e e e e e e e e [Music]
[Music] [Music] [Music] good afternoon chadam welcome to the
March 11 2025 meeting of the chadam select board please note this meeting is being recorded and will be available shortly Hereafter for scheduled and On Demand viewing on any smartphone or tablet device if anyone else is recording the
meeting please notify the chair seeing no such notification I'll proceed pursuant to Governor Healey's March 29 2023 signing of the acts of 2023 extending certain covid-19 measures adopted during the state of emergency
suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law General Law chapter 3A section 20 until March 31 2025 this meeting of the chadam select board is being conducted in person and via remote participation every effort will be made
to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings as provided for in the order a reminder that persons who would like to listen to this meeting while in progress may do so by calling the phone number 1 158 945
4410 conference ID 203 386 491 pound sign or join the meeting online via Microsoft teams through the link in the posted agenda while this is a live broadcast and simal cast on
chadam TV Xfinity channel 1072 despite our best efforts we may not be able to provide realtime access we will post a record of this meeting on the town's website as soon as possible with that the first order of
businesses establishing a quorum uh Miss Davis present Mr Shell is present Mr necastro present okay we have a a streamline team tonight um our agenda tonight uh consists one set of minutes January 28th
we have some public announcements and agenda item requests um number three is a public hearing uh to consider an application to transfer and pledge uh uh to uh transfer and the pledge of the annual wine and
Malt Beverages um only Package Store license from uh chadam Market to uh the new owner of chadam Village Market um uh CVM retail uh then next will be a report uh
from our our our monthly report from our director of Public Works Rob failey on chadam Wells pest uh drinking water Etc uh next is public comments on our business agenda and then our business agenda
consists of um three big headings and then 10 little ones under item number two um first we're going to uh vote to ratify uh two collective bargaining agreements uh with the uh chatt
Municipal Employee employees Association and the chatam Managers Association uh next we have a number of uh town meeting articles to review and consider consider voting to rep to place and recommend I'm not going to go through
those we have a total of 10 including um a couple of home rule petitions and a couple of uh petition art at least one petition article so um with that I will take a motion on the
minutes second uh any comments Dean go ahead thank you I I I don't have any edits but there were several places where I think some language was missing and you may have already caught them Kathy on page five or maybe you Mr chair page five up at the the top that
paragraph that Trails over and does is lacking something at the end um and then on page eight um same thing with the paragraph that runs over from the prior page after
the phrase the current Fleet I think there's something missing there and then in the next paragraph last line training for period something things missing there you see that be before before we
if if I may I I I think the it's it's training for it and then the period okay and then finally um on page 13 um well maybe there isn't anything here
and under D she also noted that there were deceased Birds is that the end meant to be the end of it period I don't know yes all right okay that's it so I had those um
but I wanted if you go back to page8 um the carryover paragraph uh the last lines where it says Police Department Staffing the current Fleet there's something missing there as well so with
those proposed amendments um all in favor Mr necastro I Mr Shell says I Miss Davis St um okay next public announcements and agenda item requests do we have any of
those from the board uh I know paulet faig is online and would like to make an announcement welcome Paulette you have the floor hi thank you can you hear me we can hear you hi um good evening I'm Paul at fail
from chadam recycles here to announce our 13th annual book and media swap I think the Flyer's up there it is um it will be not this weekend but next weekend March 22nd and 23d from 900 a.m. to 2: p.m and um we ask that people
bring the three days before the event uh Wednesday Thursday Friday from 10 a.m. to 300 p.m. books uh CDs DVD s VHS tapes cassette tapes vinyl records puzzles as long as they're cardboard puzzles and to
please bring no more than two sturdy bags or boxes from your home per visit and then please come for the weekend to join us um please do not bring to drop off any items any moldy books um any any
encyclopedias or any related items like like cases or shelving or anything we just want the media itself self so I think that's it unless anybody has any questions we'd love to see you oh oh it's it's it's in the annex it's uh in the small conference room right next to
the room you're in now and um we'd love to have you thank you and look forward to it any other public announcements Andor agenda item requests I don't see anybody here
in the room anybody online I don't see anybody there either do you Jill no okay uh we have a public hearing um Shireen would you read the notice pleas certainly town of chadam Select board public hearing notice notice is hereby given that the chadam select board will
hold a public hearing on Tuesday March 11th 2025 at 5:30 p.m. in the large meeting room at the Town Hall Annex 261 George Ryder Road chadam and remotely via Microsoft teams platform to consider the transfer and pledge of an of the annual wine and malt beverage only
Package Store license from chattam Mark Inc doing business as chadam Village Market Stasia McDonald manager of CVM retail Inc doing business as chattam Village Market harsh Patel uh manager for the business located at 20 queenan
Road all interests parties are encourged to participate sign the select board so do we have Mr Patel here uh uh in in the room welcome if you would step up to the podium and introduce yourself and it's my understanding or at least
I'm advised that your attorney Miss Wegman is also online yeah she's uh on the zoom call okay um board thank you thank you hello SE select Board of chadam my name is Harsh and I'm the proposed manager of the beer and wine
license for CVM retail Inc uh DBA chadam Village Market uh at chadam Village Market our goal will be to ensure our staff and management team are knowledgeable of alcohol laws and I identifying when it's not okay to sell in um focusing on age
verification we will put in place a training protocol at the front end to ensure we are dealing with the sales of beer and wine responsibly um I can understand that this is probably a big change in town given the history of the market um the community is who the market has to than
for than for even being around today and um being Community Centric has always been a big proponent for the market and we will continue to do our best to uphold that and uh we plan to keep all the same offerings all the quality
products and the friendly faces in the store the same uh I think the current owners and management have done a great job in building the market into what it is today and uh we don't plan on changing anything and we want to improve where we
can and offer some additional offerings that would work well and I think the town really appreciate um and really making it more of a full service grocery store um being the only grocery store in
town I want to make sure the yearr rounders and locals feel that it's the full service One-Stop shop that emphasizes quality and remains competitively priced with the big box chains um as a customer you shouldn't recognize any
changes um in your visit and in fact one of the current owners will be staying on for a good period of time to help with the transition so nothing's disrupted and uh I look forward to being in chatam thank you um anything from your
lawyer before I ask for questions here wow no I think I'm all set we'll just take any questions that anyone has okay um I guess I'll open it to the public for questions this being a public hearing before I offer to the to the board anybody here uh yes
sir Mr Phillips Brian Phillips 374 Orleans Road so uh I delivered newspapers every day for like six months to De dense Public Market you know you own that too right yeah well they do a great job there and nothing's really changed since it changed ownership so I just like to put that out there thanks thank you
anybody else here uh how about the board Dean go ahead oh I'm sorry go ahead sharen oh uh I'm I'm in favor of the transfer of the license and approving the license I just want to say welcome to chadam and um we look forward to seeing you and and your crew around the
neighborhood so thank you thank you look forward to being here Dean thank you uh I want to Echo those comments and I'm I'm glad that it's remaining a market we almost lost the market one time and um it's been it's an institution in shadam
I just had a um question really for this for I don't see shaa on is she not here so C Kathy maybe you can get these answered in the application it's the first time I've seen a yes on this question will the landlord receive Revenue based on a percentage of alcohol
sales I was I would have asked shaa how common that is in town it's not a problem for me I just wondered I had seen that before do you do you know Joe I do I think it was for the business at predated branches I believe but we can
get that information okay and the other I I didn't see included the two um sign signature pages one is a a long list of assertions that the applicant signs um it's a form and then there is usually a
a corporate vote form which I don't see but I'm sure shaa must have those but um yeah she has she has both um if they're not in there it's an error but I can I can double check with her that's right I just want to make sure they're in the they're in the file um but no I'm I'm
I'm very happy I see you're taking a 30-year lease are you um I you kind of alluded to this are you planning on keeping on um many or most of the employees yeah I plan on keeping whoever hopefully everybody okay I've
you know I I took over Dennis about um a almost three years ago and and they you know in the summer we probably have a staff of about 50 something people there but the year round crew is about 30 and across those two and a half
years I've only had one person and they you know they left because they moved but so I whoever wants to stay is more than welcome to stay do you live on Cape yourself I live in Yarmouth okay so thank you well welcome and and best of
luck thank you yeah I one one um sorry one follow up on the revenue uh the revenue percentage is actually in the current lease that the current owner has I don't know um if it was something that was flagged at the time that they got their
license but it it's we're taking an assignment of that lease so we're subject to that provision as much as I don't love it either so just to follow up to that question you say you're taking an assign to the lease but it's it's also an
extension it's an amendment yes on top of the assignment Amendment and assignment y okay there's an overage so over the overage of Revenue not just liquor or beer wine but total revenue which is a no that I that doesn't come as any surprise I I was just curious to
know whether you were the I I saw the as the dean the 30-year uh lease and I assume if and then um the comment was made that that it's an extension um I assume
it's um it's an extension to get you to 30 if if it's taking over the lease that's all right I think and Shana Shana should have a copy um of that as well as the existing lease it's it's an assignment assumption and amendment to
extend the lease uh out that far okay good um so um back to employees for a minute uh how many employees are there uh in the winter there's about 40 in the summer with uh your all your summer help
your j1's your H2S it's about 75 to 80 and and so but you're you're going to make an attempt to um keep everybody around that that particularly the full-time people yeah I mean it's I can't be everywhere at once I I I have a
another store in Connecticut which I have 75 employees at so you know I can't be at Connecticut Den Dennis and chat him out at the same time so I really rely on right and take care of you know of those people so you mentioned one of the owners is going to stick around for
a transition Jim and Bob I don't know how familiar you are with the current owners I'm going to get to that in a minute but go ahead yeah so Jim and Scott is uh going to be retire or all three of them are going to be retiring but um Bob is
going to stick around and Bob's son is going to be you know he he he's is going to be very involved and uh and staying on for the for the long run and uh and Jim is going to be on
to get me through the summer and and be uh they're they're very hands on and involved in the dayto day so it's so it's uh it was never owner absentee run so it's just to get through
the winter I mean the start the summer and just the timing of this not it's kind of happening at a time where it's the summer is right there and it's not going to be the easiest transition but you know it's it is where it is with how you know we were hoping it'd probably be
closer to you know February May or March where we'd have some time to transition and and not jump right into the summer but um it is where it is so yeah and that was really the thrust of my question was I I know you have uh I I
don't know them personally but I know that they have been active and and on the floor uh all the time and and obviously you're going to have to replace that um as you go forward so I wish you well on that I'll also say that
uh my wife is on a first name basis with many of the the employees there so I I'll I'll I'll be hearing about it so I I wish you well and and look forward to uh your you're being very successful thank you appreciate it anything else
from anybody else I'll take a mo are we closing or are we are we making a motion Cory's not here we can do whatever we want I move close the hearing uh okay I I'll second that all in favor Mr nicastro Mr Shell says I Miss Davis and
now I'll take a motion to approve I move approval of the uh license application second all those in favor Miss Davis I Mr Shell says I and Mr nicastro I you're good Good Luck Good Luck thank
you thank you uh next we have um Mr failey good evening welcome Rob failey director of Public Works so if you bear with me for a moment I've uh I've received some comments that maybe some of my reports
some of the text is difficult to see on the screen so I'm trying a slightly different format today see if you like it it's a it's not uh the same format as you see in your agenda packet but it's just it's a simple kind of PowerPoint
that just you know I can expand some of the text so it's a little easier for everybody to to see and understand so hopefully this works out you're doing great so far we can read it can you can you see that so the this is the drinking water
testing and pumping update for the month of February I got to stop bear with me for a moment there we go so um yeah chadam is uh or Cape Cod has been declared in a level two significant route uh that happened on uh
February 14th and uh even recently uh this week um where was last week the Connecticut uh River Valley was declared a level three drought so this map is changing constantly so until we start seeing some recharge and some steady rainfall across
uh the state we're going to probably see this trend continuing so we we are monitoring it and um take an appropriate action um so one of the things that they recommend is that we uh take a few proactive measures um
providing timely information to residents St and businesses um suggestions on reducing the overall water use especially outdoor use but this time of year it's not as much of a concern as it is in the summer um and then being mindful of indoor use so we
put this out on social media some tips for saving water how to check for leaks in your in your toilet or or other areas and um you know we provide some of those rain um water saving measures at the DPW and we even have dyes for people's toilets so they can see if it's leaking
or not so so come on down to the DPW and we've got uh plenty of things to to help conserve water in Shadow so as training field Wells 5 and8 uh the permanent treatment facility has comeing along very nicely um exterior block walls are finished uh weather
proofing on there uh just they're getting ready for putting some brick on uh the brick veneer it'll really start taking shape at that point um uh this is not a really a February update it's more of an early March update but I felt it was important enough to share um so that
temporary uh GAC vessel that we had to treat well five water over the summer we clean that up and that's been placed in the building and we receive the other three gak filters and they have all been installed in the building the scale doesn't really do it dust Justice those
are about twostory uh tanks there so um you know it's a very tall building and uh and the gak filters are are in place is the one on the left the one that fell off the truck the one the were on the picture of the four where you can see the label that's the one that was
dropped um yeah several years ago yeah but it's it's repaired and it's even when they power washed it they couldn't find any you know deviation or anything it's been repaired really well it's holding up nicely uh the mil Pond uh Wells 10 and 11 we finally received the redlined
conservation easement from the e o office uh Town Council is reviewing that now uh to make sure we are in agreement um I'm not sure how much W room we have but um we have to do our due diligence anyway um as far as the uh water pumping
status Wells are still running three to five hours a day and we had no lowlevel alarms this month again water sampling all the samples are coming back free of bacteria um a lot of routine station maintenance
um occurring any questions on this or just keep it's a lot of information here um system maintenance also continuing hydrant painting we're actually going to even though there is a drought um we're
going to start flushing uh next week uh we're going to do a more of an abbreviated scale to conserve as much water as we can and really focus on those areas that there's uh High residence uh for the summer time so where there's not a lot of winter
movement of the water so primarily areas like south of Route 28 North of 28 out on Mars Island those areas where there's a high concentration of Summer residents we'd flush those this year at a at a shorter period of time to try to get the results we need um so I'm sure there
will be questions once we start flushing uh why are we flushing in a drought because we still need to maintain the health of the system at the same time this one was a little more difficult to get on the slide but um it shows the pumping comparison from February this
year to February last year we're pretty close one and a half million gallons uh shorter um but that's uh pretty much online for for this time of year again here's a here it is in graph form where the pink is February of this year and the dark blue is February of
last year you know other than some daily fluctuations pretty much on track with last year and here's that same information in a bar chart form Rob I'm going to ask like a math question because on the pumping comparison the 29th was 100%
differential between last year and that's because it was a leap year but when you averaged out the total did you consider that 100% in with the average um you know that's a great question just a thought and yeah I just
let the spreadsheet run so I don't I'm not sure all right thanks ju well just to follow that up how how much on the 29th how much was pumped last year or do we know it was a it was a leap year this year so there was no February 29th last year oh no last year
was I'm sorry there was this year oh okay so basically the difference is a million as opposed to a million 480 correct it's still we're still doing better this year than we did last year nothing nothing abnormal
and here's our uh the monthly puming pumping uh it shows the contributions of each well throughout the month and again this is the kind of shows the the graph form the level of effort for each well this sheet is the year-to DAT pumping still shows even uh compared
month-to month uh if we include last year and this year so far we're still 1.8 million gallons so we are still um pretty close pretty much right on the money and again this is bar chart as well so this is the chadam USGS
observation well you still see we are I think the ground has started to thaw um we are in a little bit of an uptick U for groundwater um I think uh we still need some rain it's hard too early to tell if this is a you know the really
start of the recharge or it's just a blip it's just it's too soon to tell but we're heading in the right direction at least and this is Brewster's observation well again this is the the Bell weather for uh lower Cape um again it's just
starting to tick in the right direction again with the frost out of the ground I think um hopefully things will start improving and this is the fiveyear comparison again the average is 15 million and our February pumping was a little over 13 so
um pumping hours is pretty much right in line as well a little bit high but not compared to last year and that's all I have for you unless you have any questions questions okay thanks that that I I this
is an improvement okay good it's always a really good report too it's oh Mr bardis you want to ask a question or make a comment hi Bruce bardis the uh water and sewer advisory committee and I just want
to remind at the board that uh in 2023 the water and sewer advisory committee uh came before you and provided uh basically what ended up being called the rainbow chart which you had indicated you would like to use as a tool uh
for uh anytime we're in a water deficiency uh and being at a level two right now um it's a it would be an opportunity for you to consider using a this as a tool or not but it's just I'm
here to just remind you that there is that tool okay thank you very much appreciate it um anybody else okay moving right along I think next is public comments on a business
agenda um do I hear the the one thing I'm I'm still debating what to do and I I think I'm gonna do both of the options I'm considering with respect to the last um petition article
uh which relates to the bylaw proposal restricting the land use at at chadam airport because that's right at the end I'm going to offer um the folks who are interested in that the uh the option of
speaking now if they wish or waiting uh to um to speak at the time alongside the board at the time we take that up so other than that is yep Carol go ahead I I tell you what I know what you're
going to tell me he will present at um when we when we when we bring that up but I'm just saying if there's anybody who would like to make a comment now and not wait until the last item on the agenda they're welcome to do that or they're welcome to do
both okay yep so you have a a member on online online M um Miss Gibbs welcome yes thank you very much uh yes I am going to speak on this last item the
citizens petition for the airport I watched the finance committee presentation made today so some of my comments are in response uh to what I believe arguments will be made tonight although I didn't sign the petition over
90 residents did a trend during this warrant process relative to Citizens petitions has been to obtain excessive legal opinions in an attempt to influence endorsement of the select board and the finance committee for placement on the warrant this citizens petition is the
poster child for this practice a one-page petition generated 13 pages of legal opinion 10 pages from the uh legal council representing the airport commission and another three pages by Town Council representing the town both
arguing against the petition for every legal opinion presented here one could likely find 10 legal opinions that would disagree the irony is that chadam taxpayers are paying for these legal opinions to argue against a citizen's petition 13 Pages I'd like to know how
much that costs taxpayer private citizens uh we the private citizens don't have comparable Financial Resources to take on this government machine Town Council argued quote the municipal law unit of the Attorney General's office May reject it should
such an article pass it is probable the municipal law unit would reject it resulting in confusion to the residents who supported it unquote chadam voters are well aware the process for any citizen petition to become a bylaw is cumbersome and may be
unsuccessful contrary to town council's perception chatam voters are intelligent and sophisticated enough for critical thinking able to handle possible rejection by the attorney general and don't need to be preemptively protected by Town Council from confusion citizens
petitions are right under Massachusetts General Law chapter 39 section 10 they're usually a last resort when issues are ignored or not adequately addressed by town government including Public Safety 63% of all Aviation accidents
occurred during takeoff and landing and 80% are due to or contributed in part to human and pilot error this becomes more relevant when air air ports are located in densely populated neighborhoods like West chadam not all airports are equal
contrary to what people would say a crash of a charter plane would be catastrophic we've been very lucky and we are the ones who will suffer the consequences if or when an accident does occur not the FAA not mass do and FAA
grants are taxpayer money fa and the Department of Transportation are currently under Federal safety review and scrutiny we've all recently witnessed the devastation that can occur if this petition isn't the answer
then find the answer rather than discrediting citizens and dismissing their concerns Town Council also opine quote you the select board May rightly reject a petition for an illegal purpose and legitimately choose to refrain from placing this article on the warrant
unquote citing a 2005 case valdero versus the town of Winchester regarded a gift to their town the Winchester select board had the sole authority to accept gifts not town meeting had already accepted the gift at the time of the ruling and was why it was not placed on
the warrant private citizens shouldn't have to fact check citations I disagree that the narrow ruling of valderia Warrant citing it for precedence or applicability deeming this petition illegal rejecting placement of a citizen petition on the warrant should not be
considered the final ruling should be left to the municipal law unit of the AG's office if it passes I hope you will vote to support the rights of the citizen petitioners to have it placed on the warrant and let the merits be debated at town meeting as has been a
longstanding tradition thank you thank you any others online I don't see anybody here in the room nor do I see anybody else online do you okay
um moving on to the business agenda um the first item of business is considering um voting to ratify the two collective bargaining agreements and we have uh Director of Human Resources
Megan Downey here to present welcome welcome thank you so much for having me I am here because we are pleased to report that the town's negotiation efforts with two our collective bargaining units the chadam Municipal Employees Association and the chadam
Managers Association have resulted in tentative agreements for collective bargaining agreements that expired on June 30th 2024 as you know we've met and discussed strategy and you've had a chance to review the moas in executive session we're now asking that you vote to ratify
or approve the memorandum of agreement and offer a motion for the collective bargaining warrant article on the 2025 annual town meeting warrant for funding cost Associated items with this ratification it should be noted that in 2013 all of the town's unions agreed to
the town's local Municipal Revenue growth factor which is a Formula that provides for an annual cost of living based on the local or chatam economic performance by certain indicators as received each fall to be calculated for the following fiscal year the formula
for FY 26 provides for a 3% cost of living increase to the Compensation Plan as it's based on non-t tax revenues received as of October 24 both the local Municipal Revenue growth factor and the anniversary step date increases are
included in the annual budget uh for the under the town operating budget warrant article tenative agreements requiring additional Appropriations as presented are are requested under the collective bargaining warrant article for the annual town meeting our negotiations
this cycle focused on the shared commit of the town and the unions to employee retention and discussions really centered on current economic factors affecting those working and living on Cape Cod especially wages and paid leave uh we looked at salary data from
surrounding municipalities and then the impact of hourly rate increases or adjustments for our 40-hour a week employees and for our 35h hour a week employees many of the tenative agreements as you all know also reflect the employee feedback that's been
gathered through the town manager Food For Thought program and the following is summaries of the tentative agreements and the fiscal impacts so for chadam Municipal Employees Association which is a bargaining unit comprised of about SE of I'm sorry not about but comprised of
73 members all 40 hour per week positions covered in the bargaining unit with an annual salary of less than $65,000 on July 1st 2025 shall receive a one-time additional step increase on
July 1st also effective on July 1st 2025 all 35 hour per week positions shall be increased to 40 hours per week in inclusion of a deadline for tuition reimbursement requests which will be October 15th annually for consideration
for the following fiscal year update to the current performance evaluation forms on call pay and formal administrative procedure language for the facilities division effective July 1st 2025 a change to the compensation for transfer station employees that work
holidays is defined by the collective bargaining agreement this they shall receive pay at a rate of time and one half for their hourly rate for work performed on the holiday in addition to their holiday pay one additional day of vacation leave per year for employees
upon successful completion of one year of service until attaining five years of service effective July 1st 2025 up to one week or four 40 hours of vacation cash out at the end of the fiscal year available to employees who
eligible to earn at least 3 weeks of vacation leave a year and this provision is only available after carrying over 80 hours into the next fiscal year an increase in the amount of boot allowance for eligible positions which
is 40 positions from $150 annually to $250 annually effective July 1st a requirement for employees to utilize town Vehicles when performing Town business unless a vehicle is not available or the business uh is not does
not support using a town vehicle and then a department head would have to authorize the use of a personal vehicle and a change to our health insurance cost structure that would revert all employees back to the 70% employee employer responsibility 30%
employee responsibility for all unit members regardless of higher date and this change would remove the two-tier model implement M mented for employees hired after 2012 who currently receive a cost sharing structure of 65% employer
responsibility and 35% employee responsibility and then the final agreement is an amendment to the duration provision to allow for notification of intent to bargain a successor agreement to be sent between 150 days and 180 days as the previous
language did not provide a time frame the fiscal impact of the cmea cost Associated tentative agreements for FY 26 is 304,000 the chatam Managers Association or CMA
is a bargaining unit comprised of seven covered positions and the first tenative agreement is removal of reference to the agency service fee in accordance with the 2018 Supreme Court Janice decision an update to the grievance and
arbitration process uh to amend the timeline as well as to change the steps to allow for the department head to be step one instead of Human Resources making Human Resources step two and the town manager step three with with arbitration being step four previously
it started with human resources and did not go to the department head as a step new parameters for professional growth recognition pay which is an article in the collective bargaining agreement that grants a step increase to bargaining unit members who enhance their position by way of relevant degree
or professional certification and this new language will clarify that an employee is eligible no more than once in a 5year period and that they're not eligible during their probationary period unless mutually agreed to upon hire the same inclusion of a tuition
reimbursement deadline is mentioned for cmea update to the current performance evaluation article to remove a subsection which is dedicated to department head evaluations as department heads are no longer part of this bargaining unit memorialization of
juneth as a paid holiday and previous reference to Columbus Day updated to Columbus Day indigenous people's day a third vacation week available to bargaining unit members after three years of service instead of five years of
service up to one week or 40 hours of vacation carryover at the end of the fiscal year available to employees with greater than 5 years of service this carryover is an addition to the maximum of 10 days of carryover however these days work differently these additional 5
days have no monetary value and they shall be forfeited if unused by September 30th the same change to the health insurance cost sharing structure that was mentioned previously all employees will be at 70% employer responsibility 30% employee
responsibility an amendment to the duration provision to allow for notification of intent to bargain a successor agreement to be sent no less than 180 days and then finally a housekeeping item to remove references to the department heads as bargaining unit members the
fiscal impact of the CMA cost Associated tentative agreements for FY 26 is 10,500 and I do just want to take a moment to express our appreciation and our gratitude to both cmea and CMA for working so collaboratively with us
throughout this process thank you questions I think we're I think we're good you want to make a motion we actually we need four I move to ratify oh
so I thought I pressed the button I move to ratify approve the me memorandum of agreement for successor Collective bargain agreement between the town and the chattam Municipal Employees Association effectively July 1st 2024
through June 30th 2027 contingent Upon A funding appropriation at the 2025 annual town meeting second all those in favor Miss Davis I Mr Shell says I Mr necastro I okay um Mr chair I move to ratify
approve the memorandum of agreement for successor collective bargaining agreement between the town and the chatam Managers Association effective July 1st 2024 through June 30th 2027 Upon A funding appropriation at the 2025
annual Tom meeting second all those in favor Mr necastro Mr Shel say I Miss Davis I uh Mr chair I move to place the collective bargain bargaining warrant article on the May 10th 2025 annual town meeting warrant for funding of a CO of
cost items associated with the successor cba's for 304,000 and 10,500 for a total of of 13 um 300 14,500 um dollar second all those in favor Mr nastro I Mr
Shell says I Miss Davis I uh Mr chair I vote to favorably recommend the collective bargaining warrant article on the May 10th 2025 annual Tom meeting warrant second all those in favor Miss
Davis I Mr Shell says I and Mr necastro I we're good thank you thank Q uh we have some budget adjustment transfers Is that ah
welcome Miss maero thank you Mr chair Carrie Mas Finance director I have a few items to go over the first one is um uh year-end um budget adjustment transfers for the FY
2025 budget um so as we near the end of the fiscal year it's um important to kind of go through the budget to see where we have where we need supplementals and where we need maybe some um coverage for any um deficits and
any other funds um so um this would be an article for a transfer of $60,000 from the fire Capital line to the general liability insurance to cover unanticipated increases in the insurance costs that
were not accounted for during the FY 2025 budget process um there is also a transfer of $2,000 from the um receipts reserved for appropriation fund for the railroad um they had requested $5,000 for their FY
2025 budget and um we only appropriated $3,000 for their budget um and then there is a transfer of $316,200 from free cash to the affordable housing trust to account for back interest from 2009 to
2024 um which was um credited to the general fund instead of going to the affordable housing trust during this time period um I can I just want to clarify on the um the free cash going to the affordable
housing trust um so it is my understanding that um there was an affordable housing trust account created um but it wasn't created for in a bank account where it's earns interest it was
just in a fund on our ledger so the amount the money that was actually being earned as interest was just going to the general fund instead of going to the affordable housing TR trust fund and this was brought to my attention back in September I want to say and since then
we have created a bank account for the affordable housing trust and it is now earning interest and this is the interest that they would have earned um based on the market interest rates that we've received from um baru and Cape Cod
5 okay just to clarify that you're you're really just transferring interest that was earned on general fund um that closed to free cash yep which is in free cash and now it's being moved over to the affordable housing truck yes that is correct and um the the only other
question I have is we have I I I I'm a little confused as to we've got two warrant I think we have two warrant articles because that was an error when I was working through the budget I was going to put something on there but we I found other funding so we
don't need to actually do that transfer so so just those three items just the three and and so it's what's now um called article three y with those three items on it that is correct without that other one on there sorry I apologize yeah no no no apology necessary um any
comments or questions here no Mr chairman uh I do note in the motion there's something missing in the first line at the end you might want to when you when you prepare this for the warrant I move at the Town vote to transfer 384 this after the word
for and the only the comment is I I I know I want to thank Carolyn mlen for um initiating the inquiry into the old interest I know Carrie worked with with her on that so so I'm sorry into and the
um the interest that wasn't applied back then and to get that straightened out Carolyn had identified that as an issue that we should look into and we did I think it's a good solution so I I would I guess we're we're looking for a vote motion here yes
please I move to um place place the this article on the uh for the current fiscal year FY 2025 budget adjustment budget adjustment on orange second all those in favor Mr
necastro Mr Shell says I Miss Davis Hi and and I move to recommend second second all those in favor Mr necastro I uh Mr Shell says I Miss Davis
I okay thank you thank you um next go ahead so the next item is um a couple of items that you've seen before um they ual um town meeting articles the first one is fixed salaries for the elected
officials um this is um to fix the salaries we it's not to appropriate them because we've already put them into the budget it's just um every town meeting it requires Mass General Law requires the town meeting fix the salaries of elected officials
annually which is for the um moderator and the select board um the other item item on the list is um also another annual town meeting article and it's to um for the
Enterprise fund and that is also an annual item that we have to adopt every town meeting and it is to be funded with $225,000 um the other item is one that you probably haven't seen much in the
past but it is a um Peg access funds um and this article is for um $78,500 um Peg access funds are collected by the cable operator in support of public education and general government program
and are paid to the town on a quarterly basis um the funds are currently held in the receipts reserved for appropriation which requires a majority vote um at town meeting the town currently receives 5% um each quarter from Comcast um for
public education and government and each of these are held in a separate account public funds education funds and government funds we use the education funds for the school we use the government funds for chatam TV and the
public funds are to be spent on a um Public Access such as Cape Media or lower Cape media and right now we're working on a contract to with CAP Lower Cape media not lower cape cape media um
and they currently they provide public access to um the public or you know businesses local businesses and they also provide Public Access on TV and it's our duty to be paying them this These funds because otherwise they're
just going to sit on a ledger so um so for FY 2024 we collected $78,200 and this will need to be appropriated at town meeting with respect to the L where I'm I'm a little it says to transfer a sum
of money from the receipts reserved cable television Peg access special Revenue fund to where it's going to go um it's a little confusing so we can't pay directly from a receipts reserved for appropriation expend directly from
there so we have to appropriate a town meeting and then it will go into a general fund Capital line and then from there I can spend it and send it over to Kate media do we need to say where it's going in no we don't no no okay uh it's just an accounting mechanism that
I I'll do okay yeah yes go ahead D you going to take these one by one yeah yeah yeah well I think on the first one don't we have to do the yeah that's what I was going to say on the fixing of the salaries uh the three of us uh all five board members have have a conflict and
so we have to invoke the rule of necessity um as advised by the state ethics commission by each declar and conflict so um we each receive a stipend and I'm one of the members that receives a stipend and I leave the others to say it for themselves if you want I I I what
he said okay same with that uh and I think do we have to vote on that we do so yes we do I move do we invoke the rule of necessity second all those in favor Mr necastro I Mr Shell says I Miss Davis hi okay Mr chairman I move that we
approve that we um vote to place all three of these articles on the warrant uh or do you want to take well it's a single art I think it's a single isn't it a single article fixing the there each single yeah yeah it's a single article fixing the salaries of the
elected officials okay you want to take them separately yeah okay I move that we place that on the line Second all those in favor Mr necastro I Mr Shell says I'm Miss Davis Hi Mr chairman I move that we recommend that
article second all those in favor Mr uh nastro Mr Shel say I Miss Davis Hi Mr chairman I move that we place the article on wood waste Reclamation facility Enterprise fund on the warrant
second all those in favor Mr necastro I Mr Shell says I Miss Davis I Mr chairman I move that we recommend that article second all those in favor Miss Davis Hi Mr Chelle says I Mr mccastro I Mr chairman I move that we place the public
cable access in technology article on the warrant second all those in favor uh Mr uh nicastro I Mr Shell says I Miss Davis I Mr chairman I move that we recommend that article second all those in favor Miss Davis I Mr Shel says I Mr
necastro hi okay done thank you next case next one okay this is another ual article and it's um for the revolving fund articles for FY 2026 each year um Mass General Law chapter 44 section 53
and a half requires annual approval of town meeting to authorize the continuation and spending ceiling for revolving funds um these are funds revolving funds that were that are in consideration sorry um the airport
revolving fund for 150,000 spending limit basset house revolving fund for an $88,000 spending limit inspectional Services revolving fund for $150,000 spending limit recycling revolving fund for a $5,000 spending limit Marone
station revolving fund for a $10,000 spending limit and Waterway user fee revolving fund for a million doll um spending limit and these are the same amounts proposed limits that we had um for FY 2025 nothing has changed for
those okay if there are no questions do we have a motion I I I want you have my title you you carried that over from last year in the in the airport revolving fund I'm sorry it's the speaker title so
we'll update those oh yeah we can update that that's fine sorry yep that's all right no problem uh so this is a single so the airport revolving fund is a single one and the other ones are um under the con
Consolidated okay so you have to vote for the airport and then two two separate ones okay I'll take a motion Mr chairman um I move let me just ask um either Carri or Jill do we have to take
a separate vote on endorsing the amounts that are included that's what the recommendation of Staff implies or do we just take the usual two votes place the article in I think you can do the usual two votes yeah Mr chairman I move that we place the article on the
airport revolving fund authorization on the warrant second all those in favor Mr necastro Mr Shell says I Miss Davis I Mr chairman I move that we recommend this article second all those in favor Mr Shel say I Mr necastro I M Davis I Mr
chairman I move that we place the article on Consolidated reol revolving funds on the warrant second all those in favor Miss Davis Hi Mr Shell says I Mr necastro I Mr chairman I move that we recommend this article second uh all
those in favor Mr nicastro I Mr Shell says I Miss Davis I okay thank you okay the last one is um the Cape Cod Regional Technical High School um operating budget for FY 2026
on February 27th um it was um the Cape Cod technical Regional High School uh school committee had voted on their budget um and what was presented to you on in February was that their assessment
was 424,000 and an additional Debt Service of 163 247,000 bringing the total to 587,589 for an overall increase um to chatam uh
at 2.17% and again the number of chadam students still remain steady at 20 um nothing else has changed since I came to you guys a couple weeks ago and went over the
budget okay Mr chair yes I vote to place the article as presented on the 2025 annual Tom meeting B budget second all those in favor Miss Davis Hi Mr shill says I uh Mr necastro hi uh Mr chair I
vote um I move to recommend the article to the 2025 annual Tom meeting second all those in favor Miss Davis I uh Mr Shell says I Mr nicastro I okay okay perfect thank
you okay uh next item is the electronic visual speed display signs um I think this is you Dean if I could we we don't have anything tonight on the on the on the reduction of the
speed and I I just want to be clear for myself as well as for the public whether this is an alternative or we're we're going to offer town meeting Alternatives uh or they can do both Mr chairman thank you I I think the
answer is the L the last of the of the options you suggested I I mean I I present this as an alternative to the original item the original idea of
adopting the state law accepting the state law that allows us to reduce the speed limit but um it could be an alternative that is implemented intermediately to give the town a chance to see if this would work and we could
defer that the other idea going forward or we could we could send both items to two town meeting um assuming the board wants to to do that uh I certainly would be open to sending um the original idea to town
meeting let town meeting voted up or down I probably would not recommend it myself but because I think what I'm proposing tonight is probably a more workable solution at least in the in the short term but I'm I I recognize that there are folks that want some have
wanted something on the warrant I haven't heard too much about it since we've took this up so I'm open to pretty much anything but I well I I kind of jumped the gun here do you want to present what the idea is I think the last time you mentioned it but sure I
been before us officially sure before this evening so go ahead and I thank you and the town manager for putting this in the warrant so following the public forum that was held on on the 25 M per hour speed limit I spoke with the the
police chief about um possible options for dealing with calming traffic on on various streets in town and uh the subject of the um electronic display signs one of which um I mentioned others
mentioned it on Old cers Road came up and I became convinced and I think the chief who's here um is of the view that that those types of that type of sign does serve a calming effect uh it's a
dynamic sign it tells you what your speed is the one on Old comom Road has is has uh two colors it's green if you're within the limit it's red if you're over um so I got some information from the chief and from the public works
director on the cost of these signs the stationary signs like that one on Old CER road is about $3,500 installed we own it um there are also portable signs that can be moved from Street to Street and that that provides some
flexibilities particularly in the in the High season those cost um $4,500 and um with those you have to purchase a service um contract I guess for $1,500 a
year so um I took a look at you know what streets we might want to put them on um streets like stage Harbor Road for which we have received a petition um Mr fuglestad has put that forward we've
heard a lot of talk about old Queen an Road Forest Beach Road other roads in South chadam um I think I've mentioned cross street myself um I don't know how many of which type of signs we should buy I I would leave that up to the
discretion of the police chief and the Public Works director um under the oversight of the Town manager but I I think if we could make it possible to purchase some of these signs and install them in in the short term we would have
a better idea of what steps are important and and could be taken to calm traffic so um I came up with the idea of about $60,000 as an appropriation because um um that's not too much money
it's a half a penny on the tax rate and so I've with with the um um consultation of both the chief and and Mr failey um and under the direction of the Town manager we came up with an article
um and really what it does is it authorizes and appropriates $60,000 for the purpose of the purchase placement and operation of both stationary and portable electronic signs visual speed display signs for motorists and various
public ways and um there's an explanation in the warrant that kind of talk uh goes into the various considerations and concerns that we've talked about so I wanted to just put that forward and I'm happy to offer a motion to place this on the warrant and
recommend it if um if there's support for it among the board hope that's helpful Howen to answer questions the chief is here too thanks Dean I appreciate this as an alternative to the other plan um though I do appreciate the idea of public process process and what we've gone
through with the with the citizens of chattam um I'm I move to to support this um as an alternative um at T meeting so I'm in favor of getting it on the warrant I will second your motion if you've made it yeah I I I I have a
couple of comments here first of all the I mean I presume next week we'll have in front of us the the 25 mph speed limit um I don't remember uh whether that I I know I went to the public um session and
the estimate was that it's something like $80,000 to um place the new signs I is that part of is that anticipated to be part of the uh the the um the the the the speed reduction
proposal um my understanding was that it was going to be just the adoption of Mass General Law chapter 90 because the discussion of the board was then whether it would be townwide or certain rows would be identified to have that applied to it um so the warrant article as
currently drafted which will be before the board next week is simply the adoption of Mass General Law chapter 90 whatever the section which I'm not remembering right now if if that were to pass how do we pay for the and and assuming the select board comes back and recommends as
recommended that we do all this that we we do everywhere where the cost is estimated to be $80,000 how do we pay for that before town meeting 26 yeah I I I think after further consideration I would put a funding amount in the in the article itself so one is to adopt or um
the local option for the speed limits and then to um to appropriate 83,000 I think it was in order to uh place the sign Replacements so I just we just have to think a little further about how to draft the and and that's fine I don't
bring that I'm not I I have to admit I'm not sure what I think here I I um I do think that we probably don't want to spend $80,000 or 885,000 83,000 for that and 60 for
this um at least that would be my initial inclination since we're really kind of um swatting the same flies with with both of them um given that we got two of our colleagues not here tonight I
I guess my initial reaction would be let's take this up take them up in Tandem and decide one or the other um I I'll be honest with you I I you know I like your idea because I think it does moderate
speed um you know just doing very fundamental arithmetic and saying okay it's roughly four grand a copy 60 that gets us 15 of these you know things uh is that enough to really address the problem because I I
personally think you know if it's fixed then we got to pick 15 places and leave them there if it's movable you know it's there for a while people kind of get used to behaving and then it goes away and they either forget or it's new people or whatever I I you
know I'd rather spend a few more bucks and have these things be in place where we think there's a problem um and where we're getting input from the community that there's a pro or the police department or both can can I just go I'm I'm totally
in sympathy with deferring a decision on this till next week when we have the other two board members here I guess the idea of the 60,000 uh I I didn't want to put a huge amount on the warrant we've got we're spending a lot of money already this
year um and I would leave it to the discretion of the Department the chief especially to determine you know which streets do you want to put a stationary sign on and do you want to have some mobile signs and and just an informal conversation with the chief and maybe he can speak next
week or if you want we can he can speak tonight uh he talked about using the mobile signs during the summertime on various streets where there is a problem I will just say that you know my sense is just as a
driver we have these fixed signs that to say you know 30 mph speed limit or there's no sign and you have to assume that every Street in Massachusetts is 30 m an hour and I I think it it's like all the um it's like background noise you
don't really a lot of drivers don't pay any attention to that I know that I pay attention when I see a sign that says you're going over the speed limit um and I always think there's a cruiser behind that uh and we we know we know that we
know that the chief has said we don't have you can put post all the speed limit signs you want but if we don't have Cruisers patrolling these streets all the time and we don't and we can't we can't afford that then you've got a problem so that's why I lean
toward the electronic signs I think they're almost like having a speed bump but anyway those are my my thoughts and I'm happy to talk about it next week and we can see if there's still sufficient interest on the other article well and and I my only other comment is if we're
willing to spend $83,000 on you know putting signs everywhere aside from how effective you think that is maybe we ought to be willing to SP and this is the alternative we ought to be willing to spend at least that amount of money for this so I I you know that's but and
I I I don't you want to comment now okay I I didn't want to put you on the spot but I'd kind of like to hear what you have to say I just before I lose my train of thought I just what I think Dean is trying to say is in the past presentations that we've forwarded we
have four or five streets that are are daily offenders where the Speeders are they're the the meeting houses the the the the the stage hobbers the and those would be the spots where I would agree would be
fixed because those are the busiest streets that probably ATT ract the most Outsiders from town so the locals they'll they'll know and and they'll they'll get used to it and they'll probably ignore it but the locals won't the deliveries won't but
what I think what Dean is trying to say is the portable devices we can move those to the seasonal hot spots or in the off seon move them to the locations where the permanent ones
are not just to either reiden identify if there are speeding problems or not and those the the the portable ones usually cost a little bit more is because they have a battery not they're not solar and they're the ones that has this the software that you can download and analyze to come with the slick
report so I think that's what what you're trying to say thank you okay now it's clear Dean he'll take another he'll take another 23,000 I think uh well no I I
again I I I guess I would like next week um to have some sense of what you know what number of A and B would would would be a good start we don't have to solve the whole problem maybe this year but what's a good start um in terms of
coming up with a an alternative to the whole 25 M hour uh you know cross theboard reduction which has considerable support here oh yeah so I you know okay thank
you thank you thank you anything else okay [Music] um we have a um we have a grant of an easement for utility service at 114
training Field Road I don't know who um is that is that you Jill is that Rob yeah yeah I think there's three of us that have been working on it so um we so this is an easement to uh the town's
water treatment plant on training Field Road um the request that we had was for an easement and typically those easements go to the town meeting and in before that uh we issue a license to allow that
connection to take place so um we had received the draft license from NSTAR and had presented it to Town Council to review and then there was just comments going back and forth so I
I don't have final comments yet from eversource or or through ntion I'm sorry instar Marissa I think Marissa Marissa eversource from Marissa so uh what we wanted the board to do is um review the license and we're waiting to hear back
from Marissa from eversource to make sure that they accept the changes to the license and and I think we've discussed it before about the license being revocable it's not an easen until town meeting actually approves the easen and it's a two-thirds vote at town
meeting so we would be asking town meeting however to approve the easement yes and and so the I mean the the thing that was a little bit up in the air for me was
the whether the license really was of any use because would would they be willing to do what they have to do in terms of installing equipment and and effectively committing things that couldn't be recalled uh with a revocable
license as opposed to an easement but at the moment we're kind of I mean I and and the comments from Jay on the on the license don't seem all that um Troublesome either so I I I would think that you know
between being close on the easement on the on the license and having the easement presumably be approved in May this is a pretty straightforward thing I don't maybe I'm missing something I don't think it's any yeah and the weed
the initial request in August 26 2024 and since then there's been some back and forth and so that's why the Gap is smaller between the license and the easement so yeah and I think it's it's
fine uh I I do only have one comment I you know I'm I'm reading these carefully it be i h they can spell my name right we saw that we um other than that um I'm I'm actually now kind of stalling here until
Dean gets back um because I don't think we I'm not sure whether we can count his presence as a quorum if he's out of the room for a couple of minutes
so we need to wait for him yeah and I would move on to the next one except that's his agenda item as well so well I one question I have Rob is is most of the the equipment that we're talking about here at training Field
Road most of that's it's got to be at least partially installed already no it's not yet no oh it's not okay no I mean they're not waiting for this are they typically ever Source will you know take action on a license um you know we're we're in agreement we have got the
same common goals uh we just need power to get to the uh to the Wells location so right right okay well Dean in your absence we if you didn't we Shireen and I concluded this is pretty straightforward and we don't have any problem with it so the license you mean
yeah as well as the proposed um easement for town meeting I had one question of on the itself uh there was just one sentence let me see if I can find it yes on um it's on actually the first
page of the document that is supposed to be I guess recorded begins no know all men by these presence it's the second to last paragraph where it says that um um any equipment installed by
The Grand Tour that's us shall be maintained by the gr tour and if the grantor fails to repair or maintain such equipment the grantee eversource reserves the right to do so at the grantor's sole cost and expense do we have any concern about
that um that they can go in and if we if we somehow are deficient they can go in and correct the problem and Bill us I believe this is even though ever Source would be installing the equipment
we're we're paying for them to install it so um it would be owned okay my understanding it be owned by the town but it gives them the right to repair it if I guess if were neglectful on that okay all right thank you that was my my only
question so do you want a motion to yes please first I guess we have to I mve to authorize the town manager to execute the license to enter and use real town property um at 114 training Field Road as presented by eversource pending
acceptance of town council's proposed amendments second all those in favor Mr necastro I Mr Shell says I Miss Davis I and then uh is there a separate yeah article at the end yeah at the top of
here okay all right missed it here uh I move to uh place an article on the 2025 annual town meeting Warren to Grant and Ean to ever source as presented second all those in favor Miss
Davis I Mr Shel say I Mr necastro I and I move to recommend the article second um all those in favor Miss Davis I Mr Shel says I and Mr nicastro I okay thank you okay
um so we have uh I guess it's four home rule petitions uh to that are proposed to be refiled Dean with your permission I'd like to get the ones that are no
discussion out of the way um and Jill do you want to just give us the highlights of the top of of beginning with the uh real property transfer fee yes so this was originally presented to tell me in
2021 and as you know uh for each two-year legislative session if the town's request for special legislation isn't approved we have to refile it um so this will eventually be the the third
refiling I believe of it so um do you want me to go through the I I would just get the the the three that are that that are not the um the the housing trust issue on the table and
then we can vote to refile to to approve refiling them uh vote to put the article on to to place the article in recommend it or recommend them as a group okay and so uh this is a potential funding source for uh both affordable and attainable
housing uh through a transfer fee for homes valued over $2 million and over right the next item is use of the community president reservation act funds for affordable and attainable housing up to 20% I'm sorry 200% of the
area mean mean income um it's limited under the CPA act uh within 100 Ami so this will provide an opportunity for how what we deem Workforce or attainable housing and then the last one is a prevailing wage exemption this is
probably the the oldest uh article that we had filed we had success uh back in the early 2000s with getting an exemption for the Marone project where the museum is in the hotel and what we've had requested is the exemption uh
from using prevailing wage but uh providing an opportunity for local contractors or small shop local contractors to work on Town Projects valued at $50,000 or below so this isn't isn't union busting by any means it's an
opportunity for local contractors um this one also hasn't had much traction at all but I would recommend that we file it again okay so yeah go ahead please Jill with respect to the uh the transfer fee when that was first
presented in 2021 I voted against it yes um I had some concerns I did help Jeff he was the sponsor of this clean up some of the items in it but I voted against it on policy grounds um but um we have refiled this did we have we not gone
back to town meeting since 2021 to get authorization to refile because I think I voted yes to refile it you did because Town mating had endorsed it yeah so it was a 2023 so it's a two-year cycle that's why we're bringing it back in 25 all right I mean I will vote the same
tonight to to to endorse it and and place it and endorse it I just wanted to point out one thing that I think is a Frailty in the in the in it and I raised this in 2021 and um no one agreed with me this has to obviously this is this
has to do with the $2 million threshold and I said at the time we really should have an escalator there uh because the value of property keeps rising in this town and I checked with the assessor's office yesterday and according to the do
information in 2021 the the average single family home value in the town of chattam was approximately 1 million in 2025 it's 1.67 5,000 so it's gone up dramatically
I know the the rise the rate of Rise is is is diminishing but at some point if this $2,000 threshold stays without an escalator we're going to be affecting a lot of people uh including people who who who really are
are cash poor as it were but property Rich so it it's something I think we should you know keep in mind I I I do think it's you know I wish that had had been that had been changed but it's not going to be changed tonight so I just really wanted to make that point can it
be changed at town meeting I mean could be wants to offer motion to change that yeah to an escalator otherwise I'm okay with the rest of them and yeah I I I mean I think we've made the sale here and I I should probably just leave it at that but I I I'm going
to say that that I I I'm in favor of it I was in favor of it back then um and I appreciate your support uh I think the significance of this is much more in terms of telling the general court that
chadam needs to find sources of funding for housing this is more of a a a flag waving affair because what's going to happen there there was a a transfer fee in the affordable homes act that was taken out that will be probably
reconsidered in this session and all we're doing really here is saying we we'd like you to to to to give us authorization either as a town or as a state uh for this and you perhaps know that the what's in the what was in the affordable
hand uh uh homes Act is much more flexible both in terms of threshold and in terms of amounts so with that um I I'll just to simplify I'll make the motion to place the three articles as
described uh by Jill um and um as uh set forth in the staff memorandum second all those in favor Mr nicastro I uh Mr Shell says I Miss Davis and I will move to recommend those three
articles all those in favor Miss Davis uh Mr Shel say I I I'm sorry Mr necastro um I I okay you're on okay thank you Mr chairman this has to do with the um the refile of
the petition to create a new Housing Trust and for the benefit of the public the Housing Trust would replace the existing Housing Trust which is an affordable housing trust and we'll have just a Housing Trust which will administer two funds the house the
affordable housing trust fund and and an attainable Housing Trust Fund I supported this back then I I'm in favor of the of establishing a new Housing Trust what concerns me about this and I didn't didn't think about it at the time
is that the the the home rule petition specifies in detail who is on the Housing Trust board um and if this is enacted with that in place the only way the town of chadam
the voters of chadam could change that if they wanted to make a change in the composition of the Housing Trust board would be to go back to the legislature it would be codified in state law you'd need another home rule petition to do that I am proposing an amendment to that
in order to preserve for the voters of chadam the same measure of local control over the composition of the proposed Housing Trust that we currently have over the existing affordable housing trust Board of Trustees and also it's the same measure
of local control which the legislature under current law Mass general laws chapter 44 section 55 C offers to every other one of the 351 cities and towns of Massachusetts who might want to create an affordable housing
trust um right now uh with respect to our affordable housing trust the voters can make changes by bylaw and we we did that in um a couple years ago I think your
initiative when we we changed from five select board members and and two public members to effectively the reverse um I'm not proposing any bylaw changes I have no intention to do that currently or at this coming town meeting I know we
have a petition article with which I'm sympathetic but we'll discuss that next week but that's not my initiative I just want to preserve local control over the trust board so in drafting this and I had an
initial form formulation which I had submitted to the town manager and and to you Mr chairman for your information but I have since revised that in consultation with the town manager and the Town Council and basically the language would say
that the trust Board of this new trust will be as currently set forth in the bylaws of the town of chadam that would that means whenever this act is enacted by the legislature whatever formulation of the loc of the the
chadam trust section in in chapter 10 Section 105 for the affordable housing trust fund that's the trust that we have and the language continues or shall otherwise from time to time be set forth in the bylaws of the town of chadam that
allows the town to make changes from time to time if they want to with one Proviso the bylaws shall provide that the select board shall designate a minimum of one of its own members to serve on the Board of Trustees that's the language that is currently in the state law though the enabling statute
for affordable housing trusts does not specify who's on the board other then you have to have at least one select board member so that's that's the sum and substance of what I'm doing um I'm prepared to offer an amendment but you probably want to discuss this first but
really this is a home rule petition and I want to strengthen the local control that we have in the town of Chad thank you okay so um I'm going to support your Amendment um I I I think it's it it's
fine um I I I have a couple of thoughts that I want to share uh which come under the heading of uh you know sort of um additions additional thinking um over the time from 2021 when
we first submitted the application for a new trust there has been Universal in fact unanimous support for that the town the select board the uh uh finance committee um have supported um the the the the
governance provision which was um two select board members and five um outside members one of whom is a member of the Community Housing Partnership um the first two times it was a the declared by the moderator a
substantial majority supported it um the last time there was there was actually a vote um when we voted to amend the bylaws and change the board of the the affordable housing trust and that was 85% to
15% um so and and by the way at at the two meetings where the new trust was discussed the reservation uh from the from the floor of the town meeting basically was they didn't like
the idea of the board being the select board being in the minority you may recall that um um I'm trying to um well there were a couple of comments made that were very very tough that you know we we want a majority of the board
to be the select board um I I your your Prov your suggestion I think is fine I I I certainly agree with once we get what we would like in the way of a trust we would like to be able to um control locally the the the makeup
of the of the of the board of that of that trust I'll say two other thing and so it's fine the the two things I do want to say that I think need to be people need to understand here are number one um the the legislature the the
general court is I think done with these kinds of trusts there is a trust there's a Housing Trust now in the affordable homes act it will get sort of its rules and regulations out of this committee
that is deciding all the key issues that's implementing the affordable homes act um and when they get done with that we will have in front of us the trust that we as a seasonal Community if we approve the designation as a a seasonal
Community that'll be the trust we have to work with um we'll have to figure out and it will not be easy but we'll have to figure out how to integrate that with the current affordable housing trust and we should do that uh when that happens
uh including if people want the the governance but having said all of that which is irrelevant to your proposal uh I support your Amendment and I will vote in favor of it thanks Mike um I'm in favor of it too to put it on the board and I think the
local control option is key to the um to the whole whole um the whole idea we we really just need to move forward with with housing initiatives and figure out the best way we can do this and the affordable homes Act is is there waiting
for us I mean the uh seasonal communities um Act is waiting for uh our Town's approval so that that might tell a different story at the end of the day but um yeah so um if you want we can make a you want to yeah I I I think if
you want to just put the two together I mean we don't have anything on the table here so just to to move to refile it with that Amendment okay I'm Mr chairman I move that the select board um place an article on the warrant to for the annual
T meeting to refile the home rule petition to establish a new Housing Trust which includes the amendment that I have um set before the um board tonight
which has VAR I won't read it all it's in the packet it there are various lines that are stricken and there's language that is added I'll second that uh all those in favor Mr nicastro I Mr Shell says I
misss Davis I uh um to recommend second uh all those in favor Mr necastro I um Miss Davis I and Mr Shell says I thank you thank you Mr chairman thank
you um okay next um where are we here uh oh this is the home Ru petition for um special designation for commercial fishermen within Section 3 2
of the seasonal Community section of the affordable homes act um I I I think I'm sorry oh Carolyn are you the presenter have Gloria Nom Gloria is also
online oh Gloria all right Gloria yeah Gloria oh sorry sorry about that um oh my goodness technology um okay so we're on the citizens petition um
requesting the fisherman yeah home rule petition to add the the fisherman to uh section 32 okay um so this was I think briefly discussed by um Carolyn at a prior
select board meeting um the goal of this is to kind of extend uh the the kind of Privileges and preferences given to certain vocations um that are specifically mentioned within the seasonal Community section of the affordable homes act for
example um the town if it should adopt seasonal communities um would be able to um create housing for Municipal Employees and some of the um vocations that are mentioned are teachers First
Responders firefighters DPW workers um there's also a section in seasonal communities which allows housing to be targeted to artists writers and other creatives um I'm assuming that's because um so much of the heritage of uh the
cape includes um artists and writers and um the Community Housing Partnership along with the shellfish advisory committee and the shellfish Constable um have all support Ed the idea of adding commercial fishermen to that group of
vocations that specifically mentioned that can be um given a preference for housing within within the uh town of chadam okay Shireen um I'm supportive of this article I I did um mention this
last week but I do want to um just um what what stands out for chadam maybe more than other communities is um our our we have a residency requirement for chattam um shell fishing commercial shell fishing activity and um
it it's it you know people might ask well why isn't why can't we just open up our shell fishing to you know be Regional I mean we have an obligation to our Town's people that we have a a wonderful wild axe resource here and um you know this is this is about food
production food security um and it's also about the um what we we've already invested into the uh Seafood industry in chadam we are we are an important uh port for Massachusetts as far as Landings are concerned I would think it would be best in our best interest to
have those people who utilize our uh infrastructure to be uh residents here and um I think it would be nothing better than to be able to provide housing for a group of folks that are feeling disenfranchised by the cost of
living which is something that's happened all over the coast um from what I understand with um with many of the communities up and down the coast including uh Gloucester um Rockport area uh we have uh you know we have uh a you
know we have two different you know looks at at at our community there's people that you know resource from the coastline for for Fe you know for seafood production but then we have people that come here and they love the the water and so that rising cost of
housing for chadam has been um is not unusual for the rest of the communities around the state but I think that we could be leaders in in supporting our local food producers I'm just going to say I I support it in principle I think that um
for all the reasons uh that that Shireen has just articulated uh we need to keep this group in mind as we focus on Who are the the the the the the likeliest um continuing um supporters
subsidizes and contributors to um our economy I'll take a motion um I moved to place and recommend the home rule petition warrant article that would include commercial fishermen as a designated vocation for affordable and attainable housing preference on the
2025 annual town meeting warrant second um all those in favor Mr Shell says I Mr necastro uh Miss Davis Hi recommend uh vote to uh move to recommend second all those in favor
misss Davis I Mr Shell says I and Mr nastro I um okay item um the last item on the list here is a Citizens petition a general bylaw change
restricting land use at cadams uh airport uh to FAA airplane Design Group one aircraft Mr stall welcome thank you uh Jerry stall West
chadam let me start by uh first um defining for the public who may not uh have studied the proposed uh wording there's a distinction that the
FAA makes about different kinds of planes that use the airport they call them um um airplane design groups there's group one which is the planes that have
always used the chadam airport their propeller planes small they hold one or two passengers then there's a Design Group Two which is distinguished by being larger namely having a wing span of at least 49
feet these are typically um turbo props or jets such as the Pilatus which is well known to Residents
um so we have here a citizen proposal that was signed by about close to 100 uh chadam voters and we could easily have gotten a lot more this has a lot of public support voters are tired of the airport
increasingly impacting the surrounding Community without showing concern for the safety and well-being of the residents despite all their talk about safety in the chattam municipal airport
Master Plan update for 2018 which is the current uh plan for the airport it it claimed it would quote maintain the character of chadam as a small airport that primarily serves
recreational Pilots while improving Safety and Security for residents and aviators alike that sounded good but we haven't seen it carried through theu plan actually encourages as we
found out as it unfolds it encourages airport use by charter flights the larger planes without respecting Community concerns about them the master plan continues to Define what the FAA calls the critical
aircraft which determines the safety requirements of the airport as the small Beach Baron b58 propeller aircraft which used to be popular at the airport however in subsequent years the number of charter flights by larger
planes has continually increased last year for instance there were more than six times as many operations by Pilatus pc12 turbo props as there were by the beach Barons the legal problem with this is
that the chattam municipal airport is not designed for these aircraft the bigger ones and this is a serious safety issue the FAA design standards are very
different for the big planes than for the traditional smaller ones and chattam airport is designed for the safety issues of the smaller airplanes and has been doing a good job of that but it's not designed for these
larger aircraft and that B FAA therefore has put a limit to how many flights there can be by um airplanes that are not in the design category that the airport is equipped
for the so-called critical aircraft um the so-called critical aircraft is defined by the FAA as the most demanding aircraft type which makes regular use of the airport and by regular use they mean
equal to or greater than 500 operations a year so the FAA has defined it shouldn't go over more than 500 operations a year an operation is a plane landing or taking off um by planes that are not in the
category that the airport is equipped for designed for the problem is and the problem that we're addressing with our proposal is that for the past four years the number of operations for airplane Design Group
2 the larger ones has been substantially over 500 namely there have been 575 625 532 and 638 operations respectively in the last
four years according to the official data from FlightAware and from the FAA so there airport meets the design requirements for Design Group one aircraft like the beach Baron but not for the Design Group Two aircraft like
the Pilatus Design Group Two aircraft are larger with wings spins over 49 fet generally turbo props and jets rather than propeller planes they require more stringent airport design features for
safety required by the FAA there's the standard for an airport that supports those planes is much more stringent requiring longer runways longer um zones in case there's a problem uh and so wider
runways and so on that chadam does not have and that chadam airport cannot have it's physically impossible given the uh geography and the residential surroundings of the airport
um it's not possible for chadam airport to meet the design requirements for these larger planes so the airport just continues to put its neighbors In Harm's Way and uh no one seems to be addressing
this with all due respect no one in the town government or the airport management seems to be addressing this the FAA doesn't seem to be addressing it and so the citizens have gotten together uh and there are quite a bit of quite a
number of citizens in chadam uh who would who support this type of action that's just being ignored for years um and so for instance uh these plan the
larger planes are off often charter flights and they would want to land even in poor visibility so that they can keep their Charter schedules well poor visibility Landings require even much more stringent um
design of the airport don't forget our airport doesn't have a control tower for instance um it would require clearing a large Runway protection zones much larger than the current ones which are themselves
already Pro problematic where hundred hundreds of homes and businesses now exist these large planes carry large amounts of jet fuel which is potentially disastrous for residents in an
accident air airplane PL airport plans continue to push for clearing of trees and other measures to encourage Charter use of the airport this is not in the interest of chadam residents instead requiring Design Group Two charter
flights to use hyanis airport nearby with its control tower and longer runways is much safer for Pilots passengers and residents the proposed bylaw unlike current airport plans and
policies would indeed quote maintain the character of chadam as a small airport that primarily serves recreational Pilots while improving Safety and Security for residents and aviators alike as promised but not has delivered
yet I hope the town Representatives will support this proposed bylaw which would increase safety and realign airport operations with FAA safety regulations and with the desires of many chadam residents thank
you thank you um is there anything else anybody else from the public that would like to add their comments or support or thoughts comments from the board can we hear from the air I I see
Mr Hunt oh I'm sorry yes I didn't know you were on uh yeah go ahead Huntley Hy you're muted yeah we can't hear you I've been here a while there you go there now we can hear you um thank you Mr chairman
uh I frankly we've been down this road before for years uh this petition is kind of a culmination of that and with all due respect to the petitioners uh I'd like to say first of all that the
airport commissioner commission is showing concern for the citizens uh we are trying to clear trees we are trying to make the approaches safer uh we are doing everything we can to to
make that airport safe within the limits of that we have uh the grant assurances that we have with the FAA and mot are
the items that we have to uh you know follow and the grant assurances say that because we are part because we have taken money from the FED Federal uh FAA and and mot for various
projects and the fact that we are a part of the national airspace system uh and a public use airport we do not have any say over the kinds of aircraft that come in the FAA is the
organization that can dictates that now I know this argument about Design Group 2 and so on he said that Mr stall said that uh there are six times as many turbine aircraft that come in here than Beach Barons well we have very few Beach
Barons that come in uh the design aircraft group the beach Baron happens to be the most demanding type but there are all sorts of other aircrafts aircraft in the Design Group one that come in and the fact that the Design
Group 2 aircraft is inherently unsafe is not necessarily true we had the the Pilatus that come in have a extremely safe uh record at our airport and to say
that that it is inherently unsafe to the citizens I I think is a fatuous argument the uh we are not encouraging as they say we're not encouraging larger aircraft to come in if they think we're clearing trees for the larger
aircraft that's also a fatuous argument we're clearing trees so that the current aircraft of Design Group one and also Design Group Two in fact any airplane that can land safely at our aircraft can
do so without worrying about hitting trees we are improving our navigational aids to to help that out as well that's part of part of uh our our Improvement project this year so you know the other
thing that I I want to mention is that I hope everyone understands what an operation is an operation is One landing and one takeoff so when we have say 600
operations or 500 operations or whatever it happens to be divide that in two and that's the number of airplanes so if you average that out that's not very many airplanes that come into this airport over the period of a year if
it's 500 let's say it's 600 that's 300 that's less than one a day now granted in the summertime that increases maybe two three or four a day we've also had very good success with the charters Charter companies uh to
reduce early morning morning Landings and takeoffs or late night Landings and takeoffs and we're still working with them in terms of trying to find places for Pilots to come in in an evening for
an early morning flight and find lodging locally and maybe provide transportation for them to get there so we're working very hard to do our best to accom
accomodate not only the safety of the airport but the citizens and also to accommodate the aircraft that do come in and utilize our airport uh
the the the airplanes land the FAA would they know what our operations are and if they felt that it was unsafe they probably would have told us a long time time ago and the airplanes that land at this airport can handle our Runway they're
designed to handle short field runways and they they have a good safety record with us as do other airplanes the cesas that that are used for training and the serus
aircraft that are owned by local Pilots we've had a good safety record knock on wood so I you know I think because of the Grant assurances I think that's that's really one of the major thrusts here that we have to abide by and I also
would like to say that regard with regard to uh bylaws there's a history that the FAA and in terms of just the state talk about just the state the attorney
general has historically said that it will defer decisions to the division of of division meaning mot and the state in in the case of the State uh on those determinations and routinely disapproves
bylaws that conflict with federal or state Grant assurances there's case law for this I mean it it's unfortunate that that the I understand The Angst that these people have and and I I appreciate
the fact that they want to put the bylaw on the warrant and that's fine if they do they have that right but they need to know that this bylaw from not only the state's point of view but also the faa's point of view
and there's case law for it is illegal it's it's it's it's it does not hold Merit and from the FAA standpoint they would say this same thing and we have two legal opinions on
this one from our lawyer Anderson creger and one from Town Council and and they both say that basically this bylaw does not have standing and is basically not
legal thank you I'll take questions if anyone has one do we have anybody else with their hands up in the in the public uh Jill yeah Miss Gibbs uh Miss Gibbs yes thank you I'm not going to repeat what I had said at the beginning
uh but I think chairman Harrison said it uh well that this has been going on for a long time and yet nothing's changed uh and again I think to look to the FAA and say well if we had a problem they would let us know I think we've learned within the last six months that
the FAA and uh the maso they have problems and they're being investigated there have been safety issues and the fact of the matter is to point to legislation and say well there's a law that says you
can't do that I think if if we if we can't get this passed then we need to do something uh to fix it we all know there's a problem uh I think that uh We've witnessed what a plane crash looks like what the devastation is if we have
a plane crash in West chatam uh today at the finance committee you know the questions were will we have we ever had a death well is that what we have to wait for do we have to wait for a charter flight and the fact of the matter is the uh the airport manager has
all kinds of deals with Charter companies and they're bringing in PL he has the right to do it and there are he's being advertised contact us to land your planes here and that's in material at this point Charter planes are coming
in they have 10 people on them potentially and if they go down in addition to the deaths on that aircraft there's going to be Devastation catastrophic Devastation on the ground I already you know spoke of the statistics
where most of the accidents happen on takeoff and Landing so if this isn't going to solve the problem and you admitted that this has been going on for a long time then you need to find an answer instead of trying to discredit the people who have concerns to try and
dismiss them as nut jobs because you have uh that's it it's been in the Press I I I mean the airport commission writes that all the time I don't live there I'm not going to be directly impacted but it's time for the people Public Safety
is really important this has been on the top of the agenda Nationwide Mass do even though they're in charge they report to the they receive guidance and receive funds from the the Federal Department of
Transportation so and the FAA takes guidance so I think it's time if this fails that you guys work together and you come to some accommodation we do not have to have big planes coming in here we just don't and we don't have to have them at the frequency or after hours
we're a non-towered at dusk airport and something's going to happen and I hope we don't go okay let's um let's do something now because people have died so that's all I have to say and and certainly it should go to town meeting and let the public debate it on the
floor and again I have no skin in the game I don't live there but I do appreciate the concerns it is a highly congested area and it's going to get more congested with the affordable housing uh that's going in there and uh not all airports are equal they just are
not chadam is a small densely populated area and so I think working together instead of being adversaries would be the way to go thank you very much thank you um comments here on the board I I would like to respond
to the to the AC if I may please uh I just like to reiterate that my argument is based on the FAA statement that not that once uh once you reach 500
operations and I think the FAA knows what an operation is and doesn't have to be reminded um once you reach 500 by a plane that is larger than uh the design of the airport supports then you need to
do something that's what this this proposal is trying to do it's based totally on that FAA requirement FAA requires as I as I said a number of design
features uh for these bigger planes if they're going to be using the airport regularly uh and those features have not been put in and cannot be put in probably um and so uh this the only
solution left is to not allow uh those larger planes to come in it's a compromised solution we're not saying close the airport we're saying keep the airport the way it's always used to be and the way you claimed it was as a
small air airport for for private small planes um but don't don't try to uh hide the fact that you're hoping to increase the number of large planes coming in every year and and think that you're pulling
the wool over the the citizens eyes well I if if I may I'm going to make a couple of comments here I I search you know and and huntley's expressed um sympathy you may not quite see it that way but I I really think
that there there's an understanding you you and by the way I counted them I think you have about 110 uh signatories to your to your petition um clearly people want some relief they want some
respit um and and this is a proposal that is that has been developed to to to try to address that um I I would point out that this proposal went to town meeting I think it was three years ago in
2022 and was voted down um and I I don't cite that for any purpose other than to say that you know this is not a case where um everybody's ignoring you and you can't get heard on a proposal that
that addresses your concerns you you you had that three years ago it was voted down um I at at the risk of of you you know invoking the The Shakespearean um injunction to kill all the
lawyers uh you know there may be solutions to your what what what you're trying to do here but we have legal opinions from competent and independent councel for both the
airport commission and um the the town that say that um um these bylaws this bylaw just can't can't be implemented um and I'm the only reason I bring that up is that we've had
experience here in chadam with um spending a lot of money litigating uh I mean literally spending lots and lots of money litigating something that just didn't um didn't pass muster under the
law that governs um and so I I I know there's a Vision in one of the opinions that says the board has the authority not to put something to to decline to put something on the on the warrant um that that doesn't that doesn't pass
muster I'm not in favor of that this will go on the warrant uh the only issue is what does the board what does this board do with it in in terms of of recommendation um and that we have to decide um I I'll take suggestions from
my colleagues here I I think it's a decision that probably ought to get the whole board um involved and and so I'm I'm going to suggest that we um unless there's a a problem logistically with our putting it off until next week but
you know let's see what all five of us have to say I I I will be honest with you again at the risk of invoking the kill all the lawyers um I as a public official I I don't feel comfortable um either recommending or
promoting something something that you know I've been told doesn't you know does doesn't comply with the applicable law and and um I I I know you personally know that I've I've been you know very involved and and um all over what's
going on with the airport and the airport commission I I I really want to try to be uh uh address the concerns here but I want to do it in a way that's that that pardon the term flies so so I don't know if anybody else has a comment
yeah go ahead Dean sorry go ahead no I just wanted to ask a technical question so um and I'm fine with having the entire board discuss all of this um and obviously next week will be a very beefy
meeting um but so you're just saying you don't even want to take a vote to even place it tonight you want to I I don't it doesn't I don't think it needs to be placed because it's on by virtue of the so the only issue here is what our
recommendation yeah I mean if we had to vote to place it I would vote to place it but um we don't okay thanks yeah de yeah I I wanted I wanted to talk about and I'm fine with putting this up next week I think that makes makes a lot of sense um I wanted to ask a question I
guess of Mr stall have have you or do you know if any others that share your thoughts on this have has anyone approached the FAA directly and inquired as to whether what you see as a problem is a
problem in their minds uh yes there are quite a few other people around town who uh agree with my Approach um and
um some of them have gone directly to the FAA as much as the they can as private citizens it's it's uh a Kafkaesque task to get to talk to the law and the
FAA apparently um I remember years ago the uh select board chair who was no longer on the select board but he kept promising that he would go to the FAA represent or with the select board or by
representing the select board as far as I know he never got there um but I know of a person uh in town who has been struggling to contact the FAA about this particular law about the
500 um large planes a year limit and what can be done about it the FAA doesn't keep such accurate records as as you would hope apparently um maybe with um the new Administration
they will be more computer literate but um I got a hold of their records of Landings that the FAA keeps and it took me days to figure out how many operations there were in one day uh of all the different planes uh so
they don't keep summary so they don't even know as far as I know no one at the F FAA knows that the 500 limit has been breached for 4 years okay um we also have people who
talk to other other lawyers and get other opinions uh it's not an open and close matter that this bylaw would be illegal it's a matter of opinion of different lawyers viewing different case law and
interpreting them differently okay can I thank you is that I want to ask Conley has has the airport commission had any inter action with the FAA on this issue no wait chill did we not have a
meeting at barville municipal airport several several years ago where representatives from FAA were there or was that just Mass DOT that was that was the it was the FAA it was the FAA and then on skydiving and I think that was for skydiving but I think also uh when
uh Peter denovan was the chair of the airport commission I think Tim rooper was the chair of the select board we did go to Boston for a meeting with the FAA okay and that that could be done again at any time I mean we could request meetings of the FAA if if we so chose
and with concerns I just wanted to make a couple of comments on lawyers and legal opinions and I happen to be one and I I respect the comments that have been made
but I can tell you I I served as most people in this town know I I was city solicitor for the city of quinsey um I was a an employee of the town I was on the staff I was the department head I attended every meeting
of the city council which was the legislative body comparable to the town meeting which is our legislative body and I advised the mayor and I advised all the department heads um I attended every meeting of every Committee of the city
council and on multiple occasions um the clients the client was the city um sought my opinion on whether the proposed action was legal or or contravene the
law so I think as the chairman said we have to make a determination as to whether we're going to make a recommendation in favor or against this article the town meeting and town meeting uh I should think would want to
know uh the legality of what is being proposed to them um so what is the tool for us to make that recommendation I'm not Town Council here I do have opinions and thoughts I think Mr Shell does too
um um so I look to the the person or persons who are put in place to give us that advice and it's true they could be wrong uh but they are authoritative
now I read the opinions I read the um legal opinion that circulated that we got I don't know how we got it but it was in my my mailbox about two months ago from an an outside attorney that
expressed opposite views um and um I'll just say as an aside and I'm not an aviation lawyer I found the opinion of um um Anderson creger more
persuasive I did not research all the cases uh I was familiar with one of the cases that was cited I think I had read that some time ago so I've always taken and I've say stated it publicly that when Town Council advises
this board even though I might disagree and I might push back for further clarification um um I accept what's been being said as the best advice for me to
consider going forward for the town and in this instance as as Mike said we we have an opinion we have two opinions one one is from Our Town Council saying that they think that this would not be legally valid um and I think I have to
go with that um and I'll point one other thing out which I don't think is discussed in either opinion of our town C Council or the special Town Council advises the airport the the article goes on to direct the town
manager or instruct the town manager to direct the Town Council to challenge any ruling by an agency which would include the Attorney General um and I have I think that's
probably not mandatory on on the town because under the charter um I think that's an executive action and I think under the charter that that falls within the direct the discretion of the executive branch of town
government which is this board and the town manager Town town meeting is the legislative branch so I think there's a I personally think there's a flaw in that but I'm not trying to pick this apart I understand the underlying issue so I guess uh we're going to to discuss
this again next week and we'll defer our decision on that but um I I have I certainly have no desire to exercise what apparently is a is is our
prerogative I I didn't know it existed until I read these opinions to um not put something on the warrant I I will not do that I don't think select board should be picking and choosing which petition article should go on the warrant I think once you get the 10
signatures it goes on the warrant and let town meeting decide this so that's my my feeling about this and and the other petition articles that we're going to have we we were given a petition article last week um and we had an ADI
advisory from Our Town Council that that was legally flawed so and we're going to hear some more uh going forward so I just really want to say that I say that respectfully um I do think um interaction with the a
with the FAA on on this and other issues that concern the citizenry and the neighbors especially um is probably the path to go uh uh short of you know the type of litigation that we got involved in last time when you know people filed
complaints with the FAA and we had to litigate them and then there was a lawsuit on the skydiving issue which I you know I think nobody really liked by um those are my comments I'm sorry to gone on at some length but I I guess because I was a City attorney I felt it
important to clarify what what I see was the role of that position thank you Mr chairman yeah I I I'm I think we've probably exhausted the issue for this evening I I I do want to say one other thing in light of your comments Dean um and this addresses something
that a little bit that um both Mr Taylor said last week and Miss Gibb has adverted to um the the uh the select board um and Council are are not in the
business of figuring out ways to decline to accommodate efforts at petition articles or anything else um and I would I would point out among other ex uh Mo most remotely uh that when we had a petition
article uh to um create a $200,000 fund to make sure that people who had trees that needed to be cut that it that that it would not be on their nickel would be on the town's nickel um first of all that U petitioner got help with framing
the article itself and then the board decided to put to to amend the bylaw um so that we could ensure that if the petition article passed the the for the airport commission would have the
authority to spend the money um and and thereby effectuate the the purpose of it um there's another one that where there was a problem uh with a petition article where a very simple change moved it from
illegal to legal and and that's going on that'll be a we'll probably hear that next week uh the the the the objective here is to to make it possible um that whatever goes on the warrant actually if
it's passed can um Can can actually be implemented as a a new governing regulation I maybe we should see if we can work with the the the airport commission to have some kind of a
conversation with the FAA but um at the same time I will tell you I I want I'm you know Dean's giving you experience I'll tell you as one of my very quick experiences as a as a lawyer represent a client in front of the Securities and
Exchange Commission the client wanted to hear what the Securities and Exchange Commission had to say we sat down they asked the question and the Securities and Exchange Commission looked at him and said you've got a lawyer let him tell you what the law is um I I I and I
I'm not trying to you know push this off or whatever we have lawyers who are telling us what the law is so um with that I'll I'll I'll let it go uh for this evening but we can renew it next week although as um as
Shireen said it's going to be a it's going to be a busy long meeting next week so thanks for your for your participation and and presentation thank you motion to adjourn second all those
in favor Miss Davis I Mr Shell says I and Mr necastro hi we are adjourned at [Music]
753 for