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Carlson Printing for all your printing needs. Good evening. I'm going to call to order the Town of Falmouth select board regular meeting. It is 6:02 and the board is going to um uh adjourn to go into executive session. Do I have
a motion? >> Motion. >> Second. >> Second by roll call. All in favor? Mscali. I >> Brown I >> Reed I >> Richardson I >> Goldstone I >> Okay, we will return by 6:30. Thank you.
>> Okay. Good evening. I'm going to call to order the Town of Flet Select Board regular meeting. It is 6:30. The board has just returned from executive session where we agreed to a contract with the New England Police Benevolent
Association local 61 police sergeants. So, uh, if you will please join me in the pledge of >> allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. Our uh, first order of business is a proclamation. And I'm going to read this proclamation. Whereas the Falmouth fund was established in 2009 as a gr grassroots
effort by several longtime residents of Falmouth. And whereas the Falmouth fund was established as a permanent endowment fund under the umbrella of the Cape Cod Foundation. Whereas a permanent endowment enables the Falmouth fund to respond to the changing needs of the
Falmouth community both today and in future years. And whereas the Felmouth Fund awards grants to nonprofit organizations doing important work in all respects of the Felmouth community, health and human services, education, youth and
recreation, arts and culture, and the environment. Whereas members of the Falmouth fund advisory and grant committees are active volunteers in the Falmouth community and have a background in one or more areas in which we focus our grant awards. And whereas the
Falmouth fund supports nonprofit organizations that are responding to community needs as well as those that innovate and collaborate to enhance the quality of life in Felmouth. And whereas the Falmouth fund concludes our 2026
grant cycle in January. We have we will have invested over $1.5 million to over 100 nonprofit organizations since our first awards in 2010. Now therefore, we, Robert P. Mscali,
Heather MH Gold Cold Goldstone, Douglas C. Brown, Colin W. Reed, and Jack P. Richardson, as members of the select board of the town of Felmouth, by the authority vested in us, do hereby proclaim and acknowledge the 15th anniversary of the Felmouth Fund, in
witness whereof, we have here to set our hand and cause the great seal of the town of Falmouth to be affixed on this 15th day of February. I'm sorry. 15th day of December. Getting ahead of myself. 2025. Thank you very much.
Have someone who'd like to speak. So, please approach the podium. >> Thank you very much. Uh for those of you who don't know me, I'm Sharon Nunes and I am chair of the Felmouth Fund since 2018. Uh, I want to thank everyone, the select board especially for this
recognition for the Falmouth fund. And I'd be remiss if I also didn't recognize the founders of the Falmouth fund who started this in 2009. There were several longtime residents of Felmouth who recognized the need for a fund that would support all of the areas that were
mentioned in the proclamation uh to support the nonprofits in Felmouth. Um, but in addition to those that group of folks who were led by Eileen Mskell, which I'm sure most people in this room know, um, I also need to thank a few other folks. Uh, some members of my
advisory committee are here and grant committee and they do the yman's work for what we do under the umbrella of the Falmouth fund. Uh, they put many hours of work in. We're all volunteers including myself. We are all volunteers and we put a lot of hours in really
identifying the needs across town, meeting with the many leaders across town to identify the needs in Felmouth. Um so that when our grant competition is underway, we have input and insight as to where we think we can have the most impact from the nonprofits. And we're
proud to say that we have supported over 100 nonprofits in our 15 years. Um our donors have been incredibly supportive since the beginning. longtime donors, recent donors, and without their funding, we wouldn't be able to do any of this. Um, but lastly, I just want
really want to recognize the hundreds of nonprofits that support this community and how proud I am to know them because they actually do a lot of work that is many times visible for the large nonprofits and sometimes not very
visible for the smaller and younger nonprofits. We support nonprofits that are well established in town that have been here for decades and we also support some emerging nonprofits and sometimes take a chance on, you know, whether they will survive and continue to be able to
contribute what they do. I've been incredibly impressed with the leadership and the volunteers from these organizations. And so on behalf of especially the nonprofits, but also my committee members and the donors and the town leaders, thank you for this proclamation and accept it on their
behalf. >> Okay. Well, thank you very much. Uh we're going to process this and get the original to the to the fund. Thank you very much, Miss Nunes. >> Okay. We will move on to u recognition.
Mr. Reed uh saw a nice thing online today that uh Chief Lori was honored with the Hector Pelletire award for work supporting the Jimmy Fund. Uh this is something that has affected him personally in his life with the young family member and he's continued to be
the co- captain of the association's Jimmy Fund Walk and many other fundraisers. So just a big accolade out to Chief Lori for what he's done with the Jimmy Fund. >> Okay, anyone else? Uh, Chair Goldstone, Vice Chair. >> Um, I'd like to start on a happy note
and say happy Hanukkah to those celebrating. Um, but cannot say that without also without also recognizing um the lives lost and lives tragically changed at a Hanukkah celebration in Bondai Beach, Australia um over the weekend. Unfortunately, it was a really
tough weekend because I would also like to recognize um the tragic shooting at Brown University over the weekend. Um there are multiple residents of family of Felmouth who are currently students at Brown and members of the Brown
University community who are grappling um with this right now and our thoughts are with all of them. >> Thank you. Um, I certainly would like to recognize the found Chamber of Commerce and all the great work they did with respect to the U Christmas parade uh and
many of the nonprofits uh that participated and and other organizations in town that participated. It was a wonderful event. Uh I think we may even have a winner here. Mr. Reed, do you want to talk to that a little bit? >> Uh who's second consecutive uh
>> but who's counting? Uh we won the first first prize for uh the adult level of parade float. So it's pretty fun. >> Very good. >> The the again I'll second the chambers events. They're fantastic from night one
to the end. It's been great. >> A little adult entertainment float. Was it? >> It was an interesting name of a float of a float uh prize. >> Okay. I will also recognize that this past Saturday uh at 4:00 in the
afternoon at the uh village green, I joined a number of residents, some of whom I see here this evening uh in uh in in the dedication of the uh plaque uh at the v at the entrance of the village green actually in a really nice place uh
in honor of uh of Harry Hill, longtime uh worker here uh in Falmouth and uh it was really a pleasure pleasure to meet the family and meet meet some of the uh some of the people who were involved in the in the movement to get that uh that
plaque uh dedicated to to Mr. Hill. >> Very nice. Sorry to have missed that. I >> some reason for a reminder about it. >> Yeah. Announcements. Anyone? Anything coming up? Um, I think we'll get some details later, but want to make sure while we've
got folks uh watching at the beginning that they can come back for all the details later this evening. But we will be having a community conversation event on January 22nd. >> Correct. >> Is that correct? Um uh to discuss uh ICE and immigration issues here in Falmouth.
And it's the night before that, January 21st, we will also have a public meeting. Uh that one will be on the beach management plan, I believe. Is that the correct date still? Okay. So, a couple of Mark your calendars for into January. >> A lot going on. So, uh we're going to
now turn to any other announcements. No, we'll turn to public comment. But before I do, I just want to remind everyone to silence your cell phone. Notify the chair if you are making a video or audio recording of this open session meeting. Placement and operation of the recording
equipment should not interfere with the conduct of the meeting. Uh so public comment may be made on routine matters not on the agenda this evening. Comments are limited to two minutes. Please introduce yourself. Since the matter has
not been included on the agenda, the select board may not participate in discussion of the topic. Okay, we will open for public comment. Sir, >> uh thank you for this opportunity. Um my name is John Honey. I'm a resident of
Se-saccape which is a group of about a hundred homes between um Fidas Cove and Means at Outer Harbor. Uh I want to just make some comments about the uh oyster farms that are proposed for for Means Harbor. First of all, we're very much in
favor of oyster farms as they scavenge nitrogen from the water. Our concern is with the particular ones that are going in there is that they're on the surface and not submerged. And we have several concerns about the fact they're on the surface.
One is they'll attract seabirds which are corrants and seagulls. And if you've ever been to the weeket islands, you can appreciate the smell that they produce. And we just are concerned that that smell will be now being in in Meganet
Harbor as well. Um there's a lot of sailing activities that go on in Meganet Harbor with the Means uh yacht club and they have weekend races and and they also have um other
races with other groups from around the area. And I'm afraid that these these floating um oyster farms will interfere with the route or the freedom that they have in sailing around Manset Harbor.
Also, we're concerned about navigation and the threats to navigation that these propose. Uh obviously, if it's a nice sunny day, you can see the floating um containers and and avoid them. But our concern is with foggy days or rainy days
and it may be difficult to see them and boats entering um Fiddler's Cove or Rance Canal or the Inner Harbor may collide with some of these some of these things. What what we really like to do is is to
set up a meeting with you folks where we could discuss our concerns and possibly include other air other people from the area that also have concerns. And that's my presentation. Thank you. >> Thank you very much.
>> Yes, ma'am. >> Hi, good evening everybody. I'm Kathy Valyriani, precinct 8. Um, just before I start my comment, just for recognition, we a beloved teacher in this town passed this week, Mary Laden. Uh, my daughter
had her in school was still one of her favorite teachers, just a lovely person. I I didn't want to let it go that I was hoping somebody would mention. Okay. Anyway, hi. I'm here with tidings of joy
and gratitude uh representing Ed Valerriani, Brian Dale, and Ernie Hok who were the organizers for the Harry Hill project that Mr. Mscowi mentioned
had a great success. More than three dozen people attended in the cold on a weekend where everybody was busy doing family things, Christmas things. It was a wonderful turnout. Um, this is just on
paper, but just for the home audience, his stone is down there right at the end of the triangle at the Village Green. Uh, Troy Clarkson's going to be doing an article in the Enterprise, so watch for it. It'll have many stories, history
about how special Harry was. um just an employee of the town but over and above for everything he did because he loved his community and and people from young to season. Um and then just a picture of
the family, the extended family that came. Um the you all have a digital copy which is much better that I wanted you to see and I didn't post anything yet because I wanted the family and you people to see it at first. Um I also
want to thank the the DPW parks department went over and above to to help us with this. They made sure everything was set. They helped set the stone into place. Uh Ed Valyriani and
Brian Dale took two days to hone out the inset the stone to get the inset to go in. Later they put the inset in so they didn't farm it out. This was a labor of love. The family is so touched and so
honored that he's honored this way and has brought so much joy to the families of this town from this high to this high that and it's going to be there for hundreds of years to come. So thank you and and Mr. Mscally, thank you for
taking on as the liaison of our group. >> My pleasure. Um, and I'm just looking to see if I forgot anybody or anything, but but just such an honor and watch for the article and enterprise. Thank you all for helping
us. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> We will now move to the >> one more. I'm sorry. How could I miss you? How could I miss you, Mr. Hagerty? >> Hi everyone. My name is Dave Morardi Falmouth and uh I just want to
acknowledge all of the the the the terrific citizens of Falmouth who came out to the last planning board for the uh solar array out in Hatchville proposed for uh on top of our soul um aquifer. That's the only way that we can
get clean water here on Cape Cod. And uh should anything happen, perhaps a fire, these lithium batteries explode all the time all over the country. Should that ever happen, it will be a total disaster. The people came out in droves. They they were so
articulate. Um you know, they brought up a sound study. There's no sound study. There's no wildlife corridor. There's no containment for the polluted toxic water waste. should there ever be a fire. Um there
are so many things left out. Uh the property values. I was it was very impressive and I just want to remind everyone about the third planning board meeting coming up December 13th at 6:30 in this room. And I look forward to
seeing all of the Falmouth residents here and voicing their opinion on this uh you know tragic I I don't understand how this project got so far in the first place and and it goes against federal regulations. So you cannot and
jeopardize a community's sole source water supply. It's a federal law. So, I just hope this doesn't turn into 10 years of litigation like the turbines turned into, especially when the town and the officials had the information
from the manufacturers and refused to share it at their public meetings, which is a total sin. And we don't want anything like this to ever happen again in so these people are not going to sleep on their rights. There'll be no
doctrinal latches. So, I just wanted to make that perfectly clear to everyone. Happy holidays and it was nice seeing everyone. >> Thank you. >> Okay, now we'll move to the consent agenda. Licenses. Consider approval of
annual license renewals for 2026. They are all listed uh in in in the packet. uh consider approval of an application by Woods Hole Golf Club at 130 Quiset Avenue for a change of officers for its
all alcoholic beverage club license. Administrative orders consider the approval of the North Falmouth Woods phase 2 conservation restriction. Number two, consider a vote to approve the request for a variance to sign code
section 184-25 freestanding signs from J&J Sign Company on behalf of the First Congregational Church of Felmouth at 68 Main Street to replace the existing sign at the rear of
the property on Katherine Lee Bates Road. >> Okay, I think that's it. >> I move approval of the consent agenda as presented. >> Second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? >> I. >> Thank you very much. >> We will now move to a public hearing and
I will ask Vice Chair Goldstone to read the public hearing notice. The Fmouth Select Board will hold a public hearing on Monday, December 15th, 2025 at 6:45 p.m. in the Select Board meeting room, Town Hall, 59 Town Hall Square, Fmouth, Massachusetts. Under
chapter 40, section 56, as amended by chapter 369 of the acts of 1982, and chapter 79 of the acts of 1983, the Felmouth Select Board will conduct a public hearing on whether the town of Felmouth should implement the classification act. At said hearing, the
select board will hear a presentation regarding the allocation of the fiscal 2026 tax levy, which will determine the share of taxes which each property classification shall pay. The board of assessors shall provide all information and data relevant to making a decision of allocating the tax burden, including
the fiscal effects of the available options per order of the select board. >> Okay. M Mr. Rancho, would you give us an introduction? >> Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Select board. Good evening. Um, unfortunately our our new chief assessor is out ill today, so our thoughts are with her. Hopefully she recovers quickly. Um, as
you all know, each year the board of assessors submits recommendations and explanations to the select board for the annual classification hearing. Uh, the finance director, Laura Citroen, is here on behalf or in support of our assessor and is going to go through the presentation and hopefully between her and Peter and I, we can answer any
questions you might have. Laura, >> good evening. I'm Laura Citroen, director of finance. Okay. So, um this has to be done each year and we're
usually very late in the year to get this done for a number of reasons. Not the least of which is we have to wait until after town meeting and all of that is sorted um because the appropriations are needed
and al to set the tax rate and to deal with some of the other information as well. Um so we come to you in December and ask that this get adopted in time to mail the
December 31st tax bills. So, um, we're kind of at the last possible meeting here, but what I will what I will go through is so you've been given um a handout and it
provides information that talks about the different things that you need to vote tonight hopefully. One is what they call the residential factor. And what that does is determine how the tax rate is going to be allocated across
classes. The second thing that you're going to be asked to vote on is whether or not to allow a residential exemption for open space. The third thing is whether or not there
you will do a residential exemption for a small um commercial business which means less than 10 people and a total property value of under a million dollars. Um and the fourth thing is whether or
not to do a residential tax exemption. and that's been before you before this board for the last well at least three years anyway that I know of. Um okay so
the board of assessors did make recommendations on all of these. They recommend that you stick with a single tax rate across all classes of property which would mean that you vote a residential factor of one. In this case, if you vote the residential factor
of one, the tax rate will be $5.73 per thousand of value. The second thing that they recommend is that you vote to reject the residential, commercial, and open space exemption
options um in fiscal year 26, which is what we're dealing with. I know we're also looking at the fiscal year 27 budget, but this is for fiscal year 26. We're setting the the rate for 26. >> I will take any questions that you might have.
>> I know Mr. Brown >> hope I can answer. >> No, I my question is sufficiently answered and also it's part of the explanation in the packet that I had missed earlier, but I just read it. >> Okay. Um, no, I I had uh sent a few questions
uh mostly clarifying questions earlier today which were all answered I think um quite satisfactorily. I do just want to um make clear, especially given uh that there was at least one letter to the editor in the enterprise last week um
about this board considering a residential tax exemption, that that is something that this board has talked about. That uh staffing and uh software for the implementation of a residential tax exemption in FY28 is currently in
our FY27 budget. what we're talking about tonight is FY26 and the feasibility of implementing a residential tax exemption by this date. So, I I think um just wanted to make that clear that that is something that that this board is has very much been
considering um and and is working toward. >> Yeah, I haven't shut up about it. Um >> I was a little surprised to to see letters in the enterprise saying that we should talk more about a resial tax exemption, but >> Thank you, Mr. Clark. Um, yeah. I So, on
that, I know we've talked about FY28 for a residential exemption. How impossible or how much harder would be to have that for FY27 said, "I'm not going to push you for FY26. That would be insane. I understand. Um, I know
there's a lot I can already see see your reaction, but um, how much heavy lifting would that be to have that online a year or sooner?" it I would say that you need a good eight months of preparation and and
formulating a plan and putting everything together to get to that to get to that point. And I don't think we're in position to do that for fiscal year 27. We have a brand new assessor who kind of came in right at the worst
time in terms of having to present all of this information and get all this put together so that we can get the tax rate for 26 set. I think it's pushing it. I I mean I do I'm sorry.
>> No, I I understand. Um for me it's an important tax relief in a time where we're going to look later our budget our revenues need to increase and I would not want to increase taxes on year round residents without first reducing their taxes overall. though.
Um, if there's any way we can work on that at all, you know, I'm happy, you know, to meet discuss it another time, but I understand how heavy it lift is. I understand this is also been a conversation for three years boards before I was on. Uh, I just for me, I just want to see action on a policy
that's broadly popular, widely around Cape, but I understand that there's a huge administrative burden with it. So, I empathize with that, but if there's any way we all can work towards that, whatever. or if I need to volunteer, I'm happy to volunteer. >> I I think there's been a lot of talk about it over the years. I think it's
fairly well known in the community that this board is supportive of actually making it making it happen. But I do believe our town manager would like to say something. >> Thanks, Mr. Chair. Just a quick comment and I appreciate select board member Richardson's uh comments and and ask to
to expedite um beyond the lift, you know, the the staff lift. We we do have that part-time well threequarter time staffing position built into the recommended FY27 budget. So we're doing more than talking about it like we've done the past few years. We're actually making taking steps in addition to the
uh the lift the staff lift. It's also um a software we two years a year and a half ago feels like two years year and a half ago we procured um the uh the Munis enterprise financial management system. That implementation has been a challenge quite honestly. It's it always is. every
place I've been where we it's brought in. It's a huge system. So, we're still working through those challenges as well. So, not only the staffing end of it, but also the technology end we would not have in place realistically um but for F2.
>> I appreciate it. You guys know me. >> We're making progress. >> No, and I understand that and I appreciate that and I mentioned when you overviewed the budget that I really appreciated that that was in there. So, uh and thank you for for dealing with me, >> Mr. Chair, Mr. Reed, um, I appreciate
the the deadline here. Uh, when I read the last, uh, statement of that this will cause any any delay in this vote will cause potential cash flow issues for the town. I I appreciate how long you had to wait for November town meeting. We've had a month. I would
appreciate getting this information a little bit earlier, but also just uh again, uh, broken record here. We're talking about all of these things uh in pieces and we're voting on things in pieces and we're considering things in
pieces just uh in this agenda alone in in 10 topics we're going to be talking about a different tax related thing. So, um, with the town manager's assessment of the operating budget and the deficits that are forecasted in the out years, I
think it would behoove us to really think about a larger discussion and a timely discussion of expenses, revenues, and taxes in a big picture format so that we are not just looking at these at oneoffs because we have an impending
deadline. I'd rather us work from a deadline backwards and talk about these uh holistically and comprehensively. >> Well, thank you, Mr. Reid. We certainly appreciate your uh your thoughts and and needs for for further discussion. Uh I think one of the things the board will
be considering next year is actually looking at increasing the number of select board meetings we may have in a month so that we can deal with these issues uh possibly in a more efficient and effective way. So, uh, uh, that's something we'll be dealing with in in
the new year. So, okay. Thank you, >> Mr. Chair. >> Yes, >> if I might, just one one brief, um, response on, um, you know, clearly the town manager and I have heard and we've been talking with the chair about how to bring related issues together on a, you
know, more frequent and and try to look at things as comprehensively as we can. Um just one detail point on that with specific to this hearing, it's revenue neutral. Um no matter what we do at this hearing, there's no additional revenue gained or revenue lost. Um so which
isn't to say it's an isolated issue. It connects with um you know economic affordability issues, but it does not connect with revenues and expenditures and what we can what the budget can support or not support. >> Thank you. Uh, is anyone prepared to
make a motion? >> Do we need to do we need to take public comment? >> Oh, I'm sorry. Public comment uh with respect to this. Yes. M. >> Hi, Kathy Valyriani again. Precinct 8.
Uh my comments are not to the your vote tonight at hand, but are related because as we don't have to tell anybody here about the affordability on the Cape, our young kids that can't have to
leave that can't stay here. How many workers have to live off the bridge and come back? So between the real estate market and the property tax, my concern is
that right now we have a a teacher that has taught for over 40 years in this town who has to leave her home of 33 years because her landlord keeps putting the rent up so high she can't afford it
anymore. another beloved teacher who affected thousands and thousands of kids in this community. And now she's 78 and has to sell half her belongings to go to and
she's on the to get into the senior housing in a little studio apartment. People that work for the town that stay are dedicated people. They do that job because they love it. They could have
made way more in the public sector, but we didn't. We chose this. My concern is the same as what she's experiencing. My husband and I are both 30-year employees of the town. Loved our jobs.
I'm concerned. I'm grateful that we have the benefits in town. We do. I'm grateful for the care that you give to this town and fill the needs that we have. I'm just concerned watching my taxes go
up and our pensions not going up very much at all that I'm afraid we've been in our home 46 years. I fought for 40 years for the Hatchville Fire Department to get that to come to be. I knew my taxes would go up, but we needed it.
I'm just concerned that I don't want to and other town employees. I know you can't, state laws say you can't give certain people certain rates because of laws, but I just
hope there's something that if there's some kind of discount, some kind of break in the future where your former town employees are going to be in trouble and and we're already here because this teacher is just one
example. So, thank you for listening and thank you for letting me get a little off the topic. I appreciate it. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else for public comment? Uh, entertain a motion to close public hearing. >> Uh, one more comment off of that. I know
the previous board also considered a senior exemption. I think that's something we should talk about uh as well uh at some point in the future. >> I think we have that. >> We have uh >> well, yeah. 1500. >> I don't remember the specifics, but we
we've I believe we've gone to the maximum the local. >> Oh, that's right. They changed it to be 500 more. That's right. >> Okay. >> Motion to post. >> Move uh that we close the public hearing. >> Have a motion. Second. All in favor?
>> I. >> Any further discussion with respect to the motion? >> Okay. Is anyone prepared to make the motion? I would move a motion to tax all classes of property at the same rate by adopting factor of one and to reject the residential, commercial, and open space
exemption options. Okay, we >> have a motion. >> Seconded with the clarification that this is for FY26. >> Correct. >> Okay, we have a motion and a second is clarified.
All in favor? I I >> Okay, thank you. We'll now move to uh an update on implementation of our plastic reduction regulations. We have Mr. Scott Mcan, our health agent. >> Good evening.
>> Slotted for 10 minutes. Mr. Mcan. >> Good evening. Scott Mcan Health Division. >> I apologize. I got a little bit of a cough that started this afternoon. So, if I if I get a little off, bear with me. Um, just in case you didn't know, 2023 there was a petition in this
article uh to ban all single-use plastics. Uh, it ended up to a plastic reduction advisory committee which developed a regulation. The board of health voted that regulation in April, this past April, and it went in place in September 1st. Um, it took about a year
or so for the the committee to create a regulation primarily because of lack of alternatives. uh a phalma specific regulation is difficult when most people are buying from US food service or Cisco and some of these national chains and the green or eco-friendly line is actually plant-based plastics and don't
recycle you can't recycle them and they they would have to go in the trash they industrial compostable we don't have an industrial compostable facility so the regulation ended up is a some suitable alternatives such as household compostable wood paper glass etc a waiver process done by staff at the
health division Um and the the um criteria for that was pretty loose. Uh financial considerations or there's no alternative. I think the to speak for the the P plastic reduction advisory committee. They weren't looking to
change how people would do things. They just wanted to use a better tool for it or better material. And so we are u receiving waiverss when there is no suitable um replacement. Um there's also a board health variance uh for things that are uh that they felt that needed
to go to the board for a decision. So that's a little bit of a background. This regulation is nothing like any board of health regulation that we typically do. Septic tanks have to be 10 ft from a property line. You have to cook your chicken to 165. This regulation is a little bit more like driving over time to better
alternatives. And so through the waiver process and this year we've had plenty of waivers. Um today is the deadline. any restaurant owners who have not applied for a food permit today. Here's your notice that today was the deadline to apply for a food permit. Um, waivers are coming in with those food permit
applications. Some have no waivers listed, some have one, two, some have two pages. Usually, your markets are going to be larger. Uh, restaurants that just use takeout containers are simple. Uh, a grocery store is going to be more difficult because they use lots of
different containers, um, lots of lids, lots of things of that nature. So that process is occurring. Um all this permit renewals usually start the 1st of October. So October, November into December. We have been going through the waiver requests and by and large
granting most of the waiverss because it's a learning curve for us as well over time as we learn about suitable alternatives. We can transfer that over to some other places that may not have found a suitable transfer. So this is sort of to use a corporate word like a soft opening on a regulation. It's not
typical how we would do this. If a regulation says you need a denitrification system starting X date, trust me, if anybody submitted building permits, I'm making them put the denitrification. This is more a learning curve for the restaurants. We did have two uh informational sessions and
multiple emails, but I do have a handful of restaurants who have never heard of it until the day they applied for their food permit. So, we have a lot of learning, a lot of education on this end. And also, our staff have to be educated. if I see a straw somewhere, um I happen to have gone to a local place
and saw an agave straw. I thought it was a cool thing. And so now it's like send an email out to all the restaurants and let them know, hey, there's a straw, there's a new straw in town. Um so that's kind of where we're doing with this. Um there will be the board of health doesn't know this yet, but there's some restaurants uh who need
variances in the next meeting or two there'll be a few uh food establishments uh that will need um it um especially larger ones like Stop and Shop and Shaws. save quite a bit of plastic. Um so how also what we're doing is uh
during the inspections um starting uh we we have a new food inspector who started this summer um has been going through and walking the establishments as as she does an inspection through what the regulation is and what the process is. Compliance starts during the inspection
process. So that's where the rubber meets the road as we start to do inspections. You filled out a waiver for this. You didn't fill a waiver out for that. will be doing compliance over the next year uh to to get everybody's paper sort of paperwork and what we expect over the next over the 2026. So it has
probably doubled to triple the time out to review a food permit application which we expected the first year probably the second year will be better maybe tweak the form a little bit you know you learn as you go. Um and also during the food inspections it has been um considerably increase in time at
least for the restaurants that we've uh you know that have wanted to take the time and learn. So it we are working our way through it. Um we have lots of waivers. Um like I said we've granted most of the waivers just until we know better um to do it. So that's it. In in
light of all the waiverss, Mr. Mcan is is there any discussion about modifying the regulations to somehow avoid what is resulting in all of these waiverss? >> Well, the bigger question is well I this it's it it's a good question. The
question is, I guess, is there a suitable replacement, right? So, lids are a great example. It's very hard to replace a lid. It has to be a thin enough plastic and still be able to grab the the the edge. Um, there's low hanging fruit that it'll be easy. But, I think there's always going to be some.
Now, if you if you don't want to grant waiverss now, you're kind of defaulting back to the original petition this article. when you start really digging into it, most of the replacements are the green lines and what I call the eco the e eco lines, whatever the vendor wants to call them, are all plant-based plastics which need to be industrial
compostable. So, it's been it's going to be difficult for some of these things to be replaced. and the plastic reduction advisory committee. I think if the I think since the board of health made the regulation, it would board of health would may ask a request of the select board to rein reinstate if that's a
proper word if they want to go back to look at or the board could do it themselves and because it is a board health regulation. I guess we could leave the plastic advisory committee out. Um, one of our me board members is on there so we could we the board could modify it as they see fit. So, I think
the best thing to do is let the dust settle, come back to the board, tell them where we're seeing most of the issues, and go from there. >> I mean, that that was why I asked the town manager to put you on the agenda and give us an update so u so we can at least start thinking about these things and board of health as well. Mr.
Richardson, >> thank you very much. I'm not sure it applies under here, but I had done a route with meals on wheels and they had asked uh you know to that they could fall under uh the waiver because of just the nature of their stuff. Has that happened?
>> I don't know that level of detail because they have assigned Morgan and Jane that. So I don't know that question. I think that phone call has happened, >> right? I'm I I'm pretty sure I told them to call you your office. So >> yeah, we're going to be extremely flexible and this again is much different from most regulations. We're a very, you know, cut and dry sort of department. >> Yeah,
>> I appreciate that. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Yes, Mr. Goldstone. >> Couple of questions. Um, I have all along really appreciated the nature of this process that brought folks from very different uh perspectives on the issue together on the plastic reduction
advisory committee to to end up with this regulation and not have it be um a unilateral ban that was forced on people and instead trying to to bring people into the conversation. So, I really appreciate also the approach of the the
education approach. Um, I'm curious when you say quite a few waiverss, are we talking dozens, hundreds? >> Most establishments applied for at least one. >> Okay. >> Some like a grocery store chain, I could see three or four pages worth, so maybe
30 for a particular food establishment that might have hundreds of non-compliance. Um, Shaws, supermarkets, windfall. Um, I don't see this being a problem for a sit-down restaurant who only has to have takeout containers, but this is a big issue for the the markets of of
town. Um, I would say maybe about 80% have applied for at least one waiver. And I don't know whether some just ignored it, didn't fill it out, and said we don't need it, and then we're going to find it during the inspection. I would I would say there shouldn't be a ton of what I call full service sitdown
dining restaurants that would need them. I can certainly see the markets needing them. >> Okay. I'm curious whether I feel like in some of these cases there's that the entire burden shouldn't be on the businesses to replace things and the rest of us could do more of our part by
bringing containers but there are a lot of situations where we're not allowed to provide our own containers right so I can show up to I was going to use a brand name but I won't I can show up to a coffee shop with my own mug and get a cup of tea I cannot show up to the deli
counter and ask for them to put deli well I can ask I get told no to put cold cuts into my own container. Is there any ability for us as a town to shift that part of the system in order to also
shift some of the responsibility in this in this situation to consumers as well as providers? >> Yeah, sorry. Excuse me. So, yeah, I mean, one's a potentially has his food and one isn't, right? So, a tea is not hurt anything. Although in a in a drive-thru, I can't see a scenario where people would be handing their mugs to a
clerk to clean them and prior to filling them. Um, so I think you're never going to get away from single use, but certainly going to your local coffee shop where you're handing it and if it's clean, they could accept it and and fill it. Um, but any potentially has this foods that would be a non-starter at
this point in time. I wouldn't want people filling their own salad bar items with their own containers. >> I don't remember the particular >> then you run into, excuse me, then you run into the food code, right? And then the food code is our primary reason why we're inspecting the restaurants. >> So, >> so I I think within the past week there
was a story on Chronicle on uh on on this very subject and a and a business that has somehow been able to allow people to come with their own containers. they have to be specifically uh you know process you
know specific types of containers but they're allowed to come and fill up their containers and not have to use uh you know the uh containers from the from the store. So >> yeah, part of that problem with that would be tear weights because that would be a difficult thing. They'd have to
tear everything um tear weights to make sure the container doesn't weigh. I'd be bringing the le lightest possible one. Uh there's certain things that we could do that for, >> but it would be relatively limited. >> Okay. >> So, we we banned those single-use plastic bags, but what do you think
about these ones that say reusable? >> They don't seem too different. >> It's the thickness. So, when that regulation was written, there was a thickness. I don't recall. I think 3 millimeters, I think, something of that nature. Anything over that was considered uh reusable. And that's how the that's how the bylaw was written.
So, if they're thick enough, they're thick enough. >> Okay. At least they don't fly away like the old ones, huh? >> But they're 10 times thick. They're about the same amount of plastic as 10 regular small, you know, thin ones, too. So, >> okay. I >> mean, maybe the that that's a separate bylaw altogether that came in, I think,
you know, maybe 5 to 8 years ago at least. No, maybe 10. >> Yeah. >> So, >> it was longer than we think. >> Yeah. >> All right. Thanks. >> Who knows? >> Okay. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Okay. The second item is to
consider a vote to conditionally approve a conservation restriction for zero drift road. Mr. Renaw. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, I know we have a commission and committee report, so I'll be brief. Uh, the compact of Cape Cod Conservation Trust Incorporated is seeking select board approval of a
conservation restriction to be placed on property located at Zero Drift Road. Salt Pond Bird Sanctuaries, owner of Zero Drift Road, proposes to grant this CR conservation restriction to the compact. This property is located, as you know, along Buzzard's Bay and forms
part of Black Beach. The conservation values to be protected by the conservation restriction include open space, flood plane, wildlife habitat, public access, biodiversity, water quality, wetlands, and climate change resiliency. As you all know, select board approval is required for any CR
for land located in the town. Importantly, this parcel is one of many that are currently subject to ongoing litigation concerning the public's right of access to the roads connecting to Black Beach. It's for this reason the town council has, in consultation with my office, refrain from granting approval of the conservation restriction
leading up until tonight's recommendation. At town council's recommendation, Salt Pond Bird Sanctuary is one of the plaintiffs bringing suit against the town in this matter. Proposes that all parties to the litigation execute a stipulation to be filed with land court that will preserve the status quo of any rights to the
public of the public to or over this parcel at Zero Drift Road. The stipulation states, and I understand the stipulation was signed by Lanc Judge today. The stipulation states that the execution and registration of this conservation restriction shall not affect nor cause any prejudice to any claim, defense, or right of any party in
this litigation. All of which shall be determined by the court. Mr. Chairman, select board, this conservation restriction has been reviewed and with the above language included in the proposed stipulation to be submitted as part of the Black Beach litigation has now been approved by town council. It's town manager's recommendation that select board approve
the conservation restriction for zero drift road as has been presented. And I understand um the applicant's legal counsel is here if you have any any questions that myself and town council >> the one question I have Mr. Renroy is the matter on the agenda says to
conditionally approve uh the CR and yet the motion that you're recommending is that we go ahead and and approve it. I just want to make sure we understand what it is we're approving. So, um, I would, uh, ask that we revisit that. At
the time that the agenda was submitted, I was, um, prepared to ask for it to be conditionally approved because the stipulation had not yet been ex fully executed or filed. Late Friday afternoon, Judge Foster of the Land Court did approve a fully executed stipulation. And so now, I request that
you execute this this evening. And, um, I sometimes you wait until the end of the meeting to sign this. I would if you do vote to approve it, it would be great if you could sign it in the moment so that I can actually deliver it to the attorney so they can get this filed in the morning.
>> I'm personally prepared to make the motion. I believe the beach should always be a public access. I'm not going to get involved discussing more on that, but that's ridiculous to me. Uh the land and the water for the people. Uh I will make a motion to approve and execute the conservation restriction for zero
driftwood road as presented. I I have a question. Go ahead, Mr. Brown. >> Um just want to make sure I'm clearly understanding this. So any dispute that's ongoing will not be impacted by this. This is just about the restriction, not any
>> Yes. And took us months to get where we are right now. Um, I wanted to make sure that any rights to the public over that particular parcel were not going to be impacted by executing this conservation restriction because this is permanent.
This conservation restriction once it's executed cannot be altered without twothirds vote of both houses of the legislature and they're loathed to do that. Um here the I'm I am absolutely comfortable with the stipulation that
any rights of the public and I believe that there are public rights of access over this particular parcel will be fully litigated by the land court. >> Okay, I will second the motion. >> I have you have a question. >> I do have um one I guess clarifying
question. Um, knowing Salt Pond Bird Sanctuaries, if I had pulled up this property record, I would have assumed that that was conservation land. But based on this, it's been privately held, not under conservation until this point. And this conservation restriction with
the Cape Cod Land Trust or Compact now puts it under conservation. >> That's correct. >> It's not a transfer. Okay. >> It's privately owned before. >> Okay. Thank you. >> A motion and a second. Any further discussion hearing? Seeing none, all in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh we conditionally
signed this uh this previously. So uh >> Oh, it's signed already. >> I'm prepared to release it. >> Great. Wonderful. >> Take care of it and process it and thank you for your hard work on uh on this. I know there was a lot of give and take with the applicant. We appreciate your efforts in getting this done.
>> Thank you. Thank you for doing this. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> All right. Our next matter is a report of the historical commission. We're going to have that name, newly appointed chair.
>> Good evening, Mr. Chair, board members. My name is Christian Valley and I'm the current uh chair of the historic commission. I assume you got my report or the report that was uh sent out. So, I'm not going to go into too much detail other than to say that it's been a good year for the
historic commission. Uh we had 96 applications uh 70 of which we approved administratively and 26 of which we had public hearings. Um as you know Ed uh had the prior chair rotated off in June and so I am now
serving as the chair. Um my commission is up in June of 26 and uh as I've said to Ed many times uh I'm keeping the seat warm for him when he comes back. Um, couple interesting projects or things that we're working on. One is the
historic district marker signs, which we are actually in production right now, and we're working with the DPW, I know, to get them up hopefully uh within the next month or so. Um, we're also um pleased I'm also pleased to announce
that we have two great new members of the board, both architects. One's a landscape architect, Chris Bukachino, and the other is an architect, Jeremy Krauss. And um thanks to the town, we have a new uh position in the um preservation planner
and uh that's Annie Dean who was a prior board member and she is really supporting our our our board very very strongly and giving us lots of um uh support. Um couple interesting projects that I'll just highlight that we've worked on. One is uh Hooked on the
corner here. We did a lot of work with them uh when they were applying for their their permit. I think that the the building came out nicely. Um the weeks building of course after they had the fire, we did some work with them to get that back up and running. And then um interestingly enough, the National
Academy of Science building in Woods Hole, which is now owned by a private individual, came before us and um the work they're doing there is is exceptional in preserving that building. Um, and I would, uh, if you have a chance, I recommend a chance to look at
it. It's really amazing job. So, um, we have a great board and, um, look forward to, uh, the next few months. Any questions? Happy to, uh, answer. >> Mr. Brown, >> still expediting those administrative approvals the way Ed did.
>> Yes. Yep, I am. Yep. A lot of good administrative approvals. Y, >> it's been a big improvement. So, thank you for that. No, you know, simple simple requests are are expedited on a daily basis when I get them. Great. >> Curious with the other, you said 26 that
that you actually took under consideration if there are um themes in those that that stand out, recurring issues or that you're coming up against? >> Not really. No. Oh, I mean there's a lot of renovations and modifications in the
districts that we work with and you know we try to be as helpful as possible and and to get to get them through the process, make recommendations. We've had some really good solid um applications lately with some really good solid architects that are familiar
with the process. So, it's been a pretty um pretty I would say uh streamlined process. Um, still a lot of construct, still a lot of projects going on in town in the in the districts, but most of them are really renovations and
additions and modifications to existing homes. Okay, >> Mr. Richardson, then Mr. Reed, >> uh, anything you need from us or anything we should have our eyes on? No, not that I can think of other than just, you know, a lot of help with the
the signs, the the uh that that we got through and No, I think uh we're we're in good shape for now. We certainly will speak up if we need anything. Great. Thank you, >> Mr. Richardson. Took my uh question I typically ask of uh of committee chairs
and whatnot, but just one question for you. We ask this of the new members that we've voted in to be on your uh committee. Um, lots of times historic commissions are are people are scared of it. They're assuming that uh, you know,
it's a it's a line in the sand perhaps back into the 1800s of what something needs to look like. Can you just discuss some of the things you've seen the commission deal with in terms of how you're modernizing and yet still preserving the character, whether it be with sustainable materials and
resilience efforts or, you know, a commitment to um partnering and less policing, you know, your take on the historic commission right now? >> Yeah, so I've been on the board since 2006, I'm sorry, 2016. And um I've I've
always viewed the board not as an obstructionist board, but as a board that helps to get projects through, but but we offer guidance and and um you know, we've we've approved um PVC uh materials for for trim. Um we do a lot
of work. There are a lot of homes now in the flood zone that require to be elevated. So there's lots of different design details there. um we you know the work we do in Woods Hole with some of the uh folks down there in terms of what they're looking to do. We we have um I
think we've been a very good board. I think you'll find that we're one of the e maybe one of the easier boards. Not easier, but we really try to work with people to help them get through the process, but also provide a service and say, "Hey, why don't you look at this or why don't you look at that?" And we've had a few people come back to us and
say, you know, after you gave us the recommendations, whether it was a dormer or uh something like that, they come back and say, you know, we really, you went back and looked at it. We really like what you suggested. So that's really what our goal is is the goal is not to stop anything because that's not really doesn't do anybody any good. So,
and I'm a builder in town, so I really have it in, you know, I want to see things done but done well. So, uh, and I understand that, uh, you know, builders are up against certain, uh, whether it's, like I said, PVC trim or some new alternative windows that we've approved. Um, but also keeping in
mind the very distinct historic characteristics of this town, of which, you know, I would say there's a lot. And also Main Street. Uh, Main Street's a perfect example. You know, we approve a lot of the signs on Main Street from basically the Village Green down to um the edge of the district, which would be
uh where Houselers is. And so a lot of those signs, some new signs, some new artwork, we're very much in favor of that. So >> cool. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Okay. Any other questions? >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Valley. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you for that.
>> Thank you. >> Okay. We're moving on to the report from the water quality management committee, Mr. Rafferty. See if I can make it work. >> We have you down for 15 minutes. >> Yeah. See?
>> All right. >> Steve, do you need a hand with that or you all set? >> I don't know. Probably need a hand. You've done this more than I have. I know that my program's loaded up. I just don't know how to turn on. >> Enter. >> There we go. >> Keep going. Just
>> thing should come up. >> Capital F1. I have to type that in. >> It says pass. Is it spelled correctly? >> Capital F and then one. There we go. Good. You have been pretty busy this year.
>> We've got we've we've got got a couple things done. Yeah. So, anyways, I'm Steve Rafferty. I live in precinct 2 and um how do I start this? >> I'll just scroll down the easy way. >> F5.
>> That's fine. F5. Thank you. Bingo. Um so, this is our annual report. Um and uh you know there's a couple new members of your board and so uh some of you know what the water quality
management committee does, some of you may not know what we do. So I thought I would start off by telling you what we do and so we sort of serve several functions all at once. But one of them is that we evaluate the applicability of alternatives. Okay, we spend time
looking at things and evaluating them. We also are the advocacy board for things that will improve the watershed andor wastewater projects and um we also provide a forum for public participation and information. So during the last year under
evaluations, the big one was because the town's got to create watershed plans. And in the whole watershed planning process, there is an item that says despite everything else you do, you have to have a contingency plan that says if you don't get credits for other things that you might be wanting to do, you
have to have a plan that says how you're going to get there with sewers and innovative alternative systems. So, we looked at all of that and the map on the right hand side is what I call the sort of boundary condition. Um, the areas in
green or dark green on the bottom are areas that either have sewers are currently in the comprehensive wastewater management plan to be sewered. We took bids last week uh on the T ticket phase one. Um, and we cannot expand the sewer area until we have an outfall. So, there's a little
bit of the where are we at and where are we getting to exercise. So he said, if the status quo remains, how big an area, how many homes would have to put IAS in? And those are the blue areas on this map. That's a very large area that would
have to get IAS. Um, so we've put we've put at least some scale to the contingency plan and made people aware that it's not a minor thing. It's a fairly major thing and there's a lot of work to be done. The other thing we did during the last year is we evaluated the feasibility of
a permeable reactive barrier. This is a thing where you put something in the ground to change the nitrogen in the ground. Um it looked like a good location. Permeable reactive barriers are good when you have a concentrated plume of nitrogen. Um we evaluated that, we prepared and we actually received a
grant to install a permeable reactive barrier. And then the other thing we do under the evaluation is we continue to hear where we're at with the urine diversion test program and where that it's at and where it's going. Other evaluations, we review the actions
taken by other Cape Island community communities. We are not alone in having to deal with the nitrogen issue. Every community has taken their own approach to it. Every community is at a different stage or spot in it. So we keep track of what's going on. We look at what board
of health actions have been taken in other communities and how they impact us. And then the other thing is the state's criteria says IA systems should perform at 10 milligrams per liter. Most of them are permitted right now for 19 or 18. Um some of them are getting down
to lower numbers, but we're keeping very close watch on how these different systems are getting there with proving out their systems and whether they're going to be commercially viable or not. And then the other thing we have been looking at is looking at the projected costs of various approaches. Uh you know
Doug attends a number of our meetings. People throw numbers around. You know it's 70,000 here, it's 40,000 there, it's 20,000 here. So we're trying to continue to look at where that information is coming from, what the basis for that is and helping to set the boundaries for what these costs might
be. So where do we advocate for? Well, one of the biggest things we do is we've done our work and looked at where grant opportunities are and we've advocated for certain grants. We've prepared and submitted multiple grant requests. We
got two um D natural resource nitrogen sensitive grants for wershed plans evaluation covering the little pond and the great pond wersheds as well as the migans fillers cove and rans canal wersheds. So we've done a bunch of work sort of base work that will feed into
the wershed plans in those areas. We also obtained a $9,281 uh grant from the Southeast New England Mini Capital Grant and we use that money to buy data loggers which are now in Perch Pond. Actually got taken out a week ago since it's winter time, but
we're collecting data on Perch Pond which is that little cove up on the west side of Great Pond because that's the area that will get the most benefit as the new sewers come in and we want to have a baseline to know what we're doing. So no, no cost to the town. We got a grant we put them in. And the last
one, as I mentioned before, we got $448,500 from the National Echo Program, Watershed Grant Program to install and operate a permeable reactive barrier at Snug Harbor, West Felmouth, which for those of you that take those shore road, you they take that corner and you come
around that little corner. The wastewater plant is up there. that's legacy nitrogen but coming down as a group of homes and we're going to put a PRB in and two different types uh and monitor how they they work effectively over time. >> Um and and you'll see some improvement
in West Fmouth Harbor from that work. >> Could I stop you for a second? Absolutely. How long will that take uh for that barrier uh for us to get some results from that? Is it an ongoing? >> So once the barrier is installed, we'll
be measuring upstream and downstream. Takes a short amount of time. I'm I'm going to say 90 to 120 days for the biology to really get established. Um and once it's established, we'll start measuring on the downstream side a lower nitrogen level. So got six months or
more. We're uh Thank you. Mora has been reviewing like some agreements we have to make with land owners to put some of these wells in on their property and everything. Um so I I see in the next six or eight months we will be at the point where we're putting this stuff in and then probably a year or so from now
they'll be operating and we'll have results. >> And then what what happens with the results? What? What? >> So, so to the extent that we're we could show that we're reducing nitrogen to the harbor, it should show an improvement in water quality in the harbor >> and possibly use it elsewhere.
>> No, the nitrogen doesn't come off the nitrogen in the ground gets converted through the bacterial process to become nitrogen and just escape off into >> I mean, would would we use that reactive barrier in other locations? >> Excellent question. So where people are at with the permeable reactive barrier
concept is they've people have come to the conclusion you so think about hundreds of feet across the front of each property. You know putting across hundreds of feet of each property is expensive and may or may not be efficient. So the exercises to look for
places where there's a concentration of nitrogen, a nitrogen plume if you will. One of the more successful ones right now is down Cape. It's at near a middle school where they had a septic system and they were able to put this permeable reactive barrier downstream of of that septic system. In this case, because of
the upstream effect of the town's wastewater treatment plant and some large uh developed areas between 28 and Snug Harbor, this seems like an ideal location to put in a few hundred feet and see what we get. >> Thank you, Heather.
>> Similar line of question. I mean, we've we've got one in a quite we'll have this one. How many of the permeable reactive barriers are there kind of out there where we have data or we'll soon have data and at what point might we have enough information to say yes this is a
cost-effective way we should really be looking at in that contingency plan looking at how how this does fit in on a on a broader scale to try to reduce some of that IIA need >> y so um the one in quite uh works um it's a ve it's a very uh limited sort of
installation if you We did a one on Shorewood Drive uh over the last four years to demonstrate how long it would work with the vegetable oils. Um that's that's treated in a very small area, but it helped to prove out
the vegetable oil and reinjection period times or whatnot. Um there is a permeable reactive there are two other permeable reactive barriers I know about in town that are on private property put on by private land owners to try to just be good citizens. and I can't tell you
exactly where they are. Okay. Um, so those are the four I know of in Felmouth. There is the one down I think it's Orleans by the middle school and there's two or three others around. There's a couple in Rhode Island. Um, I think we have a pretty good handle on
the cost of these things per linear foot. At this point, we did put in a grant application for an area up in the WOI end. We did not get accepted on that one. But again, we keep trying to look for, for lack of a better word, hotspots. Okay. Um I don't think they
replace IAS necessarily, but for places where there's a concentration from certain things, um maybe it's a a development of sorts uh that that that's got distance between wherever there's septic systems are and the receiving bodies or the downstream bodies. It
might be a discussion item with the planning board going forward. >> But and and is this a technology that is at a place that it can be in our contingency plan in terms of D approval? >> This is not this is not a tri we're past the trial stage of this uh technology. Now it's a case of finding locations
where it's cost effective. >> Great. >> We think Snug Harbor is cost effective and we're hoping to get enough data over the next couple years to really prove that out. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Again, stay with the advocacy. Um, we provide the wastewater department in
town with support for town meeting articles relative to the watersheds. You know, we we we supported the funding for the construction of phase one. One of the things our committee does is we divide up all of the town meeting members between all of us. We reach out to different people that we know and let
them know why it's good to vote for those articles. Um, we supporting the funding for the outfall program. We get regular updates from Amy on where the outfall is, costs and and issues. Um, and we're supporting funding for the development of the townwide watershed management plan, which was approved at
Falltown meeting. Um, one of the bigger items over the last year that we've spent time on is I think I'm well known for saying if you have to put an IIA in your yard, it's like buying a new car and burying it in your backyard. you're going to spend a
lot of money and hopefully um you can afford to do it. You know, we all have to pay for a new car once in a while and figure out how we're going to pay for it. One of the things is a while back the state established a state tax code that says if you're a primary homeowner
in the community and you have state taxes you have to pay, you can over six years get up to $18,000 back. up to 60% of the cost of you the work you have to do to either hook to the sewer or put an IIA in. However, you
have to have enough money to be paying state taxes. So, for those of you that are a resident, maybe it's fixed income or whatever, it's doesn't really do you much. So with the help of uh Representative Vieiraa, we uh drafted you guys supported and we submitted a
bill called House Bill 4082 at this point to change it from a uh a non-refundable to a refundable. In other words, it would apply to anybody who had to do this. Um we are currently before the joint committee on revenue. We've done presentations. We've reached out to
a number of agencies across the Cape from um you know Association for Preservation of Cape Cod, other representatives who've submitted letters of support. I just found out yesterday that they've extended the comment period. So myself and a couple other people on the committee will go into
phase two of finding people to advocate uh for this change with the Department of Revenue. I am a bit of a realist, okay? I suspect that we will struggle to get out of committee, but I want to make a point of the value of this and get more
people on the cape to back it and expect we would come back next year again and respond to whatever the department of revenue h has. If they feel it's too big a number, let's find a better number. If they feel the fact that it's sort of open-ended that it doesn't say this this will expire in 20 years because that's
what we have, we can add that sort of language to it. But um people on the committee, we put a lot of time and energy into getting this to its point that it's an actual proposed piece of legislation and and drumming up support
for it and more will need to be done. Okay, moving on to the third thing we do, which is to provide a public forum for discussion of water quality and wastewater issues. How am I doing on time? >> You got about two minutes. >> Okay, we meet twice a month. We everybody shows up 4:30 to 6:30 every
other Wednesday. Public's invited to participate. One of the things about the public participation is um town spent a lot of money putting sewers in uh to the little pond quite area and we can actually see improvements in water quality. Um so the money we're getting a return on investment in terms of the
water quality getting better and I'll tell you I've been on the board long enough to tell you we chose that because it was the worst estuary of all and we figured if we can clean that one up we can clean them all up. Real quick here, this just shows you where the current sewer plan sewers area. We hope to expand those areas
through the watershed planning process and permission on the outfall. And in 2026, we're going to work with the permeable reactive barrier. We're going to expand a little bit to look at how IA management plans. We have have a few
hundred at most IAS right now in the town. when we have thousands, there's a lot more to be done about keeping track of that information, making sure they're properly installed and worked on. So, we're working on that. Um, and then we're going to continue to engage with other communities on the success and challenges in implementing their wershed
permits. We're going to continue to support the DPW and town as needed. And lastly, a big shout out to everybody on my committee. Um, I might be the only person on my committee without a doctorate. Um, everybody else is smarter than me and more intelligent. And I think that's why they have me as chairman so I can just, you know, sit
there and tell them what to do. Um, no, it's a great great job. Is >> that how it works? >> You're doing a great job figuring out that >> you're doing a great job. No, no. I I have just I I can't say enough about everybody on this committee, how how committed they are to the town, how knowledgeable they are, and how um we
see our exercise is not to make some mathematical number with the state. Our our job is to make these estuaries cleaner. you know, there's fish, there's crabs, there's a return of some eel grass in into little pond, and we want to turn that around for all of the
estuaries. That's our goal, and I'm open to questions. >> What do you hear about other towns meeting their goals uh with respect to watershed permits and so forth? You mentioned it. >> Yeah. Um, a great question. So, so a lot of the towns have have they have their
own issues about whether they have multiple estuaries or one estuary. Um, a couple of the communities have made a big big commitment to to building some serious wastewater infrastructure. Uh, you know, between MASH and Yarmouth and Down Cape, they've they've gone through
the process and overrides to, you know, get a 100 150 million in the queue and getting started with the whole sewer project. Then other places um, uh, Wellfleet in particular did some work through their board of health. They got a lot of push back on the, you know, the
boundary condition for IAS. Um, they're going to probably revise their board of health regulation. We're keeping an eye on that. Same thing out on the island. So, um, I would say that people are making progress with their watershed plans. A couple of them are at the point where
they probably will get submitted this year and we'll watch how the D acts or responds to them. Um, you know, it's it's different in every community, but um, yeah, we're talking to each other, you know, >> but that's important. >> It's big cape. >> Yep.
>> Anyone else? Mr. Reed, >> uh, just a couple quick questions. Mr. Afy, um, Little Pond, congratulations. Like enjoy seeing that we're improving there. Some of the scientists with whom I work uh mentioned that it's we're getting good data on new nitrogen or the
prevention of new nitrogen but the need for more sensors deeper for old nitrogen. Are are we considering that at all? >> Um we we've not um we've not brought a funding request forward for that. We we have looked a couple of times at what
type of monitoring and censoring we should get or do. We've actually developed a couple of RFQS and got numbers from people. Okay. >> Um we haven't advanced that at this moment in time. Um >> I have a little bit of history with the
Boston Harbor project in which um biology is an interesting thing. does it takes a while to sort of turn its corner but when it turns its corner things sometimes accelerate fairly quickly in terms of you know the benthic it's this we're talking about a benthic demand for
the nitrogen and how that turns over. So, um, right now we're putting our money where it's, you know, you're the select board. I I will come to you with a very large request for a lot of stuff, um, if you tell me that you got money you want to spend. But, um, for now,
we've been we've been trying to focus on some things. Uh, we'll probably circle back at some point um, at Little Pond. I would say in four or five years um to come revisit Little Pond if I'm just going to pick that out. It's one of the two eststeries that said if you open up
the inlet, it would improve the flushing action of it. And so rather than tackle the benthic demand on Little Pond, I would suggest the town is better spending money to rebuild the outlet from Little Pond and get better flushing action and that will help to clean up
the subsurface. >> And two points I have just for our group here. Um page six, there's a lot of funding advocacy that the folks are doing. Um, one a big one, the outfall program development. Um, we're going to
need to see how the heck we're going to afford a very expensive police station and an outfall. So, getting that on the agenda for the future of how we're going to fund that as a town. And I think the other one is uh you talked about the new IIA systems and the uh equitable nature
of that. you know for sewer people connecting to sewer there is an incentive for you know 0% interest over a long period of time have we thought about these kind of incentives for people that are installing IIA systems
>> I I believe it's something that we are starting to think about at the request of the board of health actually so it is something that I think we'll be addressing in the new year >> cool thank you >> anything to add to that >> no that's accurate board of health has been looking at it >> okay thank you >> it's in conversation You will be hearing
more about it over the this upcoming year. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Only thing I want to add is thank you. I love your guys' process, how data driven it is and and how, you know, you don't try to fit a a square peg into a round hole and bunch of different solutions. And I also from a, you know,
from my work perspective, I met with some of you guys, Senator Fernandez's office. Uh, your advocacy on on that bill has been fantastic and and there's a reason these get extended is because you guys did a good job. So, keep up keep up the good work on that and and I know the Cape delegation is is really paying attention to that and and wants
to work on that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. It was my pleasure to speak to you. I'll be come back anytime you want to hear from me. >> All right. Thanks very much. >> Thank you. >> Thanks for your committee's work. It's very good. And thanks to Jonathan Kaufman for coming up with the idea of the refundable tax credit. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. And and Representative Vieiraa to
try and bring it home. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh our next matter, uh youth baseball field project update. Mr. your intro. >> Uh just wanted uh Peter McCanny, our DPW director, and uh Gail uh the engineer, architect, designer, I should say, um to
give an update real briefly, kind of let everybody know where we're at. Peter, do you have a slide slide presentation or any comments? >> Uh yes. Yes, we do. Kyle from Gail Associates uh will bring up a slide uh deck. Um just wanted to give a a very brief um position where we are right
now. It's been almost about a year. We're working up on a year for the uh site closure. And when we started working on this site um last January when the site was closed, we brought on Arcadus Environmental and we worked very hard and diligently to uh prepare a um a
concept drawing that would be acceptable through Mass D. With that, we came up with some um engineering cost estimates and uh we went through town meeting in spring. Got some funding through town meeting in the spring. At that time we brought on Gail Associates to do the
facilities the um the above ground uh work for the facilities and over the summer months Arcadus the town of Felmouth and Gail has been working through um a a proposed design. We went through 25 concept 2550 we're at 75 now
and actually we're going towards uh final design. But I think um what uh Kyle from Gail has to show that's pretty impressive for the site. I think you're going to be uh I think you're going to be impressed with the uh final conditions of that site we'll start. So, I'll bring up Kyle. Kyle and also we
have um our park superintendent if there's any questions on um the parks or the recreation side of it. Did you need to load anything? >> I think I see them right there. >> Should be the ones. That's convenient. >> Yeah, those are the ones from from last week that you said.
>> All right, perfect. >> I have a zip drive. I do if we can put the new ones up. I don't know if that's somewhere over here. That's perfect. I can start talking. >> Perfect. Thank you, Peter. All right. It's the same one anyway. All right.
Perfect. I don't know if there's a way to full screen this. I guess let's try that. There we go. >> All right. Uh well, good evening, select board members. Good to meet you. Uh my name is Kyle Rowan. I'm a project
manager with Gail Associates. We've been working uh with the town of Felmouth DPW specifically on behalf of uh the Trotting Park Youth Baseball Project. Um, so for those of you who are not familiar with this site, I'm sure everyone pretty much is, but just for a
bit of background, the existing conditions from the sky look pretty similar to what you're seeing here in a way. Um, it's comprised of three natural turf youth baseball diamonds, a very aged and worn batuminous parking lot with half gravel, half pavement, uh, two
CMU block buildings, which you see on that drawing there. two press boxes at field one and two, so the two on the left. Um, limited lighting. There's lighting on field one at the top left. There's a little bit of lighting on the parking lot and pedestrian areas. And
then just other associated athletic related facilities throughout the site. Uh, as noted, many of the surfaces and the facilities have surpassed their serviceable and usable life. Um, in addition to this, the town is aware that a majority of that limit of work that
you see there is situated over an existing historical landfill and therefore requires capping. So, as sort of a basic way of breaking down the intents of this project, it really comes down to two things. one is to reconstruct this facility more or less
in kind to maintain uh the existing use but also to improve its usability and obviously upgrade all of those surfaces and infrastructures and facilities. Um the second priority of the project of course is to provide a suitable landfill
cap uh sufficient to meet D permitting requirements. So, starting with priority one, which is the proposed improvements, which is what you see on your screen here. Um, to simplify it, basically most of this site will be reconstructed.
Uh, there are a few things that will remain. So, the parking lot batting tunnels, which you see on the very top left, they're a little bit faded out. That little rectangle there, those are going to remain. the two CMU block buildings. So, right there in the middle
of the screen, those are going to remain um as well as the athletic lighting at field one on the top and the tension netting back stop at field one. Both the athletic lighting and back stop were installed in 2023. So, our goal of course is to maintain those as they're
so new um and situate them in the proposed improvements. So, what are we proposing for the improvements? Like I said, in kind to what's existing on site, but of course improved. Um, we have three natural
grass baseball fields, youth 60ft diamonds. Uh, each diamond will have covered dugouts to each. There will be ADA access to all fields, paved ADA access. Um, there will be a new maintenance drive running around the
back. You can kind of see it wraps around the perimeter outside of the property tying in the three outfields. Uh we'll have three new scoreboards and a brand new irrigation system which will be specific to the athletic playing areas, not really irrigating the rest of the site. We're trying to limit water
use uh particularly given what the site is on. So it's specific to the fields. Um getting a little more specific into each field. On field one, like I said, that existing back stop and lighting will remain. Uh we will be adding a new
modular two-story press box in similar location to where the one is now. That'll have a PA system. Uh there will be two bullpens on either side of the field. An elevated seating plaza kind of near the uh existing concessions building. You can see that beige rectangle. It might be a little hard to
see. It's labeled on the plan. So that will be an atgrade with the building seating plaza that kind of juts out with a retaining wall. Um, and just above that you have about 150 seats worth of terrace seating, which is seating that's built built into the existing slope, um,
which we're trying to utilize where we can. Zooming in on field two, you're going to have a new tension netting back stop to match the back stop that we have on field one, new athletic lighting, which will be three poles, um, as well as using the fourth pole, which will
service both fields, one and two. You can see it between the two there in that little triangle of paving. Um, field 2 will also have terrace seating as you can see on the bottom left. Uh, it's only about a 50 seat capacity, a little less, but again using the existing slope
to our advantage. Other than the fields themselves, uh, you'll have a brand new patuminous parking lot. At the moment, that's 103 spaces, eight of which will be ADA accessible, van accessible. Uh, the parking lot will be lit for security, parking, and pedestrian
purposes. Um, what else do we got here? Landscaping, not much to it. Um, pretty much what you see on here that is green, uh, is going to be grass, obviously. Uh, the one variation there is along that slope that exists between the parking
lot and the fields. We're going to try and make that as low maintenance as we can. So that's going to be a lowmaintenance uh erosion control type planting like switchgrass or something similar. Uh so that won't actually require mowing. That'll just kind of be its own thing year round and uh and
maintain the slope as best as we can. Already spoke on irrigation. Again, it's specific to the three fields. Um so that's priority one, right, is the proposed improvements. Priority two is of course the landfill capping. So just to give a very brief explanation of
where we're at with that so far in the design after discussion with D with the assistance of Arcadus and the DPW in construction all of the material the existing soils on site are going to remain on site. We will not be transporting potentially contaminated
soils from one landfill to another. Um, in addition to that, one of the most significant items uh from the D requirements so far is that we will be adding 2 ft of clean soil material above pretty much this entire site. That is the cap of the landfill. Uh, that will
have its own geoexile barrier at the subgrade of that cap. And uh pretty much again everything you see that has color will be raised 2 ft with the exception of the parking lot and some of the paved areas which can have a smaller cap due to the fact that they are capped by a
paved surface. Um in addition to that there will be some additional foundation finished surface supports. Given that this is on a landfill it's a little bit more prone to settlement. So what that entails is over excavation at the items with foundations additional structural
fill and under paved areas we'll be using a geoexile um geog grid fabric which supports the paving from underneath. Um other than that that's pretty much it for the project priorities. Uh some other updates permitting wise relatively
limited on this project. We have been in discussion with the town planner. Building commissioner who have confirmed site plan review will not be required. Uh we are not in jurisdictional resource areas. And really what that means is the bulk of this permitting is going to be through the Massachusetts D. And they're
the ones who are going to approve ultimately our design um meeting their requirements to cap the landfill. So the last item I want to touch on is just the project schedule to give an update on that. As Peter had mentioned, uh we've gone through conceptual
schematic 50% design. Uh as of November 24th, we were at 75% design, which is pretty much, you know, the actual engineering drawings are a lot more detailed than what you see here. We're not cartoonists, but that's sort of what you get at 75%. Um it's sufficient for
permitting, renderings, that type of thing. And basically locks in the overall layout of what this project will be. And from there, we fill in the detail. Um, so I believe as Peter had also mentioned, our next submission is a 90% which is going to be targeted for
the end of January. That's actually the document that's going to be utilized for the D permitting. And then uh after that with their comment and ideally approval, we move forward to bid documents and a bidding period from late February to late March and then construction
beginning as early as April, likely continuing through to September. Um, but regardless of when this construction completes, because these are natural grass fields, they will require a resting period of the full fall. So, the earliest beneficial use for that athletic portion of that facility will
be spring of 2027. That's pretty much it. >> Thank you, Mr. Richardson. >> Thank you very much. Um, one question. So, I'm more familiar with soccer, so I'm at the field down the road. Um, but when uh are all three
fields used at the same time usually? Like I know it's youth baseball, but if someone pimps a home run from field one, that ball's going into the second field. Is that is there netting between each field? Or is that am I thinking >> we do have netting? So you can't see it on this, again, a bit cartoon like rendering. I apologize for that. But
there is a >> I can point it out. There's netting >> here on this field. >> Uhhuh. >> Here on that field. That one doesn't need it. Of course, there's netting up to this point and up to that point. Gotcha. Great. >> That's three are protected from >> Oh, I see the back stop netting covers
for Okay, great. Um, yeah, cuz I think this is one thing when we look at revenue sources. Uh, I referee soccer and NSET High School brings in a tremendous amount of revenue from there. They rent out their high school for their soccer tournaments. And I think that that's one area that Felmouth is lacking. uh compared to the Cape, other
towns on the Cape. So when we look at an investment and what how much that this could bring to the town, not only because we owe it to the the youth baseball uh kids in our town, but also as a potential revenue driver for hosting tournaments and stuff. So I thank you for these designs. I think they're great.
>> Y couple of questions. Um one about the design and then one about the the process you're in. Um is there uh accessible seating at either fields two or three? I know there's access to the fields, but is there any seating area, accessible seating at those fields?
>> So, yes, at field two, um, we are going to have >> You can use a cursor to >> Yeah, I could do that. That would be smart. Uh, so at field two, we're going to have limited accessible seating next to the uh dugouts over here. Okay. >> And that'll be kind of adjacent to this
uh terrace seating area here. So, we may add a little bit more of a bumpout. Um, you know, typically when you have a bleacher system or something similar at a small field like this that doesn't have an accessible component built into it, you just put space next to it. Um,
>> and that's ultimately what's going to happen here. Field 3 doesn't currently have uh ped uh sorry um spectator seating at the moment. Um, in conversation with the DPW, that was deemed uh not necessary at this field.
This one's more of just the practice um you know that type of thing. Whereas field one and field two those are going to be the ones with lighting with a PA system with a press box. So those are the primary fields for viewing. >> Great. My other question on the process is um whether there's been outreach and
conversation with um youth baseball groups in town or whether that is is planned as part of the process. >> Got a follow on that. Peter. >> Yeah, I can speak to it. Thank you, Kyle. Yeah. So, um at the beginning of this process, we we had the public
meetings. We work working with the um the youth baseball league and the coaches and we basically um you know, the design is the same. It's we're rebuilding what is back what is back out there. Um we can reach out to the uh coaches again. I will um say that right
now we are I'm trying to stay away from value engineering. We have been doing some value engineering, but the cost of this project is is getting to creep up to exceed the funds that are available. So, working with Kyle Public Works is going to come in and we're going to be
hauling that material. And we're looking to haul that material from our pit down to that's a $700,000 savings for the site. If we didn't do that, this site, we wouldn't be able to build it. We're also for public works, we're going to be installing a new septic system from the concession stand. If we didn't do that,
that's another 30 $40,000 to do that. So public works is working with Gail and Aadis to do some of this work. So there's not a lot of room to do more improvements that we have. I I think the the design that we have right now is pretty inclusive of what was there and and the seating arrangement if you did
see it in the uh in the rendering form. It's uh pretty impressive that uh the way they show it. I think where we are right now is um we will consult with it with the youth baseball but we're at a point now that adding additional components is going to
make it difficult and us we don't want to start doing alternatives we want to keep with what we have and be able to work from there and we're still working on that right now with with the uh cost estimates with the consultant as everyone knows over the last four or five years costs continue to to rise and
this being on an old landfill um doesn't help. I mean, there's going to be a lot of material to bring to bring in and to um to just to be able to work on the OSHA 40 and to be able to have the contractors work on that those fields. So, um but yeah, we can we can bring in the
coaches to to work with and we have I know Jeremiah has been reaching out with uh working with the with the group. So, we can do that. But they they they under the knowledge and understanding that, you know, it's going to be uh recreated in in its old form just new. Kyle, with
respect to field three, is is would it be possible in the future to have seating there? Uh, if that was a decision that wanted we wanted to make at some point. >> Yeah, I think again to Peter's point, you know, costwise, we do have to be sensitive to overextend ourselves any
further than what we're doing so far, but certainly you'll have the space on either, you know, to either side of either dugout on the other side of the walkways. Um, you could do like a semi-permanent 47 seat aluminum bleacher. Those are the ones you typically see all over the place about
five rows back. So, we're certainly going to have the space for that. We'll be mindful of leaving the space for that. And that's something that can be brought in at any time. >> You'll have to wear a batting helmet. >> It'll be tight. Yes, Mr. Reed. >> Um, this might be more for Mr. McConny.
Um, before my time, we approved the permeable or the barrier that's going to be put in there. Um, can you just speak to the type of barrier that is? Is it a chemical barrier or a physical object barrier? Because both of you have mentioned that this is being built on
top of an old unregulated dump. Um, just want to make sure that the barrier that we're putting in there will actually keep us safe for a long time. >> The barrier, um, it's a geoteexile fabric and right now we are in the process of submitting actual materials
to the D. That's going to be part of the permitting process. So, we need Arc Cadis' input on that a little bit. So, admittedly, we don't have a direct answer on that right now, but whatever barrier we do end up going with, that's going to be an integral part of permitting through the D and ultimately
they're going to be the ones who make that determination on what we use in the design. >> Mr. Brown, >> I it sounded like the lighting poles will be tall enough to be to remain. >> That's good news. any chance I know I asked you this at the previous meeting
about drilling a well for the irrigation and you said that's probably not a good idea because of the unknown nature of what's below the ground but any chance we could go a little further over by the skate park and put a well and then I just love to get all these irrigation
systems off the town water if possible I know that's an added cost but just curious if it's even feasible >> that that can be something that we can look at um you know taking it off the town water um at a future date. You can see the access road where where it's
coming, the gray access road where it's coming and that's the main off of Gford Street. And then the white one on top is the one that goes to the to the rear fields. Um that's where the water man is coming down right now. And right next to the concession stand is where the um meter pit is. So if we had to go at a
different area um looking further down the road, we could put another well in. wouldn't be able to go in under the easements, but we could put it down the road and we could look at bringing something back and disconnecting it from the from the water. Um, but I think where we are right now, um, drilling a well and running a whole new well that
would just under this it it would go under a future project. It wouldn't go under, >> right? I just want to make sure we can have some flexibility and not have to rip up a parking lot to do it. Is it is that >> So I think what we would do is we would be looking if we would where the where
the meter pit is is next to the concession stand in the green. >> So we would be looking to stay in the green and you'd have you'd want to stay in that clean fill barrier. We would not be digging below the the two feet. And the other the other thing we're talking about is with the design on this is the
fences. Anything that's below 2 feet, if there's going to be future repairs, that barrier is going to follow the length. So, we will not be digging into the old landfill at any time. It'll always be a clean barrier. It'll be on top. The geoteexile barrier is usually an orange color or a yellow color. When you start
digging down and you start seeing orange or yellow, >> well, if it was just irrigation, it wouldn't need to be deep. It would just be seasonal anyway. >> It's usually like 6 in deep. Five to six inches deep. >> Okay. Very good. Thanks. >> Yes. >> One last question actually for you, Mr.
McCanny. um which is uh outside the the scope of the the baseball fields, but um given that we're now grappling with what is underground there, in your professional opinion, would it be worth putting um monitoring
wells downstream groundwater-wise um from this to have a better awareness of whether there's anything coming out from from this area into the groundwater? So under the existing contract with Arcadus, there's already monitoring wells installed and they're sticking up. If you go down there, they're sticking
up about three feet. Those monitoring wells will remain downstream and we'll it'll we'll continue to be monitoring those. That's part of the D plan that they're going to be looking at is the groundwater monitoring. So we did install them. Um yeah. >> So that's downstream but still within
this kind of property that this development area >> all throughout the project limits here. They're throughout the project limits, not downstream on another project, but throughout the project limits. So, we can >> we already know the ground flow and where where the water's flowing. So, per
DP and through our LSP, they're going to be doing groundwater monitoring on that. >> Great. Thank you. >> All right, that's it. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next, we are going to have a presentation and discussion of affordable housing tax exemption for
yearround rental properties. have 20 minutes. Uh Mr. Reno, would you give us an introduction on this? >> I will, Mr. Chairman. Uh the uh representatives uh there's a a committee subcommittee formed with affordable housing committee. Miss Liz Klein, Mrs. Liz Klein is here tonight to kind of go over the results and a recommendation
for the affordable housing property tax exemption. Um Liz, you have 20 minutes. Um want to try to build in because I know there's going to be a lot of questions. >> Yeah, I'm going to go. >> Floor. The floor is yours. Take your time. Important topic. >> All right. Uh thank you so much for being here. As Mr. Renau said, my name
is Liz Klein. I'm a member of the Falmouth Affordable Housing Committee and I'm here today um on behalf of that committee. Um they did vote that they all were we were all unanimously in favor of forwarding this recommendation to the select board that's this evening.
>> So, just some quick background. This is a we're proposing that we adopt some legislation that came out uh in 2023 as part of that large state housing bill that came through. Um, and this is one of the components of that and it's a
specifically designed at targeting towns um that offer this exemption to people for renting to a year-round individual. So, it's really targeting that rental market and using a tax exemption as a way to incentivize um property owners to do to do that type
of rental. Just to give us some context of um where this might fit in the broader com context of our housing production plan which um we have a couple of slides here. Uh one of the main goals of the housing production plan goal four was to
increase uh the creation of affordable rental units. And as we know lacks the number of rental units that would define a healthy community. We sit around 17% of our housing stock is used for year- round rental. Um, and a health community
would expect more, about 30%. And um, I made a note uh that we actually already had someone tonight speak to that urgent need and I did not cue her to do that. That happened completely separately. Um, and so, you know, tackling that through
this approach would be consistent with one of these goals that was approved as part of our 2024 housing production plan. Um, and not only do I want to point out that we have a limited number of rentals, but the rentals that we have are um highriced and they make it difficult for individuals to afford
their rent with a majority of people renting in Falmouth identifying as uh significantly costburdened. It's also strategy 22. Um, so this is a screenshot from that housing production plan. We realize the text is rather small, but I just wanted to put it in there um because we're really
emphasizing that this plan was was put together and signed off on by the town as a way to guide our act actions in the next so many years um with respect to housing. And so, as a committee, we have been working through these various
strategies identified in that plan to help organize our work. Um when you're faced with such a large challenge, it's a clarifying way for us to go about our efforts. Um, and so this strategy 22 specifically calls out using tax
incentives as a way to um help offer more year-round affordable rentals to individuals and specifically calls out the fact that tax exemptions avoid some of the challenges that some other means of rental creation might encounter such
as deed restrictions going through a lottery. um a tax exemption um program would not require those same processes. >> Just a quick pause here. I think we should have a future agenda item uh about a letter to the state. >> Uh I don't know why they shouldn't I
think we should qualify for the shy list and I think that you know the recent troubles we've had with the shy list. I think this is another example of like why did the state make this more difficult and I think we should consider that. >> Sorry. No problem. the first 20 or a lottery in September 11th.
>> So, the main goals of um implementing this type of tax exemption in Falmouth would be obviously to increase the number of year-round rentals available in Falmouth. And we were thinking that that might come in a variety of formats. Um that could be maybe a unit that was
not being previously rented. Maybe it's a house that is held in a family. Um it's s sitting empty for a variety of reasons. um someone learns about this exemption and they uh and that gives them that spark to go ahead and open that unit up and put it on the market
for someone to live in. Um and we really want to emphasize uh that that wouldn't require new development um which is currently something that members of Felmouth are concerned with the pace of development and construction in town. Another possible target audience could
be someone who's been renting short-term and thinking about renting long-term instead. Um, I spoke with many realtors over the last year and a half as I've gotten involved in this housing efforts and multiple re realtors independently identified as a tax exemption as a means
to help encourage their property owners to rent to a different type of person. Um, specifically someone who's living in town all year rather than someone who's here on a maybe a weekly basis uh for summer. Um, we want to also help increase the affordability of existing
yearround rentals. Again, um someone who spoke earlier tonight spoke to that lack of affordability. And so a tax exemption may make it so that a property owner is able to reduce that rent month-to-month a little bit. Um and a savings of a
couple hundred a month to a tenant can be the groceries that they need to help feed their family. And finally, we generally want to increase housing opportunities for Felmouth residents and employees. Um, again, I want to just reemphasize and I'll continue to reemphasize that this is a strategy that
does not require new construction. So, we went through and looked at some data um to see what would be an anticipated cost per unit. Um, that's an important metric to have when we're discussing affordable housing. And so we looked through um registered long-term
rentals um a data set of 170 properties, found a average assessed value of those properties to be $775,000. And if you use the current property tax rate, we're talking of a tax burden of about $45,000 on average per unit. Um
and so I'll get into the parameters, but the state legislation would allow us to authorize up to a 100% exemption. Um, and so in that situation, you can imagine that that is creating a unit of affordable rental housing for a year-round individual for a cost of less
than $5,000 per unit. Um, and there have been some, you know, there's a lot larger numbers that are thrown around in the affordable housing world. And so I really want to keep kind of coming back to that. And I also, and as our group has been working, we've been remembering that each one of those units is is an
actual person. Maybe it's an individual, maybe it's a couple, maybe it's a family. And so we really want to keep that in mind that we could be making a really big difference in someone's life for a relatively small amount of of money from um from the town. We also wanted to consider does this
workflow currently exist. Um we spent a lot of time considering how this program might imple or impact town staff. um I don't work at town hall and so I wanted to think carefully um about how individuals might be impacted. And so we identified that there are currently
three other exemptions that already exist in Falmouth. Um they're pretty standard across the state of Massachusetts. And so what that tells us is that the the workflow for for receiving and processing an exemption exists. While this is admittedly a slightly more complicated exemption because it involves a little bit more
paperwork and um someone has to show a lease and submit tax returns and things like that, we we can identify that that this process is known to the assessor's office. Um and they um have shown their ability to process other exemptions. Um,
and I just want to point out that this tax exemption is is completely separate from the residential tax exemption that has been mentioned earlier in this meeting and in previous select board meetings. Part of our consideration is also what are our neighboring towns doing? Um, so
the first town is not a neighbor. Um, Erammont is a small town in the Birkshars. Um, but they were the first ones that we know of in the state to adopt this legislation. They're a community of about 1,200 individuals. Um, and they offer a 100% exemption.
Looking more locally, um, Orleans just passed this a warrant article in their November town meeting, so just about a month ago, and they, um, authorized their select board to adopt this legislation and begin setting some parameters. I'll get to the parameters,
um, on a later slide. And so they are moving forward with this legislation. Um Haritch authorized this back in May and had it up and running by uh July 1st. Um admittedly Haritch is a smaller town than Falmouth, but it does show that
they were able to really expedite that process. Um and they are estimating fewer than 30 requests in their initial year. Um, and I actually read a was reading a newspaper article this morning in preparation for this meeting that their assessor has been receiving calls from some other communities including
for example Carver about how they're going to be implementing this. So the assessor departments are talking to each other as they're beginning to implement this exemption. Um, Provincetown has had a local law since uh 2007 to this effect. Um, and they've found it to be
quite successful. um after nearly 20 years they have about 60 individuals who apply for the exemption. So again that is not a huge number of properties. Uh also Promise Town is smaller than Falmouth. Um but those are 60 families
or 60 individuals who are really benefiting in a really tangible and important way. Um and Truro also has a local law to this effect that they established in 2019. So this is just some text from the um the law itself which you do have in your
packet thatformational guideline from the state and really just to emphasize that the the first step of accepting this law and beginning this process is uh a town meeting authorizing the select board to do so. And so um that's what we're we're looking to do here in
Falmouth. Um it doesn't begin the exemption. It allows the select board to start working with town staff. um to set those parameters and identify that workflow and and what are the nuts and bolts of how this is going to work and when does someone do something and who
receives that paperwork. Um members of the affordable housing committee have been working on this for about the last 6 months and so we feel prepared that we can offer um some guidance when we get to that point. >> So the law itself is pretty simple if
you had a chance to look over it. It's it's about three pages of text. Um so it's not a long one and it identifies most importantly parameters that are to be set by the municipality and it allows fair amount of flexibility. Um I just want to mention again that that it doesn't require any deed restricting or
running any sort of lottery that is sometimes associated with affordable housing because it's a voluntary tax exemption program. Um so the municipality is allowed to set uh the maximum amount of the exemption. It goes up to 100%. um the annual occupant household limit and
that can go up to 200% area median income. Um different communities on the Cape have set some slightly different limits. Um and we could consider what would be the best fit for Felmouth because we are different from Provincetown. We are different from Orleans. Um we would set an affordable
rate of rent. Uh most municipalities that are already enacting this have essentially a chart that the assessor can use um to determine if the rent that they are u that's submitted as part of the application meets the guidelines of this because if the goal is to keep rent affordable, if we don't set any rent
maximums, then we may not have our intended effect. Um and if we wanted to set domicilary requirements of the owner and other restrictions that the community feels are appropriate as long as they're consistent with state law. So, for example, we might want to consider um asking for some sort of
local connection to Felmouth if our goal is to help support individuals who are maybe working or have um children attending Felmouth public schools. >> And again, the affordable housing committee has done a fair amount of contacting these other communities, having phone conversations and email
conversations. And so, we would feel prepared to provide guidance to the select board um at this point. So, we are hoping to have um pretty simple timeline to implementation. Um our goal is to get an article on the April 2026 town meeting warrant that
would authorize our select board to adopt this legislation and we would be prepared to provide text of that warrant article uh to the select board when it's appropriate. and um and then hopefully town meeting will understand that this is a really valuable opportunity for our
community and vote to support that warrant article and then we can begin the process of identifying which where do we want to fall within those parameters um and how are these um the the nuts and bolts tasks going to be assigned. Um, this would require
obviously careful consultation with the assessor's office. Okay. Um, so the warrant article from this is text from the Orleans town meeting which was just last November. Um, this was essentially the entire warrant article. It was quite simple.
Uh, it just gives that the select board is now authorized to move ahead with the idea. Um and um our text would likely be very similar. One challenging point in which we would seek your um advice and town staff's advice is is what is a
realistic date for implementation? You know, a tax year that's our goal for when can this program be up and running. So we identified um four really big benefits. Um it's in theory relatively quick once we have those parameters
established. If an individual has identified a rental unit that um they want to live in that's being provided at a rate of rent that they can afford um they submit an application and they don't have to wait for something to be built. Um so in that way we see this as
a big advantage over using only new construction as a strategy to tackle the affordable housing crisis. um it's cheap, it's quite low cost. So, if we consider that right now um a a new construction of rental housing is is
looking at $150,000 and we're averaging the assessed value that could be applied um as a maximum of let's say 5,000, we're at a 30 to1 ratio. Um and so, and that makes a lot of sense for our community. Um it doesn't face issues
associated with new development. We have really limited land resources on Cape Cod and we're starting to see some tension there between community members and um some of the projects that are currently being proposed and again that structure for implementing um exemptions does already exist. So we think this
could be a really large benefit for our town. >> Okay. Well, thank you very much for all the work you've done. Uh one question for Mr. Johnson. What would be the date we would need to be looking to get this on the um on the warrant for spring? >> Um you're putting me on the spot. It's a
date in late January. >> January, right? Okay. Before the end of >> um you know, I I I will say that uh you know, certainly we need to discuss this in the context of whatever comes out of the short-term rental uh committee. And hopefully we're going to be having that
information soon as to where where they're going because it'll have an impact as well on uh on rental. Uh but I want to say uh that of all of the uh alternatives and ideas that I have seen about increasing the year- round rental
stock, this seems to be a no-brainer. Uh it seems to be uh something that we should definitely uh think very seriously about implementing. It's short money and uh and as you say uh utilizes existing stock. So we're not building more
affordable housing. uh we're using existing housing. So I for one feel it's uh it's really something that we should support. >> Yeah. Start. Mr. Richards, >> you you said a lot of my points. I think it's crucial that we get this on the April warrant. Um and I think I'm very
glad you mentioned Haritch 3-month turnaround and they have this up and running. Um you know, this also says that we should still look to build affordable housing. Um but um you're right where this addresses an immediate need more quicker than um you know the other tax exemptions we looked at and
also you know takes a while to build housing. Um and the other part of this that I particularly like is this could be really beneficial to some of our seniors who want to downsize uh and folks who are looking to you know build ADUs on their properties as well. Uh like Mr. the chairman said, I think this
is a no-brainer and and whatever we can do, I think to to get this ready for the April warrant uh should should be a priority and and I thank you and the subcommittee and the affordable housing committee. You know, you and I met two months ago at Cafio to discuss this and I was really really pleased with all the work you guys did on it. So, I thank you very much for this really important
legislation. >> Thank you, Mr. Richardson. Uh Mr. Brown. Yes. No. >> Yeah, I think it's a good idea. I like the fact that it doesn't have to have a deed restriction. It's voluntary because that's a real concern for a lot of property owners that when they want to rent affordability, a deed restriction
is a roadblock for a lot of people. So, this is more practical. I would say that 5,000 is a lot less than 150 except the 5,000 comes back every year. So, it's going to it's going to add up a little bit. >> It's a 30-year break even point.
>> Yeah, but it's still a good idea. >> Yeah, that's actually a discussion point. um in the examples that you listed on page eight, was there any um discussion of the shifting in the tax burden and and where that went andor how
it was afforded and did you discuss that as a group? >> Yeah, so um Orleans and Harwitch um and Erammont are seeing so few applicants that they're not significantly shifting their tax burden. Um that's a point at
which you know I if you want to talk how do you teach eth graders about photosynthesis like um that's my expertise tax law is not right and so that's where we really kept running up Colin or Mr. Reid sorry >> into um
we're not the experts in this and so we need to get the assessor's office into the room with us. Um, we're thinking for early days this is probably not going to draw a ton of applicants. As I mentioned, over a 20-year history, Provincetown has 60 applicants um that
they're processing and um they do take that from their overlay. Is that correct? >> So, uh, one of my colleagues, David Sakawi, has spent quite a bit of time on the phone with um, assessors and other town officials. And so in province they are
>> adjusting the overlay to account for the exemption >> and to reach 30% we're looking at uh finding about 30 more uh to sign up over the course of time. Is that the number of unit or more
>> or more? Um I think in the first year I'm not sure we had originally thought about potentially like you could for example cap one thing that Harri is doing is um that instead of providing a percent of the exemption they actually provide a flat rate based on the square
footage that the unit um is. And so because you can also do a part of a unit um let's say right it's a half of a unit is being rented in this way. Um and so Haritch did I think a flat rate to try and make those numbers more predictable um for what they were going to be
running up into. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> I have a question um about how we should think about um what we're creating or safeguarding here. Right. Is this enough of an incentive that it is
actually persuading people to change their current rental behavior from either short-term or a higher rate to a lower rate? Or is what we're doing here more likely, and I'm I guess I'm asking based on your conversations with other towns, is what we're more likely doing here safeguarding current affordable
housing from rent escalation? Both are really valuable. I just want to understand kind of what we're doing. >> Yeah, I think it it does have the potential to do both. Um, I think for the incentive to create, let's say someone's been renting short-term and
transitioning them to long-term, um, I think there will be certain short-term rental properties for what, you know, for whom that is or for that property owner that this makes a difference. Um, probably not the rentals that are right along the beach. Um, we have also seen
that in the last two summers, the short-term rental rate is slightly down. and in conversations with realtors um part of what their property owners who bought maybe when it was peak just after COVID um and that market was really really strong now those property owners
are having a hard time filling the unit um consistently enough to cover their expenses and so um and but I do think it also has the possibility to allow a property owner to continue renting um we hear about folks who the
property owner ends up selling the unit or they say you know we're not going to able to renew the lease because we simply can't afford to to continue renting. And when you look at utility rates, um those rates are on the rise in Massachusetts and there's other expenses um that are rising and so this has the
possibility to do that as well. >> Yeah. And I think that's an increasing need as we heard during public comment earlier tonight and it's a story I'm familiar with myself from multiple people. Um, we have a lot of people who are are facing rapidly escalating rent
who have been here for quite some time and have been able to afford it and and are facing the loss of their their housing. So, making sure we can safeguard what we already have is is also really important. >> And Miss Sculton, I'd just like to also mention that, you know, we're viewing this as part of our strategy, right? And so we don't think this is going to solve
it, but we think that this is a relatively um lowcost, low impact way to if we can help 30 families in our town, >> help 10 >> was it like you said 10 families >> 5k per unit to preserve andor create I think is is
>> that that's the point I was going to make is I think some of the questions kind of frame this as a larger solution than what's intended to be. I think this is intended to be the solution that we can do in the most near term. And also the way this law is written, it allows us to set pretty limits pretty much who we want that to be, what we want that to
look like, the income levels. It gives us a lot of of leniency in what we can do should Tom mean to grant it to us, which is I think one thing to keep in mind when we consider this. >> We will owe Senator Seir debt of gratitude for for pushing this. >> Yeah, Senator Julian Seir did a
fantastic job on this legislation, >> Mr. Chair. >> Yes. Um, if I could, I I wanted to go back to uh Mr. Reid's question about the tax shifting and how that works. So, um, it's it's a pretty straightforward answer. There is no tax shift. It's a revenue loss.
>> So, you know, it needs to be looked at as an expenditure. >> Um, and I don't say that, um, to, you know, pour cold water. I think the idea has a lot of merit. Um, and I think Mr. Brown made a really important point that it's $5,000 per year. Um, so if a if a
rental unit lasts for 30 years and we pay $150,000 for that rental unit, probably similar cost, but there's a lot to like about this program because we're not it, you know, it's not new construction. >> We're bringing on rental units, you
know, right away for $5,000 as opposed to $150,000 and in upfront cash at a period of time. >> And more landlord friendly than previous options. But I will open it up to some comment uh from the audience if if we're
done. Uh thank you Laura Moahan from the Falmouth Housing Trust. I'm just here to urge you to support this initiative um and to thank the affordable housing committee for all their good work that they do. I go to all the meetings. It's
an incredible committee. They're really working through the housing production plan and and and getting us all to implement it, which is really incredible. But the the testimony that you heard earlier from the woman who was
speaking about her teacher friend at the Falmouth Housing Trust, we probably hear that same story at least twice a week with people calling and the need is so great particularly for rentals and there's a lot of people suffering in
this community and they will continue to do so. This is another tool in the toolbox. We can come up with all sorts of reasons. It's revenue, it's this, it's that. You know, we need to do this. We need to get these exemptions in place to move forward to help as many people
as we possibly can. We are as a community using the short-term rental tax to fund our local affordable housing fund, but we're not putting any more money into that fund as a community. And this has come up at
town meeting. What else are we doing? what what other money are we putting into our local fund? We're bringing money from the CPC. We're not doing anything else. So, if we have to put up, you know, 150,000 a year to get 30
units, that's nothing. You know, we're putting 150,000 a year for one unit of new housing that's taking two and a half to three years to build. So, to me, it's a it's a really good program. We really can't keep kicking the can down the road
on these things. We have to move forward, get this on the April town meeting and get some of these things put in place. Thank you. >> Anyone else in the audience? Uh well, we're not going to take any action tonight, but I I I think the
consensus of of the board is that we want to move forward with this and get it as soon as we can in the new year so we can have some time to reflect and get it on the warrant. Uh >> so heard loud and clear. So January, Peter and I were talking January 26th is that first read, if you will, of uh
articles and uh February 9th is uh is the is the closing final read. So we've got some time. So message heard. We will work on getting that ready >> and and again thanks the committee uh the entire affordable housing committee Miss Garrison everyone on that committee and you especially on the subcommittee.
Thank you very much. My only question as a matter of process is uh I guess with the way that this happens where it's not like a traditional article where we then would do the regulation stuff after do does one of us me need to work with the committee before the this January
deadline or is it kind of just us making sure that we get that on the warrant? >> I I think the second at this point >> okay that's what I figured because I >> mean there's always interaction and you know Mr. Garrison is always in contact. >> Well, he's got myself housing.
>> In the interest of moving this forward, >> just when we're on timelines, >> why wouldn't we just vote support for this now? >> Well, I think we've given the indication. I don't think we need to >> I think we need the actual article. >> Yeah, we need the, you know, actual wording and so forth. But I think that >> okay, for the newspaper headline,
though, >> Mr. Chair, >> yes, sir. Um, so the there are sort of two ways that the uh that the board could pursue this a town meeting. Um, and they're they're inbetweens, but two I'll use two to sort of uh illustrate
the differences. You could simply seek a town meeting vote to authorize the board of se the select board to implement the program and then after town meeting the select board decides what you want to use for eligibility criteria and all those local factors that are under your
control. And I think that's a perfectly valid approach. The other approach would be to for the board to make some decisions about here's how we plan to implement it and town meeting could even vote those specifics or you know the in
between of here's what we're leaning but we'd rather have broad authority to modify the program. So in terms of the next steps I mean it could be really simple if you just want to say we just want town meeting approval and we'll work out the details later and the work is basically done. But if you there
there's more work to be done only if you really want to um have more detail as part of that town meeting. >> I think we can make that determination at our first meeting in January and then and then go from there. >> Mr. Chair, if I may just to close I think with how quick Haritch turned it
around, I think doing the former makes sense or if this is >> at this point I'm leaning towards the the easier solution for the time being. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Well, thank you very much. >> Thank you so much for your time. >> Thank you. Okay. Our next matter is to consider a vote to approve preliminary
design of the East Fmouth Library for submission to the Massachusetts Public Library construction program for the purpose of securing a grant for construction. And we have you for 15 minutes, Mr. Stokes. And we expect there will be some questions and comments. So
>> I will be brief. Uh it's all yours. >> Brian Stokes, library director of Fountain Public Library. um revisiting uh from our December 1st uh appearance before you uh presenting the design uh proposed design for the East Felmouth Library in advance of submitting this to
the state uh to satisfy the planning and design grant that we received and keep us in the running for uh a construction grant down the road. Uh, I will be happy to answer any questions that you have, but I wanted to give Chris Simler, who's the chair of the East Felmouth Library
Building Advisory Committee, a chance to make some remarks and also null Murphy from Odinello Architecture and Jennifer Mcgory from CHA, uh, who is providing OPM services on this project as well to >> Before Mr. Rancho, did you want to say anything in introduction or Mr. Johnson
staff? >> Sure. Yeah, just very briefly because I know that um, this powerful team is going to cover the issue. Well, the um the issue before the board tonight, as I I believe you know from the agenda summary is um whether or not to take the
final step to complete the grant process. So the town received a grant for design that gets us to the 20% design level and then uh in order to maintain eligibility we the town has
received entrance into the grant program which means that eventually and it could be a year or two years from now but eventually the town will receive grant funds 40 plus% for the construction of a new East Famouth library in order to
retain eligibility ility for that. We need to submit that design by the end of this calendar month. We're at 20% design. The design can change um in terms of the aesthetics, the roof, the finishes, the exterior, etc. Um but the
building program uh you know is the ability to change that is somewhat limited. So that's the decision before the board tonight. And if we don't >> if we don't then the town um will not get a grant for construction 40 plus% um at least for five years. >> Thank you.
>> Okay, Mr. Simler. >> Thank you. Chris Similar and Peter, you you said what what a lot of was I I was going to say. Um the reason I'm speaking tonight is just a result of the recent emails and um information we received from the public on on the process. And I
just wanted to just make folks aware that we started this in April and every two weeks we've met. Uh we had a public comment section. Every meeting we only had one time somebody made a public comment. We went to bi-weekly uh excuse me bi-weekly meetings. We had two
community outreach sessions which was incredible. The community came out, they gave us their opinion. We had modern. We had Cape Cottish. And then we all came upon this Cape Cottish type of look. And and the thing that I wanted to say is as you have these meetings, you progress
one step at a time and get more and more along. You can't um I I I relate it right now is that we're in the bottom of the ninth and a lot of the comments that were received uh recently were great, but they are something we needed in the second inning.
It doesn't mean like Peter said that we cannot modify the look. It's the program that is I believe is fixed and we have to go with that. Um on one of the first meetings um would have been resolved the mill pond that wasn't in our purview to address and we
and we all as a committee made it clear to people because some people are saying we're not voting for it unless you fix the pond. We would love to fix the pond but it wasn't in our purview. But what we are doing is we're being um good stewards of the land. We're setting the example with the right septic system re
refurbishing the the coastal bank in the proper way. So, that's all we have the the power to do right now. Um, I'm more pessimistic. If we don't pass tonight, uh, excuse me, get the vote to advance, we've wasted $100,000 likely. I mean, right now, if the
project was a go, we wouldn't see anything until 2030, 2031 of completing the project because just the way the process, you know, it's not like you get the grant and next year when construction. So if we didn't, we'd have to wait for this whole system to open up again, which could be in the next three to four years, go through the whole
process. I would think the two Cape Cod bridges will be built before we address, you know, Eastbouth Library. That's how how long it would take, unfortunately. But what happens in the interim, we're stuck with a building that has fossil fuels, needs maintenance, and is inaccessible for ADA. So we would have
to live with that, I would think, personal opinion, another 8 to 10 years easily. So, I just wanted to set um what I'm thinking before the professionals that we hired who done a great job present their facts. I just wanted to give some um perspective on on how we
saw this whole process. >> Thank you, Mr. Brown. >> I just want to share that, you know, I went to the very first meeting at the library and my comment, the first comment was, you know, let's respect the architecture of what's there. And
honestly, I feel like that was the majority of the room expressing the the love and the respect for the Videl House and the family and all the work that they've done in the neighborhood. And I just don't see that reflected. So, I just wanted to say that that was the first inning. And so, I don't know where
those comments went. And I saw in the packet some of the presentation uh materials where you were at the meeting and you're showing the the picture board with a lot of uh I would say modern elements to be considered and one of the
comments right on the top was how about some more Cape Cod architecture. That's one of the only things written on the on the board. So to say that those comments weren't made I don't I don't understand that. >> Well no they they were made. Um and that's what we've um through the process we feel we brought forth this modern
also Cape Cod respect which the architects can you can explain much better but it's not there obviously but the the main point is that we can still change the roof we can still put some um features on it to give it that more we did the shingles we were looking at more
plantings so it's not like what you're seeing is not the vote we're asking for it's more the program and then how we surround the building uh we can make it look more Cape Cottish if it is if people don't feel it's Cape Cottish enough now. >> And I I'm a troublemaker. I got up
yesterday morning and I was finishing up reading the packet and I was just like, you know, I couldn't believe personally that I hadn't been taken more interest and paid more attention. Wasn't really aware of these meetings and I usually pay more attention and so when we saw this two weeks ago was my first time
looking at it. All I had remembered was that the first meeting and made some comments and so you know that's my fault but I put a I put a couple of the photos on the photo of the existing building onto uh if you grew up in Felmouth you remember and I said if you grew up in Felmouth that you probably remember the
Videl family living up on the hill while we're skating on the pond and you know 145 people commented in just several hours gez I I can't understand where that design came from. So, I'm just saying it's not fair to to give you this at the last minute, but at the same
time, it's also not really fair to the the village if they haven't seen the plan. So, you know, it's a tough one. >> So, let Mr. Richardson and then let's hear from uh from the professionals. >> Well, mine's more processoriented, so I can go after that. That's okay.
>> Please. >> Okay. Uh I'm N Murphy with Odin Architecture. my colleague Conrad Ello who was with you a couple of weeks ago wasn't able to join tonight but um I've heard the feedback that was shared um a couple of weeks ago. So I just wanted to speak to some of those points kind of
reiterate the points from um Chris and Brian but to kind of put where we are in context. We are still early days in the development of the design. A lot of our focus has been on the inner workings of the building less so on kind of the exterior expression. Um, and it's not
uncommon to be having a debate at this stage in the overall process as to what the building looks like. Um, and so we would expect that we'll continue to have that conversation in the year of design ahead of us um to solicit more community
feedback to take um the comments we're hearing now and that kind of have come through over the last 48 hours um into consideration in terms of how that can be integrated into the design. Um, so this is not a finished product and we will shape and mold this um this
building with the community. Um, and as architects, we aren't here to kind of assert a specific style. We've done more traditional buildings including traditional libraries. So that's something we're very comfortable doing. Um, so that's I think a we're at a
natural point in the process where that's coming to a head and it's something that we'd like to you know play out together as we move into the next phase. Um, so that's kind of the kind of the aesthetics of the building. I know there were some comments about a one-story
versus a two-story building that were also shared a couple of weeks ago. Um, early on we did kind of debate and consider a two-story option for the library. And one of the fundamental decisions we made with the building
committee uh and with the MBLC, the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, is that a one-story building is just significantly easier to operate with the staff that we have at this branch library. Um, one of the things the state is very focused on is
surveillance. How can you have oversight of a building? Um, and a one-story library makes that much more um achievable with a small staff. Um so that was kind of the fundamental decision that led us on the course of a of a singlestory building. Um there's
also some other kind of practical considerations in terms of accessibility introduction of an elevator and a stair and egress and daylight that would factor into having a you know a portion of the building I think the meeting room was suggested um of sunken into a lower
level. Um, all that being said, I mean, there is just like the exterior of the building, there is, you know, an opportunity to revisit some of those decisions. Um, I think what we've heard from the state is that they're really supportive of the singlestory building
for the operational reasons that I mentioned. Um, but there is a year of design ahead if we choose to move forward, uh, which I hope we do, um, to continue to have that kind of discussion together. Um I think there was also some um comments about the windows which are
are quite large um and kind of bird safety and and kind of light trespass um that would result you know potentially result from those large windows. Um you know bird safety is something that and bird strikes is something that is discussed on every
project uh at this day and age. Um and the industry has kind of caught up with that kind of discussion. Um, and now there are birds safe glass products that have an exterior treatment on them. It's kind of a ceramic kind of frit or etch
pattern, dot pattern on the glass to um minimize the risk of bird strikes. Um, and that's a products that get certified and there's a whole testing process that goes into them and we would propose using a product of that kind um on this building. Um, and then in terms of light
control, I think the building up on the hill is certainly something that you don't want to have kind of light beaming out from um, in the evening hours. Um, so we would have motorized shades for daylight control, but also to control light trespass um, after hours. Um, and then I think
the final comment that that I'm aware of was much like the exterior um, and trying to make sure that it fits the community and their needs is the interior. I know that the existing building which is you know a home originally has a beautiful kind
of living room quality to it when you enter it. Um I think the renderings that we've sh shared so far which are still pretty early on don't necessarily capture that spirit and that's something we would we've heard from many many people um something that we'd want to kind of bring kind of that warmth warmth
that homeiness um and intimacy into the new library. Um and I think there's plenty of opportunity to do that. That's something we're really excited about being able to do. Um, so that's of my just I just wanted to speak to some of the comments that came up a couple of weeks ago. Happy to answer questions. I
don't know Jennifer if you have anything to add. >> Everything right now. >> I have another one. >> So there's there's two things here. Uh, one, um, just to quote, um, Peter, you had a really good email about this earlier was this is the 20% stage of the construction designs and that the
aesthetic appearance is not finalized. We can discuss this. there's over a year of more of discussing this. Um, and if we don't, as Mr. Simmer said, if we don't vote for this, we're not getting a library. Like, that's the reality. The second piece is is I, you know, this is back to the police station is, you know,
part of this is what can we do? And part of this is why is the community just waiting until the very last minute? You know, is there something more that we need to do communicationwise? Because there was a lot of robust public outreach on this project. There was multiple enterprise articles, uh, mult multiple outreach, multiple public
sessions, bi-weekly meetings, and then why are we getting a bunch of emails at after 4:00 today telling us not to vote for it? Something is wrong in this process, not only with this one, but also with the police station. It was the exact same thing because you had mentioned when we talked about it, no one showed up to those first couple meetings. They, this committee, after
doing a year of work, picks a site, and now all the sudden the community decides to show up. You know, I'm I'm making a plea to the public. there needs to be more buy in is people need to get involved earlier in the process or we're going to keep lighting fires right at the end and that it helps no one. Um I don't know if there's anything more that
we need to be doing. I've mentioned, you know, if there's anything we can do on the technological side and investments there, but uh this this whole cycle and and this this it's it's, you know, it's almost disrespectful to the people who do the work, whether it be the PAC advisory committee or the talented people on this committee and the people
that they appoint to just at the very last minute get up screaming. And the tone of some of these emails, some of them were fine, but some were just borderline rude. And um we need to do better as a as a community. And if there's any way that we can make that easier for people uh to get involved, I think we really need to consider that as soon as possible.
>> Well, I just say we sat at our strategic planning meeting and talked about public outreach and you have to do everything you can to reach out to people and like I said, one simple post on a local discussion page generated a lot of
negative feedback about this project. >> So maybe we should have done that last year or maybe we should come up with some new ideas. If if there's any way the town can I get more town Facebook be more rigorous with that or something, you're right. >> Okay. So, my question is now that we're
in this last minute position. >> I noticed that your firm also did the uh West Tisbury Library edition and renovation, but yet you maintain the integrity of the design, and I love that design, and I could see that sitting on that hill. How much latitude do we have?
I mean, if we're going to submit this modern design and say this is what we've endorsed here today, can we come back later and say we changed our mind, we like the West Tisbury Library. We wish we had chosen that. How far can we go with our flexibility?
>> Yeah, I mean, you have a lot of latitude as to the exterior look and feel of the building. Um what we're submitting to the state is primarily a layout of spaces of certain sizes to house the needs of the new library, the book
collection of the new library. It's kind of those metrics um that are kind of the first and foremost for the state's review. They also want to make sure that we have a functioning site plan with parking and all of those attributes worked out. They are not weighing in on
what the building looks like. So, I think voting to move forward tonight is not an endorsement of a rendering of the building. Um, and there is a lot of leeway to continue to work on that and and yeah, West Chisbury is a response to a community that wanted
a more traditional library and and worked we worked together to achieve that. So, that's certainly a possibility here. >> There's there's no reason willing to concede that the two-level design probably doesn't work. Mr. Johnson Stab explained that to me earlier, you know,
I don't like that, but I guess I would be willing to live with that. To me, it's like such a large building for such a small site that it's kind of overpowering. That's why I wanted that lower level meeting room space. I'd be really happy if that could be practical, but if it's not, I I would concede that.
At the same time, I really I wish we could take a picture of the West Tisbury Library and just put it in with the packet and say, "By the way, here's an alternative we might come back with just as as an aside because I don't I don't really like the idea of signing on to something that I really don't endorse."
I mean, I'm probably going to get outvoted anyway, but I'm just I wish I could feel a lot better about it if we could do that. just um so the the fact that we can make modifications where we're asking you more to vote on the program and the
space and the community room how that is shelled. You know, this was the older days, we would have them with their nice charcoal pencils and they would be giving us some rendering. So the the the incredible computer stuff you see right now is actually doing a disservice. It looks so perfect, but it's not even
close to that. And it's it's this tension that we've in the industry that at this small level you can make something look so perfect. So we wouldn't be seeing just um you know like render uh paintings and and just outlines of what the building to be determined. So you know I don't know how
we're not asking you to vote on the look be because that's not the key here. It's the program but you can put a caveat that we explore and we're all for it. I mean believe me we want we hear what you're saying. We hear what the community saying. So I believe and I'm committed to doing that. >> Dr. Gold Stone.
>> I I'll just say I feel like um there is always more that we and everyone could do in regards to community engagement. People are busy. People miss things. People don't make it to the one meeting. They don't understand the significance of that one meeting like that. That happens in every
process. I feel like this team has been very responsive not only to the input that I provided two weeks ago, but I've heard from others who have been to the meetings that they felt that their comments were heard and that they were listened to. Um, and so I really
appreciate that. And I I did not grow up here in Felmouth. My kids did grow up, as I shared last time, a short walk from that library. And I do feel um a sentimental attachment to that building. And I feel like myself deeply
how hard this change can be. And I think it's incredibly important that we find really meaningful ways to honor that history, to honor the contributions of the Vidal family. I am not usually the first to name something, but I would be
the first to go out and start a process to say, "Let's name it the Vidal Library in East Falmouth." Right? Let's really recognize the history and the family who was here. And at the same time, let's allow our community to evolve and give
East Falmouth an amazing, beautiful, modern library with all that it can have and really celebrate also the pond needs some work. Um, but let's let's celebrate the environment and the place that's there with those gorgeous windows and
the ability to see it and the sunlight. like I think there's there's a lot to love and there is room to to modify it and um and we have a responsive team. So I think we have all the pieces in place to have a really successful project and it would be a real shame. It would be worse
than a real shame um to throw away the funding and the opportunity that it might be 5 years but it it might not come back right when you get off these waiting lists with the state and out of these processes. Um that opportunity doesn't always come back again. And and I think the really hard reality is that
that the home that is there as beloved as it is and the team can speak to this better than I can but it it can't continue to serve um as a library and in that capacity certainly not indefinitely. And so we have to do something else there. So, is it a
matter, Doug, of of the the wording of the item in the agenda that you seem to be most concerned about is that we're voting to approve a preliminary design. Well, that's right. >> If there is a way that we can modify that motion to reflect what we've
been told we're actually voting on uh and still, you know, give what the state requires to move this forward, you know, then then I think that may be the way to go forward tonight so that we can move on the
project. and and you're not feeling and and the board is not feeling that they're necessarily being tied to any particular design quote unquote at this point more the building parameters the programs as uh as as Noah has has said >> that's exactly right I would be fine
with saying that we endorse the program programmatic layout >> but the design maybe needs >> we don't have to say the butt >> I mean let's call it a state-of-the-art building rather than a modern building.
>> Does that give you enough to to to work? I mean, we don't want to, you know, we don't want to >> cause any problems with what the state would require. >> Um, so I think we can make this work. I I'm wondering if the way to approach this is is two separate votes. So, you
know, we want to send a clear message to the Massachusetts Library Board of Commissioners that um we're submitting this library program. we're submitting this preliminary design and we and we're going to stay in the grant program. That's one vote and that's done. And
then maybe there's a separate vote to say we want the um East Falmouth Library Building Advisory Committee to work on a more traditional design um to honor the you know the community
input and the aesthetic that we've heard so much about from the public in the last you know 40 days. >> Yeah. I would say consider as opposed to, you know, consider a more traditional design as opposed to locking them into a specific design.
>> If I may try for the first motion. >> Well, let's just see if uh >> if there's anyone who wants to speak with respect to it, knowing where we're where we're headed. We've certainly heard the the emails or read the emails and heard some of the comments. So, um
if there is no one that wants to speak, then we can move forward. So, >> you have something to say. >> Sure. >> So, uh, my name is Gene Harper. I live in East Felmouth, about a minute away from the library. I also happen to work
at the library, but my bosses probably don't want to tell you that. Um, I would be very disappointed if we didn't have 100% approval. >> Can't quite hear you. I would be really disappointed if we didn't have a 100% approval because what we would be saying
is we don't want a library in East Felmouth. I I don't believe that there's going to be a second round of grants and we could get a library in 8 to 10 years. I think if this doesn't go through, I don't know how long it would take, but I also don't think the building is going
to last that long. That building was not designed to be a library and has some issues. We all agree on that. >> Yeah. It So, so if we want this pro, we should there should be 100% support for this project because it's having a
library in East Fmouth. And I think it's really too bad. I haven't looked at the e the Facebook thing, but that's the only reason why I'm here. Um because if there's I feel like yeah, we need to get some education to to figure out why
people get so fired up about change. And um I think that uh people say things without understanding the facts. And I think we should go 100%
behind this project. It'd be crazy not to get this grant. Free money. It's like millions of dollars. >> See, I think a lot of people see the town changing and evolving and even other towns on the Cape even worse >> and I think people are just getting freaked out. >> I one more thing
>> I I to I understand I think and I think you know I've had a little more time to get used to the idea and I I I look at it I'm like that feels a little big blah blah blah. I have I have my own trepidation. I am more concerned about it feeling like I'm the living room, not
a bookstore person. Every time I I go to all the meetings and walk up to the architects and say needs to look like a living room when you walk in. It needs to be really comfy and cozy and warm. Um I'm wondering if maybe the new you know like the shingles. I think they were going Cape Cod. I wasn't involved with
the committee. I was not allowed to be um shingles and to me a one story is a lot less like it's not going to be a mountain. It is. It is big. But I think that one-story shingles could be Cape Cod. New Cape Cod. I mean, I live in a a
shing. I don't live in I live in a Cape and I'm kind of sick of the Cape Cod house on the inside. I'll tell you. I'd like to live in a taller ceiling house. But, um, I think I think people will love this building when it's
done. I think it will grow on people and I think people will love it. And I love that we have some time to change it to make it work for what we want. But please don't hold the vote >> for
so but acting on Peter's suggestion and and if we're going in that two motion, >> I'm wondering if the first motion may be what you proposed as a second motion, which would be a motion and if you want
to frame it, Mr. Richardson to uh to to uh ask the building advisory committee to you know work together you know with the with the community uh to consider a more traditional get that on the record
>> and then move to the second vote which is to approve the what we need to approve for the grant. >> Is that fine with the committee? Yeah. Okay. So >> excuse me. please. But you have to come up. >> Yeah.
>> My name is Camille Romano. I'm um the alternate on the building advisory committee. And the one thing that I understand wanting to parse into two votes. I I don't agree with putting the word traditional into any decision
because I didn't see the Facebook post. What which Facebook group was it on? You grew up in Felmouth, you remember what? >> Okay. So, I did not grow up. I've only been here for 30 odd years. Um, >> that's what I was looking for feedback. People who grew up in >> Sure. But the people who grew up in Felmouth do not have any more weight
than the people who live in Felmouth now and did not grow up here. So, I've had nothing but positive feedback with everybody that I've shown the plans to, that I've pointed out that it's on the website, um, that I've talked to about
the project. Um, granted they're not necessarily, you know, native people from Falmouth. I I don't think that they're f the Facebook page should drive a discussion that the board puts the word traditional in a motion and
approves that because that doesn't reflect what the town wants. And I don't want it to come back in two years or whenever we have funding and somebody says, well, the the board said we have to look at a traditional. So, I think that working that the committee needs to
continue to work with the community and whatever on incorporating more community thought into the design or something without specifying what that new design may or may not look like. It could be that it becomes more
modern. That could be the driver from the town, from the community that we talked to. I just don't want to have a word in there that points the advisory committee in any direction and and says this is a a mandate because it came out
of a Facebook post on Friday on the day of the meeting or whatever. >> That's just that's all it >> What about respecting the architecture of the building that's there? >> That's common architectural practice.
I think we've wandered into the territory of the the library building advisory committee rather than the select. Going with the first and second um uh motion to instruct the uh library east
library advisory committee to consider and alternate >> design consider >> yes consider alternate designs uh comma and uh even though I appreciate it improve efforts to get community feedback.
It's a motion >> in collaboration with the select board. >> In in collaboration with the select board >> because we need to help too. >> Anyone prepared to? >> I would second that. >> Okay, we have a motion in a second. Any further discussion? >> Can we just clarify the
>> we're separating the two because we need to give 100% unanimity on >> the permission to proceed with the 40%. >> Well, I don't think we need >> for both of these anyways. I don't want to see us not get a new library. Just want to understand what we're voting% come to agreement on it.
>> Need it. Roger that. Thank you for the clarification. >> So, we have a motion and a second. All in favor? >> No. >> Sec. >> Second vote. Um, the select board vote to approve the recommended and I'm just going to add the word preliminary design. Does that
help for that motion or >> I don't know. It has to be >> No, it is a preliminary design. >> So, just adding the word Well, it's just not in the motion. So, I'm just adding it to the motion. Is that fine? the town manager's comments is probably the if you read that Jake I think it's got >> Oh yeah.
>> Is that fine and add that to the motion then >> because I see it's in your comment but just >> I just Yes. >> I'm get we're too bogged down semantics. Uh the select boards vote to approve the uh recommended preliminary design >> motion. Second. >> Okay. We have a motion and a second. All
in favor? >> I I >> Okay. Thank you very much. got there. All right. >> Thank you very much. Okay. Our next item is to discuss and consider a vote to approve an application to the Fmouth Housing,
Felmouth Affordable Housing Fund from 85 Brick LLC for the project located at 85 Brick Road. Thank you. And we have Miss Fish. And
>> hi. Hi. For the record, I'm Kimberly Fish, the housing coordinator in the housing division. You're doing that. No. >> Um, and this is Nick Marion here on behalf of 85 Brick Hill LLC
uh on his application for funding from the Fmouth Affordable Housing Fund. >> Thank you. So what we have is approved 40B project 40 units
that's composed of 22 studio units in sorry if I'm talking a little can you hear me? Can you understand what I'm saying? >> There's two studio buildings here and their addresses are there. So
there's 22 total units. There's 14 two-bedroom units and there's four three-bedroom units which are located in two in this building and two in this building. Uh we we have 10% of 10 units 25% have
to be 80% AMI. We've requested funds from the founders affordable housing fund to make an additional 10 units with projectbased vouchers at 50% AMI and the last five units will be at 120%
AMI. There'll be 15 remaining market rate units. The project has is uh moving right along. We have all the water liners installed. The drainage structures are being
delivered this week. The vaults and the underground electric conduits starting to show up on site and we have to get the uh IIA amperdrome system approved by the board of health so we can start
ordering the components for that and that'll be installed last. Even though we're going to do the collection system now, the actual leeching field amp drrome system would be installed last. So, we're hoping to have final approval from Mass Housing.
We're in the final review stage now. I think within two or three weeks, we should have final approval from them so we can start pulling building permits at which point we hope to start putting foundations in uh just so we can connect water lines and sewer lines and keep the the site
work moving. There's the site has 74 parking spaces. There are only 69 required and seven of the 74 spaces are going to be handicap parking spaces. So
I don't know if you have any questions at this point. Would you like to ask questions? >> So the reason why you're coming back and asking for more, do you want to explain that, Mr. Murion? Well, we originally asked for 128,000 a unit. >> Now you're asking for 150. You want to
explain why you're doing that? >> Well, because of the increased costs going to the IIA system and not going for an appeal to do a conventional title 5 system >> and that was a requirement that was asked of you to do.
I wouldn't say it was a requirement that they asked of us to do was suggested it would be very helpful to get the additional funds to if we if we didn't do the appeal because the cost of that IIA system is over $400,000 increase over a title five system. So that was
making the project uneconomical. So, uh, it was the suggestion of the affordable housing fund to assist with that by suggesting I come back and ask for more money to help cover the cost of that. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Any questions?
>> And and you could do the traditional if you didn't offer to do the denit guide. Is that am I understanding that correctly? >> We would have had to file the zoning board denied our waiver for that request. So, we would have had to file
an appeal uh with Mass Housing to have that condition, have that waiver approved and the denial removed. >> And what's sorry, >> what's the percentage of affordability? I I think you said it, but I didn't
quite catch it. >> The number of units >> 25 affordable out of 40. >> Okay, thank you. That's a lot. That was a considerable lift to get the applicant to agree to that. >> Got it. >> And and a significant number of those
are at 50% AMI as well as 80 and 120. So I think that that increase is um very compelling. >> Yes, it is. >> Motion. >> Uh I Mr. Reid, did you have a question? >> Can I just ask why the planning board rejected the initial zoning zoning board
>> the zoning board? Why the zoning board rejected this? >> Because they wanted them to use the IAS. They rejected the conventional title five. >> Okay. Next question. Uh probably more for uh Mr. Johnson's job. Of the two uh balance
sheets that we're looking at uh with the funding available, we have the additional funds coming from nonCP funds. Am I reading that correctly? That's where the variance comes from. You have we have two sheets. First sheet
is nonCP funds. um with a starting balance of three million >> 1.5 million comes from nonCP sim Kim is that correct one and a half million >> so the reason for the split is um the
funds from the CP funds cannot fund anything higher than 100% AMI and five of those units are going to be deed restricted at 120% AMI so then we dip into the other side of the funds which are the nonCP funds And that's where
this additional 750 comes from. >> Yes. >> Okay. Roger that. Thank you. >> And to be clear, we're not funding an IIA system. The fund can't do that. We're increasing the fund so they can take it from their construction budget and we're replacing the construction budget. >> Roger that.
>> Thank you for the clarification. >> Um, thank you. I really appreciate over half these units are uh affordable. So I have no further questions and I I move that the select board as trustees of the Fmouth affordable housing fund award $2,250,000 to be awarded as a loan secured by a
mortgage and other documents on 85 Brick Killllin Road for the construction of 40 rental units. Of those 40 to be deeed restricted beyond the 25% required by the 40B statute are five units restricted to those earning no more than 120% of the area median income and 10
units restricted to those earning no more than 80% of the area median income and authorize the town manager to execute the uh documentation setting forth the terms of the financial award for construction at 85 brick 85 brick road. Second.
>> Have a motion in a second. >> Speak one more thing before you finally close on that. >> The the 50% AMR units are projectbased vouchers issued by Farmouth Housing Authority. They come with a five-year
contract because they get renewed by the government every five years. And if they don't get renewed, those units would stay in the program at 80% AMI. >> Gotcha. Yep. that was in the in the explanation. Thank you for the clarification.
>> Hasn't changed my vote, but I I appreciate that. >> So, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion on the motion? >> Hearing and seeing none. All in favor? >> Very much luck. >> Thank you. >> Moving on to uh discuss and consider a
vote to transmit to the finance committee the recommended FY 2027 operating budget. Mr. Renshaw. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm going to lead off and then turn it over to Laura Citroen, our finance director. So, as you all recall on December 1st, um I provided a highle overview, talked about
a lot of the challenges with regards to this FY27 operating budget, um some of the levers, so to speak, that we're pulling to make this happen without an override. There's been some changes. I'm going to have Laura kind of give a a very brief uh overview of one of those changes in in particular. Um but I also
wanted to point out the fact, you all know this, um the uh the budget binders were passed out last week. So, hopefully you've had a chance to go through those provides a lot more detail. So if you have any specific questions at that level, um this is the time to ask because my request is that you consider
transmitting the budget uh to the finance committee at tonight's meeting. Laura. >> Okay. So I am primarily going to focus on the budget overview which if you have your book with you, it's behind tab one behind the
budget manager the um town manager's budget message. It would be page nine except it doesn't actually have a page number on it. Looks like this without all my notes on it. >> In any case, the so what I want to talk
about are the changes. We had two changes that we have made since December 1st. Um, so actually the budget presentation from December 1st was included in your packet for tonight,
but that had not been updated. So there that um but the two changes are um one is relatively small and the other one is is good news that's more substantial. So the first change is we
received a letter from the Falmouth retirement board saying that the percentage between the town of Felmouth and the Felmouth um affordable housing >> authority >> Felmouth right okay housing authority
the percentage had changed a little bit which would have increased which increases our pension expense by $35,188 so we had to make that change because um it has to be the exact amount that's in the budget for the amount that we're going to pay over to the Falmouth
Retirement Board on July 1st. >> So, it's a a debit of $35,99, >> right? So, it increased the expenditures by $35,188. And where that is is simply down um on
the second page of that overview. employee benefits that that number just increases by $35,188. To offset that so that we keep the budget in balance, we increased motor vehicle tax excise
um under local receipts by the same amount. >> So wait, where does that So that's employee benefits. So employee >> 427 recommended goes up >> right >> from 34,693.
>> Okay. So >> right to 34. >> You don't have to change it. >> The numbers that are in the budget I'm sorry let me let me start over. The numbers that are in the budget book are correct. >> Are good. It was your >> they have the two changes. I'm just telling you about the changes that
happened since the presentation. >> Okay. >> Last um on December 1st. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Um the other change is when we were doing the tax recap
um tax re recap certification. >> Yeah. >> Um setup for fiscal year 2026. Our new growth number came in substantially higher than we had
budgeted. So it came in at um 1,631,000 and change. And you'll see that on this page nine under new growth in the first column budget 2026. Why that's important is because it changes the subtotal line
of 124. that line carries over to 2027 as the base from the prior year. So, it actually increase the base by a little bit. And the bottom line is that instead of having to use 1.2 million of
um excess capacity, we only had to use 655,000. Basically cutting that in half. So we have some some flexibility next year. >> That's right.
>> So that's that's not reflected in the budget book. Correct. >> It is. It is reflected >> in the budget book. >> So what I'm seeing is still the 900,000 in new growth, not 1.6 million. >> You have to look in column fiscal year
26, the first very first column, >> right? 1.1 is what it says there. Um, so okay. >> Are you in your budget book? >> Yep. >> Page nine at the top.
>> Page 89 at the top. Am I >> am I different than >> new growth is 1.1 in the FY26 budget is 1.1 as listed here. 1.6. Maybe we can change your
>> budget out because >> does everybody else's budget book reflect 1.1 million? >> Yes. >> So clearly that page needs to be updated. >> So we still need to update that. >> Okay. >> All right. >> Okay. But that is good news. >> Yeah, that's very good news. In effect,
correct me if I'm wrong, Laura, but in effect, that reduces that um that that uh property tax um increase that I talked about at $48, I think it was the amount roughly, >> right? >> Um because we were able to rely on utilize less of the excess capacity, it
cut that half in effect. That's right. >> More than 20 bucks, but >> 20 20 something dollars. Yes. Yes. In effect, >> in addition to giving a little bit more flexibility. >> Okay. >> Just just a question. And um I mean to balance the budget, we we had a bigger
expense on the retirement 37,000 and and and we are going with the excise tax and just budgeting that we're going to get more money to to be able to balance it. Is there any, you know, is there any real support that that that we are going to get that increase on that
line or we're just doing it to balance the budget? Honestly, >> it's still substantially below what we have been. >> Okay. So, we're budgeting more than we had, but we're still below what expectations really have been.
>> That's right. I mean, we always try to stay really conservative with local receipts. We like to budget between around 79 or 80%. In fiscal year 27, we're at 84%. The $37,000 does not impact that percentage at all.
>> Okay. Thank you for the clarification. >> So, um, but just to clarify, uh, we do have time to send this up to FIN comp. Uh, as far as what what the law requires. >> So, correct, the law the law requires that the uh the the recommended budget
be transmitted by January 16th each year. Uh, we do have one more meeting between now and >> to do that. We we know that the fincom is taking their first crack at it on January >> January 7th. Seventh >> seventh >> the Wednesday I think is the 7th.
>> Okay. January 7th is their first meeting. >> We're meeting January 5th. >> Correct. >> All right. Just to set the uh set the timeline if if if anyone is has some questions or isn't you know isn't satisfied to move it forward tonight. We do have some some time. That's all I
wanted to uh to establish. You can always ask questions later and suggestions. I mean, I would always just push it along. >> Yes. >> Um my my my question is always um
departments requested 2.68 million um in new staff or increased services that in the end were not included in the proposed budget. What is it that we had to cut in order to balance the budget this year? at least in kind of broad brush strokes >> with regards to the that $2.6 million
that was primarily uh staffing. Um I think it well I the numbers refresh my memory. There were four eight firefighter positions. >> Eight firefighter positions. There were two sergeants and two patrol. Um there were
there were several positions several positions actually. There were several positions for facility maintenance. There were a couple that were left um unfunded in the senior center. There
were some and there were plent there were several parks. Um >> we can send out that list. Uh madame vice chair and the board. We can send out the list. Laura has been when we met with the departments uh we were compiling a list. We thought that was
important. We we'll distribute that list so you can see it. But it was a dozen and a half I believe um approximately positions >> that we I did not recommend uh be go forward >> and be funded. >> I mean I guess one thing that I'm wondering is with the good news that we
just got if we've figured out all these levers we could pull to make things work before we got that good news. Are there things that are high enough on the list that we couldn't make work before that we should actually consider trying to make work now?
>> Right. With that with that $650,000. >> Yeah, that that's a great question. >> An additional new growth >> Yep. >> revenue. >> That's a great question. Um and the answer is, you know, yes, we certainly could consider adding some of those
things back. Um, I think, you know, speaking for the management team, the the downside of that is we're looking at an override. You know, as we've as we've discussed and as the manager has identified in his budget message, we're
looking at an override for next fiscal year to, you know, to maintain existing service levels. So, um, you know, the good news means maybe we're reducing the amount of that
override by $600,000 or maybe we spend some portion of that $600,000, but that does increase the potential override next year. >> And I think it has Thank you. I think it also has an impact on that those gaps that we showed in the 5-year projection. I mean these are these would be if we
hypothetically if these positions were to be added we take that immediate direct cost down but then ultimately we're adding over the years we're adding additional cost for you know again um a salary wage adjustment so it becomes part of that built-in 5-year and as you all know uh
the 5-year projection that was presented in my budget presentation two weeks ago um those gaps did not reflect any new positions that was just status quo as we were and I don't have those gaps in my head but they were significant uh revenue uh versus expenditures.
>> You know, I for one certainly appreciate your transparency and cander and your message with respect to uh to the possibil to the probability uh of an override next year and it has been discussed. Uh I do uh I do hope that we
have those discussions as early in the process as possible so that the board can you know take a position with respect to the override the amount of it and and so forth as soon as possible. I think we all want to see that happen.
I'd like to really get down with the finance committee and talk about the operating and the capital budgets and ways to reduce overall cost as we've discussed a couple times peripherally devesting buildings.
>> I I think we we're planning to have a joint meeting with Fincom, but there are some limitations as to what where they can weigh in on as a >> I I'm less concerned about the limitations. I just want to in consultation with the chair and vice chair when we set the agendas I we have had some preliminary discussions with
the fincom chair and Mr. Schwegle has indicated um he's on board. He just wants to make sure that we have clear expectations and some objectives going, you know, what is going to be discussed. I'm less concerned about lanes honestly than I am having a concrete objective. >> Well, I think that's more what I meant
actually is is the lanes as opposed to restrictions. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> All right. >> So, we are planning that. We haven't set a date yet. We are planning that in in the spring. >> Are we prepared to move it to >> F? The only thing I'm going to say, I won't bring up the residential exemption again. point. I got you
>> and do it without doing it. >> Whatever ways that we can increase revenues without increasing the overall tax burden on the yearround residents of Felmouth needs to be the number one priority of the town. >> And also whatever we can do to reduce
our expenses, you know, we've got a lot of municipal properties. Maybe we don't need them all. Maybe there's a lot of things we can do to to be more lean and efficient. Um, this is all new information to us, so this may be uh too out of the blue
for folks to get on board. Um, but um, an additional contribution to the affordable housing fund is not an ongoing liability and could be a consideration coming from in particular um, revenues from new growth within our
town. Um there are funds that could be used to in some ways offset um some of the impacts of new development. Um so something like a a $500,000 extra one-time contribution to uh the Fmouth
affordable housing fund um from those excess or not excess those additional and unexpected new growth revenues is Mr. >> something I just an idea to put out there. >> Okay, Mr. Chair. >> Yes, sir. That was just a question I had because I was also going to propose
that. Um, but it is listed as a uh 950,000 as a town meeting article to include. So, but we're also allowed to just add money without the approval of town meeting. >> What's being proposed is um increasing the amount of what would be um submitted
to town meeting. >> Oh, I see. I see. I see. Okay. Thank you. >> And I believe that 950,000 is an authorized minimum by town meeting. Correct. >> Which we've always >> more or less write it. >> Which we've always voted and an emphatic ditto. >> Okay.
>> I got nothing else. >> Any more questions? Ready to move it to the vote? >> I Is there a particular motion? I would just say let's send this budget book off to the finance committee. >> Second. >> Vote to transmit to the finance
committee the recommended FY2027 operating budget as presented with amendments to the book that we have. >> So the updated amendments but not the additional contribution to affordable housing >> at this point. Right.
>> Enter forward amendments as they become. >> Yeah. Yeah. This isn't the final, you know. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Okay. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? >> I I >> Okay. Very good. Thank you. All right. Last but not least,
consider a vote to submit a letter to the governor's office in support of the rail to trail bicycle path project. >> Uh Mr. Renaw, >> thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh so back on October 27th uh was the last time we uh visited this topic. Uh I gave uh
recommendation to maintain uh the status that the previous select board uh had voted uh back in I guess it was 24 I believe um to uh maintain rail with trail. Uh the board on October 27th uh unanimously I believe uh voted to
support a letter to the governor's office in support of rail to trail. um at your seats. Included in the packet is a draft uh that was uh prepared at your seats tonight is a revised draft with some additional language um that perhaps
adds some uh additional condition language. Um I think that was perhaps an element that was missing in the original draft. Um so my ask is that the board consider um approving uh the draft with revisions at your seats tonight.
>> Mr. Oh, just just for the record, I I I support the original draft that that's actually in our in our packet. Uh I I feel that it encompasses in in general terms what what we discussed. I think although it doesn't use the term
conditional, I think it's implicitly uh conditioned uh that we're asking uh well, the letter speaks for itself. Uh but I just on the record I support the original draft of the letter that is that is that is in your packet. But you
do have before you uh a red line uh revision that uh that that ties up some some some more uh conditions which in my opinion uh will delay the project unnecessarily and that's that's my
feeling. So, >> I would say that >> the redline version more accurately reflects the minutes of that meeting. >> I I I will tell you I went through and looked at the minutes a couple of times and uh I wasn't quite sure exactly when
we were talking about conditional and and and support and so forth. But um you know I I think that honestly this project will never go forward uh if if the revised letter is
uh is is what this the position of this board is. >> I mean that's incredibly harsh. I feel I mean at the end of the day we're endorsing the project and I I don't think that the difference in the letters is going to change Governor Haley's position. uh we are with either letter we are submitting
our support to to the governor and I feel that I feel that either one would be fine. Um after considering both I I I do I do definitely see your point Bob. Um, but I do agree looking back at the minutes and
we did we did talk a good amount about wanting conditionally to support rail in the future and I do think the red line version after considering both does reflect that well. Um, but again, I'm I'm totally fine with
either letter. I I as long as we send a letter unanimously, I'm I'm I'm okay with with what whatever my colleagues decide. >> Mr. share if I is your and I don't want to interrupt your deliberations and discussion but for the purpose of the public who does not have access to this
red line let me if you if if you all would allow me to to quickly read this >> going to suggest that >> so I'll I'll I'll I'll let folks know listening at home and here tonight that the change in the first paragraph literally added the word conditional at the regular meeting the family select board held on December 15th 2025 the
board authorized to send this letter to indicate it conditional support for what has been commonly so that addition of conditional um is the only change, red line change in the first paragraph. Um the revised version that we're discussing tonight um
uh eliminates uh strikes out um beginning with however the members of the board reconsidered strikes that entire section and replaces it with however in light of ongoing conversations at the state level. The board reconsidered his position and wishes to express support for the
construction of an alternative railway to replace the F2 and enable the rail to trail approach. The result would be a win-win for the upper Cape allowing both for both continuous 26 milei bike trail to connect Woods Hole and the Cape Cod canal as well as 21st century rail
infrastructure for cargo and passenger transport. This option would help fulfill the Cape Cod Commission's Vision 88 project while also offering increased emergency preparedness and opportunities to reduce carbon emissions, traffic congestion, and wear and tear on the Cape's aging bridges. We urge the Haley
Driscoll administration to commit to an F2 replacement strategy as part of the FY27 update to the 5-year capital investment plan so that railway decommissioning and bike path construction can proceed in parallel in a timely manner. So, that was the significant change, that second
paragraph. So my only question is is why I feel it comes on stronger and still sends a message if you just remove the word conditional and keep all the changes to the rest of the letter. I don't know how the rest of the board feels. I I don't agree with that. I think it's important that it's it's
conditional on beginning the process of determining at least a feasibility study to know if it's even practical. Because if it's not even practical to dream of an alternate line, then let's face reality now. >> Well, my my concern with the revised
draft is that it it it it seems to say that that that we're saying don't proceed with the rail to trail unless the unless the the uh F2 is is decommissioned. And I don't think that was really what we were saying. I think
we were saying is we want to support the railto trail. It's gone on for a long time. There's been a lot of delay, but at the same time, we urge the governor and the administration to seriously look at decommissioning
the uh the track and putting an alternative in at some point. But to conflate the two, to connect the two, I feel is just going to unnecessarily uh delay the project. That that's how I feel about it.
I feel strongly that if we don't put this language in, we're just going to take out the track and then it's not going to be back. >> Yeah. I I fundamentally >> that we got from staff and it's not what I would want to see happen. >> Yeah. >> And it's a lot of tonnage that's going
over the rail bridge. They're rebuilding the rail bridge right now. You see all the materials that have been delivered to the yard. People talk about the bridge train bridge falling apart. They're fixing it. >> Mr. I felt the original uh while good, it
didn't uh strongly support the previous position of town management with the needs to support uh what's listed in here, the rail infrastructure, cargo, and tra uh passenger transport. Um I felt that that was missing from our
discussions in the original letter in the revision. Um that was my question coming in, not knowing that this was going to be here. I would voice support for this revise just because it supports I think our obligation on both. We want
recreation but at the same time we have major infrastructure needs for mainly uh joint base Cape Cod and the and the cargo that has to get off Cape one way or another. So it's it is two things. We did conflate two things and I think we
were purposeful in that because they're two very important things um that need to be expressed here and the second catches it more. >> I I certainly don't disagree that the two are very important. I just think that the original letter was more
definitive that we want to see the project go forward, the the railto trail project go forward, but at the same time urged the administration to be dealing with F2 and coming up with uh with an alternative. Uh but that's that's that's
where the original draft went. I don't but you have the revised as Mr. Ren Shore has has read. >> So um I think what we have in front of us are probably two extremes on the spectrum of
where this board stands on this issue. Um I don't know that we will reach unonymity and I don't know that that's um a reasonable or necessary goal um in everything that that we do. Um but
uh I think another option before us tonight instead of the eitheror is that we take both of these under advisement and work on on another draft if if the rest of the board feels that that would
be helpful that strengthening of the initial uh draft but a softening of the second draft is is the best reflection of the consensus. of the board. And so that's that's all I'm >> I I I feel quite strongly personally
that I would love to see a railto trail project, but not absolutely not at the expense of rail infrastructure for the upper Cape. >> I am unwilling to do that. I think we have unless we do it right now because I'm not going to delay this again another month of us sending a letter while there's money tied up. I'm fine to
go through that and make that version now at the sorry for staying later but we cannot delay this another month of of because we don't meet again for the rest for the rest of the year and and I think this is fine the way it is. It captures the intent of what we talked about if you look at the minutes of the meeting
and I think the minutes are accurate. I think this replace that. So I don't know why we would want to wait any longer. >> Yeah. I would support Dr. Goldstone's suggestion. I you know it has gone on a long time. Uh I don't
think uh you know another month would be you know that that that difficult to wait you know I I don't think there's ever been any question about the importance of rail to the Cape you know in honor of Tom Caher you know whose project the rail to trail was a big part
of his uh you know of his ideas for the Cape but he was also a major proponent of of rail transport to the Cape. So I I don't think that it was ever the intent that the rail to trail would mean the death nail of, you know, rail service uh
here on the Cape. It was just a way of moving that in one track and moving, you know, thinking about the uh the current track and what would be better long-term as opposed to connecting the two. And I do agree with Vice Chair Goldstone that
I think a little bit more refinement uh of the of the second letter to maybe get get to that position uh would would would be worthwhile. >> Well, why don't we just do that right now then? >> Yeah. What is it you'd want to change? >> Yeah, because I just I just don't think
that for the advocates who keep dealing with us, who keep showing up, it's been now years of doing this. We've said it's so I don't it's okay to wait another month. We've said that three times now. So I think if because I agree I agree with you uh vice chair Goldstone if we had another meeting today then I would 100% agree with this year 100% agree
with you but we don't. So it's >> five days later into into the next year. >> Yeah but I mean that's five days on top of two additional >> you know we have some people here in the audience may want to speak so let's uh quickly see if there is Mr. Kosa. >> Uh thank you and uh appreciate
everybody's service. I know being a select person is select person is thankless because there's always 50% that are not happy. Um rail to trail is the biggest mistake our
community could ever make. You have rail infrastructure that moves tens of thousands of tons, hundreds of thousands of tons a year of waste off the Cape.
Do you know where the closest landfill is to Cape Cod? >> Where's the closest trash facility? He's gonna find out when he goes out to bid because Bourne's getting filled up.
The town of Bourne wants the rail to be removed and the trail to put in, but they've only given you disposal there for a few years. They gave none of your constituents, not one single private
entity can go into that landfill. If Doug goes in there with construction demolition debris, that gets loaded on a truck and shipped over the bridge by truck. Doesn't go into the landfill. The MSW that Peter sends there from the
community goes into the landfill. That landfill is filling up. You have no option other than seam mass. Don't take my word for it. Look at tipping fees across the United States. We have the highest tipping fee
in the country and yours is going to get higher because you have no option. You need the rail to be that option when he goes to negotiate. You may not move one pound of trash on that rail,
but if he doesn't have it as an option, what do you think's going to happen to the price? Cass has gone up 200%. It's not going to be your problem. It'll probably be the next selectment or the selectment after your terms are gone. But don't leave our community in a
position where you're removing this rail for a bike trail. I was the president of the Chamber of Commerce. I understand ecoourism. That's what runs my business. Hotels, restaurants. It's critical to my
business. I want the Cape to be a pristine, beautiful place to come. I want people to come here, come to the beaches, go on the bike path, but not at the expense of critical infrastructure.
We are so lucky to have that rail. You have no idea what other communities are faced with when they have no long-term end disposal. Right now, he has 15 options by rail to get rid of your MSW.
by truck. He has one and that one's filling up. The town of Bourne is shipping waste from the other side of the bridge onto the Cape filling up the Borne landfill and then they're
coming here to you and asking you to rip out the rail. Makes no sense. They're filling up the landfill to fill up their coffers with cash and they're asking you to get rid of your long-term end disposal.
I beg you, beg you to please do not support rail to trail. Rail with trail. Fine. I've been >> doesn't exist. >> I've been I've been a >> Excuse me. >> There's There's 25 other locations to
run that bike path. At least 25. And some of them would be way more attractive with thousands of acres of open space around them. You could run the rail trail to the national cemetery. You could collect connect the Mashby schools, the Falma schools, and the
Bourne schools by bike and not rip out the rail. >> Well, but none of that's been explored because they want to rip the rail out. >> Don't rip the rail out. It's the biggest asset you have for the future. >> Thank you, Mr. Kaposa. Anyone else want to speak to the issue
at this point? Um, if not, the board will uh we'll consider in what direction we want to go. Uh, we can either at Dr. Goldstone suggestion and and I don't think it's a bad one. It takes more time to refine especially in light
of Mr. post his comments and uh and and and think about a a revised draft that can be circulated public can see uh in advance of our meeting or you know see see what you want to do uh with with the
draft before you. Uh I I don't see any way to soften this without changing our position. So I don't know what we would do to change it honestly. think she could take a take a shot at it. Yes,
>> all Sylvia from the friends of the Falmouth bikeways. Um, there's a way to get the uh demolition material over the canal. Has to go over the bridge and truck it in. It's very simple. I think
Mr. Kavosa said there's no other alternative. The only way it can get on the other side is with the trail, the the the train trail. So, um that that doesn't hold any weight.
Right now, the the military is changing Joint Base Cape Cod drastically. They're going to have a lot of affordable housing in there. They're going to try to develop businesses in there and
putting a a rail line from where the transfer station is on the east side of Route 28 can bring it out to the railroad bridge. >> We we don't know that. >> Why not? >> We make assumptions. >> Well, >> well, I've been told by some train
afficionados that it's too steep. It might not be practical. Then the new bridges we might need to go around. I don't think any of us really know the answer to what could be done. But we don't want to just throw away the bath the baby with the bath water only to
find out that it was just a pipe dream. We need a feasibility study with engineering to tell us what's practical. Can there be another alternate rail? I'd like to explore that first with facts. And and I think that's honestly what I believe that's what the first draft was
basically saying was, you know, figure out a way to think about, you know, replacing F2 with a with with another 21st century type of a of of a a rail system. I don't think we're saying, you
know, I don't think we're saying ditch it and be done with it. I think we're saying let's move the the railto trail project and at the same time let's figure out a way to you know make sure we have proper rail here on the cape for whatever this are whether it's trans
elimination emergency preparedness commuter rail anything I don't think that I'm my concern with this with the revised draft is it ties them too closely together which I think will result in nothing and that's >> I don't think so
>> no there won't be nothing it'll a rail that's still functional. What we can't do is just blindly say, "Okay, take up the tracks." And we hope to get another rail. >> But we're not saying that. >> We would be if we went with the original >> people were saying that even in the
original letter, we're saying we're doing a parallel >> raised a concern about it. >> Yeah. I I think the history of railtorail projects across the country tells that when rail is converted, it does not come back. And
so like Mr. Brown. I am not comfortable separating the two or leaving the figuring out of rail infrastructure for the upper Cape to a subsequent process after we've decommissioned the F2
because I think it is it is only by tying these two together that we are likely to actually get that replacement strategy. >> Exactly. Otherwise, the track will be ripped up. The trail will be put in. That final piece of actually getting new
rail is extremely unlikely to ever come through there. There's going to have to be a driver for that. >> Honestly, I don't think that the administration would go forward with the approval for the rail to trail unless it dealt with the issue of of of F2. And
that's, you know, I think that that's the point we're making. Uh but but tying them together I think well I've said what I think I'm not going to keep keep saying >> yeah I don't I don't think I don't know I don't know what where are you like
getting that feeling from like the administration um you know and also like honestly like this has been in front of the administration we can send them a letter of support but that doesn't even guarantee they're going to do it that's also the other reality >> correct >> there has to be a reason
>> yeah so Mr. Conor >> just want to bring to the board's attention you I mean you understand that the Cape Cod bridges they've been talking about them 15 20 years now they're trying to get the borings together right now the the funding for the for the uh the bridges right now
they're having troubles on the state level that's just for the bridges who knows when the bridges are going to be built it'll be even more difficult when you build a rail line a rail line you can't go and go um horizontal and vertical like you can do a highway horizontal and vertical on a on a rail line you need
thousands of feet to turn corners and go up 1% of slope. So the intention of this you do want to combine them together in my opinion. Um but the amount of time that it's taken for the bridge it should give some indication of what it would take for a
rail line which is a lot harder than doing a highway. >> And look at how much time Tom Kahare spent trying to get South Coast Rail. you know. >> Mhm. >> All right. We're doing stuff as late tonight, though. So, what are we doing? >> I'd like to make a motion that we move forward with the red line version as
presented by the town manager. >> I'll second. >> Okay, we have a motion in a second. Any further discussion? All in favor? >> I >> I >> No. Now uh now we will review and consider
vote to approve minutes of the meetings October 27th and December 1st. >> Move to approve. >> I have a couple of >> comments I'd like to m Can I give this to the press? Do they
have a copy? So uh to clarify okay >> in the minutes of 102725 just want to clarify there was a comment that just said uh there was mention of the uh administration building being used for housing but I'd like to clarify
that I asked superintendent Der about considering divestment if the town had another reason to use that building for and she said she would not be opposed to that. Of course, it's up to the school committee, but I just like to reflect
that I asked her about divesting teach administration building and she said she would consider it if the school committee did. And then on the second note on uh December 1st 25 on the discussion about
the naming of the bridge, I did mention that Army Lieutenant Colonel Joe Videll passed away on that bridge as a point of reference for why it should be named not just for one person and I'd like that to be also reflected in the minutes. >> Okay.
>> All right. Motion to approve as amended by Mr. Brown's suggestion. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. Motion and a second. All in favor? >> I. >> Thank you. >> Venture a supplemental report. >> Yes, sir. Real quickly, um, as the vice chair indicated, we have a date. I'm
really excited about this. We had two, uh, great planning meetings. The one, the last one was just last week. Um, the title of this, uh, uh, me, community forum will be ICE and immigration colon, a community conversation. Um, Dr. Famon Silva is going to, uh, be one of the
lead uh, kind of facilitators, help us out. Um, Vice Chair Goldstone was there as well last week. Um, we had a lot of representation from um, the uh, Felmouth Immigrant Coalition and the DEIB Advisory Committee. So, I'm really excited about the direction this is taking. You all probably know um,
recently, unfortunately, we had another apprehension um, November 11th, I believe it was, right in the human services/PD parking lot. Um, still trying to find out status of that individual. But at any rate, um this is an important conversation and it's going to be one I think again unfortunately
because it needs to be an ongoing series because I don't see this issue going away anytime soon. So there'll be the kickoff. Um Janu let me get to the details. Jan Thursday, January 22nd, we're going to advertise and and uh and PR this thing so that we get maximum participation. Thursday, January 22nd
from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. at the senior center. Uh Jill Bishop has already reserved the room for us. We're working out final details, whether we're going to have panel conversations, a group of panelists. Um, there's a lot of objectives in this, but we understand, we we hope to have uh some some u
members of the of the immigrant community participate along with us. We understand realistically that might not happen. Um, but I want to really increase the awareness of the Felmouth community of of the impacts of this issue um that uh the ICE operations and and the immigration policies are having
in terms of impact on businesses. I'm not going to call out anyone in particular, but I know Doug, you've got a contracting business and and perhaps you haven't seen an impact, but some of your your peers have in terms of available workers >> and it goes, you know, across the board to restaurants and and and it has an
it's having an impact on the community. So excited. January 22nd, 6:00 to 7:30. Please mark your calendars. Again, we're going to get the word out to as many people as we can in the community. >> That's a fantastic update. >> Thank you very much. The only um the only thing I ask and I'm pretty sure the town has this is that there's a
Portuguese speaker at the >> she uh Melania was actually with us uh last week so she plans on participating and getting some other folks um uh to assist in translation services. >> Thank you so much. I I really appreciate that. >> Thank you. You made a commitment early on to do this and I appreciate that that
you followed through and we're and certainly Vice Chair Goldstone as well. So thank you. >> Thank you. What's what I'm seeing just if I could just share briefly, people are just leaving by choice because for one thing they're they're pretty disappointed in what they're seeing here
and it's not the dream that they once held. >> So it's too bad state. Anyone else? >> Uh the only thing I' >> Oh, you're done, Mr. >> Yes. Sorry. Uh, I'd like to, as much as I have a lot of things I'd like to talk about, I
would like to talk soon about the uh, conservation restriction on Long Pond if possible. I I just feel that with a lot of the other conservation restrictions and kind of going off what um, we just kind of >> scared said about the the library you
could said about with the library. I think that following the police station discussion, showing to the community that we heard them and protecting lump on perpetuity soon would be really good for for our relationship with the community and and also just it's the it's the right thing to do with uh what we have
>> here. Number two, our future agenda. >> Yeah, >> we're we're actually going to be proposing uh an article uh for April town meeting uh to do I think it's two two of the parcels um to bring that to the select board. So you'll you'll see that first uh uh review on January 26th.
>> Two great updates. >> Thank you. >> Hold on. >> I was just saying thank you. Those are that's awesome. >> Colin, you have anything? We'll just go down. um with that agenda item for Long Pond, you know, also coupling that with article 97 considerations on existing
properties that we might consider using a conservation restriction exchange in the long term. Uh having that as part of the the discussion. Um for me, it's something that this is related which is the um I sent the email but just getting it on the list, the municipal property,
land and building kind of master planning process. We have some monies dedicated for very specific campus projects, but using the police station and all of our needs and the big 10-year
comprehensive plan, I feel like we actually need to think of a big a bigger process and have that discussion before proceeding with any of the monies that have been um allocated for campus planning.
I'm curious about the status of the uh steamship authorities request for access to the roadways and is there going to be a a role for the select board in that or is that going to just be curb cut handled by engineering? >> Engineering is currently reviewing
>> an application that I understand was dropped um a couple of months ago. Good night. >> We're going back and forth a little bit, some iterations of that, but >> certainly now that the steamshipip authority has firmed up its contract >> with the new administrator, I'm hoping we can start a good relationship with uh
with him. And uh >> I think yes, definitely I'm looking forward to to that. But I I think we've and and some folks may not agree, but I I I think the current general manager um has been, you know, since certainly the two years I've been here has been responsive to to to requests and and and
and there's been a good dialogue. Um it could be better, anything good and and and it goes both ways, I think. Um but yeah, definitely looking forward to >> networking and starting that relationship with a new GM. Uh, the only one that I would mention was what I mentioned before, maybe an update from
the MLB on what's going on with with their >> ISP. >> Yep. um uh attended the solid waste advisory committee uh meeting last week. um uh with as as always uh really uh lot of
great news uh a lot of initiatives going on uh lots of great events for both recycling and and increasingly there are fix it clinics as well which um I'm not sure that the date set but there was uh a plan to have a teen focused fix it
clinic on December 20th which I believe is being postponed due to uh low enrollment probably because of the the holidays. So, that one will be rescheduled. Um, but that that um committee is also uh planning for a
leadership transition as Mr. Robinson steps down from his chair uh this summer. So, uh big change there. And then attended uh the beach committee meeting uh where uh Mr. Wrigley and uh
the team and I'm sorry I can't remember their names but from Urban Harbors Institute up in Boston who are working on the revision of the beach management plan um came and shared a bit about where they are in the process um and solicited input from uh the beach committee and as I mentioned earlier uh
in January they will be coming back with a draft update of the beach management plan that will be shared with the beach committee and then at a um a public uh information session I believe January 21st. Um so that's moving along quickly
which is good because it was um overdue. Um and uh I think will be a really important uh piece to have in place as we work on resilience more broadly. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Do you think we'll be able to get the
short-term rental bylaw back soon? Um, I have asked Eric to provide an update on that. >> Okay. >> So, I'll check in with him tomorrow about it. Thank you. >> I think we have a motion to second. All in favor? >> I very much everyone have a good
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