Let's catch it. Oh, wait. We're on a break, right? Admit everybody call with recording in progress. I'll make a motion that we return to open session. I'll step down as chair and second that.
All those in favor? Hi. Uh, we've already had the pledge of allegiance and we started our meeting. Um, Taylor, do you guys have to start yours? We don't have a You don't have a quum. Here to get formed. That's it. Okay. Um, we're going to uh please stand
for a moment of silence. Um, we had uh three people that we lost this week or within the last couple of weeks. Elizabeth Rose, Betty Duragus, and Alice, a legend uh Alice Souzer. Thank you. I'm just going to read a little bit
about Alice. Um Alice Souza, age 95 of Dyon. She passed away peacefully on June 25th, 2025 at her daughter's home in North Don surrounded by her loving family. She was the beloved wife of the late George Soua. She was born and
raised in Don. She was the daughter of the late Eugene and Mary Mel Perry. A proud graduate of Dyen High School, class of 1948. Alice was a lifelong and devoted member of the St. Nicholas of Myra Church where
she served as minister, participated in the prayer shawl ministry, and was honored with the Marian medal for her dedication in faith. Alice served the town of Dyon for an extraordinary 53 years. She began her career in 1969 as a
teachers aid and became the director of the council on aging in 1979, a position she held until her retirement in 20122. In 1994, she founded Prime Time, which I didn't know she founded Prime Time. That's amazing.
An adult daycare program that went on to serve as a model throughout Massachusetts. A passionate community advocate, Alice served as a commissioner on the Dyon Housing Authority and was an active in numerous town committees, including the board of health handicap
and disaster preparedness committee and the parish nurse committee for the former St. Joseph's and St. Peter's Church. She also helped coordinate Dyton's shared program and represented the town on the Gatra Advisory Board.
When Alice had any free time, which it sounds like she didn't, um she loved lighouses, beach days, and working with her hands, especially knitting, sewing, and crocheting. Um we we thank Alice for all her time and everything she did for the town. Absolutely. Like I said, she was a legend. I didn't know she started prime
time. That's awesome. No, I didn't know that either. All right, great. Thank you for reading that. Uh let's move on to scheduled appointments at 6:00, which is now almost uh 7 o'clock. the uh voter selectment finance committee joint meeting for end of year transfers.
Sure. Um so since the finance committee doesn't have a quorum today, they're going to try to meet next week about it. Um but since the selectment are here, I figured um I'd present it on this end. Sure. Um so this request comes from the town historian and that is budget number 690.
So in FY25 they had requested $400 for a project that they had planned and then through the budgeting process we reduced it to $250 and then they felt they weren't able to do anything for their planned project with that $250 and they haven't spent
any of it. So it is still available. So they are requesting for that $250 to be transferred um to the tsentennial 250th anniversary committee to that fund. Yeah. You just looking for a motion from
us um or do or do we not have to motion they they'll do it at their meeting? No. So I do need it from both. So if you guys do agree to the transfer um to have a motion and a vote. Okay. Is it okay if I do it before you go through all of them? Do we I actually just have this one this
year. Yeah, I don't know why. Last year I had a bunch more. Yeah, I'll make a motion to transfer the $250 to the trans um what was it? 2000 250 committee. I'll bounce chair and second. All those
in favor? I Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you. Um and then Peter, I'm just going to leave this for you to sign. Sure. I'll just sign it now. You can have it. And then I'll have
Yeah, it's today the 9th. Thank you. You're welcome. That's it, guys. Thank you. Bye. Have a good night. Thank you. Thank you. Taylor Perez. Hi. Uh, director of
housing for Serpent. Uh, housing production plan. Yeah. Do you guys mind if I just do the introduction? Um, and Taylor's on Zoom. She's not feeling so happy. Hi, Taylor. We all both really want to be here for you guys tonight. So, um, yeah. So, you know, just thanks to the board of selectman for having us and Sure. We're here to talk about the housing
production plan. Um, so yeah, my name is Robert Cabraw. I'm joined by Taylor Pres and Aubrey Hose. Um, and uh, so we just wanted to talk about this plan and so far some of you folks may have seen us. Um, I know Mr. Karen, we saw you. Uh, I can't
remember if it was the cow chip, but we've also met the strawberry festival, right? Uh, so we did some tableabling early on and we've also released a survey. So that's some of the work that's been done to date, but we also wanted to introduce the project overall to anyone maybe watching on television. Yeah, that's about it.
Yeah. Um, so I'll kind of start with like just the introduction of what it is and and Taylor's going to dive into some of the early data collection we've done as part of the uh the project um and also the um the survey results that
we've had so far. But that survey is still open if anybody wants to take it. So um what is a housing production plan in short? It's a proactive strategy to plan for affordable housing in a community u municipality such as Ditton. Uh HPP contains three statutory
components. So these are things we have to do as part of the plan. We're required to do them. Uh the first you'll see on that screen there is a needs assessments. Uh what is that? It identifies kind of the limits and constraints on housing in Don. The second part is uh a goal. So that's sort of the I'd say the big picture
represents a community's aspirations. what you'd like to see happen to sort of adapt or address some of the things in that needs assessment. And the third are strategies. So I would kind of say those are how do you achieve those goals? Like maybe the goal is the the bolds and then
the strategy is a subheader under that. Um and so that's in essence what a housing production plan is and what it's comprised of. And how do we get through all that is through talking to folks at some of the tableing we've been doing uh doing the survey and trying to hear back
from from folks and and so what kind of response have you got? Not to interrupt you. I'm sorry. No, no, no. Uh yeah, thank you. We've we've heard some some interesting some some thoughts from people throughout throughout town. So, you know, when you have a one-on-one conversation, you might hear some some issues that that person may have faced individually. So,
you have a little long form conversation. I would say the survey results also been a little mixed and we'll we'll dive into those in a minute. And but some of the individual conversations. One of the things that I would say came up is there are there are it seems like there are a handful of folks I don't want to over represent it but folks that maybe want to subdivide
some of their land sometimes. We heard from a couple people who maybe oh I'd like my son to be able to live on this property. I own a lot of property. Is there a way to make that possible? you know, the the typical zoning tool would be decreasing the lot size or allowing certain subdivisions or of course
there's accessory dwelling units that we've every community in Massachusetts is grappling with what that looks like and how how to fit it within the state's requirements there. So, there probably a few ways to address that. Um, but that's a big one we've heard is that folks maybe would love to have an opportunity, especially um as housing costs go up
across the Commonwealth to be able to take care of their families. I think um most people feel that way. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Um yeah and then and there's particular and then it it is worth mentioning too um we've talked about it but that that one of the main components of the housing production
plan is discussing the 40B process. So, you know, we know that not everybody always likes to talk about that, but that is, you know, the part of the plan where some, you know, uh, you gain control over how that process takes place, but it does require you to proactively discuss, uh, namely, you
know, sites where the the town would would be thinking about where future 40bs could go. So the idea is in a in a in the big picture um is you look at where the town is proactively planning for that housing and then it gives you this the commonwealth gives the town
more control over how to kind of enact their plan. So, it's you pick the sites, you kind of meet these sort of minimum thresholds of of housing production during the life cycle of the plan. And then that's when people use that that uh phrase safe harbor where that comes into play is that you you've now
described how you want that process to go and the Commonwealth has given you kind of the the discretion to to take a stronger role in the 40B process. Sure. Um, so in a nutshell that those are kind of the components of housing that we could talk about. And these other things where we do hear from people, that's the one part that's
required. What we try to do at SURPED, I think, is meet communities where they're at because we're writing this plan already if there's if there's sort of issues to be addressed and things that people really want to see in town. This is a good vehicle to incorporate some of that, but we really only want to do it
if it's what people in town really want to see. It's it's a plan for this town. So, so we know it's sort of a a challenging subject matter for some people and some folks may have um concerns and stuff and we want to hear them, but ultimately what goes into this plan is hopefully in our goal 100% is have it be a reflection of of the values
wants. Yeah, exactly. Needs. Okay. And and I think that's reflects a lot of why town has reached out to us to pursue this. Um so just a really quick rundown of these data sources um just to be transparent about what they are. Um, most of them
are just publicly available data sources. I can't quite read it, but it's like the American Community Survey, uh, HUD data, and we do purchase data that the one exception is we purchase data from the Warren Group, which is a private data set. We it gives us kind of a a closer look into like real estate
and financial trends in each town. So, it's transaction data from from home purchases, how much people are spending when they're trans. That's how it's driven. Yeah. Yeah. It helps us understand some of those trends in in each town. Um, but with that, I'm going to hand it over to Taylor, um, who's on the screen there,
and, um, hope she's feeling well enough to to get through this, but, if not, I can try to pick it up, too, um, to to look at some of that data that we pulled and then the survey for sure. Thanks, Rob. Can you folks hear me? Okay. Yes. Thank you. Awesome. Um, and thank you again to the
board of selection for having us and for a virtual option. If you if you can't tell, I am getting over a cold virus. uh weird thing and this is just you know I want to be considered folks so I appreciate it. Um I'm going to go through just a couple highlevel data points from the needs assessment. I just
want to give the caveat that it will definitely be more in depth when you you know read the draft narrative of the plan and as we continue to talk about goals and strategies as to earlier. These are just some of the kind of the key takeaways um that we wanted to you know just present here tonight. So
beginning with population and again please let me know if you'd like me to zoom in at any point. I know I have a bit of a white monitor. Um, Dy has played growing. So, I'm sure you folks are very aware of that. Um, population growth over the past two decades has been very substantial. You know, over
14% between 2000 to 2010 and 2010 to 2020, which is higher than both the county population. So again, notable occurren again some other demographics looking at resident age. general age trends. Um,
Dyke is on par with other communities in southeastern Mass, other communities in Massachusetts and, uh, nationally, uh, with, you know, aging residents. That's just, I think, a common trend we're seeing. So, if you look here at this yellow proportion, um, we're seeing 16% folks aed 60 plus in 10 in 2000,
increasing to 24% in 2021. and corresponding with that a median age increase of 38 years to 42 years again with what we're seeing elsewhere but we're thinking about what might be appropriate in
looking here at median household income household income has nearly doubled from 2000 to 2022 looking at almost 59,000 in 2000 to almost 117,000 in 2022 again notably higher than both the county and
the And then looking here at housing cost burden. Um just for some context, housing cost burden is, you know, one of the most common metrics that look at affordability in a community. And it looks at whether or not a household is paying 30% or more of their annual household income on housing related
costs. So mortgage and rent and utilities. And so in Dyen, 25% of owners and 5% of renters are considered costburdened. And there is a breakdown here. There's a category for severely costbur, which is paying more than 50%.
So for owners, that's 11% paying more than 30% and 14% pay more than 50%. And again, like I said, this is just one of many metrics that we use to look at affordability. Like Rob said, we've got real estate transactions. We have all sorts of other things to measure, but this is probably one of the most common
metrics that you'll hear about. That's a huge increase. I'm sorry. Go ahead. No, no. I was just going to say, so getting on the housing stock, um, looking at what types of housing is income, majority is single family detached housing. So that's about
83%. And the remaining 12% is split across a couple, you know, of different types, two family, 3 to four family, you know, attached townhouse style housing, mobile homes, and then some larger 5 to9 unit developments. And then the last data points from this
assessment that we're pulling here is the residential tax rates. Uh again, correct us if we're wrong. Uh it's currently $1256 for $1,000 of valuation. Um which is higher than neighbors in Swansea and Tong um but a little bit lower than
Swansea. Um I do recall when we were looking at the data that had gone down over the past couple years there. But again, I know that it's a topic of conversation. I want to address it. Then getting into the survey results that Rob was alluding to earlier. Again,
we kind of got some highle takeaways here, but there are plenty more questions on the survey that we're happy to share with people. We just wanted to kind of hit the main ones. So, just some quick demographics on respondents. Almost 70% of respondents have looked at for over 10 years. And again, just to
follow, this is at about 170 responses. So, again, really, really good response rate for a kind of topic specific survey like this. looking at survey respondent age as spread across several different age brackets and then getting into some kind of uh
more specific questions about housing perceptions. This first one on price. How important do you feel it is for Dyon to have many different housing options at different price points. Uh respondents had mixed opinions. So, you know, you can see a small cohort here who feel it's very important. And then
we're getting into some folks who feel neutral or that it's unimportant. And then looking at again similar housing perceptions, do you feel that this housing stock is currently needing? Uh nearly 60% of respondents said yes, which is a a great metric. Um that's
really good to hear. And then there is a smaller cohort of just over 20% who said no. And now we're getting into some more specific types of housing. So this one's on senior housing. Do you feel there are enough senior housing options in town? Respondents were somewhat split. So
about 40% said yes, 34% said no, and then about 25% said sure. Similar trends here. Do you feel there are enough housing options for veterans in the town? Again, a similar split. 35% saying yes, 30% saying no, and 35% who
aren't sure. And then the final housing specific or specific style of housing question that we have here. Do you feel there are enough housing options for younger residents, recent grads and individuals living alone? Uh this one a little bit different than the previous ones. Nearly
60% of respondents said yes, they do believe that there are enough housing types for these populations. And then about 26% said no. And then again smaller about 10% of the work. And then getting into pricing perception. This is our last um of the survey results that we're summarizing
here tonight. Are you concerned that you or someone you know will not be able to live indicted now in the future almost equally split just under 50% yes and no with a slightly larger percent saying no they're not concerned and then smaller percentage of folks who weren't sure. Um
but again, you know, kind of getting back to the theme here that there definitely seems to be mixed opinions in town. Um and you know, we want to kind of dive into the survey results a bit further uh just to to think about how we sort of strategize on a plan uh for you folks and then again just hear from you
folks as elected officials and stakeholders as to you know what we might also uh be looking at to again make some decisions on that. So I'm going to kick it back to Rob. Please let me know if I need to zoom in um just to talk a little bit about updates and next
steps and we're happy to talk further about the result question. No cool thank you. Yeah. Um I think I mentioned this actually at the top part of this if I remember early on we we attended those two events and uh as we open up to questions something to to to maybe think through is um are there any
other events where you'd like SER staff to attend to get some community feedback? we're we're open to and happy to keep going out meeting the community wherever. As far as town events, the only other thing I can think of would be in an election that would bring out as few as
300 to as many as 800 to a thousand people uh depending upon what was on the the docket. But um as far as events like the cow chip and yeah the strawberry festival I I I I don't see any unless you do Nicole that I
can't I already attend annually. I think I've seen you guys at um the Lions um art festival at farms I think and that's you guys generally are open to that and that does have a pretty good outcome as well.
We could work the HPP and do that uh if you think that's a good suggestion. How many people uh excuse me, I'm sorry. How many people you think you talked to to get this? I would say at the um the cow ship, I think we didn't want
to talk to people who were enjoying time with their family, but I'd say a handful. And then, you know, somewhere between 10, 15, 20 folks maybe at the um at the strawberry festival. Okay. Yeah. And how many took the online survey? Taylor, do you know how many took the
online survey? 170. That's a good a good percentage of the town. Okay. Yeah. Um through the chair, just something to for Rob Taylor to think about as we go through the agenda. There is a um a
facilities request on August 3rd for but I know it's for the Taton football and cheer, but it'll be out here and they anticipate 500 people. Do they really? Wow. I I I saw that come up. Yeah, it's a big uh it's a big show. I
don't know um what the mix of people who will be there, Toronto residents, Don residents, but you know something if you contact our office, we'll give you that. We'll give you that information. But it's uh they anticipate it to be Yeah. 500 attendees, right? Big turnout. So
something to keep in mind. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, that sounds great. So yeah, that that those suggestions sound awesome to us and yeah, we want to keep coming out and and talking to people and hearing hearing their perspective on this. Sure. Um so thank you for that. And then
kind of parallel to that effort uh if if you think of the three three uh required sections here, we we ran through a little bit of the um needs assessment part that that's what that data sort of represents is like that that that description. So you know of course in
the report there'll be uh narrative alongside just the charts but as we think about moving into the next step of the plan alongside this you know we'll we'll be thinking about the goals and strategies and and what what uh what we can derive from the needs assessment and
and the survey and and you can see you know we might need as Taylor said need to dive into that survey a little more. I I don't think in my time, not that I've done a million of them, but I've done a few. Uh this is the most kind of like mixed split survey, you know? Yeah. Uh I don't I don't know Taylor, I don't
think that's ever happened before. So, it's it's a little hard to to glean, you know, we don't want to we don't want to look at the survey and draw our own conclusions. If I look at objectively, a lot of yeses, a lot of nos on those questions. I don't know. Yeah, I would definitely tend to agree
with that. Um I mean there's some clear things that came out um from the open responses and that's I think where we would want to dive in a bit further. Um again a lot of concern about tax burden um and definitely some desire for senior housing. Again I think we discussed the
split on folks who either felt yes or no or weren't sure about senior housing. That definitely came through uh in the survey results. But we want to spend some more time with the open responses because that's usually where kind of the subject area is. But yeah, I mean
definitely the split opinions and um we will always do our best to again like Rob said earlier meet you folks where you're at and produce a plan that everyone can get behind. So I think there'll be a lot of further coordination with um you folks with other stakeholders etc. Um particularly
as we get into the plan and and structure of it. Yeah. and sort of I'm kind of waiting into this whole thing, but if anyone has any questions, you know, anyone watching or whatever, we're happy to answer any while we're here. Sure. Um well, nobody's here. Um online, is
there any questions? I don't know who's online. I can't even see you. Okay. Um I have a question. So, walk me through the process of creating this plan. You may mention 40B. Is this only
in regards to 40B housing or is it also I don't call it housing regular housing? Totally. I I completely understand the question and um Taylor please feel free to dive in and and answer any part of this if I'm uh misrepresenting it or missing something but I would say the
statutory element relates to 40B because when we talk about a plan does it have like teeth? Is there a regulatory mechanism involved with the plan? uh that part does relate to the 40B where the the town gains some control over that process and so discussing
the 40B process in a proactive manner in the plan gives the town that control. I guess if you think about the the town gets the control but the deal is you you discuss how you would look at 40B where you think you're planning for where it might go in town if one were to
come up if someone were to propose one. Uh so that's the give and take if you will I think from from the regulatory perspective is we get this control over where we would like to see it in town and the and the state grants that control to the municipality. Um but the
municipality does need to proactively plan where this could take place if a 40B proposal were to come to the town. H again not to interrupt. I'm sorry I I keep doing that. Um that's what we're here for. Uh what kind of control does the town gain? You could reject the 40B if you're
meeting the requirements for safe harbor, which is having the plan and meeting a certain percentage of housing production. Do you know what our housing percentages right now by any chance? Do you know that the SHI off the top of your head, Taylor? I didn't even look at it. I apologize before coming here. No, that's all right. I usually I definitely should have it
pretty quickly. Um I can do that in the background when we're doing this. And just to add to Rob's point about similar, not to get too into the A3D, but the actual um requirements are, you know, again, there's a couple things to address in the plan like Rock said, which is citing a potential housing
permit through the permits under 40. Um, and we try and like reminders too that no one is going to come and bang on your door like did you put did you build housing on that site that you selected. It's just again to get communities thinking about, you know, where could it
go if it does come in and, you know, again, it's being proactive. Um, and it's just a it's a requirement that every community has to meet in their plan. Um, so it's not unique. And again, like we always try and be considerate and it's not like you have to pick some
huge site if you didn't want to. Um, I I think the state usually just wants to see folks thinking about it. Um, and so we're always kind of in the the mediating role there of figuring out what would work for you folks. Um, you know, if you want to discuss it or not.
And just to again to note like for a housing production plan, that's the statutory requirement to be approved by the executive office of housing livable communities. But I mean if and that's again if you want the regulatory T that come along with it. But if you just want a housing plan too, like again, we want
to meet communities where they're at and if it's not something that you want to discuss and you want to keep it something that's just as a guiding document for the town, um that's also fine with us. We just want to make it very clear that there are regulatory benefits behind um you know meeting the statutory requirements and the
regulations associated with it, right? Um, and then some of just again to get to some of those thresholds. It's I believe 0.5% production for um I think it's it's either one or two years. Don't quote me. I don't I just I'm liking on it. It's one or two years of safe harbor
and then 1% or more I believe is two or three. Again, it's it's one of those two numbers for each bracket. But um just again to to give you folks some insight as to what we're what we're alluding to when we're saying you know having some control over the reporting process is that ability to deny in that given year
um set of rules associated with your production. Yeah. And and if I may too, just to to add a little fidelity to what I what we mean when we say control versus just denying them from from the purpose of the plan, if you look at it, if you just frankly if you just reject the 40BS for
3 years or 5 years, then you're just back kind of where you started where someone could propose one and then you don't have the safe harbor anymore, right? So the idea is picking the locations is guiding the 4DV process where if someone's not following the the the desires the town outlined in this
plan then you reject it or push them towards the thing that that the town is proactively planning for. So that that's in in the theoretical land where like that's how it should work. If you make if if you put the two pieces together can reject outline a spot where it could go. It's to to have that control and
guide it towards proactive planning for for the 40B for a comprehensive budget. Just wanted to clarify. I did look up your current subsidized housing inventory is 5.05%. It's what? 5.05. 5.05.
So, of course, the 10% number is is the the number we're looking at. Uh through through the chair, if I could add comment. Certainly. Thank you. I appreciate that. just uh as you know I have quite a bit of experience with the housing production
plan have having been a a planner and I think and it it's an extremely an extremely useful tool um it helps both the it will help the planning board it will help the economic development committee and it will help the
developers because they'll understand what the town is looking for um often times developers come in and they say well what does the town on and I know you've probably heard that before the housing produc the housing housing production plan provides provides those
guidelines to um to developers and also and I do not want to minimize its usefulness as as a regulatory tool and it certification by the state um what it does it gives control to the town uh
over over what what 40B development is when it's certified and it's and it's active, what 40B development um will will will come into the town and that is extremely helpful uh in in dealing with developers because
unscrupulous developers and I hate to be this way like towns without housing production plans. the good developers uh devel you know developers who understand the 40B process who um who that's their livelihood they have a whole team behind
it they do um a good development they like towns with housing production plans because they can they know what the town wants uh they know that the housing type uh the town wants uh so it is again it ex extremely
it's an extremely important planning tool for for everyone, for regular developers, for 40B, for the people in the town, because ultimately you're looking at development that's uh, as I said, respectful, right? Respectful
to the town, respectful to the neighbors of that development, and respectful to the people who will eventually live in those developments. So, um I've always um I'm a strong proponent of housing production plans and I think u and I'm
glad to see we have a good response and um you know Serpent is doing very good job in reaching out. And then just to to finish up and bring it full circle to what Taylor was alluding to is if if it becomes, you know, sort of stressful or ultimate
unpalatable to talk about the 40B process, we can still complete this plan and it's sort of just a guiding document for the town to address housing. uh when we say we're open-minded, we really just want to provide the town with a a document that's useful to the town, but
it but it will lose sort of the teeth um that that we've been just been talking about here. So, it's like, you know, we we just try to keep all the options open. We want we want this to be a helpful plan ultimately. We we want to be available to talk to people and um we want to make sure it really reflects
what the town wants. We wouldn't we wouldn't want to do this if it's something that causes too much heart burn or is not reflective of the town's priorities. Have you gotten that kind of response from anyone? We have I I don't know, Taylor. I'm trying to go back in the memory banks
here. We've had towns that have pushed the limits of selecting 40B sites and we were amanable. We've submitted the plans to the Commonwealth and they do not get approved. They say pick a site then we'll approve it. And so then I think in the instance I'm thinking of we went
back and we we had the town pick a site and then it got approved ultimately. Is that does that do you have any recollection Taylor of any similar experiences? Yeah. No, I would agree with that. I think um being frank that's probably the hardest part of of the plan. I think usually when we talk about the goals and
strategies, um, that comes really naturally from conversations like this with boards and elected officials and with residents, stakeholders, etc. Um, and and from survey results, again, like there's usually a pretty clear path forward as to the different types of
things we might want to suggest in the plan. But when it comes to the actual picking of sites and whatnot, it can get um, you know, like Rob was saying, a little contentious or, you know, folks might have different ideas about a site or whatnot. Um, so you know, it's not unfamiliar to us that this process can
be hard to navigate. And, um, again, I think just like Rob said, we just want to make sure that you folks know your options and we're always here to help make selection. Again, we don't want to speak for you folks as to what you think is appropriate or not. And it it just dawned on me. I only
answered half of your question, which is why we do want to be upfront about the 40. We don't want it to get to the end and be like, by the way, 40B, because that's not what we're here to do. We're here to be upfront about all of it. Um, you asked about the other parts that are not related to that. They're not really statutoily required. We're talking about
affordable housing, but because we know a lot of communities in southeastern Mass have a unique set of challenges. Some are more rural communities like this. We are we just try to make ourselves available to talk about a range of strategies that are not necessarily required, but may reflect
sort of the the the local values of a community and things they want to talk about. So we we provide a more expansive plan than is required, but the other parts aren't necessarily most people want to include those things because again it's a chance to express the town's needs or desires or things that
that could be done a little differently in town. So it's a place to catch all of it to have it in the plan, but th those parts are not necessarily required. Um I have one question about the survey to ask if it's accurate. The income medium income
Mhm. is really that highund that is what let me go back to it. Um that is what we found. 116,000 is a 5year ACS Taylor American Community Survey. Yes, that's usually where we we look. Um I am happy
myself and Aubrey who I know is there in person. Um we'll certainly double check it just to make sure it is certainly high. Um, a lot of communities in southeastern Massachusetts are um, usually more affluent than the county and the state is is kind of what we see.
Um, but again, happy to double checking and ensuring if the figure changes, we will certainly let you. Sure. Thank you. And I I'd say it's worth worth, you know, worth mentioning. We're going to dive into the thing the it's a sample so it it's you know it's not the full census so there's a margin of error so
it could have sure it's possible it could have fallen on the high end of the margin of error for example and in reality if you were to ask every person in town it'd be a bit if that stuff happens but okay it represents a decent range um and we'll double check the number thank you
Nicole do you have any questions so far through sorry through the chair sim I think would like Hi. Hi. Ask me a question. Thank you. How are you? I'm very good. I'm very good. I'm just listening in to see what's going on with
this whole plan. Um, and I just would like to see more of a respondents with the survey. Um, it's 170 people of the town. It's kind of a slip number. Yes, it is anyways.
And I not sure where these these incomes are being gathered from if it's a state, you know, database from the state or is it um information from individual respondents?
So I can both of those. Um the income data is from the national census. Okay. Yeah. So it's it's not the census. I shouldn't say that because um data essentially like sites they do surveying of different communities um
and they aggregate that sort of over slightly better um you know margin of error so that it's a little bit more accurate but again we're surveying getting results and actually being able to make um you know do that survey is a whole other process but again we're
happy to look at this especially if this is like seems outlandish we always want to data that the flag and we'll definitely share with you folks if it changes. This um presentation will also be publicly available if we'll be sure to ask the
date change. So, please feel free to check back on it. Sure. And one other question I'm sorry, I apologize. I I'm just wondering um you know based on our community uh of residents,
especially since our population is is more senior and you know um is that part of what you would have in this housing plan as well to look at the dynamics of our community versus other communities
outside of Don. Sure. Yeah. We we do look at communities comparable communities um often and you know we kind of have some here that we alluded to with the residential tax rates looking at neighbors and whatnot um and getting what Rob was saying
earlier, we do try and address those that might be outside of the standard scope of what the regulations require for a housing production plan. The things like, you know, nonaffordable or non-subsidized housing, so looking at market rate things for seniors um is is a big thing that we do. It could be
looking at adult retirement community bylaws if you folks don't have them. It could be looking at programs to help seniors age in place, get accessibility modifications in their home if they need it. um you know all sorts of a range of options and again if this is a big issue
something we definitely want to explore further with these folks. Um but absolutely yes it is something that we will look at in the planning address and I and I think that one more just comment um is that you know our our t
our taxes are seem to be you know if you look at our area um seem to be high in comparison to other variable communities um and I know that's a struggle for our
town to find that happy meeting of the costs that we're up against. So just wondering how this housing plan will actually impact all the services that are required in order to support
housing this housing plan if we come up with something is that considered process. Yeah. So one of the um again if we go further back up and again Rob please jump in at any point. I don't need to
Um, one of the things that is required in the plan and it's kind of um, you know, nested in this housing needs assessment is an identification of development constraints. And so that looks at things like infrastructure and whatnot. And so one of the first things I'm sure we'll identify is that
infrastructure is a concern in town. Um, and we certainly heard about that on the survey. We heard about high tax rates. Um, you know, of the folks who were concerned about housing affordability, that was probably the number one thing that folks cited. Um so looking at ways to reduce residential tax burden of
course something that we'll explore and then um yeah we will definitely talk about infrastructure it's required for us to consider things like that. Um, we can talk about limitations, you know, places that, you know, you might need to do dubtail a little bit outside of the scope of the plan and talk about, you
know, you mentioning your master plan or your previous production plan and just being candid about the limitations um, and things that might need to be considered when thinking about production. Generally, want the community to be able to support
the plan. Thank you very much. Yeah, thank you. And actually a little bit of a non-secord, but it joged my memory to to your question about themes we heard talking to people. One that that just struck me is um again I I don't I don't know how it relates necessarily to the
survey, but but in person talking to folks uh people it felt maybe were pretty open to the idea of building smaller homes in Dyon. Some people thought some of the houses being built were very large and and um smaller single family homes. It did seem to be
people were interested in that in person um as as a as a possibility in town. You had something about the um I thought it the housing types. Housing type.
Yeah. Um the breakdown, right? Yeah. About 12.3 of the housing percent of the housing has two or more units. Um that's counting all of the we don't have many duplexes if any well a couple
of them but that's counting all the apartments and um my guess is that being totally candid is through our conversations I've talked to some people who wish there was less red tape around duplexes but I've also talked to many people who were very concerned about the
idea of duplexes so we could explore that further but if I'm being candid about the feedback we've heard I would describe it as mixed to concerned Okay. Would you agree, Taylor? Yeah, definitely.
No, I was excuse me. I was under the opinion that we didn't allow duplexes indicting only two families. Is that a true or false statement? No, that's true. Um, as far as a 40B can present them and
it's up to the zoning board of appeals to approve them or not. But um typically we don't have I I think there's only three that I know of. Um two of them are 40B and one was approved uh before the housing uh zoning changed back in the uh
the 60s. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Anything else you want to add? That's all we got. Ralph, anything else? No, sir. No. Nicole, no. You're all set. All right. Thank you very much for your time. We appreciate it. Yeah. Likewise. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you for having us. Thank you, Taylor. Thank you. Great job. Um, okay. Sluckman's reports are there. Oh, no. Uh, announcements. I'm sorry. Um, I have some announcements on important roof. Um, road work, Important
Street, Oak Street, Maple Street, and Maple Swamp Road the week of July 21st. Weather permitting. There'll be the first treatment of um preservation and regenerative moving um treatment um August 4th through August 29th, the weather
permitting, there'll be a second treatment, same roads, um crack filling, leveling, and hot patch. The Dton's Lion Club Food Bank will be held next on Saturday, um July 19th. This is at Town Hall on the lower level. It will be a
blood drive Saturday, August 2nd from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Old Town Hall. This is sponsored by the Dyon Board of Health and the Dyon Police Department. You can make an appointment at redcrossblood.org. On August 2nd and third, the Pam Mass
Challenge um community will come together for all corners of the world with one mission to raise funds for cancer research and treatment. Um so remember the roads will be busy. Absolutely. Okay. Uh do you have a supplements report?
Okay. Neither do I. So, we'll go right into the town administrator's report. Thank you. Um, and, uh, just to go back a little bit to the road work, uh, we have it on Facebook on our website and we're looking to, uh, we'll be putting out a press release so everybody understands what's what's going on. So,
no one should be closing the roads for that or they just they're going to close it as Tom explained for a short while. They're going to put down the treatment. um it's some amount of time they're going to let it so it's the pink and then once it turns colors they could they could uh open open the road up.
Okay. So thank you. Um again um um I'm um the financial team is still is continuing to meet. Uh a few things to be aware of again over the next three selectments meeting on July
23rd. uh we're going to be um to help us in the budgeting process and get direction uh we're going to be discussing the enterprise fund uh for uh for sanitation. Missy Holbrook will uh will be here uh to uh help us with that
and and discuss the process. Uh we're also going to be uh bringing up the debt exclusion and uh a capital exclusion um as as a tool on how we deal with um capital uh capital projects and needs.
October uh August 13th uh is uh we'll talk about uh service and personnel reductions, what that what that might mean um as a as a budget uh balancing tool. And on August 28th, um I hopefully we'll have a frank discussion on um you
know, what direction should we go in? Uh should we have a combination of of of everything we discussed on and uh how do we uh how do we move forward with our budget? Um I'll also be presenting uh
beginning uh July 23rd my my one-page budget sheet. um um and um sort of sort of predictions of where we're at. Uh just so you know, uh the cherry sheet the um it came out of conference committee which is usually pretty much
as close uh as it's going to be before the governor signs it. And um there's not much difference. Not much difference. I think um the overall um the overall thing which I saw it's $10,000 less than what the Senate and
the Senate had the most. Uh actually it's a few it's a few dollars more than what the governor had proposed. Uh the uh House of Representatives brought it down, Senate brought it up, conference committee uh $10,000. So, it's it's
pretty much on target as what we were uh what we were anticipating, which is which is good. We hope that it would been a little more. But in terms of a little more, uh, we received a a letter in the file from, uh, Senator Duner, uh,
that, um, that, uh, DR received some additional funds in, um, in, um, in chapter 70 money, uh, 60,000, 30, uh, 30,000 for D, uh, for Dyon, 30,000 for Rahobit. uh uh haven't gotten the
numbers yet from DR what that translates to our um what uh what our assessment is and then in addition to that uh you know we had a brief conversation with um with Caitlyn uh that how we want to introduce
our policy and personnel procedures and uh we're going to be getting information from her. We're going to be putting together a committee and uh at at some point in the future presenting that to the uh to the select men.
The 60,000 giving back to the school um is going to be 3030 or is it a because of the high school is it? Well, she I I know the the number was 60 and and and she and in her letter she
identifies Titan 30. So, okay. So, yep. And um what was the second thing you the last thing you just said? The cherry sheet or the personnel policy? Personnel policy. Um we we have one now.
Uh we don't have a complete one. We just have policies out there. Policy. So it's it's important um that we have a set of policies uh dedicated to personnel. It was um it's been identified as something we should do. Uh
and it's it was recently identified in the uh the um I'll tell you one sec the financial management review that DLS did uh that we should have a uh we should have policies and procedures. Okay. And it's and it's helpful, you know, for
those employees who who are not under contract. And and I think um you know, for something we had discussed earlier, you know, it's good to have uh have that so we could refer to it and and uh so everybody knows what's going on, right?
Okay. Nicole, do you have anything you want to No. Okay. Very good. That's it. Ralph, that's it. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. On to old business and uh there's none. So public input at this time is there any Nobody's here. Anybody outside?
Okay. Thank you, Sue. All right. We'll move on. We'll move on to new business. This is going to be review, discuss, and act. Authorization to allow town administrator to sign contract with Reorld Waste LLC. I I presented the numbers at the last meeting. The contract had come in. So
this is this is it here. Sort of giving me the authority to sign it and move forward. Uh yeah, I have uh no issues with that. I'll make a motion to um authorize to allow the town administrator to sign the
contract with Reorld Waste LLC. I'll step down as chair and second. All those in favor? I I um again a review, discuss, and act facilities request for the Kashio Taton Youth Football. Did they submit everything that they needed to submit?
Yes, they did. Yeah. I'll make a motion to accept the facility's request for the car show Taton youth football. I'll set step down as chair and second. All those in favor I. Um South Southeastern Regional Service Group Award paper contract with WB
Mason. Again, this is a review discuss and act. Um I see it here. Just a a little background on this. We um there there was some confusion. sausage went out and uh they had got a
contract with another company. Uh unfortunately, there was some confusion in in in the boxes. Spruce had very good pricing, but they were basing their pricing on a five ream carton as opposed to a 10 ream carton. Uh we went back and um um they went back
and and realized it wasn't apples to apples and as a result W Mason continues to have the better better paper pricing. Okay. So, um I'll make a motion that we accept um the award paper contract for WB Mason.
I'll step down as chair and second. All those in favor? I um again a review discuss and act board of health uh board member position appointing process. Um this sort of uh lays out the uh the appointing process. As you know, we only
uh we continue to have only two members on the board of health. Uh we're looking for a third member. Um it just discusses the minimum qualifications and the applications and and how um similar to the um similar to the last time um it we
will have a joint meeting with the board of health for for any applicants that uh that come um uh are presented. Uh we're going to uh looking for permission to post it on the town website under employment and and volunteer
opportunities. I'll make a motion that we um what' you say you just want it posting. Make a motion that we to accept the appointing process. Oh to accept the um appointing process that is outlined tonight.
Uh I'll chair and second. All those in favor? I uh review discuss and act board of health recommendation for town nurse. So uh the uh board of health presented us with letter on July 1st. Um they went through the candidate well uh in June
they went through the candidate selection process. two candidates uh put their name forward and that the um the board of health would um is putting forward Becca Mitchell as the registered uh as the public health nurse for the town of Dyon.
Is she here now? Is she Oh, and she is with us there. Hi, Rebecca. Oh, not yet. Do you have her on? I can't see her. Second one down. Yeah, I mean she's there but she's hidden. Can you click her?
She's muted right now. Can we unmute her? She's coming in. Rebecca. Hi. Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Yes. Thank you. How are you? So, you want to be the town nurse?
Hi, everyone. I'm sorry. That's okay. Hi. Uh, you want to be our town nurse? Yes. Sorry, my connection's a little bit horrible over here. Uh, well, we can hear you fine. Thank you. Can you hear us? All right. Yes, now I can.
Good. Um, we understand you were interviewed by the board of health and they're recommending that you be the town nurse. That's something you want to do. Yes. Thank you. Okay. That would be wonderful. Thank you. Great. Well, welcome. Uh, I'm assuming
you'll get approved here tonight and uh I don't know when you'll start, but that's up to the board of health and the town administrator and um and and thank you for having an interest with us. We appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me. I apologize. I I'm trying to log on to my video, but unfortunately it's not
working either. Oh, that's okay. As long as we have your voice, Nicole, do you have anything you want to add? No, I'm I'm excited about this. Um, Becca is actually the the me in middle girl. Um, so she took my middle girl position and now she's taking my Dyon
and now I'm worried about my school position. Um, uh, do you want to be a voter selectman? You can take that. Um if you don't have any questions, I have a mo I'll make a motion. Sure.
Um I'll make a motion to approve um Becca Mitchell for town nurse. I'll sit down as chair and second. All those in favor? I I Well, Rebecca, congratulations and thank you for like I said, having an interest in our town. Thank you so much for having me. I look forward to it. Good luck.
Thank you. Good night. Good night. Good night. Um, you discuss an act zoom policy first reading. What does that mean? First reading. Um, if uh it uh for for policies to go into
effect, there are there are three readings before it's Is that true? Procedure in the past. Yeah. But it's not necessary. I know um to revise a former selectman started that policy, but I didn't see it written anywhere.
Uh, I mean, if you want to continue, I don't have an issue with it, but it's just that if it wants to be revised, we'll have a second reading. Do you have any revisions for uh we have a Zoom policy? Uh, we're introducing the Zoom uh uh
digital media policy. Yes. Okay. Um I think I don't have a copy of it here though. Oh, participation. Remote public participation. Oh, it's this um Peter. Oh, yeah. That's it.
Yeah, too. I thought it was still part of um the resume. in in in general it's um we're we're looking to keep as we had discussed in the past to sort of keep people in uh to keep their cameras off uh until until we
ask them to come on. If someone doesn't identify themselves that we have the uh the authority the host has the authority to um to remove them uh to you know ask them to leave and then if they're disruptive we could we could automatically
um remove them from the meeting. Okay. I have no issues with it. Um, if you find it necessary to do multiple readings, I guess we'll give Mark a chance to review it so we can do have a second reading. I would I would say, you know, given
that Mark was really intent on this Zoom policy that it would be appropriate to have at least one more reading. Sure. To go over that. That's fine. Okay. Uh, Nicole, is there a motion on the floor? accepting this. What am I doing?
Uh I I I would say uh move to move to move to move it to the second meeting. I'll make a motion that um we move the Zoom policy reading to a second reading. Um, not that I'm not going to step down
and second it, but don't we want to accept the policy first or not? Yeah, I think you have to go through all. Okay. Uh, I'll step down as chair and second. Uh, all those in favor?
I I uh review discussion act goal setting. We're going to table. Is that a motion? if I if I may just have a quick disc discussion on it just just so um as we move forward just um so you have your
thoughts on it um to think about usually I think it would be a good idea when we discuss goals to put it in a particular framework um towns call them different things but we could call it um a long range plan uh the good thing about a
long range plan it's pretty it it's pretty brief it's about definitely five to 10 pages long. It identifies the town goals over the next for over the next five years, little goals, big goals, all different types of goals, and it should
be reviewed annually. Um, and just so we're we keep track of it, a lot of towns have it printed in their warrant so the town can see, you know, what what you have decided what the what the goals are. And it should be based on you know
the selectman department heads but also it's a review of the master plan the economic development economic development plan and production plan and again the financial management review. So you know everything in there has things we should do as a town things we
should do to uh to help the town move forward. Uh and then there's individual goals um as as presented uh presented by the selectment. Okay. Well, I I think as as we move forward, I um other than just sort of stating them um we should sort
of um really um memorialize them in a long range plan. So, so it's it's it's a right it's a more uh professional way of of of looking at our goals. Sure. And moving forward. Okay. Uh we've done it in the past. We
haven't done it at a selectman's meeting. Um, prior uh previous um town administrators we've met uh and and discussed what the selectman's goals were individually and and for the town.
Uh I don't think that uh we have that anywhere uh what the last meeting was, but um it's good to start fresh, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean we the goals change want to do it. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. As I reviewed it, a lot of right
every each selectman sort of brought up a goal, you know, one Wisconsin constant goal was you know the library the library. Oh yeah. So I think I think if we if we take the approach of a long range plan it's more holistic uh um so you know the library
is in there like you know big things should be in there and little things should be in there. Not that it's a little but but as I brought up the personnel policy should be you know should be in there something to to bring up um you know do we want to go from
weekly to bi-weekly uh in in with uh uh for for pay you know things like that we should look at discuss address if if we want it to be a goal you know and then and we know um you know we know that the
uh the school projects coming up and the fire uh a fire is coming up, you know, large capital items, medium capital items, and and again, how do we um you know, how do we tackle the budget um and and potential shortfalls? So, it's it's
something which I um envision it's it should take us a little longer than than one meeting. Uh but but that's a good that's a starting point. At least we have it and we'll put it together, okay? and move forward.
So, let's just have it ongoing. Um, I I don't know if it's a uh an item that has to be listed on the agenda um every month uh every every time we meet, but um I mean, you started with what what you
think um we need as a goal, which is a goal. Um Okay. Uh this is supposed to be a review, discuss, and act. Uh in addition to what you said, I'd still like to table the uh the process for the selectment. Unless you want to add
something, Nicole. No, because my goal was the library. No, I'm just kidding. No, I'd like to make Well, achieved. Check. I'd like to make a motion that um we table the goal setting till our Can we put it on our next agenda? Is there room until our next meeting?
Uh there was room. Uh I I guess we'll see what happens. Um so I wouldn't want to say that it's going to be at the next meeting, but um at a future meeting if that's okay with you. Okay. I'll step down as chair and second. All those in favor?
I uh I approval of the warrants. Um, this is the warrants paid for by July 2nd for 2025. 53A-25 for 138,630.78. 53B-25
for 139,459 uh444 and 1 C-26 for $3,340. I'll second that. Motion made in second. Uh, and I'll chair and second. Motion made and seconded. Any discussion? All those in favor? I
I warrants paid by July 10th, 2025. 54 A-25 44,57758 54B-25 $108,131555 C-25 $33,576.92 A-26104
uh $104,725 2B-269 $99,450.90 and 2 C-26 6 $163,29.95. I'll second that. Motion made second. Any discussion? All
those in favor? I um There were no acknowledgements. There's no correspondence. We have approval of the minutes for uh uh June 25th. Please. I'll make a motion to approve the board of selections regular meeting minutes of June 25th, 2025. I'll step down as chair and second. Motion made second. Any discussion? All
those in favor? I I um public input. Any more? Sue. Hi, how you doing? Good. Um, I I just want to know if we have a current vision statement for the town of Dy.
Uh, we used to. Whether it's current or not, I don't know. I I remember seeing one. Um this was before I was selectman so it's going back four or five years that um I just think it would help us to reset
our town to be sure that we have some type of of vision statement and then our goals and objectives would then line up with right vision statement. Sure. Individual boards and committees have them or some of them do. Um I
remember being on open space and in the first meeting we had was to uh to come up with the mission statement that we took uh uh stock of other commun not other communities other committees that had them and several several did but I
don't know other than seeing one for the town like I said this was uh five or probably five or six years ago I don't I don't think we have one now. I'll look through the records. I I think all the departments should dovetail into Sure. That's a good idea.
And I just maybe think that, you know, it gives us a good foundation as a town um to consider something like that. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you, Sue. Uh I just to just to sort of back up what what what Sue is
saying is that that's uh typically part of uh I was looking for one but it's typically part of the long range plan for the town to articulate. It's both mission statement and vision statement and everything everything does um flow from that. So Sue when we meet again we'll have something.
Okay. Thank you. Great. And there's only one other question. I'm not quite sure if this ends up in old business. Uh, but I've been reading um all the information that you your department is putting out and I saw a letter from a resident um Gwen
Reynolds and it kind of you know made me think a little bit and I know where she's from uh I think she's from Milk Street. um she sent a letter because I guess she's had a career in um you know streamlining and making sure that
efficiencies Yeah. that and I know that the town and the community we're all concerned about efficiencies and making sure that we have the town services that we need and make sure that um we're spending our dollars where we need to spend them. Uh
and she had some she reached out to the town to see if she could help in any way. I was wondering if there was any followup on that. I believe so. She was a lady who she came to our last meeting. Oh, she came to the last meeting.
We had at the time I suggested she go to the uh finance committee. I set up an appointment with her on July 21st. Okay. Yeah. All right. Um is that it? So, anything else you want to talk? That's it. Okay. That's it. Well, thank you. Thanks for uh staying
with us. Yes, no problem. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Um, motion to adjurnn. I'll make a motion to adjurnn. Step down as chair and second. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Thank you.