Felmouth Select Board Chair Bob Mscali and town manager Mike Renshaw are recapping Select Board meetings on FCTV's newest series, Select Board Report. Watch new episodes of Select Board Report Thursdays live at 5 at
fctv.org or on YouTube. Have a question about what happened at the last select board meeting? Ask our hosts by visiting fctv.org/watchb. Carlson printing 5085487303. Our email address is carlson
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or meganet.net. >> John's Liquor 729 Main Street, Falmouth, 508548-2287. Okay. Good evening. I'm calling to order the regular meeting of the town of Felmouth Select Board for Monday, March 9th, 2026.
Uh we will be uh going into executive session uh with respect to two items. The first is uh under MGL chapter 30A section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to threatened litigation
and B MGL chapter 30A section 21 A6 to consider the purchase exchange lease or value of property and in connection with that matter uh I as the chair have determined and declare that an open meeting uh may have a detrimental effect
on negotiating position of the public body and that is why we are planning to go into executive session. Do we have a motion? >> So move. >> Okay, we have a motion second >> and a second uh by roll call. All in favor? Mscali. I >> Brown I.
>> Goldstone. I >> Reed I. Richardson I. >> Okay, we will be back at the conclusion of executive session. Thank you. Felmouth Select Board Chair Bob Mscali and town manager Mike Renshaw are recapping Select Board meetings on
FCTV's newest series, Select Board Report. Watch new episodes of Select Board Report Thursdays live at 5 at fctv.org org or on YouTube. Have a question about what happened at the last select board meeting? Ask our hosts by
visiting fctv.org/watchb. Felmouth Select Board Chair Bob Mscali and town manager Mike Renshaw are recapping Select Board meetings on FCTV's newest series, Select Board Report. Watch new episodes of Select
Board Report Thursdays live at 5 at fctv.org or on YouTube. Have a question about what happened at the last select board meeting? Ask our hosts by visiting fctv.org/watchb. Carlson Printing 5085487303.
Our email address is carlson printing@gmail.com. Carlson Printing for all your printing needs. >> Hosting services for fct.org are provided by Megaet Communications. Megaet offers a wide array of internet
services including Mega Backup Cloud Service, server collocation, T1, Fiber, Metro Ethernet, as well as telephone services such as hosted PBX and digital voice. Their number one goal is to keep your communications network up and running and allow you to focus on
growing your business. 877-6342638 or meganet.net. John's Liquor 729 Main Street Fmouth 508548-2287. Felmouth Select Board Chair Bob Mscali and town manager Mike Renshaw are recapping Select Board Meetings on
FCTV's newest series, Select Board Report. Watch new episodes of Select Board Report Thursdays live at 5 at fctv.org or on YouTube. Have a question about what happened at the last select board
meeting? Ask our host by visiting fctv.org/watch/ org/watchpr. AR. right there. >> All right. >> And I've actually even opened it already. executive session. So, I will uh call to
order our open session uh and uh of this family select board, Monday, March 9th, 2026, and ask you to join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. Uh um so with respect to recognition, uh I know that u Mr. Reno during our our last
meeting um made a point of uh of thanking uh some some uh uh people who helped out during the storm. But I'd also like to at this point recognize and thank uh Barnstable County Sheriff Donna Buckley and the sheriffs of Norfick and
Berkshire County who uh who were very helpful uh to the town of Felmouth during the uh during the recent snowstorm. So, I just want to go on record as as thanking them and hoping, Mr. Renure, that we might be able to send a letter at some point to them. >> Yes, Mr. Chairman, we do have letters
that I'm preparing and actually some challenge coins too from police department and fire rescue. >> Yeah. Yeah. Very good. Thank you. >> DPW, I'm sorry. >> Okay. Um, any other recognitions? No. Okay. Just a couple of announcements I'd like to make. One is that for all of
you boat owners out there, the waterways commission has uh posted uh draft updated mooring regulations uh that are on their website and it's suggested that you take a look at them. And uh if there's any uh uh comments that you want
to make, you should make them directly to the uh to the waterways committee. Uh, and I just also want to mention that uh, we received word from or representative David Vieira who sponsored our four u home rule petition
bills to the state legislature that three of the four uh have been approved by the uh by the joint committee on municipalities to to move forward for further action. uh those being the one that seeks to uh have an appointed town
clerk that seeks to allow reimbursement with respect to grinder pumps and allows for an exemption from the procurement guidelines with respect to the uh Cape Cod Country Club and the solar array. So uh those are the announcements I have
Mr. Entra. >> Yes, thank you Mr. Chairman. I do is part of town manager's report. Are we moving on to that? I didn't know if >> is there anyone else any announcements? >> No, >> I can tell. >> Yep. >> It's a minor announcement, but the short-term rental advisory committee will meet Wednesday at 6:00 in the
select board meeting room to have a chat before town meeting to see if we are all in order. >> Good to know. Thank you. >> Okay, Mr. Rancher. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a few items that I'd like to uh discuss with the select board tonight under manager
report. And uh one of them I'm going to ask assistant town manager to assist with. Um first off again um we as as many of you know um following uh winter storm Hernando um that week during the storm event the recovery was challenging. Um we have an afteraction
review uh that I've scheduled with all the departments and also um Eversource and National Grid uh coming out to uh participate in the afteraction review uh this Thursday afternoon. Um, as some of you may know, afteraction reviews are a
very important process of the uh planning uh and preparation for the next unfortunately event. Um, that we're always it's a continuum emergency management. We're always planning and preparing and getting ourselves ready for that next uh emergency event. Um, we
learned a lot of lessons uh in wintertorm Hernando. Um, this afteraction review is going to allow us to put those down in writing, kind of memorialize those lessons learned. Um I don't want to go into a whole lot of detail. I will present that afteraction review report uh to the select board
once it's completed. Um this is not unique. Uh just about every jurisdiction is completing their afteraction reviews. Last week Thursday um I was given a copy a draft copy of Joint Base Cape Cod. One of the themes unfortunately that I've seen in talking to other managers on
Cape and also the base uh commanders um is emergency generators. um a huge huge uh concern and challenge for us uh during Hernando during the uh response and then portion of the recovery phase. Um and it was similarly a challenge for
a lot of uh agencies jurisdictions on the Cape. Um so that's going to be a big portion of the afteraction review next Thursday um when I meet with um facilities is getting a complete inventory kind of a status check if you will of of all of the emergency
generators. Um I do believe although as many of you know our capital improvement plan is already in excess of $800 million um we do need to start planning for the replacement. Quite simply some of our emergency generators are end of life and need to be replaced. It's a beyond a maintenance issue. They just
have passed their useful life. So that'll be part of the recommendation as well. I'm almost certain. Um I did want to briefly describe the process um that was uh unfolding last week. We we wrapped up recovery uh efforts uh
Tuesday or Wednesday of last week. Um and by recovery efforts, there were still some streets that remained to be fully cleared and plowed. Um a lot of utility lines were still down, so we're working eversource. Um after that recovery phase was completed Tuesday or Wednesday of last week, we we um
launched into our uh damage assessment, very important port uh uh part of the um MIMA, Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency and FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management uh agency um plan to uh to obtain reimbursement. Part of the damage
assessment and working with our colleagues at MIMA was to complete a uh very comprehensive again damage assessment and a review of all of the costs associated with snow and ice removal. Um overtime costs, equipment repair, um equipment rental, um probably
seven or eight different categories were contained within this report that was submitted to MIMA last week, Friday. Um I don't have the breakout but I can provide that at a later date but I can say that overall um the uh the estimated because that's what these numbers are. They're estimates uh based upon the
records that we have. Um total uh costs associated with wintertorm Hernando were approximately $797,000. Um and that's uh in including DPW snow and ice removal. Overtime costs associated with the DPU DPW crews. those
15 snowplow private contractors that we hired uh throughout the storm event as well as our first responders, police and fire rescue overtime costs. Um so that's the update I wanted to provide with regards to the afteraction review. Um again that's going to uh take
place this Thursday and we'll have a written report that I'll be able to share with the select board kind of the lessons learned, things that worked and things that we need to work on and improve. Um Peter has already started, assistant town manager John Stab has already started to put together some of the uh lessons learned with regards to communication. Um there's some tools and
mechanisms that I think we can do a better job communicating uh with residents. Um even when uh there's a loss of power for 92 or 93% of the community. There's different means and methods that we can use to communicate. So we'll be working in to improve that. Um the other update I wanted to provide
to the select board, a separate topic is um the recent uh receipt of and review of the um uh beach mobile food vendor uh uh uh proposals. Uh Peter Johnson stab, the assistant town manager, did a great job u putting together the RFP. Um and I
wanted to allow Peter a couple of minutes to give an update on kind of where we're at with that process. Peter, >> thank you. Uh so just a reminder that uh the board was encouraged to make some changes to the food concession bids for
the beaches this year. And the the highlights of those changes were um to move away from using the buildings at Surf Drive and Old Silver and transitioning to food trucks or food trailers. Um and we also um at the
encouragement this this all of which is at the encouragement of the beach committee um was to add a couple of new locations um to bid out for food trucks for mobile food concessions. So those two new ones
were Bristol Beach and Chapoy. Um, in total we solicited bids for six locations where we're asking a food vendor to come and either bring a truck or a trailer that is there 7 days a week for for minimum hours. I think it's 11
to 3 or 5:00 p.m. uh 11:00 a.m. start. And so those locations are Old Silver Reserve, Old Silver Public, Surf Drive, Falmouth Heights Beach, Bristol, and Chapoy. Um and then in addition to that, we did a mobile food and beverage um bid
for other beach locations. And those other beach locations are Manet Beach, Gru Pond, Woodneck, Milroad Extension, and Manat East. Um so, you know, slightly different from what we did last year and uh the bids have been received.
um we got a favorable response and that we have competitive bids for all but one contract and which I didn't even mention. Uh a new uh a new element that we tried this year was to issue a bid for a hot beverage mobile vendor that
would have access to all of the beaches provided they didn't interfere with beach operations or other concessions. We did not get any takers on that one. Um but all the other bids we had competitive bids. Um and we are still in the process of finalizing the evaluation
as to the qualifications and responsiveness of all of those bids. But at this point um you know it it looks pretty clear that we have a qualified bidder for each of the locations. So that's all good news. um the there isn't a huge there's not a lot of revenue at
stake with these bids but to the extent that revenue is a concern we exceeded the expectations there. Um one uh aspect that is you know perhaps not what we had hoped for is that we had one aggressive
bidder who was the high bid on five locations. Um and that that better has indicated that they they would they don't want all five. They would they would uh only wish to pursue four locations. Um but that said, you know, I
think none of us anticipated that one vendor would would be getting the bid at at four locations. um you know with the specifications we're you know our ability here is to evaluate whether the bidder is capable
and qualified and submitted the bid properly and they submitted the highest bid. So um I have recommended to the town manager that we proceed with awards um based on the outcome that we that we have and uh it is a two-year bid with a
a one-year extension option. So that's my report. Go ahead, Mr. Brown. >> Mr. Johnson Star, would it be possible um that that one vendor would be having a variety of offerings or would it be all the same thing at four beaches?
>> Yeah, we can engage in a dialogue with them. Um the bidspec does not require town control of the menu. So I I have broached that topic already and we'll um and you know I got a response that indicated some flexibility but again the
town um per the bidsp spec is not in control of the menu and I I don't think that's a that's not a relationship that would really work. you know, if you have you put a contract out, you've got a food service professional, they have a certain thing in mind, and for us to come in and say, "No, throw out that
menu, use this menu instead." I I don't I don't think that's a it's probably not going to work as a business relationship. >> I agree with you, but it seems like it's sort of an unanticipated result that we're going to get and we'll be have to deal with it for two years and >> Yep. >> might not be the best situation,
>> right? Hope they hope hopefully they'll be willing to entertain some some suggestions from Mr. Johnson Stab and Mr. Reno >> about that. Dr. >> Goldstone >> definitely concerned given that this is
our as you said a shift for us. Um a bit of an experiment. I think it went really well at Valent Heights last year. Um, but I'm I guess I'm I'm wondering how we evaluate a responsible bidder. Um, when
we've certainly never had anybody managing four different locations at one time. I don't know every food truck in town, but most of the food truck uh owners and operators that I know are not operating four trucks. So, how can we actually be sure that this person, this
this business has the capability to do four locations simultaneously because it's some of our highest traffic? I mean, not that any of the locations we bid, right, are quiet, sleepy beaches, but but they're, you know, this is this
is a major major service, >> right? So um so we can inquire about the equipment that they have available and the personnel that they have available. Um but the the model has generally you you know has often included that at the
time of the bid award there's a combination of um you know the owners themselves providing some of the support and a plan to hire seasonal staff. So that's part of our our our evaluation
which is not final. Um but yes, part of the evaluation is do we do we believe that they have the capacity to manage all of these beaches with their equipment and personnel? >> And and and if we determined that they didn't, would we be able to move forward
with a different with a new >> Yes. Yes. If there's if there's a qu then you would move to the next highest bid and go through that same evaluation in terms of their um their capacity and ability to meet the requirements of the bid. >> Okay.
All right. Any more questions? Um just uh just a note for for many years the u the town manager's report was buried at the bottom of the uh agenda and it was referred to as a supplemental report. Uh
we have now, you know, in an effort to uh to to get the word out uh quicker when when more people are here and more people are paying attention, we've asked for the town manager report from now on to be at the very beginning of the uh of
the agenda so that we can hear uh hear what uh what what's going on with respect to the town manager. We appreciate that. Um, before I go any further, I want to ask you to silence your cell phones and notify the chair if you are making a video or audio
recording of this open session meeting. The placement and operation of the recording equipment should not interfere with the conduct of the meeting. Okay. And now we will proceed to public comment. Uh, and I will note that public
comment may be made on routine matters not on the agenda this evening. Comments are limited to two minutes. Please introduce yourself. And since the matter has not been included on the agenda, the select board may not participate in discussion of the topic.
Is there anyone in the audience that would like to speak to public comment this evening? Yes, sir. Please step up and introduce yourself right there. You have two minutes. >> Okay. Good evening. >> You might need to press the button on
the front. >> Okay. Hi. Uh, my name is Nathan Miller. Um, I live on Sam Turner Road in Felmouth and I have a few brief comments on what electrical reliability means for this town. Um, as we saw during the recent blizzard, the electric grid could
use some improvements. Uh, Eversource is moving in that direction. Uh, right now they have a petition in front of the electrical facilities sighting board to expand their substation on Sam Turner Road. That project would increase capacity and redundancy and those things are clearly important.
But that project would also build a 2.6 acre substation 100 ft from my neighbors front yards. The petition makes commitments to mitigating impacts during the planned 30 months of construction to applying for town permits for things like office containers and dumpsters and for
implementing environmental controls to prevent things like oil spills and erosion. Yet for the past 8 years, Eversource has operated that current site as a staging yard for other projects. And during that time, none of those same commitments have been upheld. So now, my neighborhood, which is a
modest working-class neighborhood that includes a majority of the affordable homes that this town has worked really hard to build and preserve, is being asked to bear the brunt of a much bigger electrical reliability project. So, in return, I'm here to ask the town to push Eversource to seriously consider
the impact on this neighborhood, to really evaluate alternatives, to design real, meaningful mitigations, and to make clear and forcible commitments. So, last week, as you all know, my neighbors and I sent a joint letter to the select board describing these
concerns. So, if you haven't already, I really encourage you to read that letter. Um, and more importantly, I encourage you to talk to the neighbors about what this project means to them. Um, and I encourage you to carefully review Eversource's petition. And then when the company comes to a future
meeting, which I understand is in the works, I encourage you to press them for real binding commitments to minimize the long-term impact of this project on Hatchville. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any else for public? Anyone else for public comment?
Miss Schneider along with >> We never go anywhere without each other. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> I need backup. >> Yeah, that's that's not true. We know that. >> Well, yeah. You can see by my face. I
do. Um, so Joe and I are here tonight to address the select board because we advise you as a beach committee. And what we want to say is it is very important to all seven members of the beach committee that have worked
tireously for the last two and a half years on transitioning to food trucks. that we hope you will direct management to not take anything less than what we currently have had and to make sure that
the idea of food trucks was to give more diversity and good service to the people that come day after day, week after week. It would be a real shame if we found that what we end up with is
something where someone who rents a home for thousands of dollars and goes to one of our beaches seven straight days cannot go and find something good to have for a lunch at those on those days. And that's what we're concerned about.
While we appreciate that we had two vendors last year that gave us a good head start on what to expect, please, please ask that someone is assured that they can handle that much business.
Not take six minutes to provide one thing for one person buying something. and know that on July 4th when we have a line the length of a parking lot that you will have the staff and the help and
the and the speed to get those people served. >> Joe, do you want to add? >> Is this a new two minutes? >> It's a new two minutes. >> I think it's a new two minutes. is definitely. >> I just want to make sure >> um my emphasis on this whole process and I give Peter a lot of credit because he
spent a lot of time working on this bid process and trying to adapt a system that was fixed to something that's mobile. It's almost like holding jello in your hands. They did a great job of putting that out. We also were shocked at the fact that one vendor could get
four or five locations under their belt so to speak and we're at great risk of not having that be successful in every location. But on the what we are emphasizing here is that whatever diversity we have in the food service
needs to encourage growth of that for each beach mainly. If you started with a standard snack bar that you didn't have products that were for kids, you don't want to go to something that has them no kids involved. So, this is why we need to evolve this this process. And if it
isn't going to work with the vendor that has bid the highest, then please, we encourage you to go to the next bidder until we get the kind of variety that we need in the community. As far as the the vendors, I think they all want to try to do the best job they can, but this is a
success fail situation. There is no in between. It's only six, seven weeks of success or six or seven weeks of failure. And that's why it's very important. And we're not confident that the biders as they presented themselves can do what needs to be done. That's
what we would say. Thank you. Okay. Anyone else for public comment? Okay. If not, we'll proceed to the consent agenda. Uh the first is the license. Consider a vote to approve the application by MPG
Corporation DBA Garrett's Family Market located at 435 Palmer Avenue, Falmouth, for a change of manager to its wine and malt beverage package store license. Administrative orders. Consider a vote to accept a donation from Falmouth Road
Race, Inc. in the amount of $3,500 to the beach donations account 28-632-5655-4830 for the beach department's winter 2025 grant proposal. Number two, consider a vote to approve a request from St. Barnabas Church for a
varianced sign code section 184-20 variances section 240-25 allowable size for the display of a temporary sign in excess of the number of days permitted and ex and in excess
of 32 square ft on the property at 91 Main Street. Number three, consider the approval of a license agreement between the town and the US Coast Guard Auxiliary for the installation of a radio repeater at the fire rescue headquarters facility and
radio tower. Number four, discuss and consider I'm sorry, discuss and consider a vote to approve a letter of support for federal community project funding for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
complex for waterfront access to exploration and research in PN seawater. >> Hold please. >> Hold. Okay. So, uh, do I have a motion with respect to items one as a license and one, two,
and three on the administrative orders? >> Mr. Chair, I move uh the consent agenda with the exception of administrative order number four. >> Second. >> Okay, we have a motion and a second. All in favor? >> I >> I Okay, with respect to uh item four uh
has been held, Mr. Reed, >> I have to abstain from this one. So, a separate vote would be required. Okay, very good. Thank you. Your extension is noted. Uh, do we have a motion? >> Some moved. >> We have a motion and a second. >> Second. Uh, all in favor?
>> I. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> Uh, we received word the other day that Aubry Wily, who wants to uh become a member of the Commission on Substance Use, is unable to attend this evening's meeting. So, he will be rescheduled for
a future meeting. Okay. Moving on to business and uh you know just a few minutes beyond our uh our timeline uh we're going to have a discussion about the residential tax exemption. This is a follow-up
discussion. We've had a number of uh of uh of opportunities to discuss it. I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Renshaw to give us a little bit of a background here. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. As you mentioned, the last time the select board was presented information on the residential tax exemption was back in November,
November 3rd of last year. Um, Laura and Melissa, our outstanding uh assessor, had put together some additional information and some some modeling scenario-based uh data which is included in your packet. and uh and for the benefit of the community that perhaps
missed that November meeting, I think a lot of the speaking points in the initial slide deck or slides of of uh Laura's presentation kind of give an overview of of what residential tax exemption is about. So with that, >> good evening. I'll turn to Laura. Is >> this on? >> Can you hear me? >> Yeah.
>> Okay. Good evening. I'm Laura Citroen, director of finance. Sorry, I'm going to pick up my pen. Okay. So I'm going to go through the slideshow first and then we'll look at the illustrations which is part of the information that the select board
requested the last time that we came before you with this topic. So just a little bit of review first. What is a residential tax exemption? Well, it's an option that's allowed under state law. Um
it allows up to a maximum of 35% of the average assessed value of all residential parcels given to qualified applicants. What that means is you have to be a yearround resident or have that
as your place of doicile um according to federal and tax your federal and state income tax returns has to agree to that. Okay.
And it essentially how it works is you're given an exemption. So if it was 10% of the average, it's 10% of of it's a percentage of the average assessed valuation for property as a whole.
Residential property as a whole only applies to class one residential property. So it doesn't impact commercial property at all. and it shifts the tax burden so that the person who gets the
exemption, so if it's 10% of the average assessed value, which right now is about 979 $930,000, let's say, so 93,000 would be an exemption that would come off of your
assessed value as an exemption. So it's not a reduction of your tax, it's a reduction of the assessed value that you pay taxes on. It shifts the tax rate. But with even with that, those who are below a certain break even
point, which we'll get into in a minute, um still see a reduction in the amount of taxes that they pay on an annual basis. um versus frankly most of the shifting of the
assessed value is to non resident taxpayers. Anybody who is eligible and applies will get the exemption. Those who are non-residents are not eligible to apply.
The program is designed to be revenue neutral which means that the exemptions are usually the applications would come in before we set the tax rate for that year which right now is tenatively scheduled for fiscal year 28. So when we
set the tax rate in November or December of fiscal year of 2027 calendar year, the applications if this program moves forward would would come in prior to
setting that tax rate so that that the reduction in exemption can be spread across the rest of the assessed value. And that's how it becomes revenue neutral. And I'm sorry. I hope that's making sense.
>> Um question. >> It's okay to ask one. >> Yeah. Go go go ahead. >> So I that's the first time I really understood that. Um it's the average value. So 95,000 of value comes off of everybody's house regardless of what their individual value is.
>> That's right. >> Okay. >> If that's if you selected 10% for example, right? It's an example. And when we look at the illustration, you'll see the different um as of the 2025 assessed valuation that was um approved
by do you'll see the different amounts at each percentage level because that's one of the things that you asked for. >> Right. Interesting. So people that have less value in their homes are going to benefit at a higher rate. So that's
interesting. Good to know. Thank you. >> And conver conversely there is a conversation. >> You will. And I I mean I will tell you right off the bat, one of the things we did was um one of the things the assessor did who has joined me here
tonight is come up with how many properties are within different brackets of value. So, as of right now, the example we're going to be looking at, and I'll explain why, has say says
52% of the properties are likely to be eligible for this exemption. 52% of all residential class one properties in um Falmouth. 93% of those properties are under $2
million in value. So that just gives you an example. And if you even went lower than that, 14,000 of them out of out of 21,000 properties are under a million dollars
in value as of 2025. >> So could you just explain how we got to the 52%? >> I will. I'm going to I'm going to go through that right now. >> Okay. >> Okay. Um, I'm just going to reiterate
that people will have to file for the exemption. It's not going to be granted to you because we don't necessarily know who you are. It just has to be you have to file the application. Um,
okay. So, there's two different ways that we came up with the 52%. and and they actually numbers were very close using two different data sets. One is a handout that was in your packet that I don't
know if we have a copy of, but it's the housing profile done by Cape Cod Commission for Falmouth. And what they determined was that um let me find it so I can be
clear in what I'm saying. Well, essentially they said that um I believe it was 31. >> Yeah, it's right here. >> Okay. 31. Yeah. Peter, do you have the numbers specific? >> So, right. So, you know, the bottom line
was they said 52% of the entire housing residential housing stock was owner occupied year round. So 31% was seasonal and 12% was rental and the other 52% was owner occupied by year-round residents.
>> That's right. The other way that we looked at this was we actually send out personal property tax bills to people in the town of Felmouth if they have an address
that if they're living if their address of record is different than the property that um we're owning. Right. I've got that right, Melissa. Right. >> Yeah. Okay. So in the in the course of
doing that now it's not an exact science okay that's that's not an exact science um we do a survey I believe every 5 years and some of those are returned some are not that say you know do you
live in this property um so we do have a disclaimer on all of the information because we don't know for a fact that that's a good number but assuming that it is we sent out
um when we looked at the numbers and we calculated it on the basis of the per personal property bills that we send out and assumed that those were non-resident properties then we still come up with the 19 or the
52% from from that standpoint as well factoring in um a percentage of rental properties which are not eligible under this program. So, we can't be 100% sure. We have the disclaimer on two pages of the
PowerPoint, but we feel pretty good about our estimate. Could there be a 10 to 15% difference? Yes. And we did do a break even point just to get a sense of of what that would be if it was 64% for
instance. Yes, we did. Um, so what that came out to is the break even point, and I'll get I'll show you what that is, of 52% properties means that the break even point is
around the $2 million mark. If it went up to 64% of properties were eligible and the people applied, it would be around $1.6 million. break even point is the point at which you don't pay any more or any less taxes
if you've gotten the exemption and you um and the higher rate applies. You would your tax change either way would be zero. That's the break even point. Anybody who who is
below that break even point will get money back. Anybody who's above that break even point will pay a little more. Bearing in mind that we're there's still a very real difference between people who are above the break even point but still get the exemption. They
still get the exemption. They're not going to pay as much as somebody who is not eligible at all or somebody who doesn't apply that is eligible. Okay. And as I said before, the timing right now potential implementation is
scheduled for December 2027 when we set the rate. The would mean fiscal year 28 taxes. Um there is money in the fiscal year 2000 proposed fiscal year 2027 budget
which will be which is um on the warrant for the town meeting in April and that includes four months of a full-time administrative clerk to help implement this program and start to get marketing
and mailing p um materials out to various properties well to all properties actually to make sure that people are starting to become aware of this program. It also includes um money for system programming. We have two systems that
would need programming and then money for um postage as I said postage mailings and then the clerk for for the last four months of the of fiscal year 27. So um ju just to clarify the the 10%
number that you were using was on the assumption that that would be the exemption amount that this board would approve at going forward it could be as much as 35%. >> That's correct. >> Okay. And we I'm just using 10% because
it's easy to figure out that 10% of 930,000 is 93,000 just >> right but but this board could choose to go up to 35% on that average amount that that that average assessed amount and everybody's
exemption would be reduced everybody's uh assessment would be reduced by that amount. >> That's correct. And the illustration will show that. >> Y >> I'm going to open the illustration if I can. Mr. Chair. >> Yes. >> I think that's only if we adopt the seasonal communities act though. >> No, the seasonal community goes up to
50% actually. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. You we can go to 35%. The most of the towns that have done it, the advice is start low. So there's not sticker shock uh you know for for for the homeowners and then think about it. But the statute
lets us do 35% which is a a lot of money. I mean interesting changed recently. >> I believe mash started at 10 and they're at 20 now. What? What? What? Jack >> believe Mash started at >> 10. They just had a hearing. >> So that's why we're using the 10 as the
the prime >> example. >> I have one. >> I have an Excel version which will be easier anyway. Okay. >> I can get into >> here. Let me do it.
See it. Wait, did you put in >> Where' it go? Oh, there it is. There it is. >> 52%. >> Yeah. >> Okay, great. Thank you. >> Right. It's going to go down regardless of how much it goes down. So,
>> yeah. >> Yep. >> All right. Let's get this. I'm going to >> zoom right at the bottom slide. >> I'm trying. >> Can you see it? >> Yes.
>> All right. I'm going to move it back around back and forth a little bit just so that we can see the the various things. But I'm going to I'm going to use the 10% right off the top just to explain how this this chart is set up.
So the 10% as I said well so the 10% is 95,000 in the third column over see exemption 95,313 that would apply to every level. The first column is at various current
valuations of property. So if your house is valued at 500,000 in the first line, you're currently paying taxes at the rate of 573 per,000 of value for a total of $2,865
a year in taxes. The exemption of 95,313 would reduce the 500,000 down to 4 04687 in the fourth column. The new tax rate, which is a a
calculation that's actually done on a calculator by the state, would be $6602 per,000 of value. So your taxes went up from 573 to 602, but your value is much
less. So taxes at the new rate are in the next column. And so the change in the tax bill for the $500,000 property is
um a reduction in taxes of $428.78. And you can follow it down. So the next line is um it goes 500,750. So if we go to the break even point,
you'll see where the zero is. That value is 1,978564 to start and you'll see that that gets reduced by the 99 95,313 and brings you over to a change in tax bill of zero. And just a quick question
there. You said n2% of people fall into those five brackets. >> 93%. Yes. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Now, the next two columns show what happens if you're not eligible or you don't apply.
So, your taxes would go up at 500,000 would go up by $145 a year. And once you get up into the higher value, the last one of $5 million, it would go up by $1,450
a year. So that's how this whole chart works. And if we look at it, let me open it back up here. So, if you go over and you start looking, you'll see that we have it at
10%. We have it at 15%. We have it at 20%, 25%, 35%. So, if you went to the highest, let's say,
your break even point is the $2 million. If you had a house at your your exemption would now be 35% of the average assessed valuation, which would need an exemption of $333,595. And so you would be paying taxes at a
new tax rate. The tax rate would increase also. So that would go to 687. But for those who are getting the exemption and below that break even point at the 500,000, it's a reduction in
taxes of $1,721 a year. Um, but if you're up to the $5 million, you're going to be paying an extra $3,400 a year in taxes. If you're not eligible, you're going to
be paying an extra $5,700 a year in taxes or $570 at the $500,000 range if you're not eligible or you don't apply if if you are eligible. Okay.
>> Can you tell me how the uh why does the tax rate change because we're shifting the amount that people are paying but we're not changing the value. Well, we're reducing the overall assessed value and in order to make up the difference to keep it revenue
neutral, >> it's changing the tax rate. >> Got it. >> I see. Thank you. >> And um how often does someone need to apply? >> Well, the the law says that it should be
you should be applying every year. In reality, I don't think I I know in practice that's not what's happening. Most most places that we've talked to are doing every two to three years, some even as much as five. Um
I mean it's a very labor intensive process for both. It's it's a pain in the neck for the people who are doing it, but it's also a pain in the neck for the people who have to file and and take care of all those applications and review them. I will say that um you know
the exemption stays with the owner in this particular case. So that if somebody if a property sells, they're going to be taken off of not the the taxes will carry until we take that
exemption off, which would probably be immediately or would it be at the end of the year because they're already paying if a sale happens during the course of the year? It's a good question and certainly the
the realtors are going to have to be very u up on this so that they're able to advise, you know, homeowners that are or purchasers, >> right, >> that the taxes might very well change if they're not full-time residents, >> right?
And I also want to um point out that um I just lost my thought. >> Got an opportunity for another question. I have a habit of doing that to people. I apologize. >> Would we be able to do this with online permitting?
>> Well, you have to uh you have to show your income tax return. >> You could submit that. >> You do. And we would we would have a we would part of the programming and getting everything implemented and and up so that we can take this and do it as
efficiently as possible will be to allow online um applications for sure. But they would have to send their tax return. Now, for those who don't want to, it's my belief that they can bring it in
and show it to us and then take it home with them. >> Yeah. >> I mean, as long as we've authenticated via the tax return that that is their residence, their year-round residence or their their, you know,
>> primary residence, then >> we can do that. Dr. Goldstein, >> related to that, I noticed that one of the implementation costs is storage and and this has come up in previous conversations. I'm curious why if all that's needed is a visual verification, why why we need to store those, why
couldn't we just shred and once a a document's reviewed online, essentially click delete and and get rid of that and just have verified that that person lives there. with their is that is there is there an
actual need to store if if it's possible to walk in and get your tax return and your address verified is it actually necessary to store any of those? >> So, >> um that's an excellent question to identify yourself. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Melissa M. I'm the
director of assessing. Thank you. Um so we've been discussing this issue about how to do it. Um for auditing purposes there's a certain period of time that we have to show documentation.
So it wouldn't it our belief is that it wouldn't be that we can just visually look at it and let it go. What we're suggesting is that people um redact or black out their income. We're not interested in the income. We're really just interested in the address that
they're using on the returns. And the suggestion is that we get both the federal and the state and the copy of their license and again to redact all that information that's not relevant to the address. Um, and then just to
revisit the question about online, our intention is to make this as easy as possible and to have it an online application process where the information goes directly into a document storage system that has security. Um, and so people should be
able to uh ideally apply online, upload their documents online. The documents would then and their application would then go into a um a document management system which would then route those applications through the process so that
someone makes an initial review to make sure the documents are sufficient and then someone else makes another review to make sure that the information is correct and then ultimately they're bulk um reviewed by the board. So,
a question. I know there's a a startup cost and we know that it's rather significant in the beginning and you we we've seen those numbers, but if we're not going to be asking for, you know, annual application, will that and you
know, will that cost go down once the program is up and and and and working so that the the the costs the budget costs would would lessen once the u once the program has started. or are we looking at, you know, this
cost as long as this program exists? I mean, that's my question. Okay. So, I think that the year the full-time administrative clerk would be necessary to continue on a regular basis. I do
think that an occasional mailing or a reminder might be worthwhile, but not to the tune of $24,000 that we have in there. Now, >> programming once that's set and done, um there will be one more piece to that
to be done once um when we have to change our camera bridge, which are our our you know commercial commercial assessment. Okay. And um but the thing that we won't have to do
is do the full-on full-scale marketing. We won't have to hire three temporary people for a period of 8 to 12 weeks on an annual basis. Those costs will not be there. >> But but the clerk you you think would be your requirement going forward?
>> I think so. I think just to monitor I mean there are property sales going on all the time. There are buildings being built all the time. And the other thing that happens and this is what I did want to say before um if somebody does not apply
in the period of time prior to when we set that tax rate. if they want to apply, they can apply and request an abatement after the tax bills are mailed for a period of 90 days. Now, that's not
ideal because that is revenue lost. >> That's not revenue that's spread to other people. That's literally revenue lost from the town. So, we're the in we would encourage everybody to get their applications in as quickly
as possible, preferably starting approximately July 1st of of um this summer. >> So, does that does that 90day is that a requirement of of the state statute that we allow people to do that? We don't we
can't change that. We can't. Okay. It's it's subject to the same abatement process as any other type of abatement. Thank you. I'll just um say as you're thinking about how to implement this and especially how to implement the online part and I know this is not all in your
department but it would be truly fabulous if a resident could go online and apply for their uh tax exemption, get their trash sticker, their beach sticker, and their clamming license and whatever else like in one place and do
the paperwork once as opposed to like providing your proof of residence. five different times. So, if we could figure out how to streamline those systems in this process, that would be >> fabulous. >> Okay, Mr. Reid. So, thank you for your analysis here. I
think it really shows how who's going to I guess that we're not bringing in new revenue. It's really just going to be a shift over to those that are not eligible. um which I think is important here because the 92% or 93% that you
talked about um really applies to the you know Falmouth being the Cape's kind of last meaningful foothold for the middle class right now. Um so this is doing a lot for our folks that live here that our identity is based on. um we've
started leveraging ADU production uh production short-term rental um regulation to manage that a little bit better and we've established dedicated housing funding. So, I'm kind of bringing this all together because we have a report coming up uh for the
workforce uh fam and families here. This is going to tie into this, but this also ties into um the tax overrides that we're forecasting. So, my question is um have you I guess there's two questions here.
Have you looked is anyone looking at this analysis um against the forecasted tax overrides that we are looking at for the police station Lawrence school renovation and the outfall
because it would be great if it was a zero sum game for the average taxpayer. If we're going to raise taxes and override this would be really nice to say hey we want to keep you here. I'm wondering if we're doing any analysis for that. And the second question is
this is I'm I'm leaning in favor of this, but um has there been any analysis into the unintended consequences or um yeah, I guess the unintended consequences of those not eligible. I'm thinking small landlords that are
housing um our scientific workforce, so on so forth. I think it's a very small piece of the pie, but has any analysis on either of these regards happened either by you or anybody else in town management? Well,
we've talked to um we've talked to the assessment department in Province Town where they have a special um I guess an act that allows them to um
do this for rental properties. I don't know if anybody else has. I mean, I've seen it in other states. Um it. We haven't done an analysis on that, but I
it's it's a political decision. I mean, it's a it's a policy decision, >> Mr. Chair. >> That we have going to town meeting in a few weeks. I guess that's several weeks, >> right, Mr. Richardson? Yeah, I was going to say uh the vice chair's point just now that that that is a policy that we
are going to be considering at meeting with that. >> Uh not getting on my soap box before everyone get nervous. I just wanted to thank both of you for your tremendous amount of work on this policy. Uh it it is incredibly complicated but comparing this presentation to the one we had 6
months ago. This has been fantastic. uh and and you know the reason that uh at least I have been pursuing this policy and I think Colin just reiterated is this is a policy that's designed to help you know the the people that have made uh the upper Cape and Fmouth the great place it is uh to work and live and uh
Fmouth is becoming the gateway to Nantucket uh and we need to do all we can to to stop that and policies like this uh allow us to to shift the tax burden to keep people uh living in in the places they built to help seniors on on low incomes and fixed incomes
uh it's we need to pursue policies like this and and and um you know I would I would look if we could move officially endorsing that 10% rate knowing that we don't want the sticker shock beyond the 10%. Uh I don't know if that's in the scope of the agenda tonight but I would like to take that meaningful step
forward if we can. Granted that this is not for this financial tax year. This is for FY28. >> Yeah. Okay. Anyone else? Otherwise, I'll see if there anyone in the audience that would like to address this issue.
Okay. Yes, Miss Harris. >> I have a question about the submitting of the tax return. How do you >> identify yourself, please? >> Oh, Mary Harris, precinct 5. How do you know that it's the tax return they actually filed? It's plenty easy to get
software to print out the first page of your tax return showing any address you want to. But how do you verify that? Can't can't we get a list from the state of individuals who filed as residents here? So, I haven't looked into what the state
can provide, but I have looked into what the federal government will allow and if there was a way to get a list from them and share information. And the answer is no. This does not meet the standards that they require that in the very
limited um ways. I in other states I I was told no because um it's considered private information that's not available to the public even to other municipalities but that does not
necessarily mean that that's the case in Massachusetts and we can certainly check >> would be filing a false document which I assume would be uh you know there'd be a criminal uh criminal uh responsibility if if if they filed a
false statement if we found out that it was false. I mean, I think it is a crime to file a false statement. Council, >> I can answer that one. >> So, if if someone filed a tax return that was not really showing their
personal residence, as Miss Harris, you know, aptly points out, not that hard to do. Would that be a filing of a false document? if if it was found out that they did not live at the you know at the residence that they claimed on this document that
they submitted to the town. >> I'm not on up on that area of the law, but I can research the question for you >> and and maybe we can make it some kind of civil penalty from, you know, from the town's point of view if there was a problem, you know, if there was an inaccuracy or
>> I'm not again something to look into. >> That's possible. Yeah, I can look at that. >> Okay. But thank you for pointing that out, Miss Harris. Very good. Thank you. Anyone else? Um Jack would all do I'm not sure we're uh we're ready to go uh you know with
respect to this matter at this point, but you know I'd certainly um you know entertain a motion if you want to make it. I think uh um you know certainly you're welcome to make a motion. >> So I well I mean I guess the motion would just be to pursue the 10%
residential exemption for FY28. It's my motion. >> Are we Is there any That's not setting the tax rate. >> No, it's just I'm just saying pursue. I'm not saying it's this is,
>> you know, this is something that's >> good that it's way. >> Second. >> Is that really Can we vote that? It's not really on the agenda. >> Town council, can we do this? >> You're getting a bonus there. >> Can you do what?
It wasn't listed in the agenda, but >> it's not listed for a vote, but I think, you know, it's it's on the agenda. >> So, the agenda doesn't need to list specifically that you're going to take a vote. A vote is implied in any discussion, >> right? >> Uh so there's my motion and vice chair seconded.
>> Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing and seeing none. All in favor? >> I >> I Okay, very good. And thank you uh both for your presentation. It was very helpful.
Okay, moving on to uh item B. Uh discuss Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection wastewater discharge permit for the Easterly project at 375 Sandwich Road. Again, Mr. Intro. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. As uh as the board
knows and the community has seen, there's been some uh recent interest uh in in articles published in the enterprise with regards to this question. Um, I've asked the assistant town manager and our wastewater superintendent to put together a summary overview of some of the implications ramifications of the draft groundwater
discharge permit and uh then allow the slight board an opportunity to ask questions and discuss the the matter. >> So with that, I'll turn over to Peter and and Amy. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I will um lead off with an overview and then ask uh wastewater superintendent Amy Lel to
come up and um perhaps elaborate and certainly be available for your questions. So again, we what we wanted to discuss tonight is the um wastewater discharge permit. Uh it's a draft wastewater discharge permit issued
by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection for the Easterly project at 375 Sandwich Road. Um the board is well familiar for the public. That's a 300 unit rental housing um development. And I'll just start by saying this is a very complicated
intersection of housing and environmental issues um and appropriately of of great concern to many residents um with interests in both housing and um water quality. And so the
the ZB I guess I one of the points I wanted to start with is that I do feel like the the town tackled this thorny issue really well. Um so we had the ZBA and staff collaborating closely with um
our wastewater uh staff professionals as well as the town manager's office and and legal counsel. Um I myself was not involved in um you know directly in the ZBA proceedings or in the um the settlement discussions that took place
afterwards. Um but from my perspective um just having sort of observed these issues for for many years uh I wanted to lead with that point. Um, so the the reality is that the town has these conflicting goals, right? We want
to generate a lot of housing in order to make um living in this town attainable for people of of moderate incomes and modest incomes and and affordable incomes. And uh to do that means adding more
nitrogen, more waste water. Um, I I would say for perspective in with looking at this project in particular, the largest one the town has ever seen, 300 units to some extent, I would encourage folks to think about that in the context of the 23,000
housing units that we have in Massachusetts. Right? So, as a percentage of total housing units and as a percentage of total nitrogen going into the groundwater, these 300 units is pretty small actually. Um, so you know with that obviously we
are spending a lot of money on on wastewater and we don't want to make our challenge more difficult. So we really wanted to get the best possible wastewater treatment we could at this project. Um, and the the ZBA put in a
pretty um significant requirement in its permit and it was appealed by the developer. uh that appeal went to the housing appeals commission. There were settlement negotiations that um that were undertaken by the two parties and
they did reach agreement before the housing appeals commission issued a decision. And now getting to the article that was um a column written by um boy his name just escaped me. Neil Neil
help me. Chris Neil. Um, and there it is important to understand some of the details um, in order to have a sense of how good or bad this waste draft wastewater discharge permit is. So, um, I'm going to get into some of
those specifics starting with the um, the requirements that were in the settlement agreement um, between the developer and the town. And they that settlement agreement um called for a uh
sorry let me pull up here. So it required an average effluent concentration of 5 mg per liter of total nitrogen with best operational efforts to achieve an average annual concentration of 3 mg of total nitrogen.
The applicant shall also employ mitigative measures to achieve net zero nitrogen load from the project to the great pond watershed. So that would that was what was included in the decision and um part of the context and I'm trying not to get too
far down the weeds into the many uh different complicated areas. So, um, the discharge permit not being a town permit, but a state permit limited to some degree the ability of the Zbea to to control what that um requirement was
going to be. So, that was a that was a pretty good outcome. Um the the agree the settlement agreement also included a contribution to be paid by the developer of $750,000 to fund additional nitrogen offset
measures. And that's because if you know there is still even with these really very good concentration standards, there was still going to be a lot of nitrogen added. So that $750,000 was going to help pay for other mitigation me
measures that would take place at other properties to offset the nitrogen added. So that was a settlement agreement. Then it was up to the D to issue a wastewater discharge permit. That that's not a permit that the town issues. their permit was a little disappointing to to
us at the town and uh our I'm I'm happy to say that Amy LOL as usual was on top of it and she did submit a um a comment within the comment period for that permit uh seeking the a reduction in the
total nitrogen that was allowed in that permit. So the DP used different standards, right? In our settlement agreement, it was average um the average concentration. The DP um did had a total a limit of 346
kg per year and a wastewater flow limit of 49,950 gallons. So how does that compare? You know, they're they're completely different measures. Well, if you do the math, the imputed average um annual effluent concentration comes out to 5 mg
per liter. So again, the town permit said they had to achieve developer has to achieve 5 milligrams. Best efforts to get to three. The state permit says you have to get to five. Period. Didn't say anything about an aspirational goal to get to
three. Um so the the wastewater superintendent's letter um encouraged or or asked the DP to reduce the total nitrogen from 346 kg per year to 207 kg
per year which would equate to the three milligrams of per liter of average as an average concentration. So that's that's the wastewater discharge permit. We now have these two things that are still both in effect, right? So, well, I shouldn't say it's in
effect. The D permit is still in the draft stage, as far as I know. Still in the draft stage. Um, and the the um the permit, the settlement agreement and the comp permit is still in force. So, just because the D might have in some sense a
higher um threshold for allowed nitrogen, that permit that the town has is still legally enforceable according to town council. and and and what is what is our recourse if they don't or if
we determine that they are not um employing mitigative measures to achieve the net zero load. What is our recourse at that point? There are provisions in the um the settlement for the modification to the comprehensive permit
um that speak to not just the best operational efforts to achieve the 3 milligrams um per nitrogen load type total nitrogen load but also um the other >> the net zero
>> the net zero and um those financial aspects of the settlement would be triggered if they don't reach those. So, while the D permit will um work in tandem with the modified comprehensive
permit, there are penalties in the comprehensive permit if those additional restrictions aren't met >> over and above the 750,000. Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Any questions? Yeah, >> Dr. Goldstone. >> Um got a few questions. Um, when do we
expect to hear from D uh regarding the the final decision? >> Amy L, wastewater superintendent. Uh, I don't know. Uh, it should have been a while ago. Um, so there is there's a some kind of delay in the process. >> Okay. Um,
when So, I'm glad to know we have some recourse. I'm really curious though how you actually determine whether somebody has employed best operative efforts. Um I mean they say we tried, we didn't get
there and and we go home. Like what what does that actually look like? >> Yeah. I I I think that the enforcable elements are the the total nitrogen and and net zero, >> right? Which in both cases then both DP and RS the enforceable is five not three, right? because our upper limit is
five in our agreement, >> right? >> In settlement agreement, correct? >> Um, >> but then there's also the net zero, >> right? So then what >> it's a average not a upper limit. The five is an average annual concentration just to be
>> okay. So in Okay, so the D permit could end up being more restrictive than our agreement. I'm sorry. >> Because it sets a total upper limit. Right. Well, let's see. The the town's comprehensive permit does not reference
a load. It just references an average concentration. >> Okay. >> Um so what that means is it doesn't um it doesn't have it doesn't reflect the flow. If you're if you're talking about a concentration instead of the instead
of a load, what it means is you're not referring to the to the flow. So that is a little bit that is more restrictive because if their flow is lower than the uh permit limit flow then they then they uh can they could average higher.
They could I'm sorry their their load could be higher. >> Right. Okay. Um, do we know what the additional mitigation measures to get to net zero are planned to be? And do we have any right or ability to know what those are?
>> No. >> No, >> I don't know what they are as we sit here. >> Okay. Um, last question. How much nitrogen removal will $750,000 buy us? If you assume that we were that the town's going to use that money to
subsidize IAS IA I denitrifying septic systems uh at $40,000 a piece that would buy almost 19. Obviously the town could do a variety of things with it. But that's the that's the number of IA systems you could
install at $40,000 a piece. IA upgrades. >> Thank you. So, I'm I'm apprehensive about their u ability to treat to this level. We've been working you've been working for
years to get our plant fine-tuned to the point where it can reach these type of levels of treatment. And I don't think they're going to have a a system similar to ours. They're going to have an ingground system which is probably going to be more likely to be around 10
milligrams. Wouldn't you think? just a educated guess. I mean, I know you don't know what their system is, but >> uh we'll see. So, our the main plant or the town's plant has averaged 3 milligrams per liter effluent total nitrogen over the last uh five years. I
believe it's five >> um four or five years um and has been close in in most in in all in the other recent years. um they I don't know what what kind of performance they're going going to get out of their treatment
plant, but these two these two permits, the comprehensive permit and the department of p of environmental protections permit both provide standards uh that they will that with um
enforcement problems if they don't meet them. And do we have the right to go in and do our own testing to confirm? >> I think it's a little like that question about uh about submitting false
information. uh I think the these are so every month or they are going to be required to uh report I believe it's monthly but whatever the frequency is uh within
their permit um and those reports are a somebody has to sign uh their name certify that that it's accurate when they submit that report um so I I would not be suspicious of of the data there.
Um but um I'm I don't know the answer about going in. I imagine we could ask. And then if I could, the the final question is if things go really wrong and it's really a pollution hazard that can't be mitigated
on site, we might end up running a sewer line over there. It's that's my worst fear is that we're going to get stuck with a bill pursuing an area that we wouldn't otherwise be planning to do and I don't expect an answer to that. But the third thing is we're under D mandate
to remove nitrogen from Great Bay and that wershed. And now I I'm baffled as to how the state can allow 346 kilograms of nitrogen to be added to that same watershed that it's the most
impaired water body in that I'm aware of anywhere in Massachusetts. I mean, there's probably more, but it just seems like so uh contradictory to their mission. >> There are conflicting um there are there
are state regulations that are at cross purposes here. >> Yeah. >> Uh the chapter 40B regulations and the watershed permit regulations clean under the clean water act um generally are um they don't they don't meet in the
middle. Yeah, >> there are some there are some contradictions. >> They leave us in the middle. >> Well, maybe we should uh consider a letter to our state delegation asking them to look into this. >> Yeah, I think that's an order.
>> Yeah. Okay. Something to think about. Okay. All right. Anyone in the audience have anything to uh add or mention with respect to this issue? Thank you uh Miss Low and thank you Mr. Johnson. Stop. Oh,
please. >> Thank is this on. Yes. >> Y. >> Um, hi Wendy Bistler, president Kunameset River Trust. Uh, naturally because this effluent will be flowing into the Kunameset River Wershed. We're very concerned about the possible
impacts to the wershed and to downstream Great Pond. Um I I I am very very uncomfortable with what has been proposed in this draft um uh permit
by DP. It doesn't explain at all what the mitigation measures will be to try to meet this lower number. It doesn't mention the 3 milligrams. It actually doesn't mention fertilizer uh fertilizer plan either, though I know it's in the
agreement worked out between the town and the developer. I just like what's going to happen like you guys have all brought up if they don't meet those numbers. What's going to happen? Are is the town going to be left holding the bag on this? It's so incredibly unfair to the taxpayers in
this town that we have to pay and pick up the slack for something the town the state is demanding that we meet but the developer gets off scot-free and they're making money off this project. That just seems incredibly unfair. Um and also I
have a question. How do we determine what net zero will be? Will this be with this bi-week this bimonthly testing that happens or how do we know that we're going to be meeting the net zero number that's being required?
>> The main monitoring here would be of the effluent from the treatment plant. >> Okay. Um and there as far as fertilizer application um I think that's I don't have I don't have an answer about how we'd monitor
the fertilizer. >> Okay. But how so that the the monthly testing will let us know what their limits are and that will then let us know if it's not reaching it's
not it's not adding net it's no net zero to the wershed down >> it would let us know what the flow what the flow has been and what the effluent total nitrogen concentration has been and how that compares to the the two standards one in the groundwater
discharge permit one on the comprehensive permit. >> Okay. Um I would think I mean I would urge the town to appeal the permit, right? If it doesn't I mean even though you say you have the two agreements,
shouldn't the town appeal the D permit if it comes in higher than what the agreement had been worked out between the town and the developer? I mean, it's it's that's that's another possibility to
hopefully get what you want out of this project. So, okay. Thank you. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I'd like to ask town council if that would be advisable.
>> I'm not seeing that they conflict. I I believe that they can work in concert with each other and so far we haven't seen the final permit. So okay it of course with anything we'll always consider what our options are >> but I'm not expecting there to be a
conflict between the comprehensive permit and the final permit from the D. >> Okay. All right. Well, we'll see what happens. Thank you. >> Okay. We will move on to a uh an update from the uh municipal light board.
Please approach and introduce yourselves. >> You might have to help them slides here. >> I'm I'm Courtney Bird. I live on supervisit road and I'm uh chair of the municipal light board and with me is the
vice chair Mike Beckerly who's more uh technologically apt and I am is going to man the slideshow. >> Yeah, which I have to figure out how to put up. >> Unless it's there is >> Oh, you might have to help them out. Get
it. We're already like 30 minutes behind schedule. If you could help them out. You all set? >> No, I have no idea how to turn it on. >> I mean, I see it on the desktop here, but I don't know how to point it. >> There's a mouse.
>> There's a mouse. So I think when I look in this board of selectment I I I think there are a couple of people who may have the same longevity as I do. Seven years ago, uh, in February,
the select board, and, uh, Peter probably remembers this, used to hold these sessions on Saturday morning up at the Falmouth Academy where they would get all the town boards together uh, to sort of brainstorm how the town
could move forward more efficiently. And I was there as a representative of the conservation commission. So we went around the room and it got to we finally got to me after going around this huge thing and I opened my mouth
and I said we should have fiber optic internet in Fallon. We are way behind the scene. And uh there was stunned silence. And after the meeting was over, uh Sue
Moran, who was at the time uh the chair of the select board, um said, "Well, Courtney, you ought to head this up because if anybody can do it, you get your teeth into something, you won't quit." Anyway, long and short of it is
that not knowing anything about fiber, I said, "Well, I've got to learn. I got to find some people that know something about it. And so I reached out to David Eisenberg who lives in Woods Hall and used to work for the Bell Labs and he put me in touch with Art Gaylord who
used to be the IT director at Woods Hole Oceanographic and we formed an ad hoc committee which for the lack of anything better to call it Fal we called it Falmouth and we the first thing we decided to do was to have a meeting uh in the Herman
room to see what kind of interest there was in um having fiber optic internet in the town. And this meeting was held in June and it was well publicized. the news the
newspaper uh given it good publicity and over a hundred people showed up and um one of the people on our committee was uh uh was also on the EDIC
and he said we need to get some money and he says come and make a presentation to the EDIC and see if they're willing to unfund a feasibility study. So, I went into the next meeting of the um of the EDIC and I
made my pitch and they put up $50,000 to fund a feasibility study. We issued an RFP. We had several responses. We selected a company who wrote up a feasibility study which is on um uh
Falmouth Net's web website. In the the fe feasibility study, these the studies showed number one that there was the cost of the to build a network from scratch was be somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 million.
But the other part of it was which was important was that there was tremendous demand in the town and in fact they said potentially a 65% take rate which means
that's absolutely huge. There are 25,000 businesses and individual homes and uh uh apartments and that kind of thing in in town. And so uh 65% of it would be
like 13,000 or more. And um so the study also suggested that the break even point for a fiber optic network was somewhere around uh 40%. Which would be about
eight or 9,000 uh homes, maybe a little more. So, um, I bring that up because it has some relevance to the present. In any event, um, out of that ad hoc
group, we decided that we wanted to, uh, create a nonprofit, uh, 501c3, and it was called Falmouth. And our purpose was to advocate uh for a fiber optic network in Falmouth presumably to
be municipally owned and operated. So um the Falmouth that uh was formed as a nonprofit and then it went out and raised well over $100,000 um largely due to the efforts of of uh
of um David Eisenberg I must say. Um and that money was used for a publicity campaign and we lobbyed the board of select not the board of selectmen but the town meeting members uh very hard
and in uh 2023 the uh town uh meeting voted twice in two successive town meetings by percentages of 90 and 93 and 86%
to create um a municipal light plan which would then operate a fiber optic broadband network on behalf of the town. And that that um that municipal light plant was to be
governed by a fivep person elected board called the municipal light board. Now um there was a reality in all of this. It's called money. And uh the issue was where do you come
up with 50 $50 million just like that. And as you well know, there are lots and lots of priorities in this town. Sewing, housing, uh coastal resiliency, just to name three. Oh, and I forgot about the
police station. That's four. And that's and there's one sort of basic rule of economics that I learned when I was a sophomore at Middbury taking a baby economics class from a gentleman who was a tank
commander in German Vermach in Norway. In any event, he the first rule of economics that he said was desire is infinite.
Money is finite. And when you think about it, what that boils down to, all of the things that you guys wrestle with, that this town wrestled with boils down to that one simple idea.
There's only so much money to go around and there's infinite desire. So anyway, we got a we got this board up and running and we got we were going to form a uh form a municipal light a light
plant and then and what that meant was that we had to uh come up with a business plan that would convince town meeting to spend $50 million. Um, that was a tall order.
And at the same time that we were faced with this, there were other options that we could have chosen. Rather than having a town owned network, we could either partner with a private ISP in which the ISP puts up a percentage, the town puts
up a percentage or that we could have a ISP, internet service provider, who would fund the whole deal. Now the downside of that obviously is that there's less control. If you own
it, you control it. You can set the rates. You can get the you get the benefits of the revenue and all of that. If you don't put any money in and don't have any skin in the game, then you know essentially um uh your leverage is a
little less. But anyway, in the reality was then in 2024 that there wasn't money available from the town and so um we put out a RFI
request for information and out of that we got se several responses. One of them was a a a company called Boundless or New England Broadband. Now, it was an offshoot of the company
that had done a higher level engineering design study that we got a $150,000 earmarked from Sue Moran's office to fund it. And in that and Tilson uh was chosen to
do the high level engineering design study and they were very interested in Falmouth and they they met with us informally and said they we would be interested in coming to Falmouth and building a fiber optic network. We might be interested in partnering blah blah
blah. So, um, they formed an offshoot called New England Broadband or Boundless. And unfortunately, um, uh, sadly, Boundless had problems with getting funding and that whole thing
kind of fizzled out. And so we get uh to the present which is that out of that um period three other ISPs uh sort of came out of the woodwork and
showed interest in building a fiber optic network and found them. Now these three ISPs uh these three ISPs uh are listed up here. Gateway Fiber,
Gonet Speed and Ripple Fiber. Now they have all expressed interest in Falmouth and one of the realities that we have is that unlike uh cable
television where um the town can essentially is a franchise can issue a franchise and therefore pick a provider i.e. Comcast in with it when it comes to broadband uh
the law and the FCC do not allow that kind of exclusive arrangement. So we have to open it up to competition which is a good thing. So we in we investigated these three uh
ISPs. They made presentations to us several times in executive session. We uh looked into their financing and from what we could gather they all seem to be well financed. Um they all had good
references in terms of u operations elsewhere in Massachusetts and they have all shared their preliminary bill plans with the municipal life board. The other part of it is that they all
have regional plans for all of Cape Cod and southeastern Massachusetts, which Balmouth is a part. And this obviously is one of the reasons why we were we were a little concerned about opening it up to three three ISPs because you
remember back when I talked about the feasibility study and I said that uh break even was 40% which is 10,000 homes. If you have if you have three ISPs competing for that 40 or 42% or 10 or 12
11,000 homes and they all get a third of it, they're not making any money. And so what happens then? Well, either one of them either they they'll fold their tents up and sell their whatever
infrastructure they've built to one or the other two or the other likely aspect of this is that they are looking for a regional approach and so yeah if they only get 6,000 customers in
Massachusetts I mean in Fland but they get 10 or 12,000 customers elsewhere or more in Barcel or Mashki or Bourne um or Sandwich or anywhere else on the Cape then it makes sense.
Anyway, um now the what differentiates the three of them and some are first of all feel that that the best way to proceed is to string fiber on telephone
poles of which there are well over 11,000 in in in Falmouth. However, those polls only cover uh uh 74% of the town's roads. 26% are underground and mo a lot
of them in private developments. So, um anyway, but that's okay. They have that's their um that's their emphasis. Other ones are looking at building going underground and saying
we're not worried about getting up on the polls which is a very timely process and expensive. So essentially we're going to have a race that's going to start in the next month to month and a half. Um uh one of the f one of the one of the
networks um one of the networks uh is has already met with the DPW and conservation uh to discuss permitting underground and I'm working on arranging uh for the other
two to uh meet with the DPW and conservation uh in the next couple of weeks. >> Mr. Bird, you're going to have to kind of finish it up pretty soon. We gave you 15 minutes. We gave you 15 minutes and we're about there. So, you're going to have to try and conclude as soon as you
can. >> So, let me uh let me just quickly finish. Um so anyway um we are at a point where um we are negotiating a
memorandums of understanding with each one of the three ISPs which we expect to execute within the next uh uh two weeks or so. Uh we also expect that the ISPs will get to get their permits either to
go underground or up above uh uh within a short period of time. And so I'm expect that we will see a fiber optic internet construction in Falmouth within the next couple of months. >> Okay. Well, thank you very much. Um any
questions, Mr. Brown? >> Uh will they all be operating off the backbone of the Open Cape network? >> What's that? Will they all be operating on the backbone of the Open Cape network? >> Um, yeah. O Open Cape they have to all talk to Open Cape and
are all going to collaborate with them to one degree or another. Um, because it makes sense that Open Cape has 40 48 miles or something like that of fiber and Falmouth. So, it makes sense for them to piggy back on it. Yeah. >> Yeah. Thank you.
>> Anyone else on the board? >> Dr. Yeah, if you could go back to theou slide, please. The per foot per terrain install cost schedule for otherwise so that is a cost that would come to the town to reach
otherwise unserved uh areas that go ahead. Yeah, this is one of the things we've asked the uh ISPs in this draft memorandum of understanding uh to provide us is because our concern has been that there are some quite remote
homes in Felmouth and their economics may want them to bypass that. We wanted to at least have them tell us how much, you know, you know, so that we could we could have some idea what it would cost, whether those homeowners would pay it or the town would pay. We haven't decided
any of that, but we we want them to at least tell us. And there's really three kinds of things in Falmouth. There's aerial support. There's underground basically to the east of Gford Street where you're in the outwash plane and underground is fairly easy to do. And then there's to the west of Gford Street
where underground is very hard to do. So uh so we allowing for different terrains and uh uh to have different price points of course. So that's just a a request for information as part of theus and the role of the MLB at this point is is kind
of greasing wheels coordinating and and accelerating. >> Yes. Uh the the what what the ISPs get for the signing of thisou is essentially promotional consideration from us and facilitation of their work with various
town groups. uh in exchange for which we get to monitor their they agree to meet with us periodically to monitor their build plans and they agree to give us this per foot per terrain schedule on cost and a few other things like our
digital equity program they agree to work in certain ways. >> Okay. What one of the things that's the big unknown in this is what when all three of these guys are done building their networks, what percentage
of the town will be covered and what percentage won't? And all three of them to one degree or another have said well to get to 100% or fe you
know may take some town investment. I said you it's the very hard sell and uh it's and that goes back to my point about uh desire is infinite and money is finite and you know that's a bridge
we're going to have to cross as a as a town when when it gets done if there's enough demand for it enough a significant number of people in the town are jumping up and down and saying we want this that may uh get a question
about what are our priorities and what adjustments are we going to make to it. >> I know when I say that I can I can hear the audible groans from you people and understandably so um but you know it's a reality
>> but on the other hand we basically have to watch and wait at this point and see where it lands and uh and we'll see if there are gaps that need further attention in the future. In the meantime, this board is not costing a town anything, right? So,
>> we appreciate your work. >> You've done a lot of work and we we know you have. So, >> just one question, Mr. Chair. >> I'm sorry. >> I just had one question. >> Oh, please. >> Yeah. Um, thank you very much. I was on the phone with Mr. Reed today until I was not on the phone because he drove through West Fmouth. So, um, very much
needs across our town to improve, uh, our grid. um you kind of answered it there um with your you know as much as you know we can see how much people need this and how much we can push for it but uh every every committee that's given a presentation I've asked what exactly do
you want us to do and sounds like you kind of want us to wait and see but is there anything in in the short term that that we can do to to make your lives easier. >> Yeah I mean there I don't know that there's anything we're asking for from the select board at this time.
>> It's a fantastic answer. Thank you. >> Couldn't be better. >> We're not looking for money. >> All right. >> Even better. >> We know there isn't any anyway. So, >> um we're just trying to inform you. Uh we cross those bridges when we get to them.
>> Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? All right. Thank you very much. >> Oh, someone in the audience. >> Just one. I am >> Please. Um, I'm Roger McDonald and I am uh partners in crime in these lives. I I
just want to say that we do know from everyone all three of those vendors where and what percentage of the town they think they cannot build in. And so our position basically is we represent the voters
uh who want to ideally have 100%. We know we won't be able to get there unless there is uh movement by these vendors over time and and uh not monetary but that uh we can do any
everything we can to help them and encourage them to make the additional investments that will be necessary in order to have Hatchville and East Falmouth and other places served. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. One last question,
>> Mr. Brown. >> Um, did you get any indication of what areas of town the ISP providers will be uh starting off with or focusing on? >> Um, all of them have presented um
plans um to us indicating uh if they were the only one where they were built. Um, now that there are going to be three of them, I that kind of throws that out the window. Um, and so,
uh, they're going to build where they can get started. And as I said, um, one of the ISPs, Ripple Fibers, I already spoken with the DPW and with conservation, and I'm setting up meetings with the other two, um, uh,
ISPs and with the DPW and with conservation because uh, in the next couple of weeks because that's an important area getting those permits in place before they constructed the building. So, um, you know, it's going
to be an exciting thing and we won't know how it shakes out and what the challenges really are until they say, "Well, we're all done." And and if they've got 100% of the town built out, well, then we all
and move on. But if they only come up with 70% of the town and they say, "Well, we need X million dollars." Well, that's when um you know, that's when uh life gets difficult. >> So, I was surprised to uh attend one of
your meetings several months ago and the uh service provider that was there said that they were thinking of starting in East Falmouth because there was a lot of density there. In fact, the uh the the plans we have seen I would say is I'm not revealing anything from anybody uh
by saying Felmouth Center, Felmouth Heights, uh Marav Vista, these are dense areas in Falmouth. Largest number of customers is what they want to start from because they all want to they want to start building fiber and start lighting as the term lighting to homes
as fast as they can because >> it's that's their business model. They they want to take on customers as quickly as they can as they're building it out. Nobody's building everything and then turning it on at the end, >> right? So, if you're in a high density area, you're likely to be first to have
the opportunity. >> Interestingly enough, one of the issues for for one of these ISB is all the tree trimming that needs to be done um along the poles. And it used to be that the pole owner, which is either Verizon or
uh Eversource, Eversource owns most of them, they used to routinely up until about 30 years ago, when they went down the street and they pruned off vegetation, they not only kept the electric lines clear, but they also
cleaned the the trees and the brush and the vines and everything out of the communication area. Now if you drive down the road you find that that isn't happening. Uh and so that represents that's a problem as far as at least one
of the ISPs is concerned. Okay. >> You know we'll see how this all shakes out. >> All right. Thank you. Thank you both. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Our next item is an update and annual report from the task force on workers and families. Mr. Reno, do you
have anything to do Mr. Sher? I do. I apologize. We're way behind in the agenda. Um, so as you all know, uh, the task force on workers and families was created, established in 2024. >> I had an opportunity a few weeks ago, uh, to sit in on a presentation of the
task force's annual report. A copy of that annual report is included in your packet. I've asked um Hannah uh, one of the task force members to present uh, information in regards to that report. One of the reasons I selected tonight um is because there's been a lot of
discussion over the past several months uh about um whether it be seasonal communities or residential uh property tax exemption. There's a lot of uh issues pertaining to uh creating additional workforce affordable attainable housing. And I was really impressed by the work that the task
force did when I had an opportunity to speak with them about the annual report because a lot of it really focused in my mind on some of the key objectives of the select board. Um, so I want to thank Hannah and the the rest of the task force uh for putting together the annual report and with that I'll turn it over to Hannah. >> Uh, thank you everybody for taking the
time to fit us into your agenda tonight. Um, it's been an interesting meeting and uh, I'm appreciate being here. Uh, all right. So, I'll get started. Uh, Mr. Wshaw gave a great introduction. Um but to go over it, our mandate uh in 2024
was to research the policies and actions uh Felmouth can take to make this place an affordable and accessible community to the people of all income uh levels. And uh within our mandate was to look at three things. uh service needs of people
um both related to childare and housing support um other financial resources and subsidies that might be available to folks um and then policy changes like uh zoning and tax reform. So, we had a pretty hefty uh mandate and uh the
approach we took to breaking that down was to research best practices from other municipalities and uh try to engage as diverse of a a coalition of uh people in Felmouth as we could to determine what their priorities were uh in regard to these issues. Uh so, this
took on several phases. Uh we started with reviewing existing town actions. Um and then we segueed into these uh community discussions which I'll touch on uh a bit tonight. Uh we called these the three roundts for action. Um, and
then following that, we consulted uh several regional and uh local experts in town to take those priorities and decide what the most actionable uh and practical recommendations we could come
up with would be. Um, and now we're in the process of refining those recommendations um, including determining the financing for these solutions, which we know is important to you. uh to get into our roundts. Uh
uh the we identified three stakeholder groups that we thought would be very important uh to hear from and that includes uh members of our local uh workforce from diverse industries, families and childcare providers, um business owners and hiring managers.
And in order to uh get all these voices together, um we conducted a pretty comprehensive and targeted outreach campaign relying on some of uh the connections of existing boards in town with uh existing relationships such as
the uh Coalition for Children and the EDIC. Um uh we did several social media campaigns, flyers, press releases, and then we also hosted these at the downtown library because that was a pretty accessible forum for people.
Um and I would say uh the output from these uh gatherings was pretty successful. Um uh we gathered uh at least 42 participants and um notably um this was many uh people's first time
participating in any public engagement forum uh for the town. Uh we got a fair amount of age diversity within the room with our first round table having over 50% of people under the age of 35 participating.
uh 50% of those folks um were considered housing cost burdened, meaning they spend 30% or above of their income on housing. And we also captured a fair amount of professional diversity uh in these spaces as well.
And uh out of these uh roundts uh we found that what people are looking for really aligns with uh your uh strategic priorities set out in uh a plan that I think is still in its draft phase. Um
and kind of our our findings fall um under three categories listed out here. This is a cursory overview and I'll get into it a little bit more now. Um, so to go back to housing, um, we
found that our participants really captured the urgency of their, uh, the housing crisis. And I won't cover everything written out on this slide, um, but to give an overview, um, we had folks come who were living on a fixed income. We had folks come who had grown
up here and were experiencing homelessness. Um and then we also uh um had people participate who were really their ability to stay uh in town was contingent on their uh boss providing workforce housing. So um we feel
strongly that decisions uh regarding housing and housing governance uh should come from these people and um yeah um and to go into that. So, like I said, um we were able to capture uh a good amount
of people who um were engaged people who were struggling to find accessible and attainable housing in town. Um but very interesting to us uh there was very mixed awareness of existing um housing
initiatives in the town and among the people who did know the resources available to people. Uh many people described feeling a little bit of disconnect between the pace of town governance and the urgency of the housing crisis which I know um this is a
tough issue and it's tough to make uh progress at the pace that it demands. Um as one person put it, we are missing the human value and connection in these decisions. Um and out of um
this round table we came up with some recommendations and uh one is to improve that housing governance and then two is to invest in uh centralized town communications. Um so to go into housing governance um
the first thing uh we think would be practical to do would be to adopt um design standards that would accelerate the approval uh for multi- family housing in town. Uh luckily there's already some resources to do this um available through the Cape Cod
Commission. Um, we think it would be good to uh separate some of the uh administrative um responsibilities of the zoning and planning board and um make a separate uh
task force dedicated to reform that brings uh zoning reform that brings members of the zoning and planning board uh members of town staff um the business community and low and moder moderate income uh folks together uh to start
thinking about what is going to work for everyone and build consensus at the beginning. Um and then we also heard some interest for uh the town manager and the select board to provide prioriti or to provide a mandate to prioritize
affordable housing hearings at these zoning and select board meetings to um help uh increase some accountability with the projects moving through. Um and yes, community community engagement
too. just uh want to emphasize that I think this model we use to reach out to people really worked uh well and I'd be happy to meet separately and talk about some of that in more detail. Um and then our second recommendation would
be to invest in that uh centralized town communication. We know this costs money um and in the next months we will be uh meeting with people hopefully to understand ways to finance this position. Um and then um another
effective thing would be to revitalize the Falmouth municipal website. Um importantly creating a comprehensive web page with the town resources available consolidated in one place and there's already models for how to do this like
um the Arlington Mass Municipal website. Um and then going to segue to another very important thing. Um, we've been lucky to work with Bethany Gay of the Falmouth Coalition for Children um to get a really comp comprehensive look at
the experience of uh working families in town and uh their experience trying to pay for child care, which can cost um an average of $26,000 a year just for infant care. So, this is a this is a big deal and on top of a
mortgage, I don't know how anyone would do it really. Um and um importantly there are uh state subsidies theoretically available but the wait list for these state subsidies is uh
30,000 families long. Um so it's basically off the table. Um there are 44 40 40 44 uh families um in Falmouth currently on this weight list and probably more people who need this resource, but it's um at this point kind
of futile to even try to get a state subsidy. Um but there are options and um we can look to our uh contemporaries on the upper Cape um as a good example of this uh with starting some uh municipal
childcare assistance pilot programs. Um and um uh Bethany identified um one very good funding opportunity the which is a community development block grant um and
uh towns like Brewster um Dennis and Wealth have partnered together um to apply for uh such a grant and use it to fund uh municipal childcare assistance program. Um this is a lot of money as
you can see. Not all of it would uh need to go to child care assistance. A lot of it has gone um towards um um housing assistance as well. Um and she's compiling a comprehensive list of
Cape Cod municipalities um that provide uh municipal childcare assistance. I think she's looked at 11 communities so far along with um how these communities fund and administer um these programs. So, we'll we'll we hope to include all that information in our final report to
you as well. Um and then also in our future work, we um we found a strong interest for um pursuing workforce housing at the municipal level uh for municipal employees. And this is uh definitely an
area of future work for us. Um and we've identified some folks in Naka to talk to about this. And then finally uh quick thank you to all of our uh current and for former members who have made this possible. So >> thank you. >> Yeah.
>> Thank you. >> Y >> questions from the board. Mr. Richardson. Um, thank you one for uh all of your work uh how comprehensive it was, but uh I think that there's a lot
and you mentioned this uh that we can take out from the process of this uh particularly around the communication piece. Um my question to you uh how do you envision um you know how can what are some ways that we can speed up
our decisions while doing our due diligence? I found it something that can be kind of difficult with the way that this formal government is structured. Um, but what is the committee's view on how we can I think we took a pretty significant step tonight u with the tax exemption, but what are some other ways that we can uh you know decisions that
we can make in in in the short term um you know without having to go to town meeting? >> Mhm. >> When appropriate. >> That's a good question. Um I'll give a small example. Um, and it's a good question and
something that we need to consider thinking about more too. But um uh one yeah, one piece of feedback we got from people who were involved in supporting housing projects as they came
through town is they'd often show up to a town uh planning their zoning board meeting and it would be listed as the first thing on the agenda and then be shifted to the the back side of the agenda. Um and
uh I think that um created one uh if if there's uh legal representation there that's more money being taken out um of those affordable
housing developers pocket um makes financing of this project projects more difficult. So I think um finding ways to um increase accountability and then also find ways for there to be more
connection between um town uh committees as well. Yeah, it's been very enlightening to be able to spend a lot of time as a committee just talking to other people doing great work in town and finding ways to um have a little bit more synergy synergy between us. So
yeah, >> thank you so much. I can't reiterate how much I appreciate the work of your committee and how, you know, top to bottom it is and I really like that first song you showed of, you know, the decisions we make are connected to human lives and it's about improving people's lives and keeping them in the place they they love. So, thank you.
>> I will uh point out that the select board has met jointly with the planning board and the zoning board within the past 6 months. Uh I think that is a you know suggestion uh that we will uh continue to do so go going forward. Um,
but I I I I do think it needs to be said. I'm I'm surprised uh that and and surprised to hear that uh that that people actually think that the select board is out of step with this housing crisis. I don't think a meeting goes
goes forward that we are not discussing housing and how this this town and this select board uh can can make it better. whether it's seasonal communities, whether it's uh you know, donate contributions from the affordable housing fund. Uh you know, I think this
select board has done an amazing job in trying to deal with the uh with the housing issue. Uh you know, certainly seasonal communities will allow for preferences for uh local preferences for workers here in town uh and and so
forth. So, you know, I just want to go on record that I think the select board has done a really good job and I don't think we're out of step uh with the with the housing crisis here in town. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Uh y >> yeah. Um question on a different note. I
know it wasn't necessarily something you set out to explore, but I'm curious about food insecurity and whether conversations around food systems came up at all in your workshops and conversations. >> Unfortunately, not. Um yeah. Yep. >> Fair enough. not what you were looking for, but obviously connects in as well
when you start thinking about household costs and I know >> uh the amazing work that the service center does and for that matter the number of >> meals I'll get the number of thousands wrong if I try to quote it that belonging to each other has provided to >> um unhoused members of the community
this winter is is pretty remarkable. So >> yeah and uh in regard to your comment Mr. from Scoly I definitely yeah I don't want to give you guys the impression that you are not working extremely hard on this issue and I think even the way the select board is structuring their
meetings and around uh topics now like that's that's been very impactful to see play out and um this is not to deny this is a very difficult issue um >> and I think uh a couple of meetings ago we actually discussed child care and how
we might be able to uh to to help that as well. So, uh certainly something that the select board is interested in, you know, and I join my my colleagues in thanking you and your committee for all the hard work uh that you've done and uh and your report is very comprehensive. So,
>> thank you, >> Mr. Richard. Uh Mr. Reid, sorry. Hi. Thank you very much for uh your work on this. Having worked with you on housing stuff uh in the past, it's uh very nice to see this come to a uh a new report. I have a question actually regarding um
something that I brought up before and something that's really important to us now which is you know in many coastal towns taxes are becoming a tipping point that pushes people out. Has there been any kind of um analysis into where we
are as a workforce to understand you know property tax burden being a percentage like if it's less than 3% 3 to five where where our workforce is right now in the current tax world or if not is this something we can look into
to have a better understanding. Yeah, we have not spent uh too much time looking into that, but I if if that's something where it would be good to engage like the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce and uh talk to those people, we'd be happy to do that on uh the
select board's behalf. Um >> Mr. Brown, so the uh zoning expediting the zoning uh approvals, it's a challenge. You know, the zoning board probably works harder than we do. They're meeting all the time and they have a huge workload.
>> Yeah. >> And you know, I've talked to some of the members and say, "Hey, can't you try to move those things a little faster?" And they're like, >> "Just look at look at the minutes, look at the records." It's >> it's a lot of work that they're doing. So, it's hard to criticize them for not
moving faster. >> Yeah. Um, as far as the planning though, the you could submit comments and recommendations to the planning office or to the select board and we could pass it along >> because there are some things that we could still do. I mean, I think the planning board's done a good job of
being creative like with the Mr. Cod zoning and things that they've tried to implement to encourage more affordable housing hasn't really played out as well as had been hoped. So maybe we have to think of some more ideas. I think the um
the um legislation for seasonal communities will probably help us if we can implement that. That'll give us more opportunities for smaller smaller houses on smaller lots. So >> Mhm. >> We're working on it, but always more ideas would be helpful. So thank you for
that. >> Y >> Okay. Anyone else? Anyone in the audience like to address this? Okay. Well, thank you very much. Do you have >> Oh, Dr. Fel, >> Dr. Famon Silva,
>> thank you so much for your report and I just wanted to point out that um with respect to funding. Uh this committee actually was passed at town meeting in 2021. It took us four years to finally
get the committee actually running. uh and which was pretty sad. And um with respect to creative ways of thinking, there is another organization in the state called the Common Start Coalition
for affordable, accessible, highquality early education and child care. And the Common Start Coalition has also been working for several years to put ideas on the table at the state level. And certainly one of the ideas is as always
uh to find some tax revenue. Uh in a wealthy town like this, we have um very high uh wage earners uh very high high uh earners.
Um and um to find a a small area in terms of the tax base to to pull some money out for child care funding uh is I think an an opportunity. Um other towns
have also um created a dedicated line item and put funds into it. We did try back in 2021 when this committee was formed through town meeting to dedicate 75,000 for a dedicated fund for subsidies for
families for child care needs. Um it did not pass which was really a blow. Um at the time, um Brewster had a fund that was had 250,000
to to provide for their um workers. But as was noted in the statistics, child care can be more than a mortgage payment for a family with two children, an infant and a child. You might pay
40,000 a year for child care. If towns can provide substantial subsidies uh for working families that will help but I think we have to do a multifaceted
approach to solve the housing crisis. This is one of the major pieces of that puzzle is child care funding and I hope you don't forget. Thanks. >> Thank you. Anyone else?
Okay, we move on to uh a vote on the final wording on the naming of the Green Pond Bridge for uh Sergeant Joshua Tipton. M Mr. Renro. >> Uh thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a very quick overview. Uh as the board may
recall, back in June of 2024, the family of Sergeant Joshua Typton made a formal request application to the board to uh uh ask the board to consider naming the Green Pond Bridge for Sergeant Tipton. uh there was a one-year wait period uh that went into effect per policy. Um the
board took up the uh the uh discussion again after that one year waiting period uh subsided on July 15th of 2024. uh the select board decided to nominate um select board member Reed uh to uh to
take up the initiative and uh make contact with the department relevant departments and uh and stakeholders uh to uh discuss the naming of the bridge uh back on December 1st of last year. Uh we the select board I should say conducted a public hearing to hear that report from select board member Reed. Uh
the select board then designated uh the member to seek input from the community. Um, we considered a vote to name the SL uh the the bridge for the green power bridge for Sergeant Joshua Tipton, but we never really landed on a uh firm name. Um during that discussion on
December 1st, like board member Reed explained he approached naming as a way to consider combined recognition. And I and going through the minutes of that meeting, there was some discussion about um naming the Green Pond Bridge the Invisible Wounds Bridge in memory of Sergeant Joshua Typton. Um you can see
in the recommendation tonight um I'm I'm recommending that the board consider uh perhaps naming one half of the bridge if there's some interest in the community uh to name the other half of the bridge um in some other manner. That would be great. We just have to initiate that process that again that one year uh wait period to name the other half of the
bridge. But uh for tonight's purposes, because we've been discussing this for a couple of meetings now, it's my recommendation that we um move forward with with considering uh naming the bridge, one half of the bridge at least in the name of of this invisible wounds uh bridge in memory of Sergeant Joshua Typton.
>> Mr. Reed. >> Yeah. One thing um I'd like to add in this is um it's been a real pleasure to work with Amanda on this one. Um she's been very gracious and patient with us. Um, I think we had a request during the
December 1st meeting to include another name of an individual here in town. Um, it was a good thing to do, but it also we have to look at the unintended consequences. We reached out to the family, reopened scar tissues. We then
have a policy that doesn't make sense to the person that we've just opened up scar tissues with um who are a little upset that we couldn't add the name in the same thing. Understanding policy and process, we couldn't do that. But um it
was an innocent request that ended up um having negative consequences. With that, I just wanted to recognize that um the family that we reached out to, if we can make it better, I will see that I will do my best to uh honor that fallen
individual. That aside, um I would like to make the motion to approve naming one half of the Green Pond Bridge, the Invisible Wounds Bridge in in memory of Sergeant Joshua Tipton. >> Second. Motion to allow the fure the future opportunity to initiate the naming
process of the other half of the bridge in honor of another service member if so desired. >> Second. >> Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? >> I would just like to say thank you to Mr. Reid as a uh completely new select
board member for taking this on and I think handling it with um a really sensitive issue um very well. and um also to Sergeant Typton's sister and and family um for a really I I'll use uh
Collins word gracious um process and and conversation around this process. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And if approved, I will be working with Mr. Monardy right away to get the uh signs ordered and uh a dedication ceremony uh um scheduled.
>> Okay. So, we do have a motion in a second. Any further discussion hearing? And seeing none, all in favor? >> I >> I thank you, Mr. Reid. Thank you. Okay, moving on to uh consider a request from the 250th anniversary task force for a
variance to sign code section 184-7 placement and 184-32 off premises signs to hang banners containing quotes related to the American Revolution and with information on the Fmouth Historical Society's
exhibition on the American Revolution on polls on Main Street. Mr. Wrenchaw, >> real quickly, I see the applicant here tonight. Mr. Chair and select board members. Uh the uh task force has applied for this variance uh to install hang 14 banners on polls on Main Street.
12 of these banners, as you indicated, contain quotes related to the American Revolution. And two of the banners contain information on the Felmouth Historical Society's new exhibition. Um there's examples, I believe, in your packet this evening of what the task force is proposing. If approved, the
DPW, Department of Public Works, has agreed to hang all 14 of the banners as this is a town sponsored committee. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Clarification. >> Yep. Um we held this from the last um meeting at the request of Dr. Goldstone.
Um can we get clarification on the reason before we go into >> Happy to to elaborate on that. Um, I would say when uh I think we saw a kind of rough draft of this proposal uh at a report from the committee um and I was
enthusiastic to to use the uh the poll banners uh to celebrate the 250th anniversary. sitting with the actual design when it was put in front of us um I have to say caused a little bit of unease about political speech um and what that might
open us to in terms of um uh allowing other political speech right by having quotes from individuals. Um I was a little concerned about that. Um, I've been assured uh by town council uh
that it's not an issue in that um we cannot place restrictions on uh the speech that is on the flags um or in deciding whether or not to to hang them that being a
restriction on the the content on the flags. Um but that was the nature of my concern with this request. >> Thank you so much. >> Okay. So um Mr. Ripley, if you you want to, you know, just give us a brief description. I think uh we've probably
satisfied the reason why it was held the last time. So, we're probably very close to being able to make a decision, but you know, you're here. We'll give you an opportunity to, you know, let us know what's going on with the committee. >> All right. Thank you. Uh Bob Ripley, uh
chair of the town's 250th committee, and out in the audience is Karen Ronaldo, who was our artist, and Tamson George. So, so these are the uh 14 uh bandits that we actually used last year. So, we're not purchasing anything new and we
had them last year up around the same time frame and uh of course last year was the 250th of the uh start of the uh Revolutionary War and uh this year is the 250th of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. So, this
really uh kicks off a series of events that we'll be doing uh on behalf of the town over the uh really beginning on uh July and then going through probably uh September. Uh we're going to be doing a kickoff of a um dedication of a plaque
up in uh Fmouth Heights on um July 1st uh which we're going to be working on that application. And we already have the uh the stone is up there. We have a temporary plaque on it right now, but we'll be doing, as I say, a series of uh events that will take place on the
museum on the greens, uh some on the library, and uh throughout the town. So, this really begins the process of hanging these banners back up again. >> Thank you uh as the layers on to the uh to the committee. It was uh really an
honor to work with uh with all of the committee members. uh you've done a great job in bringing this, you know, forward and and helping us get in a position to celebrate the 250th anniversary. So, uh is there a motion? Would someone like to make a motion?
>> Like read? >> Yeah, why don't you go ahead and make it? I make a motion to approve the request from the 250th anniversary task force for a variance to side code sign code 184-7 placement and 184-32
off premise signs to hang 14 banners on polls on Main Street for a period of June 29th, 2026 to September 1st, 2026. Right. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion hearing? None. All in favor? I
>> I >> I >> thank you. Okay. Thanks very much. >> Really passionate. >> We're slowly getting back on uh on schedule here. So uh uh our next matter is to consider a vote to approve a request from the Fmouth Commodore's
Baseball Club for a variance to sign code 184-7 placement and 184-32 off premises sign to hang found with Commodore flags on the light poles on Main Street. Again, Mr. Wshaw.
>> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh again to give the board an overview, uh the Commodores baseball club submitted application to hang 39 uh banners on uh polls along Main Streets. Um the request is to place these banners
from June 1st, 2026 to August 14th. As the board may recall, um there are currently 44 uh street polls allowing Main Street. The other street light polls requested by Felmouth Commodores on Library Lane, uh, Shore Street Extension, and Town Hall have not been
used for banners, um, in the past as far as we know. Um, I understand there's been some discussion um, facilitated by Diane Davidson, the office manager in the selectboard office between the Commodores and the 250th and that the Commodores uh may have been may be considering to reduce the request from
from uh 39 uh banners uh down to 30 to allow um the uh the 250th banners to be hung uh in conjunction with because there's a bit of an overlap between the dates again uh June 29th to December 1st. First is the uh uh request from uh
the task force and um the Commodores baseball club is requesting placement of their banners from June 1st to August 14th. Uh so to accommodate that uh that that overlap uh it's my understanding the Commodores have offered to reduce that request from 39 down to 30.
>> Appreciate their uh their willingness to do so. Is anyone from the Commodores here tonight? You want to step up, please? Okay, good evening. Uh Chris Fitzgerald, president of the F Commodores. Um that
is correct. We did reduce the uh the number of uh banners to 30. Um, as you can see in the, uh, drawings, the renderings, um, you know, we were put these on Main Street like we did the last couple years. Uh, my understanding
is, uh, we've been doing this, uh, with the town since, uh, our 100 year anniversary. Um, in terms of placement, uh, we will work with the two 250 committee as to where, uh, their banners are going to go and then where ours
could go as well. Um we have already um reached out to Locust Street signs who will hang the banners uh for us and um we will be using the structures that are currently on place on the uh light poles.
>> Okay. Thank you. Any questions? >> I wanted and I guess to preempt uh Mr. Reed's question since I held this one on the last agenda. um as well. Uh my concern here and and I appreciate very much the the working together to figure
out how to bring the number down to what's within our our typical 44. Um I just want to make sure we're not going to come up against any other conflicts. This is a large number of of signs. Um, and I note that it the the timing
obviously the summer butts right up against things like the road racing. So I don't know if we have other anticipated requests for signage um for the the summer period that that we need to be considering. >> Great question and included in your packet. I was trying to pull it up. Uh D again Diane Davidson the office manager
in the select board office does a great job um coordinating and uh there's a matrix that she prepares literally and there's a copy in your packet. It's it's one of the attachments. Um, but to answer uh vice chair's uh question, um, I'm confident that there won't be any any drug conflict because Diane does do
such a fantastic job with uh with coordinating and making sure. And when instances like this do occur, again, we thank the Commodores for for working with the 250, the task force, kind of work through those those conflicts. But to my knowledge, uh, because I talked to Diane about that specifically, um, she's
looked ahead um, throughout the rest of the season, the the summer and fall season, and there's no conflicts. >> Excellent. And thank you to Diane. >> Yeah. And thank you for your willing to uh to to to work with uh with them as well. Is there a motion?
>> Motion to approve 30 Fmouth Commodore's baseball banners on street light poles on Main Street from June 1, 2026 to August 14, 2026. >> We have a motion. >> A second. >> And a second. Any further discussion? >> Just an important question. Uh who's who's going to win the World Baseball
Classic? Uh, it's uh, well, USA. >> Fun fact, the Commodores have uh, seven alumni in the world baseball class. >> Wow, that's wonderful. >> Good. Good going. Okay, so we have a motion and a second. All in favor?
>> I >> I Okay, thank you very much. We have a uh request to consider a request from Lillian Kazanis of New England Festivals for a waiver of the special permit special event permit fee
for the Harbor Light Illumination Concert Series and Artisan Market being held at Marina Park on Saturdays 74, 711, 718, 88, 8:15, and 8:226. Mr. Wrenchaw.
>> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh as the board is aware and the community is aware, this is a great event. Goes back to 2019. I think the co year 2020. Uh the event unfortunately had to be uh suspended. Um but ever since then it's run consecutively. Uh last year was the first year. Uh the request was weighed
for was made for a waiver of these special event permit fees. Um there's a calculation as you've heard me state before um u that uh the uh select board office does with regard to the permit fee. Um it's included in your packet. Um
the uh the uh the total um uh would be $600 if the select board were interested in reducing the fee based upon the formula that the front office provides. It's my recommendation uh Mr. Chair and select board that the board consider uh as it has in the past waving the fee in
its entirety. >> Okay. Miss Kazanis, would you care to add anything to that? >> Um Mr. and pretty clearly stated, you know, that you've given me support in past years and I greatly appreciate it and also just wanted to thank the fun of
cultural council for their grant again this year which was part of the reasoning I came to last year. It became it came to my attention that I could request a waiver and the issue was such that I got this grant and then it became ineffective for the project because of
fees and it was money coming from the town and then going. So it was just a bizarre situation that made me aware that I could even request a waiver. So I I greatly appreciate it. it it makes the project that much more successful and able to produce >> great series of events and it's a
donation as people want to donate for attendance so it's really a really a wonderful community uh community event any questions anyone else >> someone want to make a motion >> I would make a motion to approve the request from Lilian Kazanas of New
England Festival for a full waiver of the special event permit fee for the harbor light Illumination concert series and night market being held at Marina Park on Saturdays July 4, July 11th, July 18, August 8th, August 15, and August 22nd, 2026.
>> Okay, we have a motion in a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? >> I >> I Okay, thank you. Good luck. >> Thank you. And yes, please thank Diane too for again for her help as well. >> Okay, we will. >> Thanks.
>> Thank you. Our next item is to consider a vote to appoint members to the Lawrence School Building Committee. Uh, select board member representative of the body authorized by law to construct school buildings in town. Town manager, school superintendent, principal of
Lawrence School, Mr. Renaw. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. uh under the school building grant program uh regul state regulations require that an eligible applicant establish a school building committee for the purposes of monitoring the application process and to advise the eligible applicant during
construction of the facility. Under the state regulations uh uh the definition of eligible applicant is the chief executive officer of the town. The state regulations further state that appointments to the committee be done in a manner consistent with the town's charter and any relevant bylaws.
As you know, the FELMA charter states that the select board is the chief executive officer of the town and therefore is authorized to create any governmental body as may be required. Select board has created a committee appointment policy, a copy of which is included in your packet tonight, which governs these appointments to any
Felmouth governmental body. Select board is the proper appointing authority for this school building committee and the select board uh should follow its normal policies and procedures when making appointments to the law school building committee. Uh included in your packet is a listing of those um uh specific
positions on the committee uh stated out in the uh state regulation. member of the select board, the town manager, at least one member of the school committee, the school superintendent, the the local official responsible for building maintenance, a representative of the body authorized by law to
construct school buildings in the town, the principal from the Lawrence School, a local building official or member of the finance committee, members of the community with architectural engineering knowledge of the educational mission and function of the school facilities and or construction experience in general.
Mr. Mr. Chair and select board. Uh the regulations further allow for this select board member that is appointed to also serve on the committee in the capacity of a representative of the body authorized by law to construct school buildings in the town. It's allowed. It's not required. School committee is scheduled to meet on March 10th. Um I've
been in disc in conversations with school superintendent Dr. Der. Um and they're going to be prepared to uh vote to recommend to the select board as the appointing authority at least one member of the school committee to serve in that capacity. Um you can see in your packet,
Mr. Chair or select board, um the that my office is recommending that the select board consider approving the appointments of the following members to the Lawrence School Building Committee. Select board member who will serve as the representative body representative body authorized by law to construct school buildings in town. The town
manager, school superintendent, Dr. Dur, and the principal of Lawrence School, Mr. Tom Bushy. Um at our scheduled March 23rd meeting, the select board is going to have an agenda item with regards to interviewing community members with again the specific skill sets. And uh
it's going to be my recommendation at that time also that the uh the uh select board consider an appointment of the local um local uh budget official um at that time as well um who I'm probably going to make recommendation to uh somebody from
from the school department serving that capacity. So, so we have received uh interest from members of the community who have uh the the experience mentioned in the u in the guidance architecture, engineering, knowledge of educational
mission, function of school facilities. We have received >> we do have uh several applications um that uh that that meet those requirements >> and they'll and we'll be dealing with them on on >> that'll be a separate separate agenda item next the next meeting on the 23rd. Tonight I'm asking for the board again
to consider those specific uh uh uh regulation required appointments. >> So just go ahead. >> Just a question I have a representative of the body authorized by law to construct school buildings in the town.
>> So who would fill that role? >> So u very good question and we've had some some discussion and council has has weighed in on it as well. Um so this the guidance is a member of the school board I'm sorry member of the select board the
town manager at least one member school committee school superintendent representative of the body authorized by law to construct school buildings in the town which is the select board. Uh our original understanding was that that
person would be the same as the member of the select board who uh who would who would be chosen. I see. However, with further discussions with town council and you know and and Mr. Renaw, uh I have uh I think it would be better for
us to hold off on appointing a representative of the body uh authorized by law to construct school buildings in the town, waiting for people who might be otherwise interested in the position that we could appoint uh at the meeting
on on on the March 23rd. So, and it could ultimately be the same person that's the member of the select board. Uh, but at least it allows us to possibly have another person uh be able to be appointed to the committee expanding community uh outreach
engagement and so forth. >> So, so to clarify, you're saying that the representative of the select there's the member of the select board, >> right? >> The representative of the body authorized, i.e. the select board. We could designate someone who is not a member of the select board to represent
us. >> That was council's opinion and yes, that would be okay. >> And I'm just holding that open for let's see who comes before us at the March 23rd meeting. >> Which uh which one of you want it? >> Select one. >> I'm sorry. >> I would be happy to do it.
>> I I I have spoken to Mr. Brown. I don't know if anyone else is interested, but uh he's very knowledgeable of the Warren School. Uh >> I went on the tour. >> It was an eye opening tour for sure. >> Yeah. And uh as as did I and and Dr.
Goldstone. Um so >> can I ask one other question? The local official responsible for building maintenance. >> Yes. Uh it's my understanding in talking to Dr. Der and council council had been working with Dr. Der um earlier uh this
year on this item that that is a um a a member responsible for school facility maintenance. Okay. >> And just to uh to clarify the uh the the the position of a local budget official or member of the finance committee uh
you know our spark charter actually prevents members of the finance committee from serving on other townapp appointed uh bodies. So it would have to be a local budget official to serve in that capacity. >> Mr. Chair. >> Yeah. >> My my only question and my apologies for
not asking this sooner. Has there been any consideration or interest and I know the scope of his time is quite might be a long time. Was there any thought into maybe putting a student on the committee? >> Um I mean I don't think there's been any
consideration. I'm not sure. >> I don't know if there's been anyone >> presumably they could express interest as a member of the community. They certainly have >> knowledge of the educational mission and function of school facilities. certainly don't think there's a prohibition that that I could see if someone was
interested. >> Okay. Just just one thing. Thank you, >> Mr. Chair. I would uh share with the rest of the board that I would uh be potentially interested but am willing to wait to see who comes before us um as additional applicants. >> Okay. You could possibly fill that role
as a representative of the body. So, which is which is even, you know, good to expand that as well. So, um, if the board doesn't have any other questions, I'm going to I'd like to make a motion to approve the appointments of the following members to the Lawrence School Building Committee, select board member
Douglas Brown, town manager Mike Ren, Michael Renio, school superintendent, Dr. Lori Der, and principal of the Lawrence School, Mr. Tom Bushy. >> Second. >> Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion hearing and seeing none, all in favor?
>> I I Okay, thank you, Doug, for agreeing. And thank you Dr. Goldstone for your interest. Um so um what I what I'd like to do if if we could is I'm going to take K out of order uh as there are people here that
are you know I think interested in uh in in at least hearing uh what we're thinking of doing here and then we can uh have the discussion with respect to the strategic plan after that. So, uh, this is a discuss revisions to the June
2025 ICE and immigration position statement and planning for the next community conversation meeting. Mr. Renro, >> thank you, Mr. Chairman. As you indicated, uh, the board adopted a, uh, position statement back on June 30th of last year. Um, a copy of that statement
is included in your packet. It's also been posted to the, uh, town website. Uh there's been uh in in a lot of discussion about significant um developments, new developments both locally and nationally involving ICE operations and and uh questionable enforcement practices. Um these
developments uh have warranted a further review and potentially uh revisions to the board's position statement. Uh there was also some discussion in the past about issu uh letter uh being written to um our federal delegation. um there's no uh direct action taken by the board with
regards to that letter. Uh so really the purpose of u of this item is to discuss any potential revisions to again that June 2025 position statement um and as well as discuss um planning steps. As you all recall, there's a planning committee that was formed um that put
together um the uh the uh the process that ultimately uh led to the January 22nd uh uh community conversation uh forum that we had right here in this very room. Uh that was uh very well attended. We filled the room. Um, so I'd
like to also have some uh discussion and take direction from the board about uh what the board would like to see in terms of uh a next community conversation and perhaps topics related to that. >> Okay. Well, uh I have previously spoken with uh with member Reed and and Vice
Chair Goldstone about taking the lead on u you know on possibly revising our position statement. You know, I just want to say that u you know, the level of decline in student participation, people going to work, people feeling
free and comfortable to go out in the community is is very difficult to quantify. But the level of fear in our community is something we cannot ignore and I think this board needs to uh you know to take a a strong position with respect to uh to to this uh to this
issue. So um I'm happy to open it up for further discussion. Uh, Mr. Renro. Uh, >> I'm sorry, Mr. >> Mr. Richardson. Too many Rs here. Renro really >> Richardson. Um, >> Robert.
>> Okay. Um, beyond 100% yes. Uh, and thank you um to the committee uh the planning committee as well as uh your leadership uh Mr. Town Manager. That was again the only problem was the room wasn't big enough and that's a good problem to have. Um
beyond uh and town council this this might be a question um for you. Uh it is important we update our statement. Things have drastically changed in 7 months. I remember when I was standing up there I was reading I was like okay this this is already updated terms of steps of taking actionable
policies uh in discussion with some of the members of the founding rights coalition and national uh people I have some friends out of Minneapolis I had some discussions with. I was curious to what would the steps be for us to adopt some policies and I'm just going to read a
few and if you can then maybe digest it and this might be something for another meeting but if there's any way we can take positive steps tonight uh I would like to uh and I'll just read the I won't read the background I'll just read the official things and if we need to work this out later we can but um
prohibiting the use of town property by ICE uh as an official policy um prohibit ICE access to individuals in uh found police department custody unless in response to a valid judicial warrant. And then just also these things might already be in practice, but I'm just
saying if we could have this be an official policy of this board to protect our immigrant friends and neighbors, I think it's something that we should consider. Um those were the two ones that I thought were feasible in terms of us being able to uh immediate what I
thought would be under our um charter what we could do as a board. Um but other ones could be to you know if we could share signs with different business owners around the community. Uh be specific about the way the town is prohibiting collaboration with
immigration enforcement into our town code. That sounds like something that would require a town meeting. Um, but at least I don't know, I've been rambling. What if town council those first two ones, again, I'll just repeat them. Prohibit the use of town property by ICE to prohibit ICE access to individuals in
police department custody unless in response to a valid judicial warrant. Would these be things the select board could institute as a policy? >> Um, just speaking to the first one, prohibiting use of town property. Um, that is something the select board could do immediately.
>> Mhm. Um, I did review this when it came up when um, Mayor Woo uh, issued an executive order uh, concerning the use of town property. So, um, it I in my opinion it's something that is absolutely feasible. As to the second
one, prohibiting access to individuals in police custody without a judicial warrant. Is that what is that said? So, I would like to have a conversation with the police chief um just to talk about um how that might impact officer safety.
>> Um >> but as far it already has hallmarks, it's something that could be explored >> um with the conditional language about there um having to be a requirement of a judicial warrant, but I think a conversation with police chief is necessary.
>> Thank you very much. I really appreciate it. Um, we could definitely continue this discussion, but I would like to start uh by making a motion um to officially prohibit the use of town property by ICE. >> Statement. >> Sorry.
>> Uh, Mr. Richardson, I you know, I I I I concur that that that's something um but what I I think might be better would be a a motion to direct town council to uh to prepare a uh a statement uh with
respect to the prohibition of uh of ICE using town property and present it to us at the uh at the next meeting. Would that be a motion? Yeah, that um but just change the word of statement but policy. >> Yes, >> would be the only change to that and then we can continue discussion after
that. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Motion in a second. >> Second. >> Okay. All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh yeah, and then after this I'll shut up. Um yeah, I think it is important that we change uh our
policy to be more oriented around uh oriented around protection and resources and here's what you are doing. We are all unequivocally against it to different levels. Um of course and and
that's uh you know what we have as individual politicians and members. But I think what our statement should be focused on is here's what we are doing for you. here's what our policies say for you. Uh and here is how where you need to go. Uh and what you know what what resources are available for you and
what have we made available. Um I think it's you know it's very clear that uh what ICE is doing is completely unconstitutional. It is destroying our local economy and it is just more importantly it's destroying people's lives. Um but it's about how do we protect the most vulnerable in our
society right now and I think that taking these steps towards actionable policies is is the way to go at this time but um open to to further discussion. >> Okay. >> I um >> appreciate and uh concur with the leaning toward finding what we can do
that is actionable. Um and in terms of updating the statement, I mean I think it's important to recognize, excuse me, um that it is just that it is not a policy as we were just talking about. It is not an action. It is a
statement. Um in looking through um what was already in that that statement um I think there's some easy just um strike through of about a paragraph and a half that's simply outdated. The rest of it to me still rings true as a statement of our values
and approach. I think um given the vote that we just took, there's probably some language that could be strengthened and more of a statement of um you know, obviously if if we're prohibiting access to town property, making that clear to
folks and and beefing up the um you know, the the um the section about resources. we provide a link to the website and to our immigration resources page on the website. Um, but recognizing that that may not also be accessible to everyone.
Um, putting a synopsis of some of those resources in and I would be more than h I'm happy to obviously take additional ideas and guidance from the board, but would be more than happy to provide a draft um that accomplishes those things um for the board to review in advance of
our next meeting. >> Okay. In addition, I would still like to advocate um that this board write a letter to our uh federal elected representatives. Um that in my mind is
more than a statement. It is an action that we take within our form of government to advocate up to those who have the ability to set the rules of the game in a way that we do not. and in particular advocating for our federal
representatives to um hold federal immigration officials to the same standards that we hold our Fmouth police to. That they be unformed and clearly identified, that they uphold constitutional rights, that they deescalate, that they have use of force
guidelines. The these are common sense measures that again is what we expect of our Felmouth police. I don't know why we wouldn't want to expect that of all law enforcement officers in our community. We don't have the power to enforce that on federal officials and our federal
elected representatives do. Um and so asking them to take that action on behalf of our community is to me a really important action for this board to take. >> Would you be willing to draft such a letter? >> I will absolutely provide a draft within the next week of a letter that this
board can review in in advance of the next meeting. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> So I >> Mr. Brown, if >> I could So I'm uh in favor of all of those actions. I would like to point out though that I felt like this is flawed
shortly after we did it. It was brought to my attention by a local uh law enforcement person who said that it seems that we might not be actually accurate in our paragraph that begins with, "Finally, while Massachusetts state law stipulates that local police
do not and will not assist or participate in federal immigration enforcement, it's important that they be aware of potentially disruptive activities in our town. We encourage the traditional collegial sharing of information between law enforcement agencies to ensure safe
effective operations. So what I'm I'm saying is in years past there was a more collegial relationship between federal immigration enforcement authorities and local authorities. And I feel like we
should still have in here somewhere that if there is a legitimate judicial warrant for a criminal in our town that we are going to be working with those authorities to I mean even the immigrants that are here don't want the
criminal element in our town. would adding and I think this speaks to some of the earlier conversation as well because I would say that um transferring custody is participating or assisting in
immigration enforcement um so does not or will not assist uh without um a a judicial warrant and I don't know I mean town council you reviewed this original statement to ensure it's legal accuracy,
the rep representation of Massachusetts state law. I guess I can just run the draft past you as well to make sure that that continues to be accurate. >> I'd like to somewhere in here say that if a a judicial warrant is present, we will cooperate because I think we'd be
wrong not to. I don't want to just be completely anti-ICE here to the point of extremism because sometimes it's it's a legitimate warrant. >> We've had some criminals that had been
removed in years past that which it was it was important that the work was done. >> Well, I don't think anyone would uh would would doubt that someone under a judicial warrant should should be dealt with accordingly. And I think that maybe
would foster a little more cooperation as well. >> Okay. >> One other one I have uh maybe considering another letter to Governor Healey explaining the 287g agreement um that she does have with ICE still. It's my understanding she's one of the only
governors uh in a in a political situation like ours uh that actually has that agreement in place. So it might be worth seeing how that works for them. Kind of to your point, Doug. you see how that works. >> I certainly want to acknowledge the
receipt today of substantial amount of information from uh from from some of the advocates in the community to help us uh guide us uh with respect to what other towns have done. Uh and we appreciate all that information and
thank you. Uh anyone else otherwise I'll see if there's anyone from the community that would like to speak. >> One last thing, Mr. chair, which is um also part of the agenda item was uh potential uh additional community conversations. >> Um
>> uh I think there was a lot of interest from attendees at the first community conversation in uh training around deescalation and bystandership and those sorts of things. Um, but what I would like to advocate for is
actually getting that event planning committee back together to talk about what ideas for um and and needs might be given that the members of that committee some of them here um continue to uh be very active in this work and and talking
with folks and might have a better sense as a group of what uh good next steps would and perhaps that committee could bring recommendations back to the or suggestions back to the select board. >> I think that's a great idea. Great.
>> Okay. Would anyone uh in the community like to uh say something? >> Yes, Peter. Come on. Good evening, Peter Wdor, precinct 1. At first, let me thank the board for deciding to revisit your earlier
statement on immigration and also for considering planning some more community forums after the very first successful one. Um, I'd like to start with a reported Egyptian proverb. They asked the pharaoh, "What made you a tyrant?"
He said, "No one stop me." As a member of both Indivisible Falmouth and the Falmouth immigration rights committee, I fully endorse the joint committee statement submitted to you earlier this evening and applaud applaud the hard work by a number of individuals
that went into it. I also know that some members of our committee shared a view perhaps familiar to some of you also that we should not propose anything uninforcable. I asked them and I'm now going to ask
you to consider that this might be a time when stopping stepping outside our comfort zones regarding that issue might be a patriotic duty. The problem we all face, of course, is the supremacy clause of the US
Constitution and the way that clause has been interpreted by White House advisor Steven Miller and this administration to claim that federal law enforcement agencies like ICE quote operate with
absolute immunity. And yet when each of us consider the point blank shooting of Renee Good, the shooting of Alexis Pretty while he was pinned to the ground and offering aid to a woman, the dragging of Chon Lee Tao,
an American citizen, out into the freezing cold while dressed only in shorts and Crocs, the use and then detention of 5-year-old Liam Renos as bait to apprehend his father.
The warrantless roundup of day workers based only on their skin color and language. The apprehension of a Falmouth resident that left his car running in the street in front of Cafio. The use by ICE agents of face masks,
false police jackets, and missing identification. Doesn't something in each of our guts and our hearts scream the supremacy clause argument cannot possibly allow
this. And it turns out we may be right. quote, "The key to holding Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents accountable for constitutional
violations may lie in a 1987 law review article by a young law professor named Akil Reed Amar, New York Times, February 2nd of this year. His central point for present purposes was that
state legislatures can authorize lawsuits against federal officials for violating the constitution. If that is right, such state laws could clo close an odd gap in federal law that
broadly speaking allows such suits against state and local officials like police officers, but not against federal ones like ice. This is exactly what the framers imagined, state law protecting us
against federal abuses. Professor Armar said, quote, "Over the years, some states, including California, Maine, Massachusetts, and New Jersey have enacted laws along the lines that Professor Amar proposed, though they are
largely untested. and Illinois recently adopted one to specifically address the conduct of ICE agents. Still, Vikram Amar Akil's brother and also a law professor said such state
laws can serve a larger purpose in the spirit of federalism. He said, "Not only can states experiment in this way, but doing so would likely lead Congress to address the problem because it's unlikely that Congress would want to
leave a patchwork of different state regulations and different remedies. Shouldn't we then at every level of government, town, county, state, and federal, endeavor to communicate our
concerns and propose and pass laws protecting citizens from federal constitutional violations so that no tyrant in the future can say, "No one stop me." Thank you. Thank you.
Anyone else? >> Either way. Y just introduce yourself. >> Okay. >> Hi, I'm de I'm Deborah Catler, resident of Falmouth. I'm active with the
Falmouth Immigrant Rights Coalition and also with the Lucay Immigrant Justice Network and the Boston Immigrant Justice Accompaniment Network. And through all of that work, I've heard firsthand stories of local business owners who fear for their employees and their
businesses. I've spoken to terrified family members trying to locate their loved ones who were detained by ICE on their way to work with no understanding of what brought them to ISIS attention. I've seen the challenges to get commissary funds to Massachusetts
residents who have been shipped to ICE detention centers all over the country. Uh, one person in detention said that $20 here is like a million dollars on the outside. How bleak must that place be for that to be true? So, I come here
tonight to urge the family select board to move beyond strongly worded statements and gestures of solidarity. And I was gratified to hear you talk about some concrete policies that you're considering. We need for lawmakers at all levels of government to take decisive action to
adopt policies that protect residents, workers, and visitors from unlawful federal immigrant enforcement while upholding constitutional rights. As already mentioned, we sent a letter outlining many policies that we would like to see implemented in Falmouth.
I've summarized the points in our letter to three areas, although of course not every point fits neatly into these categories. But the first is education about rights. Organizations um including the Falmouth Immigrant Rights Coalition have been working on this for months, but
additional support from the town can go a long way in helping our residents and businesses to feel empowered. Some of the examples we list in our letter include providing businesses, private property owners, and community members with clear guidance and signage about their rights, including that law
enforcement may not enter non-public areas without a valid judicial warrant. and ensuring residents are informed of their rights to observe, record, and share information about ICE activities. Uh second, we outline ways that Falmouth can help protect due process, such as
ensuring individuals in Felmouth police custody are notified if ICE intends to detain them, are given the opportunity to contact legal counsel, and are not tr transferred without a judicial warrant. uh restricting the use of town property, which has already been discussed
tonight, and using alternatives to arrests such as court summons to reduce unnecessary detention and potential federal intervention. Finally, there's the issue of data sharing. If elected officials are serious about protecting immigrant
communities, their efforts cannot begin and end with access to counsel and due process for those already detained. They must do everything in their power to prevent people from being pulled into the detention and deportation machine in the first place.
This requires targeting the surveillance and information sharing mechanisms that enable ICE to weaponize information gathered by local law enforcement with or without formal contracts. So, this could be accomplished by prohibiting the sharing of license plate reader data and
other personal information with out of state or federal agencies for immigration enforcement. limiting or prohibiting sharing of fingerprint data, especially for juveniles, with federal authorities unless legally required. So, the signers of the letter that we sent
earlier are committed to working with you to bring about these changes to Fmouth policy to allow Famouth to be as safe and welcoming as possible, where civil liberties are respected, public safety is strengthened, and residents can move can more fully participate in
the community with less fear. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? Good evening and thank you so much for uh putting this item on the agenda. >> You are
>> Oh, I'm Sandra Fame and Silva Precinct 2. >> Thank you. uh and uh for allowing us to have a discussion about this very important topic. As town residents and leaders, we are in a very difficult situation as it pertains to how to handle the current
immigration crisis and ISIS out outrageous and extremely danger dangerous enforcement tactics. Furthermore, ISIS interactions with residents, local police, and immigrants has already been shown, even in our town, to be highly troubling. How do we
protect our residents in the face of an unruly, irresponsible, and unlawful police agency in which our own residents are endangered and our own police are rendered powerless to protect us. We as a town must find a path to go beyond the
suggestions made in the July 1st town statement which said, and I quote, "We encouraged the traditional collegial sharing of information between law enforcement agencies to ensure safe and effective operations.
We cannot ignore that collegiality between ICE and civil society today does not exist. The agenda of ICE and the federal government is to round up as many immigrants as possible, detain them in massive detention centers around the country, and systematically deport them
as quickly as possible. As a town, what can we do? The July 1st Select Board statement affirmed our commitment to be a welcoming community, as was noted, one that protects civil liberties, due process, and our US Constitution. Now, we must go beyond
that level of commitment to detail ways to disrupt the illegal and unethical federal ICE conduct in whatever ways we can legally by insisting that ICE perform its law enforcement duties using tools which respect the law and our
constitution. ICE cannot legally detain people who have committed no crimes, are here lawfully, and are doing nothing to warrant being grabbed from our streets and taken into custody. Yet, this is what they do. People who have exceeded
their stay in the United States or have been brought to the United States by their parents as children are not hardened criminals. They have committed a civil infraction, not a crime, similar to driving with a broken tail light,
speeding, or driving without a license. They must be treated in a way that is consistent with their infraction and not as hardened criminals. As town employees and/or residents of our town, we must protect the civil rights of others in
our community by cottifying the rights of all residents in town ordinances and town codes that are consistent with our constitution and laws. Town employees may not detain a person based on an individual's appearance or suspicion
that the person is not a US citizen. Town employees may not perform duties of immigration or ICE officers except as permitted by law uh and uh except as permitted by law. The town may not expend town funds on res or resources to
perform the work of federal immigration officers. Again, except as required by law. We live in a society that thrives uh when we adhere to laws, codes, and ordinances that apply to all of us and protect all of us equally. When our town
government details the specific ways that our town is legally prohibited from collaborating with ICE, we will all be safer. The this federal agency has conducted itself in ways that are unlawful, dangerous, and unjust. Having
those laws spelled out explicitly and codified in Felmouth Town Code would provide additional transparency and security to the people of our town and ensure that future leaders do not arbitrarily change practices without
democratic oversight. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Yes. So, my name is Judy Handley, precinct 2. I didn't come with a prepared statement. I didn't uh intend to speak, but uh as I
listened to you and the a the job that you have before you, I was thinking about uh the couple of days that I've spent doing business canvasing for Fmouth Immigrant Rights Coalition, delivering uh folders that have know
your rights information to business owners and managers. And I've only visited about 25 businesses on Main Street from uh uh TD Bank down to uh Inno Gas on you at the end of Main
Street. But I know that you from doing that that you represent people that have all different sorts of beliefs. Some believe that. Well, the point is they don't all believe the same thing and you have to
represent them all. And I appreciate the actions that you're considering and hope that you can find a way not just to make the citizens of the town feel at ease, but the business owners as well because
many of them are very nervous. They don't feel they don't know who to turn to. That's what they say when at least they said to myself and a partner that did the business canvasing. So I thank you for anything you can do and
appreciate your efforts. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Any more discussion amongst the board? Uh if not we'll move on to our next uh our next item which is to discuss the
revisions to the select board FY23 FY27 strategic plan. Uh Mr. Renaw. >> Thank you Mr. Chairman. Uh so this is the intent of this item is is really a first uh review of the product that our
consultants uh from from UMass uh the Collins Center put together for us. Just a bit of background uh for the community. Uh we uh the select board participated in a series of three uh workshops, Saturday workshops um beginning September um and then one
in November and then the last one on December 6th of last year. Um as you all recall, I so I've been here about two and a half years. The first couple of years, our our strategic plan annual review and update consisted of uh myself uh the assistant town manager
facilitating a discussion amongst the the select board uh locking ourselves in a room per se for five or six hours and coming out with revisions. Um that was effective but not as effective as I thought it could be. Um so uh we proposed and the select board agreed to
uh hiring this consultant to kind of facilitate a really deep dive into uh the strategic plan. Um I made a comment that I thought we had a very good strategic plan the FY23 FY FY27 strategic plan very robust. One of the
issues as I began working with the departments to create measures to be able to measure our performance to achieving select board strategic goals was that a lot of the goals contained in the original plan, the plan that was adopted in last adopted October 21st of
2024 was that a lot of the goals were not objective. They were very subjective. Um they in some instances they were they they conflicted with one another. uh goals within the same key focus area. Um so it was time to do a
complete kind of dive into this and having the consultant help us out kind of streamline um the uh strategic plan. Um uh goals should be objective, they should be actionable, they should be concise, um four to 10 words. And if you look at
the the current plan that was most recently approved, um the wording of the goals was not concise. Um, so what I wanted to do tonight is, and you have copies of both the uh the draft report that was prepared by the consultants of the
Collins Center. I wanted to go through not page by page per se, but I had a couple of questions and maybe if you don't mind, Mr. Chair, I can I'll throw out a couple of questions that I had. >> Sorry. >> In regards to the draft um again that was provided to us about a month and a
half ago. Um on the uh first off um Peter and I, the assistant town manager and I are currently um uh members of a cohort group um that was put together by uh Clearpoint Strategies that software platform as you recall that we're using to kind of again
measure um create uh metrics, KPIs. Um, and one of the things that I learned is that um, an effective strategic plan should have anywhere between two to four goals um, categorized within a theme they call it, but in our case a strategic key focus area. Um, we're
lacking in some of those areas and that's not something we're going to be able to address tonight. Um, but I wanted to direct the the um the board's uh, attention to those uh, uh, areas where we only currently have one goal. energy and sustainability currently just
lists the one goal. Um I think we need to probably consider building that out. Um and there's other examples. Um if you look at um organizational effectiveness, we currently have three, I'm sorry. Um
>> I believe it was uh water and conservation we were lacking in u >> I believe housing only has one strategic goal. >> Yes, it does. That's correct. Um so the first ask would be um to consider um uh some additional uh uh goals within those
uh those areas that just have one currently. I think we really should strive to have two uh to four. That would be my first kind of suggestion or recommendation. Um there's a couple of blank uh items that are listed. If you go if you uh direct your attention to um
uh key focus area six, organizational effectiveness. Um the last goal, optimize engagement with the community. Um great goal. Um it's it's actionable, it's objective. Um one of the milestones um or objectives
within that is uh the to create or convene, I should say, a community citizen academy. Um that that goal is is blank. Um I've had some discussions recently with um the town manager in Chadam who just recently Chadam just
recently implemented a citizen academy and it takes a good 6 to 8 months of of planning and preparation to launch a a good um citizen academy an effective uh citizen academy. So, I' I'd recommend that we look at a date sometime
literally um um in uh in in uh first or second quarter 2027 to allow staff and I time to to put together the parameters. Um but again, that is a blank right now that needs to be filled in before obviously we can adopt. Um I'd also direct your attention a question that I
had in regards to um the uh key focus area uh number four, health and public safety. Uh under the second strategic goal, uh state-of-the-art police and fire facilities are in place and meeting the needs of residents and visitors. Again,
um I've I've learned that um it should be actionable and four to 10 words. So, I think it checks those boxes. Um the second milestone, however, I had some concern about the uh the uh the the um realist if that's a realistic date. uh
by the close of fiscal year 2026, update any study or studies made to date on the feasibility of combining the two fire stations and act on the recommendation uh of the town manager's office. Um we're we're we're closing in on the the
end of uh uh uh fiscal year 2026. That would be June 30th. So I don't think that's going to be a realistic goal. Um so I'd ask that we consider extending that out. I don't have a date in my mind, but um I I certainly, as you all know, we're uh in the process of
bringing on our new fire rescue chief, and I certainly want that person to have some time to evaluate what plans have been done in the past um and be in a position to maybe uh uh provide that by um again, maybe uh second or third quarter of uh of FY27. That'll give add
enough time, I think, for the for the new fire rescue chief to work with my office to evaluate kind of where we're where we're at with those reports. Um, under um again within that same health and public safety uh key focus area, the last strategic goal, states
develop and adopt a long-term plan for police services. Um, I'm going to be candid with you. I don't recall. I don't think I was part of that um that that group that discussed this particular um uh focus area or goal. Um but I had a question. Um does is that referring to
uh what we're currently conducting on a department by department basis organizational and structural kind of an evaluation effectiveness of how the operate how the department operates. Um perhaps looking at deployments and uh standards of cover. Um, >> I have to admit I'm I'm pretty confused
about this whole process. I really feel like we need another Saturday meeting to sit down with the previous draft and the new draft and and sort it all out because I mean the one suggestion in the energy efficiency was geothermal idea. I
just threw that out there as an example of ideas to be our primary goal. It doesn't make any sense to me because I don't even know if it's feasible to have that as our primary goal. I think
a lot of time breaking this down and going back. >> I could go for another lamb from states. >> So the issue so I so I understand um that this was a different process. Um I thought it was pretty thorough and there was some consensus again at that last
meeting. That was one of the purposes of the last workshop is to gather that consensus. Um, we can tweak this. It's not it's not etched in stone. Um, we can certainly make amendments to the language. Um, and if that's not a goal under that strategic focus area that the select board wants to pursue, we can
make that change. Uh, my concern is this. Um, and I should have said I should have started out with this. Each year when we do these reviews, we typically begin them in in late late summer, early fall, August, September, and then we adopt the revisions um in in October. each of my previous two years.
Um we completed the process that three session work three workshop session review in December and now we're in March and we have not we don't have an adopted revised plan. So um it's important and I I'll say it like this. It's important um for my office to have
this plan locked down. Um and I and again I didn't believe that we're going to be able to do that this tonight. I just wanted the sled board to see the draft and and have this discussion about the weaknesses and strengths of it. Um it's important for my office though to have it locked down pretty quickly like within the next month. Um because Peter
and I, the assistant town manager and I are working with the departments to again build out that clearoint strategies measurement platform that I talked about I've talked about at Nauseium about presenting quarterly uh reports to the select board and using that as a basis to drive our decisions.
Again, that that uh database decision-m. So without having a plan in place that I can reference and refer the departments back to, it's making it a little bit problematic for me to to meet that goal. That's a goal that I placed on myself is to have that strategic management platform, that software in place. And uh
it's a little bit disjointed now because we have a a plan that was adopted in October of 2024 that has subjective not objective goals. Um and now we have this kind of hybrid where I think it's a much better um uh document in terms of the
objectiveness of the goals. Um but now there's some confusion or perhaps more discussion has to be was a true consensus that was developed in December when we met with a consultant. So, I will say
um and I've been hearing Hannah's voice in my head all night about the pace of government and I don't take that as a criticism of this board's commitment to doing the right things. Um
I never cease to be frustrated with the pace of government. Um right. Um, and with this strategic plan, um, I I share I think what I'm hearing is a is a sense of urgency, right, that
we are months past when we should have had a strategic plan in place um, for you to be working with. And I share that. I mean, we're closer to the end of the fiscal year than we are to the beginning of the fiscal year. Um, I think this strategic plan,
um, is in a much better place, but we're still in kind of an in between, right? We heard the consultant say a couple of times, right? If we were starting from scratch to do a five-year strategic plan, we would start with community and
department input, we like we would really be starting from scratch. And we didn't quite do that, but we came close. And so this is very different and the building consensus and agreement around it is turning out to be a longer process. Um
and so I guess like I I have a number of like goals I think we could she should scratch or milestones we need to add and those sorts of of things. Um, but I guess I'm I'm kind of looking for
the sense of the rest of the board as and and for that matter town management of like how much do we work on trying to perfect this versus how much do we say we're in a better place? Let's get this process going and we'll be revisiting
this what in four months. And what's that process going to be like? Are we talking about actually starting over or are we talking about just an annual update? Because I think that's the other thing that's been the practice of the town
has not been at least what I think of as a five-year strategic planning process. Right. And Doug, you've you've done this multiple times, so correct me if I'm wrong, right? But it's been kind of update it and then change the 5-year window. >> Correct. as opposed to doing a fiveyear
plan, coming back and updating it, and five years later >> each year >> redoing the plan. >> In years past, it would always shift one year out as it got updated and so it would cover, you know, the following. >> It would just adjust every year. would
adjust and we would look at the strategic items and some would be completed, some would be removed, some would ship because we realized that maybe that's not as important as what we thought during COVID. We went through the whole a lot of changes and then
those became obsolete. We took them out. So um what my concern is that the the directions the uh the goals are are they really representative of what we all agreed on. I I felt like maybe there was
some stuff like the six station model. We don't really know. Uh do we really want to pursue the Northwest combination right now? I don't think that's really a priority. I know it's something we want to keep in mind because at some point we might have to get rid of those old
stations. Um the way I I looked at the old um strategic plan was these are things that we've identified that we need to be working on. Some are more timesensitive and some are not. And I think the idea
was that it could be more of a flexible document for the town manager as you see opportunities to pursue some of the things that are in that plan, but doesn't mean you're going to be able to get to all of them. So, I I think that was where and I see your your request for more clear direction is is
important, but now that we're coming down to actually wanting to give that clear direction, it's important that we make sure it's what we really want before we ask you to do it because Like I said, the one example of the geothermal, it was just an idea that I
threw out there. It wasn't like a a main >> Well, we spent we spent half of the last session I my recollection and correct me if I'm wrong, um making sure he had all of these listed on and we went through um all seven of the key focus areas and
all of the goals that were that were discussed. Yeah, I think that was that was the that was the opportunity to make any kind of final changes or revisions or is that really what we wanted to to focus on as a as a goal objective within that? Well, >> I mean I I think the process we went
through uh and and this you know document I mean it needs tweaking as as you mentioned but I think it is uh you know so much better than than than what we had worked with before just because I think it is more defined it's more
focused uh it it it has some some milestones uh it doesn't just repeat things uh you know that the other strategic plans have done. So, uh, you know, I I tend to u to agree with Dr.
Goldstone's second suggestion, which is that we maybe just move this forward. Uh, maybe some tweaks. I mean, I don't remember uh, you know, agreeing that we were going to adopt a 20% uh, real estate exemption by calendar year 2028.
Uh, which is one of the milestones that's in there. So, I mean, I think there are certain things that that need to be adjusted, but uh but I appreciate your need for some guidance uh you know, as you're going forward. Uh >> I think the bigger question the vice
chair the vice chair brought this up, Mr. Chair. The bigger question is does this board um want to pursue um in another 6 months looking at a complete kind of redo uh in involving more community engagement. was my understanding there wasn't >> I I wanted to do that the last time is you know
>> rather than certainly the current practice of just adding you know going every year and revising then adding another year to the five year >> well this is you know this is completely different from what we we had last year really I mean just the whole format of it and >> yeah the only similarity is the is the
seven focus areas but uh uh you know as far as how we deal with them is is completely different from what was in the in the U I mean I for one would would like to uh start from square zero if if I'm still
on this board uh come uh come September. >> So implement I what I what I'd like to do then is come back with to the board on the 23rd with some proposed um uh tweaks or amendments to the to the draft document. This is your document. It should be a living breathing uh plan. It
should not just be static and sitting on my shelf in my office. um it is the document that I use for guidance when I sit down and meet with the department heads you know how are we performing are we meeting the expectations and the objectives of the select board so this
is an important document uh for us to get rights and and that's an understatement um I guess the big decision is do we want to going forward in FY27 um start looking at the creation of a new a new document involving some more
public discourse and public uh uh input uh or do we want to just complete it? And I I think the consensus is we do want to depart from the current practice of just adding a year and and and involving um the community and kind of >> can we can we make some suggestions to
you within the next week to 10 days, you know, as far as what we think >> some tweaks or that would be >> I would welcome I would welcome that. And uh simultaneous with that because I am feeling a little anxious to get this done. Um, I'll, like I said, I'll I'll make some proposed revisions as well. And it's more just concerns that my
office has with some of the uh some of the the uh the milestones, the deadlines and whatnot that I don't think even though we're only, you know, what, two or three months removed from the creation of this draft, I think a lot of them are were not even realistic then to be honest with you. Um
>> I think we share that with you >> and we >> so so so I'll I'll I'll redline this draft and uh come back um at the next meeting um with uh some proposed and and I my ask of you all would be to also uh propose some revisions in each of the uh
seven sections key focus areas. >> Yeah. >> Because I think each of the seven areas has has work that needs to be done. Um I've just highlighted a few um areas that I have concerns about dates. you know, we had uh we had spoken about adding another meeting to our uh our
schedule. Uh I don't think we're prepared to do it right now, but this might be a you know something to deal with at a you know at a particular meeting uh to get you know to get right if you will. >> We can certainly do that >> other than the March 23rd.
>> Sure. Sure. Let's see how much progress we can make in the on the 23rd and then if there's a need to to set aside a separate meeting or workshop to do that. >> Just as an example, this um energy and sustainability, the geothermal, I it seems like that would be a huge amount of work to try to figure out if that was
even feasible and then how would it be implemented if just I feel guilty that I even brought it up in our strategic meeting. >> That's okay. We had a few of these throughout this process. We had a few fun and wild ideas that got thrown out and somehow ended up in the draft when we didn't really expect it.
>> It adds spice, but uh yeah, >> and it's somewhere here. I think we need to make sure that we have um you know, making sure that our energy in our buildings is being used efficiently and make that more of a immediate focus. I I
hate to say it, but this this thing must be set on automatic. >> Huh? >> Because it's going from heat to air conditioning back and forth. >> And that's like chasing your tail to to constantly. >> So, whenever I do a house, you have the the new thermostats, you have an a
setting auto or heat or cool. In the winter, I only put it on heat because then it either calls for it or shuts down. When you put it on auto, it goes back and forth like this. And these are the little things that really add up to our energy bill. So, I'd rather focus on
that kind of stuff first than >> I think that would probably be covered by developing a sustainable energy. >> Well, maybe it should just say an energy action plan. But yeah, if we actually and we're going to talk about that at our next meeting when we hear from the energy committee, but if we actually had
a greenhouse gas inventory and >> or maybe just >> an action plan, I think that would go a lot a long way that we don't necessarily need to get into the replace the thermostats at the senior center, but making sure that we have a plan to do it. >> I think we do need to we're making sure that we have the right programming set
and best best industry practices in place. >> So in summary, we have homework to give to you. any revisions that we want. Your homework is to take those and put your revisions in there and then we will work on a new process whereby we put a period
on this one and start a new process next year. >> I think that's just summed it up perfectly, Mr. Okay. >> All right. Moving on to review and consider a vote to approve minutes of meetings January 28th, 2026 and February
9, 2026. May I ask town council a question before we have a motion? >> Sure. >> Um I believe the the advice has been that uh we can vote meetings that we were not present at because we are affirming the process not our memory of
the event. >> Is that exactly correct? >> Excellent. >> So now you want to make a motion to approve. >> If I can just get to that from the strategic plan. I will. Why did it put me back to the >> motion to approve minutes of meeting
January 28th, 2026, February 9th, 2026? >> I have my >> second >> I'd like to have a little uh one little thing where Mr. Richardson agreed that a prohibition on using town water.
>> I did agree that. Yes. >> But who did you agree with? >> I agree with Mr. Brown. >> That's right. >> I believe Mr. Brown is looking for credit. I I feel like I want to keep pushing that. So I want it to be >> about that one. Yeah. >> As amended. >> Thank you.
>> Okay. >> So there's a motion and >> second >> as amended. All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> Uh future agenda items. Uh the one Mr. Richardson agreed with. Any update on
that one? Uh uh >> well we have next meeting we have uh I think three is that still the the plan we'll have the energy committee uh sustainability coordinator and
>> what's the third one there was something in that vein >> the tap the Felmouth tap >> okay >> the ever source presentation >> so we've got a bunch of energy stuff next time >> okay can >> but are we going to discuss that
specific uh suggestion that Mr. Brown had. Could we have that in the near future? >> I think that meeting could be >> Well, that was part of the strategic planning. >> Yeah, but I thought at the strategic planning meeting, we thought this could just be something we do.
>> Well, yeah, but it's a big thing. So, >> it's been talked about. >> Y Okay. >> Yeah, I'd be happy to to do it. I just want to make sure everybody's on board with it if that's >> So, we can add that to the list. Okay. Mhm. >> That's something that I think should be incorporated into the strategic plan and
then fold it in over time, not just I didn't intend that we just vote it and just do it >> without giving it time and and lead because it's going to be a big shock to some folks. >> But here for you.
>> Uh in the same vein, another agenda item of request. Uh thank you Mr. for Renshaw for pointing out in the strategic plan the police station um tidbit cuz I too was not part of that but um that does
remind me of we've got the land now for the police station but the appropriations process I think would be good for us to have an understanding of what it's going to be over the next year in terms of preparation of town meeting town meeting etc for the proposed
budget. So, if we could do that, >> an excellent point, select board member Reed and uh Peter's actually working on that agenda item as we as we speak. So, that is planned for March 23rd. Have kind of a summary overview. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Second.
>> Okay. Motion second. All in favor? >> No. All in favor? I. Thank you. >> No reports tonight. Oh, does anyone have a report? It's too late for reports. It's just a It's very hard for me. >> Yeah,
>> we can get some of those stand. >> We'll get you a standing desk. >> Jack never says, "Oh, no. Jack Carlson printing 5085487303. Our email address is carlsonprinting@gmail.com.
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