Heat. Heat. Good evening and welcome to the February 10th, 2026 meeting of the Town of Cadam Select Board. Please note this meeting is being recorded and will be available shortly hereafter for scheduled and on demand viewing on any smartphone or tablet device. If anyone else is
recording the meeting, including the use of AI note-taking apps, please notify the chair. Seeing none, pursuant to Governor Healey's March 28th, 2025 signing of chapter 2 of the acts of 2025 extending certain COVID 19 measures adopted during
the state of emergency suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law. Massachusetts General Laws chapter 3A section 20 until June 30th, 2027. This meeting of the Chattam Select Board is being conducted in person and via remote participation.
Every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings as provided for in the order. A reminder that persons who would like to listen to this meeting while in progress may do so by calling the phone number 158-9454410 conference ID 203 203 386491
pound or join the meeting online via Microsoft Teams through the link in the posted agenda. While this is a live broadcast and simalcast on Chadam TV Xfinity channel 1072, despite our best efforts, we may not be able to provide real-time access. We
will post a record of this meeting on the town's website as soon as possible. First item of business is to establish establish a quorum. Mr. Dykens >> present. >> Mr. Matters >> present. >> Mr. Smith >> present. >> And the chair is present. Um board member uh Davis is not with us this
evening. Um, proceeding ahead. The first item of business is to approve two sets of minutes. The first are the minutes of January 20th, 2026. Is there a motion to approve? >> Motion to approve >> and a second. >> And a second. Any corrections? >> I just had
>> I have one >> one on page. >> Yes, that's the same one. >> Yeah. On page five. >> On page five. Um, Steuart Smith. >> Under the roll call. >> Under the roll call. Not >> it's missing an entry. So, I assume that's Yes. Anything else, Mr. D?
>> I get a little credit for catching the same one that you caught. >> I'll give you that. Okay, >> I'll give you that. >> I'll call I'll call the role on that. Miss Mr. Dikkins. >> Uh, I >> Mr. Meadows. >> Hi, >> Mr. Smith. >> I chair votes. I four to zero. Next, the
minutes of January 27th, 2026. >> Motion to approve. >> Is there a second? >> And a second. >> Any any corrections? >> None here. >> Chair has uh two. I'm up on too up on your time.
>> Page 15. Um >> under the sec at the end of the second full paragraph which begins cheer Niccastro stated. I'd like to add the following um clause at right at the end after the phrase largelyformational
comma. As the select board has a responsibility to respond to the concerns of citizens. As the select board has the responsibility to respond to the concerns of citizens. I believe I said that in response to the question put by
the chair of the finance committee. And at the bottom um last paragraph, Mike Cortezy, South Chadam. I think we should note he uh we should insert and an airport commissioner. >> With that, I'll call the role. Mr. Dykins
>> I >> Mr. Matters >> I >> Mr. Smith >> I >> and the chair vote side four to zero public announcements and agenda item requests. Are there any from the board? I have some, but I'll ask I'll mention them later. >> Stuart, no, you go ahead.
>> Okay. Um, sure. I just had an agenda item request for a a general discussion on um and it kind of came up at our last meeting with the tree discussion with the airport. Um I I want to have a
conversation with the select board on um the FAA community engagement. Um I'll call it a committee, but I think they have a different term for it. Um it's it's a it's a process the FAA has or
dialogue sponsored they sponsor it for I think addressing a lot of the questions and debate that the town's gone through uh over you know quite a few years here regarding the airport and I I thought it would be helpful to have a discussion as
to whether that could work here. It seems like something that could and um be nice to have on an agenda. We'll take that up. Any others from the board? Um, well, I wanted to announce that next week's meeting on February 17th will
begin at 4 o'clock PM. Uh, we have a very long agenda and um, uh, we will begin at 4 with an executive session on a personnel issue and then we'll go into regular session. I don't know what time that will be, but we will continue
immediately there on. And um um uh we will have a long meeting. Um and also I intend at the request of select board member Smith um who contacted me on this um um at the end of last week, we will
have on the regular meeting agenda um the review um by the select board of the town manager's administrative order uh that was filed concerning an an assistant town manager. Are there any agenda item requests or public announcements from the audience either
in person or online? Quite a lot of people online tonight too. Okay, seeing none, we I do want to mention one last item and that is to note the passing of um Mr. Hyora, Hank
Hyora, uh the owner and publisher of the Cape Cod Chronicle. Um, I had the fortune of only meet meeting him only one time when I went to uh pay for a political ad in the middle of COVID and he was the only person in the building and he took my check. Um, seemed like a
very nice man and I read his um the obituary in the chronicle and um local chat person and I think we were very fortunate to have had him around to uh give us um continue uh an en enhance
this independent local newspaper which which most towns don't have and I think that's a wonderful thing for this community. So I do want to note his passing and um our sympathies to his family.
With that um the next item of business, we have no public hearing tonight. We have no consent agenda tonight. Are there any public comments on the business agenda? Um, you may comment on the business agenda either now or as each agenda item is is
brought forward. So, I'll give anyone an opportunity who might want to speak now. I see none. So, we'll go right into the first item on the business agenda is the budget review. We have a long agenda tonight, so I'm going to try to move this forward expeditiously.
FY2027 budget review. Uh, we have first general government um which is headed up by the town manager, an annual town meeting article review uh vote to place and recommend an article in financial software. So I'll call on our finance director Carrie
Mazero to get this going. >> Welcome Carrie. >> Hi, good evening. Thank you Mr. Chair. Um so um we have the general government and undesated other undesated departments that we'll go over tonight.
See if this thing moves. So we'll be going over general government which is uh consists of 6% of the operating budget. We'll be going over employee benefits which is 12% of the operating budget. um undistributed insurance and reserve
fund which is 2% of the operating budget and also um there's debt service at 14% of the operating budget. So in general government it consists of 10 departments, four other and two committees. We have the select board, town manager, human resources,
accounting, assessing, treasur collector, IT, town clerk, elections and the sticker office. And then the other is town moderator, legal, audit, parking clerk. And then the two committees are the summer residence advisory committee
and the finance committee. So for um 2027 it's um 3.7 million. Um there's an increase of 175,000 or 4.89 um over 2026. The personnel services have increased 106,000 and the
operational expenses have increased 68,000. So this slide goes over um the salary increases which are due to contractual increases, step increases andor um longevity increases in departments. Um the town managers department um
increased 15,000. The human resources department increased uh 8,900. Accounting division 18,000. assessing division went down um with the retirement of the assessor 5,603
savings in there. That also in that department includes the um the part-time position for 2027. Um treasury collectors division 11,000 it 27,000
town clerk 12,000 elections 18,000. There's um elections in 2027 that will take place and the sticker office increased $640 for a total of 106 for personnel. >> Carrie or Jill, have we hired the
assistant assessor to replace um >> we have >> fill a position that was hired by U. Candace? >> Yep, we have. Yep, we're just waiting on her um to start. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. Um so these are the increases by each
department. Um human resources had an increase of $7,500. Accounting had an increase of 500. Assessing um 1,600 IT 50,000. Town clerk $450 and elections $8,500.
Um to go over the increases. Okay. Sorry. >> Thank you. >> Yep. Just it was I was going to ask. >> Yep. Okay. So, it um the soft there's software increases. Um we've added some softwares and software increases around
it can be around 10% depending on the software. Um I do have Craig here. He can speak more on that if you if you want. Um human resources. Um the increases are for the employee engagement and the boots which are contractual accounting
increase for continuing education assessing increase for continuing education and meetings and dues. Um town clerk operational supplies and elections was pole pads and um maintenance for
their machinery that they have. >> What's a pole pad? >> I saw that in the memo. >> That's a very good question. Is that the thing you >> It's a tablet that they use to check in voters. Okay. And so forth and she requested I think two or four of them
and we're going to split the cost between the general fund and her elections state fund that she gets. >> So Carrie on the IT the 50k for IT that's separate and distinct from the 400k we're talking about for an improvement or a new financial software
system. >> That's correct. Okay. >> So this is just other software upgrades. Okay. >> Yeah. Thank you. Mhm. >> Thanks. >> Do you want to uh >> Do you want me Do you want Craig to elaborate more on the software? >> I I would like Yeah, I would like >> Okay, he's here.
>> It's a pretty big bump. >> Good evening board. Um yeah, so standard increase in software is generally not 2 3 4%. It's usually anywhere from 5 to 10%. So, for example, our Microsoft
licensing went up this year around $11,000, which is the main software that we use in general. We've also seen a bit of an increase here because of the cyber security budgeting that we're trying to
do. We're trying to send out um we've got a process now for education for our staff members. So one of the big issues with cyber security is the fact that um the weakest point is the staff. People click on something and then we get a
virus and a ransomware etc. So there's an increase in there for that. Uh the police department has an increase of about $3,000 on their reporting software. So in general software goes up more than you know 3 to 5%. So, we put
in $50,000 um which I think is a relatively good number. >> Go ahead. >> Yeah. >> Could you back up a slide if you would wouldn't mind, Carrie? >> Sorry. >> That's all right.
>> There you go. So um the human resources at 7500 general is this just expenses within the department? >> Yeah, it's for the um employee engagement and boot line. >> Okay.
>> Uh oh, I see. I'm sorry. >> Yep. No, that's fine. >> I got to wear my glasses more often. Um okay, I that's all I had for now. So the boots increased last year with our uh with the contract that was um approved at town meeting. So that's why that line
is increasing more so for the boots than the employee engagement line. >> Gotcha. Thank you. >> Thank you Craig. >> So these are the departments that have been level funded for 2027. We have uh town moderator, finance committee,
select board, legal, audit, summer advisory committee, and the parking clerk. >> Um, so the parking clerk, um, I guess I I'd lost sight of is that
for salaries and and expenses or just >> So there's a stipen that comes out of there. >> Okay. And then there's expenses as well. >> Got >> I believe the stipen is >> but it's both. >> It's both. It consists of both. Yes. >> And um
>> the audit I assume is probably state required. And >> that is required by state. Yep. And um it's level funded. Um we'll have a new contract for 20 this this coming year. Have a new contract.
the um maybe maybe we could get a a more detailed thought on or explanation on the legal for 235,000. >> I can get you something for that. >> Yeah. I mean that's just uh
>> that includes town council and >> town council and labor council. Yep. >> Most of it is town council. >> Most of it is town council. Yep. and um >> and it's been level funded for the past I think it's two years now
>> the um you know we have I don't know how many committees we have a lot >> yes >> and the finance committee >> most of them are not don't have a budget with them >> I kind of get the finance committee >> the finance committee um sometimes has
things there's dues they actually pay that they're required to pay and there's sometimes um small expenses that do come out of there and they can um they've never gone over their budget. >> Yeah. Oh, I bet they haven't. They're probably they're pretty attentive. >> Yeah.
>> And then there's small expenses that also come out of the summer advisory committee as well. >> The summer residence advisory committee at $2,000. Um >> what are we funding out of that? because that kind of jumps out at me as a
advisory committee and our other like the water you know the ones that I used to deal with I don't think they have any >> they have a lot of advertising that they do >> what are they advertising >> advertise their annual summer town meeting so they place ads in the chronicle
>> basically >> that's mostly what I'm seeing that come in for expenses >> for advertisements do we >> do we pay for advertisements for our annual town meeting. >> Well, I don't think we we place ads for our annual town meeting. I'm sorry. I
don't think we place ads for our annual town meeting because the warrants are mailed to each household >> and then we do more social media and website stuff for them. >> Okay. >> They pay for signage. Is that they pay for signage for the town the summer town
meeting or >> when they replace them? They do. They they have a a stock of signs. It's the um >> they're like the large signs, aren't they? >> Yes. Uh so they they place them in various locations. >> Hope they're legal signs.
>> They get approved as temporary signs. >> Just a comment, the town council's 177,500 and labor council's 55 grand um with a small stipen for law law in general 2500. So the breakdown is about 7755.
Just a comment on the audit that that frankly I'm s I think that number is low. I mean I think it's a good number. Um >> knowing what they do um and I think you know you've been in the business and that's that's good. That's a good number. >> How long have we been with is it CBZ you?
>> Um so was previously Powers and Sullivan right? >> Yeah. Um >> couple years now. >> At least six years. >> Oh really? Oh okay. Yeah, they were um I guess bought out by another firm for the current firm's names. A little different than it was, but we have the same. >> It is CBiz now, but it was previously.
>> Are we supposed to change them periodically? >> We can. Yep. Um before Powers and Sullivan, um you guys had um >> Oh, I can't remember their name now. >> There was another firm. It was right around COVID when they they were doing
your audit. >> The report they published is exhaustive. I'll tell you right now if it's >> it includes the library. >> It does include the library. It >> didn't always >> Yep. >> It didn't always >> Yes. >> The library had their own >> It's required for them to the library to the board of trustees to submit um
something to be part of the audit. >> They may do their own audit, but there's also a section in the municipal audit where they're they're asked to provide their report. >> There's also a single audit. That's a pain in the butt. I mean, it's a lot of work. >> Yeah, it is a lot of work. >> A lot of work. >> Okay. the um
>> there Stuart. >> Uh thanks for the book. It's really helpful. Some of my questions are I mean I think they're all contained within the book or the digital book, but I think it's helpful for the public to understand these numbers and they don't
all read this. Um so hence my um I just had a few more uh that I don't Well, you know what? I'll wait. Maybe you're going to get to it and answer it. So >> Okay. I did this slide. This is just um
general of the total budgets for each of the departments. I I won't read them off. They are in your packet. But um if one sticks out, just let me know. I just figured this was a helpful slide for you to see of each of them. >> Stuart. >> Yeah, that that is helpful. And this
memo is really, you know, kind of puts it in perspective. Uh couple of questions. Um under the town manager budget uh it says this includes you know for
salaries and wages 221,250 for operating expenses. >> So the town >> I just don't know what that is. >> So the town manager's office also similar to it they take the bulk of the expenses for um the town. So like all of
the printing, postage, all gets paid out of town manager's office. We don't have those in our in our budgets. So >> town report maybe. >> Correct. Exactly. So that's why their budget is so much higher because they take the bulk of all of the expenses and pay them out of their department. And
same with it. They pay for all of the software. It's not broken out per department. It's they it's just centralized into that one those two particular departments. >> Thank you. So that explains that cuz it seemed high, but now that they're doing the rest of it, I I get that. >> Yeah. I mean, if we broke it out, it
would it would increase all the other ones and lower theirs. So it just this is how traditionally it has always been done this way. >> Okay. Oh, thanks. The >> under the This is in your memo. >> Yeah. Um under the assessing,
it looks like it's going down. We had a retirement. I I get all that. Um, is there sufficient money in here for the future RTE? Was that like a talk of a part? >> So, there is a part-time person included in that budget. Yes.
>> Thanks. And, um, last one is under it. >> Um, you know, I get the I get the salaries and expenses. How many people are in that function? >> It Yeah, >> there's five people. >> Five. Okay. five full-time employees
>> and maybe uh um >> it includes Chattam TV. >> Yeah, maybe Craig has it. >> The um it's also $557,250 for operating expenses. Um I can I can kind of maybe guess what that is, but is
is there a more detailed for the public? So the operating expenses uh we try to break it down into purchase of services. Purchase of services is the largest um uh pool of money in that uh account. So
that covers all of our licensing. So it covers the police department, the fire department that has now gone from 400 up to 450,000 and that covers everything. It covers all the um Microsoft Office supplies. uh
services. It covers uh fire department, all of their software, uh anything that we have for the cameras, for the everything total comes through that budget where we used to have it separated out. So, the police would have
their their uh software runs us about I think it's about $30,000 a year >> to purchase that. So, it used to be in in the police department. I remember put it all together. Yeah. >> Gotcha. Um, okay. Thank you.
>> The library assessments for FY2027 are at $714,744. The Eldridge Public Library proposed their budget, their assessment at 701,244. and South Chattam Libraries proposed
their assessment for 2027 at 13,500. Um the Eldridge Public Library um is actually level funded this year. Um according to Massachusetts general law, it states that in any given year, in order for a library to be certified for
their state aid for public libraries, a m municipality must appropriate an amount that is at least equal to the average of the previous three years. municipal appropriations of an increase of 2.5%.
So for FY2027, the town's um also contribution is if approved will exceed this requirement while um the Eldridge public library employees are not town employees. The town pays the employer
percentage of 65 to 70% of their health insurance. Um, and also the town also contributes 25,000 in the facilities department to help their building maintenance as well. >> We own the building though,
>> correct? >> Beautiful. >> No questions on that. Okay. Um, so some other departments, we have veteran services. Um, this is a change. I highlighted it because it's a change from your packet. I just got this
information in um this weekend. Um so veteran services is budgeted right now at $154,550, an increase of $24,642 over 2026. The veteran assessment for 2027 is
74,550. Um that's an increase of 1,147 over the estimated amount that I estimated it at. Um and then the veterans benefits right now is estimated at 80,000
um for 2027. And then we have um the other departments uh operating or other department budgets level funded are public ceremonies at 21,000 other public events Chattam ban at 10,000 and
the railroad museum at 5,000. And I think Jeff has a question. question. Just does anybody touch base with the band, Chadam Town Band, to see if that's enough? I mean, they they do their uniforms, they do their music, they I mean, I I don't know. I haven't I haven't talked to anybody, but I don't
know. I think I'm going to I I just >> I see someone in the audience, but I'm not sure if they're here to speak on this. >> I don't know. I I you know, I'm probably going to recommend to bump it up to 125 to be honest with you. >> Okay.
Thank you. >> I just I don't think they do a ton of fundraising and you know they're just an amazing amazing outfit. >> Amazing. >> We and they deserve our support. >> So um the public ceremonies is that the public
ceremonies committee. >> Yes. At the 21,000. >> Yeah. >> What about the independent state parade committee? That's separate article or separate item. Yeah. >> Doesn't it get caped under the public ceremonies?
>> That that includes the Fourth of July parade. >> It does. >> Okay. >> The veterans. So, it's 154,000, but the assessment is 74. >> The assessment is 74. That's what we pay um once a year to um the veterans and
they give us an assessment. And then the 80,000 is for the veterans benefits which includes um it's for that the chapter 115 it provides financial assistance to veterans and their dependents in um for if they face
financial difficulties to pay for um essentials like food, shelter, medical care. This that portion of the veterans benefits we actually get reimbured 75% of act. I mean, it's part of the state aid that we get back, but
>> a killer. >> So, um, employee benefits is budgeted at, uh, 7,913,990 for 2027. This is an increase of 744,290 compared to 2026.
This includes workers comp, which um is up $5,000, so $135,000 budgeted. Um Medicare um employer share, this is the portion that the town pays um for employees, the 1.45%
um for payroll. So that's increased $20,000. Police and fire injury up 2775. The retirement assessment is at 3.3 million at 6%. That's $186,000
more. I have not received the actual retirement assessment yet. Um I'm hoping to receive that either this week or next week um from them. And then health insurance is up 529,618.
And that includes the 19% for the Medicare that was increased in January and a 12% we're holding for the increases according to Cape Cod Municipal Health Group. >> Any any any inkling?
>> I I I don't know yet. It's either 10 to 12%. I >> But you think double digits is what I'm hearing. >> Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Most definitely. >> There's a a vote scheduled tomorrow with the Cape Cod Municipal Health Group. So, u we'll have a better idea. >> Okay.
>> I'm hoping it's it's not more than that. >> Undistributed insurance. So, this is for the um general liability insurance. Um for 2027, it's budgeted at 1.2 million, an increase of 138,000 or 12.32%.
This covers watercraft, vehicle insurance, cyber security data, flood insurance, property liability insurance, and excess liability. Um, so I don't usually receive um the budget
or should I say assessments or anything until like May or June. So this is definitely just an estimate. Um, as we increase our infrastructure in town, our insurance goes up. As we buy more
vehicles, our insurance increases. Um, for example, um there's U Mil Pond Pump Station that was done. We'll be adding that to our insurance. And then 90 Bridge Street, the the boat house will be added to our
insurance. Every little thing, it increases our insurance. our excess liability insurance. That's we keep that for um our deductible which we have and it's usually around $25,000.
>> Yes. >> Corey, >> how long have we been with the insurance company for the town? >> He'll be um I don't know how long. Um maybe Jill knows it. It's at least five years. I I know
we have been requesting quotes from Maya. Yep. >> And they have chosen not to provide us quotes on property casualty, but they do provide our workers compensation. >> Yep. Because my my optics is the insurance compet atmosphere is changing drastically and rates are going up no
matter who you're poking. So, >> um no real great news on the forecast for for insurance. Yeah, I think Carrie in talking to our our broker talked about even the national disasters is affecting every community.
>> Under which c which category is the directors and officers insurance? Is is it one of these or is it another >> the public liability? >> It's a it's a public liability. She doesn't have it. >> Okay. >> But it's within the undistributed
section. >> Quick quick question. We have a separate policy for cyber security >> separate insurance policy. Has that gone up exponentially in the recent past? >> Um it's around I can't remember exactly how much it is.
>> I'm not putting you on the spot for the number, but I mean it's it's a hot item. It's a hot >> It is a hot item. Yeah, it is. That and drone insurance. You can >> I know it's funny, but if we get a drone, we have to insure it. Yeah. Thanks, Carrie.
>> You're welcome. >> Craig, did Craig, did you want to say something on that? >> Yeah. >> As part of the uh budget increase that you've seen in our operating budget, we are doing some cyber security training, which is going to decrease eventually
the amount of insurance that we have. We've taken a lot of the um servers off out of town buildings. We don't have we only have a couple of servers left within the town buildings which are the ones that have become a problem with
compromised um if if we do have to make an insurance claim. So we are trying to push away um getting more cyber security which the insurance company really likes. So hopefully we can decrease that number and taking a lot of the services
offsite and relying on our vendors to to be more cons. They're more responsible for the um for the insurance. If there is a cyber attack, for example, the new financial management system, they are responsible if their system gets hacked.
It's their problem, not ours. And hopefully that'll decrease our insurance on the cyber security and data side. >> Thank you. >> Um the reserve fund um this is um $100,000 for 2026 and we're level
funding it for 2027. This is the fund that's um the finance committee has the vote of when there's like an unexpected expense that comes along. And um the general fund debt service, this
is budgeted at um 8,996,535, principal at $7 million, interest at 1.8 million, and uh interest short-term is at 150,000. That also includes um bond payments for um when we go out to bond
at the end of the year. I just got something my eye um capital requests. So um consulting and engineering this is in the town managers um budget uh for 75,000 this year. And then we have the IT which is
consists of land management assessment and GIS for 45,000 town computer technology equipment at 50,000 Chattam TV equipment at 30,000 annual c camera upgrades at 25,000 annual maintenance and access assess access controls at
10,000 HVAC system software upgrades at 100,000 and police department server upgrade at 80,000. And I have Craig here to actually go over his um capital items for you guys. >> Um so the um not to get into every line
item unless you'd like me to. Um you know the uh computer technology equipment that's generally laptops any uh switches, printers, etc. that we have in town. Chattam TV equipment. Um, that's
anything that Mark and and Brie might need within uh Chattam TV's line items. Uh, annual camera upgrade. So, as you may be aware, we have a large number of cameras around town in public egress areas. We have no cameras within our
staff looking at our staff at all, but it's all in public egress areas. Um, we try to upgrade those cameras on a relatively, you know, five, six year schedule. Some cameras are more expensive than others, but we try to to
keep them upgraded. They've been extremely valuable for the town. Um, you know, for example, if we have an incident on the pickle ball courts at the community center, if the fire department arrives and we have to have the person taken away in an ambulance,
etc., Uh the community center lets us know or lets Carrie know, I send the video to Carrie and we just put it in a container in case the insurance company calls up and says, "Hey, we've got someone who says we're we're liable here." So, we put um camera access on
all of the egresses of the building. Um, you know, for example, Fish Pier, um, those stairs there that, you know, we've had a couple of issues down there and the Fish Pier staff done a great job of notifying us and we captured the video and we just put it into um, I send it to
Carrie and we just have a folder there just in case we run into a problem. Uh, annual maintenance access controls. So, a lot of the old a lot of specifically this building, the access controls, the mechanisms are built into the door
handles as opposed to in the door um the the door frame. So, we're working on getting those out of the door handles because they're a little piece of wire and people hit them and then they stop working and then the access controls don't work effectively. Um the HVAC
system um we have HVAC systems in five of our buildings that controls the the um air conditioning and the heating within the building. The these buildings have been around now. I think the most up-to-date building we have is a fire
department. Um you know it's time to upgrade these systems. Uh this building here I think it's 15 years old probably. We haven't upgraded that software and that control system. So, we're buying uh five new control panels and it'll be
much easier for the um facility staff. We've really embraced using the technology of if there's a problem, they're going to they're going to control it through the software. Um and the police department server, we uh it's at end of life that manages all their
dispatch uh calls and all their record tracking. So that was due to come up. It has a a lifespan of probably five years and it's time to upgrade. So we kind of pushed it down the road from last year and now this year we are actually doing
an upgrade of it. >> So it'll be fully upgraded. >> Jeff, >> just got a quick question on the on the cameras. We had some vandalism in a couple of our public restrooms. >> We are we positioning egress cameras in in the in the in the restroom areas where we had vandalism?
>> Yep. Yep. This year we put in uh actually we just completed uh oyster pond. So every we have one location to complete which is the Harding's bathroom down there. And the thing to remember with these cameras is they are not
connected to our main system. But if we identify a problem, we have 30 days of recording. We go back to the recording and we take a look. you know, um I just for an example, that system ran about $8,000 to get fully installed, but the
damage that we had at the bathroom at uh volunteer was 30,000. So, you know, hopefully we can capture some of this uh vandalism that's happening >> at veterans >> at veterans. Sorry. Yes. Yep, that's correct. >> Thanks, Greg. Y >> that's the next one.
>> How are you? Um, so the last item on this, I believe, is the financial software, unless you want me to wait to go over this one. >> No, I would take this up now because we're going to consider placement and recommendation.
>> Okay. >> Of it. >> Um, so the financial software, we brought this to you guys last year. Um, we got approved 150,000 to start. Um this is the remaining amount to fund the full um
financial software. Um we did apply for a grant. Um so hopefully that will offset these costs. Um, we went out and sought, I think it was four companies to look at their
softwares over the last six months. And we signed a contract with um, Tyler uh, services for well, it used to be called Munis, but now it's called Tyler ERP, I think it's called. Um, Tyler ERP is a
software that's widely used in all over the country, all over the United States. Um, a lot of municipalities use them in Massachusetts. Um, and especially a lot of our surrounding towns also use them as well. This
software will definitely improve our efficiencies and controls and our reporting. Um, uh, I don't really know what else to say much more about it, but >> go ahead, Jeff. >> So, GL, >> general ledger, >> AP,
>> AP, accounts receivable, >> accounts receivable, >> utilities, >> utilities, tracks, revenues. >> Yep. >> Oh, yeah. So, >> it's going to do tax bills. >> Yep. Everything. >> Yeah. >> Yep. And then all of the departments will use it as well. So, they'll be able to use the system, input their invoices
um into the system. Um they'll be able to electronically do purchase orders instead of doing them by by paper, which >> we do a lot by paper. Um they'll be able to there'll be a workflow that goes
through as well. So, the workflows so if when somebody puts something in, it will be sent to the next person to approve and then the next person. >> Are they going to help? Is Tyler ERP going to help? What kind of assistance are you? >> Um, right now we >> People need to know how how complicated what a pain in the butt this is.
>> So, right now worth it, but it is really a lot of work. >> So, we have um hired a consultant to um write a new chart of accounts that will flow into Munis or Tyler much better um because our chart is very old and there's a lot of different things on
there that need to be cleaned up. So, we have somebody working on that right now. Um, we've already started meeting with Tyler. Um, my schedule's going to be absolutely crazy in March and April with meeting with them and getting these deadlines met so we can go live July 1st
for Yeah. Um, but um it's definitely worth it. But yeah, they're they're supplying uh training as well. So, but they're working with us. >> Yeah. >> There's never enough training. >> I know. I know. When we were talking about the uh check off on the tax bill
for the taxation assistance committee, >> yeah, >> this subject came up. >> Is this software going to make it possible for us to manipulate those bills as we want them? >> I guess we'll find out, right? I don't know. I didn't ask that question so detailed and to them about the tax bill,
but um >> something we should follow up on. >> Yep, absolutely. I'm sure they can. >> Okay. They're definitely more up todate and um than the current software that we're using. >> So, this this is being presented as a
>> as a an article. There's a draft article >> uh on this for $400,000 to place on the warrant. Did the finance committee take this up today? >> They did. >> And did they make a recommendation on it? >> They did. Okay. >> Yep. Um did you want to say something uh Greg
about the content of it or >> um yeah just just so that you're um the process is that we the bulk of our users require just a few things. They require the ability to see their year-to-ate
expenditures, the ability to see what's bills have been paid and to do purchasing. And this software is going to really streamline that whole process. Currently, we move paper around like crazy and then the staff do all these functions and add it in and put an Excel
in. So now we're going to streamline that whole process. So I think the the initial end user will be much more engaged in the software because it's going to be a lot easier for them to have to deal with their day-to-day
functions. Um we are doing this in three phases. So you brought up the tax phase, the tax is the final phase on it because we have such a compressed timeline and we didn't want to start the tax bills in the old system and then have to, you
know, kind of reinvent the wheel and do the whole process. So the taxes are the final part of our process. We will be paying multiple um software line systems licenses until we are fully implemented. So we're doing general ledger, accounts
payable, accounts receivable and purchasing in the first phase. The next phase will be utility billing. And then the the last final phase which will start sometime next year will be tax billing and and all the functions of the
treasurer collector. And the goal is is to generate our bills out of the new financial management system for October of 27. So the new tax bills, those bills will come out of the the the new financial management system and and
during that process, we can address some of those questions that you have uh Dean relating to, you know, the taxes. >> Yeah, it it came up when we were creating that committee. >> Okay. The tax um >> taxation a committee. >> Taxation aid committee. Thank you.
>> Yeah. So to get to the point where we're generating the tax bills, we are going to probably start that process in January of next year. >> Okay? >> So it's going to be a 9-month process and working out because we don't want to send out bad tax bills. We don't want to
send out and we really don't want to have any issues. And that was a big factor in putting it last to make sure everyone is comfortable on the system and then the last bill will go. By utility billing, you mean the water and sewer bills? >> Correct.
>> That is correct. >> Okay. All right. So, this is Yes. I was going to say this is an article we're being asked to place and to consider recommending. Um I I'm going to ask for a motion to place
it first. I know Stuart, you had talked last week about a provision in the charter you were concerned about the board uh recommending, I think, more than placing articles. Yeah, I mean it looks like >> I know you and I have had some conversation. I think we differ in our reading of the charter provision, but go
ahead. I throw it open if you would like to talk about that, but it looks like the finance committee's already recommended this one anyway. >> Yeah. So, I guess we're not under the >> gun on that. I mean, the the the provision in the charter is pretty clear to me and it's pretty I think it's pretty easy to comply with. I mean, it
appears to me that this first paragraph in the memo is trying to address that issue as I'm as I'm guessing. >> It looks like, >> sorry, I don't have, >> you know, well, it just says in advance of transmitting a proposed budget, the finance committee consideration um uh
department budgets within the select board. So, it looks like >> I mean some of these budgets were not we're not voting on. You're only asking >> No, it's only this this one item. It's not the Yeah. the general won't vote on that until >> we'll have a a um omnimous vote on the
whole operating budget and on the whole capital budget the last when we when basically when we close the warrant so I it >> but this is a separate article >> right um I mean what I'm saying is I think I think we're now getting towards complying with that provision in the
charter I'm not sure we have a an argument the um all I'm suggesting and what the charter requires is that we don't take a vote vote on the budgets until we hear from the finance committee. It looks like you already heard from the finance committee on this. >> That's that's what I'm looking for. I
think that the input from the finance committee when we think about these budgets and and articles is important. Um and then I had a question about >> Yeah. Let me let me just say the the um the the chair of the finance committee
is coming in next next week with his um recommend preliminary recommendations on the overall budget. I don't know what he's going and capital budgets. I don't know what he's going what he's going to say about individual items, but um we do know that they met today on a bunch of items and they're going to meet they're
meeting every other day I think twice a week. Um I I I respect your your reading of the charter and that probably was the intent of the of the drafts people of the charter. You were on the original charter commission so I I give considerable difference. I read that
particular sentence that you quoted last week a little bit differently. I think it's a directive to the finance committee to get their recommendations to us in time for us to consider them. But it doesn't appear to me to be a directive to the select board. the warrant belongs to the SE select board.
I sort of take the view that we can it's we fashion the warrant. We can put anything on it. We can recommend anything on it anytime we want and that our calendar is not dictated by the finance committee. But that's my view and I I could be wrong, but that's that's how I'm reading. But anyway, we're not going to have a problem. I don't I don't mind.
>> We're not going to have a problem tonight. >> The um >> on on this one anyway, >> right? And and I don't disagree with you entirely. the that provision in the charter um is I agree more or less a
directive to the finance committee. >> However, it specifically says that we need those recommendations before we take a vote. >> It may be an argument over nothing because I think we're headed that way. >> Yeah, I I I suggest that we do head that way and move on here. >> Yeah, I'm inclined to I would like to
make a motion. >> I have I had another question. Go ahead. Go ahead with your questions first. Yeah. Um, so you know, I hark, this is before your time, but I hearken back to uh a a rather unpleasant experience with
changing software with of moing permits that turned into a disaster. Um and so I'd like to ensure that um the end users who are going to use this, you've explained they're going to be trained in it, but um have some
you know there's there's some engagement with those end users so they they >> you know to be included is important when they're going to be using the software. >> Oh yeah, absolutely. I totally agree with you. And >> this from what little I know about
software 2007 seems old and this seems >> it's Yes. >> Yeah. Yes. >> It seems and >> so how long you know we're looking at 400,000 here. You said maybe you had another 150 in some other article. >> So, yep. The 150 was approved last year
at town meeting. We're using some of that now to pay for um the current the the contract that we just signed. We're using that 154 and also the consultant that we have that's building building our chart of accounts and we might even have him help us with Munis because he's
worked setting up other towns and helping them set up um the software. Um this additional money we'll need to also pay for um the next three years
>> to maintain it >> to Yeah. And then also don't forget we are we have to keep our current software and pay for that as well. So we're paying for two softwares >> right >> until we can get this all completely built >> and then the old one goes away.
>> Yeah. And then we did apply for a grant. So hopefully we either get a grant of 100,000 or 200,000. Um so what'sever left over we'll just we can close it out after. So I'm I'm I'm looking at like okay 400 the five then we're looking at the grant. I mean we're talking some
significant money here. Yeah. I mean you could be pushing >> threequarters of a million. >> Yeah. That this is all we're asking for. We're not going >> No, I know what we're asking for. I'm looking at the total cost. >> Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> So it's it's not insignificant. >> No, it's not. >> And how often do you think we would have to,
>> you know, we'd have this software for? >> Forever. Yeah. This software is like the best software that you can get, financial software. Um, they always have upgrades. They're always doing stuff to their software. The software we currently have
has not been upgraded since 2007. >> So, we're sitting on the same software from 2007 that has never had any upgrades. >> Well, >> um, and it's built on Microsoft Access where this is not built like that. It's
completely different. I can't remember what it's built on. Do you remember? >> This is a This software is a web-based application. So, it's a it's a SAS product, software as a service. So, their goal is to maintain it. Um, and they'll continue to update the software
and then we just pay a licensing fee essentially for it. We do own the data. So, we there's no concerns relating to that. Um, you know, as as a standard, Munus has been around for 20 plus years. When I first started it, I did a Munis
implementation back in 2000 or actually the late 90s. So, they've been around for a long time, their platform. Um, the biggest criticism that people have is they're expensive, but you kind of get what you get. um you know if you pay
after seeing our evaluations we saw some softwares that were $50,000 a year to implement it's just not the same tool. So you kind of get what you pay for and and and the goal is is for us not to transition anytime in the next 20 years at least to
to a new piece of software by then it might be completely different but >> well thank you both for the explanation >> and the training is very important to us as well. I'd like to address that. You know we want to make sure that our staff are really comfortable with the software that they're using and um we're going to
do a train the trainer and if that doesn't work out we'll have Munis come in. So, we're >> Well, they're coming in anyways. They are coming in. >> They're coming in to train the trainer and we'll, you know, the goal is is to have everybody comfortable with it and hopefully nice and streamline.
>> Great. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Josh. Mr. Chairman, I just want I want to be on record is that I do agree with the chairman's interpretation of the charter and the way we have teed up our budgets for the last 12 years. I'm extremely comfortable with. It's the same way we're teeing it up this year.
Um, my view is if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Um, this has worked no matter how how how one interprets the nuances of the charter. Um, so I would like a to make a motion here and vote to place the financial software article in the amount of $400,000 on our warrant.
>> Is there a second? >> I'll second that. >> All right. Move and seconded. I'll call the role of Mr. Dikkins. I >> Mr. Meadows. Hi. >> Mr. Smith. >> I. >> And the chair votes I. It's placed. And I'm also comfortable in voting to recommend or it has been recommended by the finance committee anyway. So
>> Okay. So I I move to recommend the financial software article in the amount of $400,000. >> Is there a second? >> I'll second that. >> Moved and seconded. I'll call the role. Mr. Dykens I. >> Mr. Matters. Hi. >> Mr. Smith. >> With the fincom's recommendation. The
>> chair votes I. Thank you. Okay. So next is the department of community development. Is this someone from the beginning? >> There you go. >> Introduce you. >> I think so. I think I'm good.
>> Thank you. Good evening everyone, members of the board. Um Katie Dunovan, director of community development. Um I have a brief presentation um for the department of community development. So, just uh an overview, um the
community development has uh 10 full-time employees. Um and then we also contract out for our plumbing and gas and electrical inspections. Um so, um 10 full-time positions and then the two contract inspections. Um if you'll
recall last year, we had requested uh a new position for a new local inspector um to do short-term rental inspections. We are in the recruitment process for that. Um but are also waiting for additional guidance from the state on
what those inspections will require so that we have that information to share with our um potential employees. Um just some department of stat uh department statistics in 2025 uh we
issued 155 building permits 892 electrical permits 1,241 public plumbing and gas permits um and then did a total number of inspections combined um for all of those permits of
4,813. Um the revenue that we took in from those uh permits was $66,555. And if you'll recall, we had um come to the board back in June to request that
we have an increase in our fees, which took effect October 1st. Um we've already seen uh an increase um even just with our year-end numbers at the 606 555. Um I think last year it was somewhere around $580,000
and we had a few um I think about 50 fewer permits uh this past year. So um we'll re we'll realize um some good revenue coming in in the future. Um we also have um had 400 applications from
the regulatory boards um in community development. The regulatory boards are the two historic boards, historic business district commission and the historical commission, as well as the planning board and zoning board of appeals. And the revenue from those fees
that we took in was $42,65. Um, just thinking forward to um FY27, our operating budget is proposed at 1,192,258. um a 3.53 increase over the prior year. Um most of this is due to salaries um
and wages which account for the contractual wage step and longevity increases as well as temporary wages and overtime. Our operating expenses total 123,000 um with a requested increase in five $500
over last year um for an increase in vehicle maintenance. And I will note that um we do not have any capital requests from the department of community development for FY27. And then this is just a um I took from
the budget book um expenditures by object. I would like to note that the community development department um we buy all of the office supplies for the building for um community development and natural resources and we maintain all of the equipment um
um our uh printers and scanners and um postage software as well. So um that's just a brief overview of the budget. Um, and again, a minimal request for this year of $500. So, I'll take any questions that you have.
>> Any questions from the board? Okay. I don't think so, Katie. This is the uh >> simplest budget of in the entire book. I think >> I'll try to keep it that way, Mr. Chairman. >> Thank you. Um, so next we have um the economic development budget.
Who's presenting that? Carrie. >> Well, Carrie's getting set up. This is the budget that funds the Chamber of Commerce and it's level funded at 95,000 this year compar uh same as last year. >> Um who do we have here from the chamber?
>> Is anyone from the chamber going to present here? Good evening. How are you? >> Just quickly introduce the executive board. We have uh Nancy Gardner, Cole Lander, Emma Carol, and myself, Ryan Ferrell. >> And we are producing our level funding
for FY27 at $95,000. Um I believe you have the a little more detail within your books that you've had hopefully time to review and um if you have any questions we'll open it up as we understand time is of the essence for you tonight.
>> So the the 95,000 is basically broken down into two parts. >> Correct. >> Um could you just tell us what those are and what >> Sure. The 75,000 is for our staffing in terms of the info booth and our operations manager, not the executive director.
And then the 20,000 is for our economic development which incorporates encompasses our marketing, our online, our social media, that whole world that we all live in now. >> And there is a material in the book which is available online digitally um
that indicates your various um accomplishments over the past year. >> Correct. We have all those >> increases in your increases in membership and so forth. Yep. What's the status if I may ask of your um >> here it comes >> executive director position >> because
>> Yep. So we are a we have a amazing transition team right now. Um it's obviously four weeks fresh for us but we have attacked it and we hope to have an executive director by the end of March in place. >> Oh good. >> Um if not sooner. We already have 18
applications and we are actively interviewing and doing that whole process. But we feel very confident that we have a strong leadership team in place in all of our, you know, our whole entity and we see that this going forward is going
to be >> Are you the current president of the chamber? >> We are. >> You are co co-president. >> Is there >> our past president uh just had a baby last week? >> Okay. Is there a different um leadership on the on the merchant side or merchants
association? >> Everything's status quo. Okay, very good. Any questions of chamber? >> Very good. Thank you very much. >> Thank you budget. Thank you. >> Thanks for your time. >> Okay, now turning to the next item. Annual town meeting article review and a vote to refer protective zoning bylaw
amendment. Referral to the planning board accessory dwelling unit potential placement on the 2026 annual town meeting warrant. um our planning um town planner is is here. Christino Grady is
chairp available also online or is he in the audience? I don't see him. Arthur Spru >> Art is not here this >> Okay. You're going to present this. This is this is a fairly ministerial thing. You're you're coming to us. We have to refer it to you. You have to have a
hearing within 45 days. I think >> that is correct. >> Okay. Go ahead, please. >> So, as you said, I am Christine O'Grady. I'm the town planner and I'm here tonight to give you an overview of what we're asking for. Um, the town of Chadam has had a accessory dwelling unit bylaw
since 2019. You did some minor amendments to it in 2022. The state um put forward the Affordable Homes Act in 2024 and as a result of that act, they put together some regulations that were brought forward the beginning of
February of last year. Um, since that time we have all been working under the state regulations. Um, and we are now trying to bring forward the new revised accessory dwelling unit bylaw for the
town of Chadam. So, we're trying to bring it forward at annual town meeting. Um, basically the affordable homes act also um had another component of it. So, they did both the seasonal communities which part of that we voted last year to accept that. We will ultimately bring be
bringing a bylaw forward on that probably next year, but this year we're doing the ADU portion of it. Um, in accordance with the state executive office of housing and livable communities, we have to the ADU bylaw
must um have a um maintain a separate or uh a separate entrance. It can be half the gross floor area of the um primary dwelling unit or 900 square f feet up to the maximum of the 900 whichever is smaller and then it must meet uh local
municipal regulations. Um things that municipalities can consider when they're putting together this bylaw. They can impose reasonable restrictions related to site plan review title five dimensional setbacks bulk and height requirements and short-term
rentals. What we cannot regulate is the requirement for owner occupancy or family relationship. Um we also can't require special permit approval um or use of the rental and we cannot require more than one parking space. There are
other components of that with with regard to transit stations but that doesn't really impact us. Um, I know this is a little bit small, but I just wanted to kind of break out what our existing bylaw is compared to what the proposed bylaw will cover. Um,
ultimately this will be allowed by right within the town of Chadam within the residential zoning districts, the small business district and the general business district. There are no limits on the number of units that can be permitted, constructed, or leased. as a
as in the past we had a limit on that of so many per year. I think it was 10 per year or 12 months. Um they can be attached or detached. Um the planning board will determine if more can be built by special permit and that is something that they'll be considering at
the um at the uh public hearing. Um there are no limits on the number of bedrooms within these units. Um again we had said about the 900 square ft. um the additional one parking
one parking space. Um uh they may be in single or common ownership. Um they cannot be subject to use or occupancy. Um obviously the short-term rental and that definition
comes from the state of the 31 days. There is no minimum lot size requirement. um they cannot be counted in any density reg regulations and um as I said before we can determine with special permits if one or more can be
built on a certain on a lot um going forward the next things to keep in mind so after your action for this evening if we get the the referral we will hold a public hearing on March 9th and then we'll report back to you on March 17th
um prior to the warrant being closed for you putting it on the warrant and then um we'll ultimately be bringing it to town meeting. The other thing I should say is that we are going before the finance committee on the 10th of March. And that's basically all I have. So if you have any questions, you can let me know.
>> So I have a couple of questions regarding the process. Uh as I recall, when you come back to the select board, um does it require a select board vote to go on town meeting? Can the slackboard say we don't like what you've come up with and we're not going to put
it on Katie or do you want to answer that or Christine whoever >> or is it is it like a community preservation article >> you want me to answer? >> Yes. So in this instance I think that um
it's an interesting question. I hadn't I know citizens petitions have to be placed without question. the board may um place it but then vote to either recommend or not recommend. Um so we had actually had um
and I guess you you can vote to not place it and that did actually happen a few years back when we were proposing a potential um overlay district with the runway protection zone. you had asked the planning board to go back and reconsider
>> um what they were working on and um so I'm not sure that you denied placing it on the agenda, but you did send it back to the planning board. >> We should probably get that clarified with town council be before this comes back to us. So the reason we're being asked to do this though is because we're
a seasonal we've chosen to become a seasonal community or we have to >> No, that's that's that's another aspect of the affordable homes act. But this is actually we're doing this be because the state has adopted regulations and we're trying to bring our ADU bylaw into compliance with the state regulations.
>> Okay. Uh just >> make it clear we um cannot use the existing regulations that you have. They've been over override overrode by these. Um, just a couple of things in the draft that I >> So, I do have a um I didn't realize in your packets that you had received an
older draft. >> I know you won't have time. >> Oh, so Christine is just passing out um the drafts of the current bylaw. >> Yeah, I had caught a couple of typos. I wanted to bring them to your attention if you're going to finalize this.
>> Thank you. Um the first one was with in the >> So this is before you now is the clean copy that the planning board will be looking at on March 9th. >> I'm looking at them >> and we have been through it with town council and with um staff from
throughout community development. Well, let me ask you on under the definition section under short-term rental in the second line um the last word appointment. Is that supposed to be appointment or apartment? >> Looks like
>> Mr. Chairman, are you um the definition >> definition of short-term rental? >> Okay, I see where you're saying now, right? >> Says including but not limited to an appointment, house, cottage, and apartment. I'm thinking that should probably be apartment, but I will let you check that. >> I will check that. Okay. And then um
on um under item C, paragraph C, um number four, the last words that is you've changed us a little But the last word satisfactory, I think you mean to use the adverb satisfactoryy.
Satisfactory provided. Those were the two. You caught the third one, so I won't bring that up. Any other questions on this? >> No. No. >> So, I think all we're being asked for tonight is to refer this to the planning board. Is and Mr. Meadows, do you want
to do the honors? >> Sure, Mr. Chairman. I moved that the select board refer the proposed ADU bylaw back to the planning board for a public hearing. >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. I'll take a vote. Um Mr. Dykens >> I. >> Mr. Meadows.
>> I. >> Mr. Smith >> I. >> And the chair votes I. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Next we have a number of um articles that we are being asked to vote and recommend. Um we'll start with the consolidated revolving funds and uh
Carrie if you could inform us as we do each one whether the finance committee has made a recommendation on them so we can >> do they approved all of these today. Pardon me. >> They they um recommended all of these today. Yeah. >> All right. So floor is yours.
>> They listened they must have listened they must have listened to you Stuart. They must have watched heard you must have watched last week's meeting. I just need to find um because this is my Whoops. Is that doing that? Sorry.
>> There are essentially two articles. I think one is one has a bunch of res revolving funds in them and then they're Well, there more than two. I guess >> there's several. >> What?
>> There we go. >> Okay. So, the first one is um all of these are annual articles on um so you're used to seeing these. The first one is the consolidated
revolving funds. Um we have seven revolving funds. I highlighted that because there was a typo. It said six. We actually have seven. Um we had the writers cove respbit supportive day program approved last year. So I added that into this. Um the so the revolving
funds are to vote the expenditure limit that they can expend out of that fund for the current year. So, um we have $50,000 for the adult support of day program.
Um and then the airport revolving fund um is put in at 200,000. That was originally at 150,000, but I've increased it to 200 because they're coming really close to their expenditure limit each year. So, I want to make sure that they have enough
um room that they can use to spend and not have to come back again and get it approved again because what happens is if it they go over they're supposed to get we're supposed to get it approved. Um and additionally, the airport revolving fund has also been on a
separate article. I included in this one just to make it kind of more condensed for all of their revolving funds to be included. >> So just to um interrupt Carrie, so there's the revenues are coming in to sustain those funds and so the revenue
for instance with the airport revolving fund, they can sustain 200,000 for >> they're anticipating Yeah. additional revenues. >> Yes. >> In 2027. So um the Bassid House revolving fund is level funded at U for their expenditures
at 8,000 inspection services revolving fund at 150 recycling revolving fund at 5,000. Um I don't even think that one actually gets used anymore. Um Maronei station revolving fund 20,000 and the waterways user fee revolving fund at a
million. >> So we haven't I want to take these separately. So the we have an article >> draft article here and you include the um >> as you're required the two-year history of each fund. I just had question couple of questions. Yeah. writers coal fund
um shows for 2026 um receipts of 6.9 million I'm 6 6,900,000 700 7,000 and then um expenditures of 14,000 but the balance is showing as a positive of
7,000 why is that not a negative balance we spent more than >> I'll have to look >> if those number if the receipts and expenditures numbers are correct And that number ought to be negative, but I have a feeling they're reversed. But >> they probably are reversed. I'll have to go back and look. I had somebody else help. >> We'll check that. That's
>> right up the >> Well, we can we can move it. It's just I can double check. It's anformational part of the article. I think we can move it. Um, on the Maronei, I I think I know I ask this every year and never never remember the answer. What What is the Marone revolving fund?
>> What is What What is it used for? Do >> I think it's for improvements for the entire complex? okay, >> that we have and we have also lease revenue goes into that and we use that lease revenue to do any type of um necessary repairs and so forth.
>> Okay. Thank you. >> There haven't been any expenditures though Dean to your point. >> Yeah, 60,000 B in the balance. So, um unless you had anything more to say on this article Carrie, I'm going to ask for a motion to place and then a motion to recommend.
>> Um Stewart, >> yeah, I just have it. Unless the board has questions too. >> Yeah. Um the airport revolving fund is >> there's a typo in that too that I have to fix. I noticed as well under Are you talking about the expenses?
>> Um I just had a more general qu Oh yeah. Okay. >> Yeah. item or um so you have uh 200,000 but historically it's been 150,000 but um we're going to 200 because I
think the airport well you tell me if I'm wrong the airport commission uh voted to instill some fees >> that is it is going to be around 50,000 is that what the expectation is that am I reading that right >> yes
>> okay So, so I mean you could we could look at that as a $50,000 increase even though we're getting revenue to reimburse it. >> They can't spend more than they receive. So it should revolving funds should
never be in the negative. It should always be in the positives. So, um, >> so that's >> and this is just a you're looking at the expenses and you're seeing that you get close at the end of each year and I hear their meetings and I and I can hear them, >> you know, somewhat concerned about that.
>> Yeah. >> Um, the in some of us are a little bit newer to the board, so bear with me. Inspectional services revolving fund. >> Yep. >> Uh, is what are those what are those used for? for is that a specific uh
program? Um >> so um that is where the inspectional um like the inspections for the electricians and the plumbers and they get paid out of this fund. >> Oh.
>> Um I think it's 20% or 30% of a permit actually gets put into the fund and then we pay the part-time people from here or >> interesting. Is that is that uh
>> is not to is that normal? Like do other communities handle their funding of it seems a little bit different. >> Um I'd have to check on how other communities fund their part-time inspectors or contractual inspectors because they get paid per inspection. >> Yeah.
>> Um not necessarily as like a part-time hourly employee. Um but I think it's fairly common um to have a revolving fund, you know, similar to that. Um I >> I'm not opposed to it. It's just intriguing. It's just an interesting way of >> um but as Krie said, I just wanted to
correct. It's 30% of our the fees that we take in from the um building department fees that I had referenced earlier and that goes into the revolving fund and that gets used to pay the um inspectors that get paid for inspection.
>> Great. Uh thank you. The um >> the waterways this this has somewhat you weren't here Carrie, but this has somewhat of a twisted history as well. Mhm. >> Um, I'm not going to go into that. That may be a separate discussion at some
point, but Okay, I get it. >> Cy, >> thank you. No, I don't want to beat up on a $5,000 line item, but is the is the is the recycling revolving fund really viable? Is it is I mean, it's if you
look at the balances and the expenses and >> I don't even think I have 94. >> I don't even I know. I have to look back and see what that was. Um I don't even think they had activity last year. >> Um I I think it has something to do with blue bins in town.
>> Yeah, the compost bins. Okay. Um that's a program that's I think the town's offered for about 20 years or so. >> So we can check back with um on that. >> All right. Thank you. Yeah, it's just an I mean we have to if
it does have activivity in it, we have to vote the expenditure limit each year because we do have this fund. >> Okay. So, is there a motion to place this article? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. I'll call the role. Mr. Dykins. I
>> Mr. Matters. I >> Mr. Smith. >> I chair votes. Is there a motion to recommend? >> Move to recommend. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. I'll call the role. Mr. Dikkins, >> I. >> Mr. Meadows, >> I. >> Mr. Smith, >> I. >> And the chair votes I.
>> The next item is fixed salaries elected officials. I will note at the outset that because each member of this select board is affected by this article. We have to invoke under the conflict of interest law the rule of necessity. We
each have to declare that we stand to benefit or not from this article because it's a stipen. It includes a stipend for select board members. So I certainly stand to benefit. I have to ask each member to make that declaration. >> I so declare,
>> Mr. Smith. >> Well, depending on how I I so declare. Yes. >> And and and Mr. Dyson. >> And now we have to take a vote to invoke the rule of necessity um per that declaration. So I'll accept the motion. >> So moved.
>> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. Mr. Dyikens. >> Hi. >> Mr. Matters. >> Hi. >> Mr. Smith. >> I. >> And the chair votes I. >> Okay. Carried. >> Okay. So this um article right here as
you stated is to set the salaries for the fiscal year. It's not to appropriate the money because that is actually appropriated in the operating budget. is just to set the fixed salaries for the elected officials which are the moderator the select boards members and
the chairman extra stipent as well. >> I'm going to propose an amendment to this. These these stipens were last >> um increased uh in um about eight years ago. >> Yep. >> Uh in 2018. I'm going to propose and I
base this on um what I perceive to be the workload uh of an individual select board member as well as the chair and these would go into effect on um July um 1st not for the current year. So I and the
moderator uh who's currently receiving 1,200 I propose that that be increased to $1,500. >> Okay. each individual select board member from $4,000 to $6,000 and the the chair's additional uh stipen
would be in would be an increase of would be an amount of $1,500. >> Okay. >> So, that's what I'm going to propose uh in this article and um in fact, I will offer the motion to place this article
with those revisions. Is there a second? >> Second. Any discussion? >> Corey was first and then Stuart. >> Um >> discussion. >> Let's be blunt. None of us none of us are doing this for this for the siphon.
It's not going it's not going to shatter it. It's nice. Yes, it helps out, but it's it's certainly not drives us or at least doesn't drive me. Um it it is a lot of work. I mean, I've been on the board since 2015 and it does eat up a lot of work. Um, I don't want this to be
looked at as, you know, you know, we're necessarily looking for more money. Um, I think I think it warrants it. Um, my I guess my my response is not to overly complicate things is do you put two articles out there, one with the existing one and one with the proposed
higher wages and whatever the town meeting feels is appropriate, they vote for affirm affirmatively. You know, I don't want to campaign one way or another. Um but you know these seats are going to get changed over probably over the next five years. There's going to be
different bodies maybe in these seats. Uh maybe this will help you know bring forth other other potential candidates. So um structure it in whatever way possible and let town you know town meeting decide. Um but I think it it has merit but I'm not going to you know
champion this. >> So we're just talking about process. So we would have >> two consecutive articles. One article would be for presumably the increased and if that were to fail then you go down to the
next article which would be um status quo from previous years. >> Whatever provides an opportunity for the voters to weigh in and they feel whatever they feel is the correct compensation. That's that's how I look at it. >> Stuart.
Um, I guess maybe I'm partly responsible for this because I did raise this as an issue some time ago, several months or it was on a different discussion in trying to attract uh
um let's say younger folks that uh and I and I use the you know some people have to have these two jobs or what have you to to uh work in town or to live in because of the high expenses here. So, I
was looking for ways to um uh attract people to the to these elected boards, but I know a lot of them are uh you know, I I I can't dedicate the time because I have to go to another job or what have you or I have family. Um
you know, the there there is the health insurance component that is beneficial for those younger folks. That's um not sure how it affects, you know, the more senior people, but I know the younger folks that should be an that should be an attraction. Maybe they I I know some
of them didn't know about it because I mentioned it to them. So, that could help. Um I'd be, you know, I'm I'm fine with this, but I'd be more comfortable, and you tell me how you wanted me to make an amendment. And I guess I can make an amendment to the motion to for
this to take effect for new elected people that come to the board. Um so upon my departure uh somebody takes my place that additional money would go to them as opposed to the existing people
that sit on the board. I think the optics would play better. Um, and you know, like we've reiterated, you know, this is a lot of it was a lot of work, but it's a lot of time. Um, is what I've learned is a considerable amount of time. And, um, so if people are going to
dedicate that time, I think they need to be compensated. But I don't want to speak, you know, as I sit in the seat, I think it's more appropriate for the newer folks who might come on here. >> I'm not sure you can do that legally. Um, but you know that's c it's certainly
open for discussion and I I haven't researched it but it was >> I know it's not in the charter so you don't have to look that. >> No, it's not. No, it's not. And and just for the for the sake of information, I have no interest in serving as chair of this board after May. Uh so I'm not
going to benefit from the additional stipen I'm proposing for the chair. But um I think historically it's always been you know across the board. I I just I would question whether you can can do it. Um I think that Corey's suggestion
which is an interesting one of putting basically two slates in front of the town meeting. The first one would be with the increases and it could be amended along the lines you suggest from from town meeting floor if somebody wanted to unless this board wants to do
it place it that way. So I I'd open your comment up to discussion from the rest of the board. I know Shireen's not here. So >> Corey and then Well, I I guess I mean I I'll be very blunt about it. I mean I I understand the recruiting concepts of
it. Um but I do think the stipen is not driving force to serve on this committee. It's help it would be helpful. It has been helpful, you know, whatever. Um, but I I I wouldn't want the stipen to be a divisive element within the board members that someone who served on the board, you know,
someone serves on it for so I mean so it would take effect my last my last year. So I've been on since 2015. So I'd feel >> Yeah. I mean I would >> so yeah. my last year I would be
potentially I would be I could be sitting next to someone who's served well for the first time and there'd be the you know the difference you know and I think would be I think it's an awkward element of it um again the statement is not a driving factor for our serving
here um so I wouldn't want to create a unnecessary um element that would cause differences amongst the board members we're trying to serve for this the citizens the voters the people who put us in an office, you know, and you know, whether we get paid a dollar or a million
dollars. I mean, a million dollars if you really want to, but um um it's not it's it's it's not why we're doing this. Um so I don't want to make it into a bigger deal than in you know, a bigger discussion, it needs to be my again my initial position was if the
citizens feel that this this position whether you be here a year, five years, 10 years warrants this much, it's voted in. if they don't want a different amount, vote that in and leave it as that. I I I mean, the v voters are very smart. They understand, you know, the work that's put into this position. So,
whatever they feel comfortable with, just leave it as that. That's that's just my two cents. >> Yeah. >> So, if if I might, I I I you know, I feel I'm a little queasy about voting myself a raise to be honest with you. And I I don't think we should do it without Shireen. So, I I I I would I prefer to punt this for a meeting or two
or whatever. And we need to do I I I think it's >> okay. ridiculously or very unfair to not have her here. >> Well, we'll we'll have a full board on the 3rd of March. >> Okay, good. >> But possibly next week, but I think we'll put this on for the 3rd of March and we can take up all these considerations.
>> Every time Congress votes them a raise bothers me. >> But but the last time we ever visited this issue, I'll remind folks that you were the chair. >> I'm happy to take the credit for increasing the >> Yeah. You you doubled our salary from Yes, I did. And and this isn't a salary.
If it were a salary, we be talking the chair would be getting4 or $50,000 for the time the chair puts in. And I can tell you it is multiplied. I was chair eight years ago. It has multiplied three-fold at least since I've been on. And I know the work that individual members put the time that they put on
them on this. Not to mention um you know the the interaction with the public that is part and parcel of this job. So, I'm I'm happy to to defer this to to uh >> I think we should third of March. >> Sure. >> It's fine with me. I don't I don't
>> Sorry, Jim. >> Uh would you be interested in deferring it to next week because the select board's going to vote your budget recommendations and so the annual budget will have to reflect an increase of one so voted. So March 3rd is actually after
you've voted the full >> next year. Come here. Yep. >> Okay. So, >> so the 17th I think >> we will have a full board on the 17th. >> Okay. Well, we'll defer it till next week. >> Yeah. And and that's fine. One one distinct difference. It's, you know, procedural, but >> we're not actually voting ourselves a
race. >> No. >> Tom does that. That's right. Congress. That's right. It's up to them. They don't recommending. We're recommending. So, they, you know, there is a difference between I hate to compare ourselves with the uh federal and state legislatores. So, >> I think we compare favorably. >> Let's hope.
Okay. We'll defer that to uh next week >> next week. >> Okay. Next is a recision of borrowing. >> So the there is um another typo in there. It said two articles. It's actually three. Um so this is an article
to get any authorized unissued debt that's remaining on our books off. Um there are three articles that were approved. um annual town meeting of 2006. There was article 10 well and pump
station. Um there is a remaining amount of $560,000 that remains that's unissued that um we want to try to clear out and get off the books. Um then there's article 14 from 2009 wastewater treatment facility um in
the amount of $99,893 that will um also unissued amount that we need to get off the books. And then the last one is article 13 water manes from 2012 in the amount of $478,185 thou.
>> Okay. Um any questions or is there a motion? Steuart. Um, here again, I just had some questions for the P, you know, >> it's okay. >> They don't all read these books. >> It's fine. >> Um, >> and I think I we we touched on this earlier a few months ago. Um, the
560,000 as an example for the well and pump station. You're proposing we resend the >> the uh borrowing. Fine with me. But um did we not do something or we accomplished it and we just don't need the money?
>> Right. So, it's completed. It's um just basically so the town votes a certain amount. We didn't need this, so we're going to rescend it, so it can come off the books. Um and it's also too old to borrow any funds for >> after a certain amount of time. The
financial advisors do not let you borrow the money anymore because it's just too old. >> I And I guess that's the same thing for article 13. It's not as old, but is it it's it's >> they've all been completed. We completed we did whatever water manes we described in that article. >> Yeah. If we have to do water manes
again, we'll have to do another borrowing for it. >> And then lastly, is there a procedural reason the it's accomplishing the same goal? However, I've seen it happen before where we
reappropriate this money into like a article that we're doing this year. >> You can do that too, but >> we just did it this way for >> Yeah. We're just gonna Yeah. >> easier. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Is there a motion to place? >> Move to place >> in a second.
>> Second. >> Moved and seconded to place. I'll call the role. Mr. Dykins. Mr. Meadows. I. >> Mr. Smith. >> I. >> Chair votes I. Is there a motion to recommend? >> Move to recommend. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Okay. And this has been recommended by
the finance committee. We'll call the role. Mr. Dyken. Mr. Meadows. Hi. >> Mr. Smith. >> I. and the chair votes eye. Carrie, I did want to say something about the salaries. I would ask you if you would communicate to the finance committee chair that >> I will
>> that um we are cons contemplating an article because I know they're meeting Thursday. That agenda's already been posted, but are they meeting next Tuesday as well? >> They are. Yep. >> In case they want to weigh in on this at all. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Okay. Next uh is the other
post-employment benefits OPED liability trust fund appropriation. >> Yep. So this is another annual article. Um so as you know we have the 1.5% added on as a surplus on the real estate taxes and the town also each year
transfers 150,000 um into the OPE which is other postemployment benefits which is for the retirees. Um this year we are funding this article with free cash versus the overlay surplus.
Um not much has changed other than that unless you guys have any questions on the um OPED itself. >> And the reason for the change in the funding source is that um you need the OPE surplus. You need the um overlay surplus I'm sorry the overlay for the RTE.
>> I do. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> So I'll take a motion to place unless other questions. Stewart, >> I just had comments. I want I just think it's important um that Carrie review what's on that slide. >> Do you want me to review it? >> You would like you to have a review that Yeah.
>> So um the balance is currently um 7,247,675 in the other postmployment benefits liability trust fund. As of December 31st, 2025, the town's net oped liability was 10,51,215
as of June 30th, 2025. >> Question. >> That number at 10 million as of June 30. That used to be 15, 16, 17, 18 even at one point. Yep. So, so we have that OPED that net OPED liability what our
liability is minus what we have put away for it is 10 million bucks. >> Yes. >> And it was much higher than that. So, >> yes. >> Anyway, I just want to emphasize that. >> Yeah. It has significantly decreased over the last year. >> Some of that is actuarily determined but it is that >> but I think what the point you're making
is that we have built up this fund to 7 million bucks. >> Right. and the large largely because of not just the 150,000 but because of the foresight of the town. >> Yep. >> And the oped trust in in in taking the the sur the 3% sur tax the land bank
>> right >> cutting it in half giving the taxpayers of at that time a $500,000 >> tax relief and and taking continuing with special legislation are the only community in the Commonwealth that I think has done this. >> Yes. to allow us to take one and a half
percent and and put that into >> OPEM and the market's been good, too. I mean, but but this is this is a big win and I hope it continues. It will continue. >> I just wanted to >> No, thank you. >> I wanted to make you go through it. >> Did you have a question? >> Yeah. Um
I'm obviously retired from the town. I don't know. I don't think this affects me particularly. >> Oh, you talking about conflict? >> Yeah. I I'll I'll I'll go either way on the on the on on the vote. It's just uh I just wanted to throw that out there.
>> So, um what do you mean doesn't affect you? >> Well, I don't it's more of a question that you know I want to be able to uh vote positively for this, but if it's some sort somehow a conflict because I'm a former employee, I'm happy not to. >> Oh, okay. I wasn't sure. Stuart, are you
on are you on one of the >> plans offered through Barnstable County Retirement for Health Insurance? >> Yes. >> We should recuse here. >> Okay. >> Just recuse. >> Fair enough. I'll recuse. >> Okay. All right. Is there a motion to
place this? >> Move to place. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. I'll call the role. Uh, Mr. Dykins. Hi. >> Mr. Matters. Hi. >> Chair votes I. So, it's three-0 with one recusal, not an abstension, a
recusal. Thank you, Stuart. Thank you. Uh, next, the Wood Waste Reclamation Facility Enterprise Fund. >> What? >> I'll recommend. I'm sorry. >> Recommend. >> Second. >> Moved and seconded to recommend. Uh,
call the role. Mr. Dyken. Hi. Mr. Meadows. >> Hi. The chair votes I and there is there are no abstensions and one recusal. Thank you Kathy. Wood wood waste reclamation facility enterprise fund. >> Okay. So the town has one enterprise
fund which is the wood waste enterprise fund. Um this is um an amount um that the town uses. They lease the property and we also pay out a
contract to Weston and Samson to help monitor and do particular stuff on the site as well. Um the enterprise funds uh serves as a financial assurance mechanism to ensure such compliance with permits issued by the department of environmental
protection. Um the enterprise fund must be voted on each year. Um, previously we used to fund this with 25,000. Um, the current contract that we have with Weston and Samson has increased. So, we need to increase this up to
$50,000. And also, there is going to be an environmental survey done over uh the um wood waste as well. Um, because we're coming to our end of our our term over there. Our contract ends
in 2029 and I believe that um we have to be in compliance and I don't know what happens after 2029 but so we've been in contact Greg Burman our director of natural resources we've been
working with the current let's say it's the um Nick TWW Nickerson property is what we're talking about and the way it was acquired requires it to be restored to open space. So, um it's something
that the current LEI knows and we're working on a plan to transition us to 2029. >> Sure. >> Go ahead. So maybe um so after 2029
um does this facility no longer become a uh you know a uh disposal area for brush and and or do we I guess I'm not sure what the contract
>> and I I'm I don't have all the details but luckily Greg Burman is on participating remotely. Greg, if you wanted to weigh in. >> Sure. Happy to. Greg Burman, your director of natural resources. Um, so at the annual town meeting that authorized
the purchase of this land, uh, it was called out specifically for open space. So part of the overall lease and town meeting process was um, allowing the lease to clean up the property. I
believe it's between four and 5% a year over the time of the lease and at the end of the lease it would be cleaned up and reverted to open space and that's what the additional funds are requested for uh surveys to make sure that you know the cleanup is on track.
>> What if it Greg what if it isn't on track? What if they're not completed by 2029? Well, the the lease specifically calls out that's um TWW Nickerson's job role is to do that
cleanup. So, it it's my hope and intention that they are in compliance. If they aren't in compliance, we'll come up with a plan to get them in compliance. Um and you know initial conversations with uh the company you
know they they do understand and are working toward compliance. Um they are in touch with our town council to see if there's any you know potential options for extending the lease. I didn't see any. Initial conversations didn't
necessarily see any, but um we we'll certainly explore that option, but right now we want to make sure that our understanding of a complete cleanup by 2029 occurs. >> I think it's probably
you know this is like uh the Chattam transfer station on steroids. if uh if that facility no longer becomes available for area contractors and homeowners to you know have their brush
chipped up and recycled and you can get that's going to be a significant problem. Um I'm not sure people even remember you know the lease and you know the end result was supposed to be open space. Um it it it probably is worthy of
a you know it look doesn't look like we're rush into it but it it looks like a uh at least an agenda request for discussion because there's a lot of people who depend upon that facility. >> Yes, Jeeoff. >> I agree. I think we ought to keep it on our radar. Um it has a balance of
$442,000 which is not insignificant and we're asking for 50 and it looks like we're going to spend 50. So it looks like the balance is going to remain. >> But I what would we ever use those monies for? is my is my question >> whether that would contribute to the cleanup or not and Mr. Smith has made a
very apt point that it's a gigantic, you know, wood waste reclamation area. It's it's pretty big. It's huge. So, it's cleanup and assume, you know, thinking four or five years out to get it down to open space is going to be quite an effort. I'll tell you right now, going to take some pre-planning
>> and that's dictated by the state. >> I know. I guess it's by the lease. >> Well, the lease does. Yeah, >> I guess. I mean, I think it's worthy of keeping on our radar future agenda item. That's what I think. >> Okay. We'll note that there's a future agenda item Kathy by Mr. Dykins and Mr. Smith.
All right. So, we have this article. >> Move to place. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. Mr. Dikkins. >> Hi. >> Mr. Meadows. >> Hi. >> Mr. Smith. >> I. >> The chair votes I. >> Move to recommend. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Moved and seconded. Mr. Dikkins. Hi. Mr.
Meadows. >> Hi. >> Mr. Smith. I. >> And the chair votes I. Okay. >> Now we have um Thank you, Carrie. Chadam Municipal Airport. We have two items related to the airport warrant articles for consideration for placement
and recommendation. And um I I want to ask first, carried Carrie, did these two articles get a recommendation from the finance committee today? >> They don't see them until uh Thursday. >> Okay. >> So, no, they did not. >> Okay. >> Sorry. Um so the first one is Chattam
Municipal Airport federal fiscal year FFY 2026 capital improvement plan CIP project and we have Terry Whan and I think Mr. um Huntley Harrison. Oh he's in the audience here to present Terry.
>> Thank you uh Terry Whan um here before you this evening as the staff leazison to the airport commission. if it's okay uh with the chair if I can run through both the articles if that's okay or if you want to do me do one at a time that's fine too >> taken separately
>> okay sure okay so um again um for um so again for tonight overall though we we are requesting um two separate articles uh we'll delve right into the first one for the uh federal fiscal year 2026
capital improvement plan the design aircraft study for uh $7,500. So, this this uh request is for funding a design aircraft study which will review uh the airport's current airport aircraft, excuse me, design group
designation of ADG1, which is a Beach Baron B-58 aircraft. And I added some photos here to maybe put some context on what that plane uh looks like. And again in light of the increased operations by the ADG2
aircraft which an example is the Pilates PC12 uh exceeding uh 5500 operations annually uh again is the impetus for for doing this study. So the importance of the ADG classifications is that it establish it's established by FAA and
it's essential for airport planning and safety and influencing runway widths, taxi way separations, gate sizing, all types of design parameters um that go into an airport. So basically the total project cost to
do this study um is $150,000. And like this this is the typical funding mix we we see in the bulk of the airport projects. So right now uh the the federal share would be 135,000 the state share is 7,500 and the local
share um 7,500. So again this article is just seeking approval for the local share. So $7500 in funding and this provides the required local match for the study. um you know which again is in
the the airport's capital plan for federal fiscal year 2026. >> So I I do have a question and maybe others on the board do but I didn't know if Huntley you wanted to speak now or did you want to hear some feedback from the board first?
>> I'll wait. >> Okay. So my question is this. So currently the as I understand it the airport has the designation of ADG1. Okay. And that's based on the smaller
plane. Um why do we need to make the change in designation? Is it because we have more than 500 operations for the ADG2 type plane? >> Yes. Over over five years. So that's
triggered the the the desire to do this study. So this has been through the capital improvement project w which involves entities from the FAA state mascot aeronautics and the airport commission. >> And what happens if we don't do this study? What happens if what happens if
we don't do this make make this change to ADG2? Does >> well that we don't know the outcome of the study yet. So this is to study the ram what's going on and what accommodations may or may not need to be made. This isn't this is a study to
determine the impacts of the the you know increased use of the AG aircraft. >> Is it open to the airport to place a limit on the five a limit of 500 on the number of of you know Colatus PC12 planes that come
in? Do we have that? >> No, we can't put a limit on. It's preempted >> and they can come in. Why? Because the air the runway is of sufficient length for them now. >> Yes. >> That's why they come in. >> Yes. >> All right. I'm just going to open it up for further conversation. This you're
the liazison to the airport commission. Just to follow up, um, the AGT2 what, uh, to kind of follow up on what Dean was saying, if we were not to
subscribe to this, what would happen if we don't approve this? What would happen? It wouldn't happen. Um, have we ever petitioned, asked, requested
um whether uh with the FAA or the state as to um our uh if any uh controls over these uh the AGT2 uh craft? >> Have we ever asked?
>> Yes. Have we ever? >> No, we it's it's a non-issue. We can't. They're allowed to land. We can't ask them, "Can you limit this for us?" >> Yeah, I'm getting a different answer
when I when in my, you know, dabbling into the airport that um when I asked this question before, it's been well, the town through its airport commission has never has never asked that question.
And it looks to me, remember we chatted about this some time ago, Terry, and it looked to me like there was, you know, there was an opportunity to at least have a dialogue and ask a question because let's face it, the these are the aircraft that are annoying the
neighbors. And I'm just curious. I don't want to get into I understand it's a study, so I'm I'm still considering it. Uh but I I'm maybe had some comments. >> I think I think the study is asking the question. I know that. Um, >> so so if we if we get if this gets voted
in and then we get that study done, we'll get the answer that we want from the FAA and MASDOT as to how we can proceed, if we can proceed the and there a variety of modifications
that can happen off the top of my head. I I don't want to go through it right now, but there are a variety of things that can happen. Some are geometrically impossible based on our situation over there size-wise and everything else.
But there are other options that the FAA has in their toolbox that they could use to perhaps allow the aircraft to continue. Some of those might be ground operations
that limit traffic at certain times. I I I don't know. I'm guessing but there are things that the FAA can do. So I think that's the answer to the question. >> Yeah. I mean one of my concerns is which we're going to address in the future um
is we have we I mean collectively the town the airport commission really um has committed this community to uh you know courses of action regarding the operation of the airport which I support
by the way. um that I think are pretty inconsistent with the wishes of the community. Now, I don't know if I'm reading that right, but that it seems to me that um you know, through these um these grant commitments
that, you know, they're not as they're not they're going to be, but they're not as well vetted as they they really should have been. So we got down this path of of committing to aircraft that if if if the community were asked would
not subscribe to >> maybe now but in 1949 the community did. Yeah. They took federal money and this is an federally obligated airport and there is an overriding you know from the fed perspective there's an overriding >> protection for civil aviation. So you
know that's the really the the framework that we're operating within. So you think that the airport commission I don't know whether they would or wouldn't but you think the airport commission has asked all the questions of the FAA and the state on uh re their
ability to regulate this airport um uh like maybe the community uh would like to see. We we've asked multiple questions, multiple forums, whether it's been through RFPs, forums, again, the exclusion act of Congress that provides
the sole authority to the FAA for safety determination. So, as this is a more formal venue to ask that question and to do some study to do that. So we we looked at this extensively with with skydiving in particular with timing
curfews all those types of things. So, you know, it it's part of it's much bigger than Cadam. It's, you know, it it's uh you know, years and years of u decisions and again with the whether you agree or concur or disagree that that's
the overriding perspective of an obligated airport is the protection of civil aviation and promoting of that and that's really, you know, the the superructure that this airport is part of. And then there's also subsequent obligations by through chapter 90 at the
state level as well. So those are the things that you know you read everything and it says it sounds like you can do it. You read everything and it says subject to FAA concurrence, right? >> So so this is again this is a vector to get in there and ask this the questions
about are ADG2 aircraft safe? if they are, if not, and and that this the FAA is the only entity authorized to make that determination. And you know, we've we've run up against the wall about all the other things with can we limit the
times, can we limit departures, can we limit types of aircraft? Again, guidance says you can do it, but at the end of the day, it's ultimately decision. >> No, I I I've read the statutes. I'm familiar with it >> through through various um you know court cases we've been in other
directives we've received from FAA this is you know this is again the this as the chair just stated this is really the best venue for us to get in and have that discussion at a a formal level >> and and at the completion of the study
we are uh we're not committed to anything >> depends on what the FAA says Who does the study? >> Our consultants design the study. They collect the data. They do all the all
the leg work on that. Submit it the results to the FAA. So it's done through our consultant. >> That would be Gail Associates. >> Gail Associates. >> Correct. And then the FAA and Mass review it. So the uh for the in the commission package for tomorrow night in the engineers report there's a copy of
the scope of what's what what's going to be part of that study but you know the outcome of the study solely lines with with FAA and I guess to some extent MASDOT on which direction >> well is it is it going to lead to I'm sorry s I know you the table is it going
to lead to recommendations from the FAA and from the from MASDOT >> more than likely are don't know what they >> I wouldn't want to speculate because I don't know I don't know what the outcome >> are we required to do this study >> no we were doing it because there was a
human cry by concerned citizens about the the type two aircraft and so we just finally said let's do a study and find out let's see what the FAA says let's see what MASDOT has to say okay >> so that's what this is all about
>> and I think Stuart said something earlier about vetting of projects and didn't think they were done carefully enough. None of the >> No, the grants. >> Pardon? >> The grants is what I was referring to.
>> Well, I don't know what the the things we've applied for. >> Yeah. When you apply for grants and >> all of those have been for safety reasons. the tree cutting going back. You can go back, you know, the runway being repaved, being extended by 50 feet
and shifted back in 2009. All those projects were grant projects. >> I understand that. >> I don't understand your question. Well, my question is that the airport commission has committed this community to a course
of action at the airport that has not been vetted by the community nor approved by the community. >> We're obligated to do that. As Terry said, under the national plan for integrated uh >> we don't we don't have to apply for grants. We don't have to accept grants.
>> But so that's what I was getting at. Well, I would I just >> Okay, this we're getting in the weeds here. >> I could We have a long agenda and I know Corey I promised Cory would speak, but I just would say my understanding is since I've been on the board, I wasn't here on the board in 2009, but every time there's been a grant application,
the town has a 5% generally contribution that goes to town meeting. So, that's the opportunity for community vetting of it. >> Yeah. what where I was headed and you know then I'll it'll be for another night but where I was headed was
>> the airport commission applies for grants and then they they they get a contract and my understanding is the airport commission and the town manager have to sign to accept to to implement those contracts like we do probably in a
number of other >> but before that signature and correct me if I'm wrong before that signature is placed an article is put on the warrant at town meeting for the 5% contribution toward the project that that leverages the grant. So there is there is an
opportunity for both the select board to place that particular item on the warrant and for town meeting to vote it up or down. We saw some we saw one voted down last last spring. So that's that's all I was saying. We have had a history
of controversy regarding this airport. All I'm trying to do is find a pathway where we have a dialogue and we have a little bit more transparency and the transparency can come by those contracts coming before this board and having a discussion before they're signed. I
don't airport commission can can't do it on its own. It needs the town manager's concurrence with that under the sorry the charter. They that that before that is done. It could come back here for a discussion. I'm not looking for a vote
on this tonight. I'm simply saying we need to do better and we're not doing better. >> Okay. Corey. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Now, all I was going to say is one of the stumbling blocks that we've dealt with when it comes to the airport conversations is is
the trust factor. you know, citizens, you know, neighbors, whatever. Just, you know, lack lack of trust, transparency, whatever. So, my question is, you know, you you were going to do a report, it's 90% funded through the federal government. Um, you know, there's
arguments, well, whoever puts that proposal forth, you know, they're going to get the results they're they're asking for something, I'm going to get my results for my report. So, there's, you know, there's a belief of what you're going to end result is. And as the chair mentioned earlier, you know, town meeting has spoken strongly against
certain articles for the airport in the past. So there's no guarantee that this would pass town meeting vote. >> And if it doesn't have past town meeting vote, what position are we in at that point? That's what I want clarity on. We would if we wanted to continue with
it for this this one in particular, I might have to take the money out of the revolving fund to to complete the study to pay for the study. >> So you you would just seek alternative funding but move forward with the study. >> Yep. So So I was I was almost tempted to
to vote for this, but um you know this uh here here's the issue and it goes to what Corey is saying with trust. We go to town meeting and you know the last article I think that went to town meeting I wasn't on the board you know
it was asking for I don't know $48,000 for a million they turned it down. So, I don't know how this one's going to end up, but to suggest or now the chairman stating that if it fails at
town meeting, the legislature for the town, the representatives for the town, um, I may turn around and take it out of the revolving fund. There's your trust problem. It's it's fundamentally flawed. And, um, I get the independence of the
airport commission, but they're situated in this community. So, uh, uh, anyway, um, >> talking about that, >> um, I'm going to, we have a lot of people waiting for other agenda items coming up, including a presentation on Stepping Stones Road that I want to get
to. So, I'm going to open it up for public comment. I know Paula Lafkin wants to speak. >> Yes. Thank you, Paula Lafran, China Mass. And I thank you heartily for the discussion that you just had because I don't have to bring up some of those points. The point is the people do not
want this Pilates here and we have gone over 500. Our airport in ADG1 says you can't have that many in AG2 that that's what you have to be. I questioned the um sincerity of the
airport commission because they stated that this is a neutral study that's going to be an independent study that's going to find out the answers. However, if you read Gail Associates scope for tomorrow night's airport meeting, this is already a done deal.
This is what the scope says that Gail met with the representatives already from the FAA mass DOT aeronautics in the airport to discuss changing the identification of this airport from ADG1 to ADG2. They have already started these
discussions. They feel a re-evaluation of the critical air um aircraft from B1 small is to be too small is warranted due to the fact that the number of operations being made is u by the PC12 is over 500. So instead of saying we
have too many operations for our small airport they're saying because we have so many operations we need to change the the designation of the airport. So the proposed critical aircraft study is intended to review and justify
that word scares me justify the need to change the critical aircraft from B1 small to B2 small. So the airport has gone and asked their engineers to ask FA Masot and FAA they have asked to change
this designation and this study is intended according to these words to prove that and to justify that. So they already have a determined answer. Not only that, they are going to evaluate the physical, operational and equipment
needs to meet PC12 um requirements and standards and propose project alternatives to address non-standard conditions. Anybody's gone to the zoning board with non-standard conditions usually means
my property doesn't fit the requirement so we have to work around it. So instead of you know you have said to um the airport commission that uh they should work with the town uh on their concerns.
They voted to ban this plane. The AG did not accept that but the AG told the airport to work with the people and now we have this meeting in which the airport's response is not only not to ban it but to make the PC12 the poster
child for our airport. And so and to and to justify it and then to have us pay a portion of the cost to justify changing our designation. This this document scares me and the meeting since the meetings have already
started. They've they already have a predetermined outlook and I'm not sure what happens if the FAA comes back and said sure airport commission we'll allow you. We don't require you to change because of this. We're we're allowing
you to change because you asked for it. The airport commission has asked to change the designation, not the other way around. And and and that scares me in the future of um
aircraft that are that we don't know are ED2. I just know the the Pilatus. Thank you for allowing me to speak. >> Thank you, Paula. Um, did any other public comment? And then I'm going to ask the airport commission representatives if you wanted to re
respond to that. But any other public comments? I see none. None in the audience, none online. Terry or Huntley, do you want to address the points that Paula made? >> Well, I I'll just address the comment that again the opportunity tomorrow is
to come to airport commission and make some comments on the scope so that we can have that discussion. So and again the study you know so in order to have a study there needs to be some discussion of the scope for FAA and the and and MASDOT to support this and funding.
There's a funding queue. So so this you know is something that they you know the the superructure there will not fund unless you hit that five-year you know and fitting it into the queue. So there's some timing issues with these things and this is the opportunity to do
that study and and to get the answers um >> on what may or may not be needed to accommodate the aircraft. >> Huntley, do you have anything to uh comment on this? >> Yeah, I I >> and if it can if they can be accommodated. >> Yeah, if they Yeah, exactly. if they can
be account. We're we have to find out and I don't think it's a foregone conclusion as was alluded to by the previous speaker that we're already we're going to set up the airport so that we can accept these airplanes. If the airplane can land safely,
then they're allowed to land. If we have to do modifications to help that because they have they are allowed to land and we can't put a stop sign up when they come in. So if we have to make some modifications
to make the airport safer so that they can land then we're going to do it because we just can't we can't stop it. >> Terry, were you Thank you. Terry, were you saying a moment ago that in if this isn't done that the FAA
will not fund future needs at the airport. Is that what you were saying? >> No, no. I was just pointing out that this, you know, was part of the the capital planning process and they've identified it a as a need has been pointed out with the >> who's that who's that?
>> The mascot uh aeronautics and FAA. So, as part of the annual c uh capital planning process, they're looking at all kinds of projects because FAA hears from the community. They monitor what's going on and they uh you know drive in in concert with working with the um the
local commissions what types of projects that they should be doing. So they've identified and prioritized this as a as as a project that you know they want to see happen and the commission wants to see it happen and quite frankly I think the community wants to see it happen and
again I would recommend that people who want to comment on the scope come to tomorrow's meeting and provide that input and there's an >> speak a second time if if that's what you want >> I just would like >> you have to come to the microphone >> if they are finished >> no go right ahead
>> uh could you put look right ahead to you. Speaker, >> I I don't want to turn this into a big debate. >> I forgot this sentence, >> but go ahead. >> I urge you not to vote for this warrant article, and I urge you not to accept this study and the um screen that showed
the hundreds of thousands of dollars of federal grant money. It comes with 20-year grant assurance. So to accept that money to do this study that already is so fraught that I just I urge you not to put this
forward at town meeting. >> Well, I'm going to I'm going to suggest to the Thank you, Paul. I'm going to suggest to the select board that the finance committee is going to be looking at this next Tuesday and I'm next this Thursday. >> So I I'm going to suggest that this that
a decision by this board be deferred until next Tuesday. um the 17 I'm sorry, we can defer this to to the 3rd of March because it's not part of the budget and next week is a huge meeting. So, I'm going to suggest that this be deferred to the 3rd of March. Jeeoff, did you
have something you >> No, I I I think we we we should place it. I think we should place it. And how we recommend it or not, I I don't know. I mean, it's up to each individual member of the select board, but I think I think that the airport commission has asked us to uh contribute or ask to ask
the town to contribute $7,500 for a study that may in fact actually assist us. Um, when you actually kind of get through the noise, it may actually have something of value there. Um, if we can get over the the distrust issue and the, you know, con the conspiracy issues. So,
I actually think that it would be okay to place place it. I don't have to, but it should be okay to place and then the town will opine on it. Now, the town, you know, had a petition article that got passed and the AG thought it was foolish as did we, but I think it's okay to place. I do.
>> I I think that my my one concern about making a decision to place tonight, although I don't feel that strongly about it. You make a very good point, is that the next item that's coming up, I I absolutely want to place and I absolutely want to recommend because it's a safety article that should have
been voted by town meeting last time. It was a mistake for town meeting not to support it and the only reason they didn't support it bec because there was a lot of distrust in the community around another article was on and all the all the critics of the airport showed up and killed it. >> Very point well taken and well made and
this first in the study article could be also conducive to safety. We don't know. It hasn't been done. >> So to sort of nuke it out of the gate because of fear is no good. Not a smart move and it's short money. >> Mr. matters. >> I was just going to make the comment
that um you know potentially not voting to taking any action to place tonight because my based on past actions at town meeting. I'm not convinced that this would pass the voters. So the airport commission
needs to make a decision whether to put it up for a vote negatively um or if they're very passionate and they feel extremely strongly about this report um to look at the revolving fund which would be another path. So I I think they should be given some time to
figure out strategically um how they want to proceed forward probably following after the finance committee's meeting also. So, I think taking no action tonight is probably the most prudent thing. Um, just to cover all our bases.
>> Do you have a comment on that? >> It's fine with me if we wait. >> We'd be waiting one week. >> I'll wait a week, but you heard what I think unless there's some something unearthed at the commission commission's meeting that'll sway sway me sway me one
way or another. But um we don't you know we're we're trying to nuke a study that we never know. One thinks they know the conclusion, but we don't know the conclusion. >> Yeah. Well, I'm not trying to kill the study. I just I just had some questions about it. That's all. >> Well, we can wait till next week.
>> And and I don't want to I don't want to hurt the other article >> that's coming up. >> So, we'll we'll defer action on this until after the we hear from the finance committee. Um we'll put it on for the next week's agenda. Kathy, >> are you going to defer on both articles?
>> No, no, no. We'll take the second one now. >> Okay. So, the the second article in your package we've just entitled the local match article. Uh so and um basically this article requests funding uh to provide a local match for an avi
aviation um safety project that was scheduled for implementation in FFY 2026 as part of the uh again the airport's CIP uh capital improvement program. Again that has participation from FAA
and uh the um mass aeronautics. So this requested amount is um the local share required for the replacement of the critical navigation aids more specifically the runway and identifier lights the precision approach path
indicators and rotating beacon and wind sock. So again those are you know basically infrastructure long-term costs um for uh maintaining airport safety and operations. So they're basically uh
let's call it I guess an upgrade of of the equipment but not not any kind of expansion or anything that changes uh operations on the field. So what um you know the the impact of this article again leverages the the full amount of
funding but the the biggest bigger component is that this will offset the need for this money to come out of the airport revolving fund that can go to operational expenses versus a a long range u uh cost. So that's where we were
talking about the previous article that was I think uh 59,000 um at the last town meeting that also included projects for uh parking lot improvements and the main apron rehabilitation design and those projects are not um they're being pursued in in a
later time frame right now but the the prioritization has been on the the nav aids and their need for um for improvement. >> Okay. I just wanted before we get into this, I did notice on the previous item, Mr. Buckley, I think it was Steven
Buckley, but I neglected to call on him. I don't He's He's welcome to speak if he still wants to. And the other point I wanted to need to clarify to what meeting do you want to defer the previous article? We took a vote. Was it to next week or the week following? We
don't We can go to the week following because it's not part of the budget. >> It's actually it would be March 3rd when you have a full board. >> March 3rd. So it wouldn't be um >> it will either be the 17th next week or March 3rd. We have a full board. >> What's on the 24th? >> Uh Jeff's not present for
>> Okay. >> Schools on the 24th. >> Which do you want either? I just want to get past the incom. >> Yes. I mean >> I think the third's fine. >> The 3rd of March. Third is fine. >> So that's in the vote.
>> All right. It's deferred to the 3rd of March. 3rd of March. Okay. All right. Paula Lafrren on this one. I know which way I'm going to vote. You can say whatever you want, Paula. You're not going to convince me, but go ahead. You're welcome to make your point. >> Oh, okay. Number one, I'm so glad that they're going to fix the navigation
allowance. Don't get me wrong. They need to be taken care of. What I do reject is um who pays for this. And um the local share, which is listed as a 175, the local share mentioned in this wording, isn't meant to be the town share. It is
meant to be the airport share. And I know this because in conversation with the FAA when I was on the airport commission, I called up and asked them about it because wording in different um in different master plans were different and the airport chair is structured to
be from the that way in order to ensure that the airport is serious about spending money. The airport is supposed to contribute some of the monies from their own operating budget. Much like you might require one of your teenagers to contribute to a big ticket item.
The local share is not meant for the airport to come to the town for free cash. It's supposed to be their commitment to what a pro the project needs to be done. The 17k might not be a lot but it um takes away from other
initiatives of the town. The repairs in this article are items that are used by pilots for navigation. So why should resident non-pilots pay for those repairs? Shouldn't the repairs be paid for by the pilots who use them? So you
see you mentioned um you mentioned Stuart landing fees which is I think a good way to get this 175. At a time when residents are faced increasing fees for our beaches, shouldn't pilots pay for the use of our airport? And if I read
the minutes of last month's meeting of the airport commission correctly, some landing fees are set to begin in the coming year, but only for commercial aircraft and private aircraft over 6,000 pounds. In searching aircraft weight, the maximum takeoff weight for the
Beachcraft Baron is 5,500. So anybody flies in in a Beachcraft, no landing fee. The Sessa 172 is only 2500 pounds, no landing fee. So all of the all of the pilots who fly around the most get to fly without any landing fee. So I'm not
sure how is that equitable. Pilots play uh fly free and the town's people pay the bills. So the airport is supposed to be self- sustaining and I urge you to reject this request and have the airport take it out of the 200k of their revolving fund for the matching grant.
So thank you very much. >> Thank you Paula. Um any other public comment? >> Does the airport want commission want to respond or staff want to respond to Paula's comments? >> No just wanted you know that. So again technically there's no blind budget.
There's no budget line for the airport. So it's the revolving fund that takes in fees and the landing fees are targeting the you know let's call them the more controversial or potentially more impactful aircraft. So, so that's
where the the commission went with that. And there are challenges again even with um FAA interpretation and the ability and equity of fees that they they're you know testing the waters here to see if
if they're it will hold up. >> Yeah. So you can't you can't be discriminatory. Uh, and you have to so that's that's you know there's some limited parameters on where you can you can do this and you can't just say let's
charge them $8,000 you know a landing. So so there's a a little bit of a a balance in there with instituting fees as well. >> Yeah. I would just say I mean I I when I was on the finance committee and I was stunned that no fees were being charged at all
>> years ago and so I I would I would think you'd want to that the >> and there are a lot and most general aviation airports unless unless they're larger ones with bigger facilities >> don't charge landing fees for the smaller aircraft as was alluded to before. I I just I I mean I would just
individually think it would be prudent for the commission to consider charging fees to everybody, but that's another issue. Huntley, did you want to address anything more? >> Yeah, I just wanted to say that the the the replacement of the navads goes from taking incandescent bulbs and
turning them into LEDs. So, they're they're going to be brighter. They'll be safer for the aircraft using them. And uh it's time they've run their they've run their course. So that's why we we put this in as a capital it's capital
improvement on the airport. That's why it's in the capital improvement plan. >> It's a safety measure. It safety it benefits everybody not just the pilots but people on the ground Corey and then Stuart. Well, Hunley just kind of me, you know, answered part of my but my question was going to be the previous
speaker questioned the source of the 175 and should it come out of the revolving fund or or not and I guess that's what I was going to ask >> project. >> Okay, Stuart. So I guess the answer to this is similar
to the first one in that if we don't put it on the warrant or town meeting doesn't approve the funding you guys will go back uh appropriately I think to the revolving
fund to get this safety measure done which I frankly I agree with. Um uh um I don't I think that we're adding $50,000 to the revolving fund this year >> to the cap. >> To the cap. Yeah. So >> not anation,
>> but I don't think we're Nobody here is proposing a discriminatory fee. There is no fee except for those commercial aircraft and that was only just instituted. So, um, you know, it seems to me that this is a easy accomplishment
through the revolving fund paid for by the users of the airport. It's very similar to how we funded the waterways frequently. Um, so and and nobody got a free ride there. Everybody paid, you know, if your boat was only commercial,
you paid. If you boat was recreational, you paid a number of different fees. So um this is run differently and you know it's been part of its >> but there are similarities because there is lots of articles to fund and support infra uh waterfront infrastructure.
>> Yeah. And if you and if you look if you look at the fee schedules to to operate the waterways they they generally pay for it. So the operating expenses for the harbor master's office are paid for. So
>> but not the capital expenses. uh it well it depends on which capital expense because then the waterways user fund is used. So you know there's a lot of fees we pay that we we charge the mariner and I think it would be prudent and I can't imagine there'd be much
objection uh to charge landing fees to all the users on a non-discriminatory equal basis. You know we're not interested in discriminating against anybody. I wonder if you're not discriminating now because you're charging commercial people but not the recreational. know for a fact if I had
done that uh that would be unlawful. So, um I think I think it would be prudent. I think it'd be helpful to the airport to start charging all the users of the airport. And um I'm a big I support this. I do believe it should come out of
the revolving fund, but this is a needed this is a needed thing. I get it. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh well, I personally, given my reading of the charter, would be willing to vote this to places tonight and to recommend it tonight. I would
>> not wait for the finance committee because there's nothing the finance committee is going to say to me that's going to change my support for this article and I think it should come out of the U free cash as as proposed. I think it should have been voted last May and um if town meeting doesn't like it, they can vote it down again. So I'll
entertain a motion. >> Was Go ahead. Just because I wasn't here, I was at the meeting. But uh are any of these two related to these two articles related to the article that failed at town meeting or we >> One of these did fail. This is the one.
Yeah, correct. This is the one 175 >> to I thought it was more than that, but okay, fair enough. Um I thought it was more I thought it was another project. >> There were other projects lumped in there. So the the total request was over 59,000. the article that's we're coming back with this retro and I don't want to
get into K's world with but a retro article for a small you know or a portion of that whatever the 17 divided by >> and that larger one also failed at town meeting >> that is the one that failed but this this was part of that
>> got the the commission is only requesting >> there was also another article on the map and the zoning change that failed right What >> the map? >> Didn't that fail the zoning map? >> Yeah, but that really was different. That really has no nexus with
>> No, but it failed and it drew it drew a lot of opponents to that meeting to that's what resulted in this being killed. That's what I'm talking about. >> Mr. Chairman, I move that between we I move to place this uh on on the on the warrant. >> Is there a second?
>> I'll second it. >> Okay. >> Okay. I'll call the role on that. Mr. Dyken. Hi. >> Mr. Matters. >> Hi. Mr. Smith. >> No. >> And the chair votes side. It's placed. Is there a motion to recommend? >> I move to recommend. Mr. Chairman, >> is there a second? I'll second it.
>> I'll call the role. Mr. Dykins. >> I. >> Mr. Matters. >> I. >> Mr. Smith. >> I. >> And the chair votes I. So, it's been placed and recommended. >> Thank you. Thank you, gentlemen. >> Thank you. And then I guess we'll be
back on the third with and we'll have the finance committee recommendation at that point as well. >> Right. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Next. >> Revisit the select board vote on Independence Day parade route change from January 27th, 2026. This is a
select board agenda item request from Mr. Dykens. And I'm going to turn to him first. And I know M. Mr. Meadows who is the um board liaison to the Independent State Parade Committee. uh we'll I'll call on him next. So, Mr. Jeff.
>> Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In as much as I actually moved and voted in favor of of the change in the in the Independence Day parade route, I got home and had uh when I had that feeling in my gut that I took I I I took the wrong vote. Um I called Dean. I said, "Dean, I want to bring it back." He
said, "Bring it back." So, here we are. And I I have some some distinct reasons for thinking thusly. I would like to keep the root the way it's been in years past. Um, uh, we did vote to change the route. I don't know, some five or 10 years ago. Corey, you remind me. But, but here's the deal. When you walk in
the parade, you get down to the Rotary, the Old Harbor Rotary, right? And the amount of people that are present from the Old Harbor Rotary down to the Coral intersection and then up Coral Road is considerable. It's unreal how taking that bolus of people and this is the
misgiving I had last week taking that bullus of people and putting them up old harbor road further point the way the route is now you go by come farms you go by the community center you go by a parking lot
commercial space a parking lot the red nun the post office the other side of the street yes there there's a a car dealership and then eventually there the the Fish and Wildlife Service and you get to the UYU and off you go. Much more commercially oriented. You're not
impacting residents the other way. Going up Old Harbor Road is a major impact on residents that frankly, you know, and not not disparaging the Appendance Day parade committee one iota, but we didn't really vet it with, hey, what do you think about Old Harbor now being subject to the the to the parade? This is our
250th anniversary this year and and and I believe we're going to it's going to be a bangup turnout for this parade. So, we're taking even more people and putting them in a tighter space if you force them to go downtown. The folks that go to the parade that stay down
towards the Coral Road intersection, the UYU down that end and Coral Road don't don't get all the way in town to confuse the parking. They typically park away from the downtown area. So, it gets the folks leaving a better better shot at
leaving. Um, so I you know, I got home and I was unsettled and I said, "You know what?" and Shireen abstained and I think she's not here and I will speak for her but I think she had misgivings as well. I I I really think we ought to keep it where it is now um for the reasons I just articulated. I I I just
think we're really putting a size, you know, 10 shoe and a size eight foot by getting all all those folks down Old Harbor. So, I think it's good to to to visit the issue. I think it's good to talk about it and Cory, you're going to speak about it, but I I I think that for this year, u we made other improvements
that I think should likely stay, especially the trucks downtown. I think that's a that's a that's a marked improvement. I always had issues about young children running between the trucks and darting out for candy and balloon stuff. So, that's that's a good improvement, but I I feel pretty strongly that we ought to stick to what we've been doing for the parade. Those
are my comments. >> Yeah. And I think Shireen's abstension was clearly expressed as out of ambivalence about this. She was concerned about about some of the issues you just said. I think um and we did ban parking on the main street which I think is a
major point. So >> I want make one further point. I by in no means and please I don't want the town to read this any other way. I am not stepping on the toes of the Independence Day Committee. I I I good lord we we we we love our committees. all of them. So, but I I
think that it's okay to kind of revisit maybe a decision that we want to want to revisit. So, >> okay, I'm going to turn to Mr. Meadows and then if there's some additional comment from the board, otherwise we'll open it up. I do want to mention that the chair of the independent state parade committee is in the audience in
case anybody has any questions. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. He he wanted to take the lead on this, but no. Um, no, I I think people I think people understand just bear with me a little bit here. So I've been on the board since 2015. I've been the less on to the Independence Day
parade committee since 2015. Wonderful volunteers have stepped forward and served on the committee for years putting on a very very traditional fun event. So I thank them for all their years of service. Just a little background and so we can kind of move this night forward.
This was not a um decision or issue that was driven by the members of the Independence Day Parade Committee. you know, they we discussed it. We had several meetings about it. This was not driven by the volunteers that serve on our committee. So, I need to put that
clarify that where this did come from was discussions about creating a better better safety, better traffic efficiencies, um overall operations from the town's perspective, what we control, what we see, and what we're concerned
with. Now the this new route had a you know possibility to you know maybe minimize gaps. Gaps have been becoming a problem the last couple years especially down the latter part of the crawl road stretches. You know floats kind of you know slow down and all of a sudden everyone thinks the parade is over with.
It's an issue. We got to find a solution for it. Um you know there's some safety issues with larger trucks navigating different turns. Um, but the the main thrust of kind of suggesting this new route was to close the envelope for the
police to be able to provide as much safety services for a for the event. We have a lot of people that come to this town. Um, I mean, you can't imagine the ratio of one patrol officer to the number of citizens that are on the town. I mean, it's it's ridiculous. And we're
all fighting for resources. we we we don't have the number of of bodies um that we would ideally like and we'll ne we never will because every other town's pulling for the same resources. Um you know we are a town that particularly doesn't like changes. Um you know we've
we've changed things in the past. The parade used to end at Veterans Field. We used to go in the into the field with the floats and hang out. Um unfortunately ruts and damage to the field happened. We changed it. Um the route has been changed. it's been extended. So, we we have changed it
before. Um, this was put forth as a possible solution. Um, I've talked to the chief. I've talked to the chair of the parade committee. I don't think there's going to be significant push back this year to go back to last year's route. I have
full confidence in our police department, fire department, DPW, all the town employees that come forth to put on a safe and fun event on July 4th. Full confidence that whatever route it is, they're going to be doing their
job at 200%. What I would ask if we do go back to next or last year's parade uh route is that following this year's parade, the parade committee traditionally has, you know, requested public input for parade
themes. They've requested input for uh grand marshals. Let's get some public input on the parade. What was good? What was bad? What improvements we can make? take that public input fresh after the parade would be ideal so that we can use that to plan next year's
parade and move forward. Maybe some changes are warranted. Maybe things that we haven't even thought of or discussed are warranted. I I think that is a better cleaner process. Whatever we decide, you know, some people are going to like the we would change the route. Some people are going to like if we
don't change the route. That's just the reality of the situation. Our focus should strictly be on planning and execution of a safe and fun event. At the end of the day, that's all we want. Nice little cheeseburger, maybe a beer. That's what we that's that's what we're striving for. Um and the only other
thing I can put forth on this is um you know, we have these volunteer committees. Um we've actually reduced a parade committee years ago. It was a larger um entity at one point. The five members that are served now, I I I applaud them. They they've stepped
forward. As openings come forward, I encourage the public to get more involved. These events cannot happen without volunteers. And this that applies to pretty much any event in town. Not not just the Independence Day parade committee, but I encourage people who want to have these events thrive and
move forward when opportunities come forward. Please step up, please serve. Um, but I think that we could, you know, go back to the last year's root. Um, probably going to be pretty big this year. It's 250th anniversary. So, um,
it, you know, maybe that alone is enough reason just to say, "Hey, let's work with what we know." Um, but I think there's a a process moving forward and I hope we can support that. And, um, you know, I thank the committee members for their service. And, um, I think other citizens should, you know, recognize
that, you know, they they're stepping, you know, putting the time in to to put a event forth that we all love and love and, you know, you know, enjoy. So, those are my thoughts. >> Any other comments? Stewart, did you >> Yeah. Um
maybe we should hear Well, we can hear from the public obviously the uh you know I I share some of the concerns about moving the route. Um pretty adamant about the vehicles not being parked on Main Street. Um the route
change, you know, I see the um the gaps in the parade somewhat somewhat unrelated to what route we take. That's more of a I think a organizational, you know, maybe we need more volunteers.
Um, in any event, uh, I I liked the change because we heard from the town manager and the police about uh, well, and Corey touched on it where we, you know, we have a lot of people there with very little, um, or few public safety
people to cover the event. Um, so, uh, that was one of my concerns. The other concern I had on the other side is this is the 250th year and that's going to it's inevitably going to bring more people and I wonder whether that is the
the right time to make a change. It probably isn't and um, in hindsight. So, um, you know, those are those are some of my thoughts. >> I share the I share those thoughts. What would tipped me to vote for it? I think we had a unanimous vote except for
Shireen's abstension >> was the were the comments of the police chief at the time. But um um I think you you make you both I know what Cory's feelings are about it. U we we um it is the 250th
and um I think we should be revisiting this this particular decision that we made last week. So I'm going to open it to public comment and I see Mr. Chadam at the uh at the podium. John Whan. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh, good evening and and thank you for allowing us to speak
in your on your agenda. Um, I come here representing a group of people, a very diverse group of people who oppose the change in this and most of what I most of the points I was going to make have been made already by the selectman in
their in their discussion. But um the Chattam Fourth of July parade is a big event. Chattam is a special town and the Fourth of July parade is basically the centerpiece for an awful lot of
residents, retired working people, uh summer residents, all kinds of people consider the Fourth July parade the iconic centerpiece of their summer in Chattam. So making a change of this sort
is to my impression uh is not really a great idea. It has been mentioned that uh 2026 is the 250th anniversary of the country. Um it is also on a Saturday the um it's conceivably possible that the
parade will be bigger. The parade will be um will be um uh watched by more people. Now, we have a we really thank those volunteers who serve on the uh Chattam Parade Committee. We appreciate their efforts and the and their planning
and the great deal of things that they have thought about and and proposed. We also have great respect for Chief Anderson and the Chattam Police Department and their attitudes, but we don't believe that the the change should
be made this year. Now, it has been said um that the group is diverse and it's perhaps because I'm well known or I've been here a long time and I maybe because I've written a column about Chadam for the last 17 years for the Chronicle every month. Uh a lot of
people call me on all kinds of events and things that happen in Chattam. I have heard from older people, younger people, working people, and even a summer resident has called me about this change. They expressed surprise that the
change was proposed without public input. And um I just I just want to make you know that um the some of the things that were talked about uh first of all um as as select member uh Smith has said
the gaps the gaps are one of their concerns. Well our observation is that the gaps are due to not because of the parade route or because of the crowd. the gaps because of the habits of the pre parade float drivers and those
drivers have their own specific habits and they cause the gaps. Uh it we might suggest that the parade marshals um talk with the drivers and try to eliminate those gaps in the thing. It was also
mentioned two weeks ago that they were thinking about compaction of the crowd getting the crowd into a smaller place. I don't think that's appropriate with the u possibility of a larger crowd and a larger parade. Um that is probably not
an I had the um great honor of being your your grand marshal two years ago and um one of the things I was amazed at was just how many people were standing in that area at the by the Rotary in front of Old Harbor Road. A phenomenal
number of people were there and also all the way down Main Street and onto Crow Road. There were a lot a lot of people and as as has been mentioned, it's a uh more of a commercial area as opposed to a residential area. Uh the change to Old
Harbor Road moves it into a more residential area. I noticed uh I've driven up and down a couple times uh since this has changed has been proposed and I've seen the little fences that are in the front of the yards of some of the people there. Those little fences uh
protect the yards obviously, but they will prevent large groups from being in front of them to see the parade. I just don't think that's I I don't think it's a great year to do that. Um and the final thing I think about is is you know an awful lot of people consider the
fourth July parade a tradition. They have stood in the very same places for many many years. It is their habit and uh I know it was said there will be a attempt to communicate with the public that there's been a change but as you
know the public does not always pay attention to communications of that sort. So, I think combined with the fact that it's going to start at 9:00 a.m. um changing the habits of people that are ages that are decades old, some people
have stood in the same place for 30, 40, 50 years, they they they stood in front of the u in front of the community building or they stood in front of where the red nun is or they stood on crawl road. I think attempting to change the habits of Chattam residents who've done
the same thing for decades is going to be a very difficult thing. I anticipate that u forcing those people into a different viewing spot is going to be difficult logistically. I think it will cause more trouble for the Chattam
Police and the parade marshals than if they left it the way it is. So, we are requesting that you reconsider your endorsement of the change that took place two weeks ago. We're asking you to to look at it again. We're hoping that
you will retain the traditional Chattam Parade route. Thank you. >> Thank you, John. Any other Mr. Bystrom? >> Welcome. Good evening, uh, Bill Bram, Chadam. It's, uh, not easy being a SLman. I can see from that. And, uh,
>> you're going to support our increase. >> You couldn't pay me enough to be >> Are you going to support our stipen? >> Couldn't pay us. >> You couldn't pay me enough. But I do think that, uh, I have a lot of respect for all the the time and effort that all these various committees put into it.
the uh no matter what committee you're on and certainly the the police and the the pray committee, they have definite concerns from their their point of view. I'd just like to mention uh a few concerns I have from the point of view of a prayed participant. I've been doing
this for a little while now and uh get a little older it doesn't get a lot easier. Uh if you think of the prayed route and you compare it to certain things like I do, I think of the the harbor run, the 5k
marker for the harbor run is down somewhere around the fish pier, which means to get to the middle school from about that area, it's about 1.3 miles, so to speak, more or less. Currently, if you follow the the prayed route down
Crow Road and you you end up uh near the Chattam Boat Company or the DPW, you've got maybe what uh a quarter of a mile to walk as a pre participant up to the middle school. That place is mobbed.
And that I think that's one of the things that really should be taken in consideration because that's the staging point for many many of the people that participate in the uh the parade. You know, they you go there starting two or three hours ahead of time. You take a a
bus down to the uh the starting point on uh Shore Road. You walk the parade for most people. then you come back and it's much better to end up maybe a quarter of a mile from your vehicle than a mile
from your vehicle. So to me that really is a a major thing. The the other thing I I sort of have liked um being again a a parade participant is
when you have some of the gaps, it gives the people that are watching the parade a little bit more time to interact with the uh the bystanders and and the parade participants. And there's a lot of give and take. groups give out hats, they
give out candy, they give out this, they give out that. And I I know it may create a a safety problem from one point of view, but from the point of view of overall enjoyment for the people that are participating in parade and for the people that are watching the parade, I
really think it adds a lot. So, uh, from that point of view, would you just consider this year keeping the parade route where it is? I think it works best for the people that are actually walking in the parade and for the bystanders.
Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other public comment in the audience or online of Mr. Phillips, >> uh Brian Phillips, 374 Road. Um I did want to make a comment about the new start time. Um, I guess the reasoning
was that people are waiting around kind of, you know, getting ready for the parade. But I think what wasn't taken into consideration is all the people that have to work on the 4th of July. So that means you got to get there, you know, you already have to get there like an hour and a half earlier than than normal. And now you have to get there
another half an hour earlier. So I mean, I think that really affects because once you if you miss your window, you can't get downtown. So, I mean, I think that really affects uh the workers down, you know, down there that have to have to get down there. Um, and I'm for keeping our traditions with the trucks on the
side of the road. Thanks. >> Thank you. Lieutenant, did you want to speak? >> Um, just a little on behalf of the uh committee on how good of a job that they did do. Um, they met on all these originally when this idea came out. It was a little shocking and they had all
the same concerns that you all are coming up with now. um some of the issues that um Mr. Dyikens and Mr. Niccastro brought forward. We felt that there was more access to the downtown area for a longer period of time now that we're
cutting it off there at Old Harbor Road. We can get more vehicles down there. We can get more um walking traffic. They can park closer. We have the potential for a large parking area using the Little League field at the community center with some of the things we talked about. We're allowing parking on Croll Road and
more parking on Depot Road. So, we're be able to open that area for more people while maintaining the safety here that we're trying to implement on Main Street and Old Harbor Road. The church and the Masonic has three tiered seating, a sidewalk, a hill, and a wall. Uh now, no
vehicles are on Main Street. So, now we have about a quarter mile more viewing area for more people. Also, we're moving. I know you were concerned about a lot of the people that were moving from uh the other part of Main Street and Crow Road. We'd be squishing them down the other end. Um it is the 250 at
the year, but I argue that Chattam is already full. Every bed is full. All the people that want to come to the parade are coming to the parade. They're going to be more excited because it's 250 years, but I don't feel we'll have significant more people coming to town. um the possibility of set three sets of
bleachers on the street edge at the old water department building, access to the playground and the school areas. Seating areas are similar to some of the lower main street, similar to the hedged areas, the fences, the shrubs, that's all similar. If you view the area from
Shore Road to 400 Main Street area, that's similar to a lot of the seating that we would have on Old Harbor Road. um the same length of the parade. They're still working on the parade end. We originally said Barliff area, but that's still up for discussion. It will
probably end at Shore Road. Um one of the biggest things is the fire department accessibility. Um both to parade goers downtown and to leave the town open for emergency transports. my fire department at one point when we go down our fire department when we go
down Main Street and then up Croll Road, they are totally blocked in and I can't get them out at all. Um, by taking them down Old Harbor Road, we now have the access to take them out Post Office Road to take them I can get them AC cross Barliff. I can get them back out Cal
Road to get out of town. Um, and I know Chief Tavano has spoken on that before. I did have the opportunity to speak with um Barrows excavating, John Martin Martin excavating, Apex excavating, and Robert Child's there. Some of the larger trailer vehicles that do come down. We
spoke about taking the right hand turn onto Old Harbor Road. They felt that was easier. Um if I do have some pictures I can show but trying to get through the rotary when we do have those people sitting inside the middle of the rotary and all in the roadway there. Um they have a difficult area going straight
through and cutting back around Cumberland Farms and they have a more difficult area or more difficult time trying to take the righthand turn from Main Street onto Croll Road. Um we have a very difficult time keeping people out of the road um to be able to maintain
that for the larger vehicles. So they were in support of being able to take the right onto Old Harbor Road. Um we feel that this pattern would give an ease of foot and vehicle traffic release as the vehicles as a parade comes off of Main Street and onto Old Harbor Road.
Everything that's on Main Street can now access and start getting out of the area would probably get the area open for the employees that work downtown to open earlier so they wouldn't have such a window of not being able to get to work. We have uh more areas of town are
accessible for those that are not attending the parade. We have plenty of people still coming to town to enjoy the day that aren't going to the parade but can't get anywhere because of the parade. Um Old Harbor Road does have shaded areas. I know that was another concern. I've heard from many of people
um along with this parade starting a half hour earlier, the sun's not up and so hot. So, we're asking you to continue to make the road more safe um with this route, less gaps because they are able to make that right-hand turn easier than having to go through the rotary.
>> So, Lieutenant, I just wanted to kind of bring one other item on back on the table because it was discussed when we considered this two weeks ago. when you uh with the new route, you don't have the security issue that
you have at at the Crow Road intersection where you have to you have certain streets. You can't block them with trucks like you do the other side streets. Right. Last year we wanted to we had a vehicle a large truck u ready to pull out into Main Street right at the lights there to block it off to not
allow anybody to drive through our crowd there but it was unable to be done because the large tractor trailers couldn't make they have to swing left to make that right-hand turn. So we were unable to use that at the time. >> So my officers I had two there at the time um had to keep removing everybody
that kept crowding into the open intersection. you have to which which um streets do you have to keep open? Uh Route 28 and and Queen Road. >> Queen Anne Road. Yeah. But it's hard for them to access that once Cor is um
blocked off for the parade. >> Okay. Thank you. >> We're very limited to like I said, we have a I've witnessed a lot of people coming in to still get to their boats to get out and have their parties out there to go to the um golf courses. They can't get into town to enjoy their parts of the day.
All right. Thank you. Any any more comment? Chief Anderson, who did you want to speak? Probably being the most unpopular person in the room tonight. Um, I just want to be on the record, whatever the select
board votes or changes or not, um, I get it. Uh but I will ask most of the concerns that we have that were behind the suggestion of the change of the
parade route besides the big silo of safety were gaps and other things parade related. Hearing John Whan speak, leading a group of diverse young and old, retired local,
I would ask that you reach out to that same group of people and maybe find us some volunteers because when they say parade marshall, I heard parade marshall mentioned tonight. Do you know how many parade marshals we had last year? We had two. I could probably use 10 between the
Rotary and Croll Road if that route stays the same. We don't have parade volunteers anymore. The the parade committee, they're all working, but they're usually in a couple of posts that are static or they might move. They don't walk with the parade. And quite
frankly, it's we don't have enough staffing to escort every parade vehicle. So, I I everything the lieutenant has told you uh and every recommendation that was in my staff report for last week still stands. Uh when I hear
biggest parade ever, largest crowd ever, that concerns me. Um I know it's a great thing for everybody, but but you know, the police department unfortunately is the the department that has to make a decision that might be unfavorable, and I get it. If you guys want to change
your vote back, I I I respect that, too. But um I guess what I just want to end with is is if the amount of people who are adamant to change it or keep it the way it is, maybe some of you can come help us out on parade day to make a a
little bit smoother and safer parade and I'll put it back back to you guys. So >> chief, the parade marshals though are not wait parade marshals though are not police officers. >> They are not. So they really >> they would be volunteers.
>> They don't contribute to the achievement of security. >> They do not. >> Okay. Just think wanted to get that out. Yes. Um Robin Zbrat wanted to speak and then Carol Gordon I think wanted to speak. Right. Am I Am I just being uh
>> welcome Robin Zbrat. forever live of Chattam, Massachusetts. Um, I don't want to tell you my age, but most of you know that. Um, being a town person and a family that owns a
construction company, I have a father, a brother, a son-in-law, a cousin, a nephew, all who drive the big trucks. And every single one of them said to me, "You've got to be kidding. They have all
driven in this parade. They have all participated in this town. And when I told them that they might have to turn down Barkliff Avenue, um they were like, "It's not going to happen. Not going to happen." Um as also an owner of property
on Croll Road and a house on Queen Anne, I see the people leaving at 6:00 a.m. from my house down Queen Anne Road to come to the parade. It's not going to make any difference. They're all still going to come. They park in the cemetery. They park in the school.
People use the bike path to walk down. It's safer for them to do that. And I just don't think in the long run this is going to alleviate any safety problems other than maybe getting an emergency
truck out. And I think we can work on that and make an area that their emergency vehicles can get out safely. I think as someone who's grown up in this town, and I know we don't like change,
but we have so many people that come. Um, and I look back at pictures when I was a kid versus now. We have to have a place to put them. And the biggest area that we can put them is from the rotary
down. It has the most space, the most um nonthreatening for neighbors and homeowners to spread out. I mean, for years we went into the field and that was fantastic. So, we wrecked the lawn and the baseball players didn't like it
and so we had to come up with an alternative. But I really think that I like the idea of Mike Mike's idea of having more volunteers. I would be happy to volunteer. I might need a chair, but
um I think one of the reasons also that we have so many gaps is that the kids, everyone runs and when you're driving those big trucks, it's scary. When you see those little people running out into the road and so maybe we should talk
about some kind of streamer or rope down the road to keep them in. Um, I just think that there are other suggestions and alternatives to make this happen and still remain where it is.
>> Thank you. Carol Gordon. >> Hi, Carol Gordon. South Chadam. And I'm thinking that if we keep the parade route the way it is for this year and if the committee needs more volunteers to help uh eliminate the gaps, I volunteer.
and uh happy to do the parade and the and the route have has been a constant for so many years. It's why changed it on the 250th anniversary. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Any other public comment? >> I don't see any. I'll bring it back to the board. Corey,
>> no. I think I think the the reality is we're we're dealing with a a very large 250th anniversary event coming up. Keeping the parade route traditionally what it has been the last couple years I think is is is fine.
But I cannot stress um a couple things. One, we need to get public input following this parade because people have mentioned different things, their opinions, you know, um crowds get too tight. I've had people come up to me over the last week, you know, they love
the new route, they hate the new route. the problem is the trucks are too big. The pro, you know, they're throwing they're everyone has an opinion. Everyone has an observation, a thought, whatever. So, let's collect all this information, have a a very strong discussion to move events forward, um to
to improve the events. Change will probably happen. Um, you know, we don't we're not a community that likes change, but it does happen. So, um I would support keeping the parade route um as was last
year for this upcoming year, but I would stress we need to get input and I would stress and I would and I would welcome as many volunteers that could step forward and help out because that is what really helps these events. I mean um you know every hand you know takes a
village to you know the health the whole you know thought of public input and and participation um you know we have five volunteers to put together the parade and they're up early driving stakes in you know registering people making sure people are at certain points I mean they
are doing a yman's work of work on that day um any extra hands I'm sure they'd appreciate so um I mean and it's it's and I'll be on a Saturday And if the weather's good, which please let it be good, um there's going to be a lot of
people in town and they're going to be doing the parade and maybe they're going to be hitting the restaurants later or maybe they're going to be out boating or whatever. There's going to be a lot of people in town that weekend. So, let's have a fun, safe event. Um you know, give get some feedback and and try to
improve each year as we move forward. So, >> thank you. Any other comment or motions? Uh we did make a motion uh >> front. Yes. What was the motion? >> The motion was uh to approve the recommendation uh to modify the the
parade route. And I would make a motion that uh um we do not approve the we reverse our recommendation and not approve the new the new parade route. >> And was that seconded? >> No, I don't know. >> Motion to resend the previous vote. resend the previous vote.
>> Second >> and endorse and endorse the the >> the current pre-existing >> pre-existing route. Yeah. >> Is that that's that's a motion. Is there a second? >> You second it, Corey. >> I second that. >> Did second it.
>> Okay, Stuart, you had something. I just had a comment kind of following up on what Corey said that um um uh don't worry Mike, you're not the most unpopular person and the uh the um you know the the alternate
route that we had approved earlier, you know, has some merit because we still have a very long route that we have to cover with public safety folks and um I I'm for changing the route to the
original route going down Coral Road. Um, you know, a lot of the a lot of the comments tonight are certainly uh are certainly valid, but I think it's prudent that we that we look at this alternative, do some public outreach and
um and you know, maybe get some more uh some more input because I think that that was kind of missing. you know that, you know, we got the memo and we weren't even sure what we were voting on it because we weren't sure what we were uh if we were the group. >> I think we were we were all very
ambivalent and reluctant and when we voted. >> Yeah. So, um you know, I no harm, no foul. I think it's um it's a good it's a good exercise, but I I I still think that there are valid points that uh that the uh police and the parade committee
and others have made that we have to consider. This may not be that year, though. Corey, you had one. >> I was just going to say, and I said it before, whatever route we ended up landing on, we are in wonderful hands. Our fire department,
police department, DPW, the the town staff that goes out and helps and follow, you know, participate that day. We're going to be in really good hands. So, they're going to do a top-notch job when no matter what they're putting what we put forth. Um, and I thank them for their, you know, their their service and
time on that day because it's it's a long day for them. you know, they're trying to enjoy it, too, but they're we're moving, you know, vehicles and you you know, you know, manning vehicles to certain locations to create a better safety issues. Um, you know, they're putting the trash cans out. They're putting, you know, the fire and rescue
are all positioned to to respond, you know, based on the traffic they could be facing. So, um, you know, kudos to them. Um, but we're in really good hands for this community. Chadam is is is very fortunate to have the the staff that we have and um you know that is that is you
know makes us makes makes things a little bit easier. But I I do think we need to moving forward uh not be dismissive of um you know concerns that I think have merit to to discuss further. So >> just a brief comment. I do I share
Corey's uh solicitations and his comments and also the solicitations of our chief, our wonderful chief in his department. And in no way um was my wanting to revisit this issue any any um any
uh disparagement of our wonderful department and our independence day committee. I really want you to know that. But again, in my in my heart of hearts, in my gut, I said, you know, and this this this I don't think we're doing the right thing here um for a whole host of reasons that I've articulated this evening. And I I agree with Corey. I
think it was a great great suggestion to get further input by our public and also maybe get some marshals, quote unquote marshals out there and volunteers. And was neat to hear people say that they would volunteer as well. Um so anyway, I'll be quiet, but I I I think we came up with the right uh the right decision
or the right recommendation. Thanks. Um I um am very impressed with the comments, the eloquence of the comments tonight and I'm as equally divided within myself about which course to take because I always like to side with the
public safety argument as articulated by our public safety department. And um I'm concerned about coral road the coral road intersection from a security standpoint. Um at the
same time I think the arguments for keeping the traditional route um are very persuasive and um I am somewhat reluctantly going to support that support the the motion that's on the
table because um I think this is probably not the right year to do it. Um and the the suggestions made by Mr. matters and others that Mr. Smith that we keep an eye
on the future and and make plans that are consistent with the the traditions of Chadam, but also in the best interest of public safety. I think those those comments are very well taken and I do hope we get more volunteers, but I think
it you know it's our police department and our fire department are going to be very stressed this this year with this parade. Uh and um you know we have to work for and hope for the best. And I I respect the the the um work of the
parade committee. Uh I think we all appreciate the efforts that they've made and um if we're going to change it, I think we need to undertake considerable education and informational um approaches to to make sure that it
works well going forward. So with that, I'm going to call the role on the motion to resend and basically restore the um support for the U traditional parade route. Mr. Mr. Dikkins. >> Hi, >> Mr. Matters. Hi, >> Mr. Smith. >> I
>> And the chair votes I. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, everyone. >> Thank you, Chief. Thank you, Lieutenant. >> Okay. Um, we have uh two licenses to take up. First is to consider a special one-day alcohol license for Hey Joe and
Jam March 1st, 2026 at 16 Sequins at Road West Cadam. And I think online is um the applicant uh Drea to Towi. That's right. Hi, I'm >> Miss Towey. >> Hi, I'm Dre Tawi. I'm the owner of Hey
Joe and Jam at 16. >> Excuse me. Um, can we take the conversation outside, please? Can we take the conversation outside? >> Sorry, Miss Joey. >> Yes. >> Go ahead.
>> Oh. Um, so it's just a one-day permit. Um, I I don't know what you have for the date. Originally, it was March 1st, but I had to move it to March 8th. Um, it's for um a jazz brunch. >> Okay. >> At my coffee house. >> So, is this an event that you're
planning to do ona on other occasions or just I know this is a one-day license. Is this an event that you want to repeat at some point? I'm just trying to get a sense of >> Yeah, I'd like to. >> Okay. Any comment or questions? >> I I just I just have one question. One
quick question that that the the start time at 10:00 um and that's because it is a brunch event. >> Yes. >> So you want to serve beer and wine or wine or sparkly? >> It's it's Yeah, it's really more geared towards mimosas, but >> Okay.
>> All right. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. >> Okay. >> Is there a move approval? I move approval. >> Is there a second? >> A second. >> Moved and seconded. I'll call the role. Mr. Mattis I. >> Mr. Dykins. >> Hi. >> Chair vide. >> You have it. Thank you. Good luck. >> Thank you so much.
>> Next is to consider an application for junk dealer collector license road show concepts LLC doing business as the H Heartland Road Show. And uh presenting this is um >> Amy Morgan of Heartland Road Show online.
Hi. >> Hi there. Yes. Um >> tell us a little bit about >> Thank you for having me. >> We do have your application. >> Sure. Absolutely. So, um our organization um comes to an area, we, you know, we
evaluate items from the general public, anything from coins to um jewelry to collectible antiques, um kind of you name it, baseball cards, all sorts of items. Um and then we make an offer
after we assess it and they either accept or don't. Um it's kind of the nature of it. And then we yeah generally do really well with with with our guests and in the areas that we're in. Um do
you guys have any questions for us? >> Yeah. I wanted to ask you know what's your experience of the experience of your company? You're an Illinois company I believe. >> What's your experience doing this and particularly in Massachusetts and
have you done this in Massachusetts before? or are we the first community that you're requesting this? >> Sure. So, we have operated in Massachusetts before. We operate in several towns already. Um, ranging from
Northampton, um, Worcester, Burlington, Brainree, Denim, um, >> any on Cape Cod, >> any on Cape Cod? >> We, this would be our first um, branch out onto Cape Cod. We haven't made it out there yet. It's a bit of a stretch,
but um you know we are growing and expanding. So we would you know like to move into Cape Cod and service the area there as well. >> So this is um an indoor event. It's it's comparable I would s I would think from
to the um Antiques Road Show that we see on public television. Is that what it is? >> It's very similar to that. We have experts at our shows. Um we analyze and assess your pieces. Um, but unlike the antique road show, we will actually purchase your items. Um, whereas the
antique road show will will basically tell you what it's worth at auction. Um, so it differs a little bit in that way, but we've had great success in Massachusetts so far. We've had great success nationwide. So, we're just kind of in this period of expansion right now. >> What do you do with these items once you
purchase them? You sell them? >> Um, sure. We have several We have storefronts. We have storefronts in New Jersey, I think, and Chicago currently. Um, and then we also have an eBay presence and a few other avenues for um
collectible items and things of that nature um when we purchase them. Things from like revolutionary swords to um you know, Muhammad Ali's boxing shorts to a broken chain of gold. It varies wildly.
And have there been any complaints or problems in other communities within Massachusetts that with um your operations? Have you had any? >> No, sir. Um I've been at almost every Massachusetts show because I live in
Watertown myself and I have yet to see anyone come in with a complaint or lodge, anything like that. Um I tend to handle most of that directly as I'm here physically in the state. >> Okay. And you haven't had any complaints from the local authorities?
>> No. No. If anything, the police are are overly nice when I meet with them, when I drop off, you know, um, receipt reports for them at the end of the week or things of that nature. They've always been very helpful. >> And this is going to be indoors at the at the Wayside. >> Yes, it will be located at the Wayside.
Um, when we work with a hotel, we try to come back to that same location just for ease of reference and we should be there, you know, periodically every six weeksish um throughout the year. But I think for right now, we're testing the waters with
the upcoming date um of the 23rd to the 27th. >> And um my last question, you're an Illinois limited liability company. Are you up to date in your uh LLC filings in the state of Illinois? >> Yes, sir. All right. Yes, we're up to date across the board. It's very
important for us. >> Thank you very much. Any questions from the board? Corey. Uh yes. Good evening. Uh only question is if if um I was a participant who attended the event um the the event. Uh what would I expect? Am I allowed to bring one item? Am I
bringing multiple items? Am I bringing items that I can only carry in? just kind of walk me through what what an expectation would be. >> That's a great question. Um the short answer is you can bring as many things as you want. Um there is no limit for an
assessment. It could be one item like a class ring or it could be, you know, a 10 boxes filled with um your antique silver collection that's been, you know, collecting dust in the attic. Um it could be anything. I've seen people
bring truckloads of watches. um boxes of baseball cards, all sorts of things. So, there's really no limit. And then you see people with two things in their pocket. So, it varies wildly and it's all up to the customer. >> Okay, great. Thank you. >> Okay,
>> sure, >> Jeeoff. >> Sounds like fun. I move approval. >> Yeah, it is a lot of fun. >> I move approval. >> I'll second that. >> Moved and seconded. I'll call the role. Mr. Dykins. I >> Mr. Matters. Hi. >> Mr. Smith. >> I chair votes eye. Four to zero. You have it. Congratulations. Good good
luck. >> Thank you so much, gentlemen and ladies. Have a good night. >> Okay. I hope these folks are still here. >> Stepping stones road housing development ownership project a proposal proposal evaluation team recommendations to the
town manager affirmation of town manager award of development rights. And we have uh with be with with us David Quinn of Housing Assistance Cooperation Hack as well as um uh M. Thad Samasco from SV
Design. He's online and >> and I'm Tana Brennan also with Housing Assistance Corporation. >> Thank you very much and welcome. Um is do we have staff Gloria McFersonen? Is she >> uh she's on participating remotely? >> Okay, Gloria's online. So who's going to take the lead on this? Um I will just to
um provide the um hopeful recommended action of the select board. First of all, I'm so excited to present this home ownership proposal to the board. It's really a a great design and the process was similar to how we did the other housing developments on Main Street and
Meeting House Road where we had someone answer or group answer our request for proposals. And as you know, you worked on the request for proposals and and gave um suggestions about minimums and so forth of items to include. We had one
uh one group propose and that's what we have here before you, the housing assistance corporation. And before I turn it over to you, I'll just ask um that the board consider affirming the recommendation of the proposal evaluation team and the decision of the
town manager acting as a chief procurement officer to award development rights of the property at Stepping Stones Road to the Housing Assistance Corp, also known as Hack, and to authorize the town manager to establish a negotiating team to enter into negotiations for a land disposition
agreement with Hack. back. Um, if you don't mind, I'll ask Gloria if there's anything else she would like to add. >> Gloria, >> hi everyone. Sorry. Um, no, I actually don't have anything else to add. Um, but I'm happy to answer questions about the
agenda report if you have any. >> Okay. All right. I guess we'll turn to Hack. >> Great. >> Mr. Quinn, >> thank you very Thank you very much and um appreciate the opportunity to present tonight. Um yeah, we're really excited about this this um development um and
the opportunity to build home ownership housing in Chadam. This is this is a property we've been following for a long time, watching the town's efforts uh as you've gone through the process of assessing the feasibility of the site. Um and it really aligns well with housing assistance corporation's
uh mission um to develop uh affordable housing. And more recently, we've been really been stepping into focusing on developing middle- inome housing. So, traditional affordable housing really focuses on 80% of AMI and less. Um, but I think as we all know, there's a a lack
of housing available to income uh people with incomes at higher levels. Um, so that was really exciting to see the town interested in pursuing this type of project. Um, so that's really what this is. This is a a middle inome housing project. Again, it's for home ownership. Um, and I think we've come up with a
really great design and happy to share it with you tonight. Um, just quickly, this is, um, again, the team is Housing Assistance Corporation. We've brought on SV Design as our architect for this project. I just wanted to briefly show a recent example of a project we just completed
this past fall in Orleans. Um, so this is 107 Main Street, Orleans. Um, this is a rental project, so it's a little different. Um, and it's a single building. You'll see when we get into our designs, we have a it's not not a single building. Um, but I just wanted to share this because I think it shows,
you know, how careful we are with thinking about the neighborhood context of our projects. Um, this isn't an area that's, you know, has a lot of historic building, historic homes, very residential. Um, so I think we did a good job of developing a middle density type housing development, but it also
fits really well within the surrounding single family neighborhoods. Um, our project vision for this project is really um, just echoing the town's vision. Um, so the town I think did a good job outlining in the RFP exactly what um, you wanted to see and so we really responded to that and tried to
think of it as, you know, how do we implement the town's vision? Uh, how do we make the finances work and how do we how do we come up with a proposal that um, has enough density um, to financially support the project and meet the objectives of the RFP but also fit in Chattam. Um, so what we came up with
was a project that is up to 14 homes. Um, and the RFP called for a minimum of 12 units. So, it's 14 homes. Uh, we came up with a clustered style of development, a mix of ones, twos, and threes. Um, income levels are tiered. I I'll show in the next slide. We've tiered. So, we have a couple different
income groups. Um, we have the 25% at 80% AMI, uh, which is a requirement under uh, chapter 40B, which is how this project would get permitted, would go before the ZBA. Uh, so there would be lots of opportunity for the public to comment on this um, as we go through
that process of of permitting with the zoning board of appeals. Um and then the remaining 75 um% of the units um we have priced at two attainable tiers. Um and I'll get into that in a moment. Um and again just kind of reiterating the the
importance that we placed on the it fitting into Chattam and being uh something that um when you drive by you're not going to say like oh that's affordable housing. Um so I think that was really really important to us. Um, this is kind of a busy slide and so
I won't go into a ton of detail, but I'm happy to to go back to it if there's specific questions, but this just really shows the breakdown of the affordability tiers that we're looking at. Um, again, we wanted to try to capture um multiple levels so that we would have opportunities for people to purchase
homes at different income levels. Um, and really try to capture a large swath of um, the income levels in Chattam. Um, so really looking at what are the incomes in town staff um and um other other businesses in Chadam. Um so really
the goal being to try to capture a swath of income levels that can't uh don't traditionally um aren't traditionally eligible for affordable housing as it's usually built but don't make enough to afford something on the open market in Chadam which is um you know over a
million dollars. Um so again we have the low to moderate income tier. That's the 80% AMI. That's your That's your required 40b um 25% of units. Um so those price points at 80% AMI, they're actually priced to be affordable to somebody who makes 70% AMI. Um that just
is to create a little bit of an affordability window um to open up a larger buyer pool. Um so an example price for a one-bedroom is$ 220 for a house two person household of $85,000 up to a three-bedroom price of 290 for uh
for a household that makes 107,000. Um and I will say so the these prices are some somewhat flex um subject to change. So these these are based on at least the low to moderate income ones are based on the HUD issued income levels and so they get calculated by formula um you know
before they're released. But this is roughly where it's it looks like it's shaking out right now. Um and then the two uh other tiers are are higher um income levels. Um, so we have one tier that we're right now pricing at um to be affordable to a household that makes
120% AMI. So for reference, that's a twoerson household making uh so I'm sorry that so it's priced at 120 um but eligible to people up to 200% AMI. That might be a little confusing. I know we've had some discussion on that with the the interview committee. Um, but the
idea is that it's priced so that somebody who's making 120% AMI could afford it and not pay more than 30% of their income, but people with higher incomes would actually be eligible to apply up to 200% AMI. Um, so that's the idea there. Um, price points in the 400s
uh and and 500s. Um and then the tier the second tier of attainable housing um is uh up to priced for 150% AMI with again the eligibility up to 200% AMI. I would say this is the point this in the interview with the selection committee. This was the area that we had the most
discussion on. And so I'll just say that um the town does have a lot of flexibility in terms of how these two attainable tiers are structured or what exactly the tiers are. So, um I do think this is an area that we'd be looking for, uh staff input on and trying to fine-tune
which price points make the most sense. Um so, I just just to throw that out there. There is some flexibility in terms of the final pricing and how we structure this. Um but I think this is this gives you the idea of what we're trying to accomplish. Um and then this is the unit mix. So, we
have um again these three tiers. We have the minimum uh the under 40B the the kind of your starting point is you have to have 25% at 80% AMI. You have to have uh 10% of the units as three bedrooms. And then the rest um we're trying to spread out to create a a good mix of of
unit types. >> And I just want to add that it's not just the pricing that we would be flexible on but also the eligibility. So we can structure the tiers and the sort of eligible buyer pools such that the qualif when we run a lottery um we're
we're capturing different pools to distinguish among tier one and tier two. >> That's a good point. I think what's interesting about doing the this attainable housing approach is that the town does have a lot of flexibility. Uh you know, us working with the town has a lot more flexibility in terms of how we
can structure this because it's not going to be going to be a state funded project. Um we're not as subject to the requirements of state lenders um in exactly how we structure the requirements or if there may be additional local preferences or town
staff preferences or whatever um the town may want to consider. But we do have some flexibility to kind of work outside your typical framework of what we're required to do if we have state funding. Um, so with that, I'm going to turn it over to Thaad, uh, who I believe
is with us. >> I'm I'm still here. Can you hear me? Okay. >> Yeah, we can hear you. >> Great. Yeah. Thad Sebast, uh, offices on the Parade route on 693 Main Street next to Roundabout Gas in Cadam. Uh we have
been on the site many times. We know it well. The RFP gave us a nice site plan to work with and we just set out to create a smallcale neighborhood that would fit its unique site and and its place in the town. Uh as David mentioned on the site plan, you can see um there
are uh 14 uh town homes located in seven buildings uh with 30 parking spaces. So two spaces per unit plus a couple extra. Um given the traffic activity on Stepping Stone, it made sense to us to provide a common driveway that served
all of the units with only two curb cuts. Uh and one one which aligns with Heritage and the other down the far end uh of the site. Um we have a 20ft driveway that the fire code requires that that driveway, but we're going to
try to u change the material some and try to reduce its apparent width uh visual apparent width. And we get the fact that the public view of this site now is of the woods and so we strive to maintain that wooded border. Uh it doesn't have any major trees in it which actually makes it a little easier to m
to keep that border that's a bit of a burm along the road. So I think this is going to give us privacy for the for the new homeowners but also maintain the view of of more of a wooded lot for the folks who are driving up and down uh uh
stepping stone. Um, so yeah, we've created two neighborhood clusters of town houses, so six in each, uh, with a a landscaped parking court. Each of those homes has a covered porch facing each other. So it really enhances, uh,
the neighborhood interaction, we think. Um, and so there's two of them. And in between the two clusters, there's some common open space, you know, maybe enough room for a whiffle ball game, uh, potentially a gazebo. Each of the unit gets either a deck or patio depending on
how it falls on grade as well as some kind of a yard that might be dedicated. Maybe there's a split rail fence that gives folks who own uh a unit some sense of their own yard space as well. Um we are orienting the these units um
to maximize the privacy one from the other to the extent we can either how we've oriented them or the landscaping that we're going to put up with them. Um and there's a bike shed near the bike path. Uh there's probably trash and individual leanto corral along the
buildings. And then last, there's a the far east end of the site has two uh one-bedroom flat units. Uh we're thinking that may be more operated more by some senior folks who might want to be a little closer to town. So, it's down on that end. All the units would
have full basements. Um there's a drop off toward the back of the site as you as you all know. Uh so those units likely would have some windows into into their basement area so they have the potential to finish basements at some point. Um, and we're also cognizant of
the view of this project from those folks on the bike path and we're going to work hard to minimize the visual impact of our project on on the on the bike riders. So that's generally the site plan and then the next slide I think is a view of
the project. So really we're looking at the idea of it's a Chattam vernacular pitched roofs, gently pitched roofs, um architectural asphalt shingles, natural uh shingles, siding, divided light windows, uh you know, maybe a highlight color on
the door, but really trying to have this thing fit in pretty quickly to feel like it's, if you will, always been there on and belongs on this particular site. So this is a view of of it as you're looking east as you enter with you can
see on the far left is the bike shed and then this is one of the clusters that's in the that's sort of straight ahead of you. And next um slide please is just these are the typical fronts of the buildings. Up top's the one bedrooms small covered
smaller covered porch. Bottom left is two-bedroom unit. They're all town houses I as I mentioned. Then on the right is a three-bedroom unit. Clearly compatible one with the other. Uh and we'll we'll work to get some differentiation, but um perhaps it's door color or thing, but really trying
to make this feel like it's a uniform uh neighborhood. And next, please. So, floor plans are generally uh open plans. Uh these that's a onebedroom you're looking at with just with a single bath laundry in the unit. Uh nice
open plan, plenty of light. The townhouse style with the duplex allows you to get, you know, windows and light on three sides and some good access points either off the front or off the side or even off the back depending on where you are on the grade. This is a 660 ft unit for the onebedroom. Pretty
standardized unit, maybe a little bit generous for one bed as you'd expect in an ownership unit. And then the next slide is a twobedroom I believe. Um, again the second floor has two bedrooms and two baths. So it has, if you will, a master bath and then there's a half bath
downstairs. Again, much more open plan. Um, and then this in these units, the laundry rooms downstairs. So nice, clean, efficient, uh, design um, which maximizes the space. These are,6 ft. So about 1,200 ft. It's a good size
two-bedroom unit. That does not include the basement square footage, which could be, you know, finished at some point. And then I think the last one we have to show you is a three-bedroom. Um RFP suggested making sure the kitchens are a little bigger as the units got bigger, which we've done. Uh I
think this is eight is 1340 square ft, two and a three bedrooms, two and a half baths. Again, uh open plan, same general concept, uh covered porches and so forth. I'd say last that um you know in terms of of sustainability just quickly um you
guys are a stretch code community which means we'll be super energy efficient and well insulated. Uh the roofs are solar ready and oriented to for a good amount of solar panels. Um we are you know just by being in town with this kind of density is by definition makes
it a pretty sustainable project. We're probably not we're probably not we are not going to use any fossil fuels for heating, cooling, and domestic hot water. The plantings that we do plant would be native and drought tolerant. We'll have the dark sky compliant lighting package which means that there
won't be any light spill over into adjoining properties. Keeps the glare down and so forth. And I know that's speed talking. Happy to answer any questions. I think David wants to continue talking a little bit too about the financing. >> Yeah, thank you. Um, and the only one
thing I'll add about the design, and this is another item that came up in our, uh, interview uh, with the selection committee, was there was some discussion of whether 12 units might be more appropriate. Um, so that is, um, something we're we're looking at. Um, and obviously that'll be a conversation
that comes up with the ZBA as well. Um, trying to see if it makes more sense to kind of spread the units out a little bit if that gives us a little more space on the site to, you know, pull us back from the bike path. Um, so, uh, we didn't want to show that because it, you know, we, our proposal included 14. Um,
but I think we we would hope that, you know, if we were awarded the LDA would kind of give us the flexibility to, as we get into the the formal design development process to look at the options of a 12unit design uh, versus the 14-unit design.
Uh, next, the financing approach. Um, so this project in a lot of ways is much simpler than most affordable housing projects that we develop because um, unfortunately because there is no state funding for for this type of home ownership project. Um, at least not in Chadam. There's some state funding for
home ownership projects in gateway cities and certain uh qualified census tracks, but um, not right now in Chadam. So really there there's two sources of funding um, that would need to be contributed to make the project work. one is the um sales from the homes which
we would we would bridge with a private construction loan uh to bridge that coming in at the end. Um and then the a local contribution from the town of Chadam um which we have um requested uh and we know we'd have to go before town meeting of uh $2.1 million. um our
proposal was was silent on which pot of money that came from, but just that as a whole that was what we felt would be needed to to um to fill the gap um and and make the project pencil. Um so we have a a a project with a total um total development cost of just under $9
million. Uh construction costs just over six million. South cost just over a million. Um uh so that's architects, engineers, legal fees, permitting, construction loan interests. um all of your non- construction costs. Uh and
then we're carrying contingencies uh on soft costs um and construction costs as well. These are based off of very recently completed projects included 107 Main Street and then also uh project a project we have under construction in Hyannis. Um we haven't bid this out yet.
So, that's one of, you know, one of the things actually we're doing right now is we are we have um contractors looking at this from both a modular construction approach and a on-site stick built approach. Um that's going to be one of the first determinations we need to make u is that impacts how we we design the
buildings. Um and um other line items, developer fees and overhead. That's really that's really covering housing assistance corporations cost to um staffing and overhead costs to run the project um over the couple of years. Um although
you see in the sources table below we do typically defer uh a portion of that back into the project um you as as kind of a standard thing that we do uh as well as some reserves available as well. Um
I think that's it on this slide unless you have questions. um timeline. Um so um again without state funding involved in this um you know it's obviously unfortunate that you know the state resources are limited but in a in a way it helps us move forward
potentially more quickly if we do get the support of town meeting to fund the project locally um because we don't have to sit and wait for multiple funding rounds that a lot of projects have to go through. Um so our goal here this is a rough um timeline. Uh if we're awarded the project, we you know we'd be work
working closely with town staff to try to execute a land disposition agreement. Uh we have here by May. Um I have town meeting requests on May, although we it may make more sense to wait until the fall for that until the project's a little uh more developed. Um I you know
I don't know um you all may have some some thoughts on that. Um either way um uh so we doing 40B we have to submit a site eligibility application to the state to approve um project to move forward under chapter 40B. Um that
process typically takes a couple of months. Uh we've seen it vary quite a bit but I think it'll be I would say probably three months or so um from the time we submit it to the time uh we hear back that it's eligible to move forward to the ZBA. During that time we would be doing full design development um on the
project. So really taking this conceptual plan um you know bringing on the bringing on the full team uh hiring our engineer doing surveying designing the bu designing the buildings getting it to the permit level drawings that we need to go before the ZBA uh with a goal of being before the ZBA uh in November.
Um obviously we'll try to get there as soon as we can. Um but that's that's I think that's a a realistic timeline uh assuming the site eligibility process moves quickly. Um >> ZBA it really depends the timing really depends on uh a lot of factors. Um we've
seen we've seen projects like this go very quickly and be um approved permits in one to two meetings. Other projects take six months. Uh it really just kind of depends on the level of of uh input and changes that are requested if any. Um so this assumes a couple month uh
zoning board of appeals process which would put us in a good position to be um trying to close on loans and start uh construction late spring early summer next year. So there's a lot of ifs uh and assumptions in this timeline, but that's sort of gives you a sense of how
we're thinking about the timeline. Um and the photo here is just it's the photo of again 107 Main Street. We did use modular construction there and we're looking um we're really looking strongly at doing that on this project. I think it has a lot of benefits. Um but you know we haven't made that final decision
yet. Um the one benefit of that is that it does help the project have less of an impact on the surrounding neighborhood. So it's very busy for two weeks but you don't have six months of nail guns and and that sort of thing. And and obviously there's there's cost savings and a and a construction interest savings because it's a a quicker
process. Um, with that, I'm happy to take any questions you might have. >> Thank you very much. Um, I'm just gonna make some introductory comments, then I'll turn to my colleagues in the board. I love this project. >> Okay. Could you put the slide back up
that shows the east view that? No. >> Oops. Yeah, that >> this is looking east. Yep. >> That looks great. Um, I like the fact that Hack is a nonprofit Cape Codbas based
organization. Uh, the architect has an office here in Chadam. I don't know if you have offices elsewhere, but you've got an office, as you said, right on the parade route. The new the >> the new old one. >> The new old parade route. >> We'll have to volunteer.
>> I'm sorry you had to wait for for all so long to come come up to the podium. Um just a few comments. Um I think that the um the evaluation committee did a great job. Um we should mention I'll ask Jill
to mention who who was on it. Um staff Gloria um Katie um the affordable housing trust deserves commendation for um working uh and proposing the RFP to us which we made very slight revision
to. Um I I you know obviously there's going to be a process if the board approves it tonight to come up with a land disposition agreement and there may be some modifications. I'll just state personally individually
I like the 14 units versus 12. I love that it's ownership. That's what a number of us have been I think all of us wanting to push uh for for the town. Um
uh there were a couple of um um alternatives that were suggested or questions about for example um should one of the units be ADA um accessible? I would submit not. Um
that's just my personal view. I don't think it's needed. I understand those are important, but there are only 14 units here. Possibly 12. I hope it's 14. Um, I mean, that's not a deal breaker for me,
but that's that's my suggestion. I don't think we need to put EV charging stations there. We have eight of them downtown, brand new, that are very close to this um development. Um, I like the solar ready roofs, but I don't think we
need to. I'm trying to I'm trying to limit expense on all of these points >> because we happen to have a fund that we set aside that has enough money to pay for the 2.1 million. It's from the short-term rental tax that we were smart
enough to take 1% of that and put it in that in that account for something like this so we could have attainable housing. Um, let me just ask a question about the solar ready roofs. If somebody wanted to put solar panels, this is going to be an association almost like a condominium
association. Would that require the approval of the association or would all the roofs have to be if they ever wanted to put the solar panels, which we certainly wouldn't discourage, but or could one unit just put them up? I don't know if you have an answer to that or is that up to the association when they develop
their rules and >> yeah I mean um one of that was one of the things that came up in our conversation with the selection committee is that if we were to put panels on ahead of time um we'd probably do it as this the entire system would go back through like
one common meter as opposed to being owned by the individual owners because otherw you know otherwise there's a how do you split that up? there's diff different roofs are facing different directions um and you know you'd have to have um you know a bunch of different utility meters and so so that's the
first part but I think if yeah if if the HOA wanted to allow people to add solar later um they certainly could um I mean I think we could if we're setting up the HOA we could write it so that it's allowed um I guess they could >> those would be in the association documents
>> for them to decide. >> Yep. >> Yeah. Well, I mean, I don't I think I just want to make sure I covered everything I wanted to say up front. I um the the um proposed color is is a gray, right? The other on the side. >> Yes, sir.
>> And it's not natural weathered gray. >> Yeah. And it's it's that's and it's um the material is cementitious. >> Yeah. It's likely cementitious shingle which is getting better and better and more real looking if you will. You you
may have seen it in some projects now. It's just for maintenance purposes for these >> it probably makes sense to use it. >> Well, I think this is great. I think it fits the neighborhood and I know you're going to have to go through this whole process with the zoning board and so forth, but those are my my thoughts on it. Cory, you were on the evaluation
committee and it'll start with you and then whoever. No, no. I think um I think the uh the reception of this proposal was very positive. Um and we're excited to see home ownership model. Um something we we surely need in this community. Um so that was great. Um you
know, great being able to work with, you know, the applicant. Um very great conversations, very good presentations with a lot of back and forth. So it was a very positive experience from that perspective. Um this couple hit on a couple points, you know, mostly on the
site. Um a lot of pauses. We like the fact of the access road coming in, you know, and not multiple curb cuts on stepping stone. It kind of brought every one thing in. You got that natural buffer that's out there. There's probably going to be some infilling needed, you know, to fill it in, but it
it gives us some privacy. Um you know, the committee kind of thought solar ready should be solar now. So that was our our position that we thought you know let's do let's do all the solar now. Um EV was part of a discussion. Um,
I thought we not necessarily having the EV spaces, but at least having some uh the outlets prepared to, you know, have an EV because you think about it, we we didn't really talk about are these spaces dedicated per per particular unit, you know, is that EV space going to be units
for, you know, assigned to unit four? Is it a common area? So, there's a lot of EV discussions out there. Um, I personally leaned on 12 units versus 14 only from the sense of we we see this project just could need a little bit of
tweaking. Um, you know, the the broken up parking spaces were really nice. It breaks up the site very very well. I think there's a little bit of room for improvement for spacing, but you have things like, you know, notice you one and two were really tight against that bike trail. you give it a little, you know, removing removing one of the
buildings, maintaining the onebedroom, so you probably end up losing the two-bedroom, uh, gives you a little bit of space to maneuver, you know, pulling away from the bike trail. You look at units five and six and seven and eight. There were some comments that were made by the group that, you know, that private area is a little bit tight,
maybe a little more room for privacy. Um, you know, we're not looking at a centralized trash area, so we don't worry about that. We're we're we're depending on each unit having their own receptacles. Um actually in hindsight with all the snow maybe the snow removal area should have been a little bit
bigger. Whatever. Um you know the uh all the units are proposed to have basements. Um washer dryers in the bottom. Um the one bedrooms were not proposed to have a basement. There were some comments by at least some of the members of the committee about putting basements in the one units.
>> They have basements. They have it's a bulkhead access rather than >> this guy. Right. They all have basements but access through the one bedrooms were through the bulkhead where the other ones were through the interiors. >> Right. Which is why the washer and dryer unit is interior. >> Yep. You were sorry. Um you know we
there's a lot of per you know personal space with storage. Um there's some closets. You know I had my own feelings. So certain closets in the bathrooms but that's my own personal quirk. Um but overall I think this is a really good project. Um, I do think, um, I know it's
not a decision yet, but I think off-site, uh, fabrication of the of the structures, uh, for this type of project make a whole lot of sense. I think there's also some efficiency in it. Um, and I think more importantly to the neighbors, it is going to be less intrusive. Um, so I do think, um, you're
going to have some cost benefits for there um, being a good neighbor. So, um, I know this a decision not to be determined yet, but I do think that there's a merit in really going that way. Um, it, you know, I'm I'm excited about this project. It was it's a little bit
more than I expected. Um, but I think they did a really good job and I think this is something that the town can get behind. Um, I'm trying to think there's anything I really missed. Um, no. I mean, this is this is this is something that uh I think we desperately
need and I think you guys did a wonderful job. So, >> thank you. I I I just want to add one two things that I neglected. Um, other than the 14 units, and I appreciate Cory's concerns about
trying to reduce it to two, but I still I feel pretty strongly about the 14 units. Everything else I said is not for me a deal breaker. I I would like to see this go to the May 2026 town meeting, even if we get a vote that if if if it's
legally acceptable that's contingent on whatever approvals you need, rather than calling a special town meeting in the fall, which costs the town about $6,000 to do. But anyway, those are my thoughts. Jeff, you wanted to go next? >> Yeah, I I I had picked up the package the other day and I had hadn't seen any
of this. I had no no clue what was coming at me and you know I was very pleased. I I think it's a it's a greatlooking project um for that site. I I really like the layout in each townhouse. Um I I I want to maximize uh
our capacity to offer attainable housing. So I'm I would lean towards the 14 point made though that that patio and one and two as Corey just noted is really close to that bike trail. So, if there's anything we can do to ameliate that proximity, it's very close. And the
privacy, if you're out in that patio and in unit number one with in the summertime, a lot of bikers going by, runners and stuff, going to have very little privacy. >> Um, which would argue for it decreasing the amount of units, but I I >> you know, I want to maximize the number of units to be honest with you. Love the
fact that you kept our our scrub pines out there out out front. I think that's very important. I don't disparage the scrub pine but it's important I think from a visual perspective. Um I think solar now because this face is south southwest almost no that's yeah northsoutheast west west. Yes. So it's
not a bad southern south facing it's pretty good I think. >> Um so I would argue for solar now why why put it off. >> Many questions about how those utilities get you know divvy up and stuff. I had I had a question on on financing. I know we have the our our townside monies, but
the owners are you guys acting as a bank or Okay. So, so each individual owner goes and applies for a mortgage and and gets approved, etc. Okay. >> Right. Correct. >> All right. And uh and the numbers could fluctuate a bit um based on kind of the
final designs and and what we kind of think about we want to include or not. >> Yeah. I think we want to do a little bit of a deeper dive and understand exactly where income levels land in Chadam to make sure we're not missing a group um that you know probably should be included in the sustainable range or you
know so um yeah we just wanted to you know make sure we made that point that there is some potential um and we we will take a deeper dive and look at it. >> I mean just that you know that the housing is still pretty expensive but it's nowhere near as expensive as what's on the market. I mean it's still it's still expensive. You still have have to
have quite a good income in order to in order to you know qualify. Um I guess those are my remarks. I mean again I have I I was very posit I loved it. I to I mean I really liked it a lot. Layout is great. I think the use of the site is great. Um I love the fact that the bike trails right there. I think it fits with
the neighborhood. I'm listening to my ZBA putting my ZBA hat on. I think you'll I think it pretty pretty much coheres with the neighborhood. Yes, it's tight but we want housing. We want attainable housing. So those are my initial thoughts. I had the same reaction when I picked up the package because I hadn't seen it before. Either
>> Stuart, did you have anything? >> Sure. >> Yep. Um, thanks for participating in this. Uh, a lot of controversy over the other projects, so it's nice to see something that might go through much more
smoothly. Um the what type of outreach is and maybe I don't know if this is you folks or is the outreach conducted with the neighborhood with uh through zoning and uh the regulatory boards
>> um or is >> yeah I mean we typically try to have do neighborhood outreach prior to going to the zoning board. I mean, part of the process of applying to the zoning board is that that every butter within a certain distance gets a letter and gets notified of the public hearing, but we do try to we we make a point to meet
with >> neighbors. >> Yeah. >> Um, >> and has that any of that been done yet or have we gotten any maybe I'm sorry, maybe that's a Gloria uh McFerson question, but has there been any feedback um
>> Gloria at all from the neighbors? >> Hey, Stuart. Um, so the evaluation team just made their recommendation last week and I just posted all of these plans on the website. So we really haven't done that kind of neighborhood outreach
because technically um it would be premature because you guys haven't um yet affirmed the decision of the town manager in the decision to award the development rights to hack. >> Yeah, it's kind of the chicken and the egg, right? because, you know, we vote
to approve and um you know, it kind of gets away. In any event, I like the project. Um and uh um but I I I do believe that less density is less impactful on the
neighborhood and that is a positive thing not only for this but for our future projects. you know, we don't want to annoy the entire community on um housing unnecessarily, uh because we're going to need them in
the future. Um so, um I would encourage the the uh the 12 the 12 units as well. Um I noticed up on the slide you mentioned the HOA fees. Is there any
there was no number with that because but is there an estimate at all on H? Yeah, we had a hidden slide that we was too dense for this. >> Um, so this is like, you know, probably more information than you want to see, but it's, um, this kind of shows the entire kind of behind thescenes
um, calculation of how we came up with the sales prices based on the different income levels. And so the sales prices are based on a monthly payment where a person or household at that income level would be paying 30% of their income towards their housing cost. And the housing cost includes
uh their mortgage and interest, you know, uh principal and interest, taxes, insurance, PMI, and HOA fees. Uh right now we have a flat HOA fee of 300 across the board for modeling purposes. We typically what we would do is have the HOA fee based on square footage. Um so
it probably it'd be different for the onebedroom or the or the three bedroom, but >> Great. Thank you. the um the LDA I know that has been an issue uh on on on the Main Street and meeting
house uh pond projects. Um is there how does that work Jill? Is that um it's developed by the town I assume. Does it ever come back to the board? >> Yes. Uh in the we had the same members
of the LDA group for the meeting house road and um Main Street. Um it was I know it was Jeff Dykins uh Stephen Daniel just trying to think of my list. Um help me out Jeff if you could or
Gloria. So we we had a number and we worked directly with town council Lisa me and um we are somewhat constrained to what was submitted as a response to the RFP. Yeah. >> But there were certain areas where um I
think we talked about solar ready um some of the the washer and dryer units and other items that were still yeah up in the air and had some flexibility. Um, but the LDA is more of a financing document with some preferences and then
from there it would go to the zoning board of appeals. >> Great. >> But it comes back to us. >> It comes back to the board to >> thanks. Um, you know, one of the things, you know, you you drive over to or I don't know who's doing the project, so I'm not picking on you folks because it
may not be you. Um but we look at some of these uh housing um you know initiatives that we're taking and you know the first thing you hear from uh builders is what a what a terrible quality job is done on some of them. How
do you oversee that? Do you got do you folks oversee that? I mean is that >> yeah we we hire a general contractor >> right but >> sometimes the general contractor is you know taking liberties that maybe they
shouldn't and we end up with less than good quality construction >> know we work closely with our general contractors I mean we're overseeing the project we're not swinging hammers but right >> absolutely remain highly involved as the developer of the project it's our it's
our it's our reputation as well that you know on the end product. So and also our design team SV design >> um has a vested interest. >> Yeah, we stay on the we follow the project right through occupancy. >> Okay. >> Uh making sure the contractor delivers
what's in the specifications and plans. Um and then of course we have to sign off at the end that it that it meets what was drawn on the plans and and it meets the code. So we have an obligation um projects like this to ensure that they're done well. >> Great. I mean it's a frequent criticism
that I that I hear. So you know you like these people to be living in quality quality construction. >> Um no I understand the question. Yes. So I mean I think in the other the other um check we have in place is that um all of our funders lend and you know our
construction lender um they we at our expense we have to hire a third party inspector every month. So, every payment request that comes in from our general contractor has to be signed off by us, by the architect, and by a lender's uh third party inspector to verify that
it's been being built to the specifications on the plans. >> And the um and the I heard I think I heard uh architect here that um it's an all electric well, no fossil fuels anyway. >> All electric. Yep.
Um guess there's pros and cons to that but uh we get that the um I I agree that holding off on the solar panels is probably just to keep the cost manageable for people. So um um I mean
those were my those are my comments. I think it's a I think it's a nice plan. I I uh I wish it was taking place in other parts of our community. >> Yeah. >> Um thank you. >> I just have a couple follow-ups. I noticed that in or the your Orleans project you used real plywood. It looked
to me that was a modular construction but actually wasn't press board. >> The sewer, how are we going to coordinate if if in fact this is a go which would hope it would be but you know I know there's a lot of questions to be answered but we have a sewer line to run through there.
Do we not? >> Yes. >> Yet to do. >> Gloria, do you want to weigh in on that? >> Um pardon me. Is that again? >> Well, Gloria, we had we had some discussion earlier about uh sewing stepping stones so we could service this this complex. So, I just wondered, you
know, is that part of the planning? Is there going to be a cost for the town? We should probably include it in the overall cost, blah blah blah. So, we practically abandoned the idea of writing sewering into the RFP because the last time um I spoke with the DPW
director, the um estimate for getting sewer to that part of town um which would include a pump station got pushed out to like 2033. So the immediate development is not going to use is not going to tie into
um any new sewer expansion. It's possible that they'll do um individual pumps like E1's up to the existing manhole and some of the units especially the ones on kind of the left side of the site may actually be able to gravity feed to that. Um but those are the
things that are going to be be worked out during um site design development as um Hack and Thad work through um the design. >> I'm just double checking it's not going to be an impediment. >> Um I don't believe it is. I mean I I
would I would put that question to um Hack as they responded to the project understanding the limitations of the site. Yeah, I mean our our understanding is that the project can connect to the existing sewer as Gloria mentioned. Um
obviously we need to to bring on an engineer and work closely with the town to confirm that and that would be one of the first things we'd have to do. Um but yeah, that is our understanding based on what we've been told. >> Okay. Thank you. >> The sewer line currently runs to just twothirds of the way up. Is that the
>> comes up coral? >> But it does it run all along stepping stones? No, no, but there's >> So, it doesn't And there's and there's topography on the on the roads. So, if you if you pull up the diagram, the site plan,
>> I can kind of talk you through where the >> I think the one bedroom the one bedrooms can be gravity, but I don't Yeah. >> No, exactly the opposite. So, the sewer manhole in Stepping Stones Road is pro is opposite that first um cross street
on the lower left of the plan. >> So, opposite that first pod on the left is where a sewer manhole is. It's fairly deep. I think the invert is something like 10 ft deep, but the elevation is um
a little bit lower as you go back where that first pod is. So, there's going to have to be some engineering to determine whether that first pod can gravity feed to the sewer manhole. It may. So, the other pod and the onebedrooms are not
going to be able to gravity feed. I mean, I don't know for sure, but I'm fairly confident that those are not going to be able to gravity feed. And that sewer manhole goes to the left, so it's heading downhill in that way. And there's really nothing on the right side
of the site that that um could connect. >> So where where would where would the um funding for the sewer connection come from or is that part of the it's not part of this? >> So the connection to that sewer would be part of this project like like the way
that they connect would be part of the project. It's likely to be gravity lines and then some individual um pumped lines with individual E1s in the units. >> But is that factored into the >> Yeah. Yeah. We're assuming paying for the connection.
>> Okay. >> Yeah. >> We haven't fully engineered it yet. So, I mean, it's possible be there'll be some surprises. >> You get a free you get a free grinder pump under a for each unit. Seriously, you do. >> Yeah. Right. The um >> Go ahead, Stuart. the 2.1 uh town
contribution um is does that change if we decide or goes to 12 units as opposed to 14 or is >> uh it could yeah I mean that could reduce it >> yeah um I don't think it would reduce it
by exactly 150 because you're still carrying the site costs across fewer units but you know I think yeah if we reduced units we would reassess the total budget and what the the gap Yes. >> And um that that funding is um 1% of the
short it goes into a >> we increased the short-term rental tax or the hotel and motel tax, wasn't it? The hotel motel tax. We increased it by two percentage points um three or four years ago. We got the
legislature to okay us sep setting up two separate funds. one for the elementary school which we're responsible for and one for attainable housing and um so we put 1% in one and 1% in the other. They're right they had right now they're identically funded
because no one's tapped into them, >> right? >> Requires a town meeting simple majority vote to spend from them. So the apparently it's about $3 million in in each fund >> and and this is a town account town controlled town. >> Exactly. Exactly. This has to go to town
meeting, get town meeting approval. >> Great. >> So, the attainable housing fund requires a simple majority vote at town meeting. Um, the affordable housing trust fund, which can be used to cover the percentage of the project costs that are
affordable at 80% um, AMI, which is four out of four out of 14 units, um, just requires a vote of the um, affordable housing trust. But I want to add that any funds that are required through even
the attainable housing fund through town meeting vote is not going to impact the budget like that money is collected on a quarterly basis and added to that account and it's a dedicated account for afford for attainable housing, >> right? It doesn't. So, we will be going
to town meeting to ask for approval to expend some of those funds, but it's not going to have an impact on the budget, right? Because those those monies are already there. >> It's a freestanding segregated account. Um, and you're right to point out I because I hadn't done that
a portion of the overall cost is coming out of the affordable housing trust. And the reason why we have a portion affordable is so that you can get a 40B permit through the zoning board because you might have to make some modifications under zoning. Okay. One
last question. Um as as I read this, you would conduct a lottery. Is that how that that this would work? You would market this. >> That's right. We Yes. So Housing Assistance Corporation, we do have an in-house uh team that runs lotteryies for our developments and and other developments. And so we would be running the lottery for it. You're doing one for
the town of Chadam right now on Crow Road. >> That's right. Yeah, exactly. >> Okay. All right. Um, any public comments, Mr. Phillips? >> Brian Phillips, 374 Orleans Road. U, my first question is, do the, uh, home ownership association fees ever go up?
And then my other question is, um, uh, what maintenance falls on the home owners association and what falls on, uh, the homeowner itself? So the the first question is that so what we would do is we would establish uh a base fee to cover um anticipated
operating costs. Um we would set up a board so there'd be residents that would be um would volunteer to be on the HOA board. We would stay involved probably for a year or two to get the board running. Um we would develop the all the rules and regulations about the HOA. At
some point we would hand that off. You know, we would step away uh and then the HOA would be run by the homeowners. Um so at that point it would be up to the homeowners to to vote on um what the fees are to make sure you know obviously to make sure that you're you're um
operating the the development. Um in terms of what costs are covered um so typically the HOA fees would cover plowing, common landscaping, common utilities. uh in this case k in this case since they're duplexes uh would
probably be roofs uh and uh exterior repairs um yeah we'd have to kind of go through and figure out what exactly would be uh HOA fee covered things versus uh individual homeowners I mean there's there's we're planning on doing private yards so we'll probably the private yards would be the
responsibility of the homeowner but any common space would come out of the HOA fees that answer your question >> yeah pretty much okay >> thank you DD Thank you. Uh thank you Dee Dee Holtz Striper Lane. I didn't come to speak to this but I'm here. So um I'm just a
reminder that um this is the third project now this being built in undeveloped areas that all three as a matter of fact are woodland and um in this particular case the two of the benefits of trees would be shade and then clearing the impurities in the uh
in the air due to the vehicle traffic primarily. Um I would just I guess impress that um as many trees as possible be kept or be planted on this property. Looking at this diagram, there's not a lot. I mean, it's mainly on the other side of I guess of your
driveway. And uh I guess that's just a request to consider that aspect in your in your further development. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other public comment? I don't see any. >> Did you want to say something? >> I I did I I neglected to introduce who
the the evaluation team were and they did a really great job. So, >> uh the evaluation team did a really great job. So, um, it included member of the select board, Corey Meadows, a member of the affordable housing trust and community housing partnership,
Carolyn Mlullen, filled both roles. A town of Chadam staff member, Terry Whan, who's been a participant on all of our evaluation RFP teams, and uh, a lo local builder, Tim Smith, which was really exciting to have him back. And then, uh,
JG Shock, who is a local resident, also participated. and it was a really great group. They asked very thoughtful questions uh during the presentation and I really want to thank them for their service. >> Thank you, Joe. So, if um we move to affirm this and and turn it over to you,
you you would be appointing a um what I don't know what you call it, a working group or whatever to um work on the land disposition agreement as you did in the last. >> Yes. >> Okay. All right. I'm going to throw it open. Mr. matters. Do you want to have the honor of offering the motion because
you were on the evaluation team? >> It's on the It's on the last page. >> I move to affirm. >> It's quarter 10. I'm on. Uh, I move to affirm the recommendation of the proposal evaluation team and the decision of the of the town manager acting as chief
procurement officer to award development rights of the property at Stepping Stones Road to Housing Assistance Corp. HAC and authorize the town manager to establish a negotiation team and enter into negotiations for a land disposition
agreement with HAC Hack. >> Thank you. Is there a second? Second. >> Moved and seconded. I'll call the role. Mr. Dikkins. >> Hi. >> Mr. Meadows. Hi. >> Mr. Smith. >> I. >> The chair votes I. >> Thank you very much. Thank you for hanging around. Good job. >> Great. Great. Thank you everybody.
>> Thank you everybody. Good night. Now >> okay. The next item is to consider an increase to non-resident to the non-resident beach pass fee. And for that we have our director of um community services, Leah Lacrosse, and
the deputy director uh for recreation and beaches, Amy Howell, who are online. So, who's going to present this? >> We're going to start off with Amy. Amy, are you there? >> I see Leah. I don't There's Amy. >> Amy. >> Yes. Hi. Good evening. Can you hear me?
>> Great. >> Yes. Um so we are looking at proposing or we are proposing uh an increase to our non-resident beach fees um starting this summer um June 1st. So the last uh time the town raised the fees was in
2016. So our current rate is $20 uh for a daily pass. We are proposing $30. Uh for weekly it's 75. We're proposing 90. And for a seasonal, our current rate is 175
and we are proposing 190. Um, and really the driving force uh behind this rate increase is to offset the immense rising operational costs associated with uh running the beaches. Um main component of this is this summer we are looking at
moving towards offering credit cards as a payment option at the beaches. So this fee increase would help offset um moving towards that the infrastructure uh of the credit card machines licensing. Uh the town will also uh absorb any uh fees
associated with each transaction with the credit cards. Uh and then the other driving force is the increased um staffing costs in the last couple years. Obviously, everyone's aware of the
national and regional lifeguard um shortage and our struggle to recruit and retain them. So, we've uh increased our staffing over 10 the the pay rates this year is over 10% our our lifeguard staff
is is getting. So, uh again, this increase will kind of help um offset those rising costs as well. And um so that's about it. So, I will answer any questions that you guys have about it. >> Okay. Thank you, Amy. Questions for Amy. >> Sure. Uh, good evening, Amy. Um, thanks
for the comparison towns. I think that was great. Really helpful to me anyway. And I thought I read it and but maybe you can point me to it. Do Do you have an estimate as to how much additional money this would be bringing in?
>> Yeah. So, going off of last year's passes total, it'll be around $95,000 uh dollars give or take, uh obviously, you know, our our intake is is very weather driven. So, but around $95,000 it will raise, >> right? And um that'll be used for
augmenting the the hike in lifeguard pay so we can keep get some lifeguards and to implement what did you say the credit card uh program signal. >> Yeah, >> correct. Yes. So uh the last so we have always been cash only um and so we will
be moving towards uh offering cash payments and credit card payments along with Apple and Google Pay um which is pretty much the number one request that we've gotten at the beaches um and it will help decrease our cash flow uh at the beaches. So um you know we're pretty
excited to to be able to offer that to the community. >> Yeah. Great. Great. Thank you. >> Core. No, this we um uh this was brought before the park and rec commission uh last meeting. Um I've seen it. Um I understand the reasoning behind it and I can support it.
>> Yeah, I I support it as well. I just want folks to know um if we raise our daily rate to 30. Um Haritch is 30, Orleans is 3250. A little bit of a disparity in our weekly rate between our our our
sister communities. 90 for Chadam. we would raise it to um and Haritch is at 75 but Orleans boasting I'm sure NSET beach is at 165 so uh appreciably above the 90 then again that same theme continues with our seasonal permit if we
raise it to 190 um Harage is at a buck 75 Orleans is at 420 so we're still well within the market and regional norms and I support the uh I support this the recommendation um and I'll entertain a motion Guess I could do that unless you want to
do it. Leaison, >> I move to approve the proposed increase in non-resident beach passes as outlined in the staff report with an effective date of June 1st, 2026. >> Second. >> Good. >> Been moved and seconded. Want me to call
the role? >> Call the RO. >> Mr. Dikkins. Hi. >> Mr. Meadows. Hi. >> Mr. Smith. >> I chair votes. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Final item >> DD hold committ consider the recommendations to revise the open space
committee charge. Um this is um been submitted by the open space committee chair Dee Holtz. >> Patience Dee patience. I bet you're glad this is the last item on the agenda and I'm I'm not asking for any money anyway.
But uh as as you Oh yeah. Dee Hull chair of the uh open space committee. Um as you know a few months ago the uh open space committee was revived after a lengthy slumber and uh first thing we talked about was our d our duties and responsibilities. As you know in your
packet the um current charge of the open space committee is extremely narrow. It basically deals with just evaluating properties either offered for purchase or donated to the town for open space. Um, in considering what other uh ways we
could contribute, what other advice we could maybe provide the select board with regard to open space, we um we we think that protecting what we have is probably extremely important. um as space becomes less available, it looks
like uh you know what we can do is just value what we have and try to protect it. And um and then as as well as um uh working with other town committees, town organizations where we have mutual interest in either
purchasing or recommending that the town purchase properties. Uh there were two suggestions uh edits made by town staff that I think uh uh we appreciate. One was really a correction of a title and the other one um is really unnecessary
since that is under the uh responsibilities of the um conservation agent. So we're just asking that you approve our our uh our new charge. If you have any questions I'm happy to respond. >> Thank you. Any uh comment?
Yeah, it's my I'm the leazison. They've done a great job, very thoughtful approach to, you know, revising the the their uh their charge, if you will, and um I'm fully supportive and uh I would I would make a motion to to approve. >> Is there a second? >> I'll second that.
>> Moved and seconded. I'll call the role. Mr. Dykins, >> I. >> Mr. Matters, >> I. >> Mr. Smith, >> I. >> Chair votes I. Thank you. Thank you, Dee. Thank you for hanging around. >> Dei, thank you. >> Uh final motion of the night. A motion to adjurnn, Mr. Chairman. >> Second.
>> Moved and seconded. I'll call the role. Mr. Dykens. >> Mr. Meadows. >> I. >> Mr. Smith. >> I. >> And the chair votes I. We are adjourned at 9:58 p.m. Good night, Chadam.