We're going to call the town meeting, the special town meeting to order. Our first order of business, because our elected town moderator is not in town, we are going to take nominations for a
moderator to preside over tonight's meeting. So, are there any nominations? >> I nominate David Price. >> There's a nomination for David Pierce. >> Is there a second? Second. >> Second. >> Are there any more nominations?
>> Can someone move that the nomination >> move that we close nominations? >> Second. >> All those in favor of closing the nominations. >> I >> I >> opposed. All those in favor of David Pierce for
moderator. >> I >> opposed. All right. Come on up, David. While David's coming up, I am just going to read the constable's return. Pursuant to within warrant, I have notified and warned the inhabitants of
the town of Sunderland by posting up attested copies of the same at the post office, Sunderland Public Library, and the town office building 14 days at least before the date hereof as within directed. Frederick A. Lauronitis,
October 31st, 2025. Go ahead, Dave. >> All right. Thanks for coming, everybody. I'll be your special guest host tonight. All right. Just before we get to the uh fun stuff, we've just got some uh usual house cleaning and some other items here. Um I'd like to introduce myself.
I'm Dave Pierce, in case you're wondering. Um first, we're going to do uh the pledge of allegiance. I'll stand for that. I pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic
for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. Thank you. Um, so tonight [clears throat] over here we've got the select board. We have Nathaniel Wearing, Crystal Drake
Trombllay, and Dan Murphy. And oh, good there. And our town administrator, Becky Torres, for our first uh special town meeting. Right. So, and then over here, I'm going to let you introduce everybody because I don't know everybody on the board, but um >> let everybody introduce [laughter] themselves.
>> Okay. >> Are these on? >> Yeah, I can. >> I think so. >> Um I'm Valoriz. I'm the chair of the finance committee. >> Hi, Dylan Corpa, finance committee. >> Aaron Koop, finance committee. All right. Okay. And usually we have um cards, but we're not going to use those tonight
unless we really need to. So um if everybody just speaks up when they're voting, that'll be great. And if you do have a question, just raise your hand and we'll get a microphone around to you. All right. And then um [clears throat] because the sound is not always so great in here, any amendments to a motion will
need to be written down and submitted to the town clerk who's in the back there. [snorts] And I just like to acknowledge John Bosshan, director of FCAT and the staff for recording tonight's meeting. There you go, John. [applause] And our sound tonight's been brought to
you by Dogwood Audio. They've been providing our sound system. Um, usually we do for the regular meeting, we dispose with a me we do a motion to dispense with the reading of the motions, but these are so small and short we I'll just read them out. It'll be pretty quick.
Um, and then I would like I'll at this moment I'll entertain a motion to allow town meetings permission to speak if they are not registered voters of Sunderland. Just in that case, do we have a motion? >> All right, we have a second. >> All right, all those in favor? >> I
>> I. Anyone opposed? >> All right, declared so by a majority. All right. And uh we'll skip the swearing in of the tellers unless we actually need to. So, if you'll just bear with me one second
while I flip my page. All right. Now, on to the fun of the evening. All right. You want to move the >> All right. Uh, do you want to read it first or have me move it first? >> Yeah, let's move it and then I'll Yeah.
>> Uh, I move article one. >> Second. >> All right. Article one. Move that the town vote to approve South County Emergency Management Services request to spend SKM's retained earnings in the amount of $325,000
for the purpose of purchasing and outfitting a new ambulance and a striker power loader system for $37,000 for a sum total of $362,000 to be used in the service of the towns of Weightley, Sunderland, and Deerfield.
And um just in case anybody doesn't know what a striker is, would we have a little uh little explanation? >> So the ambulance themselves don't come with one. And what it is is the power lifting system that helps the EMTs lift the stretcher up to get it in the back as opposed to how they used to do it,
which is breaking the backs of our EMTs. So it's very much a necessary part, but does not come with the actual ambulance by itself. >> All right. And this one is a majority vote. Do we have any questions at all? >> Yes. >> Could you come over to the center? The
microphone. >> Yeah, we can't hear you. Sorry. If you could come over. >> These microphones right in the center. Thank you. >> Thanks. The acoustics are terrible in here. So, >> thank you. Um, can you share a little bit more about what retained earnings means? >> Yeah, certainly. Um, so retained
earnings are a synonym that you might have heard of free cash. We often use that in our term. um it's the money that is collected by the e the service that isn't spent in that year. Year to year those roll over into their into their budgeting process. Um and just I'm going
to give a little more context and this might answer some other questions. Um the idea behind them using the retained earnings versus it being a town meeting motion is to stabilize the cost yeartoear be by using retained earnings. is they're able to amateurize that out over the years they need to between
replacing ambulances as opposed to having a lower assessment to towns for a couple years and then a larger assessment when they need an ambulance and then back down to lower. The idea here is to sort of just cut it and make it more of a even keel for everybody. Um the idea here is that they normally
offset the operating costs with retained earnings and that will be obviously slightly less than it would normally be which is why we would see a slightly higher year-over-year operating expense but not have that hit every 3 or four
years when we need a new ambulance. All right, any other questions? Yes. >> Thank you, Mr. Moderator. Scott Bers runs Old Ammeris Road. question about the life cycle of the actual uh device being purchased in this case an
ambulance and some accessories and how is that budgeted in a capital perspective and is it budget in a capital perspective how do we anticipate this in five six seven years >> so great question um the short answer is
that >> Josh is here >> yeah we have Josh here would you like to speak on that I'll let you hear it from the person who knows even more about than I do. >> There you go. [clears throat] >> Hi, Joshua Sparks, chief of South County
EMS. Uh, I appreciate the question. Uh, South County EMS has never had a capital improvement plan that will be rolled out at the actual normal town meeting. Uh the life cycle of the ambulance we're
looking for is going to be roughly 9 years. Um that's pretty long for an ambulance. They don't uh last as much as your your own vehicle does. They're they're used heavily. So, nine years and we're looking to kind of continue this
idea of replacing them more regularly out of retained earnings so that we don't have to come to town as it was mentioned and appropriate money for these things. Right. Does that answer? Y.
>> All right. Any other questions? All right. I'd uh annotate. Yes. Come on down, Doug. >> I'm just Why are we doing this uh in November [laughter] instead [clears throat] of a regular
Springtown meeting? >> All right. So, South County ha actually in 2023 ordered an ambulance. It still has not been delivered. It's that's how long the turnaround time on an ambulance
is. he was able to find a place that could actually deliver one in hopefully January or at least first quarter of 2026. So, um not having the ambulance be having been
delivered yet, um we're doing it now to try to be able to get this one in January that is available right now. >> Yeah. Just for context, our entire fleet currently is all past like the end of life. And so the concern was is that if it's not until second third quarter of
26 before we get the other one that we could potentially have one of the ones we have right now break down and be in a position where we don't have enough active vehicles. Um and so to expand a little bit on why this is being done now as it being done later, um it's because we're trying to get them a new ambulance as soon as possible. That's been the
goal all along. We were hoping they would already have the one that we ordered two and a half years ago. Um, and they don't. And so we had an opportunity because a town meeting, special town meeting came up for another situation um to be able to have the three towns who are already all going to
be holding special town meetings get this in front of them and get the the equipment that we need for our EMTs. Um, does that fully answer that or any any further questions on that one? Yeah, I mean I just obviously like you
know not that we ever get incred but less so this time of year than we do. So I mean if I can speak to that. So I think one interesting piece is that you're right obviously more people turn
out to town meeting and and there is where we'll have their new fiscal year budget which will entain which will include not the money for this ambulance but whatever impacts there are on retained earnings in future assessments.
So I think one thing that made me comfortable was we are going to get a look at whatever impacts financial and otherwise happen when they come back for their next annual meeting with everybody. Um and and this because it's coming out of town because it's coming out of retained earnings doesn't have
the same impact immediately. >> Yes, Peter. >> Peter Gagarin, North Main Street. Um it sounds like we're getting one could imagine we're getting sort of free money here because we're ordering an ambulance. We don't have to pay for it and it's coming out of this retained
earnings that uh may seem like a just a pot of gold to some people but actually we take out of retained earnings um a good chunk every year in order to pay for the uh ambulance budget the the operating budget. uh they come in with
uh you know a certain amount and then they reduce the amount they're asking from the towns by applying a fair bit of retained earnings to that before they divide it between the three towns. And what this just means is I'm totally in favor of doing this, but what it means
is that when we come around to putting together an operating budget for the next fiscal year, the money that the amount of money they'll have available to reducing their budget is going to be $360,000 less. So that uh you know I would guess
maybe uh you know we might have something of $50 to $100,000 increase in their operating budget that we have to fund through our regular uh process more so because we're now buying ambulances on a regular three-year basis. So I'm
just saying this is coming down the road and you know we're going to have to deal with it. >> Yeah. No, totally agree with you and and just to be completely clear, definitely not free money. um it's more of a rebalancing of the year-to-year
expenses. So rather than having it be one hit every three years, it'll be a third more per year for everybody, but it'll be spread out a little more evenly. So yes, McFarland, old air road, I'm just wondering how this is working in
conjunction with the other two towns. Is that 362? Are the other two towns contributing the same? Just wondering what the big picture is. >> Yep. So, all three towns have to approve. Um, and again, we This is happening largely because we had a a situation where all three towns are holding special town meetings, which
doesn't often happen. Um, and so, yes, all three towns have to approve. I believe the other two already had their >> Yes. >> And they all both approved, right? Yes. >> Yeah. So, the other two towns have already approved. We are the last one um to be able to push it over the edge. Yes.
Uh Scott Bjan, Old Ammeris Road. Uh for future consideration, if you have a asset that's 10 years of life cycle, would a debt structure be more uh a more appropriate approach? Not for this discussion, but for future budgeting for SCMS?
Very good point and we will absolutely talk to them about that for the future. >> All right. Any other questions? Right. Do we have a entertain a motion to move to vote? >> I motion we vote.
>> All right. All those in favor? Any opposed? All right. I declared so by a majority. >> All right. Article two. >> It was unanimous. >> Yeah. No, it's okay. I know it's in the back. >> Okay. [clears throat]
>> Motion to move article two. >> Second. >> All right. Article two. Move that the town vote to approve South County Emergency Management Services Ske to request to spend. Ske retained earnings for the purpose of buying a striker
power loaded system for 37,000 to be used with the new ambulance ordered in 2023 but not not yet delivered to be used in the service of the towns of Weightley, Sunderland, and Deerfield. Any questions on this?
>> Yes. Should this motion be withdrawn to be included in our plan? >> So, we actually did this intentionally. Um, we need a scam. We need one of these systems for the new ambulance and we need one for the one that we ordered two years ago. We split them out so that if the town decided not to go ahead with
with article one, we'd be able to still move article 2 because we already have one ordered. It's coming. We need the system for it to be usable and was never approved as part of the original 2023 motion. Um, so we could just not do that also, but then we'd have an ambulance
that without a system that makes it work, if that makes sense. Yeah. >> So, in my understanding, we're getting two new ambulances. >> We have one that we ordered in 23. >> Yep. And that's going to come at some point this year and we're approving the SCM for it for the sorry the striker
power loading system for it now. So, the money is available whenever it comes. So, it's been helpful and the beginning. >> Any other questions? >> All right. All those in favor of article two? Any opposed?
All right. Declared so by a majority. All right. On to article three. Oh, >> motion for article three. We >> have a second. >> Second. >> All right. Article three. Move the town
vote to amend the fiscal year budget 2026, excuse me, the fiscal year 2026 budget passed under article 3 of the April 25th, 2025 annual town meeting by increasing the general government personnel services line by $10,000 for
the purpose of providing for temporary support staff said additional appropriation to be ter excuse me to be transferred from free cash. Do we have a little um summary of that? >> Yep. Um, so we're having a convergence of a couple of folks who work in our
town hall having to be out for medical reasons at the same time. In order to maintain the level of inerson service that we expect to have here in town for people to be able to come in and ask questions, whatnot, um, we're going to, assuming this passes, um, bring in Margaret, who is our previous town
administrator and our previous interim town administrator before Becky, um, on a very temporary basis to help out with that stuff. Um there's not currently any money in the budget to do so. And so what we're asking for is $10,000. Making it very clear that we're asking for $10,000. So we have plenty of money for
that. Whatever we don't use will be returned to free cash. We just wanted to make sure we had enough to be able to contract enough hours if we do end up needing to use, you know, upwards of 40 hours or something like that. >> Yes, Peter. >> I'm assuming that free cash has been
certified. >> It has. Yes. Could you tell us how much? >> 574,500 something. >> Sounds like a pretty good number. Um, I'd just like to then congratulate you for getting it done at the proper time of year, which has not been the case for
a while now. >> Yes. >> No, it it is an absolute breath of fresh air for us on the select board and the finance committee to be able to have these numbers at this point in the year. Um, you probably remember a couple years ago we were getting those a couple weeks before town meeting in the in the spring. So, this is a world of difference for us and it has been very
helpful and will be helpful in our budget process for sure. Any questions? All right. All those in favor of article four >> three article three, >> excuse me, three.
>> Sorry, I already scrolled ahead. My apologies. All those in favor of article three. All right. Anyone opposed? All right. Declared unanimous. >> All right. >> All right. Now, article four.
>> I uh move I move article four. >> Second. >> All right. Article four. Move the town vote to transfer from free cash for the sum of $15 to pay a prior year's bill to Massachusetts Fire Technologies and $35
to pay a prior year's bill to mass to the Massachusetts Municipal Association. >> Just to give a little context, um we often end up with prior year bills that didn't get paid in their in their normal building cycle for whatever reason. Traditionally, we end up handling these in the spring during our normal town
meeting. The reason we're bringing these forward now is just so that the folks who are sitting here waiting for us to pay them because these are all people who we should have paid in the past and didn't um don't have to wait another six months to get their very small amounts of money. Um happy to answer any questions about what they're for. Um but that is the gist of it behind it.
>> Any questions on article 4? All right. Seeing none, all those in favor of article 4. All right. Anyone opposed? All right. Article four passes by uh unanimously.
[clears throat] >> I a motion to move article five. >> Second. >> All right. Article five. Move the town vote to transfer from free cash for $1,347.90 to Axon Enterprise Inc. a bill of prior
years to police services. And same explanation as the other one. All right. Any questions on that article? All right. All those in favor of article five.
Anyone opposed. All right. Declare passed by majority. [clears throat] >> Move article six. >> Seconded. >> Article six. Move that the town vote to transfer from free cash $12,250 to pay Thai and bond for the next stage
of per and poly floral alcohol substances known as PAS remediation work. Have a little explanation. >> So the context here is uh for those of you not aware we had um a positive hit for [clears throat] PAS up by our old um
transfer station up in uh Reservation Drive, Reservation Road. Um, and by state law, we are required to do testing in wells around that. One of those wells did come back positive, and so we've had to do remediation on that well and that property. Um, as well as continued and
expanded testing in the area to make sure that no other wells or citizens are affected by it. Um, this is all statemandated testing and remediation. So really don't have a lot of choice on it. Um, and this is for the next phase of that remediation. Happy to answer any questions.
>> Yes, Scott. So, at uh $12,250, was this put out for uh request for proposal or is it just given to Dian Bond? >> I don't have an answer for you, Becky. >> Becky,
>> it was uh reviewed um the work that it I did go out to bid originally. I had gotten a bid from Stantech for $75,000. I went back and pursued it with um Tai
and Bond and they came in last spring at $25,000 that I believe that 25 is including this 12,500. They came in at about 12,000 last spring and this is the second
request they are making. This is the second estimate to complete the work. So the total from um Tai and Bond has been 25,000 I believe. And so it's quite a bit less than the other bid I had for the project.
>> Any other questions? Yes. Hi Dana Rosco. So I'm I'm just confused. Um you said that it would be for the next phase and you said that would be to complete the work. So
what like what can we expect? Is this going to be $25,000 a year forever? Is are we ever going to come to any kind of completion or is this we just continue to monitor forever?
The work um sorry we are in a um a good situation right now where the last two rounds of testing have come in negative. um the the two hits that we had gotten earlier last summer and then last
January or December have those properties have come um we've retested and retested and those are negative where uh D has requested another round of testing
to see if we can close the project. So, the terminologies I'm sorry it's we're I've been trying to keep um Nate updated, but it's been a it's we we're hopeful that things are getting better, that they're improving, that we won't
have another phase, but this is the completion of a last phase. >> And just sort of to add to that, um there's no guarantee that we won't get more hits down the line and this won't come back to be a continuing problem. Um, and again, because it's a state regulation, we are not we are given a
choice. We're coming to ask you for the money because we have to do so. But we are required by law to to remediate this and to do the testing that we're doing. Um, and I really can't give you an answer for what the future will look like. Hopefully, all fingers crossed that was the only hits we ever get. We continue to do our bare bones monitoring
that we're required to do and we never have another issue. But we could be coming back to you in six months, nine months, two years from now saying, "I'm sorry. We had three more wells that hit because the water table shifted a little bit or something like that. We we we really can't tell you unfortunately. I would love to be able to to predict that better. Um but it's really up to the
whims of the way things move around, you know. >> Yeah. I mean this has been years and years of no nothing and then you know finally >> the the the PAS moves and if you you know it moves around and sometimes you have errant
hits where it's you know if it's the the original hit was at the landfill which meant that we had to test homes around the landfill but there um the in the residential area were working to protect
and do test wells around, you know, where we would see it coming between the landfill and where um the houses are. So, we're trying to do all the testing to be proactive and protect.
So I think this is this case fortunately is a much smaller one than I saw in Shootsberry um which ended up with 75 houses under quarterly monitoring which and you know is going on a million dollars of
expense. So that we're I'm I'm very pleased that this is showing signs of um not being such a major problem. Dana. >> So, I'm sorry. I I was also confused
when Scott asked um if it had been put out to bid and you said that you got a bid uh from Stantech for 75 uh and from Timebot for 25. So, so those the 75 and the 25 were both responses to
the same RFP or Stantech was already under contract to do something. >> Stantech had been hired be uh Stantech is our landfill um >> monitoring company and they've been uh
working for the town I think since 2012 or 14. Um, Scott probably correct me on that. Um, but so they were already in place and doing activity. They sent me a quote in January to do additional work.
And when I read through it, I was really concerned about the way they were approaching it. So, I reached out to a firm that I knew had very active and long-term um PAS experience um more so than the folks I was working
with um at Stantech. the gentleman um Jeffrey Arps who is our primary uh environmental person on the project at Tai and Bond was on the state task force for PAS the only LSP that was and he's
he has a very solid handle on the issue and so he when he an looked over everything he had very strong critical reasons to do different uh to place wells differently to do monitoring differently and um so far that's working
very well. >> Does that answer your question, Dana? >> Yeah. >> Scott, so last question. I hope it stays in the four corners of the article. Is the board uh in contact with any state agencies about any state programs for
refunds or for engineering services for PAS because it's not exclusive to Sunderland as has been spelled out. >> Not yet. >> Uh not yet. And on that note, um it does feel to me and this is just an a personal statement that a lot of the
responsibility for the PAS has been put on local town municipalities to deal with without as much support from the state and federal level and also from manufacturers of the chemicals themselves. Um and I would encourage everybody to if you have a conversation with your local representatives or
members of the state senate to mention that to them that it would be very helpful to have more assistance from the state in remediating that. Just saying. Right. Any other questions? All right. Seeing none. All those in
favor of article six. Anyone opposed? All right. Article six passes by uh unanimously. >> All right. Um >> I think I saw two hands. >> Yeah, >> it was majority. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Was it majority? Okay, it
passes majority. I'm sorry, I didn't see that. >> It's over there. >> Oh, okay. [laughter] Thank you. >> All right. Um, that actually concludes our business for the evening. Um, thank I'd like to thank everybody for coming out. Appreciate it. And, uh, do we have a motion to adjurnn?
>> I move. >> Motion we adjourn. >> I'll second that. >> Dissolve. >> Dissolve. Excuse me. >> Second that. >> Not a regular meeting. All right. All those in favor of dissolving the special town meeting. >> Anyone opposed? All right, that's a majority.
>> Thank you everybody. For sure. >> All right, thank you.