yes please go ahead but please introduce yourself
uh yeah hi Bob Stalter I live on Li Hill and I've been involved uh vocally both in the paper and in some of the meetings and I want to reiterate um what Dr oppenheim said and Bob Burns uh and Jeff um regarding a thank you for your effort for trying to find an equitable uh solution I've already put a grinder pump in and I I and the $2,000 electric
charge really uh doesn't cover the other aspects of connecting a generator and those other safety factors that you need in order to be able to you know keep your house running if the if the uh Power ever goes down um but again I want to thank you and then um because I was involved early on there was a lot of discussion about the town's intent in 2009 about paying for the pumps and
those kinds of things and 15 years later here we are and it looks like you're finally following through and what the intent was I just hope that 15 years from now we're not talking about the maintenance of these systems when we need to replace them and um seeking reimbursement for replacing the core of those pumps uh when they reach the end of their useful life so uh I appreciate
that you've put in the record that uh you will uh discuss maintenance later on thank you very much thank you um M Gibbs I think that you're you're a g tonight yes I didn't put in my full name uh yes I'm I I have a question two questions quick questions first before I make my comments now this is a policy but I do believe this has to go before
town meeting correct and if so is it a majority vote or a two-thirds vote I the policy I don't believe needs to go before the town meeting obviously at the moment the proposed financing for it which is the $32 million Bond uh does need to get um I say the financing for it the the element of the $32 million proposal for Bond financing needs Town approval and that's a two-thirds vote
Yes okay that's that's what I not the policy anab balot question yes sorry okay all right um I'm going to speak as a taxpayer not someone with a grinder P pump uh but I think this request is premature and I think it's discriminatory and I think it's that's a bad precedent we still have not been provided the projected costs for completion of phase one of the sewer
project that was supposed to be completed by 2030 under the comprehensive Wastewater plan that document is about 12200 pages long it was approved by the town back in 2010 and everybody in town has been paying for it ever since um uh when it's complete the the 2/3 there are 5,000 residential commercial industrial and institutional properties that were supposed to have to be connected by 2030 right now the
infrastructure is only in place for 900 so we are way way off Target on that we have spent or appropriated well over $150 million for those 900 properties so just through extrapolation there is no question in my mind that to even meet phase one which is searing two-thirds of the town is going to cost two to three maybe even $400 million more which is taxpayer uh funded
um so the fact is every property owner who will one day be on the sewer or not will have tremendous expenses not just those requiring grinder pumps those with significant setbacks from the road on rear Lots half of the properties are rear Lots those on gravity pipes who happen to be between two pump stations where that is going to require excavation by them to upwards of 20 ft
to reach the stub because that currently is what has to happen it's up to the property owner it is going to require trenching of their property or boring from that stub all the way to their homes uh impacting their Landscaping impacting their irrigation systems impacting their driveways in many cases and requiring re-plumbing of their their homes if the if the hookup is not in the front of the home and can't and can't be
accommodated um I think the town is opening themselves up to lawsuits from all those property owners for discrimination who either have incurred these expenses or will be required to in the future and I think you're opening up a can of worms by picking this you're putting the cart before the horse this is a very small part I recognize that everybody here it you know the proponents all have grinder pumps but there are a lot of
features of the sewer system whether you're on gravity or Forest Mains that are very very expensive and the tragedy of it is the that two-thirds of the Town who has been paying for it will never get sewered it's just not happening it's moving way too slowly and yet they are being required not only to pay for the the 150 200 3 400 million but also Al on top of it this when they will never have the benefit from it we have spent the
last few years redirecting our sewer system uh production instead of trying to focus on those 2/3 we were directed uh sewering up to meeting house so that we could sewer East harwi so they wouldn't have to build a a a facility and now we're redirecting it for different affordable housing projects you know and it's I think I think it's really unfair to those taxpayers who are constantly being hit uh to to take care
of individual groups and they will never see the sewer and we all know now today being on sewer uh increases value of your home so those people who have been paying and will never get on sewer uh is kind of a double whammy for them um I I would say that unless and until voters are provided the financials for the entire cause and timeline of meeting our mandated State requirements for nitrogen reduction for at least phase
one so that voters can make an informed decision at town meeting to consider this proposal no Town Fund should be appropriated for select group of people who happen to have the attention of the Town boards I appreciate all the work that's gone into it but uh everybody we have problems with the sewer and we have problems with water in terms of the expenses that private citizens are incurring for that as well and they're both public safety issues and I think we
have to consider the taxpayers because when and I believe the town is taking on tremendous liability if they even consider uh servicing any any um of these pumps on private property they it is not they are notoriously known if they are not maintained by the property owner properly we all have to have generators for various things not just uh not just a a a grinder pump most most
homes today they have to put them in for a whole host of reasons are we're losing power constantly um and if if we start having the town's liability or the town going onto the property to maintain it and something goes wrong there are going to be lawsuits they're going to say well you you were responsible for it and you let it back up into my house and that's particular a big problem particularly on the seasonal properties and again I don't think that that should be up to
taxpayers to pay for those kinds of things we have never ever um taken responsibility or liability for anything on private property and we should not be doing it under these circumstances I think there are a lot of um exceptions that are being made now against standard operating procedure in the town uh and when we say Town liability that's taxpayer liability we're the ones that are going to be paying for board so I hope you will take that into consideration and I think ultimately it'll be Town meeting's decision anyway
thank you very much thank you Miss Gibbs Mr Bugis Bruce Bugis Vice chair of the water and sewer advisory committee um just want to make sure that the the select board is aware um I'm in full agreement uh that the $22,000 electrical hookup is the right number however what hasn't been discussed is that to install a uh a grinder pump
requires much smaller pipe at a much lower level I mean sorry much higher closer level to the to the surface can use different trenching equipment to get it done and so therefore it is much it is less expensive on average to install a grinder pump connection than it is for the gravity feed since it's a bigger pipe and has to go down a lot further so those are the two pieces of the
installation uh that need to be understood uh thank you yeah Dean can I ask a question Bruce yes because I I want to go back to Ann Ryan's comments and you know I I said what I said about this recommendation and I think it's I think it's a good compromise but um I heard from another member of your committee yesterday who was concerned that the Comm the water and sewer committee hadn't had a chance to review the town
manager's recommendation I know you're speaking as an individual do you have any comment on that your committee would have ordinarily met yesterday this the first Monday of the month but yes being a representative of the committee uh I would have anticipated we've been part of the conversation to to pull the policy together or at least an opportunity to review it I know that maybe a month ago a meeting that had
been scheduled was cancelled or uh maybe it was they were trying to you were your chair was trying to schedule a meeting and then it was determined that they would wait until we heard tonight I I mean I want to be respectful of the committee the committee has done a lot of work it's I've been with that committee for 10 years and we have a full compliment on that Committee of people that are dedicated and devoted to the work of the committee and I I I want to be
respectful of it and I personally would be open to deferring a vote on this for a week or two um if that's what you're if if your committee wanted to have a chance to comment on it um but I I I I'm I'm at a loss because your chair is not here I and you're not speaking for the chair so you're the vice chair wasn't able to make it yes okay thank you okay well I'm going to comment on that I I um that
the nobody got what they thought was the right answer um and I when I say nobody I'm talking about the public you've heard some of it here tonight talking about sraak I'm I'm talking about um the the water and sewer advisory committee we have in front of us a recommendation that is coming from the staff that took all of that stuff into account and I
I this this is not about uh etiquette or anything else we have a policy we should consider the policy and vote it up or down that's my own personal opinion yes sir I I I do much I definitely appreciate all the work that's been put into this um but my f philosophical perspective is very simple on this one um we are extremely fortunate as community to have members that serve on our various boards and committees without them the amount of work that
gets done would I want to think about the if they were not able to perform that um I think we have a little bit of time I would recommend we send this to the back to the committee for for an opportunity for them to comment and um maybe they could weigh in a little bit on maintenance and replacement you know of the grinder pumps as part of that conversation because that's a continued conversation that I agree needs to happen sooner rather than later so I'd rather keep this conversation moving forward I think we're Landing we in a decent spot um to some level um but with
respect to the volunteers that we have in this community I would send back to them good when do we have to have a Warren article tidied up and and ready to go and ready for our our review um what's the I I don't mind sending it back to water but I just want to make sure we do have a warrant article for the town meeting I do not want to lose any kind of momentum that we have um with with all due respect to the water
and Su advisory committee I think they need to bite at the Apple and I think they worked hard at it but I don't want to lose I don't want to lose the opportunity for a warrant article yes so the warrant is scheduled to close on March 18th and it would go to print soon after the reason why we ring it tonight and and and letting the various committees know that it was on for tonight is because you need to make a recommendation and on the the actual borrow authorization which is not before you tonight but this is a component as well as the finance committee so in in
for me bringing it to the board first I thought it was important uh a to follow your direction to bring it to you and have a public conversation with you as the board versus and in no disrespect to the water and sore advisory committee you could always defer to them or refer to them but I thought it was important for you in a public meeting with public comment to receive the recommendation and and and I totally agree with that approach and I agree with your approach this evening I think you've had great we've had great input but I also think with process I think they ought to get
another bite at the Apple but I do not want it to hold up our opportunity to bring a town meeting in May I really don't so I wanted I don't know how much more substantive work is going to be done but in with respect to your committee can you get can you turn it around quickly and get it back to us uh with your input whether it's on maintenance or whatever I would just I if I may let let's not get things confused here the maintenance is a separate issue it is to be discussed in the future it's not part of this recommendation it's not a subject that we need to consider in in in the context
of deciding this recommendation that notwithstanding I'm asking whether or not they can turn their comments no absolutely I agree with that I agree with that I really think we don't want to lose momentum this is a this is a this is a compromise it's well thought out it's reasonable I think we got to get it to to the town for a vote and whether it's through the bonding or but I I would I would I would support I'm just going to say I think the cake is baked uh I I think the only thing you're going to get back is is is an opening up of a discussion that's been resolved here and I'd like to point out that if
you go back and look at the meeting in November we said as a board we said to staff please incorporate input from all three of these groups and come to us with a recommendation which I think they've done yes sir Mr chairman I don't think we need to refer this back to the water and sewer committee think um what we should do is this is what I would do I would say that we defer a decision on
this for two weeks three weeks whatever it is and if they want to have a meeting uh and comment on it they can um the only issue as you said that's before us tonight is the is is these recommendations not maintenance we've heard two sides I just want to sort of um project ahead the maintenance issue is a controversial one and they're a legal issue isues to it as well as Financial issues um and we're going to need guidance from Town Council on that
but I would suggest uh we not um take a vote tonight but that we defer this for two weeks I'm good with that yeah I'm okay with that I'm good with that I think it's a process issue in my mind does that work two weeks from now do we have room in the but in the um agenda for that we can make room that's that's no issue okay good okay so we're good thank you all right I guess we have a consensus to defer it to two weeks
H thank you to everybody for that um next case um we're moving into the budget review um and town meeting articles review first up is um the 2026 operating capital budget for Department of Natural Resources Mr Burman and M masero hi good evening hello how are you good K maero
Finance director um we have a couple budgets to go through tonight and the first one is the Department of Natural Resources um this budget is presented at 2,387 675 for FY 2026 which is an increase of 63,800 $123 over the current fiscal year the health division budget for FY
2026 total 65,0 12 112 sorry for FY 2026 the conservation division operating budget for 2026 is $422,900 Bay management assessment includes a budget of 63,000 $85 the Harvard Master division operating budget for FY 2026 is
$874,000 485 the coastal resources budget for FY 2026 is $160,000 the shellfish division operating budget for FY 2026 is 248,000 and there are a few committees um the south coast harbor plan committee shellfish advis committee and waterways advisory committee that are all level funded for FY 2026 with a
budget of $11,000 is not lus Cove committee included in that as well um I don't know sure where's Aunt Lydia okay hi there Greg bman your director of Natural Resources um ant lady's Cove doesn't have a separate line item um the minutes didn't consider are taken out of the Harbor Master operating budget it thank you thank you Greg uh can could I just
had one qu and maybe this is not the appropriate time to ask it but conservation you have down 8.69% from last year I think that's the only one I've seen so far that's down at all what where did that come from how did that happen so um Greg will go over that but that's um a reallocation of a position that was reallocated in 25 okay um so but he'll be going over that and it's reallocated to a different division
which I'll be going over that in the general government when I go through all that budget in a couple weeks thank you you're welcome um the 20126 capital plan um these are the requests between1 and $250,000 the natural resources has a request for 50,000 for storm water management Health requests um are5 ,000 for a supplemental for an EV vehicle conservation requests are $10,000 for
conservation lands management Harbor Master requests are navigation aids for $20,000 and Mitchell River Bridge maintenance for 45,000 the coastal resources requests are 100,000 for tidde gate and roadway Improvement feasibility assessment to mitigate coastal flooding 10,000 for town landing infrastructure improvements the shellfish requests are are 15,000 for a new shellfish outboard in fiberglass work $50,000 for design
for shellfish division workshop and there is also a FY 2026 Capital warrant article request and this is a annual request for the dredging in the amount of $400,000 with the use of the tax levy so I'll pass it over to Greg Burman to go over in detail more of the budget for you great thank you Carrie hello to the select board there
we go so this presentation took just over an hour for the finance committee I anticipate going uh respecting your time and trying to go much uh more quickly if I go too fast just please let me know and I'm happy to stop at any any point along the way uh they were very detail oriented not that you're not but um as you probably know there are five divisions within the department uh
Coast resource conservation Harbor Master health and shellfish we also have the Pleasant Bay management uh assessment kind of within our department shell and the three committees that have a budget that car mentioned that uh are uh static from last year so natural resources is about 3% of the overall Town budget we have a I did did that just for you Jeff thank you yeah that's very nice uh we have an extensive
extensive list of accomplishments that are in the digital budget book you're welcome to go over it and I'm happy to talk with you at any point about the quality work that our team does when we're looking just at staff costs this pie chart's a rough approximation of um the allocation within our town as the chair mentioned there is a decrease in Staffing costs in fiscal year 6 for conservation I'll just go through very quickly we have about 16 we have 16
full-time one part time two intermittent two stien and uh up to 39 seasonal employees Coastal resources has the director up to three seasonal town landing um this is a fairly uh uh static uh Staffing cost conservation is the one that now has the conservation agent the wetlands permanent coordinator and the assistant conservation agent we did used to have a
Administrative Assistant um we did reallocate that over to General government uh partially to take care of the sticker office and also combine that with uh assistance with finance and budgeting uh the amount of time that the sticker office was using from from some of our existing staff this was a way to get a full-time person to be able to to do both roles that are kind of seasonal and blend well together so that's why there's actually a reduction in
that the uh seasonal part times that's uh primarily uh bird monitoring and if we actually have to enct a hcp uh for nset Harbor Master this is the uh proposed new position uh not all of the 73,000 is just for the position the others are for the uh step colas etc for the existing positions and as we go through this I did just want to call out that we did
take a look at the Harbor Master division's budget and while there is the increase based on um the additional person we looked for opportunities for saving within the division's budget to try to offset that so as we bring in a new full-time person that means we don't need um as many temporary wages for a seasonal because that person would take that up uh in addition contracted Services uh vehicle equipment maintenance this would be a boat operator marine mechanic and uh this
person would take over a lot of the outside duties that have to be uh uh taken um really outside of our Harbor Master Workshop uh with the Mitchell River drawbridge we have an operating line and also a capital line um with this we would still anticipate for large repairs we would need to go out to a contractor but this would be for preventative maintenance um not necessarily needing a
um annual um Services contract so we' be able to do the uh preventative maintenance inhouse um and this would reduce our cost for postly operating the capital so that 75,000 from Capital would be reduced to 45 and that is has been requested for I'm not going to have the exact number for for many years in the past that has been a standing uh Capital request so taking all these
reductions into account you can see the net cost is 11,614 just for the salary and Carrie could speak more to the uh Fringe and benefits if you want it but we just wanted to at least get that across that the the net impact of the division is relatively small so it's not just a um impact for for the Mitchell River Bridge primarily this is the boat operator and Marine Mechanic why do we need it just in the
harbor Master division we have 19 trucks and trailers we have 15 boats most of which are Harbor Master but we also have some shellfish boats and they've done some work on the fire department boats 21 engines amongst those boats so you can understand that if you've ever tried to have work done at a marine mechanic around cape cuds specifically chadam it's very difficult um let's see so you're going to I'm it's
the expectation we're going to find a marine mechanic that's going to have expertise in all those different Outboards that is the hope so right right now one of the reasons that this is a an option that we're exploring is we've seen the impact that one of our seasonal employees has had over the last couple of years this is an employee who only works with a couple days a week and certainly not year round and with that we've seen cost savings amongst all our
engines and we think it would be a cost savings to have someone like that as a year round basis okay so yes it it it would be multiple across the various we've tried to keep our uh models the same but with uh Co we just haven't been able to maintain a a standard model across our engines thank you sure um so in addition to the idea of a mechanic the idea of a boat operator so
right now we have three full-time staff and a Harbor Master administrative roles have kind of eroded away some of the boat operator roles of those three staff this would expand our boat operator and um get us back up to uh further uh operational capacity when we're looking at Service rates and weight times a lot of these Marine uh shops can charge 135 to 190 an
hour Peak weight times can be one to three weeks and as was noted recently During certain holidays these shops shut down entirely so if you have a uh asset with an engine that's out it's going to be out for as long as it takes to get a marine mechanic there Marine mechanics used to come to us now if we can actually get it we have to take the boat to them which involves a lot of Staff time as well uh let's see
so I think that's mostly it overall the idea is to increase efficiency reduce repair delays and overall enhance Maritime safety and I'm happy to take questions about the position or I can move on Greg uh some years ago we we invested in a moing management system and I'm I've always sought where how I return on investment in that system how we're doing with that and it was sold at the time we were going to free up administrative time so those folks could do other duties and just wonder how that
how that's panned out in your judg me you're kind of new new kid on the Block a little bit so um is it working well and are we actually saving making efficiencies and saving time and money for folks or not it it's certainly providing a good level of customer service and I think we are turning over Moorings more quickly if people aren't using wars were able to do another round um just this past season we're able to do an extra round versus other years do this new system so I I do think it's providing a service I don't know that it's necessarily freeing up
administrative time the Bing manager still spends a lot of time um working with that system you know I'm sure they would appreciate some more boat time but um just handling that is definitely most of that position and I Jeff just to let you know we we have a presentation on the moring management system on March 25th oh good I should look at my future agendas and then for thank you Jill so I didn't know we had 21 Outboards to to to service
imagine winterizing those and then you know getting ready and taking care of them and maintaining them now I kind of get it yeah lot of huh the oil changes alone are a significant budget item yeah they are yeah okay thanks Greg yeah you sure uh next over in health the the main change here is that we were going to add uh some additional funds for the intermittence employees
this is to help fund um one of our uh staff uh Dr Bob duncanson in order to continue work on the nrcs projects you may have heard recently that we were awarded a $300,000 Grant this is an addition to um nrcs funding uh four or five of our storm water Wetland restoration projects uh including the Herring run including Frost Fish Creek a
at Sears so these are projects that nrcs is funding all of the design and permitting for they're also funding 75% of the construction we do have a existing Capital line for what we had estimated 25% match to be at the time for the construction phase we'll see what it is when we actually get to the construction but getting this kind of across line integrating with nrcs you know this this potentially
could have wrapped up a year or two ago but this is one of the ones where we don't have surveyors the engineers are too busy and just the overall slow down of the process we do hope that within the next year and change we can wrap up these projects but that's where we are right now and then shellfish does have an increase um it's not that we're adding any new employees or hours but just with that you know relatively High number of
uh seasonal staff any change kind of uh accentuates itself and then as we talked um Pleasant Bay management has a slight increase that's part of the four towns we pay air share and then those three uh committees all are Level funded for this rest of the presentation I was going to switch over to the digital budget book um if I can get that working this time we shall
see there we go take it off my face maybe okay so in the interest of time I may not run through each individual line item although that is an option I'm happy to do uh so you all have access and have seen the digital budget book here are the spreadsheets so for health I I may just
run through you know what has changed and if there's additional questions please feel free uh we already talked about the change in wages due to the nrcs work uh purchase of services in health there's actually a significant decrease this is due to the uh arpo funds through Barnes County paying for a significant portion of our household hazardous waste um if we didn't have
this it would be significantly more than it has been in previous years this has been an increasing uh line item but at least for the upcoming year we were able to defay it with arpa funds the advertising is up slightly and that's due to potential fiscal year 26 regulatory changes that need to be advertised uh there's an additional 500 or so for an increased assessment for the Cap Cod green head fly control and then for monitoring costs
that increase is due to increase rates from our Barnesville County Beach testing for our public beaches and also our Cy cyanobacteria testing for the ponds for shellfish and I may not increment just because it takes me a minute to get through there um for shellfish there's a slight um uh increase for printing and that's due to a potential rule change in the upcoming
fiscal year and the printing of new booklets also the uniforms um the increase in price of uh seasonal staff um Town staff uh gear um there's just not enough to cover uh folks being able to be branded as chattam while they're out enforcing on the flats and then small increase for mileage as the prum uh POV personally owned vehicle has
increased Coastal resources is uh unchanged so we have a a zero on all the expenditures conservation we have uh probably one of the more significant ones is under purchase and services there's an extra $10,000 this is um through negotiations with Mass autobond they're going to bring an additional uh staff member to our Southern beaches to allow us to be able to monitor plovers which will
enable twice the amount of raking that we're able to do last year and that's Hardings Beach ridgevale yes all those on the south facing Beach yes south facing beaches and uh yeah they just didn't have the staff last year so we're getting ahead of the game and you know they need to be funded to do that to actually bring somebody fresh on thanks the last one is Harbor Master and
I I wouldn't mind scrolling through it but just for any interest of time there are no increases there are only decreases and those are the decreases that I showed in relation to the boat operator marine mechanic position um in the capital outlay you actually have to dive into it we remove the boat maintenance line and that alog together but we did add a wave sensor it would be partnering with Barnstable County to do the installation and
maintenance on it uh this would be a real time you know available through a website sensor just off the bar to be able to give information to our Harbor Master and our fishing fleet and general public what the conditions are out there so the idea is hopefully the county will convince other towns to do this and we'll be able to get kind of a network uh which would be more useful but a bare minimum hopefully will be able to at least let people know what they're getting into before they get in their boats and we do still have
the uh Capital items oh sorry there we go and I'll scroll through here first is a storm water this is $50,000 that's been funded uh over multiple years this for our ms4 program uh we do have a Contractor on board we are now uh we currently have storm water
regulations you'll probably hear more about those soon those are under DPW and we have some additional work that we'll be doing uh not just on annual reporting but you know getting getting ourselves where we should be within that system it's a federally mandated uh system we have conservation lands management this was also funded last year at the level of $10,000 uh this past year we Ed some for Osprey pole installations near uh power
lines that caught on fire last year so trying to avoid that and also enhance conservation areas one thing that our agent assistant agent are working on is uh expanding our um uh conservation areas we're going to potentially do kiosks QR codes trail maps web Maps um so starting off slow but we are putting a grant into the mass trails to hopefully do this for all our
conservation areas uh but this is an excellent source of match for those two which is required Harbor Master request as we said the 75 is now down to 45 and then our standard $20,000 navigational Aid ask Coastal resources the $400,000 that is the the separate uh
warrant article that would be required um this is the same as it's been every year you know the the main questions are whether the Army Corps is going to be able to come out on time to do it whether we have our permits in place uh te Keon our Coastal resource director has been working hard on getting a 10-year comprehensive permit um Army Corps of Engineers has gone slower than usual so we're uh trying to get a kind of stop Gap permit to cover some of that but those are just some of
the examples that you know we need to keep funding this dredging program right now there's a little bit extra in there but you know this is going to be used dredging is not getting cheaper even with Barnstable County being the cheapest around their rates are going up not just this year but it's kind of incrementing over the next few years Little Mill Pond Pier uh um we did have it in uh here but this is going to be seen as a separate CPC article so the
entire $500,000 CPC voted to put it under uh uh CPA funds um and this is for the the uh replacement of Little Mill Pond pier and Associated that's a little how about let's go back to the tide gate is that is that near the metal plates down there yes yes so this is um this is the metal plates are pretty much at the ti gate that's the area that's settling and um we already had a capital line to do some
work we were going to use that as match for a larger assessment and design to show you know what should be used should we keep it as a tie gate should be a covert a bridge how are the impacts of various storms going to increase flooding or affect the marsh migration uh that was not funded by CCM it was a very competitive funding round this year so this is to get that study up and running because you know right now we're going to be a year behind if we don't get going and we're seeing
impacts so CCM you said CCM coastal zone management czm okay gotcha the coastal zone management res resiliency grants were uh very I think they had at least double or triple the applicants and half the money so well that's a certain area of vulnerability so just got to stay on it yeah and then uh also our standard $10,000 ass for town landing
infrastructure dizzy Sor we're getting there sorry about that you're going fast on purpose um so here's our uh shellfish requests one is the new shellfish outboard and fiberglass work um part of which is the shellfish division trying to save the toal money uh not you know requesting a new boat but also this is the boat that works the best it's the right length it's the exact shape they
don't make them like this anymore so money is intended to be spent to uh stabilize the transom do a lot of fiberglass work and keep it running for many years to come uh Additionally the shellfish division Workshop uh this is to hopefully get it off the ground do the design imp permiting uh the plan is to do this adjacent to the Animal Control building to expand that kind of where the shed is right now um this is to do relatively small projects whether it's you know the uh a gear of shellfish
whether it's some minor boat work that kind of thing I mean there are other Bays but they're always in use in town and it it just shellfish has not had uh space and then the last one is their supplemental vehicle budget um Carrie you know talked to me into this and I think it's very good she did we had a budget in Department of Natural Resources for two vehicles uh we ordered
and you know our our EV bylaw that requires the town to take first look at EVs and you know we we do need a replacement for a couple Vehicles we started looking at a Ford Lightning a uh electric pickup truck they are more expensive than other vehicles but that expense can be offset even as a town with State rebates and federal rebates that usually total $115,000 so it brings us back down to where our budget was but
you know we didn't want to negative spend so we were asking for this to pay the full amount ask for the rebates and then reimburse the 15 grand in the question now is whether we actually get both rebates the state and the federal I can't guarantee that some of this might need to be spent for the EVS but the plan was to you know have this money just out in order to get rebates and reimburse it might be need to be spent I
can't tell you the future on that one and with that that's the end of my presentation but I'm happy to get into any of the details I just got a one quick one okay go ahead thanks Greg the items that you just course through all they're going to be in the capital budget the ones that are going to be broken out for a separate warrant article related to dredging is is that really really the only one we see there that's going to be broken out yes the only one under natural resources is yeah yeah okay thank you anybody else on the board
here Dean I was just going to move the dredging article if you want to move things along I'll second it okay so we have an a capital article for drudging as you mentioned uh Greg for $400,000 that would be on the tax rate so I'm it's the draft article is in the packet I move that we place this article on the warrant for the annual town meeting upcoming in May second uh all those in favor Mr ncast Mr
Shel say I Miss Davis Mr Dyk I Mr matters I and I move to recommend the article uh second all those in favor Mr necastro Mr Shell says I Miss Davis hi uh Mr Dyk hi and Mr matters hi all good thank you thank you for your time next case we have Community
Development no um well it was going to be um Community Development I don't know if Katie is online is she online she's online I'm sorry um so Community Development operating budget for FY 2026 um that includes the Community Development Department and also the economic development Chamber of Commerce underneath this budget um it's presented at
1,232 615 for FY 2026 which is an increase of $118,700 um the Community Development Department budget for FY 2026 is um 1,137 615 reflecting a 11.59 % increase from prior fiscal year which Katie will go over all of that um the economic development chamber of commer Commerce
sorry budget is presented um for FY 2026 at 95,000 which is level funded and um that will be going presented by the executive director Angela bukar from the Chamber of Commerce and Merchants Association so um I have Katie dunavan the director of Community Development to go over her budget for you good evening everyone um I'm am
going to share my screen so if you'll just give me just a moment okay can everybody see my screen okay yes we can thank you okay so just a brief overview um of Community Development uh we have nine full-time employees uh myself we have the Building
Commissioner Central Permitting planner the housing and sustainability director the town planner the local building inspector a department coordinator and we have two Community Development Department assistants and we also have um two uh not part-time but contract employees um that are paid per inspection we have our plumbing and gas inspector and our electrical inspector um just some Department statistics from 2024 just a brief
overview um in 2024 we issued 1,86 building permits 911 electrical permits 1,152 plumbing and gas permits and associated with those permits we did 165 Building Inspections 1316 electrical inspections and 1,657 plumbing and gas inspections um total inspections for the year were
4,578 got the revenue from those permits was $581,500 and we also processed 370 applications from the regulatory boards that the department um assists which is the planning board the zoning board of appeals the uh historical commission and the historical business business district commission and we um took in revenue of $4,950 um with those
applications um just a we have a small Fleet in Community Development um but proud to say that they are both two fully electric um EVS so we have a 2019 Nissan Leaf and a 2024 Ford F-150 Lightning um we do not have any Capital requests for Community Development for fy2 six um so the um as Carrie mentioned um
the Community Development budget was 1 1,137 615 which is an 11.59 increase from the prior year um 1,5 um sorry so most of the um increases for salaries and wages um which are account for the contractual wage step and Longevity increases um and the funding of a new
position uh which we had talked about a few weeks back relating to a new local inspector for the requirement that short-term rentals are now required to be inspected annually under the building code that took effect on October 11th of 2024 um we have other operating um expenses of $22,500 uh which is a net decrease of 3,000 um we have Savings in office supplies um of $33,000 we have a savings
of $22,000 in Publications in subscriptions and um those are actually partially offset by increases in each for th $1,000 each in continuing education and meetings Duos and travel and that is partially due to an added position of a a couple of years ago that we wanted to make sure that we had sufficient funds for um continuing educ continuing education for our
employees um this slide just shows the um information um from cleargov um and you'll see that um we've got you know the where where you can see the increases and the decreases to this different line items as described and just to talk a little bit more about the new position um again the with the new building code um we're required now
to do annual inspections of non-owner occupied um short-term rentals annually and then every 5 years we would need to do in inspections of owner occupied one and two family dwellings that are used as lodging or short-term rentals we currently have 922 short-term rental registered um it would be expected that an inspector would be able to perform 30 inspections per week um so we are
requesting a part-time sorry a full-time local inspector to primarily do these inspections however we would make sure that they were TR trained so that they would be able to um perform other local inspector duties as well as well as training our current staff to be able to do the short-term rental Inspections just so that we have um cross training um for all employees um we had discussed a potential funding source um which would be to request an increase to the annual
short-term rental registration fee which is currently $50 um and the proposed salary for that position is um $75,500 to start so um with that I'll be happy to answer any questions thank you Katie I just had one question 900 and it's off the screen on 22 short-term rentals do do we know are there are any of those owner occupied
that would fall within the five-year rule as opposed to the annual do we know we we don't know for sure but we believe that they are actually the short-term rentals that are not owner occupied based on conversations that I've had with um the health department staff thank you uh Katie you and I have had a conversation offline I I I just want to note for the record uh when when the additional positions were presented in in as a
group uh there was a mention of the possibility of tripling that uh short-term rental um registration fee from 50 to 150 um obviously you're going to have to work that out as a you know a factor in your overall budget and I'm not here to debate or argue about that I just want to know for the record my my thought that um that is a uh it first of all it's a regressive in the sense that it
falls um you know uniformly on everybody um but it's also um something that that is a is a pretty big increase in one felt swoop so I I will leave you with my fervent hope that you can find a way uh to um fund that position without having to Triple of that uh that that fee Jeff heading to 100 might be okay yeah I I I I'm not proposing I I
certainly agree with that but uh I'm not suggesting any particular number I'm just noting it's kind of a regressive tax and that's a lot of money and and to some people that may be a a significant u a significant item so I I um and and as a uh I'll leave it at that anybody else thank you and we will need to get approval from the you know from the Board of Health we'll need to agree to that as well because the regulations
are through the board of heals so um the conversations um began last night um with the natural resource director and health agent roach the subject with them but they didn't take an um any action either way so we'll be having further conversations with the town manager and finance director and then obviously with the Board of Health as well I appreciate that thank you uh um if there's nothing else I think we can move on thank you very much thanks
Katie now oh does anyone need a break before no you plan to spend a lot of time here so just like Greg I plan to spend about an hour and finance committee on Thursday maybe a little longer but that's going on
here we got on sound Angela do you want to introduce yourself before you play the video sure okay good evening everyone I'm I'm Angela bukar I am the executive director of the uh chadam Chamber of Commerce and Merchants Association and here this evening uh presenting a level funded ask
for our two visitor booths uh one of which we stage or have uh staffed during our high season which is the um people would know as the little um Booth which is formally the um part of the Mayo property and then we also have our operations center which is the captain Basset house at the end of meeting house uh Road are formally 137 so this evening I'm going to go over what uh budgets were proposed and accepted through membership at our annual meeting that was on October 30th
2024 and um I'm asking again for level funding for the $75,000 to cover the cost of Staffing and a $20,000 Economic Development Grant which helps us move uh not only our marketing initiatives but also support some of our social media presence uh web development and also um supporting some other organizations that we help uh advertise and promote during a during
out the year um starting [Music] now hi my name is Megan pen and I'm the current president of the chadam Chamber of Commerce in 2025 the chadam Chamber of Commerce and Merchants Association
proudly celebrates 93 years of strengthening our community and fostering economic growth year round since 1932 we've been dedicated to supporting every segment of Chad's vibrant economy from retail shops restaurants and lodging to trades Professional Services and creative Industries we understand understand that a thriving chatam means opportunity for everyone every season membership in the chamber is more than a connection it's a
commitment to our community success as a member you'll gain access to valuable resources like marketing opportunities professional development and advocacy on issues that matter to local businesses plus our networking events help you build relationships with fellow members across Industries because we're stronger when we work together the chamber also plays a vital role in promoting chadam as a destination for visitors while
supporting the businesses and organizations that make our town a dynamic place to live work and play not just in the summer but all year long as we celebrate 93 years of growth and collaboration we invite you to join us in shaping Chad's future whether you're a local entrepreneur trades person artist or service Prov provider the chamber is here to help you succeed visit www. chatam info.com today to learn more
about membership upcoming events and how we can support your business the chadam Chamber of Commerce 93 years of building a stronger year round economy together and our current president is here tonight with us so just wanted to welcome again Megan pen um and also our vice president Emma Carroll and board member uh Courtney from Cape car 5 and I have Denita here and um Dan MC who are
also part of the staff as well so they're here helping to support as we move through this presentation the budget appropriation is uh really to help uh fund our our staffing initiatives and also the two visitor centers it includes 13 professionals um one year- round professional who is the operations manager Den Scribner and then I have my uh summer or I'll say my seasonal uh folks that help to staff not only the bass at house but also the downtown
visitors Booth as well and we are open seven days a week and we do run two shifts in High season so we are the First Responders as we'll say to the folks that are coming to town and looking for uh information as as they walk around and also a great uh opportunity to then uh Source different information should they need that uh we have a lot of detail in in the presentation that I put together but I really wanted to keep it high level just to to Really outline what our our budgets look like for the year Town Grant request as shown here at
the uh level funding at for two uh fiscal year 2026 at the 95,000 which again includes what we just spoke about so when we look at our actual uh income for the chadam Chamber of Commerce are uh member dues of which we are strengthen by and also which makes us a unique organization is budgeted and accepted by the membership at $887,000 um all other income which is
our handbook uh reserves dispersement and also interest that is in around uh 30,000 365 the town Grant and operations staff of which I've stated in in the town Grant which 75,000 and then Economic Development which is outlined in several different projects that we do uh throughout the year and and throughout the town special events that we host and are uh significant to the chamber exclusive uh in partnership with the Merchants
Association is our fashion show we do uh networking events and then our annual meeting which is at 20,700 and then website display advertising we did launch a brand new website in July of 2024 that also uh Incorporated an artificial intelligent chatbot which is being and has provided us a tremendous amount of uh data and information of how people are actually engaging with the site what they're looking for and um talking you know certainly it's a
conversational chat bot that allows for us to really dive in and understand what people are looking for as they're s doing their research either in town or on their way to town so that's been great it's also a lead source for folks um so if they're interested in finding a plumber or a gardener or a landscaper if they are a current member of the chadam Chamber of Commerce they are uh given that lead as well and we're we're growing that side of the business uh very quickly and the the more often the artificial intelligent chatbot is used
the smarter it gets and uh we're getting a lot of data from that so when we look at our total um breakdown of expenses town and community relations holiday events preservation and it work our expenses there are around 10,000 uh member benefits and Services run us at at 30,700 information and public relations communication print media and Staffing at the 75 buildings grounds utilities um
forever increasing Jill and I actually had a conversation yesterday about our utilities and and things are just you know the cost of of living is going higher and and those uh continue to increase in our budget lines and then of course uh last but not least is the administration taxes as we all know are going up uh professional fees travel and insurance Riders everything that it it costs for us to to operate so in difference it's about $1,000 uh net
net if we round it up so we're we're pretty much flat uh to you know expenses to income second to that and I think there's some general interest around this is is the chatam Merchants Association breakdown so this is their uh highle p&l or highlevel uh budget that was also voted on and accepted uh by membership at our annual meeting event income there's always this big number that gets put into the chronicle and the newspaper about what we make with the Art in the Park uh that total
for uh that online auction Freight is is our largest annual fundraiser for the year and that uh brings in around 158 or I'll just round it up to 160 event income for October Fest Christmas stroll um those two events together rounded up to about 63,000 and then we do uh have do a share in uh revenue on membership so that is also a line item that comes in on membership do so gross profit for all of these events
and the fundraising around those large events that they put on or we put on uh comes in at around 230,000 with a net ordinary income of 10,000 and I'll go over that expense line here shortly so expenses for the Merchants Association uh Awards usually at a 100 charitable contributions to monoy and and other nonprofits as part of those proceeds from any of our events event income or event expenses advertising
rentals entertainment Insurance police details supplies Transportation anything that you can imagine cost of goods uh comes out to about 195,000 to run all of those events and to be able to to pull all of this together total marketing expenses and this is a share that we work with on them uh we we share together is print social media and online as part to getting folks to town for our October Fest events and also Holiday Stroll there is a boost or or
what we do to to you know generate some of that activity and then miscellaneous expenses with Professional Services uh rent rental fees supplies processing fees uh there's a lot of fees Associated especially if you're they're using Square or if they're doing any sort of online and I know that everyone you know even merchant services as you process credit cards there's all those fees Associated so and those continue to grow as well so total expenses um is 219
320 with a gross profit of 230 so there is around a $10,000 net operating for for the Merchants Association and that's what I have for you again we're we're looking really for the level funding of the the Staffing for the visitor booth and then the the small $20,000 uh portion that which helps us to to contribute to some of these events as
well questions go ahead Jeff well no I I'm huge supporter um I do make the note that um 95,000 is 40% of your of your budget um and I don't begrudge uh the $775,000 for the visitors center nothing Galls me more than to drive into the state of Massachusetts and welcome to Massachusetts and about four miles away when you're coming up 995 there's a
Welcome Center that's closed then you get closer to the bridge and there's another Welcome Center look a Welcome Center you know two miles closed come down Route Six and there's a Welcome Center closed I I can't I don't know why the Commonwealth of Massachusetts can't find Monies to have a Welcome Center or two open when you go to New Hampshire Maine Connecticut our bordering states they're open and they're welcoming so I don't begrudge a dime to the to the to the uh to the
chamber for the welcome centers they're critically important and I think you guys do a great job where I lose it a little bit is on the 20K for the economic development I mean we're all about Economic Development and and chadam is chadam is such a a destination now what more are we doing with that $20,000 to make us even more of an attraction um I guess is my question and I couple more um uh I I didn't I didn't understand quite quite frankly the Rel
relationship between the chamber and the merchants there's a merchant budget that spends off 10 grand or thereabouts but a chamber budget that breaks even so you're separate entities but you work together okay so but you have a line item also that says Reserve dispersement you have a balance sheet as well as an income statement do you have reserves we do we we you know and and that's something that is revolving and something that it we use when we start
to it gets a little bit complicated because as we start to staff the booths our fiscal year is a little bit different than the fiscal year of the town so we actually run September 30th to October 1st and a lot of the spend or the money renews for the town Grant in J on July 1st but that's when our High season of Staffing is so we have to put dispersement funds and and and basically shelter funds because the way that the membership renewal had been done it was
always on an annual basis which was the impetus of us creating a new website so that people could join the chamber out throughout the year to help our cash flow so some of that is why that money is is put aside um additionally for Capital Improvements and you know I I do have Denita here who was really the behind the scenes from an operating standpoint that could probably speak better to that but we have you know just a little bit of money set aside should we need to and it's around what 15
around 15,000 oh so you're not you're not packing away you know a couple hundred grand or anything like that I wish we were okay so I mean that that's kind of where I was heading and just my question on the the $20,000 for economic development again are are you expanding social media how how are you I do have those slides but I was asked to keep the that that that's all right if you could just explain it that'd be great or somebody if somebody wants to explain it I mean it's more data I mean I don't I guess we could dig into it I have one other followup I'm so sorry to be a pain
but I'm interest me when was the last time you what are your dues structure when was the last time you raised dues great question so 2020 was when the two when the association and the Chamber became one um and the cost of membership did change at that point because you could either join the chamber or you could join the The Merchants Association but as we merged the cost of membership increased incrementally um what we're looking at for fiscal 26 is to actually
start to package and roll some of those things together but to go from here to there and a only being in the position for the year we really needed to analyze you know how how much can we ask what do we really need to do from an in-kind sponsorship higher level like some of our other towns do Orleans harwitch and others how do we actually position it so that it's a membership with an inclusion
um we don't want to leave out our social members that only pay the $100 but we also want to be able to capitalize on opportunities for some of the the larger places like our partners with chattam bars and others but we're really trying to work through that and be sensitive um and the reason why is in 2023 prior to me joining the chamber we brought on 11 new members in 2024 we brought on 34 so
we tripled our membership with the current structure so I'm of the mindset to to Pace um and go wide versus go deep and you know so it's it's really more of a strategic conversation that we're having as a board as the executive board and and working towards that but it's we want to be cautious that we if we go too high there could be attrition we could lose people you know so we're really trying to balance um what is what is best what are some of the other towns
doing we've done some analysis and I do have a membership committee that is going into deep analysis on you know what what does this town charge for this what does this town charge for this they bundle everything together and they name it gold platinum silver whatever you want to call it what we do and where where traditionally where we've been is that there's a membership free and then we just keep going back for the ask do you want to sponsor this do you want to sponsor that do you want to advertise
where we're really going to start to put it in a place where they could menu I want to advertise in the handbook for 2026 or 25 I want to sponsor all the events at a title level I want to do X Y and Z I want to do Inc you know so we we but we really want to be cautious about how we position that and go to market with that strategy because we've been at this kind of pay your membership dues and then there's a continual ask so it is a little different model and it is and I think
we're we're moving towards that as part of the committee but we're again the other piece of information I think is of interest at least to me is is the dispersion of the types of businesses that um and where they're located in chadam geographically the the geographic dispersion Main Street downtown large businesses West CH him self chat him I think it'd be interesting to see the the makeup of the membership we'd love to present that to you yeah I you can even an email it doesn't have to be formally or whatever
but uh that there's sentiment out there that is downtown Centric that there is some sentiment out there that that that's I just want to let you know that's there is sentiment out there and I think that that's really as we look at um each of the villages Northwest South um downtown proper or chadam Port we are really trying to look at at how how are we going to prop up some of those other locations and next week the uh chairperson of our events committee will come and do a detailed outline of really
how we're trying to do that but business Centric addresses what is the profile and what is the the actual makeup of that look like I we do have I do have a pie chart and I can show you all you know kind of what that looks anyway I'm very supportive you guys do a great job I just it's of Interest there's interest out there thank you very much Angela Shireen thanks Mike and Angela thanks for the presentation um so just a couple of things uh I a lot of people get the impression that the Chamber of Commerce is just to promote us outside
of outside of the world and have visitors come and um spend their dollars but can you speak a little to the support you do for year round um businesses because part of our part of our um goals select uh board goals have been around more supporting the local year round businesses than actually increasing tourism great question so and that
really does fall what we what we know to be true is that there is a cyclical nature of the the seasonality of of of where we are where we really are finding our net new members and also supporting year round business businesses is being able to work with them um and mostly in in the professional capacity with the Professional Services businesses that are you
know mostly in in the nonprofit space so that school systems um all of which K C called healthc care banking um we do work in in with our Retail Partners and there are some you know a lot of the questions that came in through the end of the year were you know what days should those businesses be open what days should we be closed um and even with restaurants now with nothing being open so that's
really something that we're talking with and talking about with businesses being open more year round so that we do have that opportunity um with respect to what we are in support of and what we're doing is we've kicked off you know local networking events we are working closely with our young professionals uh we're working closely with the Historic Society and the historic commission the Conservation Commission we're really
starting to promote educational talks and lectures um technology really offering opportunities for small businesses to have workshops and to be able to really Embrace this slower time of year but be out of the gates with either a new branding opportunity or those those types of things so in the slower periods where there perhaps isn't as much foot traffic we can help guide them through either learning the digital
space and being able to really be opportunistic so they do have a year round business even though it may not be in brick and mortar so the transition great question Shireen is really how do we take something that has a cyclical nature but still continue to help support those small business is to thrive when perhaps people aren't walking in the door so each business model is a little different each segment of the the population is a little
different it's really about being able to stay open and Taylor Brown the president of the Merchants Association said this very well she said in Emma you could probably ATT tested this to working you know at at the clothing bar um she makes more in one day in July than she would make in 3 months for January February March so this is a bigger thing um but opportunistically
she also has an online store so there's you know we have to look at how do we how do we find the the the balance how do we help to support the businesses that are part of of the chamber but also how do we support the businesses to want to come and put a shingle out and be able to be part of this community but be able to thrive year round and that's I think we all kind of say how do how do we do this
right so bringing in some of the the merchants events you know the strolls and things that keep us it it it's a little bit of an infusion but I think we need to look at this and create a Continuum that doesn't keep the EB and flow of or the spikes I should say the up and down I appreciate that I i' have to if you take a bird's eye view of chadam and in those three short months or 10 weeks of of crazy yes downtown is Ecentric there's a
lot of economic dollars being thrown down there but if you look at the bigger picture of chadam right now today our Villages are open we are a year-round economy we're starting to build on that through the successes of anchored businesses in each one of those neighborhoods and I you know I'm very encouraged by that um especially you know with a digital world that we're all in but there there has been some really
successful moments where people have found their Niche and um landed in chat I appreciate that um I just have one comment um in looking at the merchant chamber Dynamics uh it's from the outside looking in um it's can appear to be somewhat confusing to folks to see that the chamber isn't the overarching organization that is taking you know that that is in charge of the whole like idea and that the merchants
is maybe just a you know a a subcommittee of of the of the chamber instead of somewhat appearing to be a separate entity I think it's a I I think personally I appreciate that people are really enthusiastic about the merchant side of it but if things were pulled together and had a more holistic resource I think you guys would I I think it it would appear and have a better success um that's just my personal view um but I'm fully
supportive of of funding um your presentation today so thank you thank you thank you Angel I just want to make a comment I've made it in the past I made it when I was on the finance committee when this budget was presented um if we didn't have this budget request to this outside organization the town would have to hire Staffing to to handle tourism and there's a piece of Economic
Development you were talking about that we have an economic development committee and perhaps that those could collaborate and and this $95,000 doesn't even constitute a full Penny on the tax rate so I I I think um you know we we need to keep those thoughts in mind um and this presentation tonight was very detailed I appreciate it I know you had more but we're looking at the clock we've got a bunch of other things to do tonight but um uh so I I uh I just really wanted to
make that point because I think it saves the town uh the the cost of of doing this in house a lot of this work in house and we we couldn't do even if we legally could do half the stuff that you do we couldn't do it uh even with one I appreciate that thank you I do want to Rattle off a few numbers just because I think it's important to really understand and this is part of that Economic Development so I did an analysis um website growth up 41% we went from um you know it from a
frequency and I won't go deep into it Instagram up 26% from a followership Facebook up 160% total digital reach up 196 810 at 41% so we are getting a return on our investment and that's just on the digital platform bi-weekly newsletters up 33% from open and these are membership newsletters Again part to what I was talking with with Shireen with promoting locally um
not only just the businesses but also promoting our partners and and different towns as well so looking at it more on a regional landscape and working with our nonprofits and and professional development groups key metrics from The Visitor Center this is the the the return on investment for the staffing is we were actually flat to last year um membership events we were up 71% Easter event 10% fashion show 4% Art in the Park was up 63% October Fest
38% uh Holiday Stroll up 25% total event attendance was up 73% year-over-year guide book we actually made a different strategic decision this year we printed less books but we added a digital uh QR code for people that wanted to take the book on the go uh so we were at a negative there but it did have and give us some cost savings at a negative 18 so that's really the only negative um from but print is people are walking away
from from holding books and you know it's it's becoming more of a digital landscape so total reach uh last year in in metrics we touched 631 th000 times uh we uh actually in doing the analysis reached 8463 301 times up 34% and back to the membership as I said we tripled our membership up 209% so we in a grow we're in a growth mode but we're also in a
thriving mode um back to the point Shireen of what you said with the Optics we are in executive session now and strategically talking about bylaw rewrites we're talking about what does it look like to become that um and you know Megan is here and is is championing that as well in in that process so I we do have a timeline of what we're looking at but again everything takes time and it needs to be thought out so that we can one produce together be holistic in
in uh Optics and and certainly I think there is an opportunity for us to really start to develop as one and it would be wonderful to be self funded right it would be wonderful to be able to do some of these things but I do agree agree with Dean and saying that this and we're doing a lot of things for the town that would be really a a bureau of Tourism
you know type of of project so um I appreciate all of your support we're a Little Engine That Could and we really do want to continue to be part of the fiber here and I think it's important to to continue to grow so I'm just going to leave you with a comment I don't need an answer it's a suggestion and if you're already doing it then suggestion is one thing if you're not it's slightly different I anecdotally every year I hear this is up 10 that's up 12 that's
down 15 and I'm talking about retail rentals restaurants motels um Etc um if if it were if we have those kinds of numbers that are somewhat reliable metrics of chatam economic performance for the year if we have them it would be good if they got publicized and circulated I my guess is that we
probably don't have them if we could have them I think that would be an enormously helpful tool to use for your work but also for ours uh in our efforts to promote um as Shireen said a a yearr round chatam economy so I'll leave you with that yes thank you Mr chairman um and as part to the summary in the digital budget book there are links in there that will provide that information we could spend all evening talking and slicing and dicing uh they're produced
not only by the state of Massachusetts but also through the Cape Cod Commission and then also report through the Cape Cod Regional Chamber so you can go in analyze data we can you know I'd love to to go in but it shows Trends it shows tax it shows everything that you need to know to really make an educated decision and it will break it out by 10 now okay thank you so it's in the book Thank you all right are we voting no I don't think we need to vote on anything o other than to move on
okay thank you um community services are you still here Carrie I'm still here thank you Angela um so the next budget is Community Services um sorry Community Services operating
budget is comprised of center of active for active living Recreation beaches Lighthouse Beach Human Services veteran services libraries public ceremonies other public events chattam band and Railroad Museum this department makes up 5% of the operating budget tonight we'll just focus on Center for active living Recreation and beaches Lighthouse Beach and Human Services um the full community service
operating budget is presented at 3,352 37 for FY 2026 an increase of $283,600 division budget for FY 2026 is 65495 a 32.4 5% increase from FY 2025
um and the human services division budget includes an operating budget of 3 128,50 down 2.29% from FY 2025 the recreation and Beach's division operating budget for FY 2026 is 1,249 959 reflecting a 6.48% increase from FY 2025 the Lighthouse Beach division budget includes an operating budget of $
66,67 an increase of 3.32% from FY 225 um there is one Capital request for FY 2026 and this is for recreation and beaches for $50,000 for Community Center gymnasium wall padding um and there are uh two article requests for FY 2026 the child care voucher program and this is an annual request for 2026 we'll go over that in a minute
and um also an establishment of a revolving fund chapter 44 section 53e and a half for the writers Cove respit adult supportive Day program I always say that wrong so that's why I'm laughing um and I'll go over that for you after um the director of community services and the recreation department head also goes over her budget as well for
you you said it right good evening Lea lacrosse director of community services and um Amy Howell who was the deputy director of community services for the recreation and beaches division so we're we have a small presentation so we're we're much smaller so we'll we'll go through this relatively quickly if I can get that to
work here okay try it again there we go so Community Services um as you know in cupet say the Council on Aging or the center for active living Recreation and beaches including Lighthouse Beach and also human services so cell by the numbers for 2024
um as you can see we had some growth here so we had unduplicated participants 1,487 which is 23% of Chatham's yearound population of 6600 plus um the total uh number of active Outreach client was 277 and the 4,519 units of attendance means that those 1,400 plus people uh signed in for
activities 4,519 times and that could be activities it could be programs it could be um Outreach appointments it could be shine uh counseling appointments uh and our unduplicated transportation participants was 115 people people took 3,458 oneway rides grocery deliveries also um they were taken to the bank or the grocery store uh wherever they
needed to go based on priorities and I do want to know our transportation program really has has grown this this year where um we're full we're taking upwards of at this point about 32 rides per day so um people are really utilizing that and they've really come to depend on that um so our budget overview for our salaries and wages um
we're asking we've gone up $ 17,640 is but we do have the three new staff for the adult supportive Day program um right now we have the director and we have one staff hired um so we still haven't had we still don't have a second staff person but we're working on that and that was as you know previously U funded by the Grant in
25 and the expenses have gone up um $3,400 and that's in office supplies due to the increase in staff in programs meeting dues travel and postage the meetings dues and travels is because we have uh more staff that that will attend um trainings especially our um clinician who has to have trainings as part of to keep her license every year also postage
um it we we it's a good increase because um we send out self- address stamped envelopes to everybody who utilizes the um our food program our healthy meals in motion and last year at this time I think we had 22 um households and we're up to 50 now so 50 people each month get um they mail
back their their menus to us that we submit to the Family Pantry so that was that's the reason for the increase in postage um Human Services budget overview so there they actually went down this year in their request um and also uh it's important to note that this this amount um of 32,5 includes a 5700 Grant match requests from the cultural Council but
it did go down and that was um surprisingly we had no requests from the Family Pantry of Cape Cod Dey Health Center or Independence house this year um the Human Services committee after um after several meetings and discussion decided to request 175,000 this year up from 150,000 I believe last year uh that was a case just in case you you wanted to
know um obviously the need is great but there were 55 households last year um that received Awards and so that was a total of um 37 of the 55 Awards I should say were for chatam households or 67% 18 were Town employees uh the total beneficiaries were 80 children using the voucher funds and all in funders uh all
funds were encumbered by October 17th so there were six households PL placed on a wait list um and we expect more this year so that is the reason um that they are requesting this increase we we have no Capital requests um at this time which is great and I'm going to turn it over to
Emy H good evening um so for recreation and beaches by the numbers um we offered just about 42 programs and special events uh this past year 109 sessions uh and a little over 30 800 uh registrations uh for those programs and events um our fitness room we have 680 active members currently um they scanned
in this past year uh over 7,700 times um through our membership system through our scan system um we had for rentals events uh meetings at Town of chatam facilities so that includes the community center um beaches the parks um we had over 2400 uh rentals reservations through uh our system as well and for Beach stickers sold at the
gates this past summer uh we had about 8,700 daili 554 weeklys and 54 uh 52 seasonal Beach stickers and those were just sold at the gate so that doesn't include what was sold uh online so for our budget um you can see this year for FY 26 we have a $62,000 difference um for the salaries and wages
and that is a pretty much cont contractual cost for our full-time staff and then a 3% raise for all of our seasonal staff uh expenses wise we have a $11,000 uh difference and that is for two line items most of which is for our Porton contracts and that's due to inflationary costs um each year with with that contract that comes in and then uh 1,700 for the windmill uh again
for maintenance costs that are going up with inflation um those are the only two line items in our expense that did increase everything else remained level funded uh and so for a total 6.48% increase on that budget for our Lighthouse Beach uh we just had a small increase in the uh salaries and wages and again that's just a uh 3% raise to the seasonal staff that work at
the beach or at Lighthouse Beach for our um for our beach Patrol and our expenses obviously remained at level funded and we just have the one Capital request this year which is for $50,000 and that's to replace the safety padding around the gymnasium which is original to the building uh so at this point it's really just it's reached its uh end of life we have um cuts falling off the walls uh so we're just uh we
need to replace it for the safety of the patrons using the gym and that's it any questions thank you questions I I just have one um Leah you showed 157,000 um increase in in salaries and or salary salaries essentially um I wasn't clear as to how many new people
for the um daycare or anything else that includes is it one two or three people it's three people um one full-time director and two part-time AIDS okay thank you thank you anybody else oh yeah go ahead you have a quick question for Leah so we we filled the director and one position and those were Grant funded now do those those Grant funds carry over to the next year so we can when we do hire somebody they'll cover that that
higher it's a really good question um we're hoping but we have not gotten word we have um you know it was very strange when we were awarded all funds had to be have to be expended by March 2025 which doesn't give a full year at all for salaries or supplies or um anything like that so a lot of um people the a lot of grantees are in the same boat that we are so we're hoping that we
could file an extension to keep that going so that we can expend some of those funds where you know we've we've done a great deal with them we've bought a lot of you know um furniture and everything for new staff and and full new furniture for the participants and supplies and things like that but um you know I it would be we can't spend the the salary uh line item unless they give us an extension gotcha well we certainly should apply
just for Amy we break out the Lighthouse Beach budget why why don't we just included in the Recreations and is there a reason I I believe it was because that's the one beach that's under the control of the select board and um really yes and it's um I don't want hat it's the way it's always been done but ever since I've been here it's always been broken out and that might be a legacy because of the the former um how it was set up with the director of Parks and Recreation which included beaches
unless Amy you have any further information I just might have a bous question that's getting late I apologize but are we no less in charge of Hardings Beach or rville Beach or in charge of the budgets so well you are but technically as you know Lighthouse Beach isn't guarded there's Beach Patrol okay so we're even more exposed okay all great all right thank you um anything else yet I was going to offer a couple of motions that would that would be
wonderful okay so we have the child care voucher program and there's a warrant article in the packet um to uh and this is um in the amount of $175,000 that would be on the tax rate um and so I move that we place this article on the warrant for the upcoming town meeting annual town meeting in May second all those in favor uh Mr matters hi Mr dykens hi and Miss Davis Hi Mr
Shell says I Mr mccastro hi and I move to um recommend that article second meeting all those in favor Mr necastro I Mr Shell says I Miss Davis hi uh Mr dykens and Mr Mets hi the next um motion is to place an article on the warrant for town meeting upcoming uh to establish a new revolving fund under Mass general laws chapter 44 section 53e and a half for the riters Cove resit
adult resit Adult Day program and um there was also an article in the packet for us tonight so that's my motion second all those in favor Mr Mets hi Mr Dyk hi M Davis Hi Mr Shell says I Mr necastro hi and I move to uh recommend that article to town meeting and I'll second uh Mr necastro Mr Shell says I Miss Davis hi uh Mr dykens and Mr
Mets thank you thank you thank you very much thank you you guys good job so um there is one more article in the packet that needs to be um voted on and it's for the ambulance for $410,000 um we didn't have the article ready at the time when it was presented uh last week I'll take a motion unless somebody
wants to disc Mr chairman I move that we place an article on the warrant for town meeting upcoming in May for the capital purchase of a new ambulance for 400,000 4101 for $410,000 um to be raised through taxation second all those in favor Mr Mets I Mr Dyk M Davis Hi Mr Shell says I Mr necastro I Mr chairman I move that we recommend this article to town meeting second uh all those in favor Mr
necastro I Mr Shell says I miss Miss Davis Hi Mr dykens hi and Mr meters thank you we are at the end of our public session I'll take a motion Mr necastro Mr chairman I move that the select board go into executive session under Massachusetts general laws chapter 30A section 21 parenthesis 3 to discuss
strategy with respect to collective bargaining parenthesis the chadam Municipal Employee Association cmea and chatam Managers Association CMA if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the public body and the chair so declares with no return to open S session second all those in favor Mr nastro hi Mr Shel says I Miss Davis Hi Mr dykin hi and Mr Mets hi we are in
um executive session at 8:32 p.m. e