Good evening, Danas. Welcome to the February 17, 2026 select board meeting. Can I have the pledge of allegiance, Dan? >> Yes, certainly. Please join me. I pledge algiance 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. >> Thank you, Dan. >> You're welcome. >> All right. At this time, can I have approval of the minutes of February 3rd,
2026? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Second. >> All in favor? All right. I >> abstain. >> Okay. Opposed. >> Okay. >> Abstain. Right. Yep. Okay. At this time, we're going to go to new public business. The clerk will have her timer.
Um, please go up to the uh podium and introduce yourself. Bill, go right up. Thank you. >> Good evening, Board of Selectment. Bill Bates, town meeting member, precinct 4. And start out with thank you all for your service to our town. Appreciate it.
Um, I want to talk about the crosswalk signalization um that I sent you all of you a memo this week about it and also about the possibility of the Damas Police Department having a traffic safety division. Um, I figured where you're
going to talk about your budget tonight and things that are about to get it going on the budget, I should be here tonight. Um, I'm seeking your support for a budgetary commitment to improve traffic traffic and pedestrian safety in Danvers for the fiscal year 2027. We
have some dangerous sidewalks. I'm sorry, strike that. We have some dangerous crosswalks in town in regard to vehicles and sight range for drivers and pedestrians. And in the year 2024, I believe we've had over,00
automobile crashes. And that number may be wrong. I tried to update it today, but I missed with Lieutenant Sullivan. The RRFB, the rectangular rapid flashing beacon, when placed at crosswalks, can increase
motorist yielding rates by up to 98% and can reduce crashes up to 47%. And I sent you a copy of that uh that one-page thing on the RRFBs. Um, we need these at many of the
crosswalks in town. I'm not going to say all of them, but some of them we definitely need them. Uh, the estimated cost is approximately $10,000 per location, plus now they make you update the ADA uh device ADA situation. The
devices run on solar power after they're installed. I believe with your support we could encourage staff to even seek grants through the Massachusetts safe routes to school department and others to help pay for these improvements. I
would also encourage the board to commit to establishing a traffic division within the Danvas Police Department. We can do better as as a town regarding traffic and pedestrian safety. Thank you. >> Thank you, Bill.
And we all got that. That was good information. And uh did you ask the board members to maybe give us five dangerous inter crosswalks, right? If everybody could get >> and then that was a mistake because you know the traffic advisory committee
will be on that. Mike's part of that. They're going to they're going to help determine where the most dangerous ones are. But it's funny. We don't really have a list. If you ask anybody in town, where are all the crosswalks? There's no Excel sheet of crosswalks. And I think we should have one. Um, so we'll get there.
>> Excellent idea. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Anybody else? No. Bill, >> I'll take a pass. >> Okay. You can take a pass. >> All right. Thank you. You want to comment on that? Yeah. >> Like to comment on his uh failure to
participate. >> I'm thrown off. >> I know you're throwing us all off, Bill, tonight. All right. Okay, >> Mike. Maybe on the traffic adversity. Hazen and Maple. That should be the first one. >> I could hang down there with the sign myself. >> And you've been attending those meetings, too, right?
>> Which is good. Okay, good. We'll be waiting to hear for an update from you, too. >> Oh, okay. >> Thank you. >> All right. At this time, a public hearing will be held under chapter 140, section 181, weekdays, including Saturdays. Chapter 136, section 4, Sundays of the general on the
application of Costa LLC, DBA Craft Kitchen and Bar 62 Maple Street. George Sasses, manager for a 7-day entertainment license at that location. Who is here to speak? Please. Hi. Introduce yourself and welcome. >> Uh, good evening everyone. Uh, I'm
George Satis. I'm the owner of uh, Craft Kitchen and Bar. Um, we're here tonight because we're asking for entertainment license uh to kind of help us booster some of our uh slower business days. Um, things we're looking to do are things
like musical bingo, a trivia night, maybe a guy with a guitar in a corner. Um, probably start with maybe one day, maybe two. Um, I don't think this is something that we want to do every night of the week. It's just something that it would be nice to have the option to be able to
uh help us. Like I said, build up a few of the slow nights and then maybe some special events. Um have somebody come in. Um as far as um operating hours, um this isn't we're we're a restaurant first. We're not a bar. So um it would
be something that would be the winding down hours of our uh dinner time and we'd probably be wrapping up about a half hour before we typically close. >> Excellent. All right. Um D, do you have any questions? Uh, sure. Um,
hours wise, when you say half hour before you close, what what exactly are we? >> Yeah, I mean, I think the latest we're ever there is 11. So, it's something that I would like to get at least the entertainment part of it done by 10:30 just so we have time to kind of clear
the restaurant and the tables and get everybody out safely and >> Okay. So, we sing up to 10:30. And I saw on your application you said uh there could be live music up to two people singing. >> Yeah, we don't have much space for more than that. So, you know, I could see a
guy with a guitar. Um I don't know, maybe a guy playing the guitar and one other guy if anything. I don't think we really have space for uh anything more than that. >> Okay. Okay. And to you, Madame Chair, to maybe the clerk, um have the Aba been
notified and I'm not I've never been there. Sorry. Um what's the residential situation there? >> There's nothing above. Um we did do a butter notification and a legal ad in the newspaper. So the abutters were notified,
>> okay, >> through the mail. And then a newspaper ad was um posted last week >> that was from the town. >> The town posted. Yes. >> From the owner. Have you notified Do people live around there? >> So what we generally do is that it's the um applicant's responsibility to notify
the abutters. However, in this case, there were probably uh 50 or so abutters. So um the applicant came to my office and we worked on them together and I made sure they went in the mail to the abutters. >> Okay. And no response or did you get any?
>> I did not get anything and I don't see anybody here. >> Okay. Um, and is this going to be seasonal or you want it year round? >> Uh, year round would be good. >> And you think I had a question about
frequency. You think you might start by once or twice a week and maybe expand depending on how it goes? Yeah, I think like for now to start we're trying to think of like a Monday or a Tuesday to maybe do a musical bingo or trivia night and then we just launched uh brunch last
Sunday. So, we're thinking maybe somebody with a guitar during brunch or some type of jazz brunch or some type of musical brunch. >> Okay. And would And do the door typically stay closed with the windows or >> Yeah, our doors are always closed. Uh
they just open up when a customer walks in or out >> and and based on the map, it's going to be indoor only. >> Uh yes. Um we don't really have a space outside for it right now. Hopefully in the future though. And the last question I had was um any
soundproof assessment or did you I don't know how that works like before you do it you have an idea as to how the the building is um >> yeah I mean
>> we play like music over the radio now um I don't see it to be any issue. You don't even hear it in the kitchen let alone outside the doors. Um, I don't think it will be much louder than what we play as of now. >> Okay. Okay. Uh, I think that's it for me
for now, Madam Chair. I I think the goal to support local business is always one that we we strive for, but at the same time making sure that uh we do not disturb >> uh residents and so it's kind of like
that balance. So, thank you. >> Wonderful. Good. Mike, >> um, looks like you guys are doing okay. Every time we go by, it's quite a business going. >> Yeah, thank God. You know, uh, we still hopefully have some room to grow between lunches and take out and stuff like that. But, yeah, the town's been super
supportive and it's been great. >> Yeah, it's a good good location. >> Thank you. >> If if in the event that uh a neighbor complained, are you going to be prepared to deal with that? >> Um, yeah, >> I know it's inside, but I'm just
>> Yeah. No, I mean I would obviously do my best. I mean, I'm a restaurant owner. I have pretty thick skin. I hear complaints, you know, pretty pretty frequently and uh you know, I try to smile and uh >> do my best to uh rectify whatever the the problem is. >> Okay. All right. No, I'm all for it. So,
thank you. >> Yeah. Appreciate it. >> Uh no, I don't have any questions. I'll have some conditions for the motion, but it's things he's already put in there. So, >> Okay. Thank you, Garner. Dan, >> thank you. Hello, George. >> Hello. Um clarification on the abueds,
madam clerk. >> Yes. >> Where did you send notices to? >> Uh I >> I mean it's downtown, right? >> You've got Maple Street Housing. Did they get notified? >> Um I got the list of abutters from the
assessor's office >> for the abuing neighbors. I don't have a map showing, but I do have the list of the ones that were sent. Um, I see Cherry Street, Maple Street, Cherry Street, Maple Street. >> What number Maple?
>> I got 55, 49, 64, 50, 44, 48. >> Those are all >> commercial heading that other direction from Maple Street Housing. And I would assume Maple Street Housing
fits into our parameters of distance. 3 83 and 90. I got Maple Street Congressional Church Dyn. >> Okay. So, it seems you did reach out to >> those that are residential. Okay. Thank you,
>> George. What are the hours of your brunch that you're planning on having? >> Uh 10 to 3 on Sundays. >> 10 to 3. Okay. >> I'd like in the application or in the motion that we have a definitive time of the events. You say closing by 10:30,
but what time would you start? >> Probably like 8 to 10. >> 8 to 10 or 8 to 10:30. >> Let's say 8 to 10:30. >> And on Sundays, 10 to 3. >> Um, we'd probably go a little bit later, like maybe 12 to 3. I think that's
usually when we start to kind of uh fill up. >> So, Sunday's 12 to 3. >> Yeah, I would say 12 as a start time to three as a end time on >> on Sunday. Okay. because that's a separate license that you're applying for. >> Oh, I did not know that. I thought
>> Yeah, Sunday is a separate um license. Uh Monday through Saturdays would be 8 to 10:30. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. Just whoever makes the motion, if we can include that. And you're right, it's a very small area, but you're
limited to no more than two people. Is that correct? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> All right. That's all the questions I have for you. >> Yep. Those are my questions, too. Two people. Um, the abutter is being notified with the housing for sure. And the people the kitchen door, does that stay open? Is there a window? Because
that's my concern. The people in back on Cherry Street, too. >> Um, so I I don't know if you've been in the building, but the the there's a dining room, then it goes to a kitchen door. That's a swing door, but then the dining room goes kind of far back to where the takeout is. That back door is
more where the takeout section is. >> So, it's probably a good, >> I don't know, 50 50 feet from the dining room. But does that open up to like the back of Cherry Street? >> It opens up kind of like um in the alleyway behind where um >> Okay.
>> Uh what is that Maple Street Cafe is? Okay. Like that parking lot right behind there. >> All right. Yep. Okay. Good. That was my concern, too, is the just the uh sound proof that you brought up, Dean, which was good. Um and the hours, you know, 8 to 10:30 and 12 to 3. So, do I have a
motion? Donna, >> I move first that we accept the um application under chapter 140 section 181 for weekdays including Saturdays with the following conditions that uh there's no more than two performers or hosts which you've said that was the
case. Uh and music will be between the hours of 8 and 10:30 and then for consistency that there'll be no outside amplification. >> That goes with other >> PM. >> We do that. >> Sure. >> Okay. We're assume that's PM. >> Yes, I'm sorry. PM. Okay.
>> Y >> 10:30 p.m. Okay. And I'm sorry. This is a public hearing. Did anybody in the public have any questions? Bill, I'm sorry. You do. See, I knew it. >> My apologies, Gina. >> No, no worries.
>> Bill Brad Street town member of a precinct one in the downtown area. There are some second floor residences. I believe when you notified everybody was just just at street level or was it the unit to hold this
>> there are there are no uh people above this location >> that location but in the area of that location he's thinking >> no there there really is no there's a business next door and then the other side is a a first level as well.
>> Okay. Okay. I was just concerned where sound does travel and there are in certain areas down there apartments on the second floor that the that they were notified obviously
>> it would be the owner it would be the owners of the property not necessarily a renter of an apartment right >> okay the renters would have to notify the owner who would have to >> Okay so if I may madam chairman for clarification listening to the addresses
is Nick Brazudo was notified cuz he's the owner of 4450. Um there are residents moving in upstairs but they weren't notified just Nick was. >> Well the owner of the property would be notified. >> I'm just clarifying that. >> Well that was again that was my concern.
>> Don't want to hear about it afterwards. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Anybody else have any questions? >> Move to close the public hearing. >> Second. >> Okay. >> Then back to my motion. The first one was for the weekdays and Saturdays >> from the times uh from 8:00 p.m. to
10:30 limited to two performers or hosts and uh no outside amplification. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Uh any discussions? >> Any discussions? Yeah. >> I I'm just curious and and pardon my
naivity here. Why why are we doing 8:00? Uh why not 7 or like when do people have I'm a restaurant first. I want my diners to have enough time to like experience their their dinners without music. Really? It
>> Okay. So, so the 8:00 works for you. >> Yeah, I think so. That's usually that's Yeah, that's usually when we start to wind down. So, it you know, I I don't want to upset somebody who's having a quiet dinner either. And, you know, I think that it's if it's known that if it's a later dinner, there could be some entertainment, you know.
>> Perfect. That that makes sense. I I just wanted to know. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you. You're welcome. >> Right. So, we have a motion. We have a second. All in favor? >> I >> I opposed. >> Okay. >> And madam, uh I took two motions. I separated the motions. I'm assuming the
public hearing was just as one. You don't want to do public hearing on the second motion. Do you Okay. No. >> Um then I move that we accept the application under chapter 136 section 4 for Sundays. >> Um as presented with the f following conditions. music be limited between
noon and 3:00 on Sunday that no more than two performers or hosts and no outside amplification. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I >> I opposed. Well, good luck. >> Thank you guys. Appreciate it. Thank you. >> Good luck.
>> Thank you. >> Okay. Moving right along. The board will hear a report by Weston and Samson regarding the transfer station. very excited about this. >> This is good. Very, very good material
presented too. Thank you. >> You want to speak into it, please? Thank you. >> Thank you. We did a report uh a few years back and we updated it for this meeting, but we have a little presentation which hopefully will hit the salient points. I'll run the projector, I hope.
Thank you. >> All right. Well, thank you, Mike. Thank you to members of the board. Um, happy to be in front of you here tonight to talk about the, um, assessment we did on the Danvers transfer station. So, uh, just quickly here, here's an aerial
photo showing the facility. Um, next slide, Mike. All right. So, by way of uh history, the transfer station was built in the late 80s following closure of the town landfill. Um, it's been privately operated since its construction. The
town's only role in the facility um was operating the scale, which happened until uh 2011. Um the existing license, maintenance of the facility, logistics um are all handled by now Reorld, formerly Coanta.
I apologize. I'm going to call him Coanta throughout this presentation because I'm still not used to the name change. Um, but overall, this is a valuable solid waste asset for the town. Um, it currently generates revenue that we'll talk about on the next slide. And um, it's important to consider the
future of the facility um, prior to the end of the current contract. So, next slide, Mike. Oh, go back one. Actually, I think we skipped one. All right. So, um, Reworld, uh, is the current managing entity through today. Um, the agreement
with them is valid until 2028. Um, the town receives annual payments of $100,000 from ReWorld. And additionally, um, there is a I'll call it a preferred rate on town MSW that goes through the facility. Um, one other note, um, I'll
use the terms MSW and CND throughout this presentation. MSW is municipal solid waste. It's your typical household trash. Um CND is construction and demolition um debris. So you're talking things like wood um you know siding, drywall, concrete, things along those
lines. So just so you know what those two terms are as we go through the presentation. Um I'll also note that the current curbside collection contract expires in 2028. That's through Republic. Um but a detailed evaluation of the curbside program wasn't really
within the scope of our assessment. We were focusing on the transfer station itself and next steps for it um coming the end of the current contract in 2028. All right. So on this slide um we give kind of a regional snapshot of some of
the solid waste facilities in the general vicinity of Danvers. Danver's right in the middle with the big orange star. Um most of these facilities are transfer stations. Uh there are three incinerators located north of Boston. Um two of them are owned and operated by Wheeler. One is actually by ReWorld. Um
and on this it may be a little bit hard to see on the um the projector, but the red squares are municipally run facilities while the green circles are privately run facilities. So there's a mixture of both within the general um
vicinity of Danvers. All right. So, for the municipal transfer stations, u most of those accept town trash only. Um it's often as a additional benefit alongside a curbside collection program for residents of the town, overflow trash,
miscellaneous recycling materials that didn't fit in the bin, things along those lines. Um, Peabody, Newberry, and Lynn are operating under a similar model to what you have now with a town-owned transfer station that's being operated
by a private party. Um, very few of the townrun facilities take in uh materials from non-residents. The only one that I'm aware of is Winchester that takes in um waste from outside contractors, junk callers, things like that. Um it's also
worth noting that above and beyond the facilities shown there, there are two large CND, so that's construction and demolition waste facilities that are um coming online in the next few years. One's in Gloucester, one's in Georgetown. They've been moving through the permitting process for, you know,
facility operation. Um, so we expect that they'll be up and running relatively shortly and that'll add some additional C and D capacity to the market beyond what's shown on the map that we presented. So our evaluation focused on three
options for the facility. Um, the first one is continuation of the current model what you're doing now. um contract out to a private um waste company to operate the facility um with some sort of cost sharing agreement with the town to bring
in revenue. Uh the other two options we looked at were the town taking over management of the facility. Um there are two options we looked at under that which is two and three here. Option two is you continue to use it in its current
capacity taking in MSW household trash. Um, the third option would be getting a modification to your current mass D permit to allow it to take in C and D materials. It's a different waist stream with different financials that go along with it. Um, currently the facilities,
it's tight. It's a relatively small site, relatively small building. The layout would only support one or the other. Um, so there's really not a great option to have both MSW and CND moving through the facility. Um, so looking at the current agreement
um that you have with Reworld, the $100,000 per year maybe a bit on the low side. Um, but keep in mind it's boosted by the preferred rate on in town um solid waste disposal. Uh, we reached out to all of the major
um waste companies within the general area and um across the board there was interest in the facility. Um, at the time that we did this report, the biggest need that we heard from these various vendors was a need for increased
CN tonnage. And so, it's looking at that third option of changing your permit to take in those materials. Um, but as I noted, with two new CND facilities coming online, there's likely to be more competition in the market there, and there may be less desire to have um another outlet for these companies for
CND materials. Um so should the town uh continue with uh the current model um you can either direct negotiate with solid waste companies um or go through an RFP process. Solid waste is a little different from typical procurement. So
you have a little bit more wiggle room there um in terms of how you engage the next um operator of the facility. Um through those negotiations you may be able to increase the annual fee. Um you can also negotiate um the favorable disposal rate in theory. So there are
you know multiple things that can be um negotiated with whoever the next party is for the transfer station. All right so next slide Mike. All right. Um so looking at in-house operation of the facility. Um the advantage of in-house operation is that
the town would have greater control over the facility. you folks would be running it. Um, you know, everything about the day-to-day would run through the town. Um, but that's also a challenge. Um, all the logistics would be on the town, staffing would be on the town. Um, all
the associated costs would be on the town. Um, as well as conformance with the current mass DP permit reporting, etc. Um so just want to make clear up front that taking over um operation of
the transfer station isn't a simple process. There's a lot that goes um into that which is why in general these waste companies are interested in it. It's what they do. Um it's you know their bread and butter. So they're well positioned to handle all of those
challenges. All right. Um, so next couple slides are going to be on costs. These are a little bit difficult to convey, so I'll do my best. If you have any questions on this, obviously let us know at the end. Um, but starting off um from a cost
perspective, major investments will be needed um for capital items. Um, we spell out um some of those in the next slide. Um, but to offset both those capital costs, staffing, um, and utilities, all the other costs that go
along with the facility, you charge people at the door to drop off trash. Um, as you saw on the slide showing the map, there's a lot of regional competition here. Um, it's not an easy market. um especially for a municipality
to be competing with the private facilities that have full control over the waist stream. When they take it in, they can get either preferred rates at its ultimate disposal facility or it goes to one of their own facilities. So, generally they're better positioned um
kind of taking the trash all the way from when it enters the door to where it goes to its final home. Um, one other note, um, if the town took over operation of the facility, you may lose the current preferential pricing you
have for, um, Danver's solid waste. So, uh, a little bit more detail on costs. Um, facility staff, you're going to need six of them likely, um, with benefits and, you know, wages to pay. Um there are a whole slew of equipment needs,
loader, scale, trucks, trailers, etc. Um that's all itemized out in the report in a little bit more detail. Um there's facility upkeep and maintenance, utilities, and then there are also transportation costs. Um the trash will ultimately need to go to a final end
facility, an incinerator or a landfill. Um so the town will have to pay at the door to get it into that final facility. um the amount annually that pay um that you would have to pay, it'll depend on how much trash moves through the facility. Um but we're talking on the
order of millions. Um so something to keep in mind above and beyond just the staffing, capital costs, and everything for the building itself. A significant cost driver is the transportation and ultimately disposal at the end facility of these materials. Costs which will
have to be borne by the town. Um, as I mentioned as well, administration of all this would be on the town. So, there's a lot of logistics negotiation with haulers, um, or sorry, with receiving facilities and a slew of other things that, you know, would be the responsibility of the town if you
were to take it over. Uh, next slide, Mike. Okay. Um so if we boil all the numbers down um at a anticipated market rate regionally for MSW of 125 a ton that's what we expect
generally in the region um facilities will be charging to take in the materials. All of the costs that we outlined bef on the previous slide would lead to a $3.7 million deficit. It's significant. Um, in order to break even, the charge would or the town would have
to charge $176 per ton at the door, which is significantly higher than the estimated regional rates. It's tough to be competitive, um, with some of those private haulers. Um, so as a result, um, you know, ultimately this seems to have
some limited financial viability. Next slide. Um, switching gears quickly to the CND um, option. All the costs are generally the same here. It's um, a difference of what material you take in the door. And
ultimately based on what we saw for current market rates in 2024 when we um, wrote the report, an even greater deficit um, is expected compared to MSW. And with those two large facilities coming online, it's likely that that gap
gets even bigger. Um, so the rates that you would have to charge to take in CND materials are even less competitive um, with the regional market to reach a break even point. Um, I'll note that no other towns
regionally that I'm aware of really have this approach of operating a transfer station that's taking in only CND materials. It's really limited to um, folks in the private sector processing those materials and taking them in. All right.
So, general summary of options two and three. So, town taking over management of the facility. They appear to have limited uh viability from a financial perspective. Um there's logistic concerns, um capital needs, staffing needs, and those are all going to be
significant challenges if you do elect to move forward with the town running the facility. Um, as I mentioned, you also may lose your preferential rates on town um, MSW, further increasing the costs if you take over the facility yourselves.
Um, so as a result, we recommend that you maintain your current model of partnering with a um, outside vendor for management of the facility. Um, as I mentioned, this can be done either through an RFP process or through direct negotiation.
um for next steps. If you guys do elect to move forward with this, um we'd recommend that we reach back out to some of the area um waste haulers. It's been a couple years since we last talked to them. I'm not expecting that they won't be interested, but um there has been some changes in the market since we last
spoke. Um additionally, the earlier you can begin this process, the better. Um we recommend at the at the absolute worst you start it by the end of 2026 but the earlier that you can do it um
the easier it will be for the various waste companies to come up with competitive proposals. They have procurement um needs for equipment and otherwise that um will have to be baked into um their proposals ultimately to you. So the sooner that this can kind of
be um put out for um you know consideration by these entities, the better pricing you would ultimately get at the end of the day. And understanding we went through that fairly quickly. Um open for any questions you may have. Mike and I are
here to answer um questions or concerns you may have. >> We also have um Rob De here. If anybody has questions for Rob, we will open it up uh to board members for questions. That was a great presentation. Took a lot of time to read through this and try to understand it.
So, I will start with um Dan, do you have questions, please? >> I just have a comment. >> Yeah. >> I wonder why we went through this process. I mean, it's obvious that if we took over running it, we don't have the staff. We don't have the experience. We don't have the ability to set rates that
are non-competitive. So, thank you for the presentation. Of >> course, >> I didn't learn anything. >> Mike, >> thank you. Um, yeah, I really enjoyed the uh presentation and she's very clear
on how you spelled it all out. Um, how much material are we taking in because besides the town material, Covanta brings in other material. Correct. >> Correct. So, do we have the ability to take more in? >> You could. Um, but the issue that you have with that is for each additional
ton you take in at the facility, you need to send it to an ultimate disposal location. So, you you'll get more money coming in the door on the front end, but you're paying it on the back end to send it to the incinerator or landfill at the end of the day. Um for 2020
um 6700 call it tons of Danver's MSW came through the facility. Um outside residential was 7,600 or so and that's from residential that's residential MSW not from commercial
haulers. Commercial haulers brought in another 65,000 tons of material. So, the vast majority of the material came in was from those private haulers. Um, but you're looking at a general total from 2020 through 2022 is all pretty
consistent of the high 70,000 tons to low 80,000 tons. And >> the other the other haulers, are they other communities? >> Um, some of them are. Um, there are other facilities or other communities that ReWorld works with. So some of that
material went through the transfer station and then the rest of it is commercial MSW. So things like junk haulers, contractors, things along those lines or private haulers in theory that you know service larger um apartment buildings, things like that.
>> Okay. Like condominiums would have a private hauler and they would come in. Okay. Um yeah. I guess I was wondering if we could take more in, can we make more money? So, you're you're limited by your
permit. Um, but also it winds up being um a little bit of a you're chasing it on one end and paying it out on the other. So, um you know, it's uh it's difficult to scale it up that way for you as a municipality. It's easier for these folks that have existing contracts
with other towns or whatnot to take in more material that's from outside of Danvers, but it's a little bit more >> has taken the hit on all the uh labor. Yep. >> Equipment, etc. >> Yep. And they're ultimately sending it to their own facilities. >> Right. Right. Okay. Thank you very much.
>> Yep. >> Ghana. >> Hi. Thank you. Uh, couple of things I just want to get clear in my head. There are two operators at the at the transfer station. If I use the wrong terminology, I apologize. There's the management company, Covent, who manages the scale
house, the the building, the loader that's pushing it into the big truck, so on and so forth. the permits. Um, and then there's Republic who picks up the trash at my house, drops it off at the at the um at the transfer station. Which of those two is responsible for getting
the trash out of that transfer station into whatever incinerator or disposal? Which is it Covent or is it Republic? >> That's covered by Reworld or Covent. >> Covent. Okay. So, basically the only thing I don't want to say the only thing the thing that Republic does is picks up the trash at my house, drops it off the
transfer station, then they're done. Yep. there. Okay, great. Thank you. Um, so that and and the question is why did we need the report? I think that the report was started ahead of time, but I think a lot of questions came up during the recent trash strike. And I know a lot of people had misinformation about
who runs this transfer station. Is it the town? Is it Coventto? Who's responsible for pickup? So on and so forth. And I think >> coming into this job, the town manager did a really good job managing what a lot of towns couldn't uh in successful a
manner. Um, so Republic actually doesn't make money from the transfer process other than the fact that they they drop off and they they they they are just paid. We pay them correct or they are paid to do this. Yep. >> Um the town pays them to do this service. Y
>> they don't sell the trash. They don't sell the the recycle that they're out of that business. That's Ku Vanta that does it. That's the relationship. Okay. Um, and you said there's a preferred rate for Danverse built in, baked in, and so uh and what's the what was I think it
was like uh is it a $150 discount or what was the what was the difference between rate and the nonfford rate? >> We took a look at um rates from 2021 up through actually 2026. Um the other towns that uh were contacted were
Beverly, Burlington, Reading, and Wakefield. Um 2026 we had limited data because it's the start of the new year. So let's look at 2024. Um in 2024 you folks were paying $8729.
Um whereas your neighbors were paying on average $101.30. So it's about $14. So, not only do we get the $100,000 right off the top annually, we get the delta between the two prices times the tonnage that we bring in
>> essentially. Yes. So, for those other facilities that um are um you know sending their material to the final facility, they're paying more to that ultimate receiving facility than you folks do. Um so, it's one of the advantages of having Coanta able to send
it to their own facility. They give you better rates. Are the municipal trash is this only damage munitional trash coming in? >> Uh there are there is municipal trash from other um towns coming into it. It's a relatively comparable tonnage. >> Okay. >> Um but that preferred rate is trash.
>> Okay. They pay the higher rate. >> Y >> um Okay. Uh cuz when I I I use the transfer station probably once a month. >> Yep. >> I have a little service trailer in my truck. Bring stuff up there. So when I pull through, they don't ask me if I'm a Davis resident. So I'm assuming they
don't do it at the micro level where I pull up on the scale and they charge me a different rate than they might charge some guy from SUS. >> Yeah. So from my understanding um at the actual gate it's primarily residents from Danvers that would be taking it in
>> where you have that differential pricing as in yeah the larger hauling coming into the facility. >> Okay. And in the calculation of trying to determine whether we could privatize and maybe it's in here and I just didn't see it. Did we determine if Davis were
to privatize the collection, how many trucks would we need to service Danverse in a fiveday per, you know, ourselves? How many trucks would we have to purchase? And not only trash trucks, but also recycle trucks. >> So, we I don't believe we looked into
that. We can definitely check that. Um, it'll be based on kind of your current hauling routes and what you have through Republic. So, it'll wind up being a comparable number of vehicles that you would need. >> And I don't think I don't want you to chase that number down. I think you've you've demonstrated the risks and the deficit in cost
>> um uh because as we were discussing this is a last mile issue which is to say it's not about managing the scale house so much managing the the facility the building the the work there even buying our own trucks and accepting trash in republic it's what do you do to get that
trash out of there so the risk will always be in that situation what is the other what are the inciner operators and other disposal people got to charge us >> correct >> to do that work. Um and so uh
so the the carding out is the unknown factor but you've demonstrated that uh options B and C are just not financially feasible and introduce the risk of not being able to control costs. Y >> at the end of the day, the large hauling
companies are better able to negotiate this because they're the market players. Um for a municipality to be competitive with them is challenging. Um that's why a lot of these facilities in similar towns, it's relatively small scale.
Taking in that trailer a month um and just an additional benefit to the town rather than an attempt to make money. >> Thank you. And I'll ask through you to the town manager. Will a form of this be put on our website? So we excuse me the report was put on the website as part of the meeting
materials and yes I just made myself a note to have the presentation added as well >> and the reason is I think it's a it's a very legitimate question for someone to say based on republic's the the strike from republic last year why don't we do it ourselves is it cost effective having it someplace on the DPW website or
someplace that you can point to and say because and here's the numbers that support no we won't want to do this but thank you very much I appreciate the thoroughess Thank you, Madame Chair. Thank you for the presentation. That was definitely helpful. More helpful than the package.
It was was really confusing. I wasn't sure what I was reading. This is all new to me. So, pardon me. I'm a new board member. Never had a presentation about this before. Uh I have a few questions.
Um the first one being um Western and Samson. I did like a to you, Madam Chair. I did like a contractor that's helping us do an assessment and they have nothing to do with Coventa. Is that correct? >> Correct. Yeah. And you can tell them a
little bit about Western and Samson if you. >> Um so we're an engineering consulting company. Um we do work kind of throughout the uh eastern seabboard primarily in New England. Um, a lot of our work is with similar municipalities to yourself doing wastewater, water, um,
solid waste, um, you know, kind of you name it on the civil side of the equation. Um, we folks internally who handle that. So, yeah, we do engineering design work and consulting like this um, to help towns make tough decisions. >> Okay. So, your your assessment was based
on the information you got, >> correct? >> And your professional judgment and that's how you came up with these recommendations. >> Yep. So it was based on um the conversations we had with other municipalities with information provided by DPW and then from yeah our experience
um doing this work throughout the state. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And if I may um tra municipal solid waste and trash is a a specialized area. So between I I mean if you guys want to offer between the two of them how many years of experience talking trash I think it's important to hear because
it's um it is a very specialized area and so I mean >> for me >> yeah I'm ask just for the trash just for the trash >> just trash been >> okay >> just stealing trash okay >> okay >> and 16 so
>> thank you um >> I wasn't born yet. >> So, when you talk about the 3.4 million deficit, >> that includes capital improvements, right?
>> Correct. Um, over a 10-year payment period. Um, so overall, I want to say our costs for that were somewhere in the 10 million range, plus or minus. Um, it's in the report. I can't remember the exact number, but that would be um advertised over a 10-year period. So
you'd have annual payments of about 10% of that every year. >> Okay. And then after the 10 year we will get hopefully in the green and start making profit. >> Well uh no the differential from just
the capital improvements. That's not the most significant cost here. Ultimately the biggest cost as Gardner mentioned is getting it out of the facility and getting it into an incinerator. um that was by far the greatest um cost driver.
So even after that 10-year period where you've paid off all of your equipment and facility upgrades and all of that, you're still going to have that annual fee to get it into the incinerator which is going to cost on the order of millions. So that is a greater um contributor to the overall cost than
just purchasing the equipment and upgrading the building. >> Okay. Now the building operating now are things like scale. Are they owned by Coventa or they owned by the town? So the only thing we have there as the town is the land. >> You have the land and the building
itself but yep the scale is owned by Covent. Um and then yeah obviously all the management of the facility all the upkeep and whatnot is also on them. Correct. >> So we'll have to purchase all of that. >> Correct. Yep. new trucks, new loaders, um you know, any other facility
upgrades, the electricity going into the facility, all of that would be on the town rather than on Coanta or Reworld as it is currently. >> I mean, we have Denver Electric, so we have >> um now the the 100,000 that the town get
is that per year? >> Yes. And has it been like that? Was it like a fixed thing or is it adjusted with inflation? >> Um, for what I know, the the price of my trash went up.
>> Yeah. >> Rodney, do you want to do you want to Rob, please answer his question. Thank you >> through you, Madam Chair. Rodney Con, science director. Um so when it was renegotiated a couple years back it was a flat 100,000 to increase annually by
CPI which is the same uh deal we struck with the the tundage cost for us. It increases by CPI every year as well >> consumer price index >> up to uh 2028 >> okay and prior to the 100,000 and you
may or may not know from two years ago what was it? Do we know what it was before? >> It was a price per ton and I believe we are making more now based on the 100,000 adjusted by CPI than we were by the tonnage. >> Okay. >> And the other concern is that that makes it a stable revenue source for us as
opposed to a dollar per tonnage which they could at any time just decide to divert. Um and we'd lose that money. So yeah. Okay. >> And this might be getting into the needy. You may or may not have the answer. Do we know how much profit coventa is making there?
>> Do not. Nope. >> A lot. >> They keep all of that information very close to their chest. So, no, we did not. >> He's a guy with no neck that'll give you that answer. >> He won't. >> But but we have information about how
many how much tons of trash goes there. >> So, the reason why we don't know is we don't know how much they use for how much it cost them to incinerate and things like that. operating. >> We don't know their operating cost. That's why so we might be able to estimate how much is going in
>> but we would not necessarily know how much they spending to >> correct. >> Is that correct? >> Yeah. And I mean in general it's an opaque market. Um you know all of these various vendors are not going to provide any of the information that would be needed to really accurately calculate
that they're still in business. They're still making money. Um but how much we can't say. Okay. When do we have to make a decision uh to start any negotiation for a for a renewal contract if this ends in 2028?
>> The sooner the better. Um our absolute latest would be end of the calendar year, but we'd recommend you come to a decision in the next few months, say, um just to get that process going as quickly as possible. gives more time to get um good numbers from the various um
vendors you'd be reaching out to and you don't want to be in a situation where you're scrambling last minute um to try to get this out on the street and get good numbers in. The more time you can give, the better. >> Okay. And based on your experience, your six uh 55 years experience between both
of you, uh how many companies do we have that we can chase out there? There's four or five >> competitive. >> Um yeah, the >> the full list of folks we reached out to was in this. It's I can't remember if it was four or five, but it's in that
>> in the in the presentation you said Casali Waste Republic and Melo, right? >> You spoke with Yeah. >> But what about like wind what about Wind Waste? >> Yep. They could be interested and there's more
consolidation in the market. Yeah, >> some of the disposal folks that are down south have moved up into this area. So, by the time you get out there, there may be more people that are interested. It'd be important to make sure that whoever you get can really do the job.
>> Okay. Now, if you went the route of taking over the the the transfer station and then try to take over the hauler that picks up the trash, too. >> Mhm. Would that offset some of the costs? >> Um, it may, but you then will have
additional equipment needs, additional staffing needs, and in general, towns are getting out of the hauling side of it. I know the recent Republic strike was, you know, a challenge for many of these Northshore communities, but in general, um, insurance as well for these
vehicles. There's a lengthy lead time on getting trucks nowadays as things are getting increasingly automated. There are a number of barriers there um that similarly to the transfer station and again we didn't do a detailed dive into this but generally I wouldn't recommend
that you look to take over um the uh >> the pickup and hauling side of it either um because yeah it's similarly it's going to be tough for the town to be competitive um with these companies that do it professionally. >> Okay, thank you. >> 20 years ago it was a different market
at home can hear you. >> Can you speak? Yeah, thank you. >> I'd say about about 15 to 20 years ago was a different marketplace. Cities and towns could do it a lot more competitively. The marketplace has really changed due to the cost of vehicles and equipment and other things. >> Okay.
>> So, we're seeing we're seeing a lot of communities look to go the other way. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Great. >> Thank you. It's just that we almost seems like the price of getting rid of the trash keeps going up and up and up too and we think >> it's a commodity and there's not many disposal sites. Okay, thank you.
>> Thank you. Great presentation. I had to read it through like three times. Um, so from what I'm reading, I did Google you guys, the engineers, and you've been doing this for a while. So, we have the three options, partnering, um, with a private company, um, operation,
um, in-house operation, transfer station, and an in-house operation of transer station with a with a partner, too. So, there's those three. My questions are is that's what I was bringing up going to bring up is on the on the sample it said uh Casala Waste
Republic and Melo. I mean I know of when you see them they're always advertise of games Bruins and everything. They're big but from United UK or something wherever they came from and then Capital Waste right is another one >> does a lot of work in Boston. >> Yep. So um
>> yeah there are some other options out there. >> Is uh required. >> Can you speak in hun? I'm sorry. Thank you. >> My voice does not carry. That's okay. >> Uh there's a number of them also that are in the state. Uh Harvey has uh acquired three or four firms and they've
grown significantly by rolling up some smaller firms under there and they're they're backed by a Houston company and I can't remember the name of it off the top. So there's there's there's a handful of >> this was very good. Um let's see. I just want to go through my notes for a minute. Um,
in the sample we didn't bring in Middleton. Does Middleton have their own? >> I don't know. >> Right. Middleton, Massachusetts. Did you know that? >> I don't know what they do. >> They do. And they're a neighbor. You know, >> own transfer station. >> Okay. >> Just straight. >> Okay.
>> All right. Down. >> And tell me about what you're talking about in here with Gloucester. So Gloucester is what I want. If Gloucester is doing it. Right. We've got our Yeah. A town manager. >> She could probably tell you. >> Can you tell us about the gloss?
>> Yeah. It's not um it's privately run. Um so it's the old Hilt site um taken over now by Eastern Waste. Um they have moved and they're going through the permitting process um to open a construction and
demolition debris site. So again, it's private property, private privately run. Um, it just h it's based in Gloucester, but it's not city owned land and and anyway, yeah, >> it's not affiliated with the city run it. >> No, no, no. It's not affiliated with the city at all. Okay.
>> It's located in Gloucester. It's privately owned land, privately run facility. >> They are too, right? >> Yeah. And I will just add from I I do have a strange interest in the economies of trash. Um, >> too. Montana.
>> Um, and I will say a piece that uh this the engineers didn't uh dive into, but uh is another side of this topic is the permitting through the D and the direction um of the disposal of waste that Massachusetts is going as like and it goes back to that last mile. Um fewer
and fewer places to ultimately get rid of your trash and fewer and fewer ways to ultimately get rid of it um is will be driving the cost and the permitting process um is is long and complicated. I would say the um uh group that's going through that
process in Gloucester um Eastern Waste, it probably I probably had my initial conversations with them probably probably four years ago and they're not quite permitted yet. So um it is when you talk about drivers of cost, it's people don't want trash in their
backyard and people no longer want our trash. They don't want us sending trash to them as well. So, um, there and that when you think long term, and I was thinking about this when you spoke about your, um, you know, in 10 years, even if we paid off our capital, the chances are there'll be even fewer places for the
trash to finally land, driving costs continually up and up and up, >> more and more. I just think that like Danvas is a good location and I think Wall-E will say this too that like a lot of the truckers like from what I understand when they when you go there
and you see them going to dump or whatever but there's a huge line an hour an hour and a half to me this area is kind of good and centralized. So to me competition is good. Um go finish saying what you're going to say. Um, the only thing I was going to say is, um, the
state is unlikely to permit any new ultimate receiving facilities, incinerators. There are not going to be any new landfills in Massachusetts. More and more waste regionally is going out by rail, um, Ohio, Midwest, even some as far as Alabama, which is going to be a continuing trend in the market. It's
going to get sent further and further a field as the years go on. Um so that'll also further drive up costs you know in the decades to come as it has to go to the middle of the uh country here >> and the incinerators close here sus right which you have the right sus and
then you have one in Haver which is the cavanta you call it reworld >> y >> I didn't know that yeah because I've seen it I've seen the stack >> yeah okay yeah interesting because mass >> oh there is one in southeast >> semass
Okay. Um, let's see. Just my notes when they say things in here when you were saying um the CND materials could not be processed due to site constraints
um wasteband materials, asphalt, brick, concrete, wood, wallboard, etc. I mean, you can take some of those concrete blocks, but it's just the ones without the paint and everything, right? >> So, um, under the current regulations, um, there's kind of, I'll say, two steps
in the CND process. You can either take it in as a transfer station where you just take it and send it to a processing facility, or you can process it yourselves. Um, D has set amounts of certain items that need to be removed from that waist stream. It's things
like, you know, painted concrete block, clean gypsum wallboard, wood, things along those lines that in theory have a beneficial use for them. Um, so the current rate is in the 20% range. It's going up in the next year or two to 25%,
it's going to keep going up from there. What that means is um more and more of the incoming CND will have to be processed um to meet the regulations. So, it's going to have to go to a more complicated facility um that has more
space um you know, separate lines to either handpick materials out or you know, magnets to remove metals, things along those lines. So, all that you would be able to do at your current facility is act as a transfer station where you're taking it and sending it to
one of those other facilities. there's not sufficient space with what you have available to realistically meet the mass Diversion percentage goals. So, you would always be a I'll say a middleman in the market um taking it just to another facility to
get processed which further um you know complicates the viability of it economically. >> Okay. No, that's good. Um I don't know. I look at it differently. I look at the when you put about the deficit, I don't want to give it up. You know, I don't know how my other board
members think because I mean I know that we have the land and we have the building. I always think of investment. Um use the building that we have now. You know, we never we not talking about recyclables,
right? And then put up another building beside it if we have enough land. I mean, I know you got to go through all the permits and the mass D um construction debris in one half of the building, residential waste in the side of the building and use the existing building for recyclables. I
just think it's I I hate to give it up. I don't want to give it up. So, if we have time, you said till 26 to the end of 26, you want to get things going. And what is you want to get the bids out to these partners? we're saying >> the next step would be to reach back out
to um the various area um waste companies. Um then yeah, realistically after that the decision will be to either direct negotiate with them or to go through an RFP process. Um so either way that'll take you know some time to negotiate with the various folks
involved and either get proposals in or you know have a dialogue back and forth um kind of haggling over um the benefits and the rates that they'll give. >> Okay. Um I'm going to allow any comments from the audience um with regards to the
presentation because this is such a hot topic, you know. Um, does anybody have Oh, Bill again. Bill Brand Street tell me precinct one. Uh, I don't know where it falls under this, but I didn't hear the
word yard waste or hazardous waste. And can maybe the town can encourage the residents to start producing so much waste. Just a thought, but I was just curious about yard waste. What happens to it and
hazardous waste? Please. >> Rob, do you want to go up and address that, please? Thank you. >> Rob de DPW Danvers. Uh the yard waste is picked up by our hollers. Um there is a spot for people to drop off yard waste
up there, but uh it's really Republic's job to get rid of the yard waste. Um it's not a coant to I'd love to to stop. We have our household hazardous waste events on our own that we hire companies to take over those such as Clean Harbors
and different companies that do that. But um that's not uh a reworld. That's a republic is >> yes twice a year. So you got it.
>> And just to clarify on that, as Rob was saying again, we're we we're paying a hauler. We're paying Republic to do that next that last mile of just of um getting rid of it. So Republic takes the yard waste and we have to pay them to take care of it. And same for the
hazardous waste. We have to find specialized haulers to to remove that. >> Bill, did you >> and yes, Resilient Danvers is is doing a lot of work to reduce waste in general and I um so please stay tuned to those updates. Um
we're working right now on Erica came when I first started um on a u composting grant that we've received. So that will be released coming in the spring. Quick question going back to um should we have our own trash trucks? Just the
trash truck. We would pick it up in the neighborhoods, bring it to the same people that are running it now. So then would they be responsible for getting rid of it and all we'd have is the expense of buying the the trash trucks, having the employees to go around the
town picking it up. it it maybe just look at that again to see if that's something that's would save us money. >> Did you wanna Thank you, >> Rob. We didn't really look at that. >> Yeah. Um >> so that's the the curbside program
through Republic. Um in theory it could be um whatever the opposite of privatiz is public publiciz um again wasn't part of our assessment. In general, towns are getting away from that um because of equipment costs,
insurance, labor rates, all of that. Um but you know, if it was something the town was interested in, something we could look into further. >> Excellent. And I just had one other question. I don't know if you answer this. How much does the town bring in annually for tonnage? Was it do we say
>> uh for everything combined? In 2022, you were at just shy of 78,000 tons. That's on page three of the report. >> I thought I saw that. Okay. >> As a little table with 2022, 2021, and 2020.
>> And what about like recent? >> Um, so that's those were the numbers that were available when we originally wrote the report. It's possible DPW has some update. >> Do you know that, Rob, buddy? >> How much uh does a town bring annually for tonnage? He has up till 2022. Do you have 24?
>> Over the years, it hasn't really changed. >> And again, some of the driving factors is the permanent. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> Does anybody else in the audience well you have any questions right now? Okay. This is a lot of material. You know,
when you say we want to do it in the next couple of months, we want to really think about this too. >> Understood. >> Board members, right? >> Yeah. More comments. >> Yeah. So from and and I shared the chairwoman's sentiment that we don't
want to leave anything on the table. Uh but do we know how long the contract if we renew the contract? Is it another five years? Is it >> Yeah. Um in theory it could be longer or shorter? Um >> Rob, go ahead.
>> The last one was about five years. Is that right? >> Yeah. that I've been involved in 10-year contracts with waste haulers and that that was a trend at one point. Now it's down to five. Some communities do three.
Um it really is something that during the negotiation part we would talk about how long they'd be willing to take a risk for. >> Okay. >> And how long we'd be ready to take a risk for. >> Okay. So it's this is a lot of market driven and that's what we come up with
and try to put in safeguards to minimize that over time. >> Okay. And one more question and maybe this is for the town manager or the chair. What's the ask from the board? Is this more like information to let us
know what's happening where the market is going? But this is something the town manager is going to have to negotiate with DPW and >> but it's not due till 28, but they want to get the ball rolling. >> Yeah. Through you to the chair. Um yeah,
this this information or this presentation was really um one for two reasons. I I thought it was important to bring I I guess three. One, the report had been done in 2024 and the board had not seen it. So I felt like that was an important piece. Um post strike, there
were a lot of questions out there. So, we had the information, thought it should be here, and two, we're prepping for budget, and I figured there would be questions, but the role of the board in the next steps. Um, this is it that there is no further role. The board, the negotiation will go through the town manager's office. >> Perfect. And you spoke of curbside
composting. Uh, we will be having a pilot and hopefully the town can start to encourage that a little more. >> Yes. And I don't want to get the timeline wrong, so Rob may have more. Uh, one of the things that we're going to uh start doing and one of it's by
legally we're going to have to start doing any place that produces so much food has to. So, our schools per se, we're going to have to have composting there. >> Okay, >> that's part of this uh pilot program we're doing and then we're going to
continue it on residents. Um, and Erica has really been working hard at this and trying to really decrease your food waste is probably the heaviest stuff in your trash. You empty out the plastic, the
paper, the paper towels, it means nothing compared to wet gross stuff. Uh that's so if we can take that out of the waist stream um it really will lower the rate for the
town on disposal fees. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Because the tonnage has gone down because of recycles too, right? Tonnage has our tonnage has gone down of trash because we recycling too. >> And now with this new pilot program,
>> that's that is the goal. >> Yeah. um is to have everything the well it used to be nice because the tonnage of um there was no cost to recycling that we used to get paid >> for that >> anymore.
>> Now there's a cost to it. So >> so we opened up a recycle facility. >> It's >> but it has to end someplace else. Can't end here. >> We have one right across the street up at you know re at uh Republic's facility, >> the old JRM Green Works. So,
>> I knew it when it was being built. That was >> Wasn't the uh wasn't the purpose of the trash barrels that we all got um to reduce the amount of trash that we're all throwing out? >> I think everyone should try to reduce the amount of trash we're trying to throw out and create, you know, the
environmental world, the uh better recycling that can be reused. And uh this next step is for the composting is really to reduce some >> more trash. >> More trash. Wow. Back in the day, we
used to have garbage and then trash. The garbage men would come pick up your food, bring it to the pig farm. That garbage is now in the waist stream. It weighs a lot. We've sort of gone backwards in the world when it comes to trash. So, if we can get that out again
and have it processed somewhere else, um the fee will go down. But that everything comes with a cost. So, people are going to have to balance it out. Did do you know um if when we changed over to the barrels that we have now
versus people putting out their own trash, do you know what the difference was in trash? Um tonnage >> tonnage. Yeah. >> I haven't seen it yet. I you know >> it had to have helped, right? >> Yes. Right. >> Absolutely. >> And you know, one of the reasons we went
to those barrels because everybody's going automated, >> right? >> We can't pick up random trash bags and stuff like that. So, uh, and I will tell you one of the other good things about the new barrels with the lids on, the rainy days don't matter as much because
wet trash is also expensive to get rid of, >> right? >> And rodents. And while while you're up there, would you be able to tell Bill Brad's feet when you're going to start digging out the mill pond? >> So, he can't get that done >> as soon as he has the money for the permits.
Yeah. >> Yeah. I can I can remember the garbage pales when I grew up on Brookwood Lane. They used to be inground garbage pales. >> Yeah. >> In the back of the house. >> My god, we're dating ourselves, guys. Right. >> Not to dwell on this, I have one more thing. Um
I think even though this probably is not like a select board vote or something, I wasn't on the board at the time, but trash in this town has been a big issue. Uh I think it's important for the board to um to support the town manager in the
negotiation. Not that we'll be in the room, but at least express that confidence in the fact that we are seeing these numbers and then we heading toward, you know, maybe trying to find a better
beat or somebody that's going to help us run the trash while we pilot curbside composting and see what the trends are and see where we end up because we're 2026. six is going to end
in 2028. We're talking about 4 years or more just to get a permit. So, if we were to go with option two or B or C, we might get oursel in a situation where it's
practically not feasible. But I would say if when we renew the contract, maybe we may want to really explore all the options like the one that Mr. Be did suggested and things like that. But at least we have a good seven years to
think through it not only with the curbside composting but also see where the trends are. Uh in many ways with the exercise we did with this I think is a leap into that. We've negot the la last contract we
reached out to waste management wind. We reached out to all of them. Some of those people did not want this town. People like JRM which is now Republic and Coanta and those they have facilities in the area. They have trucks
in the area. This is a nice little spot for them to work. And those who are those are the people who bid like when I say bid put proposals together for us. With all the new trends and this and us going out, we may look at hiring a a
company like Weston and Samson to help us guide us through the upcoming regulations that will help us in the long run to save money. Um a little bit of upcom upfront cost, but it will save us money in the long run. So, >> yeah,
>> these guys have been wonderful. Uh, I take their advice seriously and they know more about it than I do. >> Thank you. >> And this is why I say Danas is good because who the heck wants a truck? Those truckers around here go up to Glouester. No disrespect. No, seriously,
this is why this is a good location right here. Um, competition is good. I'm going to say that. Uh, not simple can, but it can be done. And, uh, what do I always say? Death, taxes, and trash. We can't get away from it, right? But any other questions at all board members? Mike, >> I just wanted to make a comment. I
don't, and not to go against you, Bill, but I think uh taking on buying trash trucks to save money on transportation would be a nightmare. Uh because you probably need five, probably need four to get around town or one when one
breaks and then 10 years when we get them paid off, we'll be replacing them anyway. >> Run them. The minimum amount of trucks we have in town every day is five. There's four. There's two automated uh trash pickups. There's two recycling
ones. And then we have a packer that goes downtown and picks up the trash downtown. And the smaller oneways and dead ends. Uh we have a route for a packer. So, and bulky items get picked up in the packer.
Uh then we have to get for yard waste wheat. those two weeks there that we do yardways, they bring in five trucks, you know, for Christmas tree, they have >> five more they bring in. >> Yeah. >> Wow. >> So, >> they there's more. We would have to
lease or hire a company to help us with those events, >> right? >> So, >> the breakdowns and all that stuff. >> It was a big issue about that uh pump truck we had a couple years ago. If we had half a dozen trash trucks, I could see how that would go. >> Yes. Yeah. Nightmare.
>> And the the new with the cameras and this and that. They're about 2 million bucks, two and a half million bucks a piece. >> I think it's cheaper to subcontract it out. >> I didn't do the work, but I'm guessing that's the case. I'm not positive, but again, it's
>> I mean, I kind of agree with you, too. I mean, maybe not the the Republic trash collecting, but the transfer station. We really got to take a deep dive into this. >> Yeah, we own it. We're not We're not losing it, right? Right. And you want it. What is um I'm sorry. Did I miss the
question? Um the average cost per ton right now in the marketplace >> was 125. >> No, I think it's >> so 125 was taking um the average which is hovering right around 100 bucks a ton and escalating that forward um to 2028
because we expect that unfortunately costs in general tend to go up. Um, so I think you're going to be somewhere in that ballpark. And again, it's an estimation. Um, but yeah, somewhere around 125 come 2028. >> Okay, great. All I'm going to ask is if
any residents that are watching tonight, if they have any more questions about this to email the town manager or email your uh, select board member, you know, and you guys did a great job, you know. >> Any other questions? >> Jenny to present.
>> Yeah. Can you elaborate on on where the compost facilities are coming. >> What do you expect to save on weight? >> It all depends on how many people sign up. The food Black Earth is the only
hauler around here that's uh set up with the state. So, it goes to one of their two facilities. Um I don't know if Brick Ends is collecting from uh Black Earth or not. Um but they have a facility down in Gloucester. Uh
>> Manchester >> Manchester. Um the tonnage guess >> that is they had they have the permit for it. They feel confident and do I know that? I don't. I know they've been getting yelled at a little bit here and
there. Um but >> and I I'll just add that um we will we will definitely report back to the board. Um first we'll let you know when they kick off the um grant program because it helps get people set up with the barrels. Uh and once we have some data to bring back, we will absolutely do that.
>> Can can I ask a question? Sure. >> Um on this composting, it will reduce the amount of trash, but is there a cost for the composting?
versus the less amount of trash. We're not going to get a reduction on cost on trash, I'm sure. But now, are we going to be is there going to be bump >> the trash fees? >> So, the goal is always the goal is to reduce the amount of trash that's coming out of the household and the weight that
it is so that our overall cost for for the town to dispose of it goes down. Um, it's a limited number. It's a it's a pilot program to start. So you're we won't be seeing any significant savings um on this. And you also again no matter what the most important thing to
remember here that they said is we are not an we're not the end point. So whether it's trash, CN, food waste, recycling, especially recycling because nobody wants anybody's recycling anymore. Um we're not the end point. So
the cost driver here is always how it gets from Danvers to where it's going. So no matter how convenient Danvers is, if we have to put it on a on a train to ship it out to Alabama, that's where that's where the town b the cost of the burden is on the town.
>> Do we anticipate a cost bump with the compost? >> I don't I don't think so, but they'll privately it's a private contract between the homeowner >> homeowner. Yeah, it's a volunteer program. It's only people >> who want to >> want to sign up for it will get that number and there will be a fee assessed
on that. the amount of people sign up >> between their contract is with >> the contract is not between >> Black Earth and the town. It's with the homeowner and Black Earth. >> Okay. >> So, but we're going to have to do it. >> We're going to be mandated to do it for our any place that
>> produces so much food, which is our schools, and that's really where we're starting. That will be the cost to us. >> Okay. >> Madam Chairman, can I make a comment? The state, correct me if I'm if I'm wrong, is mandating anybody that creates such so much ton they have to compost
and that is gonna lower as time goes on. >> I believe that is correct. >> Thank you. >> Excellent. Well, some good conversation here, Bill. Go ahead. Last one. >> I don't buy that. >> I know. >> Thanks.
Long time ago when I was young, there was a big push by the town for everybody to put in a mechanical pig. >> So that the waste >> a garbage disposal unit, a mechanical, >> you said pig, right?
>> That uh >> they're called pigs. >> Mechanical. >> No, just pigs. that soft waste could be run through it would end up in the sewer system. The only thing that like bones and some some of that stuff which would
not end up there. Does that affect the town for the wastewater or whatever that ends up >> over I'm sorry over to Salem or what is that a cost to us? >> It very much is a cost to us. everything you put down it all gets goes through
meters and all goes through that and there's if you've ever been over to SCSD I'd suggest it in this one of the senses that it's pretty amazing um but it's awful disgusting but uh all the tonnage comes out of there and it's assessed it
cost us so every solid thing you put down there we get charged for If I can just comment on that. Um the uh e board will be receiving a presentation on SCSD in the coming I don't we haven't scheduled it yet um because they have
capital needs and plans. But if you think moving trash to Alabama is expensive, wait till you get to hear how we get rid of sludge and where we have to take that solid waste. Um so if you like this topic, stay tuned. >> I'm sure they'll be back, right?
>> Uh So um but yes again I think the important part is um for anybody who really is interested in the topic um there's a lots to read about it um Massachusetts that's permitting uh guidelines are changing rapidly I think everybody knows mattress mattresses
recently um textiles recently um so the economies of trash are just getting more complicated more expensive um and to me more interesting so uh if you have if you want to do the research there's lots out there to take a look at >> excellent thank you very much and uh as
I mentioned before any other questions um for the public they can email their board member or the town manager. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right, let's see where are we? The board will consider a vote to accept
budget goals and objectives for fiscal year 2027. Everybody have their budget goals and objectives? >> If I may, Madam Chair, just introduce it. >> Yes. Um, so we uh we brought this the original draft to the board about a
month ago. Um, thank you for your input. I took the input that we got here in person um at the board meeting and made a few changes including adding at the end the fiscal goals and policies. Thank you, Rodney. Um,
and uh in follow-up conversations, some people had mentioned some other things. So, if if people have additional changes or suggestions, um please bring those up tonight. Um and I uh the other piece I should mention is we did send this to the school committee and the library
trustees. Uh we did not receive any feedback. Anything else you want to add, Rodney? >> Okay. >> Okay. Rodney's there for questions. Board members. Um Dan. >> Oh, thank you. Uh Rodney, um field goals and policies working back from the
bottom uh retain a free cash balance of not less than 1% of the annual operating budget. Can you just give us an idea of what that number would look like currently? >> Yeah. So again, that's a standard policy we've had, as you know, Dan, going back several years, and roughly it'd be about
1.2 to 1.4 million. >> Okay. Thank you. Yep. >> And maintain total fund balances in the aggregate above 15% of the town annual operating expenses. Again, roughly what does that number look? >> So it' be 15% of again roughly 140
million. So yeah, roughly 21 >> how much? >> 21 million. >> 21 million. Thank you. Just so we have a sense of what these numbers look like. >> Going to get my calculator out if you're more further up. >> No, the others. No, the others I that
was fine. Um, I mean a range of 8 to 12%. Sad to come up with a number, but um, I appreciate you putting those in. I mean, it really spells out what our goals are and what kind of money we're talking about. >> Um, I don't know if you want I Madam
Chair, I do have a recommendation for a change if that's appropriate. >> Yes. >> Uh, front page long-term goals number two. I would like to add after cultural
the words and I have this written out for you Jill and recognize our historical heritage with events. So that paragraph a sentence would read provide high quality and affordable
education, recreation, cultural and recognize our historical heritage with events for residents of all ages. Karma supported by rigorous staff standards, karma, sufficient resources, karma, and
well-maintained facilities. And to speak to we have a great historical heritage in this town. >> We do. >> Um, I think it should be recognized and put into these goals. >> Did you want to change anything else,
Dan? >> No, that's all. And I have that language written if it's okay with the board to give to the manager. >> Yeah. Um D, did you >> uh No objections. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Did you want to change anything? Are you all set?
>> Uh no, I'm I'm all set if this Thank you. >> Mike, um to the town manager through you, please. Um, enhance customer focus service delivery through professional responsive. Can >> you tell me where you are?
>> Um, back page. Am I on the first long first page? Sorry. >> Okay. Sorry. I just want to make sure I know where you are. >> Long-term goals. >> Yep. >> Uh, inter let's see. >> I think that's where he is.
>> Yeah. So, enhance customer focused service delivery through professional, responsive, and friendly interactions across all departments. Um, like name tags, >> when do we get them going? >> I'm I'm sorry. I Well, yes, I'm happy to
answer that question, but it's is it relative to the budget goals? Because that's operational question. >> I don't know. It's on a paper in front of me. I'm just asking. >> Yeah, I can answer that question. The name tags are not working out that were created. So we have to look into another option. So
>> okay. All right. That's all for now. Thank you. >> Nothing else. No other changes. Mike. >> Uh no, not at the moment. >> You want to come back? You can go. >> Yes. Thank you. >> No, I reviewed this a month ago. Uh I thought I'd wanted some changes and upon
reflection I was okay. I I wanted something in here about water, but I decided that that doesn't have to be here. And uh so no, I have no other changes. And if there's no others, I' I'd move we accept this with the modifications that select board member
Bennett has recommended. >> I'm fine with that too, Dan. Do you want to >> So that's my motion. I will make that motion. >> Okay. So you want to say it, Dan? U Gen, I'm sorry that we have a motion on the floor. My motion is to accept the budget
the budget goals um as presented with the modifications offered by selecting Bennett. >> I have a second. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> If I one one second. Sorry madam chair through you. I just for readability. Um
if we provide high quality and affordable education, recreation, cultural and historical events for residents >> or do you want that recognized piece? >> Recognize our historical heritage. >> Okay. I just wanted to Yep. >> Okay. >> As presented, right? And okay. And uh
we'll say all in favor. >> I opposed. >> Okay. >> Thank you so much. Thank you, Rodney. >> All right. >> You want this? >> So, we will do next. The town manager will report to the board on various items of interest. Let's stay for the
bad news, Ronnie. >> Thank you, Rodney. >> Okay. pull this up. Okay. So, thank you, Madam Chair, through you to the members. Um, I just wanted to start by uh thanking all the town meeting members for showing up and
um really actively engaging in the special town meeting last week. Uh for me who's new to town meeting, I was incredibly impressed um at at the level of deliberation um the courtesy that everybody was extended to each of the
members um and how well the town worked together um to get it done. I think it's a testament to the town meeting form of government and I'm very proud to be a part of it. So, thank you all for being there. Um, thank you to the moderator and the finance committee and the select board uh for all the work you did um to
get us through that and of course the clerk's office who keeps us all together. So, thank you so much um as we got through that. The next steps we're working with the clerk's office and uh town council uh to get what we need in order to get to um our legislators. So,
then we'll be working with Representative Karns and Senator Lovely to move this through the state house and I'm meeting with them next Monday. So this will be a topic of conversation for us. Um I'm going to set the stage for budget negotiate or deliberations as we
move into it and then I'll I'll I promise I'll give some better news at the end. Um so as folks know uh the town manager is responsible for delivering a balanced budget to the select board by March 1st uh with the help of Rodney and
all of our department heads. uh you will receive that uh ne late at the end of next week. Um this is my first budget season here in Danvers. Um but my understanding um and we are uh working to close a deficit gap right now. Um
with some historical perspective from Rodney, I do want to prepare this board for that gap that we are working to close right now is significantly larger than it has been in years past. This is not a reflection on the financial management of the town. It's a
reflection of the economy as a whole and um the crisis that municipalities are facing throughout the Commonwealth. I um sent to you all probably a couple months ago when we when we were early into
these stages uh a analysis done by the Massachusetts Municipal Association called the perfect storm. cities and towns facing historic fiscal pressures. Um and I that whole report is about how the convergence of these forces um financial and economic forces are
converging on municipalities and really really putting most of us I know very few of my colleagues that are looking at a fun budget year. Um the that the the out the external forces are really forcing us to make um increasingly tough decisions about
services for residents. So if you have not reviewed that report um I recommend tell meeting members finance committee members um select board members in particular all take a look at that so that it gives you some grounding for the conversation and um to know that Danvers
is is not in it alone. Some of the factors that in are affecting the the rising are rising fixed costs such as health insurance the number ranging um some municipalities anywhere between 8 and 16% um there was a whole group of
communities in western Mass who initially were passed a budget at like 16% and then I followed there was an additional increase of 20% they had to go to the state for help. So health insurance costs are a major driver in the changes. um other contracted services including like special ed
special education, transportation um all things that are moving out that are growing outside of the range of 2 and a half% which is what we um as a municipality are allowed to work within. Um the other piece I want to make sure people take a look at and Ronnie will go
through when we do our budget presentation is uh state aid over time. state aid when you factor in inflation has been about um about 6% average annual per year. So again when you have costs rising in the double digits and
our state aid is rising at less than 1%. So, just want to make sure I'm I hate to be setting a bleak stage for you, especially and I would much prefer to have my first budget be a fun one. Um, but it is not and I just want to make sure that um the board is prepared and
um understanding some of the decisions that will be coming forward in the budget. Um so again, if you need that report, I'm happy to send it back out. Um for anybody watching at home, mmma.org is where you would find it. Um and they've done since done a followup
on kind of how to navigate the storm. A lot of that has to do with um decisions made at the state level. So um a little less critical to read pre prior to the budget deliberations, but wanted to put that out there. Um I've had some initial
conversations uh with folks in our one-on ones and so I'm happy to answer any of those further questions as we get into the process. You'll be receiving the budget at the end of next week and we will be having our public budget session on March Saturday March 7th.
Um now I'll now promise I'll get into some fun stuff. Uh so Resilient Danvers initiative on top of the composting we were just discussing discussing they are we are also launching um the great partnering with the great American rain barrel company for the third year to
offer residents high quality rain barrels at a discounted price of $89 each. Plus Danvers will rebate rebate the value of up to two barrels per household at pickups. So, the order deadline is April 12th and details can
be found at our on our town website. Um, events that we went to this past last week, I was joined by our select board chair, our state representative Sally Karns, our state senator Joan Lovely, Chief uh Brian Barry, and Deputy
Chief uh Jamie Shaner at the Essex County Fire Chief's Breakfast. Um this is an incredibly useful um educational event that uh they host each year. Um most of the matters that they talk about, they really talk a lot about um
the state legislative matters, but this year they did a really good job of connecting how the municipalities um how it affects municipalities as well. And I think two topics of interest for the board chair and myself um and the representative who's sitting at our table um that we will be uh working on
and and talking to the MMA about is uh moving office of emergency medical services from the department of public health, the state department of public health to the executive office of public safety. uh our uh EMS first responders
work very closely with public safety and some of the rules around public health are hindering their ability to deliver services in the field. And the second one which I think is interesting to uh just about every municipality is creating a public safety municipal
building authority. It's similar to the MSBA is the theory. Um it would assist in funding um public safety building projects um or actually municipal I should say municipal bu building but this one's focused on public safety um building and repair projects. Uh we have
undertaking uh capital project of that size would would be pretty debilitating to most communities and there's not currently another funding source. So we have several there's several bills moving through the state legislature um that they has gotten more momentum than they have in the past. they've combined
the bills and put them um they're sending them out of ways and means together. So, that's a big movement um that we should keep our eye on knowing engine 2 building um will need some repairs in the future. Um so, we will we will work on advocating for both of
those. Uh the HIC event, Black Excellence, a tribute to black film, was originally scheduled for February 7th, um but it was postponed due to snow. It's rescheduled for Saturday, this Saturday, February 21st. And details will be shared on our website and social media
tomorrow. And the Falcon Fest will host I appar I didn't know this, the decades old pancake breakfast tradition on March 7th, 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. at the high school. Um, more information is available on the FalconFest website and the town website calendar. So, you can
go get, well, you guys can't, but other people can go get pancakes and then come join us for our our public hearings on the budget. Sounds great. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you, Jill. Um, okay. The board will consider consent
calendars as they appear. >> Move we accept the consent calendar. >> We have a second. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Opposed? Thank you. And at this time, we'll go correspondent, select board, new business, previous new business updates, and select board closing
comments. Uh, who wants to go first? Mike. Um, sure. Thank you. Um, yeah, I just want to follow up on what the town manager said that the town meeting was really long and boring as expected and
also had some really great points. Um, people had stepped up and uh made changes to the town manager act. Um, it just the people that came up just did a great job. Everybody communicated well. Um, so it went well for a long and boring meeting, but uh, so I thought it
was great. Thank you. Anything else, Mike? >> That's enough. >> Thank you. Thank you for that. Um, D, >> yes, I I agree with Select Bob might. It was a really good meeting. I mean, the the motion to to change some of the
things were handled really really well. Um, hopefully we get some pancake deliver. >> We'll see what we >> I correspondence. I did get a um kudos
to DPW for the snow and everything that they've been doing. I hear there's more coming and I know this is probably a billastic question. How we doing with the snow budget? >> Oh, I updated that last week. Sorry. Um
we have overspent the snow budget. Um but the bills come in um post storm, so they were still they were still um figuring it out. But we have overspent the snow budget as to date and are working to figure out how to um balance that out within the current DPW budget.
Um and when we have kind of a sum total, it will come to the select board. >> Okay. And and I meant to ask earlier and maybe now um after the strike, we had to recoup some of our money from the public. Uh where are we with that
if you >> Yeah, absolutely. Uh, I mean, and I I don't know how if we if we have the details in front of us cuz we didn't bring it. Um, but I can say confidently that we did not pay for any services that were not rendered, obviously. Um, and and on the other side of that, we're
made whole for all the services that we had to provide. So, um, and speaking with our colleagues particularly and most recently when we were all together at the MMA, um, again, Dambers was is leading at the front of that. um and some of that savings and we're you know
that will help us get through things like snow deficits going forward. So um we did a really good we I mean my opinion Rodney did an incredible job with the help of Rob De at negotiating that with Republic. There are many communities still in negotiations.
>> Okay. Thank you. >> Damas took the lead on that >> with our new town manager and Rodney in the group. Thank you. Um Ka >> um I just want to mention that I did receive Mr. ates uh email want to remind people that when they send email to all
of the select board members we can't respond and that is uh for open meeting law purposes I couldn't even if I did so individually to Bill and not in mass um it could be consider we've been guided previously that it could be considered chain negotiation so if I said I agree
Bill and someone else and two other people said I agree Bill um it it is a potential violation I appreciate getting that information I'm appreciate I can acknowledge that I received it but I can't make a position on any in I just use an example as the latest example. Um
but uh I haven't received other than that I haven't received any car I have received one car correspondence I've discussed with the town manager and I'm sending that to her about um snow removal on a particular piece of property. Um we'll follow up on that. Um, I would ask uh based on your
discussion about the budget, when you send out the budget information, can you please send it uh an Excel version of the budget as opposed to a PDF? And the reason is Rodney knows I like to play the number crunching game and I can't do it off a PDF. So, uh, just a reminder. >> There you go. Thank you.
>> Thank you. And if I may just follow up on the open meeting um comment, we I should let the board know we have a training scheduled for all boards, committees, and commissions uh for April 2nd. I don't have the details yet, but uh on April 2nd, we will be um Murphy,
Hessie, Tumin, Leah will be um offering a board training. Uh they will cover open meeting law. Um they will cover kind of what what is required for public hearings. Um so some board training so that you guys feel um confident in in your actions there.
>> Thank you for letting us know. Can I ask that we consider an agenda on that relating to new business and what guidelines should be on new business and also on allowing public comment outside a public hearing and what guidance we
probably want to follow because there are some legalities to that. So, if you could ask those agenda items, that would be helpful. >> Thank you. Yes. >> Thank you. >> That's a good suggestion, G. That's excellent. Good. Um Dan, you want to say I'll go back to you at the end.
>> Yeah. Thank you. Um at our last meeting, we granted a license for a chapter 10 uh sale of junk and secondhand articles. And as I was reading through it and I read section five,
um, no portion, shall purchase, receive by b or exchange any article of a minor. And the minor is, uh, described as a child under the age of 17, unless the minor is accompanied by an adult. Um,
total tobacco downtown, nobody under 21's allowed in. We all know liquor stores need to be 21 to purchase alcohol. I'm wondering if maybe we should adopt a age of 21
um and I have reasons for it. Um under chapter 10. It was last updated May 19th 2008. Um, and I'm not going to ask this board to approve or disapprove, but perhaps we
could put it on a warrant article, but I'd like to hear what the chief of police, Detective Gaffne, maybe Lieutenant um, can't think of his name now. Shame on me. Um, to what their thoughts are on
changing this to age 21. And there's a lot of issues um with young people that have a drug habit pawning something that's not theirs. And the pawn shops, they take it
in because it says you take it in. Um you got to hold it for 30 days. You got to take pictures of something. But I think too much too many times too many miners are getting away with something they shouldn't. It's not good for them. It's not good for society. So, if we could
ask the chief and um maybe Detective Gaffne >> and anybody else for police force what their thoughts are. Okay. Board. >> Okay. Anything else, Dan? >> Not at this time.
>> Okay. Um I want to say thank you to town meeting members. Thank you to the board, my board members too, and the town manager um for for uh the other night special town meeting. I mean, think about it. that we made history, right? Hasn't been changed in 30 years. >> You want this?
>> Um I love the professionalism, um the courtesy with everybody. I want to thank uh all town um town uh employees, um town manager, uh madame clerk, uh CR Lions and his
committee, Pat Frasier, Sally Calhoun and the re and the review committee. Um really all the residents. Um can't thank you enough. myself being chair for the first year. Wow. It's been a lot, but uh we did it right. We've done this. We've made history and we did it the right way. And
um I want to thank everybody. I did attend the legislative breakfast with um town manager and the and the um fire chief and the deputy chief and it was really great. It was nice to see all the chiefs from the surrounding areas on what they need. Um, other than that, I
want to uh remind people about the Falconfest pancakes and uh get ready for our budget season. It's going to be good, you know. Um, thank you. And with that being said, I'll let Deian >> Thank you. Um, this past Saturday,
Sunday, excuse me, I was at an event and there was a 94year-old World War II veteran proudly wearing his cap and I did thank him for his service and remind everybody when you see a veteran um, please thank he or her for their
service. >> Thank you. Okay, good night. >> Thank you very much.