##VIDEO ID:OnNBJ8bNqi4## good evening and welcome to the town of Deerfield select board Board of Health sewer Commissioners meeting of January 22nd 2025 the time is 6: p.m. this meeting will be held in a hybrid fashion with the opportunity for both inperson attendance and remote participation please note that while an option for remote attendance Andor participation is being provided as a courtesy to the public the meeting hearing will not be suspended or terminated if technological problems interrupt the virtual broadcast unless otherwise re required by law members of the public with partic particular interest in any specific item on this agenda should make plans for inperson versus virtual attendance accordingly the meeting will be held in person in the main meeting room of the Deerfield municipal offices in accordance with Mass General Law chapter 30A anyone intending to record the meeting must identify themselves to the clerk Blake Gilmore and provide their names and addresses for the record so call the meeting to order and uh as normal first uh order of businesses to allow people with uh any issue that that they like to raise to have a two-minute public comment is there anyone either in person or in Virtual we'll start with uh Allison masley welcome Allison hello welcome thank you for uh having me virtually sorry I can't be uh live in Deerfield today but I appreciate the ability to zoom um I know we had our uh Treehouse informal meeting last week um and I uh didn't think I'd be put on the spot so quickly to try to figure out this um resident pre-sale ticket uh goal um I forgot to mention I'm here with Treehouse so uh y we are in the process of getting um our concert season ramped up and apparently you know for the summer that starts in January and uh our very first show was announced today which means pre-sale tickets for p pigeons playing pingpong go on sale tomorrow and we are still in the process of trying to figure out the exact best way to get resident pre-sale tickets out um I'd love to pick your guys brain about how we can get on your Public Access station um but for this particular one uh we do have the ability for anyone in the town of Deerfield to come to our Brewery and we will basically help you get the pre-sale tickets tomorrow and Friday um if if anyone is interested and then we are working on a way of sort of figuring out an email mailing list um maybe it's a QR code that we post up in town hall and then we'll have available at the brewery that brings you to a survey where you can fill out your details and say yes I would like to be added to this list um or you can do so at the brewery itself um but for pigeons playing pingpong which is on June 2nd uh it goes on pre-sale tomorrow and uh we'd love to have anybody who's interested as a town of Deerfield resident come join us that day um and tickets will be available if you come into the brewery and we'll we'll get a system going shortly enough but uh with about three days notice for me I wasn't really sure how to get the message out there for you guys let's than this works thank you for letting us know and uh for adopting the program I know it's going to take you a couple of weeks to a month to work out the details of how this works smoothly transparently in the future um absolutely and we'll work with you guys you know obviously this one snuck up on me pretty quick but we'll we'll work with you guys to come up with the best system and we want to make sure you know anybody in Deerfield who's interested has the ability to come to our concert so great can you say the name three times fast I don't think so I could try but it would sound terrible see a video with it all right well all right well thank you so much Alison is there anything else that is it for now I look forward to giving you guys updates on sort of how we're figuring out this summer concert series throughout the offseason um and then through the concert season but for now that's all I got all right appreciate it thank you have a good night thanks you too anyone in the audience have a comment um seeing none I will um invite our first uh guest Julie Julie talant from the town building advisory committee to come up and tell us a little bit about your now we do have a an actual time on the next event so it it actually said 65 SE in the public hearing notice so I just wanted to flag that before so we may have to interrupt you at uh yeah hey Julie if you're if you're um presenting it then I was share yeah just mute just mute the m i unjoined the AIO perfect okay welcome good to see you good to see you um so so I'm chair of the Town building advisory committee we've been meeting for quite a while um one of the many topics of discussion that we've had is maintenance of town buildings sort of RIT large yeah um as we've discussed it they are um essentially three things we think are needed in order to really tackle the town Building Maintenance problem a person a plan and money yep so um so one recommendation we have is that as you go through the process of interviewing the new DPW person that if if this can be one of the topics that comes up in that discussion if the if the um building facilities person comes to reside in DPW which has been sort of the history of that position um um and that would I think take care of the person piece of it um as a committee we have gone through and this is what I'm presenting tonight um let me see if I can share this so as a committee we went through and looked at virtually looked at all of the buildings um in town and came up with a very preliminary first draft plan for maintenance for those um buildings and let me see oh I can't share unless you guys let me share oh you gotta let her share coost um so what we've done is come up with a plan for the buildings and then um we will there we go all right here's the maintenance schedule you guys are seeing that yeah yeah so we we did this sitting in a room and discussing it not going around and inspecting the buildings so um we have some familiarity with all of the buildings but we haven't done that inspection and that's why this is really pretty heavy in the draft idea um so our plan is now that we've put this together is to then go around and sort of do inspections of the buildings and um update this so that it has a closer reflection of reality so if we start down if you there there's a tab for each building so Police Department Meeting House 1888 Library here's DPW building just as an example we looked at some things that are sort of regular maintenance that needs to be done based on the equipment that is in the building so we need to repair cracks in the floor and inspect and repair the plumbing and you know look at filters on the HVAC or whatever it is then also looked at and that gives us an annual maintenance total for each building again these are these are pretty rough guesses sure right this was just yep we got to start somewhere that's where we are yeah get a temp um we then looked at what is the equipment that's in the building and what would be kind of a reasonable replacement schedule for that um the equipment that's in the building so agac equipment Windows the roof um the DPW building has those giant garage doors so we'll need to look at you know upgrade of those that kind of thing um and we just put together okay how often do we think that would be needed we guessed Flatout guessed at a price for this again we want to go through and and refine this with better data and then we you know we looked at how old the building is and and estimated a year that this may come up yeah right we did that for each building that we had and then let me see if I can so this is a plan that looks as looks at essentially five buildings at this point right um so it's let's see or is there having I'm having a little trouble driving because I don't have is my problem looks like there are yeah five tabs there are but there's more all right so there we go Police Department municipal office building and then what did was a roll up of all of those so if we look at those these are all of the capital items that were on all of those various buildings sorted by year yeah and then if you come over here this gives you each year sort of a dollar value that's needed for maintenance for buildings so this is going to the capital Improvement planning committee who can take this as at least a first shot at planning out dollar per year and it goes out you know a ways great um so like I said our plan is next to um go through and do inspections of the buildings and refine this as we go forward and just sort of this is planned to be kind of a living document that will keep being updated are you going to be and I don't know how this is set up because this is a ad hoc committee I mean I think that you need to be involved in this for a few years anyways to be to track what's going on and to kind of reinspect these buildings so that there may be things that you didn't come up with this time and the other part of it is I understand the idea about the money because you know 10 15 20 years out prices are going to change right so right yep so some another project that we've done within the committee is draft a um so we're operating to a charter that was given to us but it was given to us in like I don't know 2018 maybe right I think it was it was a way ago it's been a while yeah um so we're drafting up a new Charter that would cover that that that we will provide to you guys and obviously you're the ones in charge so you can um address that y but um and then the the I guess the other thing we were looking at is are there major sort of projects coming down the road and I I want to accentuate this is draft and these are all guesses like but um the meeting house building we still are looking at refurbishing the sanctuary at some point the police department there's a potential expansion um being talked about Deerfield Elementary is looking at their playground that's coming pretty soon I think Franklin Tech is talking about putting either a new building or a major upgrade to that correct they're coming to finance committee either next week or the week after yeah um so we'll have I hope more concrete information about that we still have the old DE field waste wire treatment plant out there there's the senior center um which eventually we'll want a new building if if that's not in the short term and on the on the 19th just to uh the 19th of February at Frontier all three towns are gathering to hear the feasibility study results oh good okay plug that yeah great that down when I go back yep so that that's what yeah that's fantastic work it's great much of work in progress but we're we're at least it's a great template to get yeah no it's definitely um as we mentioned it last night at the finance committee meeting that um we need to start this process and understand the financial implications on a yearly basis for doing what should be done in order to keep our buildings in good shape and safe for for occupancy and so forth so uh really thank everyone on the board for the committee for that I think it also shows the cost of um deferred maintenance like if we don't do this how it escalates and how we get into a spot where everything is so much more money because we haven't progressively done things yeah well the other thing is it would expand longevity these V these buildings too so we wouldn't have to replace them as quickly yes yep great work thank you well that was very succinct and we not even 615 right onk you thank you so the next um next uh item on the agenda tonight is um the walk looking for a it's a liquor license hearing so um town of Deerfield select board Board of Health notice of public hearing pursuant to General Law chapter 138 section 12 and Deerfield General bylaws chapter 247 the Deerfield select board Board of Health as a as the local licensing Authority will hold a public hearing on January 22 2025 at 6:15 p.m. on an application for a new all alcohol restaurant license at 723 Greenfield Road Deerfield Massachusetts from the walk documents are on file for public review at the municipal offices during regular business hours and on the town's website at www. Dearfield ma. us meetings are being held in a hybrid fashion with the opportunity for both iners attendance and remote participation for purposes of inperson attendance the town of Deerfield will host this meeting in the main meeting room of the Deerfield municipal offices at 8 Conway Street South Deerfield Massachusetts remote participation is also available following the guides on the on the website so at this moment I'd like to invite uh representatives of the walk to come up and um just basically explain uh what you're looking to do and Christopher Dunn if our Town Administrator if you have any initial comments that just to frame the discussion no just obviously a long-standing business in the town of Deerfield and look look forward to hearing your testimony welcome so we'd just request whoever is representing to just identify yourself for the audience that's not here and and speak into the mic yeah it it requires a and almost eat the mic you have to be very close to it thank you if I sit I get closer to it that's that's great we'd love you to have a seat all right well my name is Thomas vinc I'm an attorney from Northampton uh grew up in Greenfield and went to Deerfield Academy so I'm very familiar uh with the walk uh and I'm very familiar with please uh I'm sorry just to remind you move my mouth too far away yeah if you if you don't get as close to it as I am it's difficult for the people online to hear you thank you uh and I'm familiar with Helen and Albert here because they've been there all the time and uh throughout uh pretty much all of my adult life uh I've seen them at that restaurant I think they've been in business about 48 years at this point uh they'd like to go further and uh the liquor license is part of that uh I would like to uh congratulate you though uh that we started precisely at 6:15 that's that's very to keep the trains running on time I'm very very impressed but anyway um uh they have brought uh their son Curtis he's on the far left welcome Curtis how are you and there are a number of people uh in the back who are interested in uh the success of this petition for the license um uh I would would suggest that what we could do is if you have any questions we have two the two here as owners if you have any questions uh I can move this mic and they can respond to whatever you need to know M wonderful so just just um if I wanted to clarify something through Christopher Dunn um ordinarily we would have handled just a renewal process but was there a lapse is that why we're here tonight correct y so the the walk had previously had a liquor license um you know our annual renewals happen in November and unfortunately we didn't receive an application in time so that lapsed so so that's why we're holding the hearing tonight that's correct and you've been in good standing I think for many many years I I from the my time on the board we've never had a complaint and I know you've always been good stewards of that license so um I know it is somewhat of a formality to apply again and have to go through the whole process but um I don't have any concerns at all and Christopher all the paperwork is in order um yeah I believe we've received most of they I think there was they satisfied yeah they have satisfied the requirements this time y they've been working with our Board of Health agent as well and whatever that needs to happen to get inspected and so yeah we understand that a lot of the um you know all the inspection work is basically in place and uh as you say we've we've been familiar with the walk I remember when I first came out to have you know this part of the world uh 1980s um you know the walk was there and uh it's been a part of the community for a long time Blake do you have any thoughts I actually go back to the 70s and in fact I think I gave him a permit to go into Boston after the Blizzard of 78 so he could get his produce so I've known him for a long time and again a great family to work with and uh the restaurant I still have people that I meet across the state that Rave about it so I think that uh they have a very good reputation as well um I just just have one question is um are you guys getting ready to pass the mantle if you got a manager or somebody that's going to be involved we do have a man now so I was just I was curious if you're going to retire because you guys have been at it for a long time so if if you don't mind um I'll I'll answer for my parents um you know I've been trying to get them to retire for the past 10 15 years um but um this is their livelihood um they put their heart and soul in it uh they came here with nothing and uh have built this um really establishment for uh the past 48 plus years um so uh soon enough hopefully um you know over the next uh year or so or uh five years depending on how far dad wants to go um you know it's totally up to him we've we've left it up to him to to decide on that um but we have people in place to uh help help us guide through uh all the um changes that need to be done and uh We've made sure that we've uh um abided by all the uh uh recommendations that have been given to us so so my my question always at these hearings is um tips training and you've trained your people yes y everything everybody um uh we are tips trained and uh We've um gone through all the certifications that uh we need so sounds good thank you so thank you any question if there sure does does anyone out in the audience want to make a any comments or add testimony um not you don't don't need to but just wanted to have the opportunity right so um at this point i' entertain a motion to close the public make a motion to close the public hearing second uh any further discussion hearing none all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim hch I so thank you for coming now we're going to just deliberate and make our decision which shouldn't take too long so um I make a I make a motion to uh approve the liquor license as presented second any further discussion hearing none all those in favor CH McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim El I thank you for coming and I told you it wouldn't take long all right good night thank you very much thank you thank you good luck and I hope you do retire me too well deserved rest thank you have a good night thank you thank you was just not actually deed so are there any select board Board of Health announcements Ned's on I don't know if he has any well I mean uh sorry I meant select board oh select board um no just uh just kind of we're all heading out uh tomorrow for the MMA conference in Boston uh we'll be taking classes to help reduce the cost of insurance for the town each each um Workshop several of the workshop Maya puts on um G gives us credits which we uh use to help reduce the cost of insurance for the town just want to thank everyone who's leaving for coming out tonight it's cold and we appreciate your attendance thank you um and so you know every year this is a good time for us to get away and take take a look at what's new um laws that have changed um any of the kind of new processes that are happening so uh we're really excited to go out and work with our colleagues across the state and we'll be able to listen to the governor's budget um get financial updates on the state uh it's important time and we look forward to doing that we'll report when we get back that's all I got um yeah and uh one of the benefits of this conference is that uh by taking specific classes that have to do with new laws and uh safety issues and so forth we get our reduction in our town um insurance rates so that's always a valuable thing and we'll also be working on um with the do uh to get some adjustments on our um our uh uh economy and hopefully that will uh save us money and give us more money for schools Greg sneaker is sort of helping us with that and Christopher dun so um so that's it and we're going to try and carpool to save the town money that way as well uh for me it's uh going to be a new experience and I'm looking forward to it uh more knowledge is better and like I said it's going to help the town out so I think this is a great thing that we're doing yeah I think you'll like it and the the final thing that I'll add is that um we are in the mid process of interviewing um finalist planner economic de development coordinator candidates and um the final interview will be next Thursday so um hopefully we'll be able to identify a good candidate and uh fill out the administrative suite and now it's over to you Ned welcome good evening board good evening good evening um I don't have a lot for you this week but um let's see court on Friday for the receivership great that's been in place so um I don't expect expect much to happen there and then um let's see the accessory dwelling Adu regulations going into effect on February 2nd a little less than two weeks um there's there's still not not no clear um Direction on Title Five and that's the area that the Board of Health falls into right so I'm trying to keep watch for something more specific on that but okay so far nothing um right all right let's see other than that just um normal routine Health Department going on right now thank you thanks so much appreciate it all right anybody have any questions from NED I do not today all right well you thank you Ned have a good evening stay warm you too make a motion of minutes please all right I'll make a motion to approve uh minutes and I'll go uh in order here we'll approve them all at the end uh so make a motion to approve the minutes for for the select board for um January 8th 2025 March uh excuse me uh May 1st 2024 April 24th 2024 April 18th 2024 April 3rd 2024 March uh 27th 2024 uh July 12th 2023 July 3rd 2023 April 5th 2023 March 23rd 2023 which is a joint finance committee meeting um and uh February 27th 2023 which was a joint cipc meeting and uh February 13th 20123 that's a that's a boatload of minutes and I'm thrilled that you guys have second people have caught up whoever's been working on that yeah so thank you for the people who have been preparing these um uh Co we we can blame covid for this this was a side effect of Co and it's um I believe that we now have a checklist of the meetings where we have succeeded in approving minutes for and I think 2024 is looking pretty good yeah pat pat Martin has been pulling together that list and definitely Kudos TS H and rder for pulling these minutes together it's much appreciated I went through them all they look good um yep all our names are good job spelled correctly um so um if there's no further discussion all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim Hil I thank you all right um next up is um discussion items and um again I will just say that I want to thank uh Christopher dun's going to talk about this but thank Christopher Dunn for re reinvigorating the efforts around trying to revitalize Elm Street and and uh our recent um information that we we've received a $500,000 grant for for that uh work to move forward and so take it over sure so uh you know obviously it's been a a long-standing goal of the town to revitalize South Deerfield streetscape and sidewalks um you know I think conversations started back in you know 2012 2013 probably earlier than that um about you know what to do in Elm Street in particular um given that's sort of one of the main stretches of our commercial quarter has always been a focus and there's definitely a need there to improve the sidewalks um and you know include plantings and and things like that that would just generally improve the environment for you know customers patronizing those businesses uh along Elm Street um back in 2020 uh former Town Administrator uh Diana Schindler I believe submitted a complete streets plan for the town and that was approved uh and that made us what's called a tier three Community it means we're eligible for construction funding under the complete streets program um Co happened you know nothing moved forward for a little bit on the pro program and then uh last year in my role as the planner um I came on and and uh worked with tyan bond to advance a plan and a design uh for Elm Street we held an open house uh this past September for folks to review some of the preliminary designs and move move forward with one and a Grant application to mot and just as Tim mentioned fortunately we we uh received word that we've received $500,000 in construction funding for that project um so happy to take any questions on that from the board at this point um you know next steps I'm going to be meeting with um you know Chief PK and and our other public safety personnel about some of the preliminary designs that have been put out there uh and also you know reconvene with our uh design team uh and figure out you know what are next steps uh for moving forward with this project it's great no ex yeah I was just going to say that I I as part of that process you've been speaking with local businesses correct yep so we we reached out to to folks along Elm Street and and to be clear this is Elm Street between Railroad Street and uh North Main or or Main Street in general I should say uh so it's not all of BM Street Chris I know we had a discussion in regards to uh funding on top of that and I know you said you were looking into other avenues so I just wondered if we just keep us a breast on that as far as funding goes for the remainder of what it's going to cost to do that project right and so the the funding awarded by Masta was 500,000 that's certainly a good chunk uh the estimate of the Full Construction cost was about 650,000 so there's a $150,000 Gap there and then of course we have to pay our design fee as well um and so that's that's some monies we need to you know we need to find uh I think we've got a good start certainly with that 500,000 sure um we pursued an ADA uh Municipal Improvement Grant um for for some of the work unfortunately that didn't pan out this year it is a uh a two-year Grant so this we have until December 31st of 2026 I believe to complete the project that's right um so there's always the age-old question you know you wait try to Cobble together more funding and watch the prices rise or try to go quickly I think we use some stabilization really I mean that's my thought is like getting laid out really do it right you know and see where that's at and then just you know get it to get it to cipc finance committee and kind of talk about where whether we pull a little free cash a little stabilization towards it to get something like that done I'd hate to pass up 500,000 you know right absolutely and and an application for additional funding has been sent to cipc for some of this um I would also just mention that you know we've been talking with Chris Miller and DPW about um you know addressing the the road surface itself during this project it is obviously in pretty poor condition it's in bad shape um so this might be an opportunity to do that as well and there's there's interest in the Cumberland property so I think that might move pretty quickly and so there'll be some hopefully some improvements there and then we still have funding for the and I we have to do an extension this year for the common but we can kind of tie all that together as we do that four-way inter inter section that'd be great I mean we really go a long way to start you know wrapping up what's working on for a long time that would be items one two and three on our complete Street list so it' be really nice it's nice to see some momentum thank you for the work yeah the plan is has been presented and and uh is actually right to the the curb in front of Leo's M and what we what I've been talking with Christ about is seeing if there's any way that we can in you know bring the birkshire Design Group and the tiin bond plans together and leverage the C you know CPA project to to do what we control in the common which is the the town owned land versus The Far Side which is the states and uh yep and see if we can't make all of that uh realign the the sidewalks and safer locations along North Main Street and um do the the walkways in the in the common and stuff that Trevor's been working on for a long time so I think now now that we have that in hand so so to speak um a second meeting with Natalie Joe and do at District 2 to say look because they they were looking to offer some help and assistance too so maybe if we can combine all this together um we'll have some of the work for the infrastructure looked at with um the water infrastructure Grant so maybe we can pull it all together yeah I'm I'm meeting with um um you know their staff on the 27th to talk about the Still Water Bridge Project which I'll get into a little bit later this meeting but I'll I'll make a note bring that up with them as well see if they're interested to do that again that'd be great all right awesome so next up is the DTA District local techn technical assistance request form sure so this is uh you know we receive this essentially annually from furog um there's State funding for for technical assistance um and so it allows their staff to take on projects uh from different communities that they serve um and you know not provide money but provide their expertise and their their man hours to actually move those projects forward um in the past you know I know last year we applied for some technical assistance to essentially add a chapter to our master plan specific to the the Town campus that's been proposed um we didn't then receiving that technical assistance unfortunately obviously it's a it's a competitive process um so this year we've got they've laid out a few different options for us um in terms of possible uh technical assistance that we could receive and uh you know Greg and I have been talking it over and we've certainly had some thoughts um but I was curious to see if there was any there were any items on there that jumped out at the board um that's something we'd really like to look into um I was going through the the list too and not a lot is jumping out on this list to me this year really I was going to probably talk to Linda when I'm in Boston about it too um there is really no master plan options right we're not seeing any of that um that's kind of where I would gear I don't know what else um usually I go through and I'm like oh check off this we have a one two three and I don't know I'll look a little bit further but I I really you know I trust you you both so if you you know it will help you and benefit the town the most in your position so I'd leave it up to you really yeah well you know I think two two thoughts occurred um one is there is assistance to apply for hazard mitigation plan updates yeah I know Carolyn would tell you we need to update ours and that's definitely an important task um I think that would be a great effort if we were to um you know receive funding under that okay um you know after an application uh you know that'd be a great thing for the MVP core R to move forward with Y um the other thought that occurred was there is um technical assistance for regional Services um I think Sunderland might be looking at something to study the transfer station U proposal that's true yep um and certainly you know it's a great thought it would be nice to have a little a few extra hands to help us move that forward I know we've been having meetings roughly once a month with Janine at our DPW and and Greg and myself um but certainly having fcog you know being able to put some of their resources into it as well could help move that forward that's a great idea those are good those are good thoughts yep sounds good to me yeah we will certainly you know hopefully um get a few minutes to sit together um in Boston and yeah you know noodle on this too as well um one thing I wanted to ask you about that is um if you had posted us to be in in a continuous select board meeting during this process yeah I believe Cassie took care of that yeah great perfect I just wanted to make sure we weren't uh missing the boat on that welcome to come so we couldn't talk to each other um all right next up um is uh Chris Curtis who is our MVP coordinator um has a needs a contract amendment to uh bring us through the conclusion of this MVP 2.0 um two-year uh contract that he was working for us so if you want to talk about that a little Christopher didn't do this already yeah so I I'll back up a minute here so back in December I think we we put this in front of the board um you know essentially what happened was we had a copy of Chris's existing contract um that didn't show uh the changes broken out um so it looked like sort of a new contract for essentially $330,000 or something like that an extension to June 30th um what I believe you should have in front of you is a copy um showing those showing the actual changes or at least summarizing the changes essentially it's I I think was around I want to say $1,500 um and that's he had been talking about this with Casey it sounds like there was just a discrepancy between you know the amount applied for and then what ended up in the contract and so it's essentially just rectifying that difference and then the six-month extension is really just to complete um the work on those projects that have you know been extended um so Greg I don't know if you have anything else to add about uh Chris's Chris Curtis's contract um extension but that's as I understand it that's the the lay of the land there no I think you got to cover it he just it was a an extension that was from um the previous year and it's just looking to finish up the the work from the 2024 Grant so and and this is money that's coming out of the MVP Grant itself so that's correct it's not coming out of the town's no coffers so it's 250 and 1135 yeah yeah I believe so and it it has other things in the contract language itself but it's just but that's the amount okay so all right that's fine um at this point for for discussion I'll make a motion to approve the contract Amendment um as written um and authorize the Town Administrator sound to sign on behalf of the town I'll second the motion all right any discussion yeah Chris uh so it's six months and then this is this is completed so this will be over within 6 months right okay I just I wasn't wasn't sure how this was working out yeah the extension is till uh June 30th and then the MVP uh committee um there's nine member committee that has farmers and young people and old people and um various other Representatives uh of the town uh energy committee open space um we're going to have to look at what we what we want to do and discuss with the select board moving forward um obviously uh MVP gave us 179,000 for a grant that Christopher applied for um to study the bloody Brook and we're also using another 50,000 from our uh MVP 2.0 program uh funding to do the um what we were calling alternately the uh Sugarloaf or blacksmith Brook MH um to do hydrological studies of both of those which are the the water bodies that you know do contribute a lot to the flooding in the downtown so that will give us um a blueprint for going out and looking at uh Federal uh nrcs money etc for um climate resiliency funding for culverts Etc we know that there's some work to do you know Poss possibly north of kellaher drive and and perhaps on the other side of um the road from kellaher drive on a couple of culverts that tend to force water to back up so um and so there's a lot of potential good to come out of that program so want to keep taking advantage of it as much as possible kind of on that subject is you know um Fred Beck is still you know pushing for that ditch on Eastern a to get addressed and I think there's some discussion that needs to happen around where where the problems are and you know still taking down the ditch um some people think it's blocked up other places I think we know that it's filled in the ditch and we'd like to lower it like we've done other places but it's a time of the year thing and it's a plan thing and it's a money thing so we have to figure out where to get the funding to do that and a plan to do that and all so just kind of keep that on the top of the wasn't that going to be done by the highway department it was and you know the ideal time where it hardened up but didn't freeze kind of would a little fast let's let's Circle back to that discussion after we another time if if there's anything to no I mean we can do it tonight I'm just saying right we're in the middle of a motion on approving this contract so oh yeah let's vote then second to get M yeah um so if there's no further discussion on this um um all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim HGI great thank you all right so back to this discussion I Fred sent us email and yeah he he was asking about you know we the plan was to kind of tackle and dig that out this fall before it you know while it got hardened but before it got frozen we're past that at the moment with some snow and really solid ground so might not be the ideal time I think Chris Miller has a different idea on how things are backing up there's some differences of opinion on that and how that goes but you know at some point we've got to figure out one the funding you know one thought was to take that material and talk to the there's two two lots right on cross street that are either going to get built on or not built on and maybe we could talk with the owners about um putting the good top soil there if they're interested in it maybe there's another spot they would go but that was one thought Fred had of what we dug out of the ditch it's good soil maybe those residents would want good top soil there and we could just leave it there versus Trucking it off somewhere um but it's the time to get in there and um you know get it getting people lined up to do it I think those those two pieces were sold to contractor so again that might be who us to check with those people whoever even if they didn't put it there they could probably use it yeah yeah a lot of times somebody wants some good time I'm sure it's good good soil um so anyways we we should maybe pull a team together you know Chief has been involved with a lot of that knows how to do it and you may already have a plan for this but just want to say no I would just I would just add you know I know Chris Miller has been in touch with Pete law uh this week about it and I would just you know bringing it back to MVP you know we have funding for the Sugarloaf Brook Watershed and and addressing flooding issues there right you know this ditch essentially feeds into that that Brook which some people also call the blacksmith Brook so I think um we're going to have a public information session uh for that uh next week um and I think that's going to be an opportunity for folks like Fred to come out and and talk to our you know our uh engineer team yeah and maybe there's a conceptual plan for that that comes out of that right yeah get something going okay it never happens as fast as everyone wants but it is something that we're we're moving forward forward to right yes exactly sometimes delays work out in your favor like the lry lot true you know we got a lot more for um our federal dollar than we would have if we done it three years ago so absolutely um yep okay all right um next up is um a one-day liquor license for Yankee Candle Trevor you want to do your mag I'll make a motion to approve the one-day liquor license for Yankee Candle village uh there's an event uh um is let's see date of the event is Saturday February 8th 2025 it's a Valentine's Day celebration event uh Valentine's shopping event from uh 10: to 6:00 p.m. at Yankee Candle village selling wine um selling beer and wine at the candle Emporium uh Home Store area from uh 12:00 noon to 6:00 p.m. second and they're very good about filing all their insurance forms Etc so yep all the paperwork's in order yep all right uh there's no further discussion all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim hchi I all right um next up have you had a chance to look at the sewer baitman or is this just the first time you're seeing it first time i' I've seen it I'm not sure what um can provide some context if needed yeah that'd be great yeah so this is uh this is a house on Grave Street that was actually demolished I believe so they're just looking to to pay the bare minimum if that's a possibility um yeah it was it was demolished as of uh July and they would SE was disconnected as of that that time as well so they're looking for a rebate a full rebate so they've had no usage really they just have a connection fee and a minimum usage fee I think right they have the um minimum usage charge of $100 and they have a service connection fee so I think you could Abate the $100 right cuz there isn't a building there they're not collecting it but I think every property has a connection fee regardless regardless of whether they using it or not um so I'm I'm in favor of um reducing the the bill to 150 makes sense to me but I don't know if anybody else has any thoughts on it or you want to just have a hearing on this and deal with it next time or first reading yeah I mean I I don't see an objection to what you're saying um I would have just said there's a I guess the minimum charges for water right so since they didn't use any water as of um you know July right it makes sense to Abate that portion and yep the actual service to the property it's part of the part of the land agreement and and the you know the lot gets sold it's still got the connect you correct and uh so I would I would be in agreement with you Trevor yeah sounds good so I'll make a motion to um provide an abatement of $100 leaving a $150 fee for the connection fee second any further discussion hearing none all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim Hil I that doesn't require a sign does it require a signature yeah yeah there we are all right oh yeah sorry Blake needs to sign yeah he does need to sign the bottom too all right the next uh bit of business is um a board committee application um there's a request to appoint Jeffrey Spencer Brown to the historical commission can you give us any context on was there a letter of recommendation from there sure uh Jeffrey applied and then uh you know we reached out to the commission um Ben Benson from the commission wrote back to say he's had highly recommended I understand that uh Jeff also then stopped by uh the commission's meeting um on I believe it was on Monday evening and uh you know just had an opportunity to sit down with folks and and get a feel for it and uh it seems like it seems like everyone got along so uh you know they're very happy to recommend him to the the commission yeah great historically speaking no no issues good you got to say that one into the mic Greg you know and the rest is history all right it's when you get five or six guys together you got to expect this time do seven so um make a motion make a motion I'll make a motion to approve uh Jeffrey Spencer Brown to the um historical commission second uh any further discussion hearing on all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim heli and thank you Jeffrey for your interest in serving on the commission fantastic uh next up is um a request for a letter of support for the open space Mass Trails application and I see that Julie Cas Caswell from the open space committee's here so if you want to give us a little background information on this yes good evening uh this is a a grant proposal that the open space committee is going to be making to the mass Trails um program on due and it's due February 3rd so what we're proposing is to um do a the total Grant is for $80,000 it involves uh construction and re rehab really of the pum tuck Ridge Trail between uh Hillside Road and Stage Road and then also so that's a construction Grant Construction part of this Grant and the second component is a design feature we've been talking to UMass ammer about doing a uh all persons Trail that's an ADA uh Trail around um a Big Field down by the Connecticut River so both of these things would be in a single um uh application to the to the program and hopefully um we would be successful in getting that so this letter is asking the select boards um support for the Grant application enthusiastic support and I I offer that so sorry enthusiastic support from what I read enthusiastic support I completely agree so just uh because I'm going to do this I will uh quickly read the letter um Dear Miss Lewis the Dearfield select board is writing to express its enthusiastic support for the application of the Deerfield open space committee for a mass Trails grant for construction and design grant for the river and Ridge Trail complex total Grant applications for 880,000 with 60,000 for construction of the uhic Ridge Trail Hillside Road to Stage Road and 20,000 for Designing the adjacent Big Field Trail area the Deerfield Community preservation committee's already approved recommending CPC funding to the town meeting for cost share for the commit for the committee applying to mass Trails um assuming that we're going to do this the select board um did we approve this letter tonight I mean this this will be this will be a correct statement if we do this that's right the select board approve this letter of support at its meeting on January 22 2025 Grant application to the state by the Deerfield open space committee will support Trail construction for one Trail and design study for a second Trail area both of which will be part of a larger River and Ridge Trail complex in Deerfield while there are informal trails in Deerfield there is no formal Town Network many residents and V visitors do not know how to access these free opportunities to enjoy the beauty of Deerfield and the surrounding area increasing recreational opportunities particularly for walking and Hiking is one of the leading goals of the Deerfield open space and Recreation plan 2023 to 2030 which the select board endorses the mass Trails Grant will allow for the first step to increasing these opportunities through the Construction and design of parts of the river and Ridge Trail complex sincerely Deerfield selp so I'll take a motion motion to approve the uh letter of support uh second um discussion yeah I just a a question on this this area that they're putting the trail on is that all Deerfield land or is that state land or where the trail is going to cross over is that all ours the town of deerfields uh the pum tuck Ridge Trail that will have some construction work done on it which will be um Three Bridges some trail cutting and some other things Ben what they call bench cutting um that runs uh from Hillside to Stage Road the it's about a mile long uh half of it is on UMass ammer property and half of it is on the town of deerfields uh property the Birchwood nature Refuge so we're in unison with UMass over this and they're they're part of the the process here we've been talking with them um we are still in the process of um getting them to actually sign the permission form but we're hopeful that we're we're going to be able to wrap that up and um and have everything in order uh including the SE select board's enthusiastic support um for the submission thank you and you said that's du on February 3rd yes any further discussion no I hearing none all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim Hil I thank you Julie thank you very much you know under um appointments and stuff I don't know if it's there was a letter from Joanne Carney to resign from the Personnel Board do you um do we want to do that now or just to open up that space for somebody did you not get it I I guess I didn't come across my desk well I will send it to you uh you're right it did not uh so I'll I'll send that on um we can do it next time I guess it's fine but I'll forward it to you okay great yep include then we can open up a spot just if anyone's interested in serving on the Personnel Board we'd love to have have your participation down Okay Okay so um now we're on to the most informative part of the evening is the Town Administrator and assistant Town administrator's reports sure uh so real quick update on Stillwater Bridge just a reminder we're going to have a site walk tomorrow uh with the executive office of energy and environmental Affairs just to check out the article 97 land and then the land that the town is proposing to use uh for mitigation purposes uh when you know when we take easements on that land um I'll be there with um the hydro company as well they're going to send a representative given that they own that article 97 land um survey work has started as well on the mitigation parcel so that's uh work that needs to happen so that we can actually act on that at town meeting um and then um I'm going to be speaking as I mentioned with um Natalie and Joe's staff on the 27th just to go over the special legislation again regarding article 97 and then real quick I just wanted to say you know I believe we've concluded the last of the mandatory interviews with impacted Property Owners I'm going to be circling back with mot um just to answer a couple questions that came up most of it was in regards to the construction process itself how long will it take Etc um so we'll get back to those residents and uh otherwise I think you know the appraisal company is going to be reaching out to them and then they will be uh you know upraising the very small easements on on those properties and then coming up with fair and just compensation for that right um so that's where Still Water Bridge stands real quick on landfill solar um so two things one uh you know Lisa put forward a draft uh agreement with NEX amp pilot agreement that is now with nexamp and they are just you know dotting their eyes and crossing their tees um so that should be coming across our desks in the next few weeks it looks like will any of the changes federally have an effect on that that's a good question I'm happy to pose that question to Beth green blad who's been our consultant on the project hopefully it's just State controlled and not federal but I know that that's you know we're sticking our head in the sand on a lot of things lately and uh that's going to be one of them just making a note okay um and then uh the other piece of this is of course it's the the landfill itself is actually two separate Parcels um and so they need to file a plan showing the parcels being combined um so we're going to have I believe on our February 3rd planning board meeting an anr an approval not required plan uh from Nex amp um that they've already sent us so that should be that should be relatively easy to take care of but just a step we need to take in the process before approving the pilot agreement yep and then uh Trevor you already mentioned this South County Senior Center obviously we've got February 19th we've got uh that presentation to the public uh on the results of the feasibility study and senior housing I just wanted to mention um you know those those buildings have been cleared of all the personal effects that were still left in them um and uh you know at this point the RFP for that is with furog they're just taking a look at it um and we're hoping to identify some dates when a developer could actually you know come by and and visit the property right um so that's where that stands I did want to check and see if the board had questions about other projects or or items I think we have a question on Kathy Sylvester oh great Kathy hey Kathy oh hi thank you um I just wanted to I might have missed this because I missed the first few minutes but Christopher we were going to have on the agenda the CPC spending administrative funds for our um CPC plan that we need to develop with verog oh you know I don't think that one made it onto the agenda uh and I apologize for that Kathy I I yeah we just missed that one do you need something but we have a contract with them that we need to approve at some point um I don't know if you want me to go further you want to just put on the well Cathy actually if you if you don't mind just reminding me what the the overall price of the contract is yeah so uh the CPC should according to the stat statute have a CPC plan we've never had one since uh we created the CPC in town so we're um looking to work with furog to develop a community preservation plan which basically outlines what the goals are what the community's goals are for Community preservation money um and then every year you just update it but we have to establish that initial plan so um I've been working with fog and they have a contract that they've suggested of spending $7,600 to help us develop that plan and that money would come out of um our administrative funds which we have set aside every year for administrative expenses and so the contract has to be at some point reviewed and agreed upon by the select board I don't know so I think I mean I think that's at an amount where I'm probably authorized to sign um it's it's so we've never had the plan before and never and and and we feel like $7,000 we couldn't just come up with a plan or I mean what I'm just curious what they're going to do for $7,000 we've looked at plans of other communities because we initially thought maybe we could do it ourselves but it is quite involved and we don't have the expertise or experience in doing it you know once we have a plan we could probably manage to update ourselves right but it's a pretty big initial undertaking if you look at say for instance Sunderland CPC plan or other communities it's quite involved um not some something that I think volunteers have the bandwidth or expertise to develop and it's just to guide us on what we want to spend the money on or guide guide your your group they'll also um do some I believe and I haven't got the whole detail but they're going to you know have we'll have meetings with the community to get input to develop a plan as to to where we want to put our efforts primarily okay and um it it's really quite involved I see okay I know that one of the things that the the recent CPC members have been discovering is working with the state Coalition director um there's a lot of legal Nuance in some of these uh applications that um certainly H having a plan in place would be uh beneficial in helping you judge what's what's in the best interest of the Town residents in also actually required exactly we're just trying to be in line with what we're supposed to be doing so if it's in that range I'm sure you could just address it right yeah sure yeah Kathy we'll take one more look at the the contract that fock sent over but yeah I think I I'm authorized to sign for those so yeah is there any chance that we could take a look at that as well oh yeah absolutely let me make a note I'll send around a copy um because I'm I'm looking at it in my email here um so yeah I'll send that around you want me to send it to you Chris or do you have it I've got it thanks Kathy thank you Kathy apprciate thank you Kathy this money is I think one of the first times that um any of the the administrative money ever been used so yeah that's true it's just sitting there you got to use it for well it goes back into the general CPC fund if they don't use it but it seems like a right you know a worthwhile to get the uh plan done correctly right all right and I did just real want real quick want to give an update on the 1888 building um so we've you know since since our last meeting I believe uh you know we had a variance for the height of the addition approved by the zoning Board of Appeals um essentially to in an aesthetically pleasing manner house the the elevator that's needed to access the existing building and then um Additionally the site plan was approved back on the 6th by the planning board and of course the Deerfield historical commission provided a letter of support for the project as well so lots of community support we are going to be sending out a little Community update um you know I think early next week um just kind of highlighting some of those milestones and then of course um you know our op PM is currently working on the uh the Hazardous U you know material mitigation and abatement project um so essentially making sure we remove any lead paint any asbestos Etc and can deliver a clean building to a general contractor when it comes to that point um so we anticipate that coming up in February um so that'll be an item for our agenda at at some point in February okay sounds good anything else uh no I just would add with the 1888 building that uh we sent out a notification to all the Departments uh to see if there was any interest in any of the um items inside uh we had a little bit of interest but any interest from the BFW or well the BFW we we've I've contacted them a number of times and and I think and they've expressed that they have removed everything that perfect that they wanted removed um but uh and then talking with Chris Miller he you know he I think he would like to get a dumpster out there sooner than later so uh we'll we'll get in the process of doing that and uh just would want to just do a shout out uh to Christopher I you know he he has to do this federal reporting for the L lot and uh you know we all gave him uh Kudos the last time he did it and I'll tell you the report this time was even better so I mean it's it's a lot of work and I bet it is you know I caught a glimpse of it and I just you know I he's not going toot his own hor so I'll toot it for him so thank you Chris makes it look so easy yeah yeah I I did speak to Chris Miller today about the the getting the dumpster over there and getting you know that project underway for emptying the building um there's going to be I asked them to pull aside the Pepsi machine because I went online and I did some research and you know they can be $650 to $900 so my thought was maybe we could uh um speak to somebody who has a concession stand through the uh Gables antique right and maybe we could do a consignment thing there's actually some people from town that are interested in that Pepsi machine Pepsi the other thing I'd like to uh see if we can get out of there is that Bingo machine there's a bingo machine too it's a big one all right so I just want to see if there's some you know either a church or somebody that might be able to use that thing because I mean hate to tell you this maybe not here but down the cape Bingo's a big thing it is we're working on the uh the popcorn machine too we want to oh it works they can go in here in the town H would be very I think there's even a pool table in the basement which is a it's not in great shape no I don't know who was ever maybe it was the BFW I don't know but and the weight of that thing would be yeah tough getting it out of there I mean it was on the second floor so they got it to the basement yeah real quick on more serious matters I I just wanted to note that also our architect was in there uh last week and just marked any any items of historical value that they don't want to be affected by the Hazmat mitigation so you know there's certain door frames and and U banisters and things like that chalkboards that was a big one so just make sure those don't get impacted by the mitigation okay good to know all right all right well if um there are there any other items unanticipated motion to adjourn second all those in favor all right I must jump in the gun sorry oh you're so you're you're all right all those in favor yeah Trevor McDaniel yes please blakei Tim mili and just uh want to invite everyone to our next regular meeting on February 5th uh so thank you for coming have a good weekend