good evening and welcome to the select board Board of Health sewer Commissioners meeting of March 26 2025 at 5:30 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 required by law m M of the public with a particular interest in a
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 Deerfield municipal offices in accordance with Mass General Law chapter 30A anyone intending to record the meeting must identify themselves to the clerk and provide their name and address
for the record call the meeting to order and um this is not a typical this was originally scheduled as a joint finance committee select board meeting but um turned out that the finance committee didn't need to be uh in participation
tonight um and so do we we don't have any minutes from the previous meeting do Notre so we're going to move on to um the section of the agenda that's reviewing the budget and um the only budget item that we're going
to be reviewing tonight is the Board of Health um budget is that correct Christopher correct and uh I would actually just check and see if Carolyn are you here for an item unanticipated or yes I am here for so I might recommend we move to items unanticipated
within 48 Hours um okay because well you've got a lot of paperwork there um all right so um briefly we received a we received a request from a group of
citizens throughout the state that are organizing to um oppose uh a reopening of efforts to put pipelines gas pipelines through New England and um so um should I read
this yeah probably um so this is a a letter that's suggested to go to the nine governors of um the following states Connecticut Maine Massachusetts New Hampshire New Jersey New York Pennsylvania Rhode Island and
Vermont um dear governor 13 years ago people in Western Catskills of New York state were determined to stop the Constitution pipeline through legal and political means they were joined a few years later by people across New York state New Hampshire and Massachusetts who were equally resolved to prevent the
Northeast energy direct pipeline from ravaging their backyards watersheds and farmlands organizations citizens groups and local and state governments United decrying the environmental destruction and the use of eminent domain for private gain they succeeded in stopping
the Constitution pipeline Ned and the Northeast Supply enhancement project a few years later the people in New Jersey and Pennsylvania sto Pen East we will not let them come back on February 14 2025 after signing an executive order establishing the national energy
dominance council president Trump called for a building a pipeline that had been blocked by New York state Secretary bergam who chairs the council confirmed it was the Constitution pipeline the president claimed that everyone wants this pipeline it could be built in less
than a year and it would substantially lower energy costs in New York New England and New England secretary Wright has subsequently said there are other stalled pipelines that should be built these false claims are a serious threat to State sovereignty jeopardizing our
natural resources water quality and climate goals the undersigned organizations ask you as the leaders of our states to Stand United with each other and with us to protect our hard-fought victories against the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure
and to focus on fulfilling our climate goals we're we know that if one pipeline gets built more will be proposed or revived for example the Constitution pipeline would end in right New York but the existing pipelines at that intersection
are already at capacity for most of the year that means additional pipelines would be needed to transport con Constitution gas to either New York City or New England therefore given the aggressive goals of the energy dominance Council people along the roots of all
stalled or officially abandoned infrastructure projects must be on a high alert including those who would be impacted by Ned building billion- dooll pipelines does not reduce costs for consumers rate payers foot the bill the
Massachusetts Secretary of environmental and of energy and environmental Affairs when recently asked about new gas infrastructure explained that gas spot market prices peak in New England for about 7 Days every winter and stated quote you don't build a gigantic
pipeline for seven days a year end quote there is no reason to look back today more people than ever are awake engaged and resolved to stand up against the tyranny of greed we have real solutions and we are implementing them our region is closing fossil fuel plants increasing Ren renewable energy generation and
continuing to ramp up Energy Efficiency massach usus has adopted a clean Peak standard to reduce Reliance on fossil fuels during times of peak energy demand and that state has also established the nation's first office of energy transformation
with a mission to accelerate the energy transformation with the focus on gas to electric transition electric grid Readiness and an affordable and just transition for workers businesses and communities end quote Rhode Island is home to the first US
offshore wind farm in 2023 New York ranked third among all states for total Renewable Power Generation that year wind farms in Ran accounted for about 133% of the state's total electricity net generation while New Jersey was the nation's 12th largest producer of
electricity from solar energy and ranked seventh in small scale solar power generation solar energy now accounts for approximately one quarter of Massachusetts in state electricity net generation as for Energy Efficiency Rhode Island res residents consume the
least energy per capita in all 50 states on a per capita basis eight of the 17 least energy intensive states are in the Northeast including all New England states New York and New Jersey in 2022 New York used less energy to produce a
dollar of GDP than any other state Massachusetts and Connecticut also rank among the top five states on this metric New Hampshire reported a 37% reduction in energy related carbon dioxide emissions between 2005 and 2017 and a simultaneous 15% increase in
GDP Northeast Northeastern states have clean energy transition goals and mandates to be proud of our stance against the build out of gas infrastructure after all we've achieved is non-negotiable thank you to each of your administrations for your role in moving us towards a cleaner energy system that
is protective of our environment and of our rights to be of self-determination of States communities and land owners we cannot back down now we are just getting started and this is letter is signed to stop the pipeline and pipeline awareness
network of the Northeast um also known as sdp and plan NE co-sponsors would be I guess any communities that want to sign on to this I may have missed a few words there because this is a long letter that's
good yeah I so um at this point I just wanted to um I was in touch with some other people whose families were impacted by the first uh first go around of the Ned
Pipeline and um one of the one of the bit farming businesses asked me to read this into the record this is from Clarkdale Fruit Farms Clarkdale has been growing apples peaches and other fruits and deer field since 1915 our family farm was
threatened by the proposed Kinder Morgan gas pipeline in 2015 we would have lost Acres of prod productive Orchards and our Farm's viability would have been threatened on a townwide scale miles of forest and Fields would have been ripped up and our
River would have been bored under due to the dangers of blowouts in any high pressure pipeline as well as the aforementioned destruction of Natural Resources our farm our family is against any pipeline being built in the
region and that's Ben Clark okay so just want to open it up for discussion select board any members comments do do you want to make a comment um I'm Carolyn NES I was on the select board and Board of Health at the
time we were the lead Community fighting this um this is a documentation that the Northeast direct pipeline was a threat to the health and well-being of the a Deerfield it's Farmland um the best in the world specifically the YZ winsky
Clarkdale and antonellis farms uh the water quality issues were un unbelievable there was um going to be a huge disruption on the Deerfield River as well as uh several Wetlands um and it definitely was accelerating climate
change so after um a lot of research and uh degrading our backyards and farmland it was determined that a large percentage of the gas going through the pipeline wasn't even for us it was for
export for a profit of the gas companies and that as rate payers I mean I personally didn't have any gas but based on our research with rate payers there would never be a price decrease they
actually would have an increase because they were going to pay for the installation the cost of the installation whatever the Kinder Morgan was going to pay uh to to install the pipe plus an 8 to 11% net profit of you
know given to the company by dpu um to Kinder Morgan was going to be transferred to the rate payers so there was never going to be any cost savings um yes maybe a couple more people could hook up to it or whatever but the whole
moratorium was a pretty much of a hoax anyway but it was a shell game rate players uh rate payers would definitely pay more and it was a Cost Plus and we have that documentation there was no net benefit to the residents in the town of
Deerfield for supporting this old technology this was 20th century technology our future is really to continue investing in um uh renewable energy generation and Energy Efficiency there's no there's no reason to build a
Pipeline and I would encourage the uh select board Board of Health to sign off on this letter and uh even resurrect the municipal um group that we had we had 13 communities to start with we gen uh
ended up with 28 in Massachusetts that used um our court case of cease and dis order as a basis for them having a cease and disorder uh cease and disorder and also um in New New Hampshire we had a
coalition of I I'm trying to remember it was either 23 or 26 towns I don't I don't know maybe Trevor you can remember but I think it's close to that yeah yeah it was quite a few towns in New Hampshire we had a lot of meetings up there and a lot of town hall meetings but I just wanted to let you know that
um absolutely this is something that we need to support stopping yep thank you agree with that that's all I have to say if any documentation is needed I certainly have it yeah thank you hanging on to it smart not to let it go um I'd
make a motion to approve the um sign on to this letter um I agree with all the all the statements to it and um we have to be vigilant I think last time town meeting voted $10,000 towards
uh uh funding the lawsuit and uh I think monu was the lead in the in litigation and we were going to fund help fund that we approved well we actually were the lead initially we had pro bono help but this was for the fight after correct
after they um stopped there was yeah it was a continuing thing it was to make sure that they had no permits that they could hold on to and stuff like that and then that that went away I don't think we ever funded that because I think they dropped the case correct yes they ended up dropping a case but we had voted at
town meeting 10,000 and there was there was I think I think it was 5,000 you know it was 10 years ago yeah it was a while ago yeah but I think 5,000 we ended up transferring 5,000 but I don't think the full 10 was ever spent I was speaking to Bud driver the other day who
was a big part of this as well and he was he was saying that you know keep keep an eye out because it's coming back and so uh you know definitely need to you know he offered his help if anybody else needs him to get involved as well okay Trevor I'll second it thank you sorry that was
long uh and I was in contact with Katie Eisman who's uh based in cumington but she was also actively involved in stop the pipeline and um I reached out to various members of the community that I knew were involved in this and uh
I think we just well I support it too so all those in favor any any further discussion hearing not all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim El I so the select board will be uh one of the co-signers of this letter and
uh I will um communicate through Christopher dun with Katie Eisman she I I signed on to this as a personal individual but I wanted to make sure that the selectboard had a chance to way the pros and cons are doing it and so
thank you appreciate it thank you have a nice night thank you good night okay so now we'll go back to the uh the review of budget all right I see Ned SES sis is here and we have the Board of Health payroll in
front of us and Christopher can you talk to us a little bit about the various things that are at play here sure uh so th this question came up uh couple weeks ago uh when Ned was presenting the Board of Health budget uh the finance
committee and the select board we have a line item for a public health nurse um who uh Cindy might aski of course had been filling that position she's been out for a bit we have uh an Master too filling in for her um you
know previously in 20 fy2 that position had been budgeted at um 12 hours a week um there was a little bit it sounds like at some point there was a little bit of a miscommunication and yeah so uh Cindy was working some additional hours um and she has
certainly built up a clientele um you know among not only Deerfield residents but other residents in surrounding communities um based off of those those hours um and so I think uh what we determined at the last select board joint select board finance committee
meeting where this was discussed was uh the Board of Health just wanted an opportunity to speak with Ned about it um and get a better grip on the numbers here and also um you know come to some kind of firmer understanding of where we want to be with public health nurse hours um for the town of Deerfield so I
asked uh Ned to to be here tonight to speak to it but um that's basically the context and Ned I don't know if you have anything to add to to what I just mentioned there um no not really I think um I didn't I haven't really worked directly
with Cindy a lot so I haven't seen what she does but the sounds of her job distri description there's um quite a bit on there I mean uh one thing I I know didn't happen
last last year was the Blu vaccine at Deerfield Town Hall um I'm not sure if any other vaccine clinics were um done outside of the senior center so think the furog that was one thing
that Val relay to me that she was a little yeah furog never came over to do it um Greenfield didn't but that was one thing B was a little um upset about when I talked to her and
um I mean Cindy to me seems like she's worth the investment she's got a lot of um home visits that she does and she made it clear to me that um sometimes she does it on her own time which I
don't think should be happening especially if there's some kind of an accident or something but um yeah again I I haven't worked with her directly enough to really lay everything out what she does and um
exactly why she needs the increase but I believe in her and I believe she's um she's a good asset for deer Deerfield and we could use her 18 hours yeah that's pretty much all I have
but excellent that's the question really in my mind is what is the appropriate level of hours per week and it sort of happened in an arbitrary fashion that Cindy thought she was
supposed she had a contract for X but it really wasn't what she thought and so she was working 18 hours a week and that was not not a number that was ever approved by anyone that's my
understanding to correct me if I'm wrong so I guess where I'd go with this whole conversation is that it's been extremely confusing couple of years since we left furog and had fog's nurse um and all of
that time was through covid so we had help with contact tracing and we had grants for this and grants for that and some money coming from this program and some money coming from that program and then some money from you know our nursing program um and think it got
confusing on her part kind of how much she was supposed to be doing and she had a few different people and we had Transitions and people um here kind of telling her what to do as well so between elections and different people moving jobs and whatever so I think it
was an understandable confusion on her part and I still am a bit confused on our whole public health uh plan going forward and I'd like to take this you know this time maybe through the year to kind of really
evaluate what we want to do going forward as far as public nursing goes um and and are we getting enough out of these public Excellence grants and the nacho grants I mean they do help you know with Cindy out we're we're taking advantage of some of the grants to help backfill her um so that's important and
I know those Grant it was great to get funding anyways from the other communities but I I can't say how much I think she is vital to the seniors and the well-being of the seniors in town and not just seniors but anybody um she holds office hours here she does stuff
at the senior center as well there is a discussion on a valid point you know if she's working at the senior center she's addressing needs of three towns although we're the only one funding it because they have their own nurse as well uh
weightly uh sundland but I I can't um I I just think she's vital at what she does she reaches out to the um seniors that are that are Homebound and she is constantly thinking about the needs and then whenever if we have a crisis that
props up she's vital she she maintains lists of our homebound seniors um and then she holds office hours here so I I am in full support of the 18 hours but then we just have to kind of communicate that she needs to stay within that and
then the 18 hours also encompasses the the NAT Grant um so there's several hours two and a half or three hours a week that she needs to do the na Grant work so that is
included in the 18 hours so there's maybe 15 hours that she does Deerfield stuff 3 hours of of the week she's maintaining lists or whatever that requirements are from that n Grant um but I would like to you know and then
support this for sure and then think about going forward is this the best model going forward is are these the right hours maybe take some periodic evaluation I I'm I'm she can't be here to talk because she you know she's out for for a reason and uh
but would love to kind of talk with her when she's back um you know to to get check-ins on how many people she's touching base with does she feel like she needs uh Less hours more hours what is she doing what she needs for supplies I think she is spending supplies um you
know she'll get hand sanitizer pill boxes different things like that but I think again she's I even think she's taking money out of her own pocket to do some of that stuff she just got such a big heart and sees the need but if there is truly a need we want to compensate for that um I think she's using all that
but she might not have understood fully budgeting and so it's I guess it it's a come it up upon us to just make sure like she stays within certain budgets amounts and hours so I fully support the 18 hours and um well um go from there
yeah I do Ned do you have um a budget within the the Board of Health budget that has discretionary supplies I mean is is there a line item that addresses that there is a line item that addresses
supplies um 500 bucks so probably a limited limited number of purchases could be made for whatever is available yeah and I if I heard Trevor correctly um some of this used to be
paid for by natog Grant do we know the status of the NATO Grant and how much money is left and because there's there's an it looks like a negative 5,000 in this I don't know right that's that's right that's how much kind of gets funded by the Grant I think per
year and I don't know how many years that goes for I I'm I'm not certain off the top of my head but I can p pull that up that'd be great yeah I'm just just want to explore that because um I'm going to do a little math here Excellence
Grant yeah I don't I don't know the balance of the N Grant um going forward so um my thinking is that a logical number
for the money that we are expending as town for a town nurse it's 15 hours a week and three hours applied to the Nao Grant um I think if there's a $5,000
amount here that's like 114 hours uh a year that could be paid for this is just my back of the napkin math but I do agree with Trevor that um this is one of the areas where we can
help seniors who have difficulty making ends meet on Social Security and and they've got tax bills and they've got all all these other expenses that you incur as you age and um you know I think it's a valuable service most of her
clients are elderly and many of them are housebound um and it's incumbent on a community to take care of its citizens so I have no issue with the the expense I just uh I I want to make clear that there's a
15 hour and then there's a three hour U per week for a total of 18 yeah for a total so um I don't know if that means that um yeah when I when I do the math on
this um I don't know if the 940 stays the same name but we have funding sources that are different and part of the 41,000 that we're talking about is made up by 5,000 from Nao or if we did 15 hours a
week that we were actually paying for um at the the rate that we suggest that's like a little less than 35,000 a year so um it's I guess is that how it works out
Christopher that this 40 1,000 is funded by both Town money and the NAT Grant correct yeah so what what you're seeing on that payroll budget there that 5,000 that's being subtracted in 2026 is the NATO Grant and that's coming from that
public health nurse uh line item and from what I understand the the Excellence Grant really just [Music] covers if if Ned's out for some reason illness or whatever there's a backup or
I think maybe when Cindy is out maybe is that the the Excellence Grant is covering that that pay role but it doesn't cover any other supplies or anything um and then the only supply for the whole Board of Health is is $500 for
the year there's some gas you know mileage that kind of thing the tick testing mosquito control some meetings conferences postage but that's um well the public health Excellence Grant does provide um a lot of different types of
supplies and in fact when when I attend these you Valley Health Regional collaberative meetings we talk about what are what supplies are available um Ned recently got supplies through the through that group that were aimed at um
women I believe uh sanitary issues and stuff like that it's good to know and also covid tests yeah um but you're correct in that there are public nurses that are um that are have been
hired to service the the the towns in the Valley Health Regional collaborative but they're not dedicated to us correct um but and mustard tatero is is filling five hours a week or yes some number um
because of Cindy's absence so um hopefully some of those issues about buying supplies out of your own pocket like School teachers do yeah this has been a minimum a small amount of what's going on but um I don't think that the
Valley Health I mean the public health nurses provide the same service that that Cindy provides for our residents right right okay that's great it's great to hear that there is some supplies coming I did wasn't I I think again with I Echo the same thing that we should
stay with what we have here for the budget but that an evaluation should be done by you Ned I okay we're not you're not getting us that that well but uh that maybe you should sit down with her when she gets back and come up with what her needs are and then when she comes
before the board we can better evaluate what the needs are whether it's time issues or whether it's supplies and that sort of thing and then again because of uh Tim's availability with the um the health department stuff in uh the county
that maybe we can pick up some of those supplies from there that she may not be aware of but at the same time if we need to increase certain things the next time out we'll have an idea of what she's doing and what needs to be uh corrected
so and again I think like I said you should be sitting down with her maybe even on a regular basis and just go through what her needs are and what she's missing out on yeah i' I'd like to have a better grip on it too um to be honest I
I don't want it to be where she does her thing and I do my thing and neither one of us really knows what the other's doing teams always better y i yeah I I I've worked with several Public
Health nurses and some of this stuff um does not look look or sound familiar to me on the job description so I'm going to just see if you know she's even working on some of that or right and and know that you know you again I
think that meeting with us once in a while to come up with those needs as we go through the year it'll be something that we're aware of so we're up to speed on it as well we're not getting it okay not getting it actually now we don't really know what the needs are and we can Advocate you know I I know what she
does right offand but it would be great to just know what what her true needs are what she's seeing in the community when she talks to these seniors and what we can advocate for and in in a variety of different ways that we meet with other people and um and if we find that we need to cut back on ours cuz she
isn't really doing enough then we find that out too but I I think there is quite a bit of a need out there for the for the seniors so I know she's been in invaluable in identifying people who transition from one stage of life to another Absolut where they become more
dependent on police and EMS and uh so she's kept a good log of uh you know the residents that she works with so yeah great personality for yeah I'm fabulous there's no question about that um so so we can continue this I'm going to make a
motion to um approve Board of Health payroll for account 512 5110 in the amount of $14,888 second okay so um one thing I wanted to
check on I know that there was a Ned brought up that um um our animal inspector is about to retire or has ceased doing those duties and that there is a $2,000 stipended in
another budget yeah correct it's it's the budget right after this one um so there's a $2,000 stien in there and Brenda has mentioned that if um you know our health agent and in this case Ned those continue to take on those responsibilities that $2,000 budget
should be plugged into his salary right we should move it over to this budget right and I'm I'm feeling like we should do that as well and you were going to do a little bit of a research on kind of what was what was needed um I think it kind of evaluate that job
a little bit and see what was being done and what you think might need to happen and is is this typen enough or accurate or are there supplies that should go along with it that kind of thing yeah it's there's not a lot of supplies really other than and um a good
pair of boots but um at least from my last experience of doing this um but I'm I'm just my my thought right now is how am I going to find out where all these Farms are these backyard chicken
coups um where as I talked to Dick about it um he only did the commercial Farms okay um but what they're looking for is residential just um anyone with backyard
chickens just to keep a a good count on them yeah and the books come out in the fall and I'll probably get that in September October and that's you can do them anytime after that um before the end of the year so um I welcome any
suggestions on how to uh Reach Out to the community um yeah and have them notify us I don't know how well that will go over in Dearfield you guys probably have a better idea than I do but doesn't the the clerk send something
out every year about the dog licensing and stuff like that could she put a notice in there for that because with the chickens people just go out and buy them there's no there's no regulation as far as how many you can have or if you buy them you have to register them or
anything like that so so I mean right basically I just think a notice going out would you know you get some people I don't know if you get everybody but at least that's a start for you and it's not like charging them or anything like that correct I mean this is just it's it's no there's no charge make sure
people are are healthy and you know with the bird flu going on and that kind of thing that you're making sure that whatever they're doing it's to monitor the flocks and yeah whatever other animal I mean it's not only chickens I mean right people raise Ducks they raise geese they raise you know yeah sheep any
any kind of farm animal right so um it sounds like what we need to do is let Ned you know figure out what sort of task this is and The Logical path would be for this FY 26 keep it as a
stipend and then evaluate whether it needs to be rolled into the health inspector job I will say that um it's very difficult to find Health Inspectors who have the broad spectrum of skills that Ned has right and we hope he's here
for a long time but when we start adding in new jobs to um the main person we run the risk of not being able to find people who are qualified to do all these things and sometimes the stip in makes more sense but so yeah there there was
also a um a request from the animal officer in weightly um to see if we needed somebody so in the back of my
mind I have her is if it doesn't work out this year I mean I have no problem doing it um I don't want you to think that but if it turns out where I'm overwhelmed or too busy at the moment you know maybe next year that would be
something to consider I think that would be your thing is to evaluate the needs that you for doing this and then come back and let us know what you think you need to what we need to do going forward okay that's
um that's that's fine I just want to make sure it's not smart to move this over to this payroll since he will be getting it I just want to make sure that he's um it's compensated towards his retirement if he's doing the
work right I mean I don't I don't know if that done I think yeah no I I don't have a problem with moving this stien from one one budget to another um I'm just saying that for one year I think it's prudent to find out whether he feels correct that this stien at this
amount is I agree and and whether it's a job that's more appropriate to somebody who just deals with farm animals yep and we bring them in on a stipend and they do all that work and correct they're familiar with the reporting um so
um what what do you think like yeah I I agree with that do we do we does it make any sense to move the stien from one budget to another I mean I think we could we could talk to Brenda about it to Trevor's point it's really just about ensuring that if he is carrying out those duties it's counted towards his
pension well that be part of this evaluation for the next year so the next year we actually if we need to then we push it over the only salary the only reason I say it is that this is uh kind of a directive from Brenda when I talked to her about it today that we should move it if if he's if he's going to do
the work we should move it and then whether somebody else does it next year can still be in that same payroll yeah I have no problem moving the typen are you going keep it as a separate item payroll exactly not just add to his but just as
a separate animal inspection thinge that and that that it would be pensionable uh yeah under his his salary so so what do we need to do to accomplish that goal I think we can wait until we actually have the finance committee here and move it
then yeah sounds good that sounds good sounds about it then all right that's great um but in principle we have consensus about the 18 hours yes three hours being covered by nicho yes and uh and I I think we agree on Ned's um class
and step um so okay we can bring this up the next joint finance that makes sense all right anything else on that front Christopher no not at the moment Ned appreciate you taking the time to zoom in tonight okay
yeah I apologize I had it down for six o'clock and oh no worries I'm sorry oh no no that's totally fine we had an unanticipated item to deal with anyway so it was no trou thanks Ned thank you Ned okay thank you guys have a good night night you
too okay um so do you want to go over to the um the warrant yes uh yeah so um according to our town bylaws uh chapter 48 Section 3 if you want to take a look
at it um we are supposed to close the annual town meeting warrant 30 days prior to the annual town meeting which is uh April 28th this year um so we are we've actually really gotten till Monday to close it but given that we're meeting today we figured we do it Mak sense um
so you should all have a copy of it in front of you um I'm going to just maybe pull it up on the screen here as well um you know the first first couple articles there are should be pretty familiar um article one a through
G we do those every year um and it's it's pretty standard um this year the assessor numbers have changed correct so so right so at this point and just for purposes of clarification so when we close the
warrant we are closing the ability to add add additional articles those articles themselves that are existing may be tweaked somewhat and that includes dollar figures y okay good good I'm good with that so yeah U so as I was saying articles uh article one a through G Town
report uh acceptance of the Town report uh compensation for elected officials acknowledgement of gifts which um you know covers any of the nonprofits and their monetary gifts and then also includes an acknowledgement of their their numerous non-monetary gifts um we
cover the library interest and then uh we have acceptance of Grants um which the select Board needs to do annually and then or rather town meeting needs to do annually and then select board Contracting Authority and assessor Contracting Authority so those are sort of pro former articles that we do every
year and then article two uh a through C is all free cash transfers so um we have $100,000 Reserve fund that is funded through a free cash transfer opab liability trust fund I believe uh Brenda has plugged in the the current number
for this year as well um I'd like to just ask her how much is in there at the moment just you know after we put this in what we're sitting at just curious I know it's well fully inadequate nowhere close y just helpful to know what it is
absolutely um and then uh you know the last item on there is um out of District placement for vocational education and so that's generally a number we we know um with better certainty uh by April so we'll hear from Smith vocational and um
I believe the department of uh Elementary and secondary education sets their rates in April as well so then we're usually able to if we have a student we know what the rate is for that student as well I think Brenda was carrying some money currently either one
or two students just to have a just just to have it yep exactly but we'll know we'll be able to refine those figures in April yep sounds good and then article three again just one we do every year um we have uh a few revolving funds and uh Mass General law
requires us just to uh every year just State what those funds are and what the spending limit on those is as well so we have recycling uh perks and wreck and in planning okay article four is uh you know annual article to cover shortfall in the snow
and ice budget um this year it's definitely going to be a shortfall I think Renda was mentioning something like 70 70 to 75,000 okay and this is one of those budget items that um you know you never decrease it correct and you also never
increase it so much that you actually capture everything so it's just a that's why we have this article yep um and then Article Five is uh was a request from uh the finance committee uh to allow us to top up the capital stabilization fund um
you know that we're obviously still in the process of developing that Capital Improvement plan um and so this is sort of you know once we figure that out we'll have an article and a dollar figure that we can plug in here to um you know bring the capital stabilization fund which is at around 100,000
currently up just a bit um and make sure we're you know providing for future Capital needs with that um and then article six and seven are both uh excuse me yeah article um let me see what I'm looking at here
six is the Omnibus budget yeah excuse me I I just lost my place here yep so article six is the Omnibus budget of course y um big one but we don't need to belabor it talking about it here um and then article seven is the sewer Enterprise fund uh article eight is also
the the schems uh Enterprise fund Y and then it n we have that Capital Improvement plan um we can return to that in a moment and then uh that's that Capital Improvement plan in article 9 is actually for fy2 so for the current year um and then
there's a second article for FY 26 um and I believe the logic there was we had some Capital requests having to do with sewer that we realized really are best funded through the current year uh retained earnings so so that will cover
that article 11 is the community preservation um and we'll have what you have in front of you here is just balances in each of those reserves um as of June 30th 2024 so don't get too attached to those numbers they're wildly
out of date yes yes um and then uh you know beyond that those are sort of all the the standard articles we generally do and then we get into some of the more specific ones so article 12 is the start of three articles that have to do with the Still Water Bridge project um
article 12 is the authorization to the legislature or rather to for the select board to petition the legislature to file special legislation um that would allow us to um essentially take easements from uh article 97 land so again this is article
97 land so it's it's you know it's got to be used for open space or Recreation purposes uh and only an active legislature can change that this is literally U you know the bottom of the river where these Bridge footings will will need to go um and so not not highly
valued but um still have to go through the process nonetheless yep um so that is the special legislation uh it's that's a couple Pages there and then Article 13 is the granting of easements um so there are um about seven
property owners who are affected by the easements um now that we've had appraisals and we have just compensation numbers we're looking at probably a total of around $2,500 for all those easements so gives you a sense of just how small those those easements are
bger and then article 14 oh fed out of like a free cash or yeah so so we were talking about that it can be chapter 90 um so that's that's what we did for the survey and the appraisal it does need a separate article right right all right
great and then uh article 14 is um a change the change of land use for the land that we are giving as mitigation for that article 97 land um so this parcel that we the town owns off of mil Village Road that's also along the river um would be placed under a conservation
restriction um for DCR basically so they Cur they hold the current conservation restriction for the article 97 land uh under Still Water Bridge so it's just a like for like yep and that's it for still water and then Article 15 is uh for Charter update so they're just
petitioning every town this year to put this on their their uh warrant and get it passed um minor minor updates their Charter just modernizing it slightly it's document created in the late 1990s and then article 16 is The Prudent
investment rule so you've seen a lot of towns take advantage of this opportunity uh in the last few years essentially currently um you know any Investments that we make are limited to a very small list of about 10 funds um and what they
changed recently was just the ability of towns to go off that list essentially and so we can you know essentially if it's a prudent investment um so it's it's relatively conservative um you know that gives the power you know Sarah the power say to to invest in some funds
beyond that list of 10 so makes sense and we'll have um from from our attorneys we'll have a nice detailed explanation because it could easily get get lost on Folks at Town meetings so it's don't know barol will have
any advice of like sample funds that they could that's a great thought yeah I'll reach out to Bartholomew yeah yeah they might have some ideas just to let people know that we're not going to be like going for Bitcoin and and just just
to assuage anybody's fears um is there any is is this in the sole purview of the treasurer or is is it in consultation with the Town Administrator and the accountant or I mean obviously those kind of discussions would probably go on right in any case but right yeah
and we we could certainly set a policy around it if we were worried I'm not too worried about Sarah not at all worried about pretty she's pretty prent but I've read a lot of newspaper articles yeah yeah no but definitely definitely a good thought and I will
also reach out to anting what might come up at the meeting yep um the next one article 17 is to uh change from an elected Town Constable to an appointed Town Constable um this is one that would we'd vote on it this year but it really
wouldn't be on the ballot until next year um so plenty of plenty of time to think about it in the intern reason thinking it might be easier to find somebody or sometimes yeah so so so I believe Cassie I mean first of all this is just kind of
the direction a lot of communities are going there there used to be a lot more elected positions and of course you still see some that are elected that probably should be appointed um and this is one of them I think that's a lot of towns are making this transition um so
we'll certainly have Cassie available to to speak to it and uh get a written explanation as well for some of the deeper uh reasoning she had there great and um you know it would also if it were to pass you know it would be sort of
appropriate that Sharon poror would be the last Constable elected before the change yes you know just sort of a book end on she a long tradition amazing amazing service to the town absolutely uh article
18 um this is a a recently added one um and Sarah just forwarded me some some details on this today so happy to kind of pull that up and uh talk through it a little bit um but essentially um back a couple years ago when the
Supreme Court had this decision about um towns not being able to profit essentially off off of taking for back taxes Massachusetts went through a whole kind of tax title reform process and one of the reforms that came out of that was
kind of um codifying payment plans for folks who do have back taxes I see um so initially in conversations with Sarah wasn't certain that this is something we needed to move on immediately um she had she had heard from our tax title attorney that it was something we should
look at spoke with Lisa in the last week and she said oh yeah you should definitely do this so at least it's laid out everybody understands if you're in tax title you know there is a process it's right it's all laid out well ahead of time right and it creates some it it
creates some parameters around you know time frame interest Etc so right I'm in favor of that for sure okay and then that is the last of the um you know uh select boards articles so to
speak and then beyond that we have uh four SZ and petitions three of them are related um and have to do with decarbonization initiatives in the town of Deerfield uh so Article 19 is a specialized energy code bylaw um so this
is the so-called stretch energy code um article 20 is the zero emission first vehicle policy um and article 21 is just a resolution about decarbonization uh by 2050 and then uh article 22 is a familiar one uh this is a question on
voting rights for those 16 and older and um this is uh really about you know petitioning it's a request for the select board to petition the select board or excuse me to the the legislature yeah you can petition yourselves if you want but but so right it doesn't really act
anything it just kind of on the list with several other communities that are looking to maybe this item forward eventually someday right exactly okay and that is um the whole of it and the logic I think of Article 19 being first is that if the
first one doesn't pass then we don't have to consider the second and third most likely it would be withdrawn right so so those three articles part of the reason they're tied together is it has to do with um designating Deerfield as a climate leader Community um this is sort
of a green communities 2.0 thing so we you know it's sort of the next step for communities that are taking even stronger steps towards addressing climate change uh and Energy Efficiency um and so if Article 19 doesn't pass and it is by far the the most um you know
controversial or worthy of discussion then there's there's not really much Point going into 20 or 21 at that point so we would pass over those okay all right so um is there any discussion well for
discussion I guess um well let's get a consensus anybody object to closing the warrant no no all right no it was something Mark had said that he was going to ask or something did he talk to anybody Mark Bron he said oh it's closing at the last meeting he said oh
it's closing I wanted to talk to you but he never did so I think it was all the oh maybe some doing Julie Julie is appearing on screen Julie what do you remember was talking um did have something but we talked back and forth
about it and he's not going to do it this year okay maybe take the year to plan it and stuff oh I think yes he did call me and discuss that a bit about about kind of updating our our bylaw around the capital planning bylaw correct I think that was
I think he was working on I know we worked on that several years ago change some bylaw some timing that kind of thing and I think he was trying to strengthen that a little bit or get some more clarity about that so might yeah make sense to in that case I I don't know it was
something else he was talking about establishing a uh another stabilization fund for to do with schems um but it it's not ready to even be talked about yet I see okay no that is different than what I had talked to about earlier in
the year all right so take a motion to close the warrant I'll make that motion close the warrant second all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I Blake Gilmore I Tim Hil I all right
um is that it Christopher can we go home I I think we can go home let's see well I just wanted to can we real quickly while we're here um take a quick real fast discussion of the capital items uh
I know we'll talk about this a little bit more um with the capital I didn't bring my book so you're going to okay I can I can whip this out pretty quick it was just a fast um I mean there was not a lot on the list this year I mean there's a lot but we don't have money
for a lot so um really the items that would maybe come out of free cash um were were the dees flooring and the uh circulatory pumps for heating and then
um and and possibly the truck number 12 which we don't have an answer from Matt yet on whether that's crucially needed now or wait till the fall is that is that the 77,000 one yes yeah was the plow truck sandard truck that was kind of R rotted had a bent frame haps haps
old truck um so and again we we could tackle this stuff in the fall too so if there's something we want to wait till free cash is certified and have a you know a fall town meeting we can do that but my uh just my two cents on this is that I think it's important to fund the
dees circulatory pumps at least it's a 2-year plan so it should be 18,000 for both years and I think they were just going to get started with the one pump uh or one setup for uh one so that that would be uh um my recommendation and
then to hold on the flooring for a year so that maybe we can put some money into Capital stabilization and then see what free cash is and maybe tackle it in the fall I don't think it would make a real difference either either way um and then we already talked about moving the sewer
projects which was a generator at the captain LA and uh a water supply down to the plant in Old Deerfield we're we're just going to do that as capital um out of uh retained earnings from there so that's not anything we need to deal with
um was there anything else that were well I there there was a discussion if we held off on the flooring I asked the question should we do both pumps at the same time because you'll have a contractor there to do it and so I don't know who yeah um okay yeah but I I have
no objection to doing one or both yeah I I think that we should get something back from the school because the other part of this is is that if you buy two of them instead of one you may get a deal on the two of them instead of buying one this year and one next year I talked to Darius today and I told him
that kind of uh he he's away on vacation but was asking a bit about how the meeting went on Monday and we were talking about Capital stuff and I said I reiterated his uh notion to me that that the floors could wait but the pump was
important but I didn't ask about doing both so I can get an answer from maybe from him or from Bill whether that makes sense or not but um and then everything else I think we're pretty good on except for that truck 12 and then the loader I guess we're still waiting another year on and
if we're going to buy the Tru out of free cash um because we don't have a appropriate amount in capital stabilization order there was in the DPW um we could approve that at the special town meeting we could in the fall the fall so exactly I mean I don't
I don't have a problem either way but same here we can do it in the context of the joint finance committee meeting this yeah okay great that's great that's all I got anybody that's all I got all right right now good take a motion to adjourn
motion to adjourn second all those in favor Trevor McDaniel I like Gilmore I Tim elch I right thank you all very much