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[Music] [Music] good evening Cadam welcome to the April 8th 2025 meeting of the Cadam Select Board please note this meeting is being recorded and will be available shortly
hereafter for scheduled and on demand viewing on any smartphone or tablet device if anyone else is recording the meeting please notify the chair pursuant to Governor Healey's March 28 2025 signing of chapter two of the acts of
2025 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 June 30 2027 this meeting of the Cadam 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 1508 945-4410 conference ID uh 203386491 pound sign or join the meeting online via Microsoft teams through the
link in the posted agenda while this is a live broadcast and simalcast on Chattam 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 I will establish a quorum mr meadows present mr dykens present miss Davis present mr shell is present and Mr
niccastro present um this evening we have um five major items on the agenda minutes public announcements and agenda uh item requests we have a public hearing
uh regarding the installation of signage on Morris Island Road um next is public comments on the business agenda and then finally a business agenda consisting of six items um one is a don donation acceptance of
uh some oversized oysters second is a request for use of town property sales on town property etc u for the um um the blessing of the fleet um event on June 1 um the third
one is considering reduction of the membership of the human services committee fourth is um the Cape Cod annual year in review from Christy Senator executive director of the Cape Cod Commission uh next is um a look and
consideration of uh policy on regulatory statutory committee board and commission meetings locations type etc and then finally is a report from myself and u Jeff Dykens on the meeting concluded
earlier this afternoon with the Harvard Harwitch Select Board Subcommittee and with that uh I will accept a motion on the minutes of March 11 approve a minute approve the
approved minutes of March 11 2025 um second um do we have any comments M yes sir mr niccastro yes I have a suggested addition on page 16 um second to last paragraph which
begins it was asked if the airport commission has had any meetings with the FAA i'd like to insert after the word FA after FAA and the response was in the negative period uh I we we can't change the minutes but
I note that in the next meeting Mr chairman um Harrison um corrected that statement but that is a correct reflection of what he said that evening anything else uh all those in favor mr meadows i
actually have to abstain because I wasn't here okay abstain absent um I Miss Davis Mr shell says I mr niccastro i um next uh the minutes of uh April 1
move the minutes second comments i had one i I don't know if this is really necessary to bring it to the attention of the board but I was suggesting given the attachment that we add on page three at the end of the par
first paragraph under item four public comments um the following sentence the text of her comments is appended to these minutes and with that I will call the
role mr niccastro I mr shell says I hi Miss Davis hi uh Mr dykins hi and Mr matters hi minutes are approved um public announcements um I have one Corey i know you've got one i This is I'm I'm
being scripted to remind folks that the 20 fiscal year 2025 second installment of real estate and personal property tax bills are due on May 1 2025 any payments received after May 1
2025 will be processed as a late payment corey thank you Mr chair just want to take a moment and make a little public announcement and a little bit of a outreach comment here um as you all know uh next month we have an election coming up and I want to put a small little
spotlight on an aspect of the election sorry guys it's not for you um our school committee good uh um so one of the members has decided not to uh seek re-election which leaves the situation where we have an open seat for our uh
Mono Regional School Committee Cadam representative so what does that mean um after the election we will be uh recruiting you know individuals who may want to serve and the process is going to be uh the
Chadam select board and members of the Chattam representative representation of the school committee will have interviews um to potentially um place that individual on the school committee until the next election cycle now there is an another potential
process to fill that seat um I did check with the the town clerk if so interested if any individual would like to serve on it there is the process of a red candidacy it has been done before um it
is simply someone would express some interest uh declare their running for the school committee seat uh the town clerk's office would recommend that they contact the clerk's office to make sure that they're aware of their interest so they're looking for their name on the
ballot um there's no threshold so 25 votes could put you in that seat um it's not the ideal process but I do want to make sure people are aware what the options are it's a seat that is very vital for the community um I personally don't want to leave it vacant for longer
than it needs to be so if anyone now understands that there's an open seat and has any interest in serving um please consider it that's option one is a right in candidacy at our May 15th election uh and if the election time comes and goes and there's no candidates
um come forth and we will interview you and there's a second chance of the opportunity so I just want to put the process out there for clarification because I've been asked this a couple times how does this get filled and I hope this answers any questions that people have on that opening so thank you
good thank you thank you Cy uh any other um from the board um yes ma'am miss Craig good evening Joan Craig um I was wondering if this is something that could be on a future agenda item i just
came from the friends of the library board and the question came up with the uh liaison to the trustees with regards to the sitem plan for the um front and other areas of the library i know this
has been going on at least since 2018 and we have questioned what the um outcome might be and when so basically you're you're what you're asking us is to put an agenda request uh
out or put on the agenda a report of the status and progress of unless someone has that information tonight um Mr chair so Joan if you look on the town manager page on the website there's a monthly report right and there's a project
section which also includes the the master plan so that could bring you up to date until or unless the select board want to schedule an update on the select board meeting i I think judging by what I heard from my board meeting uh they
would like to see something on an agenda item in the very near future okay thank you noted thank you um anything else from the public either here
or online i don't see anybody do you Jill no I do not okay we will move to the public hearing and I'll ask the clerk to read the notice thank you Mr chair town of Cadam Select Board public hearing the Cadam Select Board will hold a public hearing on Tuesday April 8th
2025 at 5:30 p.m in the large meeting room at the town office annex 261 George Ryder Road to consider the following installation of a permanent highwater warning signage install a permanent highwater warn warning sign on Morris Island Road signs would have a unique
hinge design that would allow them to open and close when needed the signs are recommended by the board to the board by the traffic study committee all interested parties are encouraged to participate in person or remotely via the link in the posted agenda sign the select board thank you i have a
suspicion we might be hearing from the deputy chief no do we have somebody else that or or Miss Craig so did I so at our uh Joan Craig chair of the
traffic safety committee um at our meeting in January of which four of us were present we voted uh four to zero to present this to you tonight and it's with regards as mentioned the road close high water flooding signage proposal for
Morris Island Road um at this time I would turn it over i believe Rob Philly is online and turn it over to him with regards to the requests as he is certainly the SPE specialist in this thank you welcome Rob thanks yeah thank
you Mr chair so um this culminated uh from a meeting I had with the fire chief deputy fire chief police chief deputy police chief out on Morris Island after we had the flooding events last winter and we tried to come up with a good solution to really warn motorists um
they were driving through flood waters um the fire department was rescuing a number of vehicles during that time so we tried to come up with a signage kind of scenario that you know there's nothing really out there to go as an example so we used kind of a hybrid
design where it incorporated a road closed sign in addition to high water flooding signs and we we're trying to be sensitive to the neighborhood as well because we heard uh there was a like a a measuring device out there at some point
that showed high water marks and it was uh I guess some of the neighbors in that area took exception to that so we created a sign that would be able to be folded in half and closed so when it's not needed it would be pretty innocuous on the on the side of the road and
people really wouldn't notice it but when it was needed um you know basically any staff of the town could uh could just flip it up and uh and open it so it's visible to all road users and we proposed four locations three eastbound
and one westbound so people coming off the island um would would have a sign but really we wanted to warn the people going out onto the island would be the primary uh people we'd want to warn thank you um yeah go ahead Sheree um
thanks Rob i just have a quick question um about the imple implementation of the of the signs when you're when are you going to like utilize them is it before a flooding event or after the event of flooding
it would probably be you know the PD is out there uh 247 um they keep an eye on things for us so we would probably open those signs as needed as flood waters started to overtake the top of the road thanks any other question yeah Dean Rob
was the concern of the neighbors that you mentioned uh relative to the measuring devices that having those in public display deragged from the uh value of the their properties is that is that their concern they didn't want this
advertised as a flood neighborhood flooded neighborhood or that that's what I had heard i hadn't spoken to anyone directly but that's what I had heard the concerns were so when these signs are clo are folded closed it's just a blank slate is that
what it looks like yeah it would look like a basically a um 18 by 18 blank piece of aluminum out there okay thank you thanks um any comments or questions from the public here in the room or
online i don't see anybody online do you Jill um Mr chairman I move approval do I hear a second second all those in favor mr niccastro
i mr shell says I miss Davis hi uh Mr dykins hi and Mr meadows hi thank you thanks Miss Craig thanks Rob thank you all good um next we have public comments on the
business agenda um anybody in the room i don't see anybody here uh Miss um Gibbs uh thank you very much i have two items
one is just for clarification it's uh let's see it's item E about um in-person hybrid meetings i guess I was a little confused about what the recommendations are it says uh suggest to allow boards
like the board of health to conduct hybrid meetings in the small room rather than hold live meetings um I don't know if the question is large versus small room or live versus recorded i mean there there I would hope they all remain
live hybrid uh whether or not you have them in a large or small i think that's the question but this is kind of u contradictory uh and then the next paragraph says that uh regulatory boards
commission meetings be recorded and broadcast live from the annex's large meeting room to consider removing that so again I don't know what that means are they saying that what we're doing here tonight is up for debate that these
might not be recorded live and again I certainly hope not i think that would be taking a step back so those are those comments uh my other comments pertain to the two o'clock meeting uh that you folks had with Haritch um I
found it really enlightening uh I I I don't really know where to begin harage clearly has bigger budget problems and the Harage voters in the select board have their solution get it from Chadam uh the chairman I I was
really speechless and I think you both were too when they said that they had put an indefinite hold on middle school renovations and I thought I misheard and if I did but you tried to get more
information from them and basically what Chairman Handler said is that they he they had not decided it was on indefinite hold until we agree to meet again and potentially pay more and the way he made that sound it sounded like
extortion to me i cannot believe they would even consider putting on hold the renovations of the middle school uh because it's for the health and safety of our children and obviously they don't care about that there was a lot of revisionist history during that meeting
uh three years ago we were we told them about the leaks and they saw it firsthand at the town meeting at the middle school with water all over the floor and they basically told us it was our imagination it was no big deal and we find out three years later and a lot
more deterioration than it was uh they also tried to suggest that we offered to take over the Chattam Elementary School we did not they came to us and they basically told us that's the way it was going to be and we did and um what they didn't tell us that was in
2022 but what they didn't disclose to us was the need for roof windows pumps siding and generators at our sole expense that came approximately four months after so they had to have known and I find find that very disingenuous
that they would not tell us that Chadam was going to have those additional expenses um and the difference in the cost per pupil between Chadam and Harvard students is not because of the elementary school it's based on the
total assessments of the entire district and we didn't see the final budget until the day the warrant closed and I think that goes to the comments before everything's at the last minute and a fire drill and what's interesting that you may not realize is the budget
we were presented on March 18th the day or weren't closed has been changed again because they didn't meet with the Horwood Select Board until the 31st so we have now approved two different budgets so I don't know how that works uh for a regional district but they have one budget and we have another one
um and then Haritch came to us in 2010 they came to us because they were losing accreditation and now they have a high school and in retrospect we should have insisted that that high school be in Chadam because we did pay a lot for
that and we bailed them out uh and that's not the first time that the solution to their financial problems and apparent mismanagement have fallen to Chadam we sold them 300,000 gallons per day uh from our wastewater treatment
facility 28% of our capacity in 2017 for $6.8 million we didn't charge them interest for any delays i mean it's been years and that granted CO etc but that $6.8 8 million then would have been a
lot more today if we had charged interest to treat their sewage so they wouldn't have to build a wastewater treatment facility in East Haritch that would have cost them $60 million easily so if they want to talk about you
know what it has cost them on other projects that they've done uh we can remind them of that one that we saved them about $60 million in a wastewater treatment facility and we did it at the expense of our own taxpayers because we redirected the work to East Hart so now
they're all on sewer and a lot of our residents aren't because of it and Haritch is also as another pet peeve of mine has their commercial haulers bring their garbage and construction material to be dumped in Chadam because it's
cheaper for them to haul it off Cape so we are funding Haritch in many different ways uh not just with the school system and I think it's getting old um and I think they view us as a piggy bank uh they
threw a lot of numbers around uh and actually one of them said that they their taxpayers are not willing to subsidize Chadam well I I call that projection we're subsidizing them and so with all the numbers the only numbers I think that you need to know and remember
as you go into negotiations is that the total actual enrollment in the district of both of the towns is,53 students chadam only has 355 in the entire district haritch has
1158 there are more students but there's school choice in the the assessments the total district assessment is 42.7 million harri is paying 31.5 million chadam is paying 11.2 million so we only
have 23% of the entire student body but we are paying 34% of the cost i think that that's sufficient because that doesn't include all the money we're going to have to spend on repairing the elementary school that we didn't know about so I would say they should not be
getting another dime i didn't like their attitude i thought they were very aggressive and I particularly am disturbed by the chairman's uh uh position that they don't think enough of their own children in the district
uh to fix that school like yesterday and I think that what they look at is they've got budget problems in their entire operating budget for the town and this is where they think they can save money and they're coming to Chattam again and they shouldn't be
doing it i'd also urge you to watch the March 27th school board meeting because this is when it came up that they were going to put it on hold apparently I haven't been able to watch the whole thing but where they were going to put the renovations on hold so I thank you
for your attendance there today i think um you pushed back and um it's appreciated thank you thank you very much um okay turning to the um
business agenda the first item is the Sorry oh no no i didn't know any public comments i think Renee is warming up to come up here and hit the the first item thank you um donation acceptance
oversized oysters uh from the Chattam Shellfish Company and Renee Gagny is here to present rene thank you welcome thank you good evening um Renee Gagny shelfish conible for the town yes I'm seeking your acceptance of a thousand
oversized oysters from the Cadammer Shelfish Company they've been very generous with the town in the past um we the the shellfish have already been distributed um we actually purchased 3500 from them last week and they threw in an extra thousand so this is the
protocol in order to give them uh acknowledgement so I do hope that you accept it thank you very much i I do have a question please so these are oversized now these are spread for our recreational folks to go get or any
chance these are ever going to spat to create more oyster set there's always a possibility of them spatting i'm not sure if um if Steve grows um uh they they have um um two different types of oysters one that are um they're diploids
and triploids we buy the diploids and those actually do produce spawn but the triploids grow faster and he may actually have the triploids on his grant so actually I don't really know if they will spawn okay thanks Renee yeah I think it's great move acceptance second
uh although any other comments um other than thank you um Mr niccastro hi mr shell says I miss Davis I and Mr dykens and Mr um Mr matters hi thank you very much thank you could I also use this
opportunity to um let the public know or remind the public that oyster season actually closes at the end of this month so you should get out there fast and and get those oysters thank you get out there and get in there okay next item is considering a request to use um town
property for sales on town property and a special one-day alcohol license and a special one-day entertainment license for the blessing of the fleet on June 1 shannon Eldridge welcome Mr chair i'm
recusing myself please bye Mom she's not going far um yeah Shannon Eldridge treasurer of the women of fishing families we are requesting to use the Chattam Fish Pier
by the parking lot by the south jog to hold the ceremony and a celebration for the blessing of the fleet once was the annual we've had a bit of a hiatus uh the last time we did the blessing was 2019 we had a gap the fish pier was
being renovated we had some CO restrictions and a little restructuring of our own organization but now we're back and we'd like to bring back the blessing sounds great any questions or comments
do I hear a motion uh Mr chairman I move to approve the use of town property by women of fishing families on Sunday June 1st 2025 from 11:00 a.m to 6 pm at the Chattam Municipal Fish Pier and lower parking lot you want me to do the whole thing um yeah if you would please i move
to approve the sale of goods and town property by women of fishing families on Sunday June 1st 2025 from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m at the Chattam Municipal Municipal Fish Pier and lower parking lot i move to approve possession of alcohol on town property for the blessing of the fleet event on Sunday June 1st 2025 from 11:00
a.m to 6 p.m i move to grant a special one-day alcohol permit to the Shannon El to the Shannon Eldridge of the of the Women of Fishing Families for Sunday June 1st 2025 from 2 p.m to 5:00 p.m at the Chattam Municipal Fish Pier and lower parking lot and I move finally to
grant a special one-day entertainment license for amplified live and recorded music to Shannon Eldridge of the Women's Fishing Families for Sunday June 1st 2025 from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m at the Chattam Municipal Fisher and lower parking lot second as
um good any further discussion mr niccastro i mr shell says I mr dykens I and Mr meadows I thank you all very very much thank you see you there thank you for that all of it good
stuff uh next is a request to reduce the um membership on the human services committee from 7 to Yeah from seven uh
uh from 9 to 7 sorry and Miss Wade welcome um my name is Anne Wade and I'm the chair of the human services committee and the committee is requesting that we reduce the number of participants from 9 to seven it's been
nine for years and years and years and I hate to date myself but I remember when it was 11 so um the reason that we're asking is that the two empty seats are counted in our quorum which makes it extremely difficult if somebody a member
does not appear for some reason so we can't proceed in our businesses if we have to depend on the empty seats so we are requesting to go down to seven questions uh Corey
normally I would jump on this right away has there been a much outreach because I has there been a much outreach from either the current members or any other groups to to recruit more people to fill those open seats yes we do it all the time and we've had it announced in here
as well and we do we have filled seats when people have left but it seems like we just get stuck at seven all the time even though we're still recruiting all right fair enough thank you uh Shireen um I'm going to put a motion
on the table because um I I think you guys have done your due diligence on trying to find committee members and and this is you know this is the reality of of of the committee and it kind of it balances in right um so I move to recommend that the
um oh I move how does this read um I I move to reduce the membership of the human service committee from 9 to seven members second uh all those in favor Mr niccastro hi mr schul says I miss Davis
hi uh Mr dykins hi and Mr matters i thank you very much well thank you okay thank you so next um we have Christy Senator uh executive director of the Cape Cod Commission to present the year
in review um and Tom Wilson is along our rep there if you want to stand up and do a little introduction yourself you're welcome to do that or you can let Christie do it on her own wonderful thank you very much um again I'm Christy Senator i'm the executive
director of the Cape Cod Commission i appreciate the opportunity to be here this evening um and of course introducing Tom Wilson who you all know as the Cape Cod Commission representative from the town of Chadam um I certainly want to thank you for continuing to appoint Mr wilson um and
at the end of my remarks I'd love to uh give him an opportunity to address you uh through the chair so what I've just handed out is our 2024 year in review um which you may have received a copy through our website uh mailing list um
but what it is is a a highlights um an overview of some of our priority projects from last year um and so what I like to do from time to time as you know is visit the select boards across the Cape and the Bartsville Town Council um to provide an update on some of our
priority projects and initiatives and um really just to keep the lines of communication open answer any questions that you might have um so I wanted to just share a few highlights of some of our work that we're doing this year some of the things that we covered last year um one of our priority projects um which
certainly won't be surprising and I know many of you have been participating in and certainly your staff is really addressing the housing crisis and so last year we released the housing strategy for Cape Cod and in it contains a number of recommendations some of these are local recommendations for
potential jo zoning amendments across all 15 towns as well as regional recommendations for new funding mechanisms and programs zoning reform streamline permitting as well as new entities to support affordable and attainable housing a number of resources
support the regional housing strategy as well um these include multif family design guidelines and a series of model bylaws that can be implemented locally we also developed a series of profiles for housing for each of the communities
so there's one for each of the 15 towns as well as a regional profile that includes demographic and housing data and information on each community um and we are updating these from time to time so that we can incorporate the best available data and information we're also um looking at a number of the
recommendations within the housing strategy itself and moving those forward into implementation a couple of those include the pre-approved plans project that we're currently working on as well as the development of a framework for a community housing trust and housing bank we're working with consultants on
research um really trying to identify opportunities that have worked elsewhere across the country um and identify where those might be appropriate here in the region so a lot of our work has really been around housing um but it's really also been looking at the water quality issues
that we have here on the Cape and our focus really has been around freshwater so looking at the 890 ponds and lakes that we have across the region and we just released our draft freshwater strategy we put that out for a public comment period we're now incorporating
the feedback that we received from the um public from the towns um and incorporating that into a final draft um the freshwater strategy can be found on our website so certainly anyone's welcome to take a look at that in uh some detail that also contains a number
of resources to support implementation of the plan um and this really is intended to help us to support protection and restoration of our freshwater ponds and lakes this includes pond buffer guidance that can be used by homeowners as well as municipalities to
preserve and protect ponds through responsible landscape management we also developed a water quality data portal so this is an interactive online map-based um tool that really allows users to explore water quality data um this is an
expansion of our coastal water quality data portal that we developed um a few years ago it includes data that's being collected by local pond groups and organizations as well as a number of our regional partners um as well as data that we're collecting as part of the freshwater initiative um some of the
ponds that are monitored the data that's contained within um this database are in Chattam are Barkley Pond and Goose Pond um the regional pond monitoring program also has funding now to continue beyond 2025 so we're pleased that the Cape Islands Water Protection Fund Management
Board recently voted to provide funds for freshwater pond monitoring um and this is in addition to the funds that they've been dedicating to coastal monitor uh coastal water quality monitoring over the past couple of years um so pivoting a bit from freshwater
much of our work has also been focused on our coastal water quality and really looking at wastewater challenges um and as I mentioned the Cape Islands Water Protection Fund Management Board um we provide administrative and technical support to that board um awarded just
last year $65 million in subsidies to critical water quality and wastewater infrastructure projects across the Cape um I want to thank town manager Jill Goldmith for her participation and leadership on the management board we did just receive today the final
intended use plan for um 2025 and this includes over $400 million in projects for um CAPE eligible projects uh so certainly we are looking forward to making sure that uh progress continues to be made here in our in our in our
region um also wanted to highlight a number of transportation projects and initiatives that we um have been working on and are going to be working on um and of course the main u one of the main focus areas is around the Cape Cod Canal Bridges Replacement Program um a total
of about $2.4 billion has been uh secured for the project about 1.72 from uh federal funds and about 700 million coming from uh from the state um Mass DOT the Massachusetts Department of Transportation has made recommendations
for the approaches and um the interchanges that are connecting our adjacent communities to those um major infrastructure projects um much of this information can be found on the Mass DOT website but permitting is underway um and we do expect that some of the um
draft environmental impact uh uh reports will be out this spring um if all goes according to plan construction on phase one which would be the replacement of the Sagamore Bridge would begin uh could begin in uh 2028 another transportation initiative
that I wanted to highlight is our vision zero action plan um so the Cape Cod Commission is developing a vision zero action plan which is an initiative that's designed to improve roadway safety and address traffic fatalities this is a nationwide program and we're pleased to be bringing this locally here
to the Cape completing this action plan for our region will make all 15 towns eligible for safe streets for all um implementation grants so this would really be uh leveraging federal funding to implement some of these strategies locally um we held a series of public
meetings in early April and we're looking forward to continuing this work over the course of the next several months um and then I'm sure you're all well aware of the Chattam parking and circulation study um the Cape Cod Commission just uh is concluded the Chattam parking study which analyzed the
downtown parking utilization and circulation around Main Street during the summer season um the work was uh the study was conducted in close coordination with the Chadam parking solutions working group several public meetings um were held throughout the project um and the study found that
there's generally adequate parking available within the immediate main street um and identifies several parking management strategies to encourage parking turnover um in the core as well as strategies to encourage increased parking usage in undered underutilized
parking lots um and the recommendations focused on improvements to encourage um safer walking and biking within that study area um and then lastly uh one more initiative I wanted to mention in transportation is the transportation improvement pro program which many of
you will know as the tip um the Cape Cod Commission supports the Cape Cod Metropolitan Planning Organization or the MOO as well as its advisory group the Cape Cod Joint Transportation Committee or the JTC um and they develop key transportation key transportation planning documents for the region
including uh the FY 26 to30 transportation improvement program or the TIP um this really includes a list of priority projects um including uh roadways bridges um transit projects that are to be implemented over the course of the next several years um we
anticipate at the end of this month that the um ML will release that tip for public comment and I know that the um there's a project in Chattam on that list which is the route 28 at Main Street Deep Depot Road at Queen Anne Road and Croll Road um for listed for
2028 and then I wanted to highlight uh just briefly some of our coastal and climate work um certainly looking at resiliency efforts we've recently completed the development of model bylaws and regulations to promote resiliency in the flood plane not only today but certainly looking into the
future um and we look forward to continuing to collaborate with many of the towns across the Cape on potential implementation of the model bylaws um we also completed the low-lying roads project um all 15 towns have now participated in that project um each
town identifying conceptual plans for um a number of vulnerable road segments within their communities uh we are looking forward to assisting communities who'd like to move forward with um implementation funding or pursuing opportunities for implementation funding or for funding for the development of
additional um designs for additional roadways so um certainly we'd be uh happy to work with the town of Chattam on some of those efforts going forward um and then finally the last two planning initiatives I wanted to highlight are um our comprehensive economic development strategy uh we we
prepare a new SDS or economic development strategy every five years so we completed um an update and a new plan last year this was approved by uh the Cape Cod Commission the Barnesville County Economic Development Council and ultimately approved by the Federal Economic Development Administration um
and this year we'll be really focusing on advancing many of the priority actions that are contained within that document these include efforts to incentivize year-round housing in the appropriate locations um simplifying appropriate housing development and uh advocating for the replacement of those
canal bridges among another among um many other economic development priorities and then lastly wanted to just mention that we um uh update our regional policy plan every 5 years and this fall um we initiated an update to the RPP um the areas of focus for this
update uh include encouraging housing in the right places promoting reuse and redevelopment preserving our natural areas economic resiliency climate action and infrastructure um we've held a number of um working sessions with our
uh with our with stakeholders and look forward to continuing to work um with stakeholders across the region on this updated plan um we anticipate a draft will be put out for public comment by early summer um so I wanted to just pause there and uh I'm happy to take
questions but I did just want to again recognize Mr wilson give him a chance to say a few words um and really again thank you for appointing him he's really been an outstanding member not only on the commission but on our leadership team as well and so I'm really grateful um to have him on the board and um want
to just thank him for his dedication to the work and to the work of the commission so um with that I I'm happy to turn it over to Tom and then I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have so thank you for your time thank you good evening Tom Wilson i am thrilled to
be Cadam's representative to the Cape Cod Commission the commission's mission to preserve Cape Cod is as a special place is farreaching and especially significant now under the Cape Cod Commission Act the commission reviews and decides on developments of regional
impact DRIs projects that have impacts affecting multiple towns we compare benefits and detriments and drawbacks ensuring projects are consistent with the Cape Cod regional policy plan and local comprehensive plans and town
bylaws the commission currently is updating the RPP and the RPP subcommittee on which I serve has held public hearings in MASHP Barnstable East Ham and and virtually to gather community input as Cadam's
representative to the Cape Cod Commission I've been active on DRRI subcommittees reviewing the Sandwich Community Health Center the Cadam Revetment's minor modification on Tippy Run the Long Pawn Road cell phone tower
in Brewster and the Captain Birdie's redevelopment project in Provincetown again I enjoy my time with the Cape Cod Commission i learned so much from their staff and from the DRRI review process
and I am very grateful to be Chadam's representative thank you thanks very much um questions Jeff just comment I guess a couple questions uh you guys always Christie you do a great job tom thank you so much for your efforts uh commission really hits a whole bunch of
things nails on the head here transportation freshwater saltwater housing affordable housing etc we really hit the you know really hit a lot of highlights or a lot of really important issues for us certainly I know our planning board more locally has has
relied on kind of the the by the I don't know what they call it but the designs that the Cape Cod commission had come up with for um the West Cadam uh neighborhood center they relied a lot on your work and it was excellent work the work on our transportation downtown and
parking downtown for the parking solutions working group was excellent it was a superb for a piece of work and um hopefully we'll get a chance to get at it and implement some of its recommendations because they were really well thought out and really supported by data um we really appreciate it it was
excellent work um I I guess I'll stop there but I just I just think oh I had one question that any any insight as to whether or not the grant funding for the bridges for the planning for the bridges is at risk at all or is that in cement
i don't have the answer to that um I believe the project is proceeding as um planned and um that's the plan going forward that's as much as I can offer all right thanks but I just really I have another question where do you get your funding how how are you funded so
we are very opportunistic in applying for grants which fund a certain percentage of our our uh budget um and then we're also funded through the environmental protection fund so um we've got a variety of different sources that uh fund our budget every year you must do that very successfully you've grown a little bit over the years and
you you've attacking great issues so you know I don't begrudge it but you must be doing a really good job doing that in order to support the folks that you employ etc have great staff the staff I've met have been wonderful thank you for that feedback you bet christie thanks shireen christie thank you and I
was attending a meeting um with the Capeen Islands where Masa made a presentation and and they were very much saying everything's moving forward uh there was no uh indication that there had been any grumblings or anything so
um and there um the information of that is on the mass dot it's pretty comprehensive layout of of what's going on um Christie the wastewater you know every town is doing wastewater and you said $400 million worth of projects is
that what I'm hearing you say that's what So we just got the draft IUP or the final IEP this afternoon so very quick review of it looks like it's over 44 400 million for this year for the Cape and $65 million in funding opportunity is that So just last year alone the Cape
Islands Water Protection Fund gave um subsidies of 65 million to eight different communities across the Cape so the um competition for those fundings are getting bigger at this point do you think or so certainly we are seeing
progress um and as of now it looks like the projects on the Cape that have been proposed that were in the draft um and potentially one other are going to be included and that are included in that final plan um so we're grateful that there is a lot of progress being made these are big dollar numbers that we're
actually seeing being implemented across the region and we're seeing more and more projects than we anticipated which is a great problem to have um they're certainly um you know having more projects more funding but I think that the board is really um uh taking
initiative to make sure that the projects across the Cape can be funded and those subsidies uh the 25% subsidy is reliable going forward right thank you thanks Dean thank you thank you Christie and Tom for coming and for your report i I just want to join with what
Jeff said about the the parking um group um report that the commission presented to us i think I said at the time I thought it was the single best report I've I've heard from the commission seen from the commission in my time here on the board uh the only other comment I
wanted to make is um uh with respect to Tom's enthusiasm for for his position i think we owe a little bit of credit to the late Florence Seldon because I remember when I was chair of of this board there was a vacancy and I called Florence and said "You've got to find somebody and she approached Tom." So I
think that's worked out very well i know you were candidate for school committee at one point and maybe you listen to what Mr meadows had to say tonight thank you Mr chairman thanks um Corey I'll chime in i also would extend my appreciation to both of you i appreciate
the the work you're doing uh I appreciate the updates you provide this community and I want to thank you very much and Tom thank you for serving Chadam so I I'll I'll just conclude by saying uh what they said um I I we we've made
some progress here in Chattam on a number of different fronts um I would identify particularly the housing uh the planning board movement with the West Cadam Neighborhood Center uh zoning proposal which is heavily reliant on the work that the Cape Cod Commission had
done um in advance the uh the work that we've done on on uh on on sewer hookups generally and and grinder pumps specifically and now are looking to the aqua fund support that uh we we heard
about uh last week um all of that is absolutely um uh indispensable to what we're doing here and and thanks very much to both of you for that so appreciate having you here thanks thank you very much we look forward to working with you thanks
thank you okay um next um we're going to hear from Shauna on the policy regarding meetings yes good evening shauna Neily
communications manager i think first off to address um the question that was raised earlier I can try and give some clarity meetings that occur in this room in the large meeting room here at the annex are the only ones that are broadcast live so in real time um on
channel 1072 or live streamed through the website all of our other meeting rooms have the capability of having hybrid meetings and recording those meetings for uploads to our on demand archive but they're not broadcast in
real time through 1072 um so that I hope that brings some clarity to that question i'm sorry but that but to clarify they are available on Teams in real time if you Yes to to anybody who can access uh on their
computer through Teams correct that that is another decision point for the board um the vast majority of our meetings whether they occur here or in one of the self-record rooms do provide a link through Teams for a hybrid meeting environment okay not all of them but the
vast majority thank you so the question um before you tonight is whether or not you would like to resend the directive that was made at the five years ago at the outset of the pandemic that in order to keep the town's business moving forward in the conditions that we were
under to require all of our regulatory boards that's the planning board the zoning board of appeals board of health etc to take their meetings into this room whether they met here previously or not and to broadcast those meetings live
with the um addition through our wonderful work of our IT department to have hybrid meetings hybrid participation possible so that directive has stayed in place um I hate to pull out one board over
another but the best example is that the board of health prior to the pandemic met in the small meeting room they did not have their meetings broadcast live due to their importance during the pandemic it was certainly reasonable to have them conduct their meetings live
and in person um whether or not that's still necessary is is one of the questions to the board tonight whether you'd like to resend that directive that all regulatory boards hold their meetings in this room broadcast live um
if if I may if we were to do that what are the criteria that you're suggesting we would use to decide who stays in here and who moves back to small meeting room sure so you can leave that up to the chairs as was done previously we could
draft a policy for your consideration um We could essentially leave it leave it to the unless we want to take that on correct leave it to the boards to decide on their own correct okay okay the second decision point if you want me to
continue we have um advisory committee meetings that are held and statutory committee meetings that are held in the self-record rooms such as the annex small meeting room as I said the vast majority of those meetings do have a hybrid component but there's been no
directive to require them to have a hybrid component so mostly the water related committees um that meet over at the community center it's an in-person meeting only it's recorded and uploaded to the on demand archive but they do not
provide um remote access to the public and that's another decision point if you wish to make that a standard we can certainly do that it might just take a little time to make sure that all of the meeting rooms have the capability to hold hybrid meetings and to train up
staff that have are not used to doing it that way so just to follow up with similar question in those latter cases how is it decided which ones are have the hybrid capability and which ones are in live only it's currently up to the
chairs okay okay um any are is is is the service to us now okay dean um or just one um note on your footnote number two i would note that the
affordable housing trust is listed as a statutory committee in the committee handbook for whatever reason i believe it is one i had the same question um on the first issue um have we heard from the committees or
the committee chairs of the regulatory committees that meet meet in this room that they don't want to meet in this room no I wouldn't say that i would say that the the the length of live meetings that take place here uh the number that are
being held in this room um it's been made it's challenging a little more challenging with scheduling in this room just because of the length of meetings and the number of meetings so that if there are any that maybe are not getting the participation that some of the
others have could move into the small meeting room and be recorded um just to free up some space and time because because of their their regulatory the the um the duration of of these meetings varies from meeting to meeting depending upon how many cases they have how many
applications they have i mean I I um would be inclined to continue unless there's some financial significant financial negative impact um that we could hear from the town manager as well on that um but I I would like to see the regulatory meetings continue to meet in
this room be telecast live i think I mean they are the among the most significant committees the finance committee meets in here too uh and I think those are the the committees that the public in general is especially interested in so I'd like to see that continue as far as
the second issue uh you mentioned that the the committees that tend to meet uh in rooms where there currently is no uh um hybrid uh capacity um I guess I would defer to the liaison of those committees i know my
the committees that I'm leazison to tend to meet next door and they they they they all seem to be hybrid and people can participate and have and do those are my thoughts thank you thank you Mr chair if I can just clarify one thing so
uh when uh we met with the chairs the board chairs our first meeting we had in in February the one regulatory committee who was most interested in not having to be live was the board of health so um again if you want to defer to the chair if that's the decision I I would
anticipate that they would go next door into the hybrid meeting room did they give a reason i mean they they didn't they they said that um they tend not to get a lot of people in person we didn't look at um
the 1072 who's accessed uh the meeting through the website um they just the chair at the time just felt that they liked meeting in the small meeting room and would be happy to go back to it so I
I'm going to jump in if I may and and just say the way I reacted to that issue was the reason for the change originally has gone away um and so then maybe it's still a good idea but I think if the I'm
inclined to say if the if and and presumably this change would not any any chair that wants to stay in here can stay in here and presumably anybody um who would like to move has you know maybe we need to check it or something
but if they have good and sufficient reason um it would seem to me that that you know it it's it's probably more for them to make that decision than it is us unless I'm missing something and and I guess I'm also a
little bit sensitive although it's a it's a subsidiary consideration you know if even one change frees up some of the scheduling in here that's probably a good thing as long as the change is is not a problem shireen yeah i um it is our I mean we
oversee the committees and we you know appoint everybody and I think we should have our say as to um how we feel about about um going live um but you know if the board of health feels that they're not you know they prefer this and um in
going back to the way they were I'm fine with that i I just need to hear the rationale from the committee people themselves as to why they would want to make a change um you know but I think ultimately we need to be the decision makers in this well I just I'm sorry
Corey i I guess I just wouldn't mind having almost like a consistent policy because I I understand if the board of health has a really strong reason they want to make a the change back to their old you know small meeting room you know you
know fine i think the you know would I I would prefer them to be in the large meeting room doing live time um I just question if we start letting one group kind of go back to that way would after a couple months would another board be like you know what we changed our mind
we want to go back to the small you know we doing a case to case or yeah I I forgive me for jumping in but I think what Shireen was saying that we we'd get do a a census and and anybody who wants to move needs to come back to us with a reason
so for the time being status quo Yeah well subject to somebody coming back and saying "I'd like to move to the next room." And we we vet that reason and say "Yay or nay." Okay rather than it being arbitrary yeah exactly
so I'm sorry Jeeoff you were going to say something yeah the only only comment I had in respect of what Cy said if a chair should change and then decide that if you leave it at the discretion of the chair then why they're in here oh no i want to go over there what new chair i want to come back here so I just think some kind of policy we we ought to we
ought to set and I think the suggestion of having a committee that doesn't want to come here for a regulatory meeting and you know occupy the space and be live if you will give them good rale why and let's talk let's talk about well and
and if if the chair changed and the the new chair wanted to reverse something I I would have a lot of problem I mean they'd have to have a bloody good reason before they you'd accept that I would think I you know so I think that's why a good consistent
approach is probably the way to go and if there's an outlier let's hear about it yeah I don't have a problem with that that's where I learned I and I just want one I think your point about this this came about as a result of CO is a good one i mean you know that ostensibly that that reason ostensibly has been taken
away however we do like we do like its its its result if you will but well just on that last point you know if we and I understand your reason and I respect it but if you if you if CO is
the re if the non-existence or CO is still around but if if if the non-existence of the pandemic is the reason for going back to the old way then we shouldn't be having any hybrid meetings we shouldn't just have everybody come in person as we did
three for years we can meet and then the lower Well you can't do it anymore in the lower level of Main Street but I I want to just go back go ahead on that point well the world has changed hybrid is is You're bad you're bad the governor keeps signing every new governor signs every three years anyway I just think
that's not enough well it is however an exception it's not mandatory but I I as far as um you know whether to meet in this room or not and Shireen said it and and I think she came to a different con you came to a different conclusion from mine or somewhat
different where the we're the select board we should be in the position of saying to the committees this is where you we want you to meet now I'm I'd be open to deferring a decision from this
board on the policy until we hear from the board of health for example as to why and maybe they feel that's a smaller table and and there's a lot more back and forth as opposed to sitting up as on a tribunal like the zoning board or the planning board maybe that's the reason
um but you know I'd like to hear from them before we adopt the policy that's all or consider changing the policy is that is that do is that good okay okay i mean I I I my only other comment here is that we nobody's talked about
the historical commission andor the historical uh business um uh district commission i I I and I don't know which side they fall on i I I know I'm you know opening a can of worms here but um
I I I I I would personally feel a little differently about them than I do about the ZBA or frankly even the board of health um and um but I'll I'll I'll leave that for when we have the people in unless somebody wants to comment
okay and just to be clear Mr chair we're not changing the select board meeting we're we're not recommending it we'll stay here in this room uh well I don't think there was any concern about that i think there was a question by one of the viewers so all right we're staying here no okay fine yes that the select board
is going to stay here um the second one yes please if you can refresh at least my recollection there's no directive that all committees whether advisory or regulatory hold hybrid meetings so there are some advisory
committees that only their meetings are recorded but they're just in person so if there was any sense to to add that requirement thoughts um Shireen I I think that it should be a policy set that they all do it one way and not the other um I feel
like um well for the shelfish advisory committee they do not do a hybrid and you know this might sound a little self- serving but for me if I could log on to their meeting um in a hybrid situation I can monitor it better uh as a lay on
than I can stopping you know having to take time out of the work sort of time frame um I think that um it's kind of a surprise that some are and some some aren't so I think that I think they all should be that might mean more
management for staff but I think at the end of the day I think it's really important it stays consistent jeff yeah I I I would I'd like hybrid as well to be honest with you and have have a consistent policy as well i think it's I think it's important cory I think it's
more efficient no I think I think a part of that I think we need to work a little bit more on our technology too because we have such inconsistencies around the building because we the cultural council the other night we but moved in from the um the traditional meeting room is being
renovated to conference room B and we had that neat little screen which is new we had someone online it worked out wonderful but you have meetings like at the community building like upstairs that that's a horrible room anyway the mic set up it's It's really It really It
really I I I despise having meetings in that room because there's couches and chairs and people are scattered everywhere and the mics don't pick up um to try to get a hybrid meeting on that with its current layout not going to be a fun task but I think if we figure out where to
fine-tune some technology maybe you know we could we could achieve that goal but we have some gaps right now in my opinion well I I I'll just toss in this is one place where I think consistency is absolutely a good idea and I I think we
should have they all should be at a minimum hybrid and I I think there's a consensus here on that yes that's what I heard agreed so would you like a policy drafted for your consideration incorporating please okay please got it
um anything else thank you yeah no I I I think Sha uh Sean is going to um you know talk to or get input and I guess if the board of health would like to come in and chat with us on why they
want to move or anybody else wants to move we'll we'll take that under advisement before we um do policy on that one sure is that fair enough thank you okay thanks okay
next uh the meeting this afternoon um there were four of us on the deis who were at that meeting today i since Jeff started um over there and I thought did
a phenomenal job of giving a a a just a really super opening statement that covered all the issues i'm gonna ask him if he would um uh would would give us his perspective on it um and summary on
on the meeting first uh thank you Mike um I I gave it you know the history what what Haritch's history from Haritch's perspective and why you know history why we came about how the region came about and how it advantaged both towns um not
necessarily linearly or in the same way but um Harowitch was in need of a new high school we were in need of students um by MSBA's participation we were able to get a to build a high school um much more cheaply than um than if Haritch
were to build it alone i made that point a couple times um they you know they they are saying that they've overspent compared to us we've saved they've overspent on the region and I made the point that in fact at the region's inception they saved approximately and this number is approximately $20 million
out of the gate um in building costs and of course the ancillary debt and interest payments resultant there result in there from um I made the point that uh the region came together as a win-win because we needed kids one of our eighth grade classes 38 kids out of our eighth
grade class one year went off an so we realized very quickly that we can't run a high school with 25 kids in a pass so that's we needed kids so they had kids and they needed a high school and by joining we saved them a lot of money and we were able to have a beautiful high
school and never never mind the wonderful program that resulted there from as well the academics the athletics and the um in the arts um that we were able to offer our students opportunities for our students so that that was my overarching approach to the conversation they're very focused on money they're
very focused on the notion that they're they're paying too much money um to the percentage is too high and we obviously noted that the percentage is based on a contract and right now it breaks down with 2476 or now I think it's 2377 what somebody mentioned today and that you
know we had a contract in place and that at the time it was negotiated in full faith uh with excellent representatives from the town of Haritch and both towns approved and off we went um I I I got the sense that um they're pretty focused
on on money um and the town they was reported by Pete Petar Picarski and by uh chairman Jeff Handler that you know in the background the town's upset about how much they pay they feel that they're overpaying they're subsidizing that quote was used sub subsidizing Chadam
when in fact as Miss Gibbs mentioned earlier in some ways we're subsidizing them so you know we're the smaller kid in the block i wanted to give history and wanted to get a sense of where they were coming from and clearly they're coming from a point where they feel as though they're paying too much for capital for operating capital the major
issue today as it turned out in my mind in my PE brain I hadn't glombmed onto this i didn't realize that the select board from from Haritch had hadn't taken a position i thought they hadn't taken a position on on the renovations to the middle school in fact they had taken a
position and that was to punt to to not have a position to in effect they took a position that they're going to defer it they they deferred it they're going to and so right now their recommendation uh to the town meeting in Har is that um they're they're punting that they're not
going to have a recommendation um and yet they you know want to have future meetings and want to talk about stuff and we were Mike and I were gumruck um actually speechless at one point um that they hadn't taken a position and we made
you know made the argument that look if you don't fix the middle school you're going to kind of end up in the spot where they were in 2010 by not paying attention to their high school which was in awful disrepair it was under sanction um they were under sanctioned to build a new high school back in 2010 because
they hadn't taken care of their high school so we're not going to walk down that same road again and if we were to defer it this year if they were if was not then next year the plywood was going to even be more rotted and and the windows still you know still leaking and
you know flashing so I made the point that look you know if we let it go and go and go what what's the cost of building a new high school i mean a new new middle school well the middle school is going to cost you know hundred million some pick a number tens of millions of dollars to you know and we don't have the land for it i also made
the point that they have in their midst on Oak Street one of the most incredible assets in in on the Cape even in southeastern Mass Massachusetts that complex over there is stunning i drove around it before I went to the meeting the the building's beautiful the fields
in front of it are gorgeous there's athletic fields you know football lacrosse fields right next door the White House field for baseball is right next it's stunning what an asset they have they should be extremely proud of it and they should be supporting it financially insinuated that perhaps that
wasn't their highest priority yes we all have higher priorities at times affordable housing water wastewater etc but the education of future generations arguably along with water and waste water and affordable housing is our highest priority as a community as a regional community at one point it slipped that
you know your it was your project I'm like boom boom boom No not our project it's our project the the renovation to the middle school isn't Chadam's project it's our project so I think we left it with the left it with a place where yeah we continue
further conversation not quite knowing where it's going but uh um you know we we also translated the message that hey look from Chadam's perspective what I hear out there um after we took over the elementary school it's full funding which we wanted to do and understood
that by from a per pupil cost basis they were overpaying if you will we get we we got it two years ago we got it and the town whole town got it and without a whole lot of squawking we we bellied up and pay are paying for our elementary school i made the point that frankly Chad's really comfortable with where we
are um and and we pushed back a bit but uh you know that's kind of where we were corey was there thankfully and uh Jill was there Mike obviously spoke spoke very well eloquently if you will to kind of you know smooth the waters a bit uh I
you know I you know me with the school is I 17 years I'm very passionate about it and I I don't like to see it eroded yeah um there there were there were
two themes that don't really um you know work well together um Jeff Handler started off with a you know kind of a big conceptual um friendly welcoming speech about you know being partners and getting together
and having a productive conversation and improving the situation and uh uh he expressly said that he had no expectation that we would come up with any um result um in the meeting uh today but
he hoped that we could have um continuing conversations working on I'll use my word the problem um and and that was uh you know whatever credibility or you know you gave that um I I I I I
thought it was genuine um and frankly in my opening remarks I responded i said yeah we'll we'll be happy to talk with you um it it's always productive to listen to one another and hear what the what the issues are what the problems are you know how can we help the whole
the whole business um but um the other theme was more the kind the the u adversarial um you know numbers that you know work their side of the street or or
you know show why they're um they're they're getting um the short end of the stick and numerous times both he and Mr piccars um re really tried to make the case that um that that Chadam is um being
subsidized by Haritch in one fashion or another and something has to change and and um that was very much more of a you know um back and forth numbers money
negotiation uh I did gently ask you know they said that this thing is is unfair it's not working uh right it's coming out in a way that nobody could foresee um they didn't really other than saying that they're paying too much they didn't
really have any either explanation or um rationale for how they might um how they might u change things uh to suit themselves um and Jeff uh mentioned to it mentioned
it and and referred to it at the end um they kind of dropped on the on the table that their board has recommended uh in the warrant uh that um a an indefinite suspension of
the well indefinite postponement of the uh the the project um on the uh on the middle school i I I said I was blown away i was I was flabbergate i I mean and I said to them I said I I don't understand how you can come in here and
in effect be asking us for economic financial cons um concessions at the same time that you tell us that you've you've taken a step or you're taking a step that inevitably is going to cost an incremental amount of money every year
that that this um is deferred and I said "Frankly you know whatever you're asking for it's going to be diminished in our minds even if we were willing to talk about it it's going to be diminished by the amount of money by the the increment in the cost of the of the repairs uh
when we get around to it." And and that's just counterproductive and um I I you know I I as I say I was flabbergasted the conclusion was that um Jeff um said "Well you know we can talk and you know
we'll get together and ask me if he could call me tomorrow." And I said "Fine you can call me anytime i'll take the call." Uh I said "But you know to be very honest with you until there's a resolution and we know what the outcome of your action with respect to the
middle school is I don't know that we're going to have a lot to talk about." Um and he said "Oh well I guess that means I shouldn't call you until after town meeting." And I said "That's what it means." And that was kind of the conclusion there was a little bit of uh friendly talk uh thereafter but that
in my mind was the conclusion um and we'll see what they what they do um I I know you want to speak Shireen but I I'm just going to ask if I may since he was there and Jill was there uh any you know additional commentary you'd like to add
or or um whatever sure absolutely so um I mean I one thing I noticed that it was a very strong turnout of both Chadam and Harvard residents in in the in-house audience um a lot of familiar faces with background in the school committee and school and just public public engagement
um I I appreciate Jeff's background on this he went to Baffer Chadam clearly your your knowledge your your experience um was was vital today and I appreciate that it really it was one of those um meetings that opened up very much like okay we're going to have a we're not
going to have a full resolution today but we're going to talk nicely we're going to figure it out and it kind of got a little more tension you know subtle subtle subtle and you were ready to push back with with with facts with the history with with you guys may not recall some of this information so it
was very concrete we're taking this position but you recall this so that was extremely beneficial um little disappointed in the uh chair of the Harvard select board in the fact
that um I didn't see a crystal clear plan from them obviously there there's some kind of um desire to get some kind of funding changes and more you know balance of
funds trans you know there that was clear um but how they were expecting um that process to be to go forth I don't think there is a plan on their behalf at the moment that I could see um some of the history they brought up um
specifically with the elementary schools differs from my opinion um I I was surprised at that um as mentioned before the the indefinite postponement on the the select board's recommendation uh of Haritch on the middle school project is
is really disheartening because that really is it's going to impact the the students that's at the end of the day um if I understand correctly too their finance committee did make a proposal to support it so I do appreciate you know that level of support from from the
community but um you know we Mike and Jeff if you know we're clear we'll we'll have a conversation but we need to know what's going on we need to have a better understanding of where you you you think we should go and you know I got some my own thoughts and and I
actually got a couple texts from um a couple of the school committee Chattam school committee representatives to who were watching from you know online and the wow factor was uh was there so um I appreciate you guys pushing back on on them and you know and and we'll see
where this leads yeah there I'll just add one specific thing that uh Mr pikarsski mentioned was um splitting the co the administrative costs of the district 50/50 and and I asked him I you know what's the rationale for that why is that any different than anything else
i I I I don't think I heard a clear answer but um it was uh in terms of there having a plan to ask for anything that that just wasn't there it wasn't a clear answer because he was saying like well if you had your own you know school you're not going to
pay 100% you're not going to pay 25% but the response back to that well you wouldn't be paying 100% you're paying only 75% so it was it was a lukewarm argument right right any comments Jill i I I thought that um you and Jeff were so
well prepared and I really would encourage the public to watch the meeting just the history of going back to 2010 um similar comments observations too I was surprised about the motion to um have an indefinite postponement on
the renovations to the middle school and also similar to what you just talked about splitting the costs for the central office 5050 it doesn't make any sense you still need facilities you still need administrators it's it
benefits all of the students um it's and they they obviously have the majority of the students so they did mention um tasking the es experts to do some number crunching i'm not really sure what needs to be crunched i mean everything is is pretty much out there but whatever
assistance Carrie Carrie was there Carrie and I need to provide you uh in support we're happy to do that okay thank you Sheree um thank you both for attending and and defending Modum's children i mean this just I'm floored
i'm floored the fact that um that we were request to have this meeting and and they didn't have a plan but I am really really floored by the idea that um they are postponing the repairs on the Monoy building i mean there we heard
distinctly from parents from both towns on their concerns for for the middle school and um I'm happy to hear their finance committee took action and I hope their towns people will look at that when they take that vote um because I think it was it's egregious what um um
what that select board did um to postpone um that you know with the health concerns and you know kids the co the cost too just the cost if this has to be delayed it's just going to end up costing both towns a lot of money and it's just it's just uh outrageous just
outrageous thanks um Dean yeah I um I logged in for the last half hour i had a private um trustee meeting that ran late so I wasn't able to drive out to Haritch and um before I forget I I do appreciate
what you and Jeff did um I didn't see the obviously I will go back and watch the original presentation but I have to tell you I mean I I didn't hear the the nice tone at the beginning of the meeting so when I logged in it was very different uh setting and I almost felt
like I was traveling in another dimension when I heard some of the history um mis misstated I think um um you talked about the elementary school and one of one of the select board members said well this came from Chadam
it didn't come from Chadam um and the um the the the 5050 that didn't make any sense at all that was their only sort of substantive specific change and with
respect to the middle school um you know it's almost as if you know this is the bargaining chip to to get Chadam to change the formula um whereas I we've heard it here that and maybe you mentioned it Jeeoff in
your initial remarks which I didn't hear that the uh the state formula right now takes into account the the relative comparative valuations in the two towns um I mean I think their their their
method is they want money that's what they want and I mean I'm not you know inclined to reopen the the formula um I I and um we've we've done a lot to accommodate
Haritch on the sewer side and healthwise as has been presented i maybe you I don't know if you mentioned the belt filter press yeah no I did not get there yeah that's another another thing which we which we did we didn't look to them for contribution on that that was what four or five million we Yeah
so I I just um was amazed myself i I think the way that you closed Mike um was the the right way to to do it and we're willing to talk with them but um it's somewhat appalling that they
really just have nothing other to put on the table other than we want we want more money uh and oh one other thing that was when I talked about when I mentioned um historical precedent um now maybe this was truly I'm sure it was the
recollection of the individual who made the comment but um every single year or almost every single year that the school committee this goes before the Harvard select board with the budget they give them a bad time well I I said that yeah
I know i know you know that's what I read about in the paper every every year so um you know I hope they they go back and you know re-examine the history and and um come
up with uh some better ideas which we could entertain thanks Jeeoff yeah I did remind uh you know they a couple times they stated that uh you know it was our idea to bring the elementary school under our umbrella and I said no no guys it was because the per people p people costs were really high in Chadam and you
guys complained and we listened and we we we acted we brought the elementary school under underneath our budget you know for seven or $800,000 the first year it's 13 this year I think right so you know it's big number um so we reminded them of that you know um but
you know that they I'm not so sure it wasn't some some kind of polit political theater or whatever i I didn't quite I didn't quite grasp where where they were headed to be honest with you and I I was I was um pretty disappointed thanks i the one thing I will add at the end is
um there were several occasions where certainly on our side where we said hey this is a you know this is a discussion between us but it shouldn't down to the the the detriment of the children and and we we talked about how successful um
and and what a great job this the school system is doing with the kids um they they responded um at least um you know a couple of times um sort of giving a hat tip to that but the themes
that really kept coming through were um we're paying too much and you got to do something about it and uh Dean I I maybe I was you know I'm too sensitive or something but you know at the end it it seemed very clear to me that the um the
middle school project is is kind of a hostage to a willingness on Chadam's part to um to amend the the the formula to their benefit and um I I I I don't see I mean I have no problem if they
want to sit down and talk to us about why they think the formula is not working the way it should be or that the way it was intended or that it's unexpected consequences i I I can have that conversation but to say you know we're
we're we're not going to do something that everybody has to be able to see is critically necessary this year um as a a a way of leveraging the argument they're they're trying to make here i I I can't
really entertain that uh very happily if at all i I can't entertain it period anything else okay move to adjourn mr chairman second all those in favor mr niccastro hi mr shell says I
miss davis hi and Mr dykins hi and Mr meadows hi we are adjourned at 7:03 good night Cadam [Music] [Music]