##VIDEO ID:YIPCEXEFQPY## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good evening chadam welcome to the January 14 2025 meeting of the chadam select board please note this meeting is being recorded and will be available shortly Hereafter for scheduled and OnDemand viewing on any smartphone or tablet device if anyone else is recording the meeting please notify the chair seeing no such notification I'll proceed pursuant to Governor Healey's March 29 2023 signing of the acts of 2023 extending certain covid-19 measures adopted during the state of emergency suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law General Law chapter 3A section 20 until March 31 2025 this meeting of the chattam select board is being conducted in person and via remote participation every effort will be made to 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 1 15894 54410 conference ID 203 386 491 pound sign or join the meeting online via Microsoft teams through the link in the posted agenda while this is a live broadcast C and simcast on chadam TV Xfinity channel 1072 despite our best efforts we may not be able to provide realtime access we will post a record of this meeting on the town's website as soon as possible um let me start by establishing our Quorum Mr nicastro present Mr Shell is present Miss Davis present Mr dykens and Mr Mets present um we have a number of things on our agenda this evening uh we start with public announcements and agenda requests um followed by public hearings um then we which we have which we have four um and then we go to the um Regular report from the director of Public Works Mr failey concerning chadam Wells p and drinking water Etc uh next we'll have public comments on the business agenda uh uh in light of the invitation last week uh for continuing follow-up discussion on the revised schematic um and cost estimates for the the uh renovating the the seaal I'm going to allow P public comment alongside the board as we take that agenda item up and then that is our first agenda item the discussion of the seel proposed renovation um our second item is considering a request to Abate a water and sewer charge for 25 Glendon way uh next is an update from the Traffic Safety Committee on recent requests um submitted for review uh no parking on shatak place and um an adopt a reduction of the um uh thickly settled speed limit from 30 to 25 miles an hour and then finally we have a fiscal 2026 budget uh preview um from uh the town manager and staff um with that I will invite public announcements and agenda requests uh Mr Mets thank you Mr chair um a little overdue on this but I think it's about time we do a little reminder of our various vacancies on our boards committees and commissions um we've done actually we've done some pretty good recruiting over the last couple months we f multiple vacancies but we we still have more to go so this is the current list as of January 6 2005 airport commission has one open seat cable advisory committee has two open seats committee for people with disabilities one regular seat two alternate seats Conservation Commission has three associate seats cultural Council has one seat Economic Development Committee three seats historic business district commission one alternate seat historical commission two alternate seats Human Services advisory committee two regular seats local State Building Code board of appeals five seats open space committee one alternate seat public ceremonies committee three regular seats Railroad Museum committee two regular seats South Coastal Harbor committee one seat summer residents advisory committee one associate and the Traffic Safety Committee has one alternate seats this a reminder members serve three-year terms associate and Alternate alternates serve a one-year term non-resident taxpayers are eligible to serve on advisory commit committees the cultural Council and the council for aging of the board of directors only those registered to vote in chatam are eligible to serve under Regulatory and statutory boards and commissions so if anyone has some free time would all to um you know spread your talent and help the uh Community um I welcome you to step forward fill out a talent form on our Town's website and we Bey happy to interview you and put you into play thank you very much thank you um and thanks for the uh recruitment effort I think you've been largely uh spearheading on Aunt Lydia's Cove so the committee so thanks for that um any other announcements or agenda requests from the board from the public anybody online Jill okay uh public hearings um Miss clerk would you do us the honor sure town of chadam Select board public hearing notice the chadam select board will hold a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday January 14th 2025 to consider a petition from Verizon New England Inc and NSTAR Electric doing business as eversource energy to place a place one joint own pole p3025 on the northeast side of Main Street to a point approximately 60 ft northwesterly from existing pole p3050 and to a point approximately 37 ft southeasterly from an existing pole P30 this petition is necessary to upgrade services for 365 Main Street the public is welcomed to attend the meeting in person and participate via Link in the meeting's post agenda all interest parties are encouraged to participate sign the select board thank you I well I was going to say I'm informed that M Levesque is here to present but you don't look like M Levesque is are you here representing uh Verizon sir yes sir my name is Ross Bilo I'm representing Verizon New England this evening thank you um you know this is a petition I I won't for the sake of time here I won't reread everything that the clerk already said but um this started as an eversource request uh Verizon being the maintaining party in town we're obliged to you know set polls in town at their requests if they're looking to do something uh it's my understanding you know like it says here for for the polls needed for um upgrade to service at 365 Main Street uh this is to bring in power to the electric vehicle charging station that I believe is being placed there so um I I I'm just going to make a general comment um I um maybe gave this a little bit more Focus um uh than than maybe other times uh and it occurred to me that that it would be I think appropriate um if this board which has limited expertise or background information on these to have somebody from the staff um essentially tell us that from the from the town point of view this is appropriate and that we should go ahead and approve it um I I'm that that's that's somewhat um uh fortuitous because we have two people one uh uh well maybe only one but in any event we we've been advised by email and I also understand from one of our staff members who's not responsible in this area um that the poll is already in place so i' I'd like to clarify that um that confusion before we do anything else do you have anything to say on that sir I did find that out this morning uh prior to you know meeting with you guys um I don't have an answer to that you know that's not our process that the poll shouldn't be placed until it is approved by the board um and then release the construction so I can't really speak on why that poll is already place in the field but you know I do apologize that you know that kind of went against the grain here and um do you know of your own personal knowledge that the poll is in fact there uh I'm not from that area so I I wasn't able to put eyes on it myself but I I did hear that the poll had been placed yes um Mr phy do you want to comment sure thank you Mr chair Rob phy director of Public Works um yeah the poll is in place it was to uh bring power to the EV charging stations I think there are actually two poles one in either side of the street I'm not sure if the first poll went through a hearing already or not the one on the side of the Eldridge garage but but this hearing is for the uh the poll on the opposite side by willowend and both polls are in place with wires strung from them already is is it part of your regular or your office's regular responsibility when one of these comes up to establish that um it that that from the town point of view whatever the relevant uh criteria are it's appropriate for us to agree to to authorize it yeah I don't technically know if it's my responsibility but we do take an act role and we review all of these as they come in uh to see if there are any conflicts well I'll invite comments from the board I'll just say from my own point of view I think as a matter of regular procedure when we have one of these who whether it's you or your office or whomever uh somebody ought to stand up and say we've we've looked at this and it's appropriate and and we uh we recommend that you approve it yeah Jeff that's fine okay so do we need to do anything here just approve the uh the pole installation you mean ratify it ratify it is it straight I'll take a motion so move uh oh forgive me I my my apologies yes uh yeah go ahead please I'm sorry I'm Michelle klof and I live at 384 Main Street which is in the corner of Willow Bend and I'm here representing myself and my daughter and son-in-law that also live at that property um when the the public when alridge garage was completing construction um towards the end of the construction um all of a sudden one day we couldn't get out of Willow because we park in the back of our property and and the pole was being dug in and and and put in and hooked up and we asked what it was for and they explained that it was to support the electricity for the charging stations so when we received this petition plan um in December we were kind of confused as well because it said proposed but clearly where it was designated is where it was placed this summer so our concern um are there going to be additional polls being placed because there's property lines and we would just be concerned because of traffic and pedestrians during the the height of the season so how are we going to be notified that the poll that was put up this summer is exact exactly the one that we were receiving notice of tonight can can you help us with that uh sir sure um well like I explained earlier that you know sort of went against the grain of placing the poll prior to the hearing I can assure you that the hearing that we're at right now is for that poll and there won't be any more additional polls without further hearings Etc but you know to my knowledge this is this is it for this project and this is should be the only poll that's being placed in this area okay um and I also imagine that you know I wasn't the engineer on this individual project I'm just representing it this evening you know this being a town project I'm sure that they worked with you know civil engineers Etc to ensure that you know this poll wasn't placed on private property or to encroach on you know properties Etc well all all I would say is someone should go by because it it is really close to the roadway um it's not in front of our property it's on the property I guess I don't know the it's the Priscilla house and it's a rental property to to to the West I guess to the West um sorry 388 yeah yeah so anyway um I'm glad I came tonight because I was a little confused ask question yeah no go ahead go ahead ma'am can I ask you a question oh sure does the does the poll impede your ability IL to get in and out of your property no okay no so you could live with this poll your concern is it's a little close to the road well it's it's in front it's not in front of our property right uh I guess I'm here tonight because we were concerned like where would this other we we were thought another additional poll was being put in okay um and that would be that would definitely raise concern okay and we would like to know way in advance that this would be another poll that would be considered but it seems like what's there is what yeah I mean somebody should look at it I guess but yeah I mean it's it was put up without notice or any kind of notification for us do you know when it was put up um it was towards the end of the Eldridge garage project um sometime in the summer late summer y okay all right I mean they just showed up all right and thank you sorry uh Jeff thank you Mike yeah it's clear I think that you know there's got to be a a process around this where DPW is is notified when uh a hearing is going to happen and and it flows to the proper channels internally here in in the town so I think that ought to happen uh you guys are putting polls in all the time and I think it's great um and I hope you're upgrading some of the polls because we've had issues in the past but I think the process ought to flow through DPW and through the town offices and just you got to be aware yeah I I I would certainly agree with that Rob I I maybe you can comment um I think after the poll I I since I don't know how much you interact with whoever is putting the poll in at the time they're doing it I guess I want to ask in light of the lady's question um whether there is a a a post completion um inspection or look to make sure that the poll is where it belongs and and otherwise conforms to what the engineering specs are yeah typically these are eversource driven not necessarily Verizon driven but Verizon is responsible for the polls and we do work with every Source um you know there are certain times where we don't agree with what they have laid out and we try to work with you know if they're going to say instead of digging up the road open trenching we'll have them underground using trenchless technology that kind of thing so we do have a little bit of back and forth if there's any concerns most of them are pretty straightforward though but would would you say that you generally have a look at the project at completion so you know that it's it's it's done um as you've worked out with them uh typically unless it's on a private road or or something that doesn't really you know there's a there's a lot of real estate to work with and there's not really any impedance on the on the road or the RightWay um but yeah we do and and I've observed this poll uh when it went in okay um go ahead Corey has a question too oh I'm sorry Corey yeah go ahead did my my only two senses is um you know the proposal the information in this proposal for the public hearing is the poll that is already installed so I don't have an issue with it it doesn't seem to create any issues that would cause me to say let's not not approve it um but as far as a consistent process um this kind of bucked the norm you know it was installed much earlier um I do think we as a town um deserve a written response from you utilities explaining what happened so we can have something in writing um because this is not something that we know should be part of the normal process and I don't want it to happen because you know we say oh you know we have a public hearing and everyone's got to be notified and to the ab but's response is you know hey a poll showed up beforehand nothing saying it's not going to happen again so I think we need some some reassurance that the communication between the utilities and the town are are are in sync so I'd appreciate a response on this particular poll um but as far as the approval of the poll I can move forward and and support it but I do want to make sure that our our process and Communications are all on the same page thank you yeah just Rob are you saying that this pole that you've now seen in place is properly located it appears so it's in line with the other polls on the street it's okay it's located in on the roadside of a white picket fence it's pushed back as far as it can from the roadway doesn't seem like it's a hazard okay still a few feet off the edge of pavement um I would note I do recall we had one instance I think where a poll had been installed before the hearing uh was noncontroversial it's a while back but within the last year or so thank you excuse me Mr chair I have a little bit of information here back on May 3rd um excuse me NSTAR had submitted an easement request that obviously would need to before town meeting but the town manager did sign um it was for um it granted the licy um the license to locate relocate ere construct install Etc um poles wires conduit Transformers so I'm wondering if that was taken instead of a poll hearing but that I do have this license agreement from eversource from May of 2024 so I don't know if that's another piece to the puzzle but I did want to at least make you aware of that okay thank you Katie thank you Mr chairman Katie dunan director of community development in addition to this poll there are two polls that are actually placed on Town property at the eldrich garage one is to power the building the other is to bring the service from the EV charging stations to the poll across the street um that is the subject of tonight's discussion the polls that are on the town property required the license um this poll actually required the poll hearing okay okay good good thank you I think that now I I want to be clear though I certainly endorse and I trust the board endorses Mr Met's request for a a written report um as appropriate from Verizon eversource in terms of how you sort out um who owns the polls who asks for them who installs them so we we we'd like to see that in at at at your shall we say expeditious convenience and Mr chair if I could I think moving forward what we'll do is we'll have a staff cover memo that it's been reviewed and recommended so that the board knows that there's been eyes on the potential location there's no conflicts and so forth that that's that's excellent that's kind of what I'm looking for thank you very much now I will take a motion move approval second all those in favor Mr Mets I um Mr dykens Miss Davis Mr Shell says I and Mr nastro all right thank you um I think you may still be up here uh our next one Shireen would you read the notice please town of chadam Select board public hearing notice the chadam select board will hold a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday January 14th 20125 to consider a petition from Verizon New England Inc and NSTAR Electric doing business as eversource energy to install one joint owned poll p145 on the Wesley side of George Ryder road to a point approximately 41 ft northeasterly of a of existing pole p14 this petition is necessary to upgrade Services approximately around 249 George Ryder wrote the public is welcome to attend the meeting in person participate via Link in the meeting posted agenda all interests parties are encouraged to participate sign the select board uh go ahead sir yes again for the sake of uh saving time here I won't reread what we're trying to do here but again we're trying to Place pull 14 and a half um again this started as another eversource request um you know and Verizon is again is obliged to place the polls in town um I believe this is again for more electric vehicle charging stations so this would this poll would bring the overhead services from eversource down uh to a point where it can be dropped down and service those new charging stations um this is in the of the the police station I don't know much more about the you know the town's project beyond that though um do you do you have a comment Rob I do have a comment thank you um it's just the existing poll uh that it's it's 41 feet away uh the sidewalk jogs around that pole so the any proposed poll should be placed behind the sidewalk not on the roads side of the sidewalk and that would be a request from the T town there should be a request from the town and so that's a that that's a variation on what we have in front of us well it doesn't the the sketches are very um schematic they don't show you know the police department driveway they don't show the sidewalk so there are a few things that are left to interpretation but you know I would request that we make a recommendation that it would be installed behind the sidewalk okay um Dean are the is this Poll for charging stations that the charging station stations that were not approved at town meeting I I don't know what the I know uh eversource was doing a lot of electric work on George Ryder Road and I just assumed this was part of that um infrastructure so not necessarily related to the airport's proposal for charging stations not that I'm aware of okay I know we have the deputy police chief here it might be for the can the proposed canopy do are you familiar with that okay there's a proposed can uh canopy um at the PD and I just don't know if I it's on the I mean I don't know what's the I was going to say it's on appears to be on the wrong side of the street for what Dean is talking about correct but um okay um anything from the public uh so with that recommendation from our DPW director does somebody want to make a move approval Mr chair all those in favor Mr necastro hi Mr Shell says I Miss Davis Mr dykens Mr Mets uh thank you thank you sir appreciate it appreciate thank you for your time um take care okay thank you good night uh next okay Town chadam select board public hearing the chadam select board will hold a public hearing on Tuesday January 14 2025 5:30 p.m. in the large meeting room at the Town Office Annex 261 George rder Road to consider the following one new stop sign at Sam rer Road and Main Street Route 28 one additional stop sign with reflective tape on the poll to be placed on the opposite corner of the existing sign the signs of standard size and style and recommended to the board by the Traffic Safety Committee all interest parties are encouraged to participate in person or remote via remotely via the link in the posted agenda sign the select board um thank you than you um Miss Craig hi Joan Craig uh chair of the Traffic Safety Committee the committee reviewed two requests for the installation of a blinking red light uh red stop sign on Sam Ryder Road at Main Street which is Route 28 the Sam Ridder Road Main Street intersection has been the location of several motor vehicle accidents crashes with one crash as recent as November of 24 a significant number of the crashes have been caused by Motor Vehicles operators failing to stop at the stop sign going onto Route 28 the committee did not support the recommendation for the installation of the blinking red stop sign but does recommend the installation of one additional stop sign with reflective tape on the pole I think you see it there it's on the left side heading into Route 28 the additional stop sign would be placed on the opposite corner of the existing sign reflective tape would also be added to the existing stop sign poll the committee also recommends that stop ahead be pencil uh stenciled sorry on the roadway stencil and sign would be installed at the discretion of the DPW in accordance with applic applicable regulations and policies um thank you what are you I got a question well I was starting with the board well I public hearing I didn't know if you one the public go ahead go ahead go no no I mean my my two SS on this is I mean one thing I've always noticed driving down Sam rder road is I can see if people who are not familiar with the area with Colonial Drive you get closer to it you think you're just going straight across you don't realize 28's there so um there is there is um always been that like element of if you're not familiar with it accidents can happen so I can see what do occurred in the past um I mean I'm comfortable with the um traffic safeties committee about the you know you know a sign with the reflective tape and everything I think the one element that I'm I'm very supportive of is the stop ahead stencil because it gives that notification further back um that is I think is going to be one of the more critical kind of notifications for anyone traveling that road that oh I might have to slow down because that little element is going to be that extra um safety guard for people to slow down when they get that intersection so I think that element is is definitely something I would want to make sure we we move and the other point here is there is a sign that says there is a stop ahead yeah so that would be an additional sign before the stop sign suspenders but it's I can understand y sh I just have a quick question too is um this the stencil would be obviously before going down the hill it would that would be at the discreption discretion of the DPW have to check with him uh Jeff Jo your uh Traffic Safety Committee has been busy this this fallowing winter you've been here almost every meeting anyway you guys are doing a great job pully in favor you know you're supposed to slow down for the bike path as well as you approach rout 28 at the intersection of Sam and 28 so you should be slowing down anyway or maybe speeding up a little bit beyond it but uh fully in favor of the stencil great idea one quick question why didn't you like the blinking lights it's not that we didn't like them but our DPW director uh counseled us uh there is a large tree by that stop sign whoops gone stop sign on the right which would prevent sunlight from helping because these are um solar solar so that's why we opted for this good thank you recommendation thanks to the committee thank you yeah thank you I I don't have any com um anybody from the public okay move approval second all those in favor uh Mr necastro I Mr Shell says I Miss Davis hi uh Mr dykens Mr Mets thank you thank you uh before you leave however if you wouldn't mind uh I we we on my agenda um I have um a second item for parking on um Shad on shat place I and I it's not part of the notice of of um of of hearing and my understanding was that you did not recommend that we have two items further on in the agenda uh it's we have that and we have the chapter n yes forgive me I'm reading from the wrong section thank you very much we're good did you want to discuss that now no no no no thank you very much um Mr failey uh no I'm sorry we have uh transfer of alcoh all alcohol annual Al all alcohol beverages Hotel license Mr Riley I have to read the public notice oh forgive me yes that's okay Town chadam select board public hearing notice notice is hereby given that the chadam select board will hold a public hearing on Tuesday January 14th of 2025 at 5:30 p.m. in the large meeting room of the Town Office Annex 261 George roer Road chadam and remotely via Microsoft teams platform to consider the transfer of annual all alol beverages Hotel license from in Partnership LLC doing business as the in at 359 main Jeff and apologies if I don't do this right I P man AP manager to chadam in Partners LLC DBA chadam in Adam Vota manager for the business located at 359 Main Street all parties all interested parties are encouraged to participate uh good evening Bill Riley on behalf of the chatam in is Adam Vota our manager U the uh the new owners have been running the in for almost a year now took us quite a while to get the information together for the license transfer because the uh the company uh that has taken over the in uh has many interests around the country and much to my surprise we had to tell you and the alcoholic beverages commission about every single license that they have so uh it took us a while to accumulate all the information so uh the delay and getting here is uh attributed only to my office uh but Adam is here to answer any questions uh about the in the and the operation of the in and what his schedule is we think that to transfer to the new owners uh because they it's a much more substantial Corporation no disrespect to Jeff and Jimi po but um the Noble House uh and hotels U operate 30 hotels 30 hotels 30 hotels around the country and they're uh happy to be in New England and they plan on doing great things with our in and our hope to expand further into New England thank you questions from the board uh Dean thank you um thank you Bill I I just had one question the paperwork seems to be in order um the qu the the application indicates that the manager expects to spend 20 hours a week on the premises is that coinci coincidental with the number of hours that alcohol is served or how is that number determined I'm not sure what the requirement is um Sean is there any requirement under the our RS did you just want to comment with shaa uh she was um Adams actually going to be spending three days a week there he has other responsibilities in the corporation um the requirement to do some traveling but based on what Shauna reported to me U Chef I Poli was missing for months at a time so uh we think this is a huge Improvement yeah I only ask because on other applications for other properties we've seen um more extensive hours coverage but I just thought I'd asked the question I'm sorry no I'm fine thanks uh no just to follow up I think we're used to a small town community you know privately owned operated businesses and we're seeing a transition in ownerships of different iconic locations in town which is fine I think actually uh what has made me a little more comfortable with this is um the previous manager was out of state traveling further according to the paperwork here you're you're right here on the cape so you're East Dam so um in theory more accessible more attainable easier to tra Trace down so um I think from that perspective um you know that is a plus for us for to be able to communicate or at least for Sean to have to communicate to you if necessary um but um I mean I guess you know I don't think we have as far as I know any set hours 20 hours 30 hours 40 hours um we just kind of hope that there's a entity that is uh responsible and responsive to the town when necessary so um with the fact that you're actually on the cape is a little bit more comforting to me so absolutely yeah uh Jeff just have kind of a nosy question I apologize in advance but is this the only um New England or Cape Cod facility that Noble House Runs yes it is and and how did Noble House become interested in this particular location was they've been very interested in New England for quite some time they've been looking at uh cape and the islands and some other properties within New England area at one time we had we were part of uh we managed the Viking Hotel in Rhode Island um for many many many years uh it was a Lal was the parent group who owned it um we love New England um and we look to you know find more opportunity here as well um I'm fortunate enough as you said to be a resident here and love it myself right as Corey mentioned that it you know this is the kind of second major change in and ownership of of icons here in town so it is an interesting Trend um one that may continue anyway so I was also struck by the application the the the breadth and depth of the application was must have been exhausting to put together um the the number of locations was incredible so anyway um this is this a little larger organization than we're used to but I wish you well and uh I have I I'm if I if I could just comment briefly on y uh you know like the wet in and the way site in I believe are are now owned by uh Equity partner groups this end is owned by Noble House hotels and their business is running hotels uh not Equity guys so I I think it's a an improvement over other possibilities thanks Bill uh sh oh uh I yeah I I kind of want to follow up just briefly maybe um as uh Jeff said a little nosy but have you do you have a long uh experience with uh this organization Noble house if that's the right way to characterize that I've been work I started with the company in 1999 okay okay and you've been more or less on the cape that actually I've I've lived all over the country but in the last three years I've lived on the cape last year I purchased a home on the cape I bought my mother-in-law's house my wife and her family grew up here in town um they they grew up in Ptown uh their family had a business there um my mother-in-law worked for the bank and um and we we found ourselves here thank you um anything from the public either online or here here in the room you see anything no Mr chair move approval all those in favor Mr matters hi Mr Dyk Miss Davis Mr Shell says I and Mr necastro hi thank you very much very much good luck appreciate it absolutely look forward to seeing you okay before I say anything I'm going to look here um yes Mr failey good evening again so I'm doing the um chadam Wells pile and drinking water testing and pumping update so for training field Wells uh construction is ongoing I've got some pictures here uh the first floor slab is fully cured and finished site work is ongoing the water main hydrants have all been installed on site the sewer main pipe materials have been delivered to the site they haven't been installed yet um lot of HVAC Plumbing work uh is ongoing Winston Builders is the contractor they drained to remove the carbon for the gaac filter for well five um you know other other ongoing work you can see the masonry blocks stacked up in the corner the Masons are getting ready ready to start uh putting the walls in so uh so we're moving along it's uh it's going nicely and I think we're slightly ahead of schedule which is better than the alternative uh as far as Wells 10 and 11 um sorry to sound like a broken record but we are still waiting for the Secretary of Energy environmental Affairs to give us the go-ahead for well 10 I sent them an email again at the first of the year and I have not heard back Michael uh yeah Jeff go ahead Rob and I guess this for Jill as well but just a quick question can we not uh tap uh Sarah Peak or Hadley ly or somebody on the on the shoulder here and try to shake this a little bit this is ridiculous this has been ongoing for months ail April and it's a very simple easement this is this is simple stuff so it's got to be hung up in a bureaucracy somewhere and eyes need to get on it because this is just foolishness yeah that's a great recommendation we'll do that tomorrow good thanks thank you so for the month of December Wells have been running 3 to8 hours per day we did not hit the lowlevel alarm um water samples I'll just summarize this briefly that we're all free of bacteria um pressure washing of the storage tanks was completed um Wells six uh 67 and9 and Morton Road Plant were um they replace some head shafts uh in those areas so just ongoing system maintenance um we're still working on um dealing with some of the residents and trying to investigate what their service lines are so we have violi out there uh making appointments with residents and trying to narrow down the lead and copper database as much as we possibly can we've also had a couple of water main breaks um which typically this time a year when it gets colder we we tend to see that so here's the monthly report for December compared to December 23 you can see there were a couple of days in there that kind of spiked you know 102% 120% over last year um I think a lot of that is um I'm not really sure what a lot of that is it was one was on a Wednesday Before Christmas troll uh maybe there were a lot of people in town I'm not sure um the other day 121% was on a Sunday which Sunday typically we see a a lot of flows on Sundays for some reason and this is just um pumping comparison graph you can see again on the 11th and the 15th are the two spikes um nothing too alarming there again it's just a in a bar chart this View and here is the uh monthly comparison uh dayby day for each well total of 19.3 million gallons pumped for December you see Wells four is out of service for the winter uh well five is under the control of the contractor and you know well Aid has been out of service since 2021 and here's just the the pumping graph as well and here's the year-to-date pumping this is the final uh report for 24 so it shows um this year we pumped 472 million gallons which is um slightly less 5 million gallons less than last year but where we are we're right on track it's a lot of water and here's the bar graph it really looks like Wells um one two and three are really carrying the load but when you look at the Morton Road Plant which is 67 and N they actually are I pump more but they are just tracked separately because uh one two and three are combined and the system and one and six seven and nine we can track separately this is something new for this it's just um because it is a year end report um just wanted to show what the uh level was for all the unbuild water that's used around town a lot of that is for flushing hydrants and blowoff uh you know we're probably in the I don't know close to 8 million gallons 9 million gallons just for flushing just to keep the health of the system well and um training areas that don't really see a lot of use especially in the off season but that total is 21 million gallons for the year and this is just a uh a usage graph that shows the same information so we get to the USGS water level report um as you can see this is the chadam again it's a little bit more uh it fluctuates a little bit easier with the weather um we started to recover a little bit we're still kind of faltering around the trough we haven't done that seasonal recharge yet um but us usually happens right around the turn of the year so um so hopefully we're going to start seeing things improve and see that upward tick and this is Brewster's observation well again this is the Bell weather for this area of Cape part of Cape Cod very similar to last year the trough bottomed out right around the first of the year and it looks like it may start that um seasonal recharge but um again fingers crossed and here is the five-year comparison pumping is right on average pumping hours and we're a little bit higher in December this year I think it was still pretty mild in the early part of the month and maybe that had something to do with it so that summarizes that I wanted to give take this opportunity to say that um you know is there anything that the board would like to see differently is there any redundancy you'd like to eliminate you know I want to make this the the most valuable report to the board but I don't want to include information that you don't think is useful or valuable or I I'll add additional information if you think there's a need Rob I think I think the report is is well done and I would say just keep going the way you are simply for the fact that we're you know our climate's changing and our water resources are you know can change very quickly I think the more we're informed the more we can make better decisions for the community so I appreciate it might take a lot of work to do it but it's appreciated and uh I encourage all our citizens to take a look at this report because it is it is very valuable okay thank you uh Jeff yeah I Echo those those comments I I love that you know where I love the report I love the way it ties out every number ties out it's accurate the fact that you you track a by a by well is really awesome I have one quick question on on the uh GAC filter the GAC filter that's the one we're going to reuse correct everything in good shape I remember if I recollect one of them got dented at one point or it fell off the crane when they the crane if I so I just I assume it's in it's in good enough shape to reuse for our permanent treatment plan so that'll be one of the four that's in the new treatment plan right right super okay thank you uh Dean yeah I just I agree with what Shireen and Jeff said I'm very pleased with this I just want to ask is is this made available to the water and sewer advisory committee I've never really seen it on their agenda but is informationally is it provided to the members it probably should be after after it's presented to us it's it's not I can I can make a point to share that with them yeah that would be good thank you um yeah I I'm just going to Echo I think it's a good report it's very um uh variations on presentation that help uh you know help us understand it and I think there a good bunch of data there uh I'm prompted by your new chart new charts will always get you in trouble you know um but I I'm Pro I see we we used um 21 million gallons of um of of water that that was um uh unu um as against whatever the number was 470 some odd uh million uh that we pumped uh do do we have any notion of what what it costs us per thousand gallons million gallons whatever to deliver water to chadam I'd really just have to take the the annual budget and divide it by the number of gallons used so it's not a metric that you have in mind okay thank you thanks very much for that okay thank you okay um public comments on the business agenda um and we'll have public comments alongside the board with respect to the first item the seal discussion anything on the other oh yeah I'm ahead of you that's okay well I'm glad somebody else is is as stumbling as I am so um or not quite anyway um anything from the from the uh people in the room or online okay we'll move to uh oh sorry we suppos to com agenda yes please uh my name is Lucia Quinn I live at 186 cross street um I've been with you previously and I have some neighbors from Cross Streit here with me tonight um previously you approved at our request some attention to the excessive speed on cross street both as a shortcut between town and Stage Harbor and because there is a lot of um bike baby carriage pedestrian pet walking back and forth and there is a lot of excessive speed our first request um in uh that proposal was to uh reduce the speed limit on cross street to 20 or 25 miles per hour and um at that time Joan made the comment that there was going to be a a larger um investigation uh townwide of that um your decision and we're grateful that you paid attention was to install two thickly settled signs um with a 30 mph um speed limit and we we all agree that signage without enforcement is is not not as helpful as it could be but we're here tonight just to support the request um for a townwide um although without the knowledge of what that actually means um we think that uh the move to 25 miles an hour or even 20 uh would increase the safety of all the folks who are um in town as pedestrians um as drivers as kids um and so we just wanted to be supportive of that request thank you very much anybody else and I should note that I have uh uh we we have four letters supporting the uh reduction of the thickly settled speed limit from 30 to 25 and we'll make those a part of the record of this meeting anybody else okay thank you um now we can go to um a followup to our discussion concerning the proposal to renovate seel which we spent a considerable amount of time on a week ago I I'll open it um with um the board any comments any follow-up comments from the board um Dean thank you Mr chairman um I don't really want to spend a whole lot of time uh with my comments on this i' spoken multiple times I I just will say that I the presentation that we heard last week from Mr rabber I think um introduces um a very um reasonable way of um resolving the long-standing issue of what to do with uh the center for active living the senior center and um I'm very supportive of that going forward uh to town meeting and at some point hopefully this evening I may offer a motion in that regard but thank you uh Corey thank you Mr chair now we've been at this a very very long time we don't need to rehash all the history going into this but this proposal it is not going to be be careful how I chose these words the story book ending I think some people would really like to see but I think it's the most realistic uh responsible plan um that we can put forward to the voters um so we can get something accomplished that is um been um many have wanted for quite some time and there's a need for it so um I think um and we'll go through the details of our discussion but this is something I think the we should move forward for the Maytown meeting and let the voters weigh in on it sh thank you um I agree uh with both uh Dean and Corey on this it is a re reasonable resolution and I believe the response from the public has been somewhat positive um we're not at you know an I do want to see it move to town meeting but I do want to warn uh the public that I'm I'm not confident that that number is going to remain where it is as far as what the buildout will be so um we need to be wary and understand that there are certain um things that may you know change that number and um as we move forward so um you know if this is what the town wants I think that you know I'm supportive of of moving forward and having a resolution for for our seniors and having um an improvement for them um I can only wish that it would have been a brand new building uh that we all could um hold forward you know for a long time um yeah go ahead je thank you Michael yeah I too uh am supportive um I do believe uh I wanted the storybook as well to use Corey's term but but it didn't happen so I do think this is a a good resolution um I was very much heart when I heard that the renovations to the building and a small addition would satisfy the programmatic needs of the of the seal um it was really good to hear from um the the the board their board and um Leah and Kurt rer as well so I I am I am in favor I I will caution as Shireen just mentioned that the costs uh may be lower than we ultimately end up with number one number two this is going to need to be um should be approved and moveed forward which I think I'm getting the sense is is meeting with some some posi positivity amongst the our constituents but should it go forward they got a very very tight schedule for the build for the renovation for the build number one number two um it's going to take some long lead times for certain critical elements of this project um and number three it's going to take an awful lot of planning and patience amongst uh the the our our elders our seniors that use the Cal and and those folks that that use the community center it's going to take some really detailed planning and some patience on on everyone's part should this move forward and I'm in favor of it moving forward um it's it's it's been a long long time coming I've been here for every iteration and it's time to move on and time to get this done so I'm very much in favor appreciate it thanks so I I said what I had to say last week um I I think um I don't know that I would characterize it as story book ending but um uh that's that's as good as any I I um I I think at this point I counsel myself that having wanted to do that very much uh don't let that uh impair your ability to push this forward and get this done against the obstacles that it faces and and Jeff has articulated those I won't repeat them uh I I think we're looking at um a uh you know potential for um higher costs than what has been estimated and I'm not saying anybody uh Mr rabber was very candid about where we are in terms of the design process and how accurate a cost estimate you get at that stage um and we've had experience of that elsewhere um and the other thing is that the um the whole process of uh integrating construction and moving programs to and and office uh offices to the community center is is going to be a real Challenge and and I think that we all have to be aware um that that it it's going to create some friction and it may create some delay it may create a bunch of things but if we all get together and and do the best we can to make it work um and our patient with the process uh we can do it so uh I just want to caution uh don't be surprised if there are some challenges going forward but I I do support the project um comments from the uh from the floor from the the uh public Miss timson I've already and timson Chad Mass I've already sent you a letter i just want to say thank you for this kind of support it's very encouraging and since I sent the letter I'm starting to get a awful lot of feedback and the public is supportive of this very supportive of this uh I I understand you all have to be supportive for it to go through everybody understands all the issues that have risen as a result of having to close down the use of 193 but you do have the support but most of all um after the hearing last week I got the impression that our town manager does have a five million that it sounds like could be put with the warrant I I think this would just make the picture about as perfect as you can get it uh using a site that I know you weren't originally supportive of but the public is behind you on this project and that's important because we've all paid in money and it was in free cash and at least if we put it into this project we have an opportunity to make use of it and U I think it's going to go pretty smoothly based on the fact that having been at the hearing and seeing how the COA I still call it that director and park and recck director they're working really well together and there is always the trailer if you get into a jam so thank you for pursuing this thank you Dean for continuing to pursue it when others wanted to give up I we all appreciate it the public is supportive if you do the free cash thank you uh pet B good evening and thank you my name is Pat bark and I am the chairperson of the Council on Aging board of directors I also live in chadam and I'm not here as the um chairperson because our board has not met yet we meet on uh Tuesday I will say though that after the last meeting I can say with great confidence that the members of our board that were here were very positive I have spoken to one of the absentee members who was unable to come due to illness and um she was very positive um what I would like to say uh I would like to say a couple of things I understand that it will be a huge challenge to move to the community center I find the community center um a challenge on its face but what I will say is this if anyone can move this project and move it easily and efficiently it's Leah she has done a tremendous job with the um what what we're doing at 193 Stony Hill and I think she can easily move this I know it will be challenging but she has great support with from her staff as well as the board and the second thing I would like to say is um I thank Jean uh personally thank him for all his hard work on this over the years and I thank all of you for really I I I know how important getting a new building was to many and it's not story book as you say Corey but you know I think it's a really good solution I think it's a good solution I think the people in chadam as Ann said are um are are are supportive of this and um I I appreciate that you have uh taking the time to talk about it and support it so thank you very much thank you um anybody else I I I'd just like to make a comment from the board and in anticipation of what you might be thinking Dean um I I for good order's sake I would like this board to take action um not not necessarily in Reliance but with um the support of an a a a board action by the COA now we perhaps can do that subject to or whatever but I one of the comments I was going to make was that uh I thought it was appropriate for us to rely on a recommendation whether that's uh in in in anticipation or otherwise uh from the the COA board yeah D thank you Mr chairman uh happy to defer uh TimeWise I will just say next week is the budget presentation from the town manager if you want to um um put this on the agenda for next week as a preliminary item that um we would anticipate not much comment on maybe that's that could accommodate um your your concern or interest and I ordinarily would would um bless you would would want to go the same take the same approach and and get a recommend formal recommendation from the COA board um if you can do that fine then I wouldn't offer a motion tonight the other question I wanted to put up all right well let's take that one up first because I I normally I would just say oh fine um but I'm GNA ask Jill if that's okay so in the budget presentation we're going to be looking at the potential Capital articles and what we've earmarked for funding and funding mechanisms so I think there may be a couple of other items on next week's uh agenda for the budget presentation and certainly if if if the board wants to put it on for um for to expedite the the work that needs to be done the sooner we know the board's intent to put in on the warrant um and the funding mechanism understanding that Tommy needs to us to prove it and that works in our best interest as well well if I may I I um I I then with that I think I'd like to suggest that we do put it on the agenda for next week but perhaps take some sort of a draw a vote here that we do intend to put it on the warrant subject to next week yeah go ahead I could I could offer a motion and just make it make the motion is going to be to to direct the town manager to prepare an article which you would submit back to us I could um I could make that um instruction to the town manager contingent on an affirmative recommendation from the COA board which is meeting Tuesday if you I could do it that way I think that's fine I think that's fine then you wouldn't have to do it next week I think it's fine my concern is that I'm not going to be at this meeting on the 28th yeah that um and and the other question I wanted to um put a dollar amount in there and the proposal the estimates came in at 4.6 I'm thinking I would put in the 5 million to allow for some cushion um for um uh contingencies and the cost of of relocation temporarily to to the community center that haven't already been that hasn't already been included um and I would say that if this the RFP goes out and the bids come in much higher than 5 million we're going to have to double back and decide what we want to do with that but I did I wanted to also consider specifying the source of funds and I know Mr chairman you have talked about that in the past if you would like to uh some further time to reflect on that I won't include that in the motion I I would not only like time to reflect but I I think I'd like to see the budget discussion and um uh those those items before we before we take that up okay then then we could when if we vote in the affirmative if the council and aging board votes in the affirmative on Tuesday and the town manager submits an article for the warrant the night we consider that article we can finalize the the funding and the source source of those funds okay so with that in mind I I move that the select board direct the town manager to prepare and submit for the select board's consideration an article for May 2025 annual town meeting warrant to authorize the design and construction of the proposed uh Center for active living renovation at 193 Stony Hill Road um contingent upon an affirmative recommendation in support uh from the council and aging Board second um all those in favor Mr Mets I Mr dykens I M Miss Davis I Mr Shell says I and Mr necastro I thank you and thank you to the commenters and as I mentioned we had um I believe it was four letters in support sorry two letters in support of that uh which will make part of the uh part of the record of this meeting next um Mr failey we have what is an appeal from an appeal seeking abatement of a water bill um issue to 25 Glendon way yes thank you Mr chair so um the mccurren uh received a quarterly water bill uh for 1,00 11 units of water uh that equates to 7 56 228,000 gallons of water from a period of June 4th to September 23rd their bill was $592 125 so they um the mccar appealed it to me I um they had um you know compelling argument they showed a ring camera videos that shows it wasn't an irrigation failure um we couldn't really see any indication of that being false we pulled the meter we tested the meter it was within tolerances I denied their um their uh consideration for abatement um sent it to the water and sewer advisory committee what they typically do is divide the summer it was a summer billing so the summer rates are much higher um they broke it was what we typically do with break it over four quarters so they build a two quarters of it for winter rates two quarter of it in the summer rate that created a savings of about $1,500 but still their bill was $4,420 we did pull some daily rates and actually we have like hourly usage on some of those days because we have a new radio system and a lot of our meters that we can that we can go drill down to that level it looks like they're un averaged in those two days that we pulled they were about 250 gallons per hour for a 24-hour period for that 3 and a half month period so that's where that's where the 756 th000 gallons came into so that's an extraordinary amount of water but it's something that could be achieved if say a toilet was running continuously so that's where we are it's as the Water and Sewer Commissioners it's um referred to [Laughter] you I I'm GNA start on a light note I just one little light note here there's a concept in law called race IPS aoer which is this thing speaks for itself um and and that'll be my only comment for the moment go ahead Corey well I'm G to sh I mean the some of this I've shared before I've been on the stinging side of some of these bills I I as a as a uh landlord to one of my commercial units I had a toilet that was running and we got hit with a very significant Bill and um we paid it we paid it it hurt um but the the trickling of a little toilet can add up to us huge consumption of water and it is amazing how quickly in a few months things can add up um and also I had a leak in my own residence and and um got a nice little surprise one year and in hindsight maybe I should have tried for an abatement but um they sting they hurt but it happens quickly it's not um you know whether you live there or you rent it or whatever the scenarios are little things add up very very quickly and I feel I I'm I feel for you know the owners um but I can't lean on anything specific that would allow us to give a full abatement um I think the recommendation um is you know for for for partial you know abatement basically um I think is is definitely more in line um was that the just for clarification was that the only um offer that was put on the table that one particular abatement okay yes it was um so um I think there's you know I think that is a good faith um offer um but I would love to be able to say we're going to bait more but I can't lean on anything that would justify such an action so as much as it hurts I I I don't think I can support anything beyond what the the recommendation uh uh for the abatement that has presented to us in our packet so it helps a little bit but it still hurts I know um Jeff I'm sorry thank you Mike I just have a couple of questions um can you correlate the use of what this is this a rental or you rent it you rent it all the time in the summer time sure are no please yeah go ahead go ahead go ahead hi I'm Lindsay MCC hi Lindsay nice to see you um so we do rent the property we spend a good amount of time there ourselves in the summer so you know just want to make sure we don't give the impression that we're never there we are there um and you know to the point on a running toilet um Jared from the DPW did check both of the toilets in the home and there was no indication that they were running we have not changed out the toilets the meter was changed and there is no issue now now and so the toilets are the same nothing else in the property has changed other than the meter and I recognize that it tested properly but 750,000 gallons of water like we were worried we had water in the basement there's no evidence of water on the property there's there would be flood I mean it's like a swimming pool a day for 90 days and it just doesn't really hold that that amount of water was on the property it's not a very big home it's 1100 square ft there's only you know two toilets three sinks in the whole house and they were tested you know to make sure that there weren't leaks in the system we had our irrigation company come out and meet with DPW to make sure that there wasn't a leak in the system we also had the irrigation system turned off in August and this continued on through September so um it you know doesn't correlate to it being the irrigation so I totally hear you a leaking toilet can definitely add up but this feels like an astronomical amount of water to be using it's like over five years worth of water on the property you know according to the averages that we've seen so um I don't have you know scientific reason as to why or what happened or what could be driving it all we can say is like for our perspective there was no evidence of water on the property it's a huge amount of water to be using and it's just a huge sum of money so we figured it was worth at least you know continuing the process to appeal yeah I appreciate I appreciate that just to continue a little bit here Rob if can you look on page three of our package when it says usage history report 25 Glend and way and then just the third number down on 9424 am I reading it correctly that 866 is the is the number that was read from the meter it's really aberant to every other number in this column if I'm reading it correctly which I think I am yes that's correct well how the heck can it go from 141 three three months before so in a in a quarter you're going from June to September you know you use 700 and something you know units if you will so so previously we wouldn't catch these in time we would catch them when we do a quarterly billing now we have upgraded our radio service so we can count thousands of meters in a single day so follow up for Mr mccaran was the house rented from June to September of 24 it was rented on and off yeah you might okay yep you weren't okay so we had yeah we had we had some weeks that were vacant um I could you know I'd have to remind myself there was a week in July that was vacant there were a couple days in August where people weren't there after we were so it's rented on and off yep and and we did shut off their water once we we noticed this we shut the water off notify the property owner we think if it was say a leaking toilet like a a flapper that was left up and maybe the shutting off the water seeded it but we couldn't find any evidence of the water like said um Mrs McCaren said like not being lost on the property not being you know in somebody's yard it it probably went down the sewer drain but is there any way I guess my stupid question is and I apologize in advance is there any way that the water meter could read 866 without having water run through the meter there's no way right no okay I I'm sorry uh is is Mr is that Mr mccurran online ah yeah that's my husband he's at home you you want to speak yes hi thank you yeah hik thank you for um taking Nathan mccar 25 Glendon way sorry I couldn't be there in person have uh kid practices to juggle tonight um I guess the one thing I wanted to add was yes there were some renters there on and off throughout that period but if you look at the water levels and the water usages day by day it's very consistent once you see that Spike up and in most of that period we did not have RS in the house the house was was either we were there or it was empty and as as Lindsay pointed out we shut off the irrigation in August and you don't see a drop off in the water usage after that point and we were running and we planted some grass seed throughout you know during the early part of the Season we were using our irrigation so you would expect that there should be a you know a decent drop off when we stop using irrigation for this season and you can see the ring footage that was noted grass turning Browner as the as the time went on until we got into September when the water levels were still that high and just to reinforce yes it seems implausible that a meter could read that high but it's also implausible to us like where where did that water go and we haven't changed anything in the house what we did when we received the call that day we we frankly panicked and little little bit of tears of of holy cow we we don't have this money lying around just to note this this is our only owned property we we rent our we live in the Southshore of Boston which we rent and own this is our main house that we take care of you know so want to just emphasize you know we spend a lot of time here and this is We Care a Lot for this house when we received the call we notified our neighbor who we know well asked her like wow our basement must be underwater can you go over and and check and see if you can you know identify the problem she walked through there was absolutely nothing that she could find on that day we didn't go out right away to dramatically change some problem that was happening there's been no work done so it yes it seems impossible that a meter could uh could read that but also the only thing that has changed on the house since that time is a changed meter and I'll I'll wrap there thank you well I I I guess that the um well let me ask you this it Rob is is there are there any St this is just a factual inquiry there no standards here that that would that would um help inform this decision um I mean I you you've I guess the thing that I'm I'm struggling with is theoretically yes this or that kind of a leak could um create a a you know 750,000 gallon uh dispersal but um if if there was no change in anything and if there was um no no indication that you were able to find that anything was or that anybody was able to find that anything was in fact leaking um it it sort of leaves you with the impression that um you know something here um wasn't working the way it was supposed to work whatever that might have been well I could I could definitely see fluctuations in in the in the usage during the summer you know there were you know 11,000 days 12,000 gallon days um but then you know when the house was U reportedly unoccupied it it tailed off to like around 75 7700 per day so there was still some leakage and you know again the meter was tested and it fell within the awwa standards um so that's why we removed the meter put a new one on and we brought it back to the lab and tested it okay and then do I understand that without any change other than the the meter the usage went way down I don't know I only have my on my sheet is when the water is still turned off so I don't have an I had emailed the office and just to to see get a status update and there was you know no no um no issues noted I think it was actually reading zero at the time because we hadn't been out there yet we've since spent a couple weekends there um but we haven't received our quarterly statement but at the time I know what right after it was replaced it was reverting back to reading it was zero zero yes so I guess the only other question is is it is it in our experience possible that um irresponsible renters could run up a water bill like that what would you have to do leave the water on basically like a toilet would be running constantly I will say they weren't the same renters so like people who if there was one group there that entire time I could say they had behavior that was maybe nefarious but this was different groups of people and if you look at the hourly rates it was consistent at like one two every hour constant which would think that it's a leak but that just wasn't produced in the evaluation and one thing to know is just to I guess disparage ourselves a little bit I'm a I'm a finance professional you Lindsay is a marketing professional know we're not we're not by any means handy people that would be fixing this problem ourselves um if if we had something and and obviously you know we could produce our our credit card bills or whatever to show that there hasn't been any any change on the house um and I I wonder I mean maybe to move us forward I wondered you know something that I guess when we sought this process out where where we began with I guess our what our Hope was is that we did a lot of research online of like what has happened when other people face this problem even if if there was a problem if they had some astronomical water bill what happens and it seems like there's a a strong precedent across other towns of cities who have looked at the average usage in Prior years and been able to give an abatement back to the kind of average level of Prior years to to kind of help help the homeowners I guess and um so I guess that that was where we were what we were going for here was look there's there's an established if you look at the multi-year history of the house um we've owned the home for about four years now if you look at the you know several year history there's an average usage across the years something happened this year no no one it's hard to disprove you know that it's hard to prove a an absence of something right so nobody can say here what happened we didn't change anything and all of a sudden you know we have some paper bill that is telling us that something dram Ally change in the house and there's no physical evidence of that actually being the case and so the the I guess the maybe counter motion that we would introduce or ask uh the board to consider would be looking at our prior year history uh averages and and seeing if that is something that is closer to what would be Abad back to um thank you Mr chairman um Rob how old was the meter that was tested do we know I yeah I don't have that information in handy um and and Miss McCaren the the um did you say that the renters this past summer during this period were the same people that had rented previously there were a couple families that have rented in Prior years um and then like we were there for part of the Fourth of July we were there um in August and so it was kind of a combination but it was not I just meant to say it was not one group that was there the whole time yet the behavior was all the same so it just it seems not logical that all these actors would have acted the exact same how many bedrooms in this house three three bedrooms two bathrooms it's about 1100 square fet do you know the number of people per rental that were present you know I could go back and reference it usually it's like a set of grandparents with older CH with you know their adult children and some like young toddlers that's typically who we rent to um I know we had a party of you know a couple couples that were doing some fishing um so I think I mean the capacity at the house is eight um according to like the chadam laws it sleeps more than that but we don't you know it's 1100 square feet so we don't want more than that pting me people even when my own family comes we rent an additional property Rob um is it correct to understand that the practice of the water and sewer advisory committee or your department in other cases has been to do what the committee is proposing here that's correct took winter rates and even though this occurred during the summer period to try Prov some relief to the property owner but it still uh accounts for some of the water that was used um the the Mr chairman you you inquired as to what the standard might be I I don't see any in the in the regulation or of the town which would lead me to conclude that we have to follow some U standard of fairness I guess and Equity both to the property owner and to the taxpayers water the water users I guess um customers I I and I was going to ask but Mr McCaren addressed it um proactively what kind of relief you would be looking for beyond what um the water and sewer committee has proposed yeah and that's what I had the little table you know was really just to say we do have some years of history with us you know we inherited the the the home as it was in terms of the irrigation system Etc um when we purchased it but our usage you know since 2021 is basically what we said like this is an indication of how we've used water in the past and so is this something we could rely on to say like any change in Behavior so you acquired the property in 2021 yeah do you recall what what month January okay so the September usage of 106 in 2021 that would have been during your ownership yep and yeah from that point forward um I haven't done the math here but um even if you took um I'm just speaking out loud here even if you took um the higher usages during your ownership September setember 21 106 September 20 2399 suppose you took a 100 that would be 300 and we're talking basically three months here Rob um three and a half like early June to middle of September if you took their highest months which is more generous than I think I perhaps I'm sorry it's less generous than I think they the property owner is proposing you'd have 300 plus units which would be something less than half the bill I mean I I really um it this the staff person Jared works for you yeah he's a violia employee but yes okay so they went over there he went over there and no one could find any any cause for this and the meter tests accurately within the accurate accuracy range it's a mystery is this um is the irrigation system on a separate meter it's not but we've learned our lesson on that one needs to obviously be switched out I think it probably I think that's the new standard is that but it wasn't running during this period it was running during part of the period but you can see in the usage when it was turned off we turned it off when we were there in like the the second week of August just because we weren't sure when we personally we would be back again and we didn't want to waste water I mean I I guess I I I I I'm inclined to be a bit more generous than the than the water and sewer committee recommendation and I if I may I I I I think you know for the one1 to $5,000 issue that we're dealing with which I believe me I understand it's a big deal um but you know we we we spent a lot of time struggling with it I think we're struggling with it because we just don't feel comfortable saying sorry you know the meter was right and and it was tested I don't uh I am perfectly I like your approach Dean um whether we do it here or you work it out with Rob I guess I would be inclined to say that I I think it's fair to um you know ask you to pay something that is based on your historical usage using that forap perhaps that 100 unit base um and if that works out to being 2,000 as opposed to 5,000 that would not trouble me I don't know how the rest of my colleagues feel about that I just have a question yeah go ahead um how long have you been renting the property so we've been renting it for a few years two years you mean um three years three years okay thank you yeah so if I guess if 2021 was the first year we owned it we did rent it that season so yeah we wish we could use it full-time but the financial reality is that we have to rent it um yeah Jeff thank you Michael yeah my my uh inclination my nose takes me me to the time period between June and and the end of September and you turned off the irrigation in sometime in in August but I think be honest with you if your irrigation is tied up is is connected to town water you I think if toilets weren't running and people weren't showering 24 hours a day you had an irrigation issue prior to to that read you had an irrigation issue I'm telling you otherwise how could that meter have read that many gallons in that two month three-month time frame there's there's no the way well I there's a separate there is a separate shot off valve so there isn't a separate meter but there is a separate shot off Val so the irrigation was it was off yeah prior to what in August it wasn't no but the water continued from August till the end of September if you look at the daily usage it continued even though the irrigation was shut off at the valve huh I have no clue I I'm told though and and I'm not being a hard hard uh you know hard you know what here but I was I asked if could the that meter have read 866 units without water flowing through it and I'm told that that it can't not have read it so I'm willing to compromise a little bit but the water was used so I mean I'm willing to compromise a little bit but I I really think we don't want to you know water was used all I'm going to say is I can sympathize with them and I and I and I do appreciate the fact that there's a there's a process that's available to you and you're taking it and I and I and I respect that completely I do totally do I'm looking for something I can hang my hat on to be like you know we can Abate more I mean we can do it arbitrarily we're going to cut it in half I I don't know what the conversation is how how how generous we feel tonight we we don't none of us here know exactly where that water went something happened um and and again I've had my own personal experiences and I've had you know big surprises and it's it's not fun and I feel for you I get it um you know I don't think we should be over generous because I do I'm a little concerned about how we you know for future other appeals because I think that would it may come down there um but I'm I would be warmed up to be a little more generous tonight I'm going to make we going to make a I'm going to make a motion I'm going to make a motion that we uh that we uh uh grant them an abatement such that the uh the bill is $3,000 second all the can I just can I just ask a question Rob H how many of the of the 1100 1,1 units that are in question here do we know how many of those predated the date when the irrigation system was shut off doesn't matter 3,000 no well unless we the property owner gives us the exact date that the the irrigation was shut off this is the purpose of a separate irrigation meter part of the reason you know and and to let you know also that this the magnitude of this will probably be gone because we've already identified a few other properties with leaks and with our new radio system we've been able to identify them a lot sooner and notify the property owners we have a motion in a second on the table Mr nicastro so $3,000 abatement so no they such that the bill is 3,000 would 3,000 uh I uh Mr Shell says I Miss Davis I um Mr Dy we effectively cut it in half I um to your point we're cutting it in half fine Mr Mr M yes thank you thank you all very much I appreciate the a lot of time you gave to this agenda item appreciate it thank you um Miss Craig you're back up with us I think let me consult my agenda here but I think that's where we are um Mr chairman I'm going to recuse myself on the discussion concerning Shad place okay don't go far I don't think this is going to last long uh yes ma'am Joan Craig chair of the Traffic Safety Committee shadic place um the committee presented a recommendation for no parking to be established on one side of shadic place to the select board at a previous meeting you advised the committee to provide further consideration regarding ing the parking ban several residents expressed their concern and opposition to the parking ban at the September 10th public Hearing in 24 the committee received further notification from another Resident of shatak place also opposing the no parking ban the resident in opposition reiterated that any re recent parking problems were created by a construction project which has neared completion the committee discussed the new information and voted 3 to one one of individual was not there that night in opposition of the no parking recommendation the committee was advised that if this parking issue persists due to the construction the police department can be utilized to post temporary no parking signs in accordance with the town of chadam traffic rules and orders thank you um does anybody have a problem with that I think we can move on can we not accept it okay next case um the uh yes please town of chadam adoption of CH chapter 90 section 17 C thickly settled 25 miles hour the committee was directed by the select board to research the procedure of lowering the thickly settled statutory speeding limit of 30 m hour to 25 mil hour pursuant to Mass General law 90-17 C the committee found that adopting that lowering the statutory speed limit would require an article to be drafted in presented for vote at town meeting if the vote was in favor of adop adopting Mass General law 90-17 C the town would then notify Mass DOT and all thickly settled 30 m hour Zone signage would have to be replaced with 25 M per hour uh Zone signage the committee feels that the scope and size of this project may be outside of the charge of the Traffic Safety Committee and refer this back to the select board comments back to us yeah I'm I'm not you know I'm 25 is fine if we have to go to town meeting and and get a vote to get it done I mean I 25 is slow but I think on some of our really congested streets as we heard earlier this evening cross street people would like it uh Dean I I I agree that 25 is good for streets like cross street maybe stage Harbor Road I mean I was walking up there today and people go buzzing by um we can't do anything with with Route 28 because that's state highway but I wonder if instead of having 25 all over town uh that we uh select out those streets where something higher than 25 is is presents a um potential for for danger and Hazard and focus on um asking town meeting to approve those I had a brief conversation with u uh deputy chief melon on the way in um and um I don't know Chief if you want to talk to this but I understand that the Deep the state um Department of Transportation likes to have um uh townwide uniformity but I don't know how difficult it would be if we were to um just identify a certain number of streets where there really is a problem thank you the state does give the town the option of a street by Street basis they recommend for Less confusion to drivers that it's posted that you know throughout Town thickly settled is 25 miles hour but the town would have that option to identify the roads that they thought would be more appropriate to be 25 miles an hour um I'm glad you're up here because the qu it is it a if you are exceeding the 25 M hour speed limit is that a violation that uh a driver can be cited for yes it is okay um well I I'll I'll say what I think I I I think that the issue of some streets versus other streets ought to go to where you put the thickly settled um uh um signs rather than what the relevant speed speed limit is um I I'm I'm sympathetic although I will say I when when the 30 m hour indicator was on um Cedar Street I I had to um well basically yeah conform my behavior not that I drive 40 but I you know it's if you're not thinking about it getting down to 30 requires a little concentration uh having said that however I I I I I don't think I drive 30 miles an hour on on cross street and I use it a lot um that that as I like to say along with 50 cents will buy you a cup of coffee I I don't have a problem with telling people they got to drive 20 miles an hour in those locations where it thickly settled means there are kids there are dogs there are people walking running whatever I I I would be I would be I would be supportive sh yeah I I'm sort of conflicted a little bit about it um you know I think I'm not you know I understand people need to slow down that's obvious I mean cross street is you know stage Harbor Road are highly pedestrian um my neighborhood I live in highly pedestrian however I I'm not sure that that's going to solve the problem um with with with what's happening with people's driving behaviors so I like the idea of identifying the thickly settled before making the general um like across the board sort of 25 mph um changing behavior is really hard I mean I mean old comers Road um is is a good indication having that blinking sign to remind you every time you go up that hill that you're going by Bill B's house you got to slow down you know that kind of thing but um I just you know I see pe people's behavior is is just um it can be atrocious how people drive and I don't think I'm not sure this is going to solve the problem I'm sort of talking in riddles because I'm really not sure where I'm going to land with this I mean i' I'd like see I think uh I believe that starting out with what are the thickly settled is it every Road in Chatum 25 mil hour that we can identify is it I mean do I do we identify a road that that is thickly settled and then make it 25 and then have other other speed limits aside that sounds like it's a confusion for Mass DOT sounds like it might be a problem for people driving and the driving habits so I'm not sure I'm not sure right now so just to clarify the thickly settled is any residential or business district where the houses of buildings are at least I'm sorry 200 feet apart or less for a distance of a quarter mile anything outside of that is is 40 miles an hour statutory that that solves that problem Cory go ahead let's be blunt about public pressure wants to support this I am re I'm I'm having that one of those be careful what you're asked for type of thoughts running through my mind because to shireen's point there's other elements that are that this will not conf fix there's other elements people's driving behavior um that they'll drive aggressively recklessly whatever um 25 30 doesn't matter so I guess I'm not saying no but I would really like to have some kind of solid like under understanding where we're going with this I mean I know the Chiefs in the audience I may put him on the on the spot kind of get some general thoughts on on his perspective um you know how are we going to manage this how we reinforce it um is this you know is having a constant speed limit versus multiple speed limits as a pro and cons like I'm willing to do a little bit of research with this and maybe we do need to kick it a little bit back to the traffic safety for some help for some help um but I I I just want to I just want to dive into this super quickly because I have just a little bit of pause in it I'm not against it but I have a I I will admit I have a little bit of pause Jeff I think in our thickly settled areas we need to be need to be more cautious I think we have um a lot of pedestrians in town especially in the summer months especially around the loop um I think 25 would help I think it would help in the those congested areas I think sidewalks would help too we love to see a sidewalk on state Triad road but uh and on Shore Road and on Shore Road and on Shore Road West Side of Shore Road take it too it's very congested and people need to slow down and I think it's belt and suspenders I think going to 25 and thickly settled would be part of the belt maybe we'll get suspenders elsewhere I'm in favor of it I can I just add I I just want to I mean of course it's not going to solve anything it's a further encouragement this is you know if it gets people if the 25 speed limit gets people to slow down from 35 to 30 to me that's an improvement so I'm I'm sorry yeah go ahead uh Chief what's what's the law is I I forgotten it's been a long time since I went to driving school um so all these little streets in town that are through streets like in the Old Village School Street whatever what's the what what is the limit on there is that is that 30 m those are thickly settled areas so the statutory speed limit is 30 so you could drive 30 mes an hour technically but uh reasonal trumps the statuto speed liit So based on traffic based on pedestrian traffic it's really based on what's reasonable but the statutory speed limit in those areas is 30 mil an hour so if we if we were to ask you to come up with a list of streets that are thickly settled it would be most of the streets in town probably correct it would probably be easier to come up with roadways that aren't thickly settled right there's there's not many um Route 28 we can think of them some have been mentioned here olders Road um you know if if further discussion is warranted we did you know we do have some fairly recent um speed studies that we've done with our new pieces of equipment and I'd be more than happy to share those and show what the average speed um in some of these areas are um and what the excessive speeds are do we have any any um I I think um there's a speed limit of what 15 miles an hour on um um the street that runs off cross street by the end what used to be the end and the name is Ken Place Ken Place yeah and I and I believe that to be a an advisor advisory sign not an enforceable sign really yeah what's the difference what makes it that well to have a posted regulatory speed limit that's something that is established by the state uh for a special you know engineering speed study um and so then you have the statutory you know 40 for undivided Highway um 30 and a thickly settled and anything other than that is advisory which is not enforceable so turning on to George rder Road the 15 M an hour signed for that that turn um that's an advisory um if you're go 16 miles an hour on the turn you're not going to be cited for that so do we have any other streets like Kent Place that are less than 30 I know it's advisor that you can think of in town no okay I mean I guess what I would propose is that we ask the either the the police department or the Traffic Safety Committee to come up with a list of those streets that call for this type of um change which I would be supportive of and you know we've mentioned a few of them here tonight and then we could consider that versus just adopting a um townwide recommendation but a townwide rule but you know I'm open to anything on this thank you I I don't have a problem with that in principle but effectively that means we're putting this off for a year because you're not going to get organized for town meeting not going to get the town meeting so I I we have until the 18th of March I mean I don't know how long it would take to do that we have some data references that are accessible right now so what would be a reasonable timetable to to guess have a conversation or a review I can certainly forward and share what we what we did in the fall um for Ceda Street stage hob Cross Street Kent Place I I can absolutely share that data um as far as the other uh requests you know I'm not I'm not sure of the scope of that of that work we if I might we also have data with regards to our beach roads because that has been a big complaint to our committee as you all know and the data supports the fact that we have presented what we've presented before um as a traffic safety group we have really looked at the data seriously and it has been upgrad ated over the past few years that it shows time date how many cars how many went below the speed limit at the speed limit above the speed limit how far above the speed limit so this is information that we have tracked and that's when we do or do not make recommendations to you Mr chairman yeah uh if the concern if the concern is um trying to get something for town meeting if someone wants to put a motion on the table to endorse townwide 25 I'll I'll support that that motion tonight just to get this to town meeting let town meeting decide what they want to do I think we'll hear a lot of complaints from a lot of people once it goes into effect but um let the towns people decide and but it's for those areas that are currently thickly settled it's not it's not townwide if it's not thickly settled it's not 25 well I think the recommendation is no it says right I mean it says all thickly settled 30 mile Zone signage would have to be replaced with 25 mile we're not talking about the entire town about those areas that are currently thickly settled you're talking about five a decrease of 5 miles hour um and I you know again you heard you heard what I had to say and you know I'll move it so moved well does the phrase all thickly settled 30 30 miles per hour Zone signage mean only those thickly settled places streets that have a sign on them all all thickly settled areas in town would be 25 M hour I mean that's a lot of the town all of them are all of them only only those that have a sign on them that says all that says succeed I think because not because not all thickly settled areas in town have signage signage but the recommendation from the Traffic Safety Committee is for everything all of them whether they're signed or not they make a recommendation we did not make a all thally settled areas have that statutory speed limit of 30 mil hour so any any residential area business district in town that is deemed thickly settled would have the 25 miles an hour I think Jeff you're talking about limiting it subset I am I'm I'm I'm reading that all thickly settled 30 mile per hour Zone sign would have to be replaced with 25 miles I'm saying all those areas that are now 30 thick thickly settled would be replaced with 25 I'm not saying you go around and measuring to make sure that you know this area is thickly settled right well the existing signage that is in these areas yes that would be that's what I'm saying that would be changed I I would replace those signs with 25 miles per hour signs that's what I would do I mean I'm thinking training field old Queen an I mean people bomb around there I mean those aren't 25 or 30 right they're not so I mean so so the main some of the main conduits through town are not thickly settled many are so I would I I would make the motion that we replace the 30 mile per hour signs with 25 M per hour signs as currently are construed as current there just might be excuse me Mr chairman there might just might be a few more streets to be added to that list that's all I'm saying maybe I don't know maybe that happens at I think and one thing I think the town should vote I think the town should vote if I may if you go around and you'll see um going on Old Queen an when you take the what I call the wide turn by training field there is a thickly settled sign there is there yeah yes and some people question that because on the right side there is the conservation that's right yeah I mean but that has thickly settled so if if you become more aware as you're driving around you will see quite a few thickly settled signs yeah I know I know I have a small story but I yeah anyway we have a motion on the table it lacks a second at the moment all right I'll second for discussion purposes okay good um any further discussion all those in favor Mr necastro I Mr Shell says I uh Miss Davis to move this forward I'll say I um I say hi yes Mr Dyk and Mr Mets hi now we we we need need we I think we should ask the town manager to prepare appropriate um article article and recommendation language to implement this is that fair so moved second okay all those in favor Mr necastro I Mr Shell says I Miss Davis I I Mr dykens and Mr matters hi could you just clarify the vote again uh the initial vote sharen I didn't hear what you said I said I I just simply said that to move this forward I I said I thank you okay thank you thank you both um okay uh budget preview Town manager Jill please thank you thank you Mr chair um so I'm GNA ask uh Megan dowy our director of Human Resources uh to present tonight so as you know we've been involved in reviewing the FY 26 Town budget that would be from July 1st 2025 through June 30th 2026 and with that review by the finance director and myself uh we have entertained proposals and proposed Staffing um from the departments in order to strengthen our critical operations and so Megan will will highlight the the proposed positions as well as give you some feedback and we've presented a propose Town manager's recommendation with a fiscal impact so if you don't mind I'll turn it over to Megan good evening welcome good evening thank you for having me as mentioned in working through the FY 2026 Town manager recommendations Staffing requests were received from departments that were reviewed and we have them for presentment along with the proposed Town manager's recommendations history of Staffing requests made since fy2021 were included in the staff report rep that was in tonight's meeting packet in FY 2025 at the recommendation of the Town manager departments held on Staffing requests in order to pause to further evaluate the positive impacts of the additional positions that were created in previous years and to determine any further alignments that could enhance efficiencies this evaluation process is actually made possible for the realignment of one full-time equivalent position that was in the conservation division of the Department of natural resource and has moved that to the Department of Finance providing for Budget preparation and monitoring assistance as well as yearound supervision of the sticker office to expand services and hours we've identified further realignment in the DPW that provides for the transfer of one halftime position and that was funded for the airport administrator in FY 2025 those functions are now being carried out by another existing position and combined with reallocation of funds from the highway division of the DPW temporary wages it would allow for one full-time equivalent engineering technician to perform civil engineering functions associated with Town Projects this format of evaluation has been carried into this current review of the departmental Staffing requests these requests are a continuation of efforts to address our current workload challenges enhanced Service delivery efficiency and sustainability review of Department capacity is shown that the majority of Staff time is dedicated to S core services that maintain operation and the capacity that remains is often consumed by emergencies compliance with mandates and Community needs that can't wait this often leaves only a limited fraction of organizational resources available to focus on priorities or increasing and enhancing Services even as the demand for services and complexity of initiatives continues to grow these proposed new positions by the department heads are intended to bridge this Gap and ensure that both existing responsibilities and emerging priorities are met effectively during this process eight positions were put forward for review by departments and they're here for presentment tonight along with the town manager proposed recommendations and these recommendations have been shared with and agreed to by the department heads the first position that was put forward came from the community the Department of Community Development and it is one full-time equivalent which is a local building inspector we currently do have one local building inspector in the Department of Community Development however this additional position is being requested as a result of updated Massachusetts State Building Code that was adopted in October of 2024 inclusion of new periodic inspections previously not required will necessitate approximately 30 additional inspections per week and this is beyond our current Staffing capacity the fiscal impact of this position is $75,500 with potential offset by proposed increase to the short-term rental application fees as this impacts that as well and the town manager's proposed recommendation is for one full-time equivalent in that position the Department of Community Services put forward a new position one full-time equivalent recovery Navigator which would allow for the insourcing enhancement of the current opioid State settlement Grant funded services that are provided to our residents by Outer Cape Health Services services are currently available three hours per week and ins servicing ins sourcing would make this more readily available the fiscal impact is $77,200 in place with Outer Cape Services through October of 2025 the harbor Masters division of the natural resources department has put forward one full-time equivalent position which is a boat operator marine mechanic and this position would address operational emergency coverage on the water and perform Maritime vessel and Mitchell River drawbridge maintenance and repair it would supplement the current four full-time equivalent in the division who all have administrative responsibilities which reduces their operational coverage the fiscal impact to this position is $ 44,4 121 and that's actually a budgeted salary of $ 71,9 120 offset by $27,500 from temporary wages contracted Services equipment and maintenance and the department and division Capital requests associated with the drawbridge would also be reduced by $25,000 as a result of this position request the town manager's recommendation is one full-time equivalent in Public Safety in the police department they put forward requests for two full-time equivalent police officers and these two new positions uh were put forward to increase the complement of sworn police officers which is currently 19 when fully staffed to ensure proactive policing operations for the community increase safety and decrease uh forced overtime the department Staffing levels have remained consistent since 1984 the fiscal impact to these requests is 1, sorry $186,000 35 and the town manager's recommendation is for one full-time equivalent police officer the next positions put for forward are two full-time equivalents in the Parks and grounds division of the Department of Public Works for two parks and grounds laborers and these two full-time positions would supplement the current seven full-time equivalent parks and grounds Division and complete the insourcing process of um the maintenance of town cemeteries which began in FY 2023 when the division was increased from four full-time equivalent to seven full-time equivalent the fiscal impact to these requests are $43,200 25 offset by $70,000 from the contracted Services line in the Department's budget the final position that was put forward has been touched on already and this is oh I'm so sorry and the the town manager's recommendation is two full-time equivalents the final position was touched on already and this is one full-time equivalent position put forward by the DPW for the highway division for an engineering technician that would perform civil engineering activities in conjunction with monitoring contracted M Municipal projects such as sidewalk management storm water pollution control permitting an ADA or Americans with Disability Act compliance the fiscal impact of this request was listed as 43 935 or a budgeted salary of $75,500 offset by $31,500 which was the part-time airport Administrator salary and the town manager's request is to not create this position in FY 2026 as creation as possible through realignment and reallocation of funds in FY 2025 without additional fiscal impact to FY 2026 the fiscal impact for the seven additional positions as requested by the department heads in FY 2026 is $470,000 47,1 188 as noted the town manager is recommending five positions with a fiscal impact of 26,1 $64 the anticipated and potential savings and the expense lines have been noted but do not include any impact to the employee benefits budget we brought this forward uh to present to the board to consult and receive the board's input on these departmental Staffing requests as well as the town manager's proposed recommendations uh Jeff thank you Mr Shell so I just have some questions and some comments as well I'm just going to go through them one by one here the uh local inspector I I just wrote we have virtually no choice in that one whatsoever it's the new new code and we just don't have the bandwidth is that fair statement yes yes Community Services I just had a a question we have three hours available now are those three hours being utilized are we are we using the services of Outer Cape to for counseling they are we have a really great representative who's been assisting us we also have a vacant position in community services that's one of the clinician positions we hoping to get get that position filled and then decide about the capacity that would be needed for the the resource U I'm sorry the the recovery coach is that the child social worker that we still have yes that is a vacant position but we were also looking at because the current adult clinici is is also dealing with um the youth we were thinking about possibly having just two clinicians and they amongst themselves could assign the workload to make sure that there's there's always coverage for someone who in need and it's been pretty challenging trying to find a youth clinician we've we've had that recruitment open for a while couple years now I think it's been yes we've we've we've had some some recruitments that we thought were going to be successful but for the Youth position we we draw in interest from academic settings and then find that people don't want to give up the working environment that the academic settings provide funny thing huh okay thank you uh then the natural resource the Harbor Master uh both this has been an a a request for years I mean every we see this every single year how do we how do we get this done now who who does this now for us who who maintains the engines who maintains the the B of stuff so a lot of it is outsourced but at my understanding is there is a seasonal intermittent employee who does provide some of these Services now and and does do some of the work in house if that's if that's correct I'm looking at I'm looking at director of natural resource Greg Burman to see if he's shaking his head yes at what I'm saying and then the other followup I have is how's how's the drawbridge doing who who maintains that is it functional is it working yes and that would be the harbor Master's office it's just they have to take someone away from the active boat operator duty to go over to do what they need to do with the bridge on the draw bridge I don't mean to be pous but it's it's late I can't help myself but should we hire this position will the Dry Bridge work well just to be clear the drawbridge does work it does okay and so um the person that they're looking to hire will hopefully have some U mechanical experience and possibly be able to do or perform some maintenance on the bridge if there was an emergency or something that needed to be outsourced we'd bring somebody in but they felt that the day-to-day duties could be covered by this position okay uh police department you're recommending one officer yes and and tell me does that negate the need how much overtime do we have now and will that take care of the overtime or um are our our number of events Spike so we need another I looked at the chief we need another officer or what's the deal so we we do have the chief here to speak on it we haven't had full employment uh for probably two years in the department and so my thought is definitely one could offset the overtime and then hold for a second position to see once they are at full employment um full how that overtime looks or the impact to the capacity of the workload but I've invited the department heads here to talk about the request if you have any questions uh Shireen yeah I wasn't done oh I'm sorry I mean we have two more positions to talk about I know uh thrilled to see the public the insourcing of the cemeteries thrilled with that I think that's the right move um it's going to be offset by a savings on the contracted labor and that was a request by the cemetery commissioner so will to see that and I think I think that's I think that's smart um and then just the to to note that the request for 470 you're recommending 256 not including fringes I don't know what we use for a fringe benefit percent but we use 20% or 25% or some some uh yes so what we do is the the health insurance budgeted for positions especially new positions we always budget so that the person may take health insurance for a family at the most expensive plan okay that's conservative so it's conservative whether someone takes it or not um that's how the overall health insurance budget runs but we we will do that and I just need to make sure this adds up correctly to Megan as I was looking at this but nonetheless it would I mean I can't I mean usually if we're looking for reimbursement for like FEMA it's usually about a a 15% for fringe benefits but here I think it's a little it's more actual than just putting a percentage on it but we can and I think that I'm sorry Megan did you already prepare that what you thought the benefits would be yes the The Highest Potential liability is 154,000 okay for five positions okay I wouldn't mind hearing from the chief about the position the request even the two that you requested never mind the one that she re that Jill is recommending just what what the deal is and then I'll be quiet maybe thank you member dykens I hope this state statement will cover I think all of your questions um the department asked for two officers uh to reduce the the forced overtime and and reduce the amount of budgeted overtime that we require yes there are events that are added or expanded every year that tax us more and more every year it seems every available weekend in the summer spring and fall is filled by some new event which is fine um but I agree with what the town manager proposes because if you recall the past almost five years we've had an open position that we have been unable to fill because of litigation and I appreciated your support through that and seeing that through that position now is open to be filled so it's almost like we're getting a position even though we have it we haven't been able to have it for about 5 years so that that position opening the addition of the new position helps us what also helps us too is the past two years we've had a very successful Community Service Officer program and and that really takes up a lot of work from the staff in regards to the quality of life issues downtown uh thank you for the addition of the fifth CSO last year that took on the role of more of a a directed Patrol as far as parking enforcement um while it'd be great i' i' I'd accept the board's recommendation for five new police officers I'll be happy with the one I think we could make do uh it's still a welcome addition I mean the last time we expanded was what you say 84 that's it's a long time um but you know and and again we'll we'll see how much of an impact that makes and I I will say the challenges that we did have last year and the year before were sometimes beyond our control um the past two years unfortunately during the summer we had a couple of long-term injuries that we had to work through and that and that uh you know put a put a stress on on the staff but uh fingers crossed right now we are full staffed we are in the recruitment process for one position uh and we should have um a potential sent opening uh some advancement and uh we're looking forward to hopefully getting two candidates identified to be able to be put into the police academy this spring and available this fall thank you that was helpful the reminder of the open position I'm reminded so that was helpful I I get it thanks okay y uh Shireen go ahead um so um after all the explanation right now this seems like the recommendations from Jill make sense except I do want to talk about the full-time boat operator marine mechanic because it does come up all the time and one of the concerns that we're looking at is you're looking at an outboard motor mechanic and then a hydraulic specialist for a bridge those aren't really the same things um I I understand if the um the natural resource department Harbor Master division is looking for another operator I can I can go and justify that I um I don't want this to turn into somebody I don't know I've made a note that just says it's somebody who's just going to oversee the bridge operation up and down so um you know no seriously that's part of the staff's responsibility and then of course when um this bridge is high maintenance and and takes I I don't know we think we have a note here that was $25,000 worth the services last year I mean it's an expensive bridge to to maintain but um I'm not sure um how that balances out with this department whether it should maintain to be outsourced so I mean I I'll go with it um but those are just my thoughts on on that particular staff job description I did check the math and it does total 256 150 it did good okay great de yeah yeah just uh on what Shireen was saying I remember we talked about this last year the the um the harbor masterer and and we we didn't U go along with it at the time I think um but we're saying now that if we were to implement this we could reduce the drawbridge account by 25,000 is that what this means that's an offset there yes yes um also with respect to the public safety increase in the police department what what is the amount of overtime I me carries here how much is police overtime now do we know roughly maybe the she we can get you that information substantial yeah I mean whenever we've talked about Public Safety overtime in the past it was always the fire department what we can provide you with that information okay but these offsets um in the various other positions um um those are not one time only offsets we're BAS basically saying we're going to reduce some other line items in these Department Within These departments correct that that will be going forward so I mean I I guess I hear the explanations for them and um with respect to the police department in particular as as has been pointed out we haven't had any increases since 1984 um and uh I think the demands on the our Public Safety uh divisions have have been uh enormously increased over the years so um I can I can support sending uh these particular positions uh to town meeting with the with the budget thank you Cory anything I mean generally supportive I mean I'm not going to reiterate or restate what I already even said I guess the only um position I just want a little more clarification on is the first one from Community Development the full-time inspector um uh one is most of this the burden of this or responsibility would be for the short-term rental inspections because that seems to be ramping up is would be my understanding because we've identified an you know inventor of properties which is probably going to get larger as more people comply to registering their properties so that's going to take a big bulk of the responsibility for this position and then the second part is um says offset by proposed increase the short-term rental application fee um I guess what is the proposed increase that's going to come be coming down the road so my thought um based on the registration fee being $50 now my recommendation was going to be that we it increase it to $150 and then that $100 I think was and looking at about a thousand that we have currently or about 900 currently um should give us some substantial uh funds to work with ouch that that that's an annual fee it's $50 yeah no but when you say registration fee that contemplates registration every year every year that's every year yeah okay go that would cover salary does does some of that fee go to the health division Health Department the $50 currently goes to the health division yes or yes so how would it offset the Community Development position the increase to the $100 $1 increase increase would go towards the local inspector all right thank you you finished uh so I I I I started I thought these were reasonable I I both individually and as a group um I I mean they've been vetted by the town manager and she's made judgments in consultation with the relevant departments um I I take my colleagues comments um seriously I with respect to the the uh um boat operator marine mechanic I I I recall one of the things I recall about that was that it was proposed the last time at a substantially higher well a higher salary so I um whether that and and there was some skepticism as to whether such a person could be found at that salary we're now talking about a lower salary I I'll I'll leave it at that um I I understand the reason the benefits weren't in there because you it's a complicated analysis I I think that should we should I mean there's a big difference between $256,000 and over 400 in terms of the the total impact on the budget um and my last comment is I I I appreciated the the the chart um it one of the things it discloses is that you know from I guess it's 2014 to 2018 the increase in staff was 5% and then we had flat for three years from 2020 to 2025 it's 17.8% increase in staff uh I I think somebody ought to give some thought to why that is I mean the population has increased I know there are a lot of aspects about chadam that have become more complicated more difficult um needing further and better and and more rigorous attention but I think we we need to that's a that's pretty healthy increase um and I don't think over a period longer period of time is sustainable so I'll leave it at that do you're not looking for a motion are you or are you no I was looking for feedback so we will present the uh FY 26 budget next week figured we wanted to give you time to think about this here from the Departments directly before we get into the full capital and um operating budget presentation so I really appreciate your feedback okay uh I think to adjourn Mr chairman second all those in favor Mr nastro I Mr Shell says I Miss Davis hi uh Mr dykens and Mr Mets we are adjourned at 7:51 good night [Music] [Music] chadam e