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good evening chadam welcome to the March for 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 is recording the meeting please notify the chair seeing no such notification I'll proceed pursu to Governor Healey's March 29 2023 signing of the acts of 2023
extending certain covid-19 uh covid-19 measures adopted during the state of emergency suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law General Law chapter 30A section 20 until March 31 2025 this meeting of the chadam select
board is being conducted in person and via remote participation every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings as provided for in the order a rem a reminder that persons who would like to listen to this
meeting while in progress may do so by calling the phone number 158 945 4410 conference ID 203 386 491 pound sign or join the meeting online via Microsoft teams through the link in the
posted agenda while this is a live broadcast and simal cast on chadam TV Xfinity channel 1072 despite our best efforts we may not be able to provide realtime access we will post a record of this meeting on the
town's website as soon as possible uh first order of business is to establish a quorum uh Mr nicastro present Mr Shell is present M Davis present Mr Mets present uh this evening we have a little
bit of an unusual agenda at least order um we're going to start with an executive session uh which will deal with strategy with respect to the collective bargaining or litigation uh matter um relating to the
uh Mass uh commission against discrimination um and then we will come back into Open Session following that executive session uh the next item on the agenda and we'll have to clear the room for that uh the next item on the agenda will
be um a session with town council with respect to um actually two citizens petitions um uh article citizens petition articles um for uh town meeting um
following that and we have that UPF front to accommodate the U the schedule um it's the only way we could have Council present following that we'll go back to our usual routine of public announcements and agenda requests followed by public
hearing uh with respect to a petition by NSTAR um for um installing a uh proposed handhole uh finally we'll have not finally next we'll have public comments on uh the business agenda and by the way
I should have mentioned that in the uh the Town Council section item three we will be accepting public comment alongside the board as we go through that process uh our business agenda uh be begins with um a an
application uh for an outdoor display of goods and sales on Town property for June 2829 and August 3031 next we have a review of um proposed annual town meeting
articles uh uh there are um four five six um to be considered uh I won't go through them um and then finally we will go back into executive session uh without a return to open
session to discuss strategy with respect to a collective bargaining um or or litigation um under um Mass General Law chapter 38 section 213 so with that um I will ask Mr
nicastro to give us a motion to go into executive session thank you Mr chairman I move that the select board go into executive session under Massachusetts general laws chapter 3A section 21 parenthesis 3 close parenthesis to discuss strategy with respect to
collective bargaining or litigation parenthesis Massachusetts commission against discrimination hyphen mcad parenthesis if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the public body and the chair so declares with return to open
session so uh do I hear a second second uh all those in favor Mr necastro Mr Shell says I Miss Davis Hi Mr Mets all right we are now in executive session anybody who is not supposed to be here
I'd like to ask you please to uh exit the room e e e e e e e
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e e e and do we sorry we're on but uh is Jay here J is yes okay all right so we are going to go now
to um the next item on the agenda which if I can find my agenda here momentarily no I've got one here that's got notes on it so I need it um we have
two uh petition articles for presentation at town meeting um I'm going to try to eliminate as much confusion at as possible but at the same time offer the proponents the
opportunity um both of whom by the way are here uh the opportunity to make their um their case as they see fit um they have each presented a petition article that um my understanding is
town uh Town Council has uh advised is not a um a legal proposal that is to say if El if if if adopted it would not be approve it would not be um legal to become
effective um but I understand that each of the proponents has submitted a an alternative uh which they plan to get signed and submitted and certified so we'll proceed for disc discussion purposes as if um we had those in front
of us or at least as as they would if they wish to make that um that case in front of us so the first um is a uh petition article to amend Section 105 of
the town's General bylaws to change the constitution of the affordable housing trust um board uh to eliminate the two select board members and to um add to members at large with the same kind of
expertise um that is already in the bylaw um to be required of the four at large members that we have um presently so with that I will invite um Miss Gordon to the podium if you'd like to
present that um I'm not sure you heard me but um we we understand understand you have a a second petition that you're working on the first one Council has uh ruled uh would not be permissible maybe I should pause momentarily here before
you speak and let Jay explain Mr talaman explain why it is that that first petition um doesn't pass muster okay well okay we are aware of that but well that's fine but the public might be interested in hearing that as well so
Jay please um thank you Mike J talerman Town Council yeah the the first petition article that I saw um sought a a change to the composition of the affordable housing trust Board of Trustees to
eliminate um all members of the select board and to prohibit select board members from serving on that the affordable housing trust fund statute chapter 44 section 55 C requires at least one member of the executive office
in Adam's case the select board uh beyond the affordable housing trust funds Board of Trustees so that um uh would not be possible in a in terms of a bylaw change um uh so it it wouldn't be
it wouldn't pass muster with the attorney general and it would constitute essentially an illegal action on the part of the town to adopt a a bylaw like that the second um petition um cleared that up by CH proposing a change that would um
limit the number of Select board members to one on the uh Board of Trustees and that is a policy question for the for the town meeting but that would be uh legally acceptable thank you Mr chair can I just
make a comment on Jay's yes analysis um but this is something I appreciate the I guess um options that the select board have in pursuing the citizens petition um but
I've been on the board for a fair amount of time and historically we've never gotten to that level um citizens petitions once they are certified by the town clerk uh the 10 required signatures uh um they go to they they automatically go to on the
warrant and if there's flaws in them um you know they're debated at town meeting um and of course we appreciate the the caution that they would be illegal so um on the not placing placing any any any
citizens petition um because it might have a flaw um that historically we've never done that type of action I have a lot of issue with um but I do need some clarification on the I guess the draft second
petition I it's does it have to be a separate petition or if the initial petition was put on the warrant which I believe it should just mechanically we've done it the past the alternative petition that has an
amended minute would be presented at town meeting as an amendment to that would that be another mechanical option or path that the um party could take or does it have to be a separate petition I guess so um uh thanks and and I think that you
know we could have a larger discussion about the scope of a select board's Authority um under the case law when a petition is presented that doesn't stand for legal proposition but but you're quite right uh uh an option exists if
the original petition was presented that a motion to amend could be presented or the main motion could actually amend the proposals to change it to one member of the select board it
would be up to the moderator at that point to determine whether or not that bylaw itself as you know or the by proposed bylaw amendment was within the scope of the warrant article as presented here and I happen to be a town
meeting moderator but sometimes we think differently here I think it would be kind of a close question but I think there's enough notice as to the as to that notion that it could perhaps um be Advanced a town meeting and that kind of
motion to amend could be considered um there are other types of Warrant articles that are presented through citizens petitions um that are not so REM remediable um so it is possible that um a wellone Amendment to the amendment
could could be presented and then it would be up to Mr Lichfield as to whether or not he would accept that I I I know you deated I'm sorry jay I I I'm going to I'm going to try to manage this discussion we can have an interesting
legal discussion about the eight ways to get to where Miss Gordon would like to get to um but but I think she's she has a a petition she's probably got the ability to get 10 or 11 sign whatever 10 signatures or more and she's probably
wants to make the case for the amendment as opposed to how she might get it on the on the warrant so I'm going to turn the floor over to her thank you uh I just wanted to say and I don't have much to say about it uh we submitted the first petition on Monday February 24th
and realizing that we uh did not put in compliance with state law that we withdrew it February 27th with an email to the clerk's office so we're hoping to withdraw this petition and it'll be superseded by perhaps a better way second petition to be filed by the March
11 deadline um knowing how we will proceed it's totally up to you whether or not the petition the first petition goes on the warrant but we do have a second petition prepared and we'll be there by the deadline of March 11th we just felt that having a second petition
would be less confusing to the public and cleaner on the warrant if the first petition was withdrawn if that's possible yeah I I I'll just again I'm sticking strictly to procedure here um if you can get it to us
ideally before the deadline for the P the the the meeting agenda packet uh for May March 11 okay which is the Friday before uh we'll put it in the packet and we can take it up on the 11th okay so we'll we'll work with the second
petition then and I take it just for the benefit of the public the only change you're making in what you had proposed is you're limiting it to one select board member and six sorry and five uh um members at large along with the
member of the uh the the chadam uhing community housing it bring it into compliance with state law right exactly okay okay any other comments from the public from the yeah Dean go
ahead have we determined Mr chairman whether the first petition is going to be on the warrant because the only my understanding is the only way it can be withdrawn is is if all the signatories who signed it have to sign a request to take it well again I that would be one
way that I believe would do the trick uh I I understand there's another way this board could decline to put it on we don't need to go there because she's going to have a petition that is what she's going to propose so I I'm I'm
perfectly happy to have it observe the the the rule and the tradition that Corey talked about which is once you've got 10 signatures or more it goes on the warrant period Well I share Mr Met's view on it I don't think the select board should be picking and choosing
which petition articles well happily we don't have that in front of us now may sometime in the future thank if there are no further comments from the public uh we'll move on to the the the second app you're welcome you're welcome
thank you uh the second petition and I believe um I have been asked to note the um presence of um Sharon drown the treasur collector who um perhaps can give us a
little history of um the facts behind this citizens petition um that we'll hear from Mr Taylor from about and in U following M drown good evening so um this citizens
petition is uh has been presented for a particular property 330 Cedar Street this parcel's been in tax title since 2011 um the resident makes regular
payments towards the tax title account um 600 a month is is what the resident pays um and the petition is seeking um relief for these back
taxes resident or the petitioner is seeking Rel the petitioner okay thank youer who who is not the resident that is correct yeah um Mr Taylor do you want to present
your petition and again you may not have heard me um when I was doing the introduction um um it's my understanding that and we have an opinion to the effect that the petition you submitted with signatures doesn't comply with
Massachusetts law um but we understand that and you put in front of me this afternoon um an alternative that you've worked on and so if you want to comment on the first one or present the second one or how like to proceed is fine with
all due respect Mr chairman members of the board of selectman I will speak to the first one um and then um I will be more than happy to entertain uh Mr Tan's uh basis in law for why he says it cannot go forward uh I think he IRS in
that but I will hear his grounds after I've spoken to you you have seen his opinion his written opin pardon I have not the first time I was made aware of it was um when I met with the fincom um at 1:30 this afternoon as sort of an
aside the chairman uh mentioned that he was going to hold their consideration of recommendation or denial of recommendation to to meeting until after on tonight's meeting with the board of Selectmen um so they heard what I had to
say and they knew um that uh Mr telman had made a a decision in the negative concerning the legality of this petition um I have no facts about that so I'm standing here before you with the petition as I've written it um and
submitted it with the appropriate signatures to the town clerk and as it stands right now it it based on law will go forward to to town meeting I'm unaware of your ability to deny a
petition but I guess Mr telman thinks he may have found a way around that I certainly hope not but uh before we hear him I will move on the issue well if I may just for the record the the opinion uh that I refer to was uh
attached um to the staff memo and your petition as part of the packet that that was publicized for this meeting um on Friday yeah no no one gave me that information nor inform me and I had no particular reason to think or to
understand that Town Council would have been sought their opinion would have been sought prior to me meeting with the board of selectman and in fact I am perhaps given the timing of this a little less than pleased because I would
have to assume that the only way that that could happen was that the town manager sought a legal opinion and that wasn't the board of selectman because I'm unaware of you in any of your meetings requesting Town Council support on this matter you can correct me if I'm
wrong but I understand that that has never occurred I look back at last meetings a couple of meetings I didn't see anybody ask any member of the board ask for uh council's opinion now um uh select um M
Mastro um did say that ultimately Town Council looks in at all of the Articles including the petition articles especially and that ultimately he would have had a chance to weigh in on that but that in my history and experience wouldn't have occurred until after they'
had been submitted and after there had been an opportunity for an open and public discussion by me the presenter of this article before you the board of selectman at which point in time if you had some question about the legality I understand that it would go to Mr telman however it didn't do that and that is um
as a voter in the town and as a taxpayer in the town it's an offensive abuse of the Town manager's uh um time and the way she went about this I I'm I'm not happy with it but I'm not here to scold um not my point but we'll move on from
there Mr chairman again the resident of 330 Ceda Street which is what this petition article is directed towards is not a party of this petition she did not solicit this in any
form or fashion um it came about through my own efforts and energies because um I was doing some thinking about one of the naughtiest progam uh problems
that has been before the town for quite a period of time and that is this ongoing condition uh condition that we call uh lack of affordable housing and all the minations that we jump through to try to create affordable housing and
one of the problems that is voiced by selectman after selectman after selectman has been gee we'd like to be able to direct affordable housing to our resident population that is lowincome
people but we can't because the state makes us open it up to just about everybody unless we jump through hoops and make some kind of special um Arrangement on how we um craft the particular building that we're going to
call low-income housing at any rate um that was my concern and and I focused on the local low-income residents and I didn't have to look too far um because 330 Ceda street is just down the road for me so I I looked into that um and
the resident there is Jill James now for members of the board other than Corey and Shireen who happen to know who Jill James is um for the other members of the board and perhaps for the town manager um not that it has any bearing
particularly on the sub of this petitioned article but she is the last resident Wampa noag Native American in the town of chattam she is um third or fourth generation in this town her ancestors
came here from um gayhead Martha's Vineyard and she is a member of the aquina band of the Wampanoag and as I said the last resident Wampanoag native American in the town of shadam um that
doesn't bear on the particular issue of what has happened here she like many lowincome folks hit a hard skid I'm not going to belabor how that happened or what happened I don't
even have all of the details of it but she prior to being a recipient of Social Security was in an extremely lowincome circumstance St where her taxes got ahead of her and she was in a in a condition where she could only pay
$25 a month against her taxes that was all she could do well take a look at title 60 if you haven't title 60 requires that all back taxes unpaid taxes are assessed an
interest rate of 16% and that interest acru daily um the current tax in AAR that um Miss James is looking at if it were to be paid off on June 1st
the town Treasurer told me it'd be about $63,000 today or yesterday when I checked it was $57,000 and there is a daily prum that is determined by
the taxpayer to assess the growth of that money that's owed and all money goes against interest first so miss James gets $1,500 a month in Social Security that's her income
that's $7,500 a year she works in essence as an indentured servant of the town at the COA for which she's given a stipend of $500 that I understand doesn't even go into her pocket it goes against back taxes again interest first
in talking to the treasurer um although the actual money's owed is a moving Target based on the fact that interest is assessed daily and there's a pum rate in fact yesterday Miss james' predum
rate was $21 and uh $21.50 something like that and then when she makes her monthly payment of $600 that goes against interest only and every year her current taxes which are
about $5,500 is it added on to the mix but goes to build the principle against which compound interest at 16% continues to grow what she owes it's not perfect math but it's
pretty close again not perfect because of this daily factoring of interest payments and the timing of her $600 payments and the timing of the tax drop of her current
Mony owed but it's a reasonable number that she has a real annual interest acral of 13% excuse me against the balance that she has I projected that forward from the
$63,000 estimate June 1 that was given to me by the um tax collector in 5 years at 133% with that constant $5,500 in in annual taxes landing on her
and that assumes no increase in valuation and no increase in the mill rate she'd be over $100,000 in ta back taxes including tax and principal and interest in five years over $200,000 in
10 years Miss James is 77 years old she would like to live in her home until she passes she is the calendar
pinup for local resident lowincome tax burden the poster child for that we have an $1 million free cash
Surplus this year if um back up excuse me tax title right now um there are 21 in Town um six of those are owner unknown which means 15 of them are owner
known and the total of the outstanding tax title is less than $600,000 of every tax title property in the town of chadam right now according to my math and according
to the town tax assessor Miss James at $600 a month and $500 at the end of the year will never ever get ahead of the tax bill and every year
whatever Equity might acre to her becomes more and more diminished reducing anything that she might choose to do or hope to do with the balance of her one asset upon her
death which is sort of interesting because I asked her if she had a will a couple nights ago she came to den High house she said she didn't and I said well on your death what do you think you'd do with this property the first thing she said to me was probably give it to the
town right 88 acres which for affordable housing could probably be cut into uh because you wouldn't have to follow the zoning rules uh you could probably cut it into at least two good size homes back there uh but but that's this shy
and Unum woman who's trying to live in her house not a big one self- admittedly for figures and and not able to s this out or get ahead of it and try and like hell to work through the treasures offic to pay it off $1,500 a month is what she
earns so security promise of the government $600 which is 40% of that goes every month to try to pay her taxes the folks that we have living up on at
the Anchorage on croll road we charge them onethird 33% of their Social Security payment for the privilege of living in public housing now I'll tell you what simply
looking at it from the point of view of affordable housing this is the cheapest deal you'll ever get for affordable housing one it guarantees that a local resident gets to stay in the house two it's $63,000 because if that's paid off and
she continues and she has assured me and I trust deeply that she will continue to pay $600 a month to address her annual taxes which is more than enough to cover it until we have a
supersized uh change in um valuation or um mill rate so um that that's the sum total of of my Spiel on that um and I just think
uh one of the things that really sort of concerned me after I spent more time playing around with chapter 60 which is just a horrible horrible set of law is that we adopted a couple of
bylaws in 2017 2018 that are were intended to help people uh that have tax title taken from them the problem is that those bylaws um require
25% of upfront payment and then only a period of five years to completely pay it off and it it reduces the interest that acrise uh to like 8% or even 5% from the 16% but given the balance of uh Miss
James account this isn't isn't even conceivable for her but it it brought up a really interesting point to me and that was wow somebody spent some time looking at chapter 60 and at least East paid lip service to the fact that they thought they'd try to do something for
the low-income people in the town of chadam who actually live here generationally live here who have contributed deeply to this town you may not know it uh Mr Shell I know that the rest of the board members do but
rvfw includes the name of James James Brown Buck Memorial post that was her uncle Roland he died in France World War II so if I may if I may except that I want to do one last thing very quick please
when I looked at at title uh chapter 60 wondering how could we look at this and not find something in here where we could do a better job with our loow income older citizens
especially and it didn't take much to jump out at me but chapter 60 section 3D provides that the town can adopt the
provisions therein which includes sending out with our tax property tax bill or as a little box that they can check or as a separate form an opportunity for the taxpayers of
the town of chadam to be able to dedicate any amount of funds from $1 up to as many as they want to spend that would go into a specific account to assist lowincome elderly and disabled property
taxpayers if we had put that in I argue that any of the lowincome tax titles that exist would never have had to occur never never never never never but somebody went in and looked at chat to 60 and we came up with this other thing that doesn't help anybody to speak of
how did we miss 3D well my solution to that is I have another um citizen petition that I'll have signed by tomorrow I'm given it to the um clerk town clerk to try to get us to adopt uh
uh chapter 60 section 3D and I have a companion um resolution or uh petition article uh to create a bylaw that will um Move Free Cash annually uh in the amount of
$200,000 or 50% of it whichever is less into the account to uh that would be established under uh chapter 60 uh section 3D um and those will be in the clerks
tomorrow but I'd be more than interested to entertain Mr tman because I have a strong susp I know what he's going to say before we get to Mr tman I I want to say two things here first of all um you've made a a very eloquent and
appealing powerful compelling case that this is a problem that we ought to find a way to solve and I can promise you that if what you were proposing could pass muster legally I would be the first person to vote for it and I'm sure that everybody well I can't say that but I I
suspect my colleagues might might feel the same way um I I and and I want to say secondly if you have a solution uh that you want to propose I would urge you I would I would entreat you to get it back to us next week um I
I do want to advert to one comment you made very early on I if if it isn't routine and I believe it is that anybody who submits a petition article the petition the the articles that are drafted by staff they're all reviewed by
Council so that if as and when they get passed they can actually become effective and I'll say right now if you submit something it will be submitted to Mr talerman and he will review it and he will give us advice as to whether it is
capable of being actually effective in law or not so I I that may be frustrating believe me sometimes it frustrates me as well but that's just the way we do things and again and uh with no intention to interrupt you Mr
Shell but the the simple fact of Massachusetts law and the right to Citizens petition allows any citizen to directly bring a matter before town meeting now
although you guys get to look at it as does the fincom and decide whether you like it or don't like it the question of legality really legality is one that can be posed to the folks at town meeting and they can decide whether they want to vote it for it
oric no no no historically members of the Town excuse me excuse members of me sir please we we understand that there everybody here understands that getting a legal opinion it goes to the question
of recommendation as well as to whether it goes on the warrant so and we don't need to have a legal debate we have a written opinion from Council it if you want to hear from him I'll ask him to briefly explain it but that is the opinion that we have that's the opinion
we're going to rely on and I I think it is a much better use of your time to come up with an alternative indeed I am all in favor of getting a lawyer among other people to work on how can we solve Miss James problem because as I said you
have made a very eloquent and compelling case on her behalf we ought to work on solving her problem not arguing the legalities of whatever the solution Mr Talman could you excuse me I can we would you allow
yeah Jay can you just give us a a a short summary of your opinion on the petition article that Mr um Taylor submitted thank you right I'll I'll limit it for the time being to my opinion on the article we can talk
about the approach if you want following that and Mr Taylor obviously makes a uh compelling presentation on behalf of this particular taxpayer and on behalf of similarly situated taxpayers so my opinion has nothing to do with that I
have um absolute empathy and sympathy for folks that are in such situations and we work as Town Council throughout our client base to find solutions to those uh problems the the issue here is the Massachusetts
anti-a Amendment which provides that essentially we cannot use public money for um private benefit there are situations where the anti-a amendment
makes accommodations for an incidental private benefit provided that there's a substantial public benefit direct public benefit um um roadway for example work on private roadways happens we we appropriate monies for those things um
all the time that's a good and clear example unfortunately here the proposal before the board is purely for a private benefit it's a good benefit it is a good
idea but it is outside of uh legality as imposed by the Massachusetts Constitution and it it is not legal for a town in my opinion to pay someone's property taxes there are other means Mr Taylor
mentioned one there are still other means to address these issues or to work with taxpayers to help limit their exposure in terms of this there are also brand new statutes governing the tax title process that are decidedly Pro
taxpayer um for a very good reason here however the town meeting even if it voted to approve this appropriation would be approving something that is um does not stand up to the Massachusetts Constitution due to the anti-id
amendment and there are instances under the anti-a amendment where there are good debates as to the nature of an incidental private benefit but a substantial public benefit that's not um at issue here this appropriation would
be entirely for the benefit of a private individual so our opinion has been that and remains that it would not be in concert with the Massachusetts Constitution and if approved by town meeting would constitute um an improper
appropriation of funds you all done yeah I mean very good um I would like to note for the record that the question of public good um is one that is uh debatable and has been debated in courts for a very very long
time and it has been expanded into some amazing things you notice the Supreme Court allowed private property uh private ownership of uh I'm sorry I that quite wrong a private company to take
property by imminent domain in New London because they said it was going to improve a blighted area of town for the public good you're familiar with that case law Supreme Court I am but you're misquoting the facts well to the issue is the issue I'm
trying to get to um Mr telman is that there is a very broad interpretation of public good uh you can you can concede that or not concede that but there's a very broad definition legally of for the
public good and I would contest uh strongly that a town of chatom as small a community as we are that there is no greater public good than to
maintain a community of people who have invested Generations in this community it's ironic that we pay a three % searge annually to something
that's called the community preservation act and we can spend $500,000 to repair the fascia on the Church of one of the most wealthy congregations in town it has nothing to do with community
community is people right I I would Mr Taylor please please really I'm gonna close pretty simply no no no really please yep I'm going to close simply because I'm going to um quote right from chapter 60 Mr Talman
section 62 any person any person having an interest in land taken or sold for no payment of taxes at any time prior to the filing of a petition of foreclosure if the land has been taken
or purchased by the town and has not been assigned May redeem the Same by payment or tendering to the treasurer the amount of tax title account of the land being redeemed any
person with interest I will go back to Websters the definition of interest and every single taxpayer every single voter in the town of chadam has an interest in this property and an interest in seeing that this is done in order to benefit
our community and I would say that chapter uh Mr Taylor Mr Taylor speaks directly to this please I unfortunately we have a lawyer that we retain who is licensed to
practice in Massachusetts we accept his if you can come up with a proposal that passes muster under Massachusetts law we will be delighted to accept and recommend it that's it's that simple debating it with us or him or anybody
else here doesn't advance the ball let's work on M James problem with all due respect Mr chairman one attorney whether he's evaluated the things that I just said or not is is a matter of import whether
he's considered the broad range of public good and whether he's considered um section 62 of the general law you you you have given him notice that in your view it's relevant I'm sure he will take that into
account thank you the point Mr chairman is you you've made the point you have made the point Mr chairman and I I want wish to finish please and I will be very brief please do who is it that is going
to take the town of chadam to court let alone to task if we move this article through town meeting and we a portion those monies who is it that's going to stand
up and say you broke the law and I will tell you right now the powers of the Town under the CH sorry I big pardon well I I think we really do have your point you we we have your point you've had I I haven't been counting but
you've had about a half an hour here to make the point I I at this point on behalf of the people who are part of this meeting I have to ask you if you would please um sit down and work go back and
work on the your alternative because we have other business here and this is not making any progress at this point I appreciate it I understand um three sentences and I'll walk away because this I found everywhere in in the legal
references around this particular issue and it's summarized very well by um a statement from Goldman in peace um you probably know who they are Jay does there is a longstanding history of statutes and case precedent that favor
and some would say even encourage the right of redemption from tax sales and I'll thank you thank you do you want to yeah briefly because I think philos we have philosophical and mechanical issues philosophically I think we're all
supportive of helping the the party that I think that I'm comfortable saying that it's the mechanics that we're trying to figure out so what my question is I recall some we've been through similar conversations before the Stony Hill property one a couple years ago
comes to mind how does that differ how is that different from this one because we've we've dealt with this type of conversation before and we've brought articles to town meeting that have been successful to to engage and and support
a local entity of maintaining a family residence so we we've been if I'm wrong you know please correct me but we've been down this path before what's different with this with this one that's what I'm trying to understand I did ask Town manager for
for for I requested her to get that information to us prior to this petition but I haven't heard of I think I can I think I can add something historically because I think only Mr Mets and I may have been on the board at the time I don't think sure I'm I'm just going to register a a my own objection we have
spent more than a half an hour on this this is a problem that needs solution we are not going to solve it here and discussing it further is just wasting everybody's time go ahead and say what you want to say well I won't say anything then okay thank you Mr chair I'm going to conclude
that uh that section move on to uh the next the next item on the agenda and by the way I want I want to be clear I we we as a board I hope we agree that we are going to instruct Town manager and legal counsel
to see if they can't give us a solution to this problem I don't think we're going to have it by town meeting but if we can have it by town meeting so much the better but for point of order the petition article that's presented before us is going on the warrant it is on the
warrant fair enough correct that's correct okay um I think the next item is uh public announcements and agenda requests Dean you have two I have a public
announcement and an agenda item request I'll do the agenda item request first um last week we had a public forum on the subject of the 25 M hour speed limit request following which um I at my
initiative I had conversations with the um the police chief regarding the um type of um speed alert sign uh that we see on um old commer Road and whether that might be a useful um solution to to
address some of the concerns that have been voiced in on certain streets in town and I've got some information from um both the chief and the director of Public Works on the cost of stationary signs such as that as well as mobile signs and so I'd like to request as an
agenda item for next week's agenda because I haven't I have concerned about the upcoming deadline for closing the warrant to consider placing an article on the on the annual town meeting warrant to authorize the expenditure of $60,000 to be raised by taxation to fund
the acquisition and and placement of several stationary and mobile speed limit advisory signs um and I'm hoping that we could do that and and and I'd be happy to assist the town staff in drafting the article so it could be
included in the packet for next week's meeting so that's my request um as an announcement I just wanted to say next week on the tentative agenda prospective agenda item five B12 which is a refile of the home Ru
petition to establish a new Housing Trust um that's coming up um because it would have to be refiled since the legislature has not enacted it I expect to offer an amendment to that draft petition concerning the governance of the trust um I don't want to spring it
as a surprise on next Tuesday night so my intention is to um finalize the draft of the amendment and submit it to uh the town manager and hopefully uh she and you Mr chairman will agree to including that in the packet so that my colleagues on the board as well as the general
public uh will'll have a chance to review it and in case they wish to comment on on it next week I don't really really wish to disclose the the details at this time um I'm still working on on a on the language thank you Mr chairman okay I'll I'll just say
I have no problem with that um and and we will include it if you can submit it in time uh i' I'd like to make sure there is a consensus around the board table with respect to your first proposal um the $60,000 proposal for the
speed indicators around town is that we're all good with with having that on the agenda okay fine we'll put that on the agenda yep um and Mr deau welcome to the new chair of the
Independence Day committee good evening uh everyone my name is Steve dor for anyone who who who doesn't know and I am the new chair um for the for the parade committee uh this year um I have two things that I just
want to make um everyone aware of I have two announcements to make um the first one is to announce this year's theme uh we had um a little over 50 entries some of them were very clever um but the committee
uh decided to pick one and that uh the one that we chose is the seasons of chadam um and that was submitted by Jo Allen
Erikson um and she and the committee felt that it was a good way to sort of um emphasize and encourage uh and highlight all the uh events that happen throughout the year um there's
something going on here every month or every and every season of the year of course we know summer's very busy you know the fall brings the foliage and the Pumpkin people and everything else winter time is is uh you know the tree lighting and of course uh first night
and then we get you know the two hibernation months of February March and then it's in the spring with all the fresh new flowers so we thought that that was a good idea so um because she selected or she submitted the uh the one that we chose she's going
to be a judge this year on the um reviewing stand on on Main Street the other announcement that I wanted to make was that um we are now I'm going to start soliciting uh names or nominations for the Grand
Marshall um I think that process has started already and we're probably probably going to cut that off um at our meeting on April 14th so if anybody has someone that they would like to nominate to be this year's
Grand Marshall um you know that information is on the web page web page is Chad and parade.com it's all one word no hyphens or anything and you can get on there and um there's forms on there on to how and instructions on how to
nominate someone um after that process is done we're then uh going to start taking um um participants uh applications to to register for partici participants in the
parade um that'll probably go on till about the middle of June so they'll have from about the middle of April to about the middle of June to uh register to be in the parade that's it in case any questions from the board yeah Cory not really a
question just a comment I mean basically we have a lot of new faces on the prade committee this year um you know I've been I've attended most of your meetings um you guys are doing a great job you're being very efficient um I think you guys are right on track and I think the parade is in very good hands this year so I want to thank you all for your your
time and service thank you the uh the committee is sort of young in terms of experience um we have five people total um two of them I think have three years or maybe four years experience um myself and one other
person um this is our second parade and then we have one new person this year so we are kind of young in terms of experience but it is a very good dedicated bunch of people and I think we'll have a good time okay anybody else thanks very much
good luck welcome um good night let us know if we can help uh I think that's it um our next item is a public hearing if I could ask you Shireen to read the notice please
yes uh town of chadam Select board public hearing notice the chadam select board will hold a public hearing at 5:30 on Tuesday March 4th 2025 in the large meeting room at Town Office Annex 261 Georg Ryder Road chatam mass and remotely via Microsoft teams platform to
consider petition from NSTAR Electric Company doing business as eversource energy to install a 45 foot plus or minus of 3in conduit from proposed handhole hh7 overh 35a located on Shur
road to a customer installed handhold at 38 Sandy shoane the public is welcome to attend the meeting in person or participate via Link in the meeting post agenda all interested parties are encouraged to participate sign the select board and we have Marissa Jackson
um to present on behalf of eversource I guess welcome thank you very much Marissa Jackson again from eversource so what we're proposing again this evening is the install of approximately 45 ft of conduit under
Shore Road that will start at an existing pole along that roadway which is 17 over 35 where we install a handhole um additionally I was in communication with the Department of Public Works and they advised that these
the roadway is under a moratorium because it was recently paved and I was able to confirm with our construction Department that there'll be no disrup disruption excuse me to the road we will um use a method of boring under the
road so that being said I'd be happy to address any questions if there are any thank you uh oh yeah I was going to do that but then you I thought you were asking to speak I was going to offer the public the opportunity to comment before I go to the board anybody from the
public anybody online I don't see anybody here in the room okay did you have something to say yeah I just want to say thank you for addressing the uh The Memo from Rob failey our you know DPW director about the uh condition of Shore Road and the uh required uh technique to um handle this process so I
appreciate that thank you certainly thank you if no further comments or questions are forthcoming I'll take a motion move approval second all those in favor
Mr Mets uh Miss Davis Mr Shell says I thank you very much Miss Jackson thank you we appreciate your time okay thank you uh next uh we have public comments
on the business agenda do we have anything here in the room anybody online no I see no hands rais I don't see any either so we will move to the business agenda the first item is um a proposal
from Mr Barry Tuttle of supreme fairs regarding an outdoor display of goods and sales on Town property at the community center Mr Tuttle are you here please if you would take the podium and introduce yourself
thank you for having me um my name is Barry Tuttle and I organize uh arts and crafts fairs for creative artists and uh we've had a few here in chadam and they've been marvelous the people are
really nice um it gives the artists a chance to make make an income and so uh this year we're going to have two events at the chadam recreation at the community center and um on the front lawn and uh we will looking to see if we
could get approval for sales at the location the uh Recreation committee already gave us uh the permits to move forward on it and then they reminded me that I have to ask you guys permission for people to sell there so um I did
this last year too and it was it was a great time um Shireen thank you um I'm a advocate of local art and people having the opportunity to to show and and sell and and uh it always leads to good things uh
there was just a question I I saw that you you know went through all the purviews of of the recreational committee but one of the things I was wondering is there and Chiefs here um traffic control is that an issue for uh that's
an um I guess it's for chief to maybe um uh the police department to figure out I I don't know if there's a necessity for it there is not Community sorry we have to ask you uh Chief Anderson to come to the microphone whether there would need to
be a detail to do traffic I I believe they have been in the past correct um well we asked last year in the town tried to but they couldn't get staff to do it yeah and so we called up
uh about a month ago and they said they were going to try to but they weren't sure they were going to send it out to a network I guess and see if in the in the past there's been a detail required for that location uh in
the past couple years it might have been a challenge to fill uh I would still maintain the requirement to have one I will ask though maybe we revisit this sooner than later because this is the first year of a new contract with some different variables
on length of time for these and a different pay rate but uh I'm I'm sure we could figure something out okay that would be my only requirement is that that continue if that was the case thanks thank you thanks Chief Cory the very very simple one I'm very supportive
of this they've done in the past whatever but I do know um we're trying to um clarify some of the process what boards see these things so my my my question is is a mechanical question since the park and rec commission um reviewed this and voted in favor five
nothing back in January 2025 um they had two conditions do we need to reiterate those conditions at are approval or is it covered completely and the two approve the two conditions were the um on-site dumpster and the portable toilets uh for the vendors um is that
covered from Park and record do we have to carry that over on our our approval I would suggest that you carry it over okay with your motion tonight all right thank you so I go ahead go ahead I um last year I had trouble getting uh
dumpsters there um contacted a bunch of different people they didn't have dumpsters at that time frame so we purchased uh two small dumpsters and we put them on the property the rec committee was good with that we made
sure they were hauled away maintained emptied them each day and uh that worked out good so um it is it's very hard to get dumpsters for the weekend in a small size you can get the huge giant ones
which they don't want there and they're they're outrageous but um anyway would that be adequate to meet the dumpster um situation so this is what you used last season yes and they were were successful
yeah they were half full each day we emptied them and and put new bags each day personally don't have an issue if it worked last year that's it's fine IT addresses the trash so I'm fine with it Dean that's fine with me too I just had one minor question on the application to
the chatam uh Park and uh and Rec commission um there was a question asking about whether you had nonprofit status I can it wasn't answered I was just wondering what whether whether you no no we are not nonprofit okay no all right thank you
um anything else uh Mr chair yes I move to approve the use of town property for Supreme fairs to host two craft fairs on the front lawn of chadam community center on June 28th 29 2025 and August 30 31st 2025 with the setup beginning at
7:00 a.m. and cleanup completed by 6:00 p.m. with the requirement that there be portable toilets dumpsters and a police detail included second um all those in favor Mr Mets interrupt just for oh yeah please so what happens if I can't get
the police detail I'm sure I'm sure we can work with that yeah I I the I think the answer is we'd like to have it on the record here now four three months in advance if it's a problem come back to us the chief can come back to us and we
can deal with it at that point okay okay all right thank you all right all those in favor Mr matters hi uh Miss Davis Hi Mr Shell says I Mr Nick Castro hi okay thank you very much and good luck good luck good yeah absolutely
a um next we have uh a series of um annual town meeting articles to review the first up is the fiscal 2026 Capital article um for the munic for the chadam
municipal airport um and that's presented here we have a staff Memo from uh Terry whan and I believe Mr Harrison the chairman of the airport commission is on and there you are welcome Mr
Harrison hi good evening everybody thank you very much uh Huntley Harrison chadam airport commission uh the uh three items on this article uh are for a variety of Capital Improvements to the airport
which uh in total leverage 1,183 500 U total funding uh of which 1,124
325 are handled by the uh federal and state government uh the first item is the design permit and bid for main apron Rehabilitation uh that is is slide
number two if it if you're putting it on the we we have it you have it yes slide three all right okay well anyway U yes so design permit bid for the main
air airport Rehabilitation project drainage improvements and to pave the the gravel parking lot by the vehicle gate uh and to make sure that that's uh all done in a manner that is uh meets
green standards so that all the drainage is handled appropriately and then navade replacement uh our nav AES uh which are the uh lights that uh handle not the not the taxiway lights or the runway lights but
these are the lights that handle the approaches and the uh and the ends of the runway uh the lights that we currently have and and the equipment that we currently have
uh have been leaking they they short out uh and it was just they're ancient and uh they need to be uh replaced and so that that part of it is that um the uh
main Park the drainage and improvements of the parking lot and the navate those are the ones that we uh have now now individually the design permit and bid for the main apron Rehabilitation uh local share for that is
$18,750 uh which leverages or not leverages but is the goes against the total for the project of $375,000 so the government Mass Massachusetts and the FEDS pick up 3
37,500 of that the drainage improvements in the parking lot that is a total of $600,000 uh of which 540,000 are federal share and that's B funding I don't know
if it has a different name now but that's uh that's what that is uh and our local and the state sh for that is 30,000 so our share is uh also 30,000 on that project and then the navade
replacement is U as you can see there the Precision approach path indicators the runway end identifier lights and uh a a a uh supplemental wind sock uh that actually
can be seen by pilots uh which obviously would be helpful uh the information that I'm referring to comes from one of the other slides the slides that are there that you all have are a little bit in a
different order than I I have uh my slide number three shows the uh actual CIP which is a capital Improvement plan that I went over with the FAA I don't know which slide U is that
and maybe they took it out yeah I I don't think it's here um no it's not there okay all right and then you you've seen the uh the apron uh Slide the uh
that's that one the ne I think the next slide that was there was the U by the way I apologize I can't couldn't make it in tonight uh so I'm I'm that's why I'm remote uh that's the apron rehabilitation
that's uh basically I think it's about half a million square feet no I'm sorry my mistake 152,000 that's quite a difference 152,000 plus square feet uh that the apron needs to be repaired uh
every 10 15 years in the in between those times it gets crack sealed and making sure that uh no uh plants or anything like that are growing up through the uh through those cracks but every every few years it needs to be
totally rehabbed um and then I think the next slide there was the uh parking lot which has a circle around it yeah that's the parking lot I'm referring to uh that is in desperate need for Paving and the paving also uh
provides uh a better surface for anything we're going to be doing back there in the future uh also for parking for the open house uh for other events at the airport uh it
just provides a better surface for that and then finally the uh nav AES uh which is this and you have a picture there of the uh Precision approach path indicators what they look like and I
think on that slide is also the uh run yeah at the bottom of the slide is the runway end identifier lights those are lights that flash uh when an airplane is approaching when there is no aircraft activity in the uh pattern those lights
are not on those lights are activated just like the runway lights when uh an aircraft approaches the airport at night actually the the Precision approach lights are on all the time uh well I mean yes all the time during the day but
they can't be seen from anywhere but on the airport just as they are now so all that said the capital article I'm requesting this year is for $59,750
uh and uh I would hope that uh you uh can support that it's certainly it's a lot less than last year I'm trying to keep things in in under control here with with local spending and that's basically it if anyone has any
questions I'd be more than happy to uh respond questions from the board do you want to make a motion go ahead Dean Mr chairman I move that the select board Place uh the article as presented
requesting uh cap its capital item Capital article for $59,750 on the 2025 annual town meeting warrant second all those in favor Mr Mets I uh Miss
Davis Mr Shell says I and Mr nicastro I Mr chairman I move that the board recommend uh this item this article second uh all those in favor Mr necastro Mr Shell says I Miss Davis I and Mr Mets
I thank you uh Mr Harrison you're good to go thank you all thank you very much have a good evening okay thank you um next we have a general bylaw Amendment um chapter 238
revisions uh Mr failey I take it you're online um to present this welcome yeah thank you Mr chair select board members Rob failey director of Public Works so this uh chadam storm M
discharges they've been regulated under the ms4 permit since 2003 uh the current ms4 permit which was issued in 2018 required chadam to develop or update a post construction stormw management ordinance so to meet that
requirement chadam adopted chapter 238 stormwater management uh at the May 2019 annual town meeting uh in December so that partially fulfilled the permit obligations uh in December
2024 chadam DPW uh promulgated storm water management regulations uh under Section 2386 of the town code so these regulations these new promulgated regulations supplement chapter 238 and fully satisfy the ms4
permits post construction storm waterer runup uh requirements so basically the revisions are they align with the recently prom obligated regulations uh they add a few definitions and they place a restriction on a one acre
threshold of Earth disturbance I'm happy to answer any questions questions from the board I think you've got yourself a motion here can I hear a motion propos motion I vote to place the I guess
recommended article on the on the town meeting warrant for 2025 second all those in favor Mr Mets Miss Davis Mr Shell says I Mr nicastro I move to recommend second all those in
favor Mr necastro hi uh Mr Shell says I Miss Davis Hi and Mr matters hi thank you sir have a nice have a nice evening um next is a proposed General bylaw amendment to chapter 10 with
respect to board's committees and commissions section 3A Mr nicastro thank you Mr chairman I appreciate the you're putting this on the agenda this um article was requested of Me by the town
moderator who um was contemplating um a petition article but asked if the select board would consider placing this on the warrant it essentially um permits um members of the finance committee to serve on non-standing committees such
as advisory committees or ad hoc Town committees boards and commissions it would not apply to regulatory committees or generally non-standing committees I I did advise the town moderator and the town and the finance chair that this was going to be on
tonight I don't know if he was he thought he might speak to it I don't know if he's available the moderator is if if you like me to Mr chairman be happy to speak Bill Lichfield uh you're welcome to speak Mr Lichfield go ahead
thank Mr members of the board Bill Lichfield uh as mrcastro indicated uh this is something that had been in under consideration by me for quite some time the current bylaw prohibits finance committee members from serving on any
other board or committee and there might well be occasions where your board would like like to appoint members of the finance committee to allow their expertise to be shared on other non-standing committees this doesn't require their appointment and they could
not serve as Town employees but it does give you uh the opportunity if there is some special expertise the finance committee member has and that could serve the town by serving on such an ad hoc or advisory committee this would
allow that possibility the bylaws it now stands goes back some well a very long time to when the finance committee actually prepared the budget so long before our town Charter and it's never been changed It just strikes me as an
opportune time to make that change if uh to see fit to do so I thank you thank you I have a question yeah this is either for the moderator for or Dean is it the intention of the um of the
article that the um that the represent that that the um participation in the committee is a participation as a representation of the fincom or that we're just saying as a private tax paay
you're somebody that you know is interested in let's just say um uh shelfish advisory committee um would like to is what's the intention if I try to respond to that it wouldn't be as a finance committee
representative but if if if Miss Davis if you were on the finance committee uh and the town decided to create a committee an ad hoc or advisory of special committee uh looking
at the the use of a certain facility in stage Harbor off of shamp Plain Road you have some particular particular knowledge of that facility from Years Gone by and it might be useful to have you as a member of that ad hoc committee
studying the use of that Feer for example or if if the select board a future select board wanted to appoint uh a committee dealing with downtown merchants and Mr Mets were on
the finance committee at that time it might make sense to enable him to serve two roles just as for for instance Mr dor who appeared before you earlier happens to be an alternate member of the zoning board of appeals you also appointed him to serve as uh chair of
the public ceremonies committee this would simply allow that sort of possibility to occur thank you yeah go ahead Dean I just it's Bill's I just want to add to Bill's comment this was Bill's language
I don't think the language would prevent um the select board appointing someone to be a representative from the finance committee to a particular advisory committee bill is that would you agree to that understanding that that would be
fine by me that's completely within your purview but if you saw fit to do that I think that would be fine okay thank you so I I don't it's Mike bill um I don't need a whole lengthy recitation
but I i' just like to get a sense of the Committees that remain um uh excluded from from this um broadening of of uh discretion it I I take it statutory committees like the airport commission
would not be permitted correct the charter has a list actually if I recall correctly of approximately 20 committees which are uh defined in the charter as standing committees all of the regulatory
committees okay uh planning board zoning board of appeals Conservation Commission and a a large number of others it would essentially be ad hoc or advisory committees right okay thank you I I I just wanted to kind of clarify that at
the other end um any other yeah go ahead Corey oh thanks I have a funny feeling I'm going to be the odd man out tonight um I mean I have a tremendous amount of respect for both the moderator and the members of our finance committee um I I the work they do is um is
unbelievable um but you think about it at town meeting with all our boards and committees advisory regulatory whatever at the end of the day you got the select board on one side and the finance committee on the other side separate entities performing our specific roles
and duties to the community I no problem with this going to town meeting for uh the town to weigh in on it but to create a situ situation that would I think chip away a little bit of
their individuality their their separation from from the select board um is is not philosophically something that I I'm I support um you know I understand the the philosophy of getting people with certain backgrounds to to help out
um we do seem to have a lot of people in this in this community that were willing to do that so I don't think we have a shortage per se um but I I do have some reservations of of of supporting this particular article um and again it's not a personal perspective on any of the
members because again I have tremendous respect for them but philosophically I don't think it's the right I thing to do so Dean um thank you Mr chairman I just wanted to comment on that historically having served on the finance committee and appreciated the independence of the
committee and I've been a stalard in supporting that Independence over the years I really was not comfortable with making any kind of change uh over the years I've had this conversation uh with um uh the moderator I think previous to
this cycle and um at the same time um I think that the proposal that is is before us is fairly modest and and doesn't um to me at least present um a significant concern but I do respect Mr
Met's uh position on it and a couple of years ago ago if this had been before us I probably would not not have supported it um I did want to say one thing I I did have the charter with me I think the list of committees that are standing versus non-standing is in the bylaws Bill unless you found something that
I've missed thank you Mr chairman uh Shireen yeah I'm just um I I appreciate the independence of the finance committee and and I have no problem placing this but I'm not sure I'm going to recommend it uh okay well I guess I'll make a comment as well I I I I I
confess to having sort of had an initial reaction to this that it was a a solution for which I I couldn't necessarily see a problem um but at the same time I I I I understand the explanation about the historical
context um the the moderator um suggests that he's been thinking about this for a long time um and and I I I I think my bottom line here is that the um
consideration that Corey's articulated is a it's an important one it's a it's it's it's a relevant one and I I just would be comfortable uh keeping that consideration on the table for any action the board might take um to make a
specific appointment as opposed to saying we're going to tie our hands and and and deny ourselves uh discretion to make an appointment um that wouldn't run a follow that consideration and that um made some sense for whatever the particular case was so uh I'm I'm going
to support this and I will support recommending it as well Mr chairman I'll offer a motion if you like yep I move that we place this article on the warrant for town meeting uh do I hear a
second well I'll second it um all those in favor Mr necastro I Mr Shel says I Miss Davis i m Mr Mets okay uh motion to recommend Mr chairman I move that we recommend uh I'll second
that Mr necastro I Mr Shell says I uh Miss Davis no Mr Mets no so we have a non recommend well a two to two non- recommendation thank you um thank you thank you uh next yeah
thanks uh Mr Lichfield um I think next item is a new home rule petition for an act relative to membership of the Conservation Commission associate members Mr
Burman welcome for natural resources um this is a relatively brief article um the idea is that we have seven uh full members of the Conservation Commission we also have three associate members right now those three Associates cannot
vote um we've also had difficulty filling those associate roles part of this is that we did have to cancel one of our meetings this past year for lack of quarum we do have a lot of meetings our Conservation Commission
uh meets pretty much every week uh most other commissions meet bi-weekly which puts a lot of Burden if people get sick vacations Etc um so uh some towns on Cape and other parts of Massachusetts have used this method to allow the
associate members to vote only in cases where you can't make a quorum so it's not that they be voting all the time it's only when as needed uh as the chair of the Conservation Commission would determine so that is the request before
you I feel like it would um help with preventing lack of quarum and additionally it might encourage some folks to join us as associate members um yeah question I support this I think this is a a um a product of
necessity and also I think this would um help with the efficiency of the committee so I'm very supportive I I just have a quick question uh I know you have the rule that somebody has to have been at all but one I guess it is of the the
different meetings that constitute a single session on a single issue um do the associate members typically come pretty regularly so that they can they can be available for the for this they would be available
for this purpose that is the intention we have not had many associate members um and our one associate we had to bring back up to full membership um but it it would be explain to any Associates moving forward that you know even before it's always been kind of a farm league
where you try it out for a while you see if you like it when an opening you come up now it's got a little bit more used to it you could be called on to vote um certain situations right right okay is there no other questions or comments I'll take a
motion Dean go ahead I'll move to place this on the uh town meeting annual town meeting warrant second uh all those in favor Mr nicastro Mr Shell says I Miss Davis hi uh Mr Mets hi I move to recommend this to town
meeting second all those in favor Mr Mets hi misss Davis I Mr says I and Mr necastro I thank you sir thank you very much um
next uh we have the um the uh this is the speed limit thickly settled um areas acceptance of Mass General law section chapter 90
section 175 c 25 M an hour um who is the proponent here Jill I'll step up that's fine okay um so we had a h public forum uh last week
that was well attended and comments continued to come in regarding the reduction of thick thickly settled areas 30 miles per hour down to 25 miles per hour in your packet you have comments that have been received and staff of
with a previous direction for from the board for staff to come back with a draft article um in consideration of the comments received at the public forum and and following that we've provided that for you I also have with you uh
Chief Mike Anderson and and Jeffy Chief Lou Malzone here in the audience with us um if they have anything further to add um we did have the comment from Vice chair nicastro about a potential Solution on certain areas for the
lighted um signs uh for speed limit signs and so um we'll send this back to the board for your consideration and again um I I think uh Chief Anderson might have had some updated information he would like to present so while he's coming up are are are you saying that we
you're recommending that we defer action on this until next week when we hear for the um hear the the the I don't know if it's an alternative or an additive Dean is proposing in if that was your int I
meant it as an alternative as an intermediate St yep okay judge upon good thank you Mr chair members of the board Mike Anderson chief of police if if you need me to go through the presentation again I will um this
will be our third time in front of the public um there was an audience uh member last week uh a resident uh who lived on stage hob Road uh who brought up some questions about a speed study um I will try to advance the
slides here if I can if I can advance the slides here sorry uh keep going next slide next slide next slide one more one more one more
and one more right there uh resident last week came up uh to the podium and and and talked about the speed limit the violations on uh stage Harbor Road we set up our covert box over the weekend again it's a short notice it's a small
sample uh but in the time period from March 1st to March 3rd uh again it is a posted 30 m hour Zone uh the speed box monitored 331 vehicles uh you can see see out of the Northbound and southbound
the average speed was just under at 2928 we had a total of five vehicles uh that were over 30 miles an hour uh out of that five the maximum speed was one vehicle at 41 uh the minimum speed was
10 miles an hour and again just to familiarize yourself with what that 85th percentile speed means is that is if the state came in and did a a speed study uh they would find that the 33 mil an hour uh is is reasonable for what that
speed is I hope that answers your question um other than that there is nothing new to present than what was presented at the public meeting and the finance committee but I will happy I'll be happy to take any questions I
believe uh select board member Mets had some questions and I think off the top of my head I don't have my notes in front of me this I hope answered one of the questions I believe it was if the speed limit increases in the offseason because
the volume of the traffic is less my opinion is only based on the data again this is a small sample but the data indicates that that would be a no um I I had um two questions one um it it's never been clear to to me whether
the the what we're proposing here is that the speed limit if if this is approved the speed limit would be reduced to 25 miles an hour wherever the residential
profile would would is is thickly settled whether or not there's a there's a u there's a thickly settled sign or alternatively is it only where we have posted or will post thickly settled signs you have the option if you go back
to I believe the second Slide the initi uh I'm sorry maybe it's second to the last keep going one more I thought there was one in there where it said the uh the select board
has the option to choose both um one option would be to lower that speed limit to all the areas that are thickly settled in town or you have the option to to choose specific neighborhoods if I'm correct me if I'm wrong I thought it was
somewhere uh if I understood the uh good evening Lum alzone Deputy Chief of Police if I understood your question correctly um it would be any area in town that is thickly settled whether as defined is it's defined as defined whether or not there's a sign correct
what the chief is speaking of is that the state recommends you do a townwide but the town would have the option after adopting this that they could choose the roads that they wanted to be 25 miles an hour I I was with you until that last
thing when you say the state recommends State recommends that you townwide choose the 25 M hour if if you if you anywhere everywhere in town that is sick thickly settled is that corre if
you if if you adopt uh chapter 90 section 17 C to lower your statutory thickly settled down at 25 mph the state recommends that you do as opposed to but you do have the option of picking and choosing which roads uh do well I I
could ask us what are we doing and I know what I my answer would be I don't know the question is what do we what's being recommended here yeah so for clarification to that point if this was adopted do all the roads automatically get classifi all roads
that are thickly settled get classified at 25 and then we'd have to raise them if we so choose I don't think you can raise them it all go down to that 25 right and I think so if we adopt it they go to 25 miles an hour and we don't have an
option to return it back to a 30 mph correct yes are you more confused now well I maybe unless I get the the answer I expect to the this question which is if we want to select we got to do it before town meeting
no I think it I think it's uh it's uh there's two options to the the the the main point is whether or not to accept or adopt 907c once the town adopts it or accepts 97c then you decide it's up to we're
doing it townwide or come back and do one or the other okay but we would have to do that subsequent to the and you're pretty confident that's the way it really works I am okay Dean I agree with that I think
that's little little little reading of the statute um I just wanted to say I appreciate Chief your providing the information on stage H road because I contacted the chief on Friday and asked if there were any data on CH Sage Harbor Road and he said I'll go out and get
some and which is what he did I think I saw your covert Box by the way uh um and um you know we have a petition that was presented by Mr Fugal stat that he's collected a bunch of signatures and as someone who walks
stage Hub Road occasionally um you know it is I think at times a dangerous road to walk so um it occurred to me and I don't want to jump ahead because hopefully we're going to discuss my my idea next week um but I
thought that based on what I heard at the the public forum um in terms of potential calming effect effects on traffic that the idea of having these sort of dynamic electronic speed signs and if if for those who haven't seen the
one on older's rooted if you go over 30 miles an hour it reads tells you what your speed is and it's in red if you're under 30 30 or under it's in green so it's a pretty eye-catching sign and my my sense is that that type
of thing uh is a is a is a good calming um device and you can speak on it tonight or next week if you'd like Chief um because we've had other ideas mentioned uh and um I just want to say my my gut tells me that if you have
a 25 mile speed limit people are going to go 30 if you have a 30 mile speed uh posted speed limit they're going to go 35 to 37 you make it 40 they're going to go 45 47 is that your your experience my it's my sense of the driving public I just think what you've seen in the
previous slides from the previous presentations that you you have an overwhelming majority of motorists in chadam that obey the speed limit if this has changed those overwhelming majority of people that obey the speed limit
inherently would be speeding upon the change of this and I think that that again I will be perfectly clear I don't have an opinion I don't have a dog in this fight my opinion is only based upon the data that that that we have and the data I'll say it again for this meeting
the data does not indicate to me that we have a speeding problem in town uh based upon our speeding enforcement numbers our traffic crash cause numbers
um but to your point of the calming effect I think we tried to explain it at the last meeting to another Resident in South chadam a calming effect to stop the traffic would be a police car in her driveway um we we can't yeah provide
that all of the time uh but if we were able to increase the number of uh technology uh speed control devices throughout the town on a permanent or a uh uh temporary movable system I think
that would go a long way okay thank you thank you Mr chairman I I guess the question is are we supposed to um take any action tonight are we going to defer I I think the idea was to defer okay that was yeah fine let's do but if if I
may I I I say a couple of things first of all I don't know if that's what you were referring to but another so-called comic device uh you know you see it with some frequency which is a a squad car parked alongside the road or in a
driveway or someplace alongside uh a reasonably well-traveled Road and you know that's uh that may be a diversion of resources that could be better used elsewhere but it does have I think a desirable effect on the on on
the behavior of the traffic including speed and that's a great point but the challenge that we have if in one of the slides there there are probably five or six streets that that compromise 90% of our speeding areas I do have sympathy
for the remote areas that might have yeah one or two outliers it's just not a good allocation of resources to to do that right right right no I I I get that I I the the other thing I'll say here is that I mean I sort of agree with what
Dean says that you you lower it everybody goes down five miles an hour I I I'm not sure and you may well be right but I think if you lower it most people are going to reduce their speed from who are you know rigorous you know
fastidious law biters they will reduce their speed 5 miles an hour what I think it could conceivably help with is people who are five or six or seven over that they'll be the same five or six or seven over except it'll be a lower speed um
the other thing is in this town um where most of the drivers are tend to be a little bit older um the the the potential for for I'll call it Mischief where a driver is is distracted and it
it's not necessarily fooling with their cell phone it's could be anything it can be something that goes on in their eyesight or in in their field of vision or in the car um at 5 miles an hour less there's a little bit of a a better Edge
for them to recover and deal with it than at the higher speed I guess you know and we can argue this all day long I I I'll make one last comment I are you aware or my colleagues as well ask same question I was surprised
there seems to be almost Universal support for this I mean I've heard negative comments individually but in terms of people who' have come out and responded I I haven't heard too much against it yeah I I watched the meeting I wasn't able to attend the meeting and
it looked like it was overwhelming supportive but outside of that uh it would be interesting to hear from trades people how they would feel um about this and what the impact could be um for um for um um people working um and again
you know there are some culprits out there that are you know tra people running around too fast obviously but you know I I think we're hearing as side of of of this and I'm interested to hear what Dean's going to bring us next and I I agree with that and I've heard some of
those comments as well yeah go ahead I guess I'll this comment I mean I haven't gone into deep deep conversations with these individuals but I do know there are some people on the other side that have some reluctance for this so I there's there's mixed opinions yeah just I wanted to ask the chief one other
question I know you talked about this when you presented to the finance committee and maybe you did it at the Forum uh on on the roads that you had um uh streets that you had uh compiled data on prior to tonight uh prior to the stage Harbor Road data um you had the
number of incidents um accidents that actually occurred I think you said that in those cases whe whether it was 20 or whatever I think I'm quoting you the vast majority were not maybe you told me this privately the the the majority were not
speed related correct okay overwhelming majority are not speed related as a cause okay thank you oh go ahead I I have to ask you to come to the
podium though select board and others Jeff fugle St at stage Harbor I gave you that thick packet of of uh signed uh indications of speed the the uh
I think the number of houses that could be affected are about 35 to 40 I haven't been able to get some people because they've been on vacation but every single person I talked to was adamant
about the speed limit now possibly it's certain times a day for example when the workers are going to work down from the circle to uh Bridge Street or to to uh the St stage Harbor uh Yacht Club
the harbor Masters the other time is coming home from work around 3:30 4:00 and and those times are the egregious speed limit times now the type
of traffic if you have a garbage truck going down the street or a cement truck or fishing uh uh truck the big trucks that collect the fish uh they're the ones that that speed
generally now this is only even in the wintertime in the summertime there's a lot more traffic on that street and and there's a lot more speeding so my observation and the
retaliation of some of the drivers is that they're going over 30 mil an hour and they gesture in many ways to for me to get out of the way uh not that I'm standing in the way but I kind of indicate please slow down right now
they're between six and seven youngsters under six that are moving into that area uh some of them are only two to three years old and last last year a year and a half ago a dog was hit across from our
house fortunately the lady going was not going that fast so the dog's all right but my my feeling is if in fact you could put a speed reminder uh at one end of the street and
a speed reminder at the other other end of the street it might indic give give uh substance to people who would would slow down a little bit uh I I think again every uh PTI not petition but
every indication that I had uh was that people uh were fed up with the amount of speeding even an officer of the police department a year and a half ago indicated that stage Harbor was a
Speedway another resident's wife on Cedar indicated that that was a Speedway so I really don't know how to handle this except to bring it to your attention and to possibly get some
indication of reduced speed so that we don't have a child or someone else in the road I think also that the amount of money it would cost for one of these two lamp or light sign signals is so little
in comparison to what the town is spending on other issues especially as the Chamber of Commerce uh advertises the loop which goes around stage Harbor Road Bridge Street Etc so I would ask
your consideration for spending minimal amount of money and possibly attempting to get the speed limit lower thank you thank you I think that concludes it let's move
on on um to the next item which is three warrant tic article requests from the chatam Community Housing Partnership committee um Carolyn mcleland uh is the chair of that committee and we also have
Gloria mcferson housing and sustainability director does one or both of you want to walk us through that hello everyone Carol Molin shair of the Community Housing Partnership I don't have the agenda in front of me so you're
going with the the three recommendations I made um I believe the Warren article one I tell you what if we could I think just for convenience good order sake if we could take them one at a time the first one is
the acceptance of the seasonal commit community's designation sure so we we we we met our committee met prior to getting the authorization that this was a necessary step so we wanted to um put it on the warrant as a pre preemptive thing that we would have the option to
accept it and if later on um it came down that the towns were obligated to do that if they wanted to uh enact all the wonderful things that are available able and as it turned out that happened so we really want to give the opportunity for the community to support the seasonal
communties act so that we can uh enact all the things we've been working for for quite a while and give us the opportunity to help a broader range of the community with housing um yeah I'll just chime in and say that there are tools that are made
available uh and there's money that's made available and um you know this to me is a no-brainer but I totally agree and U that's you know I'm in support of this and have been I think there's a lot that we can do with this
designation any other comments I'm waiting for sharen to off for a motion oh yeah no I I was not but um I moved to uh vote to place uh the article to accept Massachusetts General Law chapter 23 B
section 32b as presented on the 2025 annual town meeting warrant second all those in favor uh Mr nicastro hi Mr Shell says I Miss Davis Hi and Mr Mets
hi um I'll move to recommend that article second all those in favor Mr necastro I uh Mr Shell says I miss uh Davis Hi and Mr Mets hi
um now we have Town don't we have article do we have articles we don't have articles no so we have to ask uh I'll I'll move to direct the town staff to draft articles for the items
that we just um voted to place and recommend um for consideration at the next select board meeting your sure we do have one article for the acceptance of the seasonal communities Act we do that's on
um was that oh okay so you saw that oh it's on the back I I'm sorry yes okay the other two are are not provided in your packets but I I oh two and three that's what two and three referred to all right well then that I withdraw that motion we're good on on that one uh
seasonal communities the next one is the including fisherman the fisherman yes that's number three and I note for the record for the public as well that we have a me memorandum from um the shellfish
Constable um recommending uh this um as well and Mr chair as well we have it from the shellfish advisory committee voting unanimously in favor of adding this um home World petition to right so again just for the public to know this
was a recommended the slep board support the home R petition that would include fishermen as a group that can be targeted for affordable and attainable housing under the SE seasonal community section for the affordable homes act so in that seasonal communities act we're allowed to
um uh develop housing for individuals who by vocation produce or support artistic and literary activities we also allow it to uh support give a preference to Municipal Employees including teachers First Responders and necessary members for health and safety so we just
think this would be consistent with that uh helping the fishermen in our community one note Mr chair I when I I know we have a a vote to um to direct the town staff to draft the article that it be commercial fisherman yes yes um as
as the language um I'm I'm not sure uh does that does that bear on I mean I think this is including or adding fishermen are we
talking about um oh I'm sorry you're you're saying it has to be commercial commercial Fisher it's not written here on this but it was what we voted on yeah no and that's fine I I just I don't know whether um I'll just note that the um we've been advised
by um our state senator that this may or may not um pass muster um as a matter of falling within the scope of of the authorization of the ACT but as far as I'm concerned this is a case where let's
ask and uh well we certainly think that um most of the things in the seasonal communities act came about through Home Room petitions and it just is a a long process I don't I just want to note for the record there there may be a you know we may have to push on this one um I
don't want to I don't want to get into it but there is a residency requirement to be a commercial shell fisherman in this community and that has been a challenge that we have seen um um as we've moved forward in some of our affordable housing having to actually um have people that were commercial shell
fishermen um you know find new housing as we developed um housing so um we need to um if we want to maintain that sovereignty uh for the wild shell Fisheries in chadam then that's one of the things that I think would be important Agreed 100% I mean we need to
lean into it it certainly has been a community that I have spoken to over the years always asking me why can't I do something for them and now really within the broad framework of the uh seasonal communities act it should be a way to tweak that language so that they can be
included uh that's fine I I'm I'm going to defer asking for a motion until we address the the third one of your recommendations okay so this is the use of to recommend the select board place an article on the warrant authorizing the use by the select Board of the
attainable housing special revenue account funds from the 1% % short-term rental tax up to the amount of the special re Revenue fund as of town meeting um Mr chair oh um so that would be um sorry finished that would be spec
uh spec specified for the use of the Town own properties at stepping stones in 127 old Harbor I was just going to vote to direct the staff well you you were going to make a motion I was going to yeah I before you make a motion I I I I have a
strong reservation about this one and the the reason I have a reservation for that is that I think that town meeting where housing is concerned generally is very
very um insistent on being shown what it is that we're we're we're asking to spend money on and and I just think that that asking to authorize um the select board or anybody else to spend to effectively on its own
motion to spend money um before there's a project in front of them um is is a um a I I I don't think that's a prudent thing to ask at this stage of the game so I I'm I'm not in favor of that fair fair enough but we have the two projects
that we're we're working on and we will have to go to town they have to give us the money we can't we have to get Town approval to get access ACC to that money at some point right so and and I think a better time to do that is when we have a
product project to show them um I I I don't it doesn't it doesn't get us any further down the road to to get a yes and it does get us backwards it it is a it is a setback if we happen to get a no and so for that
reason I'm not in we'll have to disagree on that yes sir thank you Mr chairman uh I I guess I'm kind of where you are at on this um I just wonder if if if it would even be legally permissible special Revenue
funds I direct this to the town manager or the finance director special Revenue funds is it statutory that they have to be uh author the expenditure from them has to be authorized by town meeting this just occurs to me now I hadn't thought about this before hi
Carrie Mar Ro Finance director um so these funds are in a special Revenue fund called a receipts reserved for appropriation which requires a majority vote to appropriate the funds majority vote of of the town meeting meeting yep
so either annual town meeting or special town meeting whichever you prefer um is that statutory yes yeah so it may not be I don't know whether that that Authority on the under State Statute allows the town meeting to
delegate that authority to to the select board well the funds a legal matter maybe that's matter for Town Council to app on but I don't know I just it's my understanding that the funds are already under the select board so the funds in
the attainable housing fund are under the select board as it is but it still needs approval of to meeting to use the funds and then again it gets directed by the select board yeah I I I I kind of think as just as a matter of philosophy I'm I'm with the chair here I that I
don't think I probably would support this but if there is interest on on the part of other members of the board we might want to get that clarified legally from Town Council as to whether in fact town meeting could delegate its authority over to this the select board
to to expend from that fund but I would like to see that thank you and and I I don't have any problem we should ask I I do want to make it clear my objection here is not a legal objection it's a tactical and a strategic objection I I I I think it is imprudent
to to ask for this at this time I don't if you could just for clarification for me I don't quite understand what you're if if we we have to go to town meeting to get the money for the town to authorize us to use the money no matter what for a specific
purpose for a spe so we're we're citing two specific purposes so the and what Dean what you're proposing or what you're daating as the problem is could you explain it again please for me please yeah as as I understand the way
these um funds work as as Carrie has dis just discussed um an expenditure from the fund has to be authorized by the T by town meeting your your motion uh your proposed
article um sort of is a as I'm reading it is a generalized [Music] um delegation to the select board that's my word to spend from it as it wishes
for those two for those two properties yes I understand that as opposed to town meetings saying um we approve we to we the voters approve spending uh you know $100,000 out of this fund for these two properties I think your Mo your article
says we'll leave it to the select board to decide how much and when they want to do it for these two properties that's I think I that's my okay I I understand the distinction now I'm I'm just curious as how we're supposed to develop a property where we have to yeah make
plans and then have a special town meeting when we want to are we wait a year before we allocate any funds to these two projects it it doesn't seem to make sense I would I would obviously rather go to town meeting we need a majority vote it would be a vote in support of what we're doing or not but I
think if I think if we I think if we were to change to the approach you'd like to take and your your your partnership like would like us to take um is depending upon what the uh
ultimate design proposal is for these properties you might risk um alienating some support for them in town because you know we we know that there's a lot of concern we've start recently with respect to what the select board decided to do with you know the two properties
that are currently in place so that's kind of where I'm coming from as well so it's more of a philosophical thing for me of course not voting for stops it completely no it absolutely does not we have to go back when when are we supposed to go back and get money for it we're going to have a special time
meeting to that that may well be the case but I I I think you're putting the cart before the horse we we do an RFP you get a project you get a project with the financing plan laid out the the request for money from the town and then
you go to the town meeting and you say this is the project we'd like you to approve it I mean attainable the the only limitation here is attainable which basically says we can build anything we
want to as long as we're offering it to people who fit the definition of attainable all right I mean I disagree but I I understand what I understand your point of view so Mr chair so so if we think about the process for appropriating the funds we
have a Wastewater Capital stabilization account and you'll see an article that the board's already placed to designate a certain amount of funds say it's I know 400,000 for the old uh existing or older sewer area to replace pipes and so
forth I think what we're seeing here with how the recommendation is ordered there's two things one is that it could appear that all 3 million $3 million that we have in the account the account balance would be designated or earmark
for those two projects or that if if it goes to town meeting town meeting is going to want to know exactly what the projects are that's been our experience so I think there's support for what you're asking I think it's how to present it to town meetings so that the
voters are aware and in the warrant exactly what they're voting I can appreciate that I I compared it more to our regular affordable housing trust where we annually get money from CPA and we put that money in that bucket and it's not tied to a specific thing
some occasionally it is but there's almost five th5 million dollar in there now how much is in there three I'm sorry three million that we can spend on what we want in regards to affordable housing so that was the model I was trying to
replicate but that trust was set up and approved by town meeting and so if you're asking I mean don't we already have on the books that we were requesting a special um a special trust we brought it before
the state it didn't do anything and we need to look at it again yes and we're subject to uh you know whatever Dean's got in mind for next week we're going to resubmit that and there is also a trust of that nature
um which is embedded in the seasonal communities provision uh of the affordable homes act yes sir that help Carolyn what I was going to say when I looked at this this is maybe this is explaining kind of I think what being
translated or is um I look at this kind of similar to like when we had the Waterway you bonds that we have projects that we collectively all support but with this the the the details aren't enough to let the voters get full
support of it so I think if you put this if you were to put this forward to town meeting I don't know if it would pass the voters muster right now because they want more specifics on the projects they support the project but they want to get a little bit a little bit more into the details to you know fully support the
project and that's how I was looking at it you know it was just a little bit too broad For What appears to be the the temperament of the voters right now fair enough I mean just it's going to significantly delay anything we can
do I mean we're talking about I I I I respectfully descent from that point of view I don't think it's going to change anything we will need to go to town meeting at least one time with respect to um each one of those projects almost
inevitably whether or not we ask for this Authority or not so you see us going to tell meeting in the fall for I I we we don't even have an RFP issued um so it's not really possible to predict when it'll be
okay I think you're tying our hands but that's difference of opinion well you got two out of three very good do we want to have I mean I I'm probably not going to change my view do we want to have a draft article in front of us next week on this one can at least look we ask for a draft
article I just would add I I think what Jill said is is is important because is this the only other do we is the stabilization fund the only other special revenue account we have I thought we had a couple of others and I think we want my point is I think we want to be consistent with how
we handle these funds um do we have other funds that are in receipts reserved for appropriation yeah yes we do and those all require going to town meeting yes like the uh Peg axis funds that we used okay um a cemetery the cemetery funds are in
a Perpetual care uh but they are in a um in a yeah trust that does require town meeting authorization um but yeah we do have other funds that we do yeah I think I just think consistency is important too I understand the
concerns Carolyn has expressed but yeah I I agree that with the chair I I don't think this is really going to this really would inhibit us but let's let's have the article drafted it'll come before us perhaps next week or the week after we have to close the warrant on the 18th I'll I'll make a motion if you
want vote um I'm moved to direct the town staff to draft articles for the items two and three listed above for consideration and next select board meeting on March 11 2025 second all those in favor Mr Mets I uh Miss Davis I
Mr Shell says I and Mr nicastro I thank you um and Dean you're on okay this is the next agenda item is sorry the next agenda item exective session item eight I move that the
select board go into executive session under Massachusetts general laws chapter 30A section 21 parenthesis 3 parenthesis to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation parenthesis chadam Managers Association CMA parenthesis if an open
meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargain in position of the public body and the chair so declares with no return to open session thank you good night chadam a second oh sorry all those in favor Mr nicastro hi
Mr Shell says I uh Miss Davis Hi and Mr Mets hi now we are in executive session at 7:37 and we'll give it a minute to close