Heat. Heat. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the February 25th, 2026 meeting of the Town of Cadam Select Board. This meeting was rescheduled uh from February 24th due to the storm. Please note this meeting is being recorded and will be available shortly
hereafter for scheduled and on demand viewing on any smartphone or tablet device. If anyone else is recording the meeting, including the use of AI note-taking apps, please notify the chair. Seeing none, pursuant to Governor Healey's March 28th, 2025 signing of
chapter 2 of the Acts of 2025 extending certain CO 19 measures adopted during the state of emergency suspending certain provisions of the open meeting lawsuits general laws chapter 38 section 20 until June 30th, 2027. This meeting of the Chattam Select Board is being
conducted in person and via remote participation. Every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings as provided for in the order. A reminder that persons who would like to listen to this meeting while in progress may do so by calling the phone
number 158-945-4410 conference ID 203386491 pound 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 Chattam TV Exfinity channel 1072,
despite our best efforts, we may not be able to provide real-time access. We will post a record of this meeting on the town's website as soon as possible. First order of business is to establish a quorum. Miss Davis, >> present. >> Mr. Matters, >> present. >> Mr. Smith, >> present.
>> And remotely is Jeff Dykins >> present. >> And the chair is present. So we have a unanimous body tonight. Um, next, uh, we have a set of minutes from our meeting of February 10th. And, um,
I'll ask for a motion. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> It's been approved and seceded. Do we have any corrections? I have a few, >> Mr. Chair. Um, I was it it's noted that I was absent in the roll call, but in the header it says participating from the select board. So, if you can remove
that. >> Okay. >> My name. Thank you. Any others? I have um a handful of small items on page one. Um under those participating from the public, there was another person from
hack. I think her name was Tara or Tama Brennan. I don't see her name listed. Um then on page two um at the very bottom concerning um the passing of Mr. Hayora. Um it says owner
and editor. He who was the owner and publisher of the chronicle. And I would like to insert the following uh clause after um at the end of that first sentence following my name. Who observed that the town is fortunate to
have a strong independent local newspaper. We observed that the town is fortunate to have a strong independent local newspaper. Um then on page seven um right in the middle under fixed
salaries um this has to do with the rule of necessity. So in the second line where it says stand to financially benefit from I would strike that and substitute have a
financial interest in. Have a financial interest in that's the language from the statute. And then um at the end uh of that of that line after the word order I would insert for a quorum in order for a quorum to act on this
matter. And then um page nine. This is just a typo at the bottom. Second line last paragraph. second line twothirds of the way in the word I think it says plan I think you
mean plane and then finally on page um 12 um under E Stuart Smith it doesn't have a vote there I assume was a yes I there's a there's no entry for Steuart's vote
>> I believe he had stepped away at that moment briefly >> oh >> I might need to note that I don't know that I noted that, but >> I think I'll think I recall you're coming back and saying you were in favor of this. >> Yes, I will. >> So, I I'm going to editorially say that the vote was taken with a yes on Mr.
Smith's part. With that, I'll call the role. Um, Miss Davis, >> abstain. >> Mr. Dikens, >> yes. I >> um Mr. Meadows, >> I. >> Mr. Smith, >> I. >> And the chair votes I. So, it's 401.
Next, public announcements and agenda item requests. Um, uh, we're going to start with an storm update by our chief of emer our emergency management management director and fire chief, Justin Tavana, who will be addressing us remotely from the Chattam Emergency
Operations Center. Chief, are you there? >> Yeah. Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board, uh, members of the public. Um, >> thank you. >> Watching remotely. Uh, just wanted to give a quick update. Uh we're live here in the emergency operations center uh
which has been open since Sunday evening at 10 p.m. uh around the clock. Um currently we stand at um our power outages stand at 62% of customers are without power. Um we have uh number of Eversource crews working um throughout town.
Um our emergency operations center um since Sunday evening has uh taken uh over 250 calls. Uh the various call types includes things such as uh assisting residents with transportation
uh to and from personal warming centers uh and overnight shelters. uh facilitating assistance with uh getting um mechanical garage doors open, getting their generator started, delivering firewood, uh conducting well-being
checks, um issues with fueling uh for their homes and generators and vehicles, um assisting with delivering CS and food to the nursing home and obviously working with our Evers Source partners to restore power. um personal care site, our warming and uh charging center at
the community center um has been open daily since Monday from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Um we've had uh cert volunteers that have assisted with staff with staffing it along with uh town of Chattam staff. Uh Monday uh during the
storm and in the immediate aftermath um we saw eight residents attend the warming center. Tuesday around 50 and today we've seen uh over 60 um attendees at the warming center for shelters for
overnight shelters. Uh the first one that was stood up was on Sunday at NSET Regional High School. Um they had about 50 people there. Um Chadam, we assisted one resident to the shelter before the storm on Sunday. Um they started to experience some heating issues at that
site. um and ultimately had the cap capacity and um eventually the heating system failed and they had to move all 50 of those folks to a shelter in at the Dennis Yarmouth High School. Um the Dennis Yarmouth uh shelter was stood up
on Monday uh yeah on Monday evening, excuse me. Um as well as the Barnstable shelter. Uh since then um because of the closure of the NSA shelter and the expected prolonged power outage uh duration of
the power outage um a shelter was open last night at Cape Tech High School as well. Um the current population of each of each shelter is uh 50 50 folks at the Cape Tech shelter. Uh between 180 and 200 at the Dennis Yarmouth shelter and
around 120 at the Barnstable shelter. uh the emergency operations center um and fire department staff have facilitated uh 20 uh courtesy trail about 22 courtesy transports now um back and forth to shelters and boarding
centers. Um we've conducted 15 safety checks on residents um who have who have decided to stay at home. Uh the fire department has uh responded to over 180 calls since 4 a.m. on Monday. Uh to put that in perspective,
this time of year for February, we average seven and a half calls in a 24-h hour period. Um so, uh it's been extremely busy. Um we've experienced lots of carbon monoxide related calls. Um largely related to generators being
operated, both fixed generators and portable generators, in some cases being um placed improperly too close to the home and in other cases just the wind direction has pushed the exhaust back into the house. Um, fortunately, a majority of those calls were generated
by folks having working carbon monoxide detectors in their home. Um, many of them were found with low levels of carbon monoxide. Um, not to a a harmful level, but um, those issues were caught before they became too serious. Um, fire
department did respond to a building fire this afternoon um, which started in in uh, somebody's chimney and extended into the structure surrounding it. um that home was without power. They had been using the chimney for the last 36 hours to heat their home. Um so we were
able to get there quickly. They were actually alerted by their smoke and carbon monoxide detectors to the issue. We were able to get there and limit the damage. Um currently from Eversource, we have one representative in the emergency operations center. He's next to me working diligently right now.
We have um 37 Eversource crews throughout town working Um, they'll continue working overnight, not all 37 crews, but there will be crews working through the night. And our new estimated time for restoration is 400 p.m. Friday.
Um, that's townwide. That's not um specific to each individual residents. Many of those residents will be um back online before 4 p.m. Friday. Um, that's kind of a global restoration time for the town. Um, I don't want to speak uh for for
Director FY, but DPW um has done a great job getting the roads cleared. Um there's I know they're still working on clearing some roads that have been blocked by uh debris, broken utility poles and power lines. We're working together to uh solve those issues as
they arise, get wires cleared so they can get to the the the areas of town that they haven't been able to get to yet. Um I know that they're planning on clearing Main Street tonight. Um, so they're asking folks not to park along main M main street if they're using the downtown area to use some of the lots
off of Main Street. Um, some emerging issues that we're tracking from the emergency operations center um is the continued cold weather and obviously the extended power outage uh duration power outage. Um we're tracking um that we're still clearing some some trees and debris in some of the remote areas which
are blocking emergency access and we're tracking um some fuel shortages around the Cape um at our local gas stations. Um many gas stations don't have power. The pumps aren't working because of that and the few uh gas stations that do have
power have run out of fuel because of such high demand. Um I know locally our Crumbland Farms is taking a delivery tonight. Um, so that's that's going to be uh welcome. I know a lot of folks are struggling to find fuel out there. Um, the last message I have is for any folks
that need to get to shelter. Um, please don't wait until it's, you know, you absolutely can't handle it anymore. If you're feeling, you know, uncomfortable or unsafe right now, don't wait till the middle of the night. It's easier for us to deal with you now and help you get to where you need to be, um, and where we
can keep you safe. Um there's transportation options from the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority uh by calling 508 385 1430 and using option two. That um
transportation option is available from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. And you can also call the Chattam Emergency Operations Center at 508-945-5191. And of course, if you uh feel unsafe in your home or you're experiencing any sort of emergency whatsoever, please
dial 911. Um as I mentioned, you know, our folks have been working around the clock to get people the help that they need. And we realize everybody's struggling out there. Um but we just ask that you continue to be patient. Um and that's all I got. If anybody has any brief questions, I don't want to take up
too much more time. >> Thank you very much, Chief. Uh I just had one question. I don't know if you mentioned this. How many customers in Chadam are currently without power? Do we have a number on that? I know there was >> um I know it's it's it was most recently
at 62%. Mark's refreshing it right now. >> 61%. So, >> and how many customers then? >> 5,000. >> About 5,000 out, which is about 61%. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. Any any questions for the chief? Well, thank you very much, uh, Chief
Devano and Deputy Director Heler and your entire team. Thanks. We thank the Department of Public Works and the police department, the fire department, and all the staff that have been working on on this um recovery from the storm
since uh since it started. Um, I also just want to thank um Mark Vanbour and um Brianna Fitzpatrick for coming in tonight. The town officers are closed, but we needed to have this meeting because we have under the bylaws
a a requirement to transmit the budget before March 1st. Uh otherwise, we probably would have canled this meeting. uh and they've made it possible for us to to conduct this meeting tonight in addition to u uh Kathy and Shauna from
our executive staff. So, are there any other public announcements or agenda item requests from the audience or anyone online? Steve Dbor. Hi everyone. Uh Steve Dbor, your uh parade committee chair. I'm not here to
talk about the parade route. Um but I am uh here to talk about something on a little bit lighter note and that is the theme for this year's parade. Um a little over a month ago we started soliciting s suggestions. We've got um somewhere between 50 and 60 uh
suggestions from the public. Some of them most of them were really very good. There's a lot of clever people in town. Um but we had to pick one and um uh we tried to pick something that could translate easily into the floats into
the costumes that people would be use wearing and and um using in the parade. So the theme that uh we that the um committee chose was submitted by
Jennifer Patterson of West Chattam and um her submission is anchored in freedom timeless tides and traditions and her reasoning for that was to celebrate the 250th anniversary of
Americans uh independence while honoring the coastal heritage enduring values and community tr uh traditions that define Chadam. From the founding of our nation to the generations of fishermen, families, veterans, and volunteers,
this theme reflects how Chadam remains firmly anchored in freedom, guided by timeless tides and traditions that continue to shape our town today. So, um um as the winner of this uh of our
choice, she's going to be a judge on the um reviewing stand on Cross Street. And um things are progressing well with the with the rest of the committee. Um probably in uh two or three weeks, we'll start soliciting names for or
nominations for the grand marshall and then start um opening up applications for the uh participants in the parade. Thank you. Thank you for giving us a little bit of summer. >> Okay. And then you know this all this information will be uh probably in the paper tomorrow. Good.
>> And then throughout our social media so people will will know that they can start getting prepared. >> Great. Thank you Steve. Thanks to your committee. >> Next we have a public hearing. Um >> Mr. Chair, you have Ela Gibbs. >> Um Ela Gibbs, I'm sorry.
>> Uh yes. Thank you. Uh this is I guess for an agenda item request. uh in here hearing the update on where we stand with this storm uh based on the kinds of calls and the number of calls uh that the fire department has gotten. I think
that speaks volumes about the dangers of people staying in their homes or having to call for assistance to be taken out of town to some other place uh when the temperatures get cold like that. I mean, the idea that there were calls on
people, you know, out of control wood in the fireplace or carbon monoxide, uh, somebody's really going to get hurt. We've known about this storm for a long time now. And if this is not an indication where you could declare a
local state of emergency and safe and once again for the hundth time, simply keep the doors unlocked at the community center so that people can come over for a few hours and stay warm and charge their phones. They don't have to be there all night. You're not going to
vandalize the place. We have public buildings that all have generators and and people are in their homes in the tw what century are we in? 21st 22nd century. Our elderly population, people with little kids and they're afraid, so
afraid they have to call for help or maybe call a number so they can be driven down to another town for two or three days. That's unacceptable. And I'm I'm really tired of saying it. You could do that. more hilly declared it a state of emergency and we all had to stay off
the roads. You can do the same thing and simply unlock the door, have us sign waiverss that we won't sue the town. We're not going to vandalize it, but it's our building. And I think of people, they're scared to death in their homes and they're not going to ask for help. One number that wasn't given is
how many did actually use the number go over to the police station or the fire station. And I bet not many people do it because they don't want to. They think they're stronger than that and then they wait until it's too late and someone's going to get seriously hurt or die. Uh
so we got to do a debriefing because we're getting more snow again. And this probably isn't over. And and we we've got to come to terms with this. Uh there are people we don't we don't we don't need to be monitored. We just
simply need a place to go. Thank you. >> Well, I'm taking that as a request for for what? Because we've discussed this multiple times, Elaine. I know you disagree with the board's nonacceptance of what you'd like to do,
but what is your what is your specific request? Do you want to have a debriefing of this story? >> Well, I I I guess I'm asking the select board, how bad does it have to get? How many horror stories do you have to hear before you say this is unacceptable? We should not be waiting to see whether or
not shelters will open up. They don't do you know when you call them they only answer their phones Monday through Friday and because the storm was on the weekend I called the committee that makes the decisions. I called all the numbers that are on the website for the
shelter for Barsville County Shelter and you couldn't even leave a message. They said, "Call on Monday." I I mean, or give a donation to the Red Cross. I mean, it's absurd. You know, we live in a really vulnerable
place in Chattam's wars because we're the end of the line. And and I I I don't know what it's going to take. Is it going to take somebody to die before you decide that you have the authority to say unlock the door at the community center so people can come there of their
own valition with they can probably drive that far. They don't want to get in a car on a highway in a blizzard to go to another town with strangers. They simply want a place to go to stay warm. You can get hypothermia in two hours in
a house without heat. >> Okay? >> And that's really dangerous. and you're supposed to go to the hospital. They can't get to the hospital. All they want to do is get warm and we've got little kids. >> Elaine, I I appreciate your your concern about this, but you know, I just really
want to focus on this being the public announcement or agenda item request portion of the meeting and trying to understand specifically your request. I think I do. Stuart, did you want to say something? >> Sure. Thank you, Dean. Um so I think it's not that I shouldn't start by I
think it is uh very standard for uh agencies uh the military and um u organizations like the town to have a u a post analysis of the things that went
right in a storm as as we're talking about right this second um could be another issue but right now it's a storm. the things that went right, the things that went wrong and what we need to do to improve our response because we can always make improvements. Um well I
used to do it in my old life and uh doesn't have to it can be formal informal in this particular case I would suggest that it would be a an agenda item where we uh uh got got that sort of input and you know we can kind of move on from there. The the shelter issue we
did discuss I lost that vote. Um, that's fine. But maybe uh maybe lessons learned. We Okay. >> We want to hear that. >> All right. So, I'll take that as an agenda item request. Um, I don't want to put words in Miss Gibbs' mouth, but I think she's asking for the same thing.
So, an agenda item request from Mr. Smith as well as Miss Gibbs to um have a post analysis of the response to this storm once we get once we get through the storm. >> Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Not quite over. And you know the response um you heard from
the fire chief uh you know the operational response um you know those those responses they go well we have good people that respond to these storm we really do I lived it it's you know people chip in it's the pre-planning and
the decision-m beforehand that we I think would be helpful to go over >> okay thank you very much >> thanks >> any others yes um great is that who's that on the screen >> it's Mark Heler our deputy the director of emergency management. >> Yeah, it's just us us in the EOC. I just
um seeking clarification on uh you know what specifically that the I mean we always conduct an afteraction report over something like this. >> Yeah, >> usually >> I think what we're what we're going to do at at some point once um this storm is over um and I don't know don't know
whether we'll do it immediately or we'll do it whenever we can fit it in. We will have a as the select board conduct an analysis of the response to the storm by the town and that I'm I'm just phrasing it generically
and you your group will your team will do your own analysis and that can be inputed into the discussion that we have at the select board. Yeah, I mean some things, you know, chief um like any afteraction, some things went well, some
things may not have went well, but there may be an opportunity for the board to on things that may not have gone as as we liked or planned. Uh that, you know, we may have to apply resources toward those types of issues and we just need to know about that.
>> Okay. All right. Is that >> understood? I just wanted Sorry, I was just uh just trying to clarify if You were just looking for my afteraction report or if you folks were the whole town. >> We're gonna we'll we'll entertain a discussion among the select board
members and from the public about the town's response to the storm and your your analysis can certainly be part of that discussion and conversation. That's all. >> I'm not looking for anything not looking for anything special from from your
group. >> Okay. >> Got it. >> All right. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay. Um, so now we're going to have a public hearing. Um, the applicant has requested that um this be moved to the 3rd of March because of of the
inavvailability of council for this evening, but we have to open the hearing and then we'll take a vote to continue it. So, I'm going to ask um um board member Davis to read the public hearing announcement. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Notice is hereby given that the Chattam Select Board will
hold a public hearing on Tuesday, February 24th, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. in the large meeting room at the town office annex 261 George Ryder Road Chattam and remotely via Microsoft Teams platform to consider an application to the change to
to change the doing business as of Uncle Tony's LLC from DBA Knots Landing Bar and Grill to DBA TK's Sports Bar for the business located at 1077 Main Street Cadam. All interested parties are
encouraged to particip participate. Sign the select board. >> Thank you. Should I have a motion to continue this to March 3rd, 2026? >> Motion to continue. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. I'll call the role. Uh, Miss Davis. >> I. >> Mr. Dykins. >> I.
>> Mr. Meadows. >> I. >> Mr. Smith. >> I. >> The chair votes size. So, continued to March 3rd. There is no consent agenda for tonight. Um, is are there any public comments on the business agenda
for those who wish to make public comment at the present time? Seeing none, we'll go into the business agenda. First item is to consider reissuing the 2026 annual entertainment license to Uncle Tony's LLC. This is
dependent on the public hearing matter that we just uh continued because um the name there is a name change involved. So, this item will be deferred until um March 3rd as well. Um next is consider a special one-day
alcohol license St. Patrick's Day dinner on March 14th, 2026 at Holy Redeemer Church Hall, 57 Highland Avenue, Cadam. Is anyone here from the church? Hi, >> welcome. >> Hi, good evening. My name is Ron Weiser.
I'm a president of the parish council at Holy Redeemer and chairperson for our annual St. Patrick's Day dinner. >> Okay. I think we have a memo in the file. Is there any questions? You did one last year, right? >> We did. Yes.
>> Anyone um have any questions or wish to offer a motion? >> Mr. Chair. >> Mr. Chair. Uh, I move to grant a special one-day alcohol license to Ron Wishar >> Wiser >> um of Holy Redeemer Church for the sale
of wine and malt beverages only on March 14th, 2026 from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at 57 Highland Avenue, Chattam. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. Call the role. Miss Davis. >> I.
>> Mr. Dykins. >> I. >> Mr. Matters. >> Hi. >> Mr. Smith. >> I. Chair votes eye, you have it. Good luck. Have a good time. >> Thank you very much. >> Um, next, uh, we have, um, se several requests for Monoy Community Services.
First is a special one-day alcohol license bingo bash on March 21, 2026 at Three Fins Coffee Roasters, 251 Coral Road, Chatam. Is Teresa Milan online? There. There you Oh. Uh, yes, Teresa.
>> Hi. How are you? Good. Thank you. Welcome. >> Thank you. Um we're putting together a new event and we're asking for um permission to continue an old event. Um we're doing the airport uh music event
again this year on July 3rd. Uh the airport has approved it. um basically a copy of last year, possibly a few less food vendors, which the vendors who are the vendors will probably be happy because they'll get a little bit more business. So, um other than that, we're
keeping everything the same. Uh we had about 340 something people there last year, so it continues to grow and the airport seems pretty okay with it. So, uh we would like to continue. Do you want me to do them separately or do you want to do
them together? >> Well, you've spoken to both of them. So, I just wanted to mention that the second one is listed on the agenda is the use of town property, permission to possess and consume alcohol in town property, special one-day alcohol license, special one-day entertainment license back to
summer 2026 on July 3rd, 2026 at Chattam Municipal Airport, 240 George Ryder Road. Are there any questions uh from the chair from the board? Um uh I I just saw uh on the application
on facility use there are some there are several questions that are just um answered yes. Um will the goods be sold or raffled? Will electricity be water be water be required? You're supposed to circle will
any temporary structures be erected and again a signage being requested. So that should just be completed I guess Kathy or Shauna or whoever wants to handle that. I just mentioned that for the record. Are there any questions substantively or does someone want to
offer? There are two motions being recommended. >> Shireen. >> Sure. I move um I move to grant a special one-day alcohol license for all alcohol beverages to Teresa Malone of Monway Community Services for a bingo
fundraiser on March 21st, 2026 from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at 251 Croll Road, Cadam. Do you want to do them together? >> No, let's do them separately. >> Is there a second on that? >> Second. >> It's moved and seconded. Any conversation discussion? No.
>> Okay. Call the RO. Miss Davis. Hi. >> Mr. Dykins. I >> Mr. Matters. >> Hi, >> Mr. Smith. >> I chair votes. I >> next second one. I move to grant permission to use town property, permission for the pos um possession and consumption of alcohol on town property,
a special one-day aled one-day alcohol license for all alcohol beverages to Theresa Malone for July 3rd, 2026 from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. and a special 1-day entertainment permit for July 3rd, 2026 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Chattam
Municipal Airport at 2:40 George Ryder Road, Chattam. >> Is there a second? Second. >> Moved and seconded. Call the role. Miss Davis. Hi. >> Mr. Dikkins. >> I. >> Mr. Matters. >> Hi. >> Mr. Smith. >> Hi. >> Chair votes. I five to zero. You have
them both, Teresa. Thank you. Good luck. >> Thank you. >> Um, next is to consider two committee appointments. The first is for the historical commission. Uh, we interviewed u Mora Cook and Peter Donovan. There is one alternate position
available. Um, I have personally had conversation with Mr. Donovan as well as the chair of the commission. Um, Maric Cook had submitted her name, had been recruited for the commission previously. So, I'm suggesting that we might appoint
Mara Cook this evening and Peter Donovan would be considered for an appointment um when the second alternate position is um vacant which is highly likely um in on um July 1 because one of the
incumbents is likely to step down has has indicated that she wants to step down. >> Is that a motion? >> So, no no just a recommendation. >> Just want to tell you what what Okay. what what's going on. So, I I I personally would like to see both these people on the commission. I think the chair wouldn't as well.
>> Um so, if there's a motion to appoint one of them, I would suggest it be more Cook. >> Well, I'm going to um suggest that or I'm going to make a motion to approve Peter Donovan um for the alternate member of the
historic commission through June 30th, 2026, unless sooner revoked or successor is appointed. >> Is there a second to that? I will second that. >> Okay. Are there any other nominations? What happened here is that the my
understanding is that the commission through its chair reached out or to to one person and then the second individual submitted on his own which is great too. Um Are there any other nominations? I didn't that was moved in nominated and
seconded >> discussion. >> Sure. >> Just for I mean the term the term is actually coming up in a couple months. >> That's right. It's a very short term. >> If either party were pres presented they would have to seek reappointment in a couple months anyway. Yes.
>> I think the message that at least I'm hoping the message that I'm going to where I'm voting with is whoever is not put in now uh would hopefully step forward in June for a consideration for the next seat. >> We I think we could
>> if available if available. >> I think we could legally vote both of them in one of them contingent on there being a vacancy in the alternate position which is going to happen. There's a long-standing member of the commission who wishes to complete
her term and step down in in June. We could do that, I think. But anyway, uh we have one nomination on the I haven't heard any others. And if that being the case, I'll And I'm not going to offer a motion.
Did you want to >> Well, it sounds like uh uh Corey had a a way forward. I'm I'm happy to nominate Mora Cook. Um because I think they're both very wellqualified uh if we're going to have a somebody step down uh
June 30. Um we could make her uh her appointment effective June 30 or July 1. >> 71. >> 71. Yeah. Yeah, we make it 71. >> So you're you're proposing that that Mara Cook be you're nominating Mora Cook
conditionally on there being a vacancy on July 1. >> Yeah. >> And is there a second to that? >> Second. >> It's moved and seconded. Okay. All right. So effectively we have two two different motions before us. So we'll take them in the order they was
offered. C >> can we Cy? >> I don't want to over overanalyze this. Um, I think both candidates we want on the committee. Um, I just I find it unusual that we preempt and go ahead and
um, put someone on when we don't have an official resignation or someone's declaring that they want to step down because people can change their minds or want to stay. And I I I think that would put us in a sticky situation if there was a change of heart. I know there's some speculation and some comm
communications that have happened, but I I we we I don't recall us ever doing this before. Um so I'm a little reluctant to say not break tradition, but um to get you know if I think the message, at least the message for me is
whichever candidate is not put in tonight that they would like to be considered in a couple months and I'd be more than happy to entertain that. Uh, no, I'm not taking favorites on either one of them, but I think I think we we've kind of had a process in place. I'd rather appoint one person tonight and, you know, move forward from there.
>> I suggest that the second nomination be withdrawn >> and the second and we just vote on Mr. Donovan's nomination. >> Yeah, that's fine. That's fine. We'll we'll see you see you in a few months. >> You with that's fine with me as well. I second it.
>> Okay. All right. So, I'm gonna I'm gonna call the role on on the nomination by Miss Davis, seconded by I think Mr. Mes or Peter Donovan. >> Miss Davis, >> I miss Mr. Dykins. >> I >> Mr. Meadows. >> Hi,
>> Mr. Smith. >> Hi. >> The chair votes. So, Mr. Donovan is is appointed and we will keep Miss Cook's application on on file for the likely opening
in uh on July 1. Okay. Next is an appointment to the South Coastal Harbor Plan Committee and we have Mr. Salter who was interviewed. He is the only applicant. This is a full member vacancy. Is there a nominate? Is
there a motion? >> Uh, Mr. Chair, I move to appoint Robert Salter as a member of the South Coastal Harbor Plan Committee until June 30, 2028, unless soon revoked or his successor is appointed. >> Is there a second? >> Second.
>> Okay. I'll call the role. Miss Davis. >> I. >> Mr. Dykins. >> I. >> Mr. Meadows. >> I. >> Mr. Smith. >> I. >> And the chair votes I. So, he is appointed. Next, we have the uh budget reviews for the schools districts. Um
I'm going to take the um Monoy Regional School District out of order and have them go first because uh this Superintendent Carpenter has um a time constraint. And so I'll call on Carrie.
Do you introduce this or or do I just call the school officials? And >> uh Thank you, Mr. chair. Um I was just informed the numbers have actually just changed slightly from what I have in the report. Um but I have um
>> this is from Monoy here. >> What? >> For Monoy. >> For Monamoy. Yeah. >> So the numbers changed just slightly. Um in the report it states that has an operating assessment of um 11,893,165
with uh that was a 86,558 reduction representing a 6.9% over FY2026 but um I believe it's changed again. >> Okay. >> Um >> but um Michael McMillan is here, the business manager for the Monoy School
and Dr. Scott Carpenter. >> And I'll note Thank you. And I'll note also the presence of of Dr. Milan. Yes. Who is the superintendent designate? >> Yes. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Carpenter. Mike Michael. >> Uh thank you for having us here tonight.
Um, just to uh to start off and put this budget into context, this is a what I would call a reduced staff but level service budget. Uh, it's it's a budget where we, you know, we're right sizing
the number of staffing we have. uh uh like many of the school districts across the Cape uh we keep losing young families uh in our communities and are gradually losing enrollment and you'll see a slide in the presentation that
really looks at how the enrollment has declined over the last few years and really where it's heading heading looking out. Um I also uh it's also a very challenging budget and I'll kind of get you know get to that uh that piece.
Um when uh when I first uh uh came here and we were doing our first budget uh for Monoy Regional uh and I know definitely that uh Dean was around at the time, Jeff Dykens and you know and one of the things that you would have heard me that first year really
emphasizing is that you know that we really had these three priorities that we were looking at you know make sure that we were improving the academic program uh make sure that we were expanding opportunities for our students and making sure that we we put together
a budget that you know that was less expensive than if either of the towns tried to go and do the you know do the same thing on their own. Um, and one of the other things that was, you know, was clearly obvious from me for me after
going around and meeting with the various families in both Harwitch and Chadam is that, you know, there were a lot of, you know, there was so many of our students who were choosing to go to schools elsewhere, you know, choosing to go to schools in other school districts, choosing to go to charter schools. And
you know, I really saw that, you know, one of the things we really wanted to do ultimately was was sort of shift what I would call just sort of pride in our greater community in the local schools. And I think that's one of the things that we've had a lot of success with. So
um you know, so I just want to kind of talk about some of those early years and talk about some of the successes we've had. You know, so when the district was coming together, uh, a consultant, Mark Abrams was brought in and the Haritch, the Cadam Harwitch planning board, uh, was looking, you know, was looking at
what the savings could be. uh you know, he went and looked at, you know, sort of the, you know, what draft assessments would, you know, would look like and and really came up with this notion that there there could be about $3 million of savings in terms of if we uh you know,
if we were to fully regionalize and I do think that we saw a lot of those savings uh take place. um in his uh in his uh initial report um I just circled uh you know just some of
the enrollment pieces that were that were happening back then so you know so that report was uh was back in 2010 um and the enrollment split at the time was a 28% Chadam 72% Harwitch
um and one of the other things that was that was interesting and sort of lost I I think in time is just that there were so many more children from Harwitch that had been choicing over to Chattam public schools and so few relatively speaking
from Chadam that were choicing over to Haritch. So that there was you know there was almost a almost a hundred you know student delta between you know between the school choice. So I'll talk about each of those numbers here in a second. You know, first if we if we look at that
foundation enrollment, you know, foundation enrollment is a really important number when it comes to the assessments that Michael gets to, you know, because foundation enrollment is the largest driver when we determine what's that minimum required contribution. So when the state says,
okay, Chadam as a town, what you know, how much money should you be contributing towards the budget, Harage, how much should you be contributing? So it's that minimum uh local contribution comes off the top end but one of the big drivers there is number the foundation
number then at the you know then that foundation number comes back in because what's left over after the minimum required contribution gets largely split based on that foundation enrollment and that has been slowly but surely shifting
uh from you know from uh from Chadam towards Haritch um much more though since co you know so since co sort of the brakes came off and that that shift towards Harwitch has been has been a lot greater um for the next
slide um when we look at the uh what happened with the foundation enrollment and I I'd say uh the Abrams report was really good but but I for whatever reason uh it wasn't really played out in terms of recognizing the fiscal impact
of regionalizations and the and the savings that Chadam would actually see. Uh because at the time uh prior to regionalization, Chadam was spending about $17,000 per student educating them. Uh but through school choice, it was only getting $5,000 plus any
incremental costs for um you know for uh students with special needs. Uh so in essence, Chattam was subsidizing the education for those children by the tune of about $1.1 million back in, you know, back prior to rel
regionalization in 2010. Um, so, uh, when, when Michael and I were at, uh, the Haritch Select board a few months ago, uh, their FINCOM had, uh, had a slide, you know, on, you know,
talking about, you know, sort of their why. And, and one of the things that they were looking at is the cost per student. Um what I had spoke with when we were at the fincom last week I I was like I just want to share for me I
actually think this is a slide of something that's successful and something we should be celebrating because uh they were looking at you know this five town average of Barnesville born fmouth mash bean sandwich and said hey you know this is what the education
the cost increases have been from 2008 to 2023 and they were 36.7% on average across that five town average, but our two towns have seen significantly less. And and of course, you know, Harwitch one emphasized that
Chadam's number is significantly less than uh than than Harwitch's number. Um but but I point you I pointed out to them that this you know the way that they were looking at this didn't take into account that shift of kids that was
you know happening when the school choice kids um were put back on Haritch's sort of financial ranks uh instead of uh Chadam subsidizing those. So, we also looked at this and just said, "Hey, why don't we look from
Plymouth to Province Town?" And if you look from Plymouth to Province Town, it's the same. You're really seeing that same story. The yellow bar is that five town average. The orange bar is the this these are change in per pupil spending, but the orange bar is uh the Plymouth,
the province town average. So you know so that the costs had gone up on average using again these were this is per people's spending that desi publishes uh the prior slide had a had a way that
they were looking at it in FY20 $10 I think but uh uh but then uh on this bar you see Chadam's uh you know Chadam's at 72.2 2 uh or sorry 70.3 uh
har which is at 77.2 which is even just slightly less than the the state you know the state average what you also see if you look at all the different communities that regionalized is that regional regionalized systems actually
saw less cost increase in that time frame from 2008 to to 2023. you know, again, regionalization has been good for both towns. Um and then I just sort of played with the
uh you know played with the initial graft and said okay if we were to go put the costs that you know that that you know all those children that were here um and if they were on you know if they were on uh the Haritch roster to begin
with um you actually would have seen that uh that Haritch's spending would have gone up significantly less than uh than uh uh than Chadam's you know Chadam spending during that time. Um because
when we were and you know there were so many kids that were heading out of Harwitch prior to us coming together as a district really about one in five children from Haritch were choicing somewhere else. Chadam was losing kids too. But you know, but you know, we were looking and it's like, hey, one of the
things we want to do is try to get the families to stay with us. And that really has been the great success story of Monoy, you know. So before we came together as a school district, we were losing as the two towns, Harwitch and Chadam, uh, Haritch had lost was losing
36 children to charter schools. Chadam was losing six children to charter schools. And when you lose a child to charter school, they're taking with them the full per pupil. Today at 2026, Haritch is losing 36 kids to charter
school. Chadam, four kids. And you might sit there and say, well, the numbers haven't changed so much. True. But what has changed is the landscape of charters between those two times. Uh in 2010, uh Lighthouse Charter School was in
Orleans. uh lighthouse charter these days is in East Haritch. Uh NSET doubled its enrollment from 425 you know prior to you know prior to 2010
to uh uh to today you know 850 students. So the number of the number of charter seats has greatly expanded on the on the Cape, but our numbers in terms of lost lost to charter have really not not
changed. We've been able to keep the kids here as opposed to lose them the charters and that's kept I think the next one really looks at how much money that has kept here in the system. So DY today is losing each year uh and last
time that the state published it was for 2024 but is losing 136 kids a year to charter. NSA 121 kids to charter monoy 39 kids and the difference in that is you know when you're losing well over a
100 kids to charter it's $3 million heading out the door. uh you know for us it's it's you know it's significantly less and part of that is having families see our district as the place to send their you know to send their children.
You know it's not just lost to other school districts to charter schools it's also lost to other school districts. So prior to regionalization, you know, uh we you see the number of kids that were heading out the door from Haritch to
other school districts, including over 100 to Chattam public schools. Uh Cadam 76 kids heading to other school districts. So 330 kids. Today that number's dropped to only 71 kids heading out to other school districts. So, we've
we've seen that number drop from 16% of the foundation enrollment to only 4% of the foundation enrollment. And those children are going out at $5,000 a piece. But you can go and put a financial cost to that. in terms of the
number of children that are heading that used to be heading out to uh the number of children that are heading out today, it's you know it's really the difference of you know almost 1.3 million dollars of funding staying you know staying locally here. So I you know I share
those things as we you know there'll be you know sort of a slide here on the punchline we have is it's a challenging fiscal year for Haritch and uh you know my concern is that you know that if we
have to back into a Harwitch number you know do we create a situation where families don't continue to see Monomaly as the place to send their child and my you know my worry is, you know, that if we ever if you know, if we are in a situation where we're putting forth the
budget that uh that impacts educational programs or opportunities for children or creates anxiety for families, there is that potential of loss. And I think one of the successes we've have over the last 13 years is really keeping the families with us and uh you know, and
we'd hate to see that change. So, I'll turn things over to Michael. Can I just >> ask has this have have those slides been shown in Haritch to the Haritch select board? >> So we were finance committee last week with them and shared you know and shared
them uh there there was some thoughtful comments you know afterwards. >> So so we were we were basically subsidizing Harish for $1.1 million a year. If you if you look at how school choice was operating and I know Jeff is
you know Jeff and I have talked about this. >> I know he wants to say something. I I I made a comment when the finance committee came before us last week that I I I I find it somewhat puzzling that Haritch wants to reopen I know we're not
this is a budget presentation but I think it's re relative relevant to it. Haritch wants to reopen the formula, but currently about 77% of the students are coming from Haritch that are in the monoay
district and Haritch is paying about under the formula, Haritch is paying 74% of the costs of running the system. So I I find it puzzling when they say that that's unfair. And I'm not asking you for a response, but I I just wanted
to state that. Jeff, you you had some this was very um a very informative uh series of slides. I appreciate them, Miss Jeff. >> Yeah, I was just going to say to to Scott that those were the those were the best four or five slides that you've
shown in my career here. It really your slides kind of change the context of how we should be thinking about regionalization and what the success of of Monoy has been. And I like your cautionary tale as well, but you really emphasize what how how Monoy has
succeeded very artfully. I love the comparison to surrounding towns and to a regional average. Um it really those the numbers prove that financially it's actually been a win for both towns. >> And your your point about school choice, and you and I have had this discussion a number of times, but your point about
school choice is is spot on. We had 120 or so kids from Harage coming to Chattam. They rounded out our our our classrooms. they made us a more you know vibrant school school system if you will but when they went back to Haritch's side of the ledger that that impacted Haritch negatively from a financial side
as well the one point I also want to reemphasize in these these conversations about monoy that Haritch was under sanction for a new high school and our partners partnership came together because we realized that we we're going to need more kids in the future we're doing weren't doing well by our kids in
terms of programming athletic academ ademic, etc. arts. Um, but they were under sanction to have a new high school and we really helped them out by coming together with them, saved them. >> You've frozen. >> Yeah. I mean, I I I I think it's it's
benefited both, you know, both towns and the, you know, children and families of both towns, you know, tremendously. And and I you know I I I share this on the front side because I think there's a lot to celebrate about you know what we were you know what we have accomplished. Um I
I think this >> connection connectivity >> the whole of it. >> Sorry >> we've lost everything. >> The team's connectivity. >> Okay. So do we want to >> let's
Yeah. They're on teams. I can send that. Oh, did you >> do Can we restore it or do we should we take a pause? >> Let's take a five minute break and um we'll come back.
>> Okay, I just s you up again. Trust I can hear you guys. >> I can't see them either, Jeff. I can see him now. Ela, I can see him now. >> Okay, we are back. We are back. We are back. The technical difficulty has been
corrected. So, Jeff, you were just completing a thought when uh system went down. You're muted for some reason. >> No, no, I'm not. I'm not here. I'm not muted here. >> We're fine now. Can you hear me? We're fine now. >> Okay. All right. I was just I was commending Scott on the first four or
five slides there or all all the slides are the best slides that I've seen him present um in a long long time. They were really clear. It really proved kind of financially that both Haritch and Chadam, you know, have been advantaged by regionalizing. I love the comparisons with with the neighboring towns in the
region. I think it's very important. His point about school choice is extremely well made. We had 120 or so students from Haritch in the Cadam system. They went back on Har's side of the letter ledger when we when we regionalize and saved Chattam quite quite a bit of dough. Um, but the the region's a
success because we've also increased opportunities for all our students and I think families are recognizing that and they're sticking with us, not school choicing out to either charter schools or other other schools. Um, I also want I also made the point I don't know if you heard me that what gets lost in these conversations about funding
formulas etc. was that at the genesis of our region, you know, Haritch was under sanctioned to build a new high school. They were literally under sanctioned by Desi and with our participation, they saved tens of millions of dollars. So, Haritch has has really plus they have a
huge beautiful asset in the middle on Oak Street. That's a gorgeous campus. So, come on. I mean, um, let's get on with it. Uh, I know they they they they feel as though they're getting they're they're disadvantaged, but there are arguments to be made on both sid side of the ledger and I do not want the budget
held in in in as hostage to any of this stuff either. So anyway, more to come. But I did want to commend Scott. Scott, those were really good. They changed the context on the conversation, which is really what we need need to have done. Thank you. Yeah, and I'll just add that I think the slides uh proved uh the
third or fourth item on your first slide when you talked about pride in the district. Uh the numbers prove it and um just I I because I I know you yourself may have to leave. Um I think um I I I
was on FinCom when you first came to the district and in the 13 or so years that you've been superintendent. Um, I know this is your last bud budget presentation to us. You've done an amazing job. >> Yeah. >> In stewarding uh this district and you
should be commended for it. And >> and we still have Latin, Dean. Okay. >> We still have Latin. Yes. That was what I asked you 13 years ago. >> Yeah. And we have Yeah, we have lacrosse and so many other cool things. It's great. Really, it's been great. >> And and uh so we we wish you well uh if
we don't see you before >> Oh, thank you. >> your final day. Thank you. Okay. Uh, any other questions or comments from board members? Shireen, >> I just wanted to commend Dr. Carpenter for his career, too. We really thank you for your service to the town and I agree
the the um framing what you did this this afternoon really, you know, it's enlightening and I feel like we're all doing what we can for our kids. And I know there's a lot of cost drivers that are rising the temperature of the budget and whatnot. And I always think about
how wonderful um how much pride you see in in some of the kids that are going to school uh at at Monamoy. It's you know it's it's been fabulous to watch. So thank you very much >> Corey. No is going to say thank you for the presentation and I mean Monoy is a
wonderful facility. Um you know I have four boys. Two have already graduated. Third them are three is graduating this this year. Um, and you know, the youngest the youngest will be a couple years down the road. So, it's a great asset we have. They have great programs.
They have great faculty. I mean, some of these teachers are wonderful there. The kids really bond well with them. Uh, it's a it's a great asset. So, you guys should be very happy with what we built. >> Okay. Thank you. Okay. Michael, are you
going to take it on? Or Dr. Dr. Miller Millan? >> I I think how do you want to handle this? We'll just share one quick slide. Um so so uh the cautionary tale that I was uh you know that I was uh presenting uh this is sort of on the back end of
the presentation but we'll just jump to the we'll pull this up and Michael will fill in the middle. Um uh the Harwitch uh at at the uh January 12th um uh select board meeting in Haritch, the
interim town manager was presenting his recommendations for uh for budget increases and on the town side and school side it was a 4.7% so a 4.7% assessment increase. So if we
were to back into a 4.7% and I want to keep I want to also you know I know Shireen mentioned you know that there's costs are going up both town side and on the school side. Um and you know it's it's something that we you
know we need to you know we need to deal with and address but we also keep in mind that this is a reduced staff budget. Michael will kind of talk about that when he goes through the numbers. So, it's reduced staff level service to back into a 4.7% assessment increase. It
would leave a shortfall uh of you know, roughly $1.2 million. Um, you know, and again, the concern I have is I can work a lot of miracles, but but uh but to to cut$1.2 2 million
out of a school's budget and not go impact programs to the point, you know, where, you know, where when I say this is reduced staff level service, you know, there's I I would have to, you
know, impact services in some way, shape, or form. And you know, I've been working with Robin and Michael on a strategy on how do you get there if we have to get there. Um, but you know, but my, you know, my hope is that we can
find, you know, some way to at the end of the day meet in the middle or you know, somewhere with uh, you know, with the select board in Harwitch. But we've talked about, you know, do we reorganize the administration central office? You know, do we look at our reserves and use
more, you know, more of the reserves? Um, you know, do we look at when Michael does his part of the presentation, he'll talk about these these sort of wish lists that the that the principles had from their, you know, from the budget uh
or sorry, the uh budget workshop that we had earlier this year. Um, and you know, do we say, "Okay, we're just not going to fund those or do we take some, you know, some capital items and say we're not going to fund them this year." But, you know, but all of that just kicks
cost into another. I mean, it's just kicking the can you kicking the can down the road. So I I you know I am concerned that it's a there's a big shortfall there to uh you know to go and close and uh and that's you know and I think when
the when the Haritch Fincom heard that relative to the first part of the presentation I think I think there was pause there in terms of okay you know we don't want to go you know be in a situation where we're having to chase money and get families back and and
rebuild the pride. Let's keep, you know, let's keep it where we are and elevate from there. Not you not see us go backwards. >> Okay. >> All yours, Michael. >> All right. >> I'll have Robin come up and do color commentary. >> Okay. >> Thank you. So, so then now this is the
next few slides going to be squarely focused on this year's budget. So right now the current draft of the budget which was approved by school committee a couple of weeks ago and is new is an increase of just over 6% of the budget and this is slightly different from the
one that we presented to the Chattam Fincom because that was before the school committee meeting. So the one we voted we presented way to the fincom was the January vote and it has come down since then. The biggest change since then is that the health insurance
numbers came out. So we had included you know 15% and uh we were very nervous about that and actually the number came in lower than a 15% it's at 8%. So just where that puts us in you know context of all our increases since this
the regional district was formed. I mean I think this just recognizes that we are in a difficult fiscal position regardless of the regional agreement over than I think we recognize even for Chattam a 6% increase in our budget and more on your regional assessment is significant and it is significant
historically and I think it's a reflection on a whole bunch of items that we're seeing and these are the main uh these are some these are not all the factors driving up the budget but we see significant pressure on our budget uh we
have the biggest ones are really these two in the middle are staffing. That's just a uh regular uh steps and lane increases, but it even and that is lower than it might otherwise be because it does assume some savings from uh uh turnover
and some reductions in positions and then we do see a significant increase in our health insurance. I mean, we were worried about 15%, but 8% is still a big increase in a big number. And actually, the year-on-year increase for us is a lot is more than 8% because our
retirement pool is still growing because we're a relatively young organization. The number of people we have who are retiree staff who are withdrawing on health insurance is still increasing. And so that's uh adding to our increase utilities, our gas and electricity costs
consider continue to increase significantly. And we do have some construction projects and other budget requests which are impacting the budget. Offsetting those budget requests though we do have some staffing reductions. So
these reductions are driven by reduction in enrollment. So that's why when the superintendent says we're maintaining level service, we are able still to maintain that level service but reduce staffing because we have fewer students. So you know we can provide the same level of service with fewer staff. you.
So it's the schools are on the left hand side here. So it's Haritch Elementary School, Chattam Elementary School, Monoy Regional Middle School and Monoy Regional High School and these are the change in FTE and the financial impact which includes an allowance for health insurance and we have unit A which is
our teaching salaries and unit B where teacher assistance and clerical assistance. We're making some reductions there. So we do see particularly in the earlier grades our prek program is smaller at Haritch Elementary School the special education program and we just
see fewer classes per grade and that's helping us reduce all the schools. It is offset as I said we do have some increases where some of those reductions are because we're changing slightly how we're doing things. For example at the high school which I'll go into some more
detail on shortly. One of the positions that we have included as an addition is offset by an increase in a grant which I'll also mention shortly. But so this is just you know we are reducing so we are trying to reduce our costs as we reduce enrollment and really I think
these reductions are kind of the impact of you know several years of falling enrollment. So this chart here shows our enrollment by school. So it has in blue is Chattam Elementary School and orange is Haritch, gray is middle school and
yellow is the high school and it has up until FY26 and then after that is our projections. So you can see we you know since really FY20 I mean well you saw that drop from FY20 to 21 it was kind of level and then FY23 we started to see a decline again
and FY26 we saw a kind of notable drop in enrollment and you know projecting that forward we expect enrollment to continue to go down and that's really driven and the first few years those are students we know about so if you look at enrollment at
the high school and the middle school in these forecasts. Those are made up of students who are in the elementary schools right now. So, they're relatively certain. We do make some uh allowance for students changing or leaving or coming in. That's reflected in these numbers, but you can see so for
example, the high school right now is at 700 and we expect it by FY31 to be down to 576. So, that's significant impact on the a the environment of the school and that will impact our staffing needs over the years to come.
So I just want So these are the budget requests that are included. I won't go into detail on all of these. We are looking to add an instructional assistant for the props prek program. That's the prek program that's run at Chattam Elementary School. We just have one I think instructional assistant at the moment and that's quite not quite
enough for a prek program when there's so many toilet breaks. So uh we also have additional material requests for Haritch Elementary School and Chattam Elementary School and also some equipment uh for the middle school. We are looking at introducing a innovation
career pathway program at the high school and that would be what would be funded by the grant if we get it. And we have a really really successful internship program at the high school. We have lots of students going out to uh
local businesses as interns and that program requires it's got one teacher managing it right now and there's a lot of placements and requires a lot of administration and so this budget includes a halftime admin support position. And then also at the high school, one of
the reductions is a math position. Really just changing it from a classroom teacher to math interventionist to provide a a directed support for students in grade nine. So those are the quests and those are offset by those reductions as well. We do have some, you
know, we continue uh to try and improve our buildings and our environment for our students and we have a number of projects which we would like to continue to pursue next year. We're continuing carpet replacement at Chattam in the middle school. Our
network uh we have you know we rely heavily on our internet in all areas of a our operations and we our network switches which are critical part of maintaining that infrastructure are well past their useful life and are time to be replaced and that cost would be
offset by federal funding and then another a number a number of other projects which will continue to pursue including a number driven by safety the lighting at the middle and high school and the auditorium stage curtain at the middle school. And we are
hoping to start an a sort of rolling project to replace furniture because really at the middle school and Chattam Elementary School and then even at Harbitch Elementary School really that furniture is well past its useful life and needs to be replaced. But rather
than have one huge project which keeps getting kicked down the road, we wanted to start with a sort of rolling uh replacement cycle so we can get that moving. So that would be the first step in that process. All right. I know I'm throwing a lot of information at you. So if you have any
questions, let me know. So just to give you >> I'm sorry. Can could you go back to that slide right in the middle? The >> Haritch Elementary School replace the aging rooftop unit for >> So is that a district expense or is that assigned to Haritch? >> No. So that's just assigned to Haritch.
>> Okay. >> So yeah. So in the Chattam Elementary School CL carpet flooring replacement is just a in the town of Chattam assessment. >> Thank you. >> So then just this is kind of big picture on some of where we're seeing some of the increases. So this breaks the
district down the district budget down by the major accounts which is a categorization we get from the state. And then it shows you what the FY26 budget is and then the FY27 budget and then the the change somewhat counterintuitively. The greener the
number is, that's the higher the increase and the redder is a is a decrease. So the biggest one you see is benefits and fixed charges. So that's health insurance is a big part of that, but it does also include retiree benefits. you know, we our pension
retirement costs through the Barnstable County Retirement Association and those have gone up uh somewhat significantly as well. Uh the other ones, so we see other teaching services which does include uh some medical therapeutic
services. We've seen an increase in some of those costs. I think also includes a substitutes and a couple other items. So, we're just seeing an increase in a number of areas. uh operations and maintenance continues to go up although that is partly those projects that I
outlined in outlined above and also gas and electricity costs >> my yes >> on the other teaching services >> yes >> that's a required sort of is that required yeah so if you have uh children
who have specific needs >> it's required by the by us to uh fund that >> yeah so that's where we have you know students have their individual education plans special education needs and those might include occupational therapist services, uh physical therapy services, then we
have to provide those in order for them to be able to access their education and those costs are reflected in there. There is also they're also somewhat hidden in here. There's a a we use we have a special education grant which in the past we've used for instructional assistance within the other teaching
services, but this year we have it in the programs with other school districts. So that's somewhat making it look like other teaching services gone up when it's just impacting the the general fund has gone up. It's just one of those nuances and how grants are treated that actually just on that
program with our school districts that includes our school choice. So that's those students going out to other school districts and that has gone down slightly as has our charter tuition which is in there. And then also when we have students who are going out to district placements for special education needs then they are also
included in that line and that is it has gone up but the money we get from the state has also gone up which has helped to offset that increase. So those are the kind of major ones I wanted to highlight. Uh we do have some of the things I highlighted earlier with
instructional materials are included. Uh and also a couple just one other thing is our pupil services. So that includes transportation. So we see every year we see an increase in our transportation costs. It also includes athletics and we do have a very vibrant well attended
athletics program and so we have coaches costs, transportation is also part of that and and equipment and you know uniforms and so on are also included. So that's and then just to compare I thought we I did this last year for the first time. It just compares that budget
breakdown by major account in FY27 to how it looked in FY16. So you can just get a sense of the kind of long-term trends that are reflected in this year's budget. So you what you will see as you compare those slides is so for example
here this benefits and fixed charges are 16% of the budget in FY16 and it's now up to 21% of our budget. So it's just when you know when we talk about health insurance squeezing out other this is actually happening it's in 11 years it's taken up 5% more of the budget. So other
you know the other thing other teaching services which we talked about special education needs. So those are increasing and the costs of providing those you know including instructional assistance. So many of students in individualized education plans require us to provide them with an instructional assistant or
a portion of one that's driving our costs. Debt and retirement service has actually gone down as we've paid off portion of the high school debt. Programs with other districts that's that school choice issue. And then we have seen a slightly reduction in teachers and that is due to that enrollment because you know teach
classroom teachers are the a that group that are most closely linked to just this pure number of students you have and we have seen a drop in the percentage of the budget. Of course it's also just that they're being crowded out by benefits and fixed charges.
So that's sort of expenditure. Uh the next this slide is part about how we fund part of the budget. So the way the regional agreement works some of our revenue I really mostly grant revenue is applied before you see that budget
figure. So that 6% reflects these offsetting budgets offsetting grants and so what this is this chart shows you the grants are listed in the table. Sorry, my date was listed below and uh um the
amount that was that has been used to offset the budget is listed and then it's shown in the chart. So you can see we are relying on a larger portion of a larger amount of grants to offset this budget than we have in the last five years and that is driven by an increase
in our the amount of school choice funds we're using has gone up well that's went up over the last couple of years. We also have an increase in our circuit breaker. That's what I mentioned. That's the money we receive from the state to help offset our special education costs. -ate, which is a federal program to
provide money for technology, has finally come back online. And so we had just dwindled that down over the last few years and we've got another chunk of that to spend. So those are sort of driving our increases. All right. So that's kind of the budget side of things. So the next couple of
slides are the assessment. Uh so the way the assessment calculation works it's really the our budget is broken down into four portions. The operating budget or debt that's paying off the high school and soon to be the middle school
project transportation and capital and a operating budget is assessed based on the minimum local contribution a number set by the state and based on a foundation enrollment. Then the district budget and then the elementary school
budgets and those are determined by the minimum contribution is set by the state. The district budget is based on the foundation enrollment of grade 5 to grade 12. Elementary school budgets are just assessed each town directly. And then foundation enrollment sets determines the debt share and the
capital share and district enrollment determines the transportation share. And then revenue is a reduces the total operating budget. And just to show you this, you have a sense of how we put together the assessment. Since the since we changed the regional agreement, it's
got way more complicated. It used to be a little simpler. But so then the impact of all of you know those figures is this draft assessment. So the punch line at the bottom is probably what you're looking at is uh and in the
bottom right hand corner is $774,000 increase in Chattam's assessment which is just shy of 7%. So that's a little, you know, that's a little lower than it was when we presented it to the finance committee, but you know, it's obviously still a a large number. And Chattam Ah
Haritch's number has gone up a little more, you know, not significantly more, but that's, you know, 7 almost 7.7%. And these are really driven by increases in the, you know, to be honest, it's really in the operating budget where
we're seeing those increases the most. And I we did highlight down here the middle school project as that's a new project and that's just starting to come online. And so this will be the very first year that we have to pay on the debt for that project and it's just you
know the very first payment. We don't know exactly what that will be because we the project's not completed yet. And so this just shows how uh the assessments have changed over the last few years. I think it's interesting that
since we made the you know so we made the since we made the change in the regional agreement which was in 2023 so you can see in 2023 sorry I should have said the the light blue box is Chattam's assessment the gray box is Haritch's
assessment the dark blue is state funding and the little yellow line in the middle is our use of excess and deficiency so since 2023 at that point there was an 11.6% 6% increase in Chattam's assessment and that was when you took over paying for the Chattam Elementary
School directly and I mean since then the the percentage increases have been much closer than they had in the past and particularly in the last couple of years in fact last year Chattams was higher than Har in percentage terms
and in the previous year and I just wanted to highlight one other thing which is excess and deficiency which is a little bit like true cash true no free CR free cash for the T. So the towns have free cash. So we have excess and deficiency and the only way we really use it is to offset the budget. So we
have offset the budget or really offset the assessments and we had increased it to a million dollars this year and we've reduced it to $800,000. So we are seeing our total excess and deficiency come down as we're spending it. And so we don't want to keep relying on
it so heavily because we don't want to create a cliff edge for ourselves where we have to reduce it all a lot all all at once. So we've reached at 200,000. But that does mean your assessments went up at you know part partly that and partly because of state funding didn't
go up all that much. That's why your assessments actually go up by a higher percentage than the actual budget percentage increase. You know one other thing this is my final slide actually which is this. So this shows the town of
Haritch's assessment and the town of Chattam's assessment. So the first years you just have each town's assessment. So FY20 budget FY21 FY22. Then in FY23 when we changed the assessment methodology I included what
the assessments would have been had we maintained the old methodology compared to what they actually are which is a new methodology. So if we if we look at the orange box is the Chattam's assessment using the old methodology to in 2027
that would have been 10.3 million. But this sort of brown dark gray brown box which is Chattam's assessment using new methodology is 11.9 million. So that's a significant increase of over $ 1.5 million between the two assessments as a
result of that uh change in the methodology. and that you know and cumulatively that's a significant impact on the town of Chattam and the town of Haritch and that brings me now if you can then
Scott would have presented this slide with as a cautionary warning >> so do any questions >> that second to last slide is is as telling as the first few slides that Scott presented earlier and >> I would hope that the at some point that
the the haritch select board gets to see that in addition I know you've already presented to the Haritch Fincom. >> I totally agree. I mean I would say so there are we have specific issues related to Monoy and the regional agreement but there are also just broader pressures that all districts up and down the state are facing you know
that cost and health insurance salaries you know everybody I talk to they're feeling this pinch on their budget both municipal and school district level as you know our costs are outstripping revenue. >> Any questions or comments from the board? Jeff, anything?
>> Well, no. I just appreciate uh Mike's efforts. He's he's very clear and and really really understands the agreements. U you know, our cost was spiked because we took over the elementary school, but that last slide that that slide I agree with you, Dean, that it's an excellent slide, series of
slides. Very well done. Are we are we moving anything tonight or >> not? Not on the budget because uh we're we're going to approve that um >> the school budget as we we're not taking a vote on the school budget, are we? >> Tonight. We're being asked to take a vote on the PEG
>> peg access in on the roof. >> Yeah. >> On the middle school. Is that When are we going to approve the school budgets? Next week. >> Let me look. >> We have a scorecard if Kathy can just pull it up. I mean, we could. >> So, Michael, do you think this is the
final budget that the school committee will vote? >> So, the school committee is scheduled to mo on the final draft of the budget on March 3rd. Uh, no, no, not March 3rd. March. >> So, I think that's why >> says March 12th. Says March 12th in the
back. >> Thank you. There you go. Thank you. Yeah. March 12th. >> It's on our agenda for March tentative agenda for March 10th to approve the two school district >> operating budgets and the assessment. >> So that's even still before the school committee is going to approve it.
>> Yeah. Yeah. >> Um I mean I think we can take a vote tonight if the board is comfortable. Why not? >> But if there's a change you'll have to come back. >> Yeah. >> I I think that's appropriate. >> I think it's before we close the war >> change. >> So you don't expect any change? No, I
said I think it's likely it will change. >> It is likely will change. >> I think. >> Okay, then we'll hold off then. So, >> we should. >> All right. We'll we'll take it up again on the 10th and see where we're at. >> Um Okay. I I know you have we we have two items. Do you want to talk about
that and then >> um we'll take those out of order. The first is this is under the art separate articles review for us. um a vote to place and recommend for the first is the Monoy Regional's middle middle school roof Massachusetts school building
authority project budget and a debt vote. >> So you want to take that one up first? >> Yeah, sorry I don't have slides on these but I can speak to them. >> Yeah. So the the Monoy Regional Middle School as you know we have the siding project which is on the cusp of getting going uh in April which is very
exciting. So that's already been approved and it's our second phase of our restoration of the middle school building is to replace the roof. And so now that we're doing the siding, it's even more critical that we get the roof. With all this snow has really uh brought home for us how important it is that we fix that roof because we've got water
coming in in multiple locations now. Uh so we have applied to the Massachusetts School Building Authority and they've approved our project. So they will be reimbursing this project to the tune of a little over $3 million and the rest of the cost will be borne by the two towns through the assessment methodology. It's
a district cost so it's a assessed to the towns using the a foundation enrollment. Uh that project you know so it's a you know this is a long way to go. So the project is approved at town meeting will then go out to you know for
procure we'll finish design go out to procurement. It's unlikely to begin until next summer and then you know the debt payment wouldn't be until the following year. So you're not looking until FY28 is the earliest it would have the first debt payment. The purpose of this article is really just to get your
approval for the town for the district to be allowed to go and borrow that debt. >> Yes. So, we have a we have a draft article that and we've done this before um that asks the town of Chadam to approve um the incurrence of debt in the
amount of 11,81,239. uh in the draft motion um I did call this to your attention Jill on the there's a paragraph at the end that says within seven days from the date on which this vote is adopted the secretary of the district is hereby instructed to notify the
select board in Chadam and the select board in Haritch as to the amount and general purposes of the debt here and authorized um but that's really not part of our article >> no so it's the article it's a section that starts with further so I think that
I just look at your memo. If if your memo is providing that notification if the school committee has voted on it. >> Yes. >> Then the it would be on the upcoming warrant. It's not a separate new special town meeting for it. It's within the timeline. I guess we want to be compliant. Okay.
>> So, because there's a what a 60-day period that is Yeah. >> I just want to make sure we're voting the right thing tonight. That's all. So, >> do you have my email?
>> See how it says? Oops. >> Yeah. So, that's So, this memo is the memo that went to the uh the committee. So, this is the me this is the motion that would have to be approved by the town. >> But you're saying we don't have to have
>> Oh, you don't have to have that section, though. >> No. Okay. So, we can take that out. This is the one that we want. I think there was two different ones on here. >> That's not my computer. >> It's right here. >> So, there's that's the one the town vote the school voted on to notify the towns
and then by actual wording for the town. This is the wording for the towns. So, I'm looking at the page that says article XX at the top, >> and I'm suggesting that >> the article that we're being asked to place and recommend consists only of the
the two large paragraphs and not the paragraph that includes the word further. >> CXX, >> is that correct? Yeah, that looks right. Well, this is not No, I don't I think this is not this is the right wording.
>> Okay, we'll fix it. >> So, what what are we doing? >> Yeah. Are we just deleting that paragraph that starts with further or is there >> No, because this is the >> the second paragraph refers to the the acknowledgement by >> the motion is on the second page of um
Michael McMillan's uh >> memo >> memo >> the third page >> third page where it starts from um article >> and then um and then it has a motion the
town is hereby approves the 11. Okay, that's the So that's what the article we're going to be asked to place. >> Mhm. >> Yes. >> Now, I had a question about that because Chadam is not unlike CH I don't think the select board is going to do what Haritch is doing. Haritch is going to go
have this as an exclusion. I think a debt exclusion, right? So I'm looking at the italicized >> words in the proviso at the bottom of the motion which says provided that the approval of the district's borrowing by this vote shall
be subject to and contingent upon an affirmative vote of the town to exempt exalocable share of the amounts required for the payment of interest and principle and said borrowing from the limitations on taxes imposed by MGL59 section 21C Proposition 2 and a half that's going to
>> that can be removed if >> yeah that's going to ch to Haritch's >> ballot we're we're just going to um include um we'll reflect our share in the assessment when it comes to us when you begin the borrowing.
>> So um just to clarify for the board so it's this um third third page in >> it's fourth page in actually it's this it's the it's attached to um Mr. Mr. McMillan's memo to the regional school committee
and it says forms of school district member town meeting article in motion >> and so we would delete the italicized language and I'll entertain a motion to place this article on the warrant for upcoming annual town meeting. >> So moved. >> Is there a second?
>> Second. >> Second. >> Okay. It's moved and seconded. Any discussion on placement? >> If not, I'll take a vote. Um, Miss Davis, >> hi. >> Mr. Meadows, >> hi. >> Um, Mr. Dykins, >> hi. >> Mr. Smith, >> I.
>> And it sure votes. I Is there a motion to recommend? >> So moved. >> And is there a second? >> Second. >> Moved and seconded to recommend. I'll call the mo the role on. Ms. Davis. >> I. >> Mr. Dykins. >> I. >> Mr. Matters.
>> Hi. >> Mr. Smith. >> I. >> And the chair votes I. Okay. So, the roof is taken care of. Now the next is the Monoy Regional School District PEG access and cable related funds. >> So this is a request for the district to have access to the PEG cable access
funds in order to help fund the TV studio at the high school. >> Okay. >> So So this is um uh the article in draft form is the very last page on this packet. Um we've done this sort of thing before, have we not, Michael?
>> Yes. So we do it periodically. We try and like to try and get onto a more routine basis. So we I have had the the channel TV channel manager come up with a equipment replacement schedule and so we included some of the detail in that. So we're going to try and do this every year. So it's not
>> the fiscal sporadic fiscal note is $14,274. Is there a motion to place? >> So move to place. >> Second. >> Moved and seconded to place. So call the role. Miss Davis. I >> Mr. Dykins. >> I. >> Mr. Matters. >> Hi. Mr. Smith >> I. >> The chair votes I. Is there a motion to
recommend? >> Move to recommend. >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. I'll call the role. Miss Davis. >> I. >> Mr. Dykins. >> I. >> Mr. Meadows. >> I. >> Mr. Smith. >> I. >> And the chair votes. I. Okay. I think we're done with Mon. Thank you very much. >> Thank you very much.
>> Thank you, Dr. Carpenter. Thank you, Dr. Mill. And thank you, Mr. McMillan. Okay. And now we'll go back to the presentation on budget for FY2027 by Cape Cod Regional Technical High School. And who is presenting that tonight? >> That will be Erin Orcut.
>> Okay. Um, wonderful. Thank you um to the committee for letting me present remotely. I still have not seen a actual plow come down my street. Um, I am the town of Sandwich. So, um, I appreciate
the ability to present remotely to you. And I believe Carrie is going to assist me. >> Yes, I'm here. >> And thank you for letting us do monoay first. >> Okay. >> Absolutely. >> Please proceed. >> Carrie, could you present
>> it? The slides are up. Um, do you want me >> Can you see them? >> Nope. Thank you. Oh, I can see them now. And I appreciate or um I hope there's no technology issues here on my part. Um again, thank you for the opportunity to present on behalf of the Cape Cod Tech
uh district. Um this budget that we're bringing before you um is in consultation with our finance subcommittee uh led by Dr. um I'm sorry, Mr. Tulio, Dr. Mishu, and Mary Rose
Grady of MASHBY. So the um budget that I'm presenting to you is for FY27 is ultimately driven by a enrollment count of 703 students for FY27. As you
can see this indicates one student less in Chattam but overall an increase of 22 students. And as you can see the largest student increase is the town of Yarmath with 31 students. But again, Chadam, we
saw a one student decrease of um from 20 to from 20 to 19 students in this enrollment year. >> Next slide. >> Do you attribute that significant increase in anything in particular? That's a large increase for that one.
>> Um no, just honestly, just demand um and student applications for this past year. uh nothing significantly driving it just um possibly a increase in stu student um school age student enrollment.
>> Okay. >> Again this is the same figure that I presented um previously but broken out in a percentage chart. Again noting that between the towns of Yarmouth and Barnstable that comprises over 50% of
our overall overall budget enrollment. Next slide. Um I just wanted to uh point out to the committees um in the towns that we were presenting in that our budget is li uh largely driven by increase in student
enrollment. As you can see, we started with a very low in FY19 of 570 and right now uh we have a a peak enrollment um for this data set of 73 students.
Again, um this is just a really broken out uh average of our overall enrollment by town. We have 12 sending towns that send students uh to Cape Cod Tech with Chadam being about 2.7% overall of this
year's enrollment uh with 19 students uh approximately really uh just level funded or level um enrolled uh over the past few years. Overall, I'm presenting to you a budget
increase of 4.51%. Um, this is slightly decreased over the uh presentation that I gave last week to the finance committee. Um, the increase over the FY26 uh operating budget is approximately
833,000. um the budget I presented previously, we were able to decrease um our allocation for health insurance um as Monmoy did as well uh because of the favorable
outcomes of the increase from we had originally predicted 15% and now we are at 8 8% for health insurance. Next slide. So where does our money come from? Uh
clearly over 80% of our funding comes from our towns in the um in the uh avenue of regional assessments. Uh state aid makes up roughly less than 20% with our local
revenue um making up a very small percent in this year's budget 120,000. And that is largely uh that is largely comprised of facility rental and
interest revenue for the district. Otherwise because of the state formula as you can see the assessments largely fall on the towns. Next slide. Um again just a numerical
representation of our $19,300,000 budget. uh looking at a state aid uh approximate uh contribution of 4.2 million, regional assessments at 14.9 million, and local
revenue um at $120,000. Um again, just a overall snapshot of what our operating budget, which is the lines in blue versus our assessments in green. and our state aid in uh that dark
maroon. And you can barely see unfortunately the local revenue uh representing the cost drivers or the revenue sources of the overall operating budget. Again, just a very quick snapshot of our
FY27 proposed budget versus our FY26 budget. um really not a lot of substantial changes. Our salaries decreased slightly um and really that was due to captured savings from retiring employees um and
estimated uh replacement costs for those employees and a reduction of one FTE. Otherwise, we um see a lot of level spending for our benefits, um utility
clo costs, insurance, and building improvement. Next slide, please. Again, um this is a uh breakout overall of where we spend our money to educate our students at Cape Cod Tech. Um clearly the teacher
salaries comprising 34.2% 2% is a major cost driver, but obviously insurance benefits for those employees and retirement benefits uh complement uh almost 50% of our budget. Um and then we
again being a regional school district um have um significant costs that are unique um and maybe school budgets don't see or traditional school budgets don't see such as retirey benefits and um just
general insurance con costs for the school building. Um again this is the same um depiction just in a numerical snapshot of what the budget uh goes towards
funding. Again you'll see that teacher salaries are about 34% um support services at 10.4% 4% that's really for educating our special education students and plant operations
at 9.9% just keeping our building going. Uh we appreciate the um the support that we've had in building our new building and we hope to um facilitate its functioning
well into the future with a long-term capital plan um which we which we plan to present over the next few years. Again, just a quick cost category history. Um really what our budgets
comprised of um relatively stable with the exception of benefits increasing about 8.49% and our overall building insurance uh increasing about 7.8%.
And again, um, having a very strong, uh, commitment to, um, infusing the budget with the capital needed to keep our, um, our school and our plant operating. Just again very quick um allocation that
shows you that in the FY27 budget um almost 79% goes towards the salaries and benefits of our teachers um leaving about uh 20% for all other material
services capital and other expenditures. The capital debt number um overall for the entire district is uh 5,384,325 for the um fiscal year of FY27 with the fixed principal um of 3,485,000
and the declining interest this year being 1,899,325. What that means for Chadam um for a capital assessment is a capital assessment for the FY27 of $145,522 and that would be added to the Cadam
operating assessment which has been revised slightly lower and is at $414,791. Ultimately, this leads to a complete assessment for the FY27 of $560,313. Lastly, I do want to um highlight our um
efforts towards the OPE Trust uh and funding our Gazsby um audit liability. Um, currently we are about 78 uh I'm sorry, we're currently at about 18% funding to liability with a proposed
spending for FY27 at $225,000 um and a very healthy rever reserve balance of 3,566,992. Um again this is a major liability that we have on our hands and we are very
happy um with the progress that we've made towards funding that liability. >> So the in the bottom line that the the which is cut off a little bit the number 18% should be recognized. >> Yes sir.
>> Okay. >> Yes sir. >> Thank you. >> Well very good. Um, appreciate the presentation. Uh, I don't know if there are any questions from other board members. I just wanted to ask one. I have asked it in the past. Do
how does I don't um I think we did last year get a distribution of the um of the programs in which the students are enrolled from Chadam by by by category. you know, how many
are in the cosmetic program, how many are in the um marine program and the auto auto body repair program and the plumbing program and so forth. Could we get that information at some point? >> Absolutely. I can assure you that we'd probably get that um information early
next week to you. >> Sure. >> Um unfortunately, we are a um or fortunately uh for the region, we are an emergency shelter, so we will be operating remotely at least through next week. Yeah, there's no rush on that. And what is the process by which a student
is uh enrolled in a particular discipline? Do does the student have absolute choice if someone wants to become a plumber or or is there a process by which they have to apply and be approved? How does it work? >> I would say it's a combination of the
two. Um our students all participate in a exploratory program that brings them from their first day of their freshman year um typically through um midFebruary um where they visit a variety of shops
um and they are graded in their areas based on their um their preparedness, their attendance and their willingness to participate. Ultimately that goes into a scoring rubric where the students elect their um top shops and based upon
the their participation and their grades in in that exploratory process they are afforded the opportunity of their first, second, third or fourth shop. Um so really if our students are attentive, they come prepared for class, they are
dressed appropriately, um they have the maximum opportunity of um achieving the the shop that they choose. >> Okay, any questions from board members? Um, I just wanted to make the general
comment that at least at the high school level, I know in terms of our elementary school and our middle school, we have older buildings that we're working with, but at the high school level, uh, the the the students in Chattam are really
fortunate. We have two superb facilities, Monoy Regional District School, um, High School and and the Cape Tech School. The these are state-of-the-art facilities. Um I know this I know the tech tech is a little newer but uh we're very very fortunate
to have that. So we're not going to take any vote tonight because we don't really even have a draft article. I don't think >> we don't and then the school committee will vote it on February 26. >> So we'll we'll take these up on March 10th. Uh see where we're at on both of them. But thank you very much for the presentation, Erin. Appreciate it.
>> And >> thank you. Just a point of clarification. And unfortunately because of the um large uh capacity of our school district, we will not be holding our meeting tomorrow on um February 26th to vote. We are still awaiting a um a
date to reschedule. Um but we do expect the school committee to vote in affirmative. We just don't have a rescheduled date for that meeting as of yet. >> Sure. Well, thank you very much. >> Thank you very much. I appreciate it. >> Good evening. Um proceeding on uh the
next item are the community preservation article recommendations. We have the chair Gary Tennyson who's going to present them. Um there are a number of them. I'm going to suggest Gary that you I assume you wanted to talk about each one separately. Some of them are more
routine. Some of them most of them are new. Uh, I would suggest that um that the that the select board take the votes on each one as they're being presented. And I wanted to say two things. I went back and checked the statute um chapter
um 44B section 5. So, the community preservation um recommendations have to go to town meeting, but because it's our warrant, I still think we should take a vote to place them on our warrant, but they have to go to town
meeting in any event, and then we'll consider a vote to recommend on each one, too. So, Gary, the floor is yours. I know your committee has worked very hard on these. >> Okay. Thank you, and good evening. Uh, as Dean indicated, I'm Gary Tennyson, the chair of the Chattam Community Preservation Committee.
Uh this year we received 13 applications. Uh we felt that all 13 were worthy of support. Uh however uh they total the total request was about 3.3 million. Uh the total we had
available with uh uh new uh revenues and reserve revenues was only about 2.6 million. Uh so we knew we were going to have to um either not approve some or reduce some. And what we wound up doing
was uh finding a way to reduce the amount for three of them and uh still being able to uh support all 13. So uh I'll just go down this uh list on the table here. Um the largest one, the
first one is to the affordable housing trust fund. As I think most of you know, the CPA has been the primary source of support for the affordable housing trust fund. Uh we've pro over the last several years we've provided I think about an
average of $500,000 a year. Uh the request this year was 750 uh,000. Uh previously uh most of the CPA funds have been kind of general support to the trust so that uh they had money
they could move quickly on uh for a variety of activities usually purchasing land. This year their request to us was focused specifically on the stepping stones uh road project uh which is going
to be uh fairly costly uh to the town. uh and we agreed with that uh that focus and uh have earmarked uh the $750,000 uh specifically for the affordable
housing portion of the uh stepping house stones um housing project. >> Did Did you want to I mean you have that chart. Um you have some other items that are more administrative. Um I was just looking at the packet that we have which breaks them down. Do you want um do you
have more to say on each one? We can we can take these from your chart and and take votes I think one by one. >> Why don't we do that in the interest of efficiency? >> The admin one and um the 10% reserve is on the bottom of this chart. >> Okay. Well, let's let's start since you
did the stepping stones, why don't we start with that one? You've made the presentation. Uh so uh that is on well the pages aren't numbered but um can find it pretty easily I think. Yeah. Unfortunately I don't think the
table's in the same order as your as your packet. Um which one is the seven? >> It's the third one listed in the packet. >> This one here. affordable housing trust fund.
>> Yes, that's sort of all right. It's the third one listed. It's on the um third page of the packet. >> The third you see it says community preservation act affordable housing trust fund. >> Y
>> this is 750,000. This would this would go to the to uh funding the the affordable housing units that are being proposed as I understand it on that stepping stones um that we approved last
last week or so. So is there a motion to place this on the art on the warrant? This was $750,000. >> Motion to place. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. Uh any discussion, questions? If not, I'll take a vote.
Miss Dikkins, I'm sorry, Miss Davis. >> Okay. I >> Mr. Dikkins, >> I. >> Mr. Matters, >> I. >> Mr. Smith, >> I. >> And the chair votes I. Okay. So, that's if we look at our agenda, it's number
three. So, is there a motion to recommend? >> Vote to recommend. >> Motion to motion to recommend. >> Moved and seconded. I'll call the role. Miss Miss Davis. >> I. >> Mr. Dykins. >> I. Mr. Matters. >> Hi, >> Mr. Smith. >> I
>> and the chair votes I. Okay. >> All right. Your next one is the assistance resource center. >> Yeah. The assistance resource center is an application that came to us from the housing uh assistance corporation. Uh they're joining forces with Catholic
Charities and Duffy Health uh to create a new uh homeless shelter in Hyannis. Um, the Housing Assistance Corporation received ARPA funding to basically buy out the the building where they had
their offices and they're going to convert those offices into the homeless shelter. Um, it'll move from the the current St. Joseph shelter that the Catholic Charity runs uh to this new uh
facility. Catholic Charities will continue to manage it. Uh, and Duffy Health will also have a a uh facility there to provide health services. >> Okay. Is there um any questions or comments? If not, I'll entertain a
motion to place. >> Mot move to place, Mr. Chairman. >> And and this is on the very next page of the one after the one we just saw. This is for uh $100,000. It's been moved and seconded to place. I'll call the role. Miss Davis. >> A second.
>> Oh, there's no second. I'll second. It's been moved and seconded. Thank you, Kathy. Um, call the role. Miss Davis, >> I. >> Mr. Dykins, >> resoundingly I. >> Mr. Meadows, >> I. >> Mr. Smith, >> I. >> And the chair votes side. Is there a motion to recommend?
>> Move to recommend, Mr. Chairman. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. I'll call the role. Miss Davis. >> I. >> Mr. Dykins. >> I. >> Mr. Matters. Hi. >> Mr. Smith. >> I. >> And the chair votes I. >> Okay. Next is the lower cape housing initiative and that follows
on our packet as well. >> Yes. That the hoving or the lower cape housing institute uh provides uh advice and services to the housing uh units within each of the towns in the lower
and the outer uh Cape. This is more or less a a dues. Uh this is a two-year grant uh providing $10,000 each year. All of the towns in this region uh support the institute and um those
members of our committee who are either on the housing trust or the housing authority say that uh we get our money's worth uh in assistance from this institute and so we're recommending that >> and they train they train town officials. They do some I think
>> good program. >> Okay. Um is >> motion to place >> and this is for 10 thou 20 20,000 >> for 20,000 >> said 10 right >> yeah it's 20 >> second >> moved and seconded uh I'll call the role Miss Davis >> I
>> Mr. Dikkins >> I >> Mr. Meadows >> I >> and the um Mr. Smith >> I >> and the chair votes I. >> Okay. Um is there a motion to recommend? >> Motion to recommend and I recommend that
every select board member um take these classes. >> Okay. Thank you. And it's moved and seconded. I'll call the role. Miss Davis >> I. >> Mr. Dykins >> I. >> Mr. Matters. Hi. >> Mr. Smith. >> I. >> The chair votes I. >> Thank you. Next is the U. And this
follows in sequence in the packet. Zero meeting house road affordable housing. >> Okay. The next two actually come from Penrose and therefore the two affordable housing projects that Chadam has underway. Um
these are uh two where we felt we could probably reduce the request. Uh Penrose requested 500,000 for each of those. Um, we felt we wanted to demonstrate that the town was committed to these projects, that there was strong local
support. Um, but we felt our funding was a very uh small portion of the total uh and that we could uh cut uh what they were requesting basically in in half. Uh we then debated h how we would divide
that up. uh and we felt since uh uh the uh Main Street project has uh moved much further along that we would recommend uh 400,000 for that and for zero meeting house road uh we were recommending uh
100,000 and one uh dollar the I can explain why the $1 is there if you want but uh >> I would like to know Um uh we took a we actually uh decided we should decide how
much to give to meeting house road first uh since there was u um a divided opinion in our committee uh concerning any support uh to the project on meetinghouse road. And so the motion was
made uh to provide $100,000 for Meeting House Road. And it was voted down uh six to three. Uh but it also became clear that of those six uh some
of our members thought that $100,000 was too much and some of our uh members thought $100,000 was too little. Uh so we uh moved on to Main Street and decided to provide $400,000 for Main
Street. Um and based on our decision that we were going to total a total of 500,000, we went back to considering 100,000 for uh meeting house road. Some of our members felt uncomfortable
undoing a vote that we had just made for $100,000. Uh and one of our members moved to make uh a motion for $100,01. Uh and that that wound up carrying uh
six to two to one, I believe, or one to two. Anyways, it carried uh not unanimously uh but it did carry and that's the reason for the $1. >> So, we're sort of taking these two uh together. We'll have separate votes on them. Uh did you have anything more to
say about either one of these? because I I do have a question and a comment. >> Um the finance committee actually uh questioned whether we could even make these uh grants uh to Penrose and so we
did ask town council for advice and um he said you know that this is routinely done uh with CPA funds and in fact we have in the past uh provided CPA funds for Penrose projects in in other towns.
Yeah, there is a there is a an opinion of town council. Uh it is essentially in conclusive form saying yes, she found no bar in the do in the land in the uh land disposition agreements that were approved by the select board to the
grants uh to um did Penrose explain why they needed these additional funds? Um yes, I mean the ar the argument that they made was that it significantly increases their um probability of approval at the
um state and and federal level. I guess it's the state that makes the decision on both the state funds and the federal funds. that those are competitive uh programs and if they can show that there's strong local and regional
support uh that enhances the uh probability that they they will be approved at the state level. >> Okay. So, they also are requesting funds from uh other towns for our projects. And um I'm pleased to say that Haritch
uh uh CPC voted to recommend 100,000 for for each of these projects. >> And Chattam has has contributed to projects in other towns. We have in Orleans. I did take a look at the LDA agreements. I I asked that they be included here. Uh and uh they're not
identical. There is a provision in the uh in the um LDA for for the um Main Street property. This is on page five of that particular agreement. It is paragraph D and it says this.
Um, the town shall also provide assistance and support to the designated developer in securing other financing financing such as grants, tax incentives, or other variable funds, for example, mass works to help offset any offset any infrastructure or community
benefit costs associated with the project. The town's assistance and support herein shall not include additional financial support. Um, I read that to mean that the towns aren't required to give
additional financial support. I understand that the RFPs which are incorporated into these LDA agreements apparently say I didn't go back and look at them, but apparently they say that the developer was going to ask for CPC
funds. But um I I look at that sentence in D as a contemplation on the part of the town that um we were not going to be required to provide anything further. So I I'm a
little skeptical about providing funds, but that's that's me. I'll throw it open for board discussion. This is substantial amount of money, but I if there's no discussion, we'll entertain a motion and we'll have public comment in a second. I see two people who want to speak >> and I I think that in that LDA that was
I don't think it was relevant to the CPA funding. I think it was like an additional funding on a from a different perspective that they would come back to the town and ask for more money if if if needed. >> Okay. >> That's how I that's how I interpreted it. And so um so I'm just going to make
the motion and then we can then the >> Yeah. Do you want to hear from the public first since we have two people? >> I think >> to place we we need to do that. >> Well, we we'll have to take a motion a vote to place and then a vote to recommend. Um but I I think I want to
hear from the public first. >> We had Brian, you were first and then Ela Gibbs is online and then Jeff wants to speak as well. >> We have Katie online to answer any questions. >> Oh, Katie is online, too. >> Brian Phillips, 374 Orleans Road. So, you brought up a good point. The LDA
says um we should not be providing any more financial assistance. Um along with that, I mean this is a for-profit corporation. I believe they're based out of Pennsylvania, although they have offices here. Um this project is getting done whether they get this money or not, you know, through uh federal and state
tax uh incentives. Um this money is just going to uh line the pockets of uh you know, their corporate profit margins. Um, Penrose made it clear on record that they will do uh what's best for their shareholders, not what's best for Chadam. This is in the ZBA meetings. Uh,
proponents for this project sold Chadam on that this was housing for teachers, police, and nurses. None of these people qualify. Uh, they make too much money. This project is too big uh for infrastructure. Uh, it's bad for the environment. This will cost uh Chadam
taxpayers uh for Penrose prof um for Penrose profit margins. Um, I mean, this is a huge project. This is 10 buildings between 30 and 32 feet tall on three acres, and the rest of it's paved. I mean, this is humongous. Um, the 110% AMI, uh, one-bedroom apartments are
$3,000 a month. That hardly seems affordable. It's like New York City prices. Um, there's not enough handicap access on this project. Uh, like for seniors who need to downsize. Um, we don't know who the investors are on this
project. Uh, Penrose won't release that. So, we don't even know who the investors are. Um, seems a little suspicious. This project can be sold uh this project can be sold like the one in Hyannas uh up by BJ's where I think the cost is around 90 million and they sold it for $300
million to Goldman Sachs. Um, this project if the owner defaults on the loan they can get rid of 75% of the affordable housing units. Um, Penrose is on record in Orleans. So, this is supposed to be for local people. Penrose is on record in Orleans in an Orleans
meeting saying they reject 90% of the local of the 70% local preference. So, like who's this project for? Where these people coming from? Um and then the most disturbing part of this whole uh thing is that uh the ZBay asked them to remove a building for better setbacks, you
know, better parking, uh a little more green space, and um Penrose essentially uh presented a you know, fraudulent financial document uh saying >> Brian, Brian, >> I I want you need to be careful. No, let
me let me say this. The project has been approved by the select board. The LDA appro was was approved by the select board and signed by the select board. It's been approved by the zoning board. Uh I really I don't think it's
appropriate to be making accusations about intent on the part of the developer. Um I let you continue because we're as being asked to support the expenditure of money a substantial
amount of money for the project. Uh but I think you should stay away from >> All right. So I I guess you know Zbeay was basically browbe into this if you watch the hearings and then the um so they basically put Okay, I'll be a little more >> just want you to wrap it up because you
get three minutes. they um put forth a document saying that it would be economically unfeasible to remove one building which would make the project aspects of the project better. Um and it's uh it's a very questionable document if anyone looks into it. Thank
you. >> Thank you. Um Ela Ela Gibbs, you you >> uh yes, thank you. I I would hope that you do reject these. Uh if you recall when you uh when the select board chose
Penrose uh the other uh properties that were the other biders were nonprofits and they provided real numbers that showed that they seemed to be too expensive and I remember uh Shell saying let's go with
Penrose because we don't have to give them any money. Well, I would suggest that if you start giving them money, that is in direct violation of this. And I think the nonprofits would have a very good case to come back and say you've made a substantive change in the RFPs by
giving them extra money, particularly since the document says we're not supposed to. Uh so, uh I would hope you reject it. They've gone around to very proudly to 15 or 20 towns asking for millions of dollars. They originally
were going to ask for a million each from us and then drop the number down. So, um uh I think it's totally inappropriate. I think uh the the nonprofits would have a really good case to say we've got to start over. New RFPs
go back to square one because they gave us their true numbers. We didn't know about this. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. I want to point out that the sentence that I read is not is in the Main Street agreement. It's for some reason it's not in the other agreement
for the meeting house property and and um uh Shireen did offer some explanation as to the meaning of that particular sentence. So Jeff, you had your hand up. I bring it back to the board. I don't see any more public comment being offered.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Dean. I find it uh a bit mind-numbing that we would call into question the support uh for our own project that is here in West Chadam that the ZBA has already approved um when we've supported projects in
Orleans and Brewster and perhaps I forget to be honest with you in years past that were uh for-profit um for-profit projects. So I I have Why would we not want to support our local project? Why would we not? I ask you why
not? It helps that them get tax credits. Perhaps already has. It strengthens the argument with them to to get their financing in which they're doing they're doing the deal. Um, you know, they're actually paying us for, you know, I just I don't every time we talk about this,
it's a big debate. And and and Mr. Phillips, you got to get your facts straight. I'm sorry. I I can't sit here and listen to the dribble anymore. Um, get over it. I mean, stop. this is going to happen and it's a good thing for our community.
>> We haven't got any kids in the schools. >> Okay. >> I mean, unbelievable. I'm sorry, but I just, you know, have we do we have a do we has this been moved to place yet? >> No. There's I'll I'll entertain a motion unless someone else on the board wants to say anything first. I do. >> Stuart,
>> we will have motions. >> I can go last if somebody else wants to speak. >> No, you were the first and then Corey, did you have anything you wanted to say? >> No, we have a place anyway. >> Yes, we'll do that. But Stuart, you wanted to speak first? >> Yeah, if I could. Um, you know, not surprisingly, I'm not going to support this. Um, I haven't supported either one
of these projects since since I was elected in May. Um, I I appreciate Mr. Dykin's comments, but the, you know, uh, from the from the previous votes, but uh, there was an election in May and some some of that has changed. So, I
just want to read the last sentence of the LDA. It says the town's assistance and support herein shall not include any additional financial support. Um it seems pretty clear to the to the to me.
Um and I won't be supporting this. >> Okay. I again I just wanted to point out that that that sentence which I read also is in the Main Street agreement. It's not in the other agreement for whatever reason. I didn't observe that when we signed that at the time. But okay. I I I think it should be pointed
out that there is inconsistency in that application and there's a whole section that's called assistance from the town. >> Yeah. >> In which they do indicate that they're going to request >> Do they say that in both both IRF piece? >> Yes. Okay.
>> And in in meeting house they say they're going to request 200,000. In Main Street they say they're going to request 500,000. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. And I you know my position isn't a surprise to to folks. um the um for-profit private corporation theme and
uh the town joining forces with that I have a philosophical problem with and uh I'm not going to support it. It's you know it's a point just when I'm finished >> just to point out >> when I'm finished. Okay. Uh to me this is corporate welfare at its best and we
don't know who those investors are. So uh we can get into this but we've beat it to death and that's where I'm at. Thank you. >> Yeah, I would just like to add that um these uh warrant articles will provide the
town with an opportunity to vote and it's probably the only opportunity the town is going to have to uh indicate what a majority of the folks in the town, at least the voting folks in the town, uh think about these two projects
that probably will go forward regardless of what we do with this CPA funding. Um but at least uh those who feel uh strongly one way or the other on this will have an opportunity to express
their opinion u at the town meeting. All we're doing is is making a recommendation. >> As I as I said at the outset your recommendations have to go to town meeting. Uh and I think the format for them to see the recommendations is the
warrant of the select board. Uh, so I will entertain a motion to place initially. >> Motion to place. >> Is there a second to place? >> Second. Second. >> It's been moved and seconded to place. Okay, I'll call the role on that. Miss Davis, >> I. >> Mr. Dykins,
>> I. >> Mr. Meadows, >> I. >> Mr. Smith, >> I. >> And the chair votes I. So, is there a motion direct? Oh, by the way, I'm sorry. I should have clarified. This is the motion on meeting house. That's the first one. And I better call that vote again because I
didn't say that initially. >> I thought it was implied when we had been talking about it. But >> okay, if there's no if it's if it's perfectly clear to the select board that we just voted on placing the meeting house one. Okay. Now I'll entertain a motion to recommend the
meeting house to town meeting. Is there a is there a motion? >> Motion to recommend. >> Is there a second? >> And a second. >> Moved and seconded. I'll call the role on that. Miss Davis. >> Hi. >> Mr. Dykins. >> I. >> Mr. Matters. >> No. >> Mr. Smith, >> no.
>> Chair votes. No. >> So, it's two to three on the recommendation on meeting house. Now, I'll call the role to I'll ask for a motion to place um the recommendation for the Buckley property, which is 400,000. >> Motion to place.
>> No, no, no. We just No. Did you just do 1533D? Yeah, this is 1533. I haven't we haven't devoted on that one yet. I'm This is a motion to place 1533 on there. Is there a second to that motion? Shireen's just moved to place that one.
>> I'm a little confused, but yes. >> Yeah. What we just voted what we just Okay, we just took two votes on meeting house. We voted to place it unanimously. >> We voted two to three to recommend it. So, now I'm going to ask So, now we just
uh had a motion that was seconded by you, Jeff, to place Main Street for 400,000. I'll call the role on that. Miss Davis, >> I. >> Mr. Dykins, >> I. >> Mr. Matters. >> I miss Mr. Smith. >> No.
>> And the chair votes no >> to please. >> Oh, to place. I'm sorry. >> This is a vote to place. Correct. >> You're right. Thank you, M. Thank you, Cy. So, it's chair votes I. So, there's four. Your your vote is no on on Main Street. >> Yeah, based on my argument >> to place. Okay. So, it's four to one to
place. Thank you for the correction, Corey. >> Vote to recommend. >> Moved and seconded to recommend. Is there a second? Second. Moved and seconded to second. Okay. Thank you. >> I'll call the role. Miss Davis. >> I. >> Mr. Dykins. >> I. >> Mr. Meadows? >> No.
>> Mr. Smith? >> No. >> And the chair votes no. Two to three. So it's um placed and recommended two two to three. Okay. We'll go on to the next item which is the historic
items on your on your report. Uh Gary. >> Okay. The first one on the in the table here is the restoration of the exterior of the historic Harbor Master uh building. Um this uh application uh came
to us from the town. Um and I think everybody agrees that the uh Harbor Master building is an historic asset in the town uh and that it needs uh restoration. Um uh Greg Burman and uh Jason Holm uh
came to us with a kind of a two-phase project. Um, evidently the stairs and the deck on this building are in serious need of repair uh for safety reasons. Uh, so they wanted to get that done
first and then uh look at the historic preservation of the uh of the exterior of the building. Uh we really can't support maintenance. Uh, and so we debated this with them and it turns out
that one of our committee members, Nancy Bar, who's on the historical commission, who wrote the book on historical buildings in in Chadam, uh, was able to work with them uh, to go back and actually get pictures of what the building looked like when it was first
built. It did have stairs. It did have a deck. uh they doesn't look like they didn't look like what the ones are are there today. Uh and so the compromise we came up with is that u uh they will start with uh a project to develop a
plan for the historic reserv uh restoration of the building which will include the stairs and the deck. And then uh as soon as they have that plan uh we'll immediately start working on the uh stairs and the deck in order to
address the safety issue. Uh that plan and the stairs and deck will cost 100,000. We expect that they'll come back to us uh next year uh probably with a quest for probably 200,000 to do the the rest of the restoration.
>> Shireen, you had a question or comment. >> I don't have a question. I have a comment about the building um having been a butter to that building for uh decades prior. I remember when it was Elton Kenny's boatyard and then it um and then it was a marina and then um the
town acquired it and at that time there was some renovations that were going to go forward and um I I recall that Ted Keon at that time was um working on the design and the setup of it and really came to us and said you you know what do
you think we're going to replicate the old building. So I think that's a historic content text for um for the town to know that um the town itself in its intent to to um replace the building did look at it from a historic
perspective at the beginning. >> Okay. >> So um >> very good. >> I'm going to uh motion to place. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Jeff, you wanted to speak to this. No, I was glad Sheree gave that historical context because I was scratching my head
thinking they were throwing good good money after bad here. Uh the building's you know in some I would say some unique disrepair but uh I thank you for that input. Uh Shireen and I'm going to vote to support. >> Okay. So it's it's been seconded moved and seconded to play call a role. Miss
Davis >> I >> Mr. Dykens I >> Mr. Matters. Hi >> Mr. Smith. >> I chair votes. Is there a motion to recommend? >> Motion to recommend. Second. >> Moved and seconded. I'll call the role. Miss Davis. >> Hi. >> Mr. Dikkins. >> I. >> Mr. Matters.
>> Hi. >> Mr. Smith. >> I. >> And the chair votes eye. Next is the Maronei Lattis Towers preservation and restoration structural repairs for $200,000. >> Right. This is one where again we're able to reduce what was being requested
at least in the short term. Um, in 2024, uh, the town approved a CPA grant of $284,000 to restore all three of the Maronei towers. Uh, by the time the town got the
bids in, uh, it turns out that a single tower is going to cost $221,000 to restore. Um I might add that there was considerable debate amongst our committee as to whether we needed one tower or two towers or three towers. Um
what we wound up uh deciding was to provide uh or recommend uh $200,000 which will allow them to um restore the second tower. Um the uh restoration of
the first tower is already beginning. Uh with what's left over from that original grant plus the 200,000, they'll be able to uh do the second tower. And we suspect they'll come back to us again for the third tower. And we'll debate at
that time whether or not we need two towers or three towers. >> Okay. Any questions? Or if not, I'll entertain a motion to place. >> I just had one question. Go ahead, Stuart. >> Um, and you may not be the right person to ask, but um, in the deliberations,
what's involved in restoring those towers? Is it just paint? I really don't know what the >> Well, there, as I understand it, uh, there's a lot of rust >> that first of all has to be taken off and then it isn't just paint. It's a it
is a special paint uh and a special process that uh really protects the protects the towers. We did ask the question um how long will that last? >> Yeah. Right. >> Um and uh they said at least 10 years >> like the water tower.
>> Uh yes. So, you know, in 10 years, if we um still feel this is a a very valuable historic asset for the for the town, they'll probably be back to uh CPA for for the funding at that time. >> Sure. >> That's a lot of money for 10 years. >> It is. And um um
>> I'm wondering and I I don't recall, but are it's historically registered. >> Yes, it's part of the historic National Historic District. So, aren't we semi-obligated to maintain those towers? I don't think it's as easy as if we
wanted to get rid of one, we could, but I don't know. Think >> is it I want to get an answer to that question. I think maybe Katie can can help us with that. But is this the tower that's being one is going to be moved, right? Is this >> I think they've given up on the idea of moving it. Yeah.
>> Okay. Katie, do you have any Katie Donovan, um, director of community development, is there any, uh, response to Stuart's question? Are we obligated to do this? This is a lot of money. $200,000? >> Yeah.
>> For 10 years. That's 20,000 bucks a year. >> I think that the town I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman. Um, >> yeah, >> I think that the town would be required um as part of the ownership to maintain
them and if that's what it takes to maintain. Um, and I think that because of the historic nature and having the CPA uh funds available, I think that that's why um we've chosen to go this route. I
think that this is something that Terry's been working on. I haven't been super involved in it. Um but that would be my understanding. >> Yeah. I mean I I understand well this is for me this is part of the problem with this. No offense to the committee. They do do great work but this is part of the
problem with the community preservation act. This these recommendations have to go to town meeting. The select board can't do anything to reduce them. We can't cut them. We we can't we can't zero them out. And yeah, it's great to have this
historical support. Uh I know it has the support of the historical commission. Um but God, this is a lot of money. Uh I'm not sure I'm going to support it, but Jeeoff, you you had a comment. >> Yeah, I this was a very interesting
discussion. I was at the CPC for this discussion. They really they really went around it. I I I don't mind preserving one of them, but to think we're going to be preserving four of these towers. They're part of our history. I get it. And they're very important. I love the Maronei Center. It's great. But why why
do we need to do four? I mean, one or two as a represent as the representation of the towers that were used for the transmissions. I think it's a great part of history, but I I don't I don't see how we had to keep keep doing them. I mean, I just I'd rather support people than towers to be honest with you. Thank
you. I mean, we nickel and dime this the the the center for active living for 10 years. We nickel and dime them about a conference room that cost what $40,000 or whatever for at 1610 Main Street and we're going to spend $200,000 on this.
Go ahead, Stuart. Well, and I just follow up because I'm trying to recollect here past years, but we purchased that property in 90, help me out, five, four, somewhere around mid mid 90s, um, under the Mr. Grooves
administ. So, we haven't done anything since then. So, I'm thinking as you are, $20,000 a year for the next 10 years, but we haven't done any maintenance to them over the last 30 or Yeah. or so.
There, some of the numbers aren't adding up to me. Um, you know, I'm all for historical preservation. Uh, the the the tower that is next to the water, um, Katie, is that one what's the status of that? Is that being demolished or
removed or >> My understanding is that that tower is actually being moved um closer um closer up towards the roadway. Yeah. >> In the parking lot. >> And is is that CPC money as well?
>> I don't believe so. >> There's some discussion of that in Terry Whan's report in the town manager report. I remember looking at that over the last day or something. >> What what they told us was that that that idea of moving it is probably not realistic.
>> No. Um, and I also should add that the I think the 10 years is a is a minimum of what you're g you know what they expect to get out of it or that's what the the the bidder uh who u is doing the
restoration uh indicates that they're going to get uh I suspect as you indicate that uh it may well go beyond the 10 years. I might also add that uh you know one of the reasons the CPA act
was approved was a feeling that in those three areas the historic preservation, open space and uh and affordable housing that the the towns did have other priorities than that they weren't putting enough
money into those areas. So the state created this additional source of funding uh in order to have these kind of uh um public uh initiated activities to uh address those three areas of interest.
>> Oh, I get it. I I understand that. I just think after all these years and it's been what 30 years that this this law has been in effect. It's probably is this is not for the town of Chadam to do but it's probably time for the legislature to take a hard look at this because cities and towns are up against
it financially for other commitments to to to make their cities work their their comm community cities and towns their communities work. But anyway, Carrie, did has the finance committee dealt with this yet or are they doing that next week or tomorrow?
>> Um, there's a meeting tomorrow and there's only a few more articles that they have to vote on. They had held just a couple of them. >> Have they voted on this one? >> I believe they voted on that one. No, they did not. Okay. >> They were looking for the plans for um the lattice towers. Um they haven't
voted on I think four or five of them. >> Okay. Mhm. >> So they So Gary, you said they've got four towers. >> Three towers. >> Three towers. And the they being who the the staff >> um Terry Whan is who presents this to
us. >> Yeah. Okay. Uh all right. So I'll entertain a motion to place. >> A motion to place. >> Is there a second? Um before we vote on the mo is there a second to that motion? >> Yes. Second.
>> Moved and seconded. Mr. Phillips, you had comments. Philips 374 Orleans Road. Um I just think if we don't fix these towers and maintain our history, I think we will regret it in the future. And just to put things uh in a financial perspective, we spent right around $700,000 on just the plans for the
Sefell building. So 250 doesn't seem like that much to repair a historical uh thing. Thanks. >> Yeah. All right. Moved. It's been moved and seconded to play. So call the RO. Miss Davis. Hi. >> Mr. Dykins. >> Hi. >> Mr. Matters. I
>> Mr. Smith >> I >> the chair votes side. Is there a motion to recommend? >> A motion to recommend. >> Is there a second >> to that motion? We have >> second. >> We should have a recommendation one way or the other. Moved and seconded. >> I'll call the role. Miss Davis,
>> no. >> Mr. Dykins, >> no. >> Mr. Meadows, >> no. >> Mr. Smith, >> no. >> And the chair votes no. So, it's 0 to five on that one. People's cemetery re restoration. Sorry you're getting a
harder time than you usually do, but we do appreciate the work your committee does. >> Yeah. You know, I just to follow up on a point that you made, uh, Dean, I I agree with you that the state ought to reook at this 30-year-old law, particularly
with something like open space. you know, you you reach a point in a town like Chadam where there just simply isn't that many opportunities anymore uh to make investments in open space and that's why we kept building up a reserve in the in the open space account. So, it
it clearly might be time for the state to either take a look at whether they should continue or whether they should add uh other areas or or replace some of the ones that are currently there >> because they added recreation subsequently, wasn't the original? He did. >> Okay. People's cemetery res.
>> People cemetery. So, this comes to us from the cemetery commission. Um, it's a continuing project of restoring the uh monuments and grave sites on uh the cemeteries in Chadam. Uh they did the seaside chem cemetery. I think the
results of that were were quite excellent. And they've identified I think it's 741 monuments and grave sites. uh uh not grave sites uh uh gravestones uh in the uh people's cemetery that uh
they plan to uh also restore uh to clean and uh whenever is needed to uh to really kind of uh rebuild them. >> All right. So this is for $100,399. Is there any conversation, discussion or
a motion to place? >> Motion to place. >> Move to Yeah, I second. I second that. moved and seconded and I know you you are liaison to the commission and I think it's pretty straightforward one >> I'll call I'll call them roll on the motion to place um Miss Davis >> I
>> Mr. Dykins >> I >> Mr. Matters >> I >> Mr. Smith >> I chair votes I is there a motion to recommend >> move to recommend >> is there a second >> second >> um moved and seconded I'll call the role Miss Davis >> I
>> Mr. Dikkins >> I >> Mr. Matters >> Hi >> Mr. Smith. >> Hi. >> And the chair votes I. Okay. Next is the MAC monument restoration. This is down on um Lower Main Street. >> Yes. This also comes to us from the
Cemetery Commission. Um they're proposing to u restore the MAC monument and to build an ADA uh uh compatible uh path uh through that park uh to the monument uh uh and to the
um uh the rest of the park the uh um um portions in the back as well. Um this is one where uh they originally asked for the full amount from historic restoration uh or the historic uh preservation
portion and we felt that the um that the walkway uh and the park area itself could come out of recreation could come out of our reserve open space and recreation reserve account. So that's the reason why it's split between the
between the two. >> Okay. And the u this has the support I think of the committee the disabilities committee. I noted that in the materials. >> Is there a mot is there a motion to place? >> Yeah, I move to place. Mr. Chairman, >> is there a second?
>> Second. >> Moved and seconded to place. Miss Davis >> I. >> Mr. Dykins. >> I. >> Mr. Mr. Smith. I'm sorry. Mr. Meadows. >> I. >> Mr. Smith. >> I. >> The chair votes I. Is there a motion to recommend? >> Move to recommend. Mr. Chairman. >> Is there a second?
>> Second. Moved and seconded. Miss Davis I >> Mr. Dykins >> I >> Mr. Matters. Hi >> Mr. Smith. >> Hi. >> Chair votes. I five to zero. >> Next we have the open space and recreation portion. Uh we start with Chattam Beach signs. That's the next page I guess.
>> Yes. >> Next slide. There it is. >> That comes to us from u the department of community services. Uh and the uh Chadam Beaches of course are one of the major recreational facilities of uh of Chadam. Uh the signs
that are currently there are plywood signs that uh have deteriorated. Um they work, but they're not particularly attractive. Uh and they're getting to the point where maybe they won't even work anymore. Uh so the um the towns
come to us with a request for $17,000 to put up new signs. They'll be uh durable uh PVC signs. Uh they'll have u uh facilities where where notices can be
easily uh taken down and put up and will be a significant improvement over what's currently there. >> Okay. Is there a motion to place this? So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? Stuart,
>> there's um this has come up before, I think, from Parks and Wreck. Um but the is there a uh there's like eight or 10 signs I noticed at I guess it was Coco Cove or Ridge. Is is part of the plan, do you know, to consolidate them into
one sign? >> I I don't know. Yeah. >> Um yeah, BA basically aside from the aesthetics, you know, of these new signs, basically a uniform uh better opportunity to for for better messaging because every every location has to have
certain signs, you know, instead of having this poperri of everything all over the place, kind of consolidate it, make it uniform so that whatever location you go to, we're getting that same message translated to the to the visitors. So, yes. >> Yeah. Great. Thank you. >> Okay. There's been a motion to place
which was seconded. I'll call the role. Miss Davis >> I. >> Mr. Dikkins. >> I. >> Mr. Matters. >> Hi. >> Mr. Smith. >> Hi. >> Chair votes. Is there a motion to recommend? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. I'll call the role. Miss Davis. >> I. >> Mr. Dikkins. >> I. >> Mr. Matters. Hi. >> Mr. Smith.
>> I. >> Chair votes. >> Next is the Frostfish Creek Restoration and Revitalization in the amount of $100,000. So, this application came to us from the Cadam Conservation Foundation. Uh, in
2019, uh, the town approved a CPA grant to the foundation uh, to do a study of what the impact of sea level rise would be on Frostfish Creek, which is one of the
foundation's major preserves and and uh, probably the most utilized preserve through the trail that goes through there. While they were out there conducting that study, they noticed somebody else doing um uh surveying and the like. turned out to be the department of state department of
transportation uh who who are planning to significantly incre increase the size of the culvert uh where forcefish creek goes under route 28 which will uh change that whole
wetland preserve from what's pretty much a uh freshwater reserve into a estarine marine uh preserve. Um the foundation has worked with the department of transportation. They also uh got the
state department of ecological restoration involved. The town's been very much involved. Uh and the u the division of ecological restoration has actually considered this now a high priority project which has allowed the
town to get some grants uh to further uh study what the impact of this will be. Um those grants uh uh will be very useful for the lower portions. Uh but there's a there's an old cranberry ba up at the
top of the preserve uh that's going to be affected by this and the uh conservation foundation uh is going to be primarily responsible for managing that change. Uh and this uh this funding will allow them to uh first of all uh
determine what they should do uh in order to accommodate the uh the introduction of uh the tidal saltwater uh and to uh put in place the whatever uh mitigation and restoration uh
strategies are developed as a result of that. I I wanted to note that Greg Burman is um our director of natural resources is on in case he has any further elucidation on this. If not, we'll entertain a motion to place.
>> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Greg has raised his hand. So Greg, did you want to speak to this? >> Yeah, I don't have anything specific to add. Just that, you know, the town has been very involved. Uh we did just
receive the priority habitat from DER, another grant for 120,000, but as the chair of CPC indicated, uh that really isn't intended for the upper marsh area, uh with the cranberry bog. So this would be a a nice blending to see if this
other area could kind of tie into the larger project that so many people are involved with. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. It's been moved and seconded to place this. I'll call the role. Ms. Davis. I >> Mr. Dykins. >> I >> Mr. Matters. >> Hi, >> Mr. Smith.
>> I the chair votes side. Is there a motion to recommend? >> Motion to recommend. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Second. >> Moved and seconded to recommend. I'll call the role. Miss Davis. >> I. >> Mr. Dykins. >> I. >> Mr. Matters. >> I. >> Mr. Smith. >> I.
>> And the chair votes I. >> The next is Mil Pond Overlook Accessibility Trail. uh in the amount of $125,000. Gary. >> Okay. This application also comes to us from the Chattam U Conservation
Foundation. Uh it involves their preserve which stretches from Stage Harbor Road down uh in in back of Atwood House down to the Mill Pond. A couple of years ago, uh they received CPA funding
to put a trail uh from Stage Harbor Road down to a uh an overlook uh on Mil Pond. That's a it's a fairly difficult trail. It's kind of a steep trail. Uh so what they're now proposing to do is is build
an additional trail uh that kind of takes part of that original trail but uh adds to it uh and make that additional trail um an accessibility trail a handy packed a handy uh capped accessibility trail. Uh, and there'll be there'll be
two parking places off from State Harbor, uh, road where the uh, people can park and get their wheelchairs out or whatever it is they have to do. >> Gary, has the disabilities committee weighed in on this one as well? >> Yes, they they they have uh, sent a very
strong letter of support. >> Okay. Is there a motion to place? >> Motion to place. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. I'll call the role. Miss Davis, >> I. >> Mr. Mr. Dykins >> I >> Mr. Matters I >> Mr. Smith >> I
>> and the chair vote. Is there a motion to recommend? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. Uh call the role. Miss Davis. >> Hi. >> Mr. Dykins. >> I. >> Mr. Matters. >> Hi. >> Mr. Smith. >> I. >> And the chair votes I. Lastly, restore
the legacy of Kate Gould Park. We had a presentation on that larger project um fa the first phase a few months back but Gary in the amount of 25,000 you want to speak to this please uh yes so this application came from the chamber of
commerce um but it really is is from the beautifification committee which includes the chamber of commerce but uh uh town agencies and many other uh groups throughout the town. I think everybody knows what a great resource uh
Kate Ghoul Park is right in the middle of our commercial district. Um but it's a resource that um needs some uh t tenderloving care. Uh, and the $25,000
that's requested is basically to hire a professional consultant, a consultant that's uh um very experienced in putting together uh these types of uh plans, but also that's experienced in getting
community input into that planning process. So a lot of this uh uh initial phase is going to be outreach to uh the community, various organizations and the public in general uh to try to first of
all get that input but then also to build consensus around what the final plan is going to be. >> Thanks. Thank you. Jeff, you were on the you are on the beautifification committee. Did you want to speak to this before we entertain a motion? >> No, Gary just summarized it perfectly. uh they're just looking to prime the
pump with $25,000 to help out with the expenses of a guy by by the name of David Hawk who's a who's a consultant who's excellent and also reach out to the community and find out what the community really wants. So before we before we make major missteps but it's Gary. Good job. Thank you.
>> Okay, I'll entertain a motion to place. >> Move to place. >> Is there a second? >> Moved and seconded. I'll call the role. Miss Davis >> I. >> Mr. Dykins. >> I >> Mr. Meadows. >> Hi, >> Mr. Smith. >> I. >> And the chair votes. Is there a motion
to recommend? >> Move to recommend. Mr. Chairman, >> is there a second? >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. I'll call the role. Miss Davis. >> I. >> Mr. Dykins. >> I. >> Mr. Meadows. >> I. >> Mr. Smith. >> I. >> And the chair votes. I
>> And we have I'm I said that was the last, but that was the last substantive one. You have two administrative ones at the bottom there. is each year we request $15,000 for our administrative budget. Most years we we only use about half of that. Uh but sometimes we have
legal expenses and this year we we may have some of those legal expenses. Uh so we we request the 15,000. What we don't spend just goes back into the uh into the reserve account. Okay. Is there a motion to place this one? >> Motion to place. >> Is there a move to place?
>> Is there a second? >> A second. >> Second. Moved and seconded. Miss Davis >> I. >> Mr. Dykins. >> I. >> Mr. Meadows. >> Hi. >> Mr. Smith. >> Hi. >> And the chair votes. Sai. Is there a motion to recommend? >> Um, move to recommend. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Miss Davis.
>> Hi. >> Mr. Dykins. >> I. >> Mr. Matters. >> Hi. >> Mr. Smith. >> I. >> The chair votes. I >> And now the last one. 10% fund allocation. >> Right. The CPA act requires that we put 10%
uh of our um new revenue into each of the three original uh categories uh uh open space uh community uh housing and uh historic preservation. Uh and this
year that's uh $150,000 each. So for a total of uh of uh $450,000, I might add that uh we turn around and then utilize uh most of those funds uh
for the other um applications except in the case of open space where uh we're still building up that that reserve account and uh so a portion of that will uh will remain in open space. >> Is there a reserve account on
recreation? Uh the open space and recreation are the same. >> One and the same. Okay. Well, thank you for that explanation. Uh entertain a motion to place. >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. Mr. Davis. >> I. >> Mr. Dykins. >> I.
>> Mr. Matters. >> I. >> Mr. Smith. >> I. >> Chair votes. I >> And the last motion on all of this >> so moved >> is to recommend. >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. Miss Davis. Hi >> Mr. Dikkins.
>> Hi >> Mr. Matters. Hi >> Mr. Smith. >> Hi. >> Chair votes. I thank you very much Gary for waiting for this and and for the time you took >> I've learned a lot. So it was a good way. Okay. Thank you. >> Hey D. >> Yes. >> I just wanted to I I just wanted to mention I went to the meeting where they
voted a bunch of the stuff the CPC and they were phenomenal and Gary is such a even-handed way of of of uh of letting the discourse go and and it's just a really great committee. I really enjoyed it. just wanted to want to let him know that and thank him. Thank you, Gary. >> Thank you for saying that. I appreciate
that as well. >> Um okay, so now we have um remaining the 2027 FY2027 budget review, the select board recommendation on the town manager FY2027 operating and
capital budgets and transmitt of the oper the FY2027 operating capital budgets to the finance committee. This is the reason we're having this meeting tonight. And we're being asked to place and vote our recommendations for the FY2027 operating and capital budget
articles by March 1st. They have to be placed according to the Chattam bylaw section chapter 15 which um uh parallels the charter sections 6.1 6-1 and 6-4. So Carrie, did you want to we've heard the
different department presentations. This is an opportunity to to uh for the board to make its final determinations and then get these off to the finance committee. >> Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um so, there has been some changes um after going
through all of um the meetings that we've had and listening to everybody and listening to everybody's recommendations. Um I took them into consideration when going through the budget. And we've also had some changes due to um
you know we received our retirement assessment and we received our health insurance assessment as well um for 2027. So um for FY2027 uh the operating budget um without
education is currently at 47,295,970. That's a decrease of uh $43,124 dollar over the uh prior proposed in January at 47,339,094. Um
this I want to uh also uh state that this is actually at uh 4.7% over FY2026 versus the 4.79 that was presented in January. Um so the um FY2027 budget changes for
decreases um we have $163,12 that have been decreased. Um Barsell County retirement assessment uh decreased $30,430 over um the estimate presented in January. The health insurance, as you
know from um listening to the schools, have uh came in at 8%. Um but we're still holding the 19% for the medics. So uh this was this line was reduced by $87,146,256 and the natural resource department temporary wages was uh decreased by
$12,000. Um this was for a uh temporary position um that was originally budgeted for a retired employee who was completing assistance on a special project in the department and it's um >> so these are these are changes from
>> these are changes from the original budget >> presentation >> that we presented in January. Yep. So this is um these are reductions that we received. So like Barnstable County doesn't come in until midFebruary. Um so when I present the budget to you
in January, I'm giving you an estimate of what I feel it's going to be. Same with the health insurance where we estimated um at it was around 10 to 12% that I had estimated the regular and 19% was for medics because we had already had that number in January. Um the fire
department dispatch assessment was also an estimate. Um and then um I believe actually when public safety did their presentation he noted this change because it was changed by then. >> Yeah. If I can just add so um this has
been further reduced by the amount of state aid in a state grant that Barnesville County would receive. So that's the reduction. So it's not a reduction in services by any means. >> Yep. That's correct. >> Stuart. >> Sure. Um and maybe this is for Greg. Um,
Burman, Greg, could you help me out with the $12,000 reduction? Um, I heard Carrie, but is there any more detail on that? >> Sure. Um, so, uh, a lot of this budget was for NRCS support. Um, specifically,
uh, uh, Dr. Bob was handling a lot of the NRCS contracting. Uh as such we were able to identify and acquire some grants. Some of the grants you've heard about from deer and some of the other folks uh that are able to make up some
of that staff time and I'll be taking on some of the other uh grant administration aspects of it. But primarily, you know, Dr. Bob and we will still get all the projects that he was working on over the finish line.
>> Okay. Thanks. Okay. Um so the FY2020 bud budget changes for increases um include the snow and ice budget of 55,000. This brings the budget up to 150 which was a recommendation. >> Increasing
a joke. >> Oh is this going to be enough? >> Is this going to be enough? Well, we can technically def deficit spend, but with the budget increases
and the effect on the tax rate, we think that this is a good start, but it no, it's not going to be enough. U but that can be raised either through a end of year budget transfer at town meeting or offset through the recap process. >> Okay.
>> Thank you. >> Yep. Um the veterans assessment and benefits. Um, I went over that the assessment increased by $1,147 and I'm increasing it by 10,000 because we had a veteran add-on for benefits.
So, I want to make sure there's enough funding there available for that that particular person. Um, it was recommended that the moderator expense line be increased by $50. Um, their line expense is I think $50 and their dues
are hundred. So they overspend this line. So just to match exactly what is going out, it's $50 that's needed for that line. >> Um the elected officials line we increased by 10,800.
Um this is for the increase of your salaries for that. Um town band was also recommended by Jeep Digins to increase by 1,200. So, we increased town band and that's now at 1200 $12,000 instead of
the 10,000. Um seasonal salaries um increased $30,81 and um after listening through um multiple meetings um we did a market adjustment for um all of the seasonal
salaries. Um and then additionally the assistant town manager position that was approved. Um this was the move of the $5,000 that was previously under um the town manager's budget for a stipen um is now
moved to uh community development and then the 3,982 for the base pay. >> Any questions on those? >> I don't think so. >> No. Okay.
>> So, um this slide just kind of goes over um the difference between um FY25, FY26, and the proposed now proposed 2027 budget. Um including education, it's at 59,749,448.
>> Okay. Does that complete the operating budget? Okay. That that completes the operating budget. Yep. >> Do we want to um go on to the capital budget or do we want to take um vote on votes on the um operating budget first, which would be a vote to place and a
vote to recommend? >> What's the pleasure of the board? >> Why don't we just >> Well, we we they're different war separate warrant articles. >> Yeah. So, >> okay. >> So, why let's let's move let's make a let's move the place. >> I'll second that. Is there a draft article in the packet?
>> There is a draft article. Yeah. >> I think there is. >> And the amount would be 5 59,749,448. >> Yeah. Here's here's here's the there are four votes. Well, two of them are related to the operating. Let me read the votes and I'll entertain a motion on
on each one. >> Okay. >> Okay. So first is is there a motion to vote to transmit the proposed FY2027 operating and capital budgets to the finance committee per the town of Chattam general bylaw which honor before March 1 2026. So is there a motion to
transmit? >> Yes. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Okay. This has nothing to do with the warrant. Um I'll call a role on that. Miss D. Miss Davis. >> Hi. >> Mr. Dykins. >> Hi. >> Mr. Meadows. I
>> Mr. Smith >> I >> and the chair votes I. >> Um the next is a vote to place the FY2027 operating budget article in the amount of 47,295,970. You you've got the the capital on the on
the annual 2026 annual town meeting warrant. There it is. So is there a motion to place this budget article on the warrant? >> So moved. Move it. Yep. Yep. Second. >> Okay. I'll call the role on that. Miss Davis. >> I. >> Mr. Dykins. >> I.
>> Mr. Meadows. >> Hi. >> Mr. Smith. >> I. >> The chair votes. I are we are we being asked to recommend as well tonight? >> Yes. >> Is there a motion to recommend this article to town meeting? I'll pass from Is there a motion to recommend? >> Some moved. >> Is there a second?
>> Second. >> Moved and seconded. I'll call the role. Miss Davis. >> I. >> Mr. Dykins. >> I. >> Mr. Meadows. Hi. Mr. Smith >> I. >> And the chair votes I. >> Okay, that takes care of the operating budget. Now we have the capital budget.
>> Okay, the capital budget um it was originally um presented to you in January at $2,490,500. Um it has been since decreased by $50,000. It's now presented at $2,440,500.
And I'll go through the changes. So, originally there was a u $50,000 um uh capital request for the um harbor master office uh to Old Mill
Boatyard. Um it was, as you saw from Gary's presentation, it was approved by them. Um so we reduced this by the $50,000. Um there was a um recommendation to approve
a $200,000 um front front loader for the DPW for the transfer station that was um well needed and in order to fund that there was reductions in uh the sewer collection system of 70,000 100,000 in
the reduction of the road resurfacing and 30,000 in the facility safety equipment repairs. We worked together, Rob and I, to determine that with there was enough funding in previous year's capital requests and additionally we
received extra chapter 90 funds last year and this year. So um in order to fund the front loader that's been um uh has broken down several times now um we're funding that instead of those other projects
for this for for FY 2027. >> Gotcha. Okay. Um so currently the funding for the capital is um using free cash 2,212,34 we're using 115,000 from the waterways
improvement fund 10,000 from the conservation fund 30,000 from the PEG uh receipts reserve appropriation fund and then there's a prior article for $73,466 with a total funding of $2,444 4,500
um of to fund the FY27 capital. Sorry. >> Okay. So, that's the capital budget. Again, this is separate from any Warren articles on larger items. >> Yeah. It's to fund the um the request between 10,000 and 250,000.
>> Right. Okay. I'll ask for a motion to place um >> one question. >> Yeah. Yeah. If you don't mind, go ahead. >> Um >> I totally agree with replacing the front end loader. Um >> and you've found some savings, so we we we only need the 200,000.
I kind of know the answer to this, but I just wanted to confirm that loader goes away, right? It gets traded in. Is that >> Yeah, they'll they'll trade in the old one for the new one. I don't know what they'll get for it. >> No, but they'll trade it in. Yeah. >> Great. Thank you. >> Yep.
>> Okay. So, uh I'll entertain a motion to um place the FY2027 capital budget article in the amount of $2,440,500 on the 2026 annual town meeting warrant. Is is there a motion? >> Is there a second? Second.
>> Moved and seconded. >> Miss Davis. >> I. >> Mr. Dykins. >> I. >> Mr. Matters. >> I. >> Mr. Smith. >> I. >> And the chair votes I. Is there a motion to recommend? >> I had Mr. >> Yes. >> Sorry. I had one other question. I >> Yeah, go ahead, Stuart. >> I moved papers too quickly here. Um the
IT budget um with respect to the capital improvements. >> We we went over this I um earlier and although it's not here because it's a separate article, the 400,000 was for the new financial program to get rid of
the very old betar system. I supported that. Yes. >> And it was going to be combined with an older article, if I'm right, of 100 or a former article or was that being combined with another 150,000? Did I hear that or am I making this up?
>> Oh, yeah. Yes. Um, last year um on the capital 5-year capital was approved 150,000 for that. >> So, they get combined. I thought it was 550 and and then I think you had mentioned um that there it was going to
be uh uh combined with a grant either. I don't know if you >> So we applied for a grant um and if we get approved for the grant then we'll put the funding back that we don't need that we will not need. >> Gotcha. Um >> how much is the Do we know how much the grant would be?
>> I applied for a $200,000 grant but I'm not sure if they're going to give us 200 or 100,000. We'll we'll see once it's approved. >> Thank you. Go ahead, Stuart. >> Ju just because I guess it's really the article um specifically that's putting us uh we're spending a lot of money on
IT equipment is my point between the 550 and then I'm just doing the math here. You know, we're pushing $600 700,000 this year on IT stuff. >> Yes, I I I I agree. It is a lot and I know that the software hasn't been
updated in 20 years. So, >> yeah. Yeah. and the software that we're going to be going to, you're never going to have to upgrade again. >> Yeah. >> And purchase another software. I mean, I'm just saying this because I I know other towns or and cities that have been
on Munis for years. >> So, >> yeah. And I supported that and I still do and I will. I think it's a I think it's well thought out. It's the other issues here that um you know, you know, I think about the towers that we just uh
I guess we didn't approve it, but um you know, the t the police department server upgrade. I don't know how often they have to be upgraded, but I'm I'm trying to get my hands around and we won't do it tonight, but how many of these every 7 to 10 years programs are we going to
have to do with uh things like this? um the HVAC software upgrades for 100, the camera upgrades for I don't even know what cameras were. >> So, um there some of them on here are annual requests. Yeah. Um the police
department server upgrade, that one um that one >> is not something that's annual. >> No. Yeah, I know it's every >> um so many years. >> The HBAC system is also something that's not annual. Um >> but I'm going to support it. My only the
reason the real reason I bring it up is I I think this this requires uh some further discussions not for this year because we're well on our way. Um but I think we're going to I may be asking for
further discussion on IT equipment expenses and um we seem to be giving a lot of effort to it and I'm I'd like to get my hands around where where these efforts are going. But thank you. Appreciate Absolutely. Yeah, no problem.
>> Okay. Thank you. So then uh remains to ask for a motion to recommend the capital budget that we just voted to place to the annual town meeting um 2026. This is for FY2027. >> Is there a motion? Motion to recommend.
>> Second. >> Yeah. >> Moved and seconded. Now call the role. Miss Davis. >> I. >> Miss Dykin. Mr. Dykins. >> I. >> Mr. Matters. >> I. >> Mr. Smith. >> Hi. And the chair votes I. I think we've taken all the votes we need to on on um
these two budgets. >> Did do you I'm sorry. Did number four did you vote that? >> Yeah, we effectively did that. That that was asking for votes to recommend. We did them separately. >> Okay. >> So we on each of these we voted to we voted to transmit and we voted to place
we voted to recommend each of the two budgets. >> The transmitt was one one motion for both budgets and >> Yes, that's right. >> Okay. Good. Just want to make sure since it's fine. >> Okay, we've completed our >> I do have two slides. I know you guys already heard the schools, but I'll just
go over them quickly. Um so you heard from Cape Cod Technical Regional High School. Um so their assessment went down $57,33 from um the original request back in January. um it was estimated at 617,346
and it's um proposed now at 560,313. And then again, the Monoy Regional School um I guess he thought that I didn't have this number, but I already did um have this number. So um it's a reduction of $86,558.
Um it was originally requested at 11,979,723 and it's now proposed at 11,893,165 which um >> it might change. >> We're tenatively scheduled to consider articles which need to be drafted for
both of these school assessments on March 10th. Tech is going the technical school is going to vote before then, but the we heard tonight that the Monoise committee is school district committee is not going to vote until after >> March 12th.
>> Yeah, we'll still have time to take final votes because we're going to vote. When do we uh when are we going to close the warrant? >> You'll close it on the 24th of March. And you also have the meeting of the 17th. >> Yeah. So, we'll have time to do it. But anyway, this is sort of illustrative for us tonight, I think.
>> Yeah. Yeah. I just figured I would show you that. >> Okay. >> Um and that's it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Carrie. >> You're welcome. >> Um so the next last item on our agenda is the town meetings monthly report for January 2026. Jill,
>> thank you, Mr. Chair. Know it's getting kind of late, so um I'll go over the current items and if you have any any questions on the department submittals, I'm happy to answer those. uh this week and I'm pretty sure it's still on for tomorrow night is our second annual
Cadam employee art showcase and reception at the Sefell and that's from 4 to 6 PM. There's a lot of really cool art in different types of of vehicles per se. There's photography, sculptures and everything. So really creative team
so you're welcome to go by there. Um the Citizens Fire Academy is getting ready to start. That's going to be on March 3rd and looks like applications are still available. And that's going to be on Wednesdays from March 18th through
May 13th from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. And that's going to be at the uh CFD headquarters on Depot Road. Also in here are some of our bids that have been on the projects that have been advertised. And I just wanted to note an update. uh
the Eldridge Public Library site master plan. It's currently due on the 4th of March and uh we decided today to extend it just one week to give potential project um contractors time to submit for because of the the weather and the
um power outages. We want to make sure that we we have a robust group to choose from. So that's just one week. it won't change anything with the project schedule and the CFL uh renovations that's due uh general contract on March
20th. That's going to be our bid in hand for the town meeting article for which you'll close the the warrant shortly thereafter. >> We're not going to extend the time on that one. >> No. And and we can't we need a we need a hard number for the uh the question for
the capital exclusion. Yep. Uh, and then great news here. Our 10-year dredging permit has been awarded and um, uh, natural resources has a tidbit here, but also in more detail with their monthly report and they've done a really great
job with grants as recent as as today. There was something that came in for 120,000. So, it's a really exciting time for the team. Uh then we have our employee years of service and this is anniversary dates for March 2026. Mark
Higgins um 26 years. Terry's been here for 21 years. And then our our newer cohort with Rob Failey at three years, our director of public works, Chris Misoulus, who's our finance administrator, and then Daniel Daring, our firefighter EMT.
And then in February, we welcome new hires. Uh we have Jessica Rotando. Jessica lives in East Hardwitch and she comes to us from Mass Maritime. She'll be graduating in June. Right now, she's working part-time, but will be full-time
in June. And then we have um our DPW department assistant for the cemetery division, uh Adrienne Barnard. Uh she is replacing Quinn Foreman who left the town to go to graduate school. And Adrienne lives in Hart Witch. And then
we have a the new member of our DPW highway division heavy equiper is Lee and Lee is a resident of South Yarmouth. And with Lee's hire, we are fully staffed in DPW. So we're we're very excited about that. Uh the recruitment and job postings are also included on
the website. And and here's a sample of the post for social media. And then as we always do, we have project updates with an index here that's done by Kathy for where to find more information. And the last two pages talk about our Chattam TV, our must-see TV uh items
that they're working on as well as um social media engagement including the main sheet. So happy to answer any questions. >> Where do we stand on the assistant assessor? Is that been filled or? >> Yes, you'll be getting that announcement tomorrow morning. So we're very excited
and uh the person's due to start on March 3rd, I believe. So I just reviewed the memo. You'll get that tomorrow. >> Okay. And are you close to an announcement on the u the new police chief? >> Um right now it will start our HR director is back the first week in March
and she's already started with that. >> Okay. >> All right. One question. >> Go ahead Stuart. >> Um the new hires are you know I I I I get the second two. Um
Ms. Ratano. Rattado uh the public works associate. Um a lot of qualifications there. Um what is what is the the public works associate do? >> So they'll they'll do a number of
things. Primarily they'll work with uh OSHA compliance and safety compliance which is part of her background. They'll also help with um paving assessments, sidewalk assessments, doing those types of uh or initiating those types of
studies. We've had some plans that have been on the shelf and so with with Jessica, we can take them off and um basically help with drafting various reports for uh DPW. U I'm not sure yet
about like irrigation compliance. We pretty much have a a good grasp on that, but maybe some analytics that come from that to help us better target. >> And is that a new I just don't recognize it. >> It is. It's a newer position. Yes. >> Great. Thank you.
>> Okay. Any other questions or comments to Jill on the week on the monthly report? Okay. Thank you, Jill. Um if not, I'll entertain the final motion of the evening. >> Motion to adjurnn. Move it.
>> Is there a second? >> Moved and seconded. Moved and seconded. We'll call the role. >> Miss Davis. >> I. >> Mr. Dykins. >> I. >> Mr. Meadows. >> I. >> Mr. Smith. >> I. >> And the chair votes I. And we are adjourned. I usually use that clock, but
just a couple minutes ahead at 9:02 p.m. Good night, Chadam. Good night, everyone. >> Thank you. >> Take care, guys. Yeah.