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growing your business. 877-6342638 or meget.net. You got to press them down. Well, >> yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> Okay. We're going to start in about 30 seconds here, guys, I think. It's not going to be a secret for long. >> No,
>> doesn't sound like he wants this to be a secret, does it? Good evening. It's 6 o'clock. I'm going to call to order the Tuesday, October 14th, 2025 meeting of the Town of Falmouth Select Board. Uh we are going
to uh proceed into executive session. Is there a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> I'll second that. >> Okay. All in favor by roll call. >> Brown. I. >> Mscali. I. >> Goldstone. I. >> Reed. I. Richardson. I. >> Okay. We will be back after executive
session. Thank you. Okay, good evening. It is 6:30 and I'm calling to order the Tuesday, October 14th, 2025 regular meeting of the town of Fmouth Select Board. We have returned from executive session where we dis and
item one discuss strategy with respect to imminent litigation and item two discuss strategy with respect to imminent litigation ray 341 C coast boulevard. Uh please rise and join me for the pledge of allegiance.
>> Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. >> Just just a reminder to please silence
your cell phone and notify the chair if you're making a video or audio recording of this open session meeting. The placement and operation of recording equipment should not interfere with the conduct of the meeting. So, moving on to recognition. I am going
to recognize that we are honored to have in the audience this evening the former chair of the select board Miss Taylor and the former vice chair of this board Mr. Zullinsky. So thanks for joining us. Okay. Any other recognition members?
>> Miss Goldstone. Sure. >> I'm in a recognizing kind of mood I guess. Um, I would like to recognize uh first of all all the runners, but especially all of the volunteers who braved the weather this weekend to make the Cape Cod Marathon um and all of their events a success. Um, also our
Coast Guard for a rather unusual rescue this weekend. Um, and then last but not least, uh, the hundreds of federally employed, uh, individuals in our community currently on furlow or working without pay and, uh, the nonprofits, uh,
throughout town who often step in to help support, um, our federal workers during these shutdowns. >> Thank you very much. Any others, Mr. Brown? >> No. >> No. Okay. Any announcements?
Uh, I have one. I was uh honored to be part of the uh uh the indigenous people's celebration at the uh cultural center at the museums on the green on uh on Sunday read out uh the proclamation this board had adopted on September
29th. It was really a wonderful program. Uh the u there was a conversation between Dr. Fame and Silva and Chief Mills, former Chief Mills of the tribe and his daughter Roxanne Mills Brown discussing how it was growing up in
Felmouth, how uh how they assimilated into uh into the community with you know in rather difficult circumstances at times. So it was really a a wonderful program and uh we were thanked for the contribution that we were able to make
to the celebration. So thank you again Mr. Mr. Town Manager. So anyone else any announcements? No. Okay. We will then move on to public comment. Is anyone wishing to make public comment? If you are, please raise your hand and approach
the podium. If there's none, then I don't have to make an announcement about public comment. So, okay, we will move to the consent agenda. uh licenses. Considering a vote to approve the application by West Felmouth
Library located at 575 West Falmouth Highway, West Falmouth for a special one-day wine and malt beverages license for a book launch featuring author Katherine Zapone to be held on October 22nd, 2025 from 5:00 p. a.m. to 700 p.m.
Number two, consider a vote to approve the application by West Falmouth Library located at 575 West Falmouth Highway, West Falmouth, for a special one-day wine and malt beverages license for a fall wine tasting to be held on October
29th, 2025 from 6 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Consider a vote to approve the application by Cape Arts and Entertainment, Inc. DBA Cape Symphony and Cape Symphony Presents located at 60 Highfield Drive, Falmouth, to amend its
annual entertainment license by extending the hours from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. to 9:30 a.m. to 1000 p.m. to allow daytime events. Consider a vote to approve an application from Shipwrecked LLC for a
special one-day wine and malt liquor license for the Shipwrecked Falmouth in the fall road race afterparty to be held in the parking lot of shipwrecked the Heights Hotel 263 Grand Avenue on Sunday 1125
from 10 p 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p p.m. administrative orders. Discuss and consider approval of the appointment of an alternate member H. Carter Hunt Jr. to serve on the Military Civilian Community Council, MC3, at Joint Base
Cape Cod. Consider a vote to approve and sign the regulatory agreement for 464 Main Street. Consider a vote to approve a conservation restriction for 168 Shore Street. >> Hold, please. Okay.
Consider a vote to approve the FY26 Municipal Road Safety Program Grant. Number five, consider a vote to accept a donation from Gerald and Diane Lynch in the amount of $500 to the police
department. Number six, consider a vote to accept a donation from Gerald and Diane Lynch the amount of $500 and a donation from Bay Clark de Jillian in the amount of $500
to the Falmouth Fire Rescue Department. And number seven, discuss and consider support for and approval of written testimony on House Bill H4825, the refundable title 5 septic tax credit. >> Hold.
>> Okay. Very good. Okay. We can discuss the first hold. Miss Goldstone, >> would you like to move the remainder of the consent agenda? >> Uh, we could do it that way. Do you want to vote the consent agenda and just
exempt the holds at this point? >> All right, I'll entertain a motion. >> Motion to approve the consent agenda with the exception of item three and seven. >> Second. >> Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing or seeing none. All in favor?
>> I >> I Okay, we will proceed to uh Vice Chair Goldstone's hold of item number three. Yeah, I guess I have a a couple of questions about this application for a conservation restriction given its location in a densely residential area
downtown. Um it I guess one question and I I do see our community development director is also here in the audience. So perhaps a question um for you Mr. Corn, but um given that the portion of the parcel that would be placed under conservation
restriction um is is in a couple of different flood designations. Would that portion of the lot otherwise be developable um based on that flood designation? for the can. >> Yes.
>> All right. Very good. For the record, community development director. Unfortunately, I can't answer that. I'm not really with that site, but if it is within a flood zone, there are certainly challen Um, I I guess would just love a little
bit more color on the conservation um argument for that piece of property. Having walked and driven past it, it certainly has trees on it, but doesn't seem like dense habit.
So was curious the recommendation obviously since it's on the consent agenda is to to grant a conservation restriction um and again just kind of curious about the the value of that conservation restriction.
>> So I can you hear me? Okay. So the rationale as far as I understand because this is not a town project. This comes to us from the 300 committee and the impetus um actually came from the homeowner. So they have requested the conservation
restriction be put on their own land and the 300 committee is taking on the the responsibility for maintenance of the conservation restriction. Um here in reading through the conservation restriction, it's my understanding that the real driving
purpose for this restriction is to support what's already on there as a historic preservation site. So it's really in support of the structures there so that the land can be kept in perpetuity
um in a way that um that assists keeping the structures intact for as long as possible. Yes, Mr. >> I don't know this project particularly either, but I do know that uh people often times try to develop their
property and they find out that it's conservation controlled areas that they can't use, so they seek some tax relief. >> Yeah, I mean that may very well be it, but you know, in order to get a determination or a deduction, you
probably have to do an appraisal. And that appraisal would indicate whether or not the property is developable or not. And clearly if it's not developable, the tax benefit would be less than it would be if it was developable property. So that may very well be what's uh what's
behind it. So uh any further discussion or questions? Okay. Is anyone prepared to move the uh uh uh the approval for the conservation restriction for 168 Shore Street? I I'd be willing to make a positive motion in
favor of that because 300 committee supporting it. There must be some value to the land >> for conservation. >> Second. >> Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? >> Hearing and seeing no. All in favor? I >> Okay, unanimous. Thank you.
>> Okay, we will now move to number seven. >> Yeah, I'm only holding uh because I need to abstain >> from item seven. >> But now that it is held, Mr. Wrench, would you be able to just give us a little bit of a background on this uh with respect to uh
>> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I certainly letter in there, but thank you. There. Thank you, Mr. Chair. There is a letter um that is in your packets. Um I'm recommending the select board approve and submit the letter to the um the joint
uh joint committee on revenue. Um, as you may recall, um, it was, uh, let me see, last, I want to get the dates right. It was last year, um, the water quality management committee voted, um, a recommendation of the select board to support the septic system tax credit re
uh, refundable, uh, changing it from non-refundable, the current uh, model to refundable. Um, there was great discussion back uh, in December of last year. Uh December 16th, uh the board authorized sending a letter of support. I believe I included a copy of that
letter. If I didn't, I apologize. Um the former letter. Um on May of this year, uh Representative Vieira uh presented House Bill 4082, an act relative to a refundable Title 5 septic tax credit. Um
I noted on the uh house on the uh general assembly website that the bill received concurrence from the senate back on May 8th just a few days afterwards. It was currently scheduled for a hearing before the joint committee on revenue uh on October 17th. So this week uh so it was timesensitive. uh the
water quality management committee chair uh uh assisted greatly in uh drafting the letter which is attached to your packet again to the joint committee on revenue to both the chair the senate chair and the house chair re recommending uh approval and passage of
this important piece of legislation. >> Okay. Is there any further discussion? I would I would just comment that I think it's very important because a lot of folks on the lower income scale are not really going to be able to benefit by the $18,000 tax credit. So that's the
reason for this. There's a lot of people on limited income that are going to be less uh advantaged by the the write off if they can't take it over I think it's six years. Okay. >> Any further? Okay.
>> No. I would make a motion to approve the attached written letter and testimony in support of House Bill 4082, an act relative to a refundable Title 5 septic system tax credit as presented and authorized the chairperson to sign the letter. >> Okay, second. >> Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any
further discussion? Hearing and seeing none. All in favor? >> I with Mr. Richardson abstaining. Thank you. Okay, we will now move on to committee interviews. Uh, and the first is for the Economic Development Industrial Corp., Mr. Jim Fox. Jim,
would you >> Good evening. Uh, thank you very much for this opportunity. I had served on the EDIC before and done a lot of work with them. There was a period there where I was busy running two businesses as in a couple things going on at the
station that I was worried about that I didn't want to have any conflict with. So, I took a couple years off and I recently saw the development that they're planning uh and it fits much better into some of the things uh that we've been working on the planning board
to uh houses that look like they belong in Cape Cod and a smaller scale. And I really like what they're doing. I thought I'd like to get back and be part of it. I think I could help him because I have a lot of background knowledge of the of this the whole not only the EDIC but the station as well as uh the
landfill and some other projects I've been involved in in the past. >> Okay. Anybody have any questions? Mr. Reid, >> I serve as a co-chair of the EDIC and I recommend uh Jim for this position. and he comes to us at a time where we are
moving from projectbased work to one of uh thought-based leadership in terms of economic development here in town. Um but Jim also brings an extensive knowledge of what we've done in the technology park as well as at the station. So I'd like to make pending no
other questions from the select board, I would like to make the motion to approve Jim to for a three-year term. >> I can second that. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? >> No. Okay. Hearing and seeing none. All
in favor? >> I >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you for your offer of service, Mr. Fox. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Travel safe to the planning board. >> Okay. Number two, Commission on Substance Use. We have three applicants
for two positions. We have Dr. Dre Greg Parkinson. Dr. Parkinson, please approach, introduce yourself, tell us why you'd like to be on the committee. >> Uh, Mr. Rener, do you want to start us off and just indicate what the openings are?
>> I will. Uh, Mr. Chair, as you've noted, there are two vacancies currently um on the uh Commission on Substance Use. Uh, the terms end June 30th of 27 and the other term ends June 30th of 2028. Um, as you mentioned, there's three applicants for these two positions. Um, and Dr. Parkinson is going to present
his qualifications and background. >> Okay. >> Hi committee everyone. >> The um I'm Greg Parkinson. I'm a pediatrician at Forth Pediatrics and have been there since 1995. Been in town
the same length of time. Um I'm also the uh school physician for the town of Falmouth and um as a pediatrician and obviously as a school physician you know we've seen a huge shift in the landscape obviously in that
in that 30-year time period from a relatively uncommon um occurrence of substance use deaths especially and uh to uh an all too common experience that we've all been affected by um my
children who all went through felon schools who are now between the ages of 25 and 30. Um I believe the count is 30 class members between the three of them and plus or minus one year uh that are no longer
with us and which is just a shocking number now that those are not all substance abuse deaths. Some of them are car crash deaths, but you get the idea of just how, you know, you already know how impactful this is. Um, we're also um at the office and in the community um
very affected by the number of grandparents uh raising children and the effects that substance abuse has had on the whole um the whole job of parenting in so many of our communities. Um the um my understanding is that the committee
has had a um you know strong presence. Um but the area that um is most um in need is the uh prevention side of um of substance abuse.
um had several conversations with the um committee um with the u various people at the school about um the need for you know prevention obviously um you know
speaks for itself and um I would love to you know take the expertise that I have you know um in addition to 30 years of caring for kids in the community I've also been involved in advocacy of the state house for about uh 20 years um
primarily in um injury prevention and uh sit on the mass chapter of the American Academy of Boh pediatrics um um board as uh their injury prevention co-chair and I see poisoning prevention, you know, this is really an outreach of
injury prevention as as uh far as I'm concerned. So happy to answer any questions and thank you for your consideration. Um I have one. Do you have any opinions about programs with respect to harm reduction in the in the issue of
substance use? >> Right. So the you know prevention we think of as primary prevention, secondary prevention, you know um so when you have um I mean obviously the the most ideal form of prevention is primary you know prevent a problem
before there is one. when somebody already has a problem um you know obviously it requires a different uh um set of of you know eyes and a different you know more specialized approach and
so clearly harm reduction is also important I mean you know we'd love to eliminate this problem but we've got to keep people from dying you know that's pretty
Yeah, I think apparent I'm also wondering as as a physician only because it's been in the news a lot lately, the uh your opinion on the use of these GLP weight red weight reducing drugs with respect to assisting in
people who are suffering from addiction. >> I wouldn't want to venture a uh an opinion on that. That's beyond my area of I'd leave that to someone. >> Okay. Yeah, Mr. Brown. >> Hi, Dr. Parkinson. Thank you for applying for this. It seems it would be
very advantageous to have you on the committee, whereas you're already the school physician. Does that position afford you more opportunities to introduce programs? I >> I mean, I I'd like to think it does. it would um you know I'm I'm in this I'm in
the schools regularly and um you know the I think I'm pretty well known within the schools and I think the people that uh work there feel very comfortable coming to me and you know I I should I
should mention as well that right now we don't have a in addition to the schools sorry to to digress the um you know The other thing that that I don't believe is represented on the committee is somebody who has been an active part of found hospital um which you know I started
there in 95 and and although as you're well aware the pediatric and maternity services are not there anymore um you know I have a a long institutional um uh history and no you know a lot of people in the building and and I think that's
another area that the committee would like to become more involved is, you know, collaborating with the with the hospital in in various ways from from um, you know, the availability of grants to um to just making sure that people
that are there, you know, if there are needs that the hospital has that the committee can help with for those people who are presenting, >> right? Thank you. >> No. Uh do you have a preference with respect to the uh the term as you heard one is ends June 30, 2028, one ends June
2027. >> I I do not go with either one if Yeah. >> Okay, Mr. Chair. >> Yes. Uh thank you. Uh say hi to Chris for me. It's been six or seven years probably since I saw him. Um just a
quick question on um if you have a a uh stance on on overdose prevention centers. Uh if if that's something that you know be a potential tool >> you know there are other people who on the committee who are more um you know have more expertise in that area you
know from what I have seen though they have value I mean there's a there's a stigma you know there's a oh do we really want to be a town that has this kind of thing um and and uh I would you know I like to think that um
you unfortunately We live in a time where you can um you know you can be public about just about anything but your substance abuse issue uh is still difficult especially for the population that I deal with. you know,
Alan and I have had this discussion that, you know, you can you can talk about anything, but you can't say to your buddy, you know, I think I have a drinking problem when you're 17 because it's just not so. And so I I see that as another outreach of that that you know I
mean I know you know there um you know there are fears you know around the idea of needles and that kind of thing but if it again if it's if it prevents harm then you know if the data
suggested it prevents harm then I would be open to looking at it. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Okay. If there's no further questions, I'll ask Ryan Walker, who is another applicant, to approach. Good evening. Hi, I am Ryan Walker. Uh, thank you, Select Board, for allowing me
to interview uh for this commission. I'm new to Falmouth and I felt motivated to apply because I have a deep belief in public service and I wanted to apply for this commission specifically because of my experience in my skill set in this
particular field. I currently work for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's Bureau of Substance Addiction Services and in my role there I'm the director of SGD treatment facility licensing for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Um
I've been in that role for five years and uh I've also been with the department of public health for 10 years in various roles in this field. I've been with the drug control program and I've served as quality improvement analyst for the bureau of health professions lensure but I feel my work
uh prior to that is what's most applicable for this commission. I served uh as an outreach coordinator for the Northfor County District Attorney's Office for a few years and in that role I helped develop and build community coalitions that focused on substance use
disorder. When I started in my role back in 2013, uh there were only six community coalitions that were actively functioning and operating in Norfolk County. And when I had left two years later, there were close to 20 that had strategic plans and had visions for how they would address substance use in
their communities. I feel that my skill set um and my background is very applicable for this commission. I have a masters in public administration from the University of Massachusetts Lowel. Uh which has led me to lead and be a director in multiple positions in state
government and I feel um very passionate about giving back and serving my community. So I I welcome any questions and uh again thank you. >> Yes. Uh certainly very uh impressive resume
and a lot of qualifications you bring. Um I I'm curious whether you've attended any um meetings of the the commission and whether there are specific you mentioned strategic planning. Obviously you're connected to the state. Are there specific um actions or or things that that you would be looking to advance um
if you were part of the commission? >> Yes, thank you. I've attended a few uh commission meetings and uh in preparation for this interview, I've also reviewed the meeting minutes for the last 10 years of the commission. And one thing that appears glaringly missing
are conversations about data and outcomes and measures. It's difficult to move a coalition forward without measuring what success is. And I think that's something that I can bring to the co uh to the commission immediately uh in my skill set and my experience.
I have no questions. Very impressive. President >> Yeah. Very very impressive. Okay. Thank you. And now we'll ask um Mr. Brian Leblanc is here. Okay. Thank you. Hello, my name's Brian. Thank you guys.
Um, I am a house manager of Sober Fit, which is a sober house. I've been a manager there for about a year. Before that, I was an assistant manager of a sober house in Lind for four years. I myself, I'm in recovery. I have five
years sober, five and a half years sober and clean. Um, so as a house manager, I'm constantly around people in recovery. I work with people in recovery. I myself know what it's like to be in recovery. Um before that, before the drugs and substance issues
that I had in my life, I was in school. Um to be a social worker, I did not finish. I did volunteer jobs as a leadership peer mentor. I did outreach for a program called Journeys of Hope in Salem that worked with at roots risk youth.
Um, but needless to say, I have um a big um big understanding of what it's like to be in recovery more than most people do. Um there's a lot of stuff that school and books won't teach you about recovery unless you've actually been through it
and lived it. Um there's also a lot of the data will show certain things, but like I said, living it is a completely thing. Um, I believe the commission needs somebody that lives in recovery and knows what it's like to be surrounded by people in recovery. I
believe the sober houses need to be represented in the committee. I believe sober houses themselves are a great help. If it wasn't for a sober house, I wouldn't be where I am today and I'm thankful for it. Um, I'd like to see that representation of somebody in
recovery in the committee more and that's my um why I decided to apply. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Leblanc. Um, following on uh Vice Chair Goldstone's uh question to the prior Mr. Walker, have you been able
to attend any of the >> I was at a meeting last month. Yes. >> Okay. And and just since you're in the um in the in the uh business, if you will, how how do you feel about the MASH program and certifica certifi? Well, not quite certifications, but
>> so the house I am I am not a mass certified house, so I don't work with too many mass certifications. Um from my understanding of talking to all the people that do mass certifications, it's a great thing that helps a lot of people out. um coming out of recovery, there's
not a lot of ways to pay rent and that's a struggle for a lot of people in recovery. Even if you get a job, you have to wait two weeks to get your first paycheck and that goes towards food or transportation. So the mass grants and the funding do a lot for people for those first couple of months in
recovery, especially in the sober house. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Lebanon. Anyone have any other question? >> Question Richardson. >> Question for the town manager. uh can we gener create another position so we can have all three of these uh talented applicants?
>> So um as the board may recall uh back in July we actually expanded the membership. I was remiss I did not mention that from five to seven. Um so the the board can can opt to vote to increase membership. >> I would like to go to eight members. I I think these are all three incredibly
diverse and highly qualified who would each bring a unique perspective. >> So Mr. Chair, let me just um consult first with town council because this wasn't posted in tonight's agenda for the creation. So, it may have to be properly posted in a subsequent agenda to to to execute that.
>> Agreed. That is fine. Legal analysis, town manager. Um it is not on the agenda. It's not properly been noticed. Um I also would caution about making the group too large because then you have to worry about meeting the quota. Certainly anyone who's not um a member can come
and participate anytime they want and speak in a public meeting. >> I would still I mean can I am I if I need to shut up just let me know. But I would still like to I would still move forward on doing that in a future meeting. Um so if we can accept two
tonight on the condition that in the future meeting next meeting hopefully we could we could add add a position and then the third applicant you know if that opens up other applicants we can deal with that then. But um I think all all three of these people deserve to be on this. The more the marrier in my
opinion. >> So I would caution against voting against that tonight since it is not on the agenda. >> I I would have to agree myself. I think um okay certainly take it up with a
proper application and a proper notice. So um does anyone want to make a motion with respect to any of the current applicants? do have one question, not necessarily for the applicant, but of the >> anyone else who might be here that might be on the committee to give us a little
more better understanding of the makeup of the committee because as this gentleman said, there should be somebody on there who's actually living it. And we have two very highly qualified professional candidates. I wouldn't want to miss the opportunity to put them on,
but I I'm interested to know the makeup of the commission. And I wish I knew that more offh hand. >> Sorry. >> Yes, Elias, if you want to approach. >> I'm Elias Lieberman. I am a member of
the Commission on Substance Use. Um, my understanding is that historically the commission initially, and this goes back decades, had nine members. And over the course of time, perhaps because of issues of um having a quorum, uh it shrank. But there's been a lot of talk
within the commission over the past year or so about the need to expand. Uh we currently have, um five members, rights, uh myself, um the chair is Dennis Lion, who is a retired
pharmacist. Uh Dr. Katherina Armstrong is a relatively new member. She is an infectious disease specialist. Um I come as a member of the community but with experience um as a congregational rabbi. Um Samantha Bower uh very involved in a
community activity and a program that she runs called inspiration is everywhere. Um I and uh Richard Corey um who uh works in the field. So I think we have a a great broad representation. Um my sense of the commission is that we
would welcome all three of these people. We have talked about the desire to expand the committee to enable that to happen if it can't happen tonight. I think it's the commission's intent to bring a request to the select board to expand either to eight members or perhaps nine because we think there may
be even more interest out there in serving on this commission. >> Yes, Miss Coulson. >> First, thank you, Mr. around because um your question mirrored mirrored mine. Um I'm curious uh the when you say there's
desire to expand it, why what would the additional members bring? Is that in terms of diversity of perspectives? Is in is that in terms of workload that committee members are are doing outside of meetings? What's the the impetus for wanting more members? >> Madam Madam vice chair, I'm sorry. I've got to interrupt. This is not on the
agenda. The agenda item is about discussing whether to vote for to add these particular these three people. This item has to be saved for another agenda item. >> Mr. Chair, I would move postponement of
the vote to appoint uh new members to the uh substance abuse commission until a time when we can discuss the composition of the commission more holistically. >> Second. >> Sorry. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? >> I >> I >> No,
>> I don't want to wait. >> No, Mr. Reed, >> I >> Okay. Well, I guess it's three to two to postpone. >> Okay. >> Okay. All right. >> Sorry. >> Okay. >> Well, Mr. Brown is asking that so
everyone understands there was a motion to postpone any discussion uh until we could decide whether or not we want to expand the uh membership of the commission. Uh and uh that vote was three in favor and two against. So uh
it'll be tabled for the time being. It's I personally feel it's unfortunate the commission needs those people on the uh on the commission. And I I personally see no reason to delay, but uh that's the vote. So, we'll move on to the board of assessors, Joseph Clancy. Mr. Clancy,
are you in the there? Of course you are. There you are. Everyone knows Mr. Clancy. >> Good evening. My name is Joseph Clancy. I'm a full-time resident of the town of Felmouth and currently I serve on the council on aging. A few weeks ago, uh,
uh, Peter Johnson Stab called me and asked if I would submit an application to be on the board of assessors. I thought about it for a few moments and thought I would be happy to serve the town in that capacity if you'll have me. As far as some of my experience, I came
to Felmouth in 1976 to complete the mass appraisal for McGee and McGan who had been hired by the town to do that service. In 1980, we completed that project where we measured all of the buildings in the town, put
values on all of the properties, residential, commercial, industrial, and land, and then supported the uh property values through the appelllet tax board and any challenges. I subsequently went on to um be the regional manager and
successfully complete revaluations for 23 other towns and cities in southeastern Massachusetts including Nantucket, some towns on the vineyard, uh a lot of towns in southeastern Massachusetts.
Uh in 1984 I ended my mass appraisal career and took up independent fee appraisal where I became a designated appraiser and currently I have Massachusetts license number 76 for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts uh and I'm
in good standing and have reertified that license um until July of 2027. So I'm an active real estate appraiser in the field of valuation of properties. I happen to be one of those people that understands
appraisal and assessing and I understand the differences between the two and how important each of those particular roles uh serve in our community. I think I can serve on the board of assessors and offer uh whatever uh information that I
know about assessing, help to set the tax rate to keep that that part of the uh the board's um challenge going and be of whatever assistance I can to the um principal assessor that we've just hired. Um so I think that's about all of
my experience and uh be happy to answer any questions. Anyone have any questions of Mr. Clancy? >> No, >> I have a quick one. >> Okay, Mr. Brown. >> Hi, Mr. Glansancy. Thanks for coming tonight. I wonder, have you heard of uh
there was a discussion at 1 Cape Summit about um appraisals and assessments that nationwide seem to have a prepoundonderance of overvaluing lower income properties and undervaluing higher income properties. Have you been aware of any kind of study like that?
Have you ever heard of such a thing? >> I've read some of those articles. I haven't encountered any uh on my own. Uh obviously, Felmouth is a very diverse community with uh many many neighborhoods, villages, and some very
elaborate homes and oceanfront and that sort of thing. I haven't encountered it locally or on Cape Cod. Yeah, it was interesting and the speaker forwarded a a survey. If if you're interested, I'll forward it to you at some point, but just curious if your your thoughts on that if you had any. So, thank you.
>> Okay. Um there's two openings, so I think we would be prepared to possibly entertain a motion with respect to Joseph Clancy. I move approval or uh appointment of Joseph Clancy to serve on the board of
assessors from a period ending June 30th, 2028. There's two. There's 2027 and 2028. Do you have a preference? >> 27, please. >> Okay. Appointment ending in 2027, June 30. >> Okay. There's a
>> second. >> Okay. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? No. Hearing none. All in favor? Hi. >> Hi. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Bruce Beardsley. >> Good evening. I'm Bruce Beardsley and thank you for uh allowing me this
opportunity. I've uh been involved in Felmouth. I both my grandparents and parents um retired here. I've been a homeowner since 1998, uh, but just recently retired, so my wife and I moved down here full-time
just last August. Um, I have previously served in the town of Medfield on the board of assessors from 1997 to 2009, I believe. Um, have a background in uh, real estate. Uh, and actually was fortunate enough to work
for Joe Clancy many years ago. Uh, so you would not find a a finer uh representative for for the board than Joe. Um, so with that, I I'd be happy to entertain any questions. >> Oh, your your resume is very um helpful
with respect to your prior service on the board of assessors in Medfield. So, does anyone have any questions? >> I would, Mr. Brown, >> I would just ask the same question that I asked Mr. Clancy. Have you heard uh ever heard or read anything about
>> Actually, I haven't even seen those articles. Um aware of the dynamic, but um no, I have no personal experience with that, but certainly be interested in coming up to speed. >> Great. I'm looking forward to looking into it. Hope hopefully we're not slipping on that, but I guess it's a
possibility. >> Probably not. >> Looks like Mr. Clancy has forced you to take the position until 2028. Is that okay with you? >> I noticed that. I don't want to be presumptive, but >> All right. Well, very good. Uh, is there a motion?
>> Motion. >> So, move. >> Second. >> Okay. We have a motion in a second to appoint Bruce Beersley to the board of assessors for the term expiring June 30, 2028. Any further discussion? All in favor? >> I. Thank you very much.
>> Great. Thank you all. Happy. >> Okay. And I'm the historical commission and Mr. Renar, you always keep uh stealing your thunder. You want to uh tell us about the historical? >> Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Real briefly, um it's a five full member five full voting member uh commission with two
alternate members. As you can see in your packet, there's currently one full voting membership vacancy with a term ending June 30th of 27. Uh and two alternate member vacancies, one with a term ending June 30, 27 and one with a term ending June 30, 2028. Um and Mr.
Pacino is submitted an application last late last month for the full voting member position. >> Okay. Well, thank you to introduce yourself and tell us why you want to be on the commission, sir. >> Yeah. Good evening. My name is Chris Buchino. Um I'm a landscape architect, a
Massachusetts licensed landscape architect. Um I was invited by Annie Dean, who's on the commission, to um apply for the position. um her husband Doug Jones um was one of my teachers at F Academy uh many years ago and so he
suggested to Annie that I might be a good um person to to join the committee and bring up um an interesting perspective um as a landscape architect. Um apparently that's um a perspective that they don't currently have on the
commission and have not had. Um, and I I feel like um that that would add value um to the commission moving forward. Uh uh I've lived in Falmouth my entire life. I or my mom and I uh moved back to
Falmouth when I was 18 months old. Um my grandparents um moved here in 1955. My grandfather was a bartender at the Treadway in at Cape Cod Country Country Club before he became proprietor of the Silver Lounge restaurant which he had
from 1956 to 2000 when he retired. Um my grandfather was also one of the founding trustees uh for Fouth Academy. So he helped to get F Academy um started. So um I feel that the history of my family, my
wife's family and my family all from Falmouth. Um my wife and I uh moved back to Felmouth and have been living here for the past 7 years. We have two children, a four-year-old uh boy and an 18-month old girl. So they will continue as fourth generation here in Felmouth.
And um I'd be happy to answer answer any questions. >> Anyone? Yes, Goldstone. >> Yeah. Uh just one question. I I always feel like uh one of the greatest challenges of our historical commission is balancing historical preservation
with the needs of the community to evolve and be able to adopt new technology and and evolve to changing needs. And I'm curious how you approach that kind of uh conundrum in historical preservation. >> Sure. Um I think I think there's a matter of
determining as a commission a community uh what is what has value for the community and what might not have as much value. So I think it's it's def defining um defining value and um
also I think of um yeah I suppose that would be kind of the my key impression is that um you know is it um conservation or preservation and determining you know value of these
historic kind of elements fabric of our Okay, Mr. Brown. >> Hi. I've been asking this of all the uh con historic commission applicants. So, we've been having a lot of uh more
modern elements in both Main Street and other historic districts that have been approved recently. But personally, I'm more of a traditionalist. And I wonder what's your feeling on that? Are you like more acceptable to the modern stuff or do you feel like tradition is
overrules or do you have an opinion? >> You know what what's interesting is I think it was 2014 or 2015 and I was I presented in front of the historic district commission and it was uh the project was on Quisit Harbor. It was the
first uh modern house in a historic district. So I was working for the landscape architect on that project. >> That's okay. There's my answer. Yeah. Um so, um yeah. So, I I I suppose under the
right circumstances, um I I I think um you know, I think a community has to evolve. You know, I I I cherish the the traditional kind of um fabric of the town, but I I think um you know, we're always creating new history in in the
town. Um, so you know what buildings 200 years from now, you know, are we building now that will be seen as historical that perhaps were not seen as, you know, traditionally historical today? >> I remember that argument when the when it was being done because I was
questioning saying, geez, that beautiful old Camrell and now we have this and I was just shaking my head and it's beautiful building. It's just so unusual and unique that it doesn't strike you as >> a historic district. I was just the the the landscape designer on that project.
>> You're not responsible for the roof. >> All right. Well, thank you for answering anyway. >> Okay. Any more questions of Mr. Buchccino? Okay. Do we have a motion? >> I would move appointment of Christopher Buchino to the historical commission uh full member position for a term until June 30th, 2027.
>> Second. >> Okay. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? No. All in favor? I >> I >> Thank you, Mr. Pacino. Thank you very much. >> Okay, we'll move on to our public hearing. Uh, and I will ask Vice Chair Goldstone to read the notice. Notice is
hereby given under chapter 140 section 183A of the general laws as amended by chapter 299 of the acts of 1926 and amendments there too that Shipwreck LLC located at 263 Grand Avenue Fmouth Massachusetts has applied for a one-day
entertainment license and Sunday entertainment license for an event to be held in the parking lot of Shipwreck and the Heights Hotel 263 Grand Avenue on Sunday November 2nd 2025 between 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. A hearing on the
above application will be held uh in the Old Silver Surf Drive program room at the Senior Center, 780 Main Street, Fmouth, Massachusetts on Tuesday, October 14th, 2025 at 6:45 p.m. Comments may be sent to select boardfammouth.gov.
>> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Entro. Just a couple of quick comments, Mr. Chair. A lot of this is in your packet, so I'll try to stick to the stuff that is not. Um, if approved tonight, um, this event would be held in the parking lot of shipwrecked the Heights Hotel and the property parking lot would be close to all vehicular traffic. Um, as you can
see in your packet, um, the applicant is proposing the use of an amplified DJ and an acoustic duo. Um, the one uh piece of information that is not in your packet that I thought it was important to bring up during tonight's public hearing. As you all recall, I think the entire select board was uh was emailed uh from
from a a community member who was concerned about septic issues at the property. Um I reached out I want the select board to know that I reached out to the health agent Scott McCann and uh he is very much aware he's been monitoring the situation. Scott advises me and the applicant perhaps can speak
to this as well. Um Scott advises me that um they're due to replace that system after road race the event. Um but Scott and uh and the health department are continuing to monitor. Um it's important Scott wanted me to mention to the board that they ran uh Fourth of
July and the road race weekend without any incident. So the health agent is confident that uh that the system the pumping uh regime that they're currently using uh is adequate. Um as I mentioned they have a program in place to prevent overflow by pumping just before events. Um so there's no uh this health agent is
not concerned about uh and over over um overwhelming the capacity of the system. Um as an update um although we don't have an absolute timeline for the for the improvements the repairs as I said they're going to begin after uh this particular event the week after and uh
depending upon the delivery of component pieces uh they estimate 3 to four week installation time um but the main point is health department is not concerned um if they continue to follow and we will monitor ensure that they continue to follow the pumping regime >> and if it didn't and the health agent
would have the ability to shut it down I I would assume >> um yes >> proper notice that is correct >> and so forth. Okay, thank you. Is the applicant uh in the uh audience? >> Okay, >> please identify yourself and tell us about the uh that one's better. Thank
you. >> Hello, I'm Dominique. I'm a representative of Shipwreck tonight. Um I'm a server and manager over there. And this is just an application for the um afterparty in the back lot. It's very similar to the regular road race, just a
lot smaller. Um we're still going to have um a Sam Adams beer truck, some of our cooks cooking burgers and dogs. We have a lighthouse that we opened on the side that has snacks, candy. Um I think we're looking to do a cotton candy
machine for kids. Um, so yeah. >> Okay. Any questions? I think we Go ahead, Mr. Rich. >> It's not a question. I just want to say keep it up with the Tik Tok. I get I get friends from all over the country send me your stuff. So, I think it's great.
>> It's been a good year on the socials for us. >> Yeah, that's all. >> I think we've all been impressed with how well the shipwreck operates, the various events that it has down there. It's a small area, tight community, and we rarely get any uh any complaints. So,
so thank you for all you're doing. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Okay. Do I have a motion? Anyone in the audience like to speak to this application? There being none, can I entertain a motion to close the hearing? Okay, we have a motion.
>> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Do we have any discussion amongst ourselves or are we prepared to make a motion? I'm >> prepared to make the motion to approve the application submitted by Shipwreck LLC for a oneday entertainment license
and Sunday entertainment license for the shipwreck/falmouth in the fall road race afterparty to be held in the parking lot of shipwreck/theheights hotel 263 Grand Avenue on Sunday, November 2nd, 2025 from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 pm second.
Okay, we have a motion and a slash second. All in favor? >> I. Okay, thank you very much. >> All right, thank you. >> We will now proceed to the uh business portion of our agenda. The first item is to consider a vote to select a site for
the new police station. Uh but but before we do, I just want to announce to the audience that uh I have asked the town manager to arrange for a further community meeting regardless of what happens this evening with respect to the
sighting of the police station. Uh and he informed me before the meeting that we have a date that the parties can attend. It's going to be October the 28th. We're still working on a location, but once that is verified, it'll be
posted appropriately and uh community will have an opportunity to uh to hear more uh about the proposal and issue their comments and so forth. So, uh that being said, Mr. Dlo, you going to lead
us off? >> M Mr. Wrenchure, would you like to uh make some introductory comments? >> No, Mr. Chairman, I want to leave the time for the uh presenters tonight. So, in the back, >> okay, we we do have you down for 45 minutes and we'd like you to stay as close to that as you can. >> Once again, we're going to do the best
we can, Mr. Mscali, to stay within that limit. Uh, good evening. I'm Boyd Demal. I'm chairman of the uh police station advisory committee. Uh, first of all, I'd like to thank you for uh reconsidering this matter uh so promptly after our last meeting with the board. Uh, again, joining us here tonight are members of my committee, uh, Police
Chief Luri and the representatives of the internal working group from the police department. Uh with me also tonight is the Veritex companies and Tecton Architects as well as some other key municipal partners. Um since our presentation on September 29th to the board, we've listened carefully to your
concerns and questions and we've also heard from uh members of the community about their concerns and I want to acknowledge also the invaluable support of our town manager, the assistant town manager, DPW director and town council in this matter. So tonight we're going to begin with Jed Corno who is the uh
community development director. You got that right? Okay, perfect. Thank you. Um, who will provide an overview on the overall site review process which started with what was then the planning department back in 2023. Uh, following uh, Mr. Corno will be Veritex and Techong who walked the board through the
comprehensive site selection process of the 16 sites and along with we're going to add on to the uh, Neil Youth Baseball Field property on Gford Street. And after that, we'll be certainly happy to answer any of your questions you may have. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. >> I won't ask again, but can you hear me? >> Yes, very well. >> Uh, for the record, Jed Corno once again, community development director. I will lead off um as Boyd mentioned uh
with just a simple summary of the uh work that we did on the town parcel um inventory analysis. So apologies ahead of time for anyone who's heard this presentation before. So I'll try to go through it relatively quickly. Uh as you can see up on the screen, uh the purpose
was essentially to evaluate all of our town properties to figure out what the best future use of each one of those would be. As you can see up on the screen, it took us approximately a year. And I'll confess we're still working on the second phase, which I'll sort of
articulate in uh the next few slides. Um but we've completed the first phase, which is all of the properties that are over 2 acres in size. So uh as I mentioned, so what we did is we started with the uh fiscal 23 assessors database
uh a very large spreadsheet of 576 town owned properties. very first uh item we did was we took out out any properties that were owned by the conservation commission uh assuming that they would have a conservation restriction on them. For the most part they do. Um and so we
were left with 404 properties that were owned and under the jurisdiction of the select board only. Uh from that that's that first phase. You can see the 132 properties were um over two acres in size. So everything over two acres we called it phase one and everything under
was phase two. We went through an initial screening process uh which we'll I'll describe in a in a second um where we came down to 33 total properties and then eventually we came down to 22 properties which uh you may remember approximately a year ago I uh presented
the findings of all 22 of those properties at a select board meeting. So uh as you can see up on the screen and I'm going to make this a little bit larger. so that everybody can see it. As you can see, uh we put them into two buckets basically. Um bucket one was
dispose of or get rid of that property for some other use, namely affordable housing at the time or keep it for other municipal purposes. So this is just another slide that sort of uh talks about uh the process in just
a graphical way. Essentially what we're doing is we're applying filters and we uh res you know we sort of get ourselves down to a um population of properties that uh can actually move forward with uh some sort of development in the future.
So here's the uh filter as I mentioned filter one was all about the conservation commission uh owned properties. Category 2 was essentially an eyeball test. we'll call it a GIS um analysis of essentially just looking at
the property uh using aerial photography to identify whether or not it's uh got future potential or if there are clear environmental issues that would prevent it from um being developed in the future. So I won't go through all of the categories but you can see up on the
screen uh the process that we went through. And essentially that first uh screening was essentially just that first uh look at it and then we applied uh filter three and four which I'll um articulate in a second. So here are two
examples of what I'm describing by that first eyeball test. So um on the left hand side the image indicates the parking lot um which Peg Nunan and Eastman's parking lot. Uh clearly it's a developed site. So we categorize that as
a not possible and uh developed because it's clearly being used for something that's very important in town. Um and on the right hand side uh another easy one, open space or environmental was the category. It's clearly not developed because it's a salt marsh area over by
um New Silver Beach. So, this is where uh we asked a few more questions about each of the properties. This is um getting down into the uh nitty-gritty of whether or not a site can be developed. So, first and
foremost, does it have the minimum lot size requirement and does it have frontage? Frontage is an very uh very important component of whether whether or not a developable uh site is developable. Uh but then we looked at things like topography and wildlife
populations and wetlands on the sites essentially challenges to future development. Um and you can see them on the screen. I don't think I need to articulate all of them, but of particular concern and member Goldstone, you mentioned the flood zone um
component. We um put into the database each of the properties and which flood zone they're in and uh tried to tie uh the challenging components to developing the site based on which flood zone they're in. Um but in particular was the
water resource protection overlay district, coastal pond overlay district and the nitrogen sensitive areas because those are restrictions on the type of future development can occur on those sites. And then lastly, we put in information about when the property was
obtained, how it was obtained. So, for example, did it go to town meeting? Was there some sort of um um taking that was involved? And um we put together a copy of any deed restrictions that we could find on each property.
So, this is what the database essentially looks like. You probably can't see it from home unless you look over to those screens, but essentially it's just asking questions about each one of the properties and coding it with a yes or a no, indicating whether or not it had an issue uh or it didn't. Uh and
so the ultimate goal here is to then assign a scoring matrix uh that we haven't quite developed, but um anytime you have a yes for a certain um characteristic, we would weight it in a certain way and then be able to come up with scoring criteria for each one of the properties.
So um then the final um item was to essentially put them into these three buckets. As you can see up on the screen, a good candidate would be essentially a property that meets all of the minimum uh requirements for lot size and frontage doesn't have uh
environmental issues or any um restrictions on its development. For example, it's not in a flood zone. Uh it doesn't have a zone 2 protection, etc. A moderate, so think of this as a traffic signal. So green is good, yellow is moderate, red is bad. Um so in that
situation all of the poor candidates had too many issues in our opinions to move forward as a viable developable parcel. So we took that information and then we brought it to the police station advisory committee um and these were the
criteria on the screen uh which we brought forward 16 potential sites that essentially met this criteria. So, we were looking for properties that were 5 acres or more. We were focusing on the good and moderate sites. Um, each one of
the sites could be vacant or currently developed, so we weren't screening those out uh beforehand. It could be any location in town, so it wasn't sight specific. Uh, we were doing our best to avoid properties that were obtained by the Cape Cod Open Space Land Acquisition Program. So, that is essentially the
land bank. Um those sites were purchased generally for open space, public recreation or water resource protection. And then we attempted to avoid land around Long Pond. And I say we attempted to because as we as I made my way
through the analysis, it became very clear and you may have put that together with the attachment to your uh packet that there really isn't a lot of uh land left that um can be developed in the future or at least doesn't have significant issues that have to be
overcome for developing. So the next steps in this analysis are to continue to find outstanding deeds if they are missing. Uh there are some along the west side of Long Pond that we're still uh researching and then look for any uh properties that might be
needed or used for any sort of article 97 swap and then research other suggested sites as as needed. Um and those >> Mr. Corner, could I just stop you for one second and could you just explain for the public the article 97 swap procedure?
So, uh, limited understanding of it and, you know, I'm sure town council will help out if I get anything incorrect here, but essentially when property is under article 97 protection, meaning it's used for open space or public recreation, if you're taking property
out of that designation, you typically have to, a municipality would typically have to then either create other land in town that would go into that category at either a 1:1 ratio, equal square footage, matching or to a ratio of either 2:1 or
3:1. So if you're taking out land, you may have to put in double or triple the amount into article 97 protection >> and they need to go through the legislature. >> Correct. Legislative process. >> Yes. >> I believe that's what we did with the uh YMCA just recently.
>> Some property that is that not the same situation that four acres. >> Okay. >> So there's there's >> council want to add anything to Mr. Corno's explanation. >> Um, I'll just I'll also add that the state legislature vote has to be by
twothirds vote in order to change the designation. And sometimes they will ask for uh monetary reimbursement as well. >> Both houses. >> Of both houses. >> Both houses. >> Yeah. Correct. >> And I'll just add it is late in the legislative putting on my other hat.
It's late in the legislative cycle uh for anything article 97. Okay. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Corner. >> You're welcome. proceed. >> Uh that completes my component of the presentation and if you're uh if you have any questions, I can certainly answer them before I have to return to
the planning board meeting. Seeing none, I will hand the baton over to Steve Kirby. Good evening. Um, again, my name is Steve Kirby. I'm with the Vertex Companies. We're the OPM for the project. So, all the work that Jed did,
um, he handed us uh 16 properties uh to look at um for citing the police uh the new police station uh under the uh police station advisory committee. Uh what we did is we took those 16 uh uh
properties, we put those into a our own uh site selection matrix, which I believe you have a copy of, and we had 18 evaluation criteria that we used um over basically a 4-month uh period uh
to evaluate the sites for suitability for the police station. Uh i.e. you know, the flood zone impacts, site history, lot size, deed restrictions, uh, sewer service availability, etc. Some of the acronyms that um are
included in Jed's u analysis and that we incorporated in ours, we we thought we it'd be um handy to put those up on the screen just so everybody would know. Uh you got the National Heritage and Endangered Species Program, uh the Falmouth Water Resource Protection
Overlay District, uh the Coastal Pond Overlay District, Cape Cod Open Space Land Acquisition Program that uh Jed just mentioned, uh nitrogen sensitive areas and surface water protection zones. So based on our our last uh meeting, uh
the request was for us to review each of the 16 properties as to how we evaluated them in detail and then also add the 17th property that was the trotting park uh Neil youth uh baseball services. So that that's what we did. So bear with me
a little bit. We've got got a few slides to go through, but I'll I'll try and and and keep it moving quickly. Uh the first property uh is is property number one which is 340 Ticket Highway which is the current school administration uh building and the um there's a ball
field. Uh we had rejected this site because of the traffic congestion on Ticket Highway and Sandwich Road. Uh it was deed restricted historic. Uh there would be some butter impacts once a public police department went into operation. It was adjacent to an AE
flood zone. we would have to relocate the the ball field. Uh and the historic building is in fair condition per the building facilities condition assessment which may equal additional dollars. We're not sure because we haven't really
looked inside the building itself. This particular uh property scored a 59 on our matrix. Parcel two uh was zero blacksmith shop road which was an 11.4 4 acre site on blacksmith shop road. This site was
rejected because of its remote location, uh poor vehicle uh access due to road hills and blind curbs. Uh it was deed restricted for town disposal purposes, had no sewer, and had uh poor topography. Uh its matrix score was a 62.
Uh property number three was one of the uh Falmouth Highway properties adjacent to Long Pond. Uh this was one that had 14.2 2 acres. Uh, this site was rejected because of vehicle safety, traffic congestion issues, port topography, and
no municipal presence. Uh, this matrix score was a 69. The fourth parcel was 419. >> Mr. Kirby, hold on, please. One one second. >> Just ask a quick question. No. What's that mean? No municipal uh presence. We
were looking for something that would be um somewhat near the center of town or also centered with other uh municipal buildings. >> Uh property 4 was 1419 uh Woods Hole. Um
this is a 16.2 acre site that has uh one of the fire substations on it. Uh this was rejected because of its remote location, extended travel time. Uh there's an endangered species um designated on this property. It is a
busy road and truck traffic area and it had had no sewer. Uh matrix score was a 66. Property five was another westmouth highway property adjacent to Long Pond. This was 16.2 acres.
It was rejected uh due to no storm drainage, port topography, no municipal presence, and it also had an endangered species uh designation with a score of 65. Property six, this is 323 Jones Road,
which is Mos Pond Elementary School. This was 20.9 acres. Uh this was rejected because our understanding is that the earliest the school would be vacated if it could be you if the property could be used would be seven years. Uh Jones Road is
congested road with truck traffic. Uh there would be a butter impacts to the police uh department operations. It's in a flood zone and we'd have to uh replace sports fields. That got a 65 score.
Property 7 is zero Gford Street, a 23.74 acre site. Uh this was rejected because it had a deed restriction for wershed protection purposes, no sewer, uh endangered species and topography issues
uh with a 65 score. Par uh parcel 89. These were combined. This is at Nathan Ellis Highway, Route 151 and Falmouth Woods Road. It's a 30.9 acre site. Uh this site was re and if you if you look at this, you can see
where the um you got one part parcel 8 is the sliver along the highway and parcel nine is the larger triangle. Uh the site was rejected because poor access due to route 151. Uh no sewer or storm drainage. There's a deed
restriction for roadway, no municipal presence. Uh the utility easements are crisscrossing that site and it it it which creates it uh to be a tight site. It did have a score of 67.
Parcel 10 again West Falmouth Highway uh parcel uh 32 acres. This was rejected because it had no storm drainage, poor topography, access issues, no municipal presence, and also had endangered species designation. The
score is 62. Uh, property 11 is 650 Gford Street, which is the water treatment facility. That is a 39.2 acre site because a lot
of it is is is being used. Uh this site was rejected because uh there was no sewer, had endangered species. The current use was for the water treatment which limits uh the usable land. Um and because of that, part of the open spaces
there is used as a tree farm. Uh they'd have to re-evaluate the current use of that tree farm and that scored a 61. Parcel 12 uh is zero carriage shop road. Uh 71 uh three acres. Uh there's um some
usability issues with that. Uh this site was rejected because it was designated as a Cape Cod open space land acquisition program which uh as Jed said we were trying to avoid. But beyond that we we looked at it and it did have uh poor vehicle access to the roadills and
curves, endangered species. It was a red deed restriction for the 57 acre portion and no sewer and that was a 61 score. Parcel 13 is 565 blacksmith shop road 95.5 acres.
The site was rejected because of its remote location. Again, poor vehicle access due to road hills and blind curves. No sewer to the compost facility. No municipal presence and endangered species designation at score
to 60. Parcel 14. This was was zero Brick Kilm Road. Now it's designated as 484 Brick Road. The 101 acre parcel. Uh this was the site that was recommended by the advisory committee uh because of uh be
ease of vehicle access to all areas of town, excellent road access and sight lines uh due to the the the straight uh approach to on Brick Kilm at that point. Close proximity to all patrol areas. There are no deed restrictions. They
have the proximity to Fmouth High School. Uh it will have the sewer tie-in and it's outside the flood zone. This did score the highest with a matrix score of 76. Parcel 15 uh was also zero brick kiln road which
is adjacent to parcel 14. That's 167 acres. Ultimately this site was rejected and but we did we did end up uh having this as one of the top two. Um but once we did some subsurface geotechnical uh
investigations we were able to reject this because of did have topography issues does have sighteline issues on the road but uh there's large boulders uh at the surface as well as below grade which we did confirm with our test fitting and analysis. Uh this uh scored
a 73. And the last of the 16 parcels was 154 Blacksmith Sharp Road, which is a wastewater treatment facility. Uh that pro parcel size is 314 and a half acres. Uh but this site was rejected because of
its remote location. Again, poor vehicle access due to road hills and curves of the service road and and the portion of uh blacksmith shop road that we would uh site the the project on. uh the the treatment plant limits the use of the land and their topography and soil
issues. This did score uh a matrix score of 72. Then as of uh as of last me uh meeting we did look at the Neil youth baseball field which is Trotting Park. Um you can see that this uh this is the
um you can see my pointer. This is this is the site here with with the fields. It's it's just shown that it is in the uh water overlay district. Uh there are wetlands adjacent and there are some flood areas that are relatively close.
Um we looked at this site and this was rejected because it is a capped landfill. Uh so it does have poor bearing capacity. Uh it's within 2500 ft of the 2% annual flood risk zone within 2,800 feet of the AE flood zone at
elevation 10. It would require replacement of the three ball fields which would be challenging. It require deep foundation or peers with the liner required uh at at a higher cost. Uh there is currently a recapping project in the works. Uh the recapping project
is to u add fill on top of the material that's that's there and then re um rebuild the uh the sports uh the ball fields. Uh as far as the the um police project, there would be disturbances, disposal of trash during construction.
Um the and there would be remediation costs, which we are assuming would be expensive. And pulling out on on um of that site, there is poor vehicle access as you look to the north. Uh just because there is a dip in the elevation
and you really can't see the cars coming as you uh as you're facing uh facing north to the right. So, one other request was just to sort of locate some of the major roads where we're requesting the the preferred site
to be. So, again, 484 Brick Kilm Road is here. This is your route 28, your 151, Sandwich Road, and Route 28. And uh the star is showing the existing police station. So again, we did we did uh narrow the
sites to two before we did any kind of um invasive excavation with our geotechnical test pitting. Uh and as I said, uh based on the results of the test pitting, the parcel 14 of 484 brick road was the was the preferred site. Uh
it does have the lowest uh uh site development cost and as we said before, it's good access and visibility. There's no jurisdictional concerns. Uh it's got municipal utilities, good uh uh topography. Uh the soil analysis was
favorable for foundations. It does have adequate size because we're we're using only a portion of that 101 acre lot and we'll meet all the requirements of the water protection overlay district. In particular, we'll be connecting to the uh sewer that that's going to be going
down Brook Hill regardless of whether the police station is built or not. At this point, I'm going to turn it over to Matt Salad from Tecton. Thank you. >> Thanks, Steve. My name is Matt Salad. I'm a project manager with Tecton
Architects. Um, this is a similar site plan to the one that you saw two weeks ago. Um, I did want to just comment on one error we had in the previous plan. We had noted that the extent of site development that we are proposing was a thousand feet from
Long Pond. That was a typo. We're actually 1500 feet away from Long Pond. So, I did want to clarify that. Um, as you can see on this site plan, this is the area of parcel 1444 Black um Brickillan Road uh that we're talking about developing for the police station,
right across the street from the Lutheran Church and Thmouth High School. Um, we're about 450 ft away from the entrance to Andy's Lane and 1500 feet away from the Gford Street intersection uh to the east.
Um this is the conceptual site plan again that was that was presented a couple of weeks ago. Um we have two main access points into the site. One that would be across the street from the entrance to the Lutheran Church. That would be your main point of public access and then a staff entry just a
little bit further to the west of Brook Hill Road. Um the front parking lot here uh would support uh public access to the police station. I know there were some questions over why so many folks from the public need to visit on a regular basis in those parking spaces. I have a
slide that'll speak to that a little bit further. Um to the rear of the station, this is where all the staff parking would occur behind a secure fence. Um the the the building itself consists of the main police station building. um a a proposed uh solar parking canopy, an out
building uh that would house some storage uh and an impound lot over here. Um we did discuss the potential for a future modular um enclosed interior firing range as part of this. This wouldn't be part of this project um but may be something that would be
considered uh in the future. So we are designating an area here um that would that would be suitable um for that installation. >> Could I stop you for just one second with respect to the two access points? Uh was any consideration given to
switching them to the extent that public access is directly across from the access to the YMCA? Would that be >> something that would be possible going forward? >> Absolutely. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, so this is an area that we would
that we would likely designate is is a suitable location for for that future potential uh indoor firing range. And again, that would be fully enclosed. Um, but trying to keep it away from any of the the adjoining residences as well. Um, so one of the certainly one of the
biggest concerns with with this project um, as discussed a couple of weeks ago is certainly on storm water management practices and protection of Long Pond. Um so we wanted to highlight a few of those um as well and the these have been coordinated um through the advisory
committee as well as the public works. Um so the project will not have a septic system as part of it. It will be connected to the new sewer line that'll be running down Brick Hill Road. Um that'll be connected with a uh to that force main. Um and that sewer project is
is ongoing regardless of this police station project. So that is not in support of this but we would take advantage of it. Um all storm water uh within the project site the limit of work would be captured on site would be treated through storm scepters and then recharged into the soil um through
subsurface detention basins. Um the garages and wash bay as well as the impound lot will not drain into that same storm water system. They will drain into into tight tanks that they will not discharge into storm water and those will also be monitored um and serviced
regularly through the town's current MS4 um permit for that management. The perimeter of the work area uh especially that downstream towards Long Pond will have permanent monitoring wells at at regular intervals installed. Um those will have periodic sampling. Um
and and that sampling and any any mitigation plans for anything should should any um any issues be encountered through those monitoring wells will be worked into the standard operating procedures of town department of public works. So they'll be able to monitor it and there'll be a plan on file of how to
deal with any issues should they be encountered over the life of the project site. Um we are not planning on going and clearcutting this parcel to develop it. We are going to take a selective approach and develop and only clear-cut what we specifically need to in order to
enable the work. So, we will be going in and doing a comprehensive tree survey within the work area. We'll do that in collaboration with the town's tree warden. And we will preserve species uh and and trees that are that are suitable and um and advantageous to to maintain
and only clear what we absolutely need to. Um so, we are going to preserve anything we can to the greatest extent possible. Um, currently this portion of the site of parcel 14 all the way back to Long Long Pond, the developable area of it is actually sloping away from Long
Pond and towards Brickllin Road. We are going to maintain that grading and and enhance that. So, we won't be developing anything that will shed back down towards Long Pond. It will all shed towards Brickill Road. Having said that, everything will be captured, treated, and managed on site as far as storm water goes. So, we're not sheeting it
out to Brickill. We're just making sure that there's nothing flowing back towards Long Pond. Um so as we've as we we've discussed and as some of the conversations over the past couple of weeks um 44 Brookllin Road is within the surface water supply zone B um within the town of Falmouth's
uh regulations. Um Mass D has very few prohibitions or regulations with regard to that. Um, town council and department of public work representatives have met with the southwest regional office of mass DP who confirm that they do not
have direct jurisdiction over this over the zone. This is strictly uh a town jurisdiction. Um, I would note that um, Mass DP did submit a letter to the town stating in part that the proposed development of the site within what was previously understood by Mass DP to be a
watershed protection area is inconsistent with wershed protection and control program and should be re-evaluated. Uh so here's a here's a graphic that sort of illustrates uh the the surface water supply uh protection area. Um as
you can see the darker cross-hatch area around Long Pond which is that solid green shade shaded area is the zone A that is the most restrictive area. We are not proposing any work near or within that that uh restricted area at all. Um, we would be doing work within
the zone B. As you can see where the star is, that's that's indicating where our development is directly next to, uh, Andy's Lane. That zone B um, continues around all of a majority of Long Pond and across Brook Kil um, actually into
the the high school parcel and and some of the surrounding parcels as well. So, in terms of public access of the police station, um you know, there's there's certainly a need for the public. I know if we if we were were to go next door on on at any given time of the day,
you may only see a handful of cars there. Um some of that is because a lot of those public amenities that we're putting into the to the new building simply aren't there. Uh, one of the big components to the to the program or the the space needs of this building is a training room that that seats 50 uh,
individuals. Now, this is something that the police department currently has on a smaller scale, but it's only available to that for their own use. As part of this new station, they we are proposing a 50 seat public meeting space. So, use
for the police department for their own internal trainings. It'll be also used by outside police agencies to conduct trainings. These are sponsored by the International Association of Chiefs of Police and it's something that the department is not able to host. Now that allows them to have these trainings at
at a at a at a reduced or or zero cost because the the outside agencies will will support that cost. It'll also be used by the public. So scouts, things like that, they'd be able to conduct meetings much like we are here today in the senior center. this would be able to
be conducted at the police station and making sure that there's adequate parking on site to support that amenity, that public amenity is critically important concurrently with any activities or programs that may be going on in the public uh meeting space or that training room. There's other public activities
that go on in a police department. Those include uh records requests, um firearms licensing, um seeking aid and support for personal issues and in personal crimes that have been committed against folks where they need to file complaints. Um and and and seeking help
if there's if there's any if there's any personal issues and things like that. So these are just a a small uh list of the many many issues that that face the public where they would need to come to a police department and seek aid, support, help. So with that, we will hand it over to
Boyd and we'll entertain any questions or comments. >> Thank you, Matt. >> So anyways, we hope that answered some of your questions from the previous meeting and again some of the concerns that we heard from the uh folks in town. Um
again, thank you to the select board and to all involved for the commitment to replacing the uh failing police station located right next door to where we are this evening. and uh look forward to hopefully a positive vote on the recommended site parcel. But again, we have several members of the town
departments here to help answer any questions that the board may have or so. >> Okay, thank you Mr. Dlo and and you know, thank all the members of the advisory committee for the hard work uh you've done over the past eight months. Um, I have a question for the town
manager. Uh, reference to the letter that uh was just mentioned that came from DP and which I think we received today at 12:30 in the afternoon or thereabouts. Um, do we have any um context with respect to that letter?
>> So, yes, Mr. Chair, I also received that a copy of that letter at around 12:30. So, I board I forward that copy on. I wasn't uh president of that meeting last week Thursday. uh the uh town council uh uh Keefe was there and the public works director. So I'm going to let uh town
council give some context to that meeting. >> Thank you for the opportunity because I I think this letter demands some context. Um, in the meeting we met with the author of this letter, Jim Mclofflin, who is head of the drinking
water program for the southeast region of um, D along with um, another support member of their team. And um, there were a few things that they made very clear to us. The first is that they have um
very little jurisdiction over this project as proposed. What they do have as far as jurisdiction goes is there are some prohibitions for for construction. One, there could be no livestock kept on this parcel. Um there
could be no underground fuel tanks and there's to be no swimming in Long Pond. That's almost the complete list. Aside from that, they said this project is perfectly acceptable under the D regulations as proposed.
The remainder of the letter uh was a shock to me because everything else that's in here is the pure personal opinion of Jim Mclofflin. It is not
based in the law. It is not based in anything that the D has jurisdiction over. It is the personal opinion of this man. And he did express that to us in the meeting. He went on at length about
how disappointed he was about how built up Cape Cod is and how it's not like it was when he was a kid. He was upset, but it was in my opinion as town council highly inappropriate
for a person representing the D to put his personal opinion in this letter on D letterhead. This reads like an enforcement letter. It reads like a de a command and it has no basis in the law except for the few things that I said
about livestock underground fuel storage and swimming at Long Pond. Otherwise, according to the two men that we met from the D last week, this project is fully compliant. >> Mr. Brown,
>> thank you, Council O'Keefe. Um, I also was interested when I read this letter. It seemed as if the person writing the letter wasn't informed that we plan to use the sewer connection because he says, "In spite of 30 years of advances in storm water management and septic
design, you know, they still present a challenge." So, that leads me to wonder if he was fully informed that we plan to have a septic sewer connection. >> Wasn't clear. I I don't know where he was getting some of this information. Certainly wasn't from the meeting
because what we asked was whether there was anything in the D regulations that would prohibit this project and the answer is no. There's some stuff in here about some of the other parcels that was it's not information that we
provided to him. We asked about zone B and we were provided with information about zone B. He suggested that we take one of the land, one of the parcels that's conservation restricted and said, "We'll just just take that conservation
restriction off and go put the police department there." >> It was a bizarre conversation, but the takeaways were clear. The takeaways were that this project is completely compliant. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. Okay. >> Any other questions from any of the
board members at this point? I guess I'm I'm at a bit of a bit of a loss um with the mic. >> Oh, sorry. >> Um with the letter that that we received a copy
of today. Um, as I read it, it said no that DAP did not have direct jurisdiction, but there was an assumption, especially in the rating of our existing water treatment plant, that the town
would be taking certain steps to ensure that those parcels would not be developed. and that were there to be development on the site that could call into or put in jeopardy the current rating of our water treatment plant and
the need for it create a need I don't I don't know to how that would be remedied um and that's what we as a decision-making body have before us is a signed letter from the D that says that so um
a little hard to to reconcile that and I don't So, um, Mr. Lannon, if you have have particular insight into that rating and the that interaction between what they were assuming that we would be doing to protect those parcels and what that has to do with our our water system
rating. >> I'm happy to comment on that. Um, from what I understand, and Matt, if you can help me out here when I when I miss a few things. um uh a kernel of accuracy
again from the letter is there but there was a lot of um extraneous biased um thought along with with the kernel of accuracy. So, um the town does have a a
treatment plan and um uh that concerns how we how we treat uh Long Pond and what we're required to do to treat the water drinking supply. Um all in accordance with with D regulations.
At this meeting, um the D representatives did say we'd have to revisit that because there's there's a map and this parcel is contained in the map and it's characterized in a certain way along with all of the properties that are in the water protection overlay district and you've seen how big that
is. It really encompasses an evaluation of every single piece of property in there. Now, development of those properties has changed over time. Um certainly even within that very small area of this parcel at 484 Brick Kilm Road um the Y is going in there. There's
a 40B that went in there. All things that are new since the last time that we submitted this um an application for this approval of for the water treatment. Um we it's an ongoing thing that we we have to submit new
applications from time to time when things change, but um in accordance with the last submission, we actually have an excess of credits for how we treat Long Pond. We're ahead of the game. Um Mr.
Mclofflin uh kept trying to say or vaguely threaten that we were going to lose credits if we developed the parcel like that in an effort to dissuade us from putting this parcel forth. But we had our engineers at TA and Howard take
a look at this. And it turns out we have so many so we're doing so much good for our water protection supply already that we're so far ahead with credits that even if we do lose something with developing just a tiny portion of this
of this parcel as we're permitted to do in zone B. It's not going to impact how we treat Long Pond. And I'll ask u Mr. Lannon if he has anything to add to that. >> No, everything he said is accurate. Um right now we have a half log additional
credit um to conserve the current lot um north of Long Pond. However, we do have additional uh uh treatment processes in place but are not credited in our
current uh surface water protection or surface water um drinking rule. So, we could ultimately go back and resubmit a new plan to say, "Hey, these are additional credits instead of this."
However, we have not pursued that yet. >> Okay, >> Mr. Chair. >> Yes, Mr. Richardson. >> Um, I just think this is important to read for the public this paragraph and the reason I have concern based on this letter. uh quote, "The potential
development of public use land within the zone B could propose risks to Long Pond and potentially cause irreversible negative consequences for the future water quality of Long Pond. The proposed development of the sites within what was previously understood by Mass D to be a
watershed protection area is inconsistent with watershed protection and control program and should be re-evaluated. I have concerns and I understand the context, but I mean this is a letter that is signed. I'm looking at the letter head has the
governor of Massachusetts, lieutenant governor, and the climate secretary and this was allowed to leave their office. So, I have serious concerns if this was fine to leave their office that I should just ignore that that last paragraph. I also have
serious concerns how this letter was able to leave this office given that I was in this meeting. It is not a reflection of my understanding of what happened. >> Well, in in in fairness that we received this letter at 12:30 in the afternoon.
Uh it was apparently contrary to at least what our impression of as as to the meeting. So, you know, I I think a response may may be appropriate uh regardless of of how we proceed tonight
to go on record as to what our belief is with respect to uh to the letter that was was submitted. Mr. Conny, do you have anything to add? Thank you, Mr. L. >> Yes, thank you. I just Peter McCanny, director of public works. I just wanted
to uh reemphasize one of the one of the slides and the um discussion about monitoring wells placed in the back of the site. That's an very that's very important for our infrastructure. So our water treatment plan, we have an emergency response plan. So with the
emergency response plan, it has a a standard an SOP standard operating procedure for anything that could happen within within around that um long pond or within our distribution system. Could be a vehicle rolls into the pond. What do you do? A tanker truck rolls over on
28. What do you do? You have a main transmission line that breaks in downtown and you lose a third of the pressure out of the dist distribution system. What do you do? So, it's emergency response plan that we go to and we go to a certain section and pick out that section. It tells you exactly
what to do. what what was um discussed on that slide and what was discussed by the design team is we're looking to add a um an SOP to the emergency response plan for these monitoring wells. So, it'll be under the water department to be going out semianually or annually to
go out and test these wells. If something does come up, however what it can be, we'll have an emergency response in that SOP that we have to be able to know that. So, it's not something 20 years from now I'm going to be retired if uh the current water superintendent's
retired. It's a book that's placed in public works. It's a manual that Mass T has and it's a manual that our consultants Tater and Howard have. So, if something happens at 2:00 in the morning, you go to that plan and it tells you exactly this is what you have
to do. You have 24 hours time periods or whatever. In addition to that for the for the storm water on the site, the storm water is going to be re designed by the engineers, but it's going to be reviewed by our engineering department and our and our consultants. And one of
the things being on this site is it's sensitive. We're going to be looking at, you know, uh, storm septers. We're going to be looking at tight tanks. We're going to be looking at bio retention. And there's different ways to do bio retention, but the bio retention is not just sediment. It's not just gravel going into the system and picking out
the system. It's any types of liquids or anything else that may run off the asphalt pavement that gets captured and will be treated and be looking at that. So, as this um design moves forward, if this site is selected, as this design moves forward, the engineering
department and public works will be looking at those um looking at those design standards and looking at the best management practices, not just what's out there and what's in use. what's the best for that site. And it's progressive. You can have entry level um
roadway drainage that goes on the roadway. You can have intermediate and you could have advanced. We'd be looking at advanced for this site. So, there's some with this site. There's a lot of considerable um design aspects that were taken into consideration. And I
mentioned this at the last meeting. I've been at all the um design meetings uh bi-weekly and a lot of times weekly at the uh police station the action committee meets where the design uh meetings were and questions were asked and if I didn't have the answer I
brought it back to the design team and as you can see we have all the design basically the people that are going to be involved in this site are with us tonight facilities storm water wastewater parks um water you know engineering whatever it might be um
we're going to be looking at that because we take it serious. It's our it's our primary function is to serve clean portable water to the town of Felmouth and when we are not looking to uh to impede that in any way. So I hope that I hope this helps. But I I I will
give whatever whichever way this vote goes I I do have to give credit to Boyd as being the chair to the to the design team to the engineers the architects to Vertex being the OPM to the police department. A lot of effort has been put
into this and the team as a whole has tried to answer all the questions and all that um concerns that may come up from either the select board or from the public. So I will say that as being part of that and going into those meetings um
it it they worked hard at it and um the sites that they chose and the design recommendations that they came up with IBback and and I believe public works packs also. So, >> thank you, Mr. McConny. >> Um, any other members of the board have
any questions at this point? Otherwise, I'm going to allow for some public comment. If there is any, uh, I'd ask that none of the a limitation on public comment that has already been sent to the board. We've gotten a number of
emails, letters, and so forth. So, uh, and we, I'm sure all of us have read them and and, you know, digested them. So if there are any public comments in addition, I I invite them to to uh to to come up uh with the realization that as
I said at the beginning, we are going to have a a further community meeting so that we can hear what the community has to say and the community can hear what we have to say. So >> Chairman Sky. Yes, sir. >> I'm sorry. Uh Chief Lowry would like to have a comment before the public comment
if you'd entertain that. Sure. Thank you, Chief. I'll I'll be brief. Um 12:30 this afternoon. Interesting. Received that letter. Um just my opinion. Um and I'm going to give you my opinion. Um and if
I'm wrong, please correct me, but um I believe the new YMCA is being built 80 ft away. I believe it's uneptic. Um and there's no issues with that. This is a this is a town project. We're going to be very restrictive on it. Um, you know,
I came to you, come on, two and a half years saying this place is disgusting. And I came to this meeting last week and told you about how we had a sewer backup in the female and men's locker rooms. And I come to you today saying just to
clean that, to have a company come in to clean that because it's gross and I don't want my staff, I want to make sure it's thoroughly cleaned. It cost you $282.60 to clean that. I come in today and there's water all over my deputy chief's
floor. It stinks in there. There's water in my clinician's area. Stinks in there. Um, again, DPW Greg Endeott, five stars comes wet and everything else, but we know what grows under those conditions. And I know I'm not supposed to say this,
but what we cleaned up was disgusting two and a half years ago or two years when I started. Right when I started, I was horrified and disgusted then. Appalled isn't even the right word. DC deputy chief still hanging in his office. I must have said it three times because he wrote it three times. We need
to get out of there tomorrow. It's too small and it is not a functioning. It's not good for recruitment. It's not good for retention. I had an officer, we were given station tours who said his asthmatic condition is better since after we cleaned the station. This is a health problem for your employees. We
need to get out of dodge. We need to get out of there. And I promise you, we're not going to have a cattle farm out there. We're not going to go swimming in the pond. Uh we're going to be very cautious on everything we do to protect that source. We're over a quarter of a mile away. 80 ft across the street is
the YMCA, my understanding, on septic. This project will not go forward if we do do not go on the sewer system. Period. Exclamation point. It's a great site for you folks for the training facility. I imagine community engagement. I imagine movie night with
the kids, bingo for the seniors and the kids, a selectman's meeting uh at the station uh in an area that's very centrally located to everyone. We have walk-ins every day constantly. You know, people was were complaining about the change with our records clerks. I have a
desk officer there 24/7. You need to pick up your report. We have walker walk-ins every day, daily, pretty much 247. So, I'm going to leave it at that because I know we're going over, but I just need to very extremely how passionate I am that we have an amazing
police department, amazing employees. They don't deserve this. I mean, I'm on the back nine, but I just hired 20some people to run the front and they deserve better than this. So, that I'm going to leave it at that, but I'm hoping the board votes tonight. I'm hoping you will
vote to to approve where we are. We've done our homework. We're not going to do anything. We're here as guardians to protect you. We're not going to do anything to hurt this community. I promise you that. Um and we've done a lot of work since before I started. I've
been working on this. Um and and like I said, this will be my fourth and hopefully last building project. But to those that have reached out to say, "Well, why can't we wait for Mors Park? Crappy location anyway. I believe that building is probably going to be a tear down. It's a mess. The roof's junk. 3 million bucks. Um, at the end of the
day, we don't have 10 years to wait. We just It's awful. That's all I'm going to leave it at that. [Applause] Thank you, Chief. I mean, ju just to be clear, I don't think there's anyone on this board that disputes the need to get
out of the current police station for any number of reasons. And I think everyone is supportive of a new police station. I don't think there is any doubt and no one in the audience should doubt that that is our commitment that was made to to the chief and and to the
community on more than one occasion. So, uh, but if there are no other questions at this point on from any of the members of the board, I'll ask if there's any member of the public that would like to speak, would like to limit it to three minutes. But uh if there are, please uh
come up. Mr. Zalinski, >> with all due respect to the board, what are you waiting for? Everything that's been presented here tonight's >> I'm just I'm just curious what we're
waiting for. Um when I was on the board, we tooured that building. And it was a mess. Then I had to ask myself the question, you know, how deep's the water in the sally port during this rain? This is the best you're going to get with the most informative crew with a
with with a a group of professionals that have everybody's best interest at heart. I'd ask the board for a vote tonight. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Linsky. Anyone else in the audience would like to comment?
Okay. Uh, is there some discussion amongst the board? I'm I'm sure there there will be. So, uh, would someone like to, uh, to start it off, Mr. Brown? >> So, a couple of weeks ago when we were here talking about this, I did ask other board members who had concerns to take a
look at the maps, take a look at the the history of the project, and honestly ask yourself, is there another place? I don't see one. I don't see anything that's comparable to this. And I think that the staff has given us asurances that it can be done correctly. Well, for
water protection, I've been in the water stewards for 27 years. I wouldn't want to do anything that is detrimental to our water supply, but being on the sewer, I think really makes this project happen. And then the all the other places that, you know, they just don't add up with the little tiny access to
the street and way out in the back side of town. Nothing compares to this site. And I'm sure that the storm water can be managed. You know, there's so much technology available now. If we had to, we could use tight tanks and pump that storm water through carbon filtration.
There's going to be a way to make this work. So, I'd just like to get this moving. I will say as well that I am supportive of the site uh as as selected by the committee. I know they did a very thorough job as did Mr. Corno and all
all the other members uh that that have had involvement with this uh with this project and certainly the town manager and assistant town manager and all they've done. Um so uh I I do support it at this point. Did someone want to
speak? >> Yes. >> I promised myself I wasn't going to speak, but >> you do have to announce who you are. >> Uh Nancy Taylor, precinct one. Um, I wasn't going to speak tonight uh because I really felt as though the presentation
would speak for itself. However, um, this board put together a committee to study this and they have done an incredibly diligent job. I believe that we need to honor their work. I think we need to move this forward and I certainly would urge this board to move
this project forward as presented. I understand that you are uh responsible as water stewards and I certainly honor that and I think um for me those questions have been answered. I have called the town manager's office. I've
done my own research around what needed to happen to make sure that Long Pond wasn't impacted and I believe that those questions have been answered and I would strongly urge this board to move this project forward as presented. Thank you.
Okay. Uh, anyone else in the board? >> So, I I guess I would um I would say I I do um honor and appreciate the work that has been done by this group and I absolutely um as Mr.
Mr. Mscali already said um understand the need to have a new home for our police department, one that is state-of-the-art, that is healthy, um that doesn't leak, that doesn't have
sewer overflows. At the same time, I feel that the work that this group has done um I guess I will say I think we as a town failed far before this started um to set
the appropriate ground rules that those parcels should not have been on the table that that area around the pond um should be conserved. we as a town have been acting as if that was conservation land for decades without it being on the
books. Um, and it should have been on the books so that that was clear. And and the other thing I guess I would say in terms of the analysis is that when when you get to actually scoring the parcels, it becomes very clear that being in a certain part of town is
really important. And if that location is one of the primary constraints, then maybe we need to get more creative about what we consider to be an acceptable site. You know, because there's not a building there doesn't mean that that
land is not currently being used and is not doing something. 5 acres of trees are storing carbon. They are filtering our water. They are providing habitat. um there is a use going on there that would be displaced and we may need to look at parcels where there are other
uses that we need to find ways to share uses to reuse to redevelop. Maybe we need to look at purchasing land if that is the area of town that we really need to be in in order to get to a site that is appropriate that does not put us in this sensitive district. And while I
appreciate the urgency to get moving, a vote tonight will not move the police station tomorrow. Maybe there are measures that we need to be looking at in the interim because it will still be years before we have a new police department to ensure that our police officers are in a safe and healthy
working environment. Um, but we're talking about a decision that is not only $55 million, but is a 100-year decision. If we were to go forward with this and
just figure out that there was some issue, those trees don't come back in 5 years. That's 50 to 100 years for that site to actually come back to what it is and the function that it's currently performing. And I'm not ready to take that risk without having exhaustively
look it looked and creatively looked at all of the options that are within that target area in our town. Um, I'm fully prepared to vote a recommendation on a town meeting article for design funds to move this forward without the site
specified, but I I just am not ready to commit to this sensitive site until we have truly exhausted all of the options. >> Anyone else have anything to say? Um, I'd like to second what um, Vice
Chair Goldstone has said. Um, as one who voiced the initial, um, concerns at the meeting two weeks ago, I did have the benefit of having a meeting with town management, um, which a lot of people don't have that opportunity. So, it was nice to have that. I would like to say
it was a one-on-one, but it was more a four uh fouron-one, which is a good thing because it showed the importance of this. Um, Fmouth needs a new police station. Absolutely, 100%. We do not want you in
those conditions. The site is different than the police uh than the building itself. Uh the building is needed. The site can be changed. Um I do want to thank the committee for doing this work. It is a tremendous amount of work. Um, I
do want to commend town management for finding and providing answers for the trotting park which was included in our packet. I really appreciate that. That's also a 50 and 100year problem um beyond today. Um, town management provided me more
information on the decision-making process that led to the recommendation of which many was uh much was outlined here. And I do appreciate what what chairman Msgali and town manager Renshaw noted at the beginning of this that an additional community meeting on October
28th is um has been scheduled. I think that's extremely important because we as a select board were given just a few days notice two weeks ago about this very important um financial decision as
well as site location and I think um we have benefited from two additional weeks of intense questions and answers and I think the community would benefit from that at least one more time if not more. Um, again, I go back to the foundation
that that Falmouth absolutely needs a police station. I agree with you, Chief. You cannot continue to live in those uh um and work in in in that kind of environment. It's just not right. So, if we do have need an interim solution to
get out of that, let's think about that. Um, but something that comes to me that we're not answering here is that, you know, this vote cannot be taken lightly. And the number one concern during this
election cycle for at least me, I don't know if it was for Jack and Doug, but the number one questions that I was asked time and time again was how are we going to um not only protect and preserve but improve our uh wa our water
quality and our water sources. And to me, even though we are engineering our way to be back to zero, the fact that we're putting in monitoring wells means that we are going to have an impact on that land no matter what. It's not zero, but we're going to
engineer our way back to zero because we are going to impact that land. So, >> this includes all of Long Pon, not just a portion of it. Um, so again, I don't take this lightly at all. This is not just for one department or another. This
is what's best for Falmouth in the long term. Um, it's about leaving Falmouth in a better position in the future. And I go back to my bigger question which I'm still wrestling with in my mind which is
why have we not built on that land collectively since the 60s and 70s? There's been a few parcels that were 80s, but why have we why have we not built on that land? My my idea, my my thought is that it's
because we've been conserving it. We've been acquiring it. We've been setting it aside in conservation restrictions with uh conservation commission. And I and I believe in my heart of hearts that it's because we've been conserving one of our
only large natural parks that remains in town that also happens to have our reservoir. And that this decision, yes, we need a police department. The question is why not make the decision already? It's
because this is extremely important. This is a sensitive area as sensitive as some of our nitrogen areas. It's just one that we as a board have to take extremely uh carefully and methodically and we have to make sure
that you know this is the A+ site. Was there an A minus site that might be a little bit better? Um these are the considerations. Um I'll leave it at that. You know, I I will mention that I I believe, although it wasn't mentioned
tonight, that this site was originally completely off the table and the only way it got back was because there really was no other viable alternative for the sighting and that's where the committee landed. But, uh, it it certainly wasn't
the the first choice. It was resisted and rejected and only after looking back and forth, they came back to it. Uh, Mr. Richardson, did you have a comment? >> Yeah. Uh, I've been on the fence on this one and and I agree with what everyone
has said. I'm happy to you give me a call list of every town meeting member, I'll call each one of them and and advocate for the funds. I'm more than happy to do that and I'll commit to do that. I cannot in good faith as an environmentalist I agree with the chief's frustration
that a letter at 12:30 is ridiculous but a letter was allowed to leave the office of the governor and the lieutenant governor and the climate secretary with I read the language earlier saying that this is potentially um risk lawn pawn calls irreversible
negative consequences for the future water quality of long pond and town council I trust uh your what you said in your account of the events but this letter was still allowed to leave this office and I cannot in good faith until I get more clarity on this letter vote for this
site. >> Mr. Brown, you have another comment and I know Mr. Clansancy in the audience wanted to make a comment. Go ahead. >> Yes, thank you Mr. Chair. So, Felmouth, as you know, is a very uh environmentally conscious community. We
have Oceanographic and MBL. All kinds of groups of folks like Sierra Club is active. How many groups do we have? How many people, knowledgeable people do we have in town that you would think that if they had a concern about the way the
town was proposing this project would be here tonight to speak about it? I don't see one person speaking against it except that you folks have concern. I know it's a big responsibility, but you know, this kind of indecision is the kind of thing that really can kill a
project because if we're this unsure at this stage after two years of work, and we're going to go to town meeting fractured, it's no way to bring a project. I wish you could have a little more faith in the staff. I just don't see the
opposition to it that you seem to be alluding to. And I see we got that letter from the state, but uh you know, I don't I don't really have as much respect for that as I should, I suppose. >> Well, as as you know, Mr. Brown, I mean, I I'm in agreement with you ultimately. I will say in fairness that a number of comments and emails have been submitted
um and there are people who are concerned. Uh Mr. Clansancy, and then maybe we'll wrap it up. Joseph Clancy, resident Courier Road. Sometimes a little historical significance is really good. Uh about seven or eight years ago, I was on the
senior center site selection committee and here you are sitting holding a hearing in this building tonight. We looked at 49 sites just like this committee did all over the town. This town is extremely challenged trying to
find an appropriate site to put a major municipal building on. That is the importance of our police station. I have a lot of faith in our leaders, Peter McCanny, our chief, our se site selection committee, and the people that
we've hired to design the safeguards that have been put on this site. And most importantly, as the chief said, sewer. You're going to contain waste water on this site and all of the other safeguards. So, I think it's extremely important that you give this a positive
vote. Thank you. Thank you. Um, so I'm not sure we have consensus at this point on this group. Um, I'm wondering if someone would be willing to make a motion to defer a vote
at this time and uh we'll give us an opportunity to uh have a further community meeting, hear some more, maybe digest uh the D letter that came in at the 11th hour and uh you know hold off
on a uh on a decision right now. There still would be time for town meeting if if we don't have a site selected. >> Yes, we have two >> we have two more meetings. Go ahead. >> Yes, Mr. Chairman, we have two more select board meetings scheduled, October
27th and November 3rd. >> Okay. >> As you mentioned earlier, we have a second community forum scheduled for October 28th. So that means we can go into the November 3rd meeting. Uh theoretically, you've heard my recommendation before. It stands as it was back on September 29th. They do have a lot of confidence in in the work that
the committee put forth. Um I I have confidence in our ability to mitigate. Are we going to have zero impact? No. There's going to be an impact, but we're going to be able to mitigate and monitor that. And uh and that's the commitment of the of the experts um from Tecton, the architect engineer uh to uh the OPM
to our uh DPW is to protect the resources that are so vital to our existence. So um yes, we do have another opportunity, another bite at the apple. I don't recommend, and I've said this before, that we go into town meeting with a $5 million funding request without having a site identified, but
that's just my my recommendation. >> That's something we can chew on for the next couple of weeks as far as that goes. >> We have an opportunity to chew on it and take another bite. Yes. >> Okay. Someone want to make that motion? You don't have to say something. Peter, >> I just wanted to clarify. So with
respect to the town meeting warrant as you know um we're going to the printer uh if not tomorrow Thursday and the obviously the advisory committee is is on record is recommending this site the explanation that we've drafted which is
in your packet references this site and so I just wanted to confirm that that's what's going to be printed in the town meeting warrant and certainly between now and and the day of town meeting itself should the select court vote a position that can be expressed in a
presentation at town meeting. >> So, so all that's in the warrant is the recommendation that has been made up to this point. >> That's correct. So, it does not attribute that recommendation to the select board. Um, but that site will be in the explanation in the um in the town
meeting warrant >> as having been recommended by the PAC by the >> as having been recommended by the police advisory committee >> and to the select board. The recommendation has been made to the select board. just to clarify. Thank you. >> Okay.
>> Motion to defer decision on selecting a site for the construction of a new police station. >> I'll reluctantly second that because I would like to go to a vote, but I'll I'll second that
motion. Okay. Uh we have a motion and a second. Uh any further discussion? Just >> just I'd like to ask one more time to really think hard on this because we're running out of time. >> I agree.
>> I want to come back in two weeks and do it again the same same way. I >> I'll I'll be frank. If I get different clarification from the D, I'm willing to change my vote. >> I I think we need we need some time. That really came in at the 11th hour unfairly in my opinion. And if I could,
I'd like to actually ask the DP, maybe we could send a letter and say, "Do you even understand that this project's on the sewer?" Because the letter didn't seem to imply that. >> Yeah. And that's what I said before. I think we need to go on record with D. So, we have a motion and a second, some
discussion. All in favor of deferring the vote at this time? >> I >> I >> Okay, very well. Thank you very much. And again, thank thank the committee for doing all the >> Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Thank you for your time. Disappointed but not deterred. So, we'll be back.
>> Thank you. >> All right. >> Okay. >> Okay. Moving on. Uh we just heard Mr. Clancy tell us about the um the history of this site and now we're a great segue into uh into the
Council on Aging uh their annual report. So, We have our uh our director of the senior center, Jill Bishop, and Mr. Clancy, who is currently the chair of the council. So,
Mr. Raw, any comments? >> No, Mr. Chair, I don't have any comments. >> All right. >> Good evening. I'm Joe Clansancy, chairman of the Council on Aging. I'm accompanied by Jill Livering Bishop, our director. While Joel gets the uh uh
slideshow up and running, I'll tell you a little bit about the council. We have eight working members. Uh they're a very diverse group, but a very cohesive group. Um they are myself, Jamie
McDonald, Karen Ducini, David Hearn, who's here tonight with us, Betsy Hike, Kevin Murphy, Pamela Trudale, and Jim Vieiraa. Uh the board continues to support the mission of the senior center. We've
continued to focus on policy review and discussion with the senior services director and staff. The council on aging board this year reviewed seven new and three revised policies to support the
senior center operations. Also uh a real milestone in December of 24, we established the recognition wall committee and we were able to get two uh former uh people that work diligently.
Um and Jill will tell you a little bit more about that. Board members and volunt and board members also volunteer within the center. So they form a dual role, not only giving their time and an advisory
and working for policy, but they're in the center every day working to help keep this place running. I'll turn it over to Jill. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, you all have a copy of the FY25 annual report in your packets, but what I wanted to do is just
kind of pull out some highlights of the fiscal year. So, um, some of our summary of statistics, uh, showed that we had 1,149 new enrollments into the center. Um, and
as of last week, our total enrollment of Felmouth residents is 8,964. >> Wow. >> And just know that is just over four years. It's been incredible. Um, our service
check-in units. So as you walked into this center, you saw on the right hand our touchcreen. So that actually checks in anybody that utilizes this center and that's what we like to look at. Not just people enrolling, but who's using the center. So that captures that list of,
you know, our cafe, our educational programs, our fitness and exercise, our fitness room, our health services, our professional services, and our support groups. So, we add 74,595 service units. That's pretty incredible.
Our transportation services covered 3,123 rides covering almost 15,000 miles. We do that in support with the CCRTA, with the lease of a vehicle, with our van driver, um primarily medical
appointments, uh grocery shopping, and then to other locations such as senior center or, um any other locations within the town of Felmouth. Back in uh 2024, uh the board wrestled with were we going to name this facility
something other than the senior center. The board deliberated and came up with a way to um recognize people that had a key uh responsibility in helping to get this place up and running. So we
established a wall recognition committee. We received seven uh applications and two people were selected in appreciation for their service. They were John Manyani and Jim Vieiraa. They are on the wall that you
see on the display and it is available in the lobby to see. The Council on Aging Board announced and presented this first wall of recognition in December of 24 and we expect to be able to add to people in the future.
Continuing with some of the highlights, um what we started to do this year was offer a health and resource fair in the spring. And we did this um basically building on the concept of what we have right now. We're bringing agencies,
service agencies into the center on a weekly basis. You know, service center would come say the first Wednesday of every month and another agency would come the first Tuesday and etc. And that concept was to bring these agencies in for easy access for our participants to
learn about some of the collaborative efforts and services local services that are available to them. So this health and resource fair we are constantly being um asked you know by agencies to help market them or support them or or
recommend them. That's something we can't do. But what we were able to do was to bring them all in here to the center and let our participants walk around and really understand what's out there for them. It was home health care agencies, nursing facilities, assisted
living facilities, veterans agencies, hospice and medical providers, and it was actually a wellreceived health and resource fair. Um something we're going to continue each spring. Something else I always like to point out and it's a shout out to all our
volunteers. We have about 125 to 150 volunteers. Uh they provided almost 9,000 hours of service and you can see the list of volunteer positions available here at
the center. Um we actually run with about between 20 and 30 volunteers a day in the center. We have six shifts in the cafe. We've got greeters. We got fitness room monitors. We have group leaders. We have professional services, legal
support, shine counselors, gadget tech, and so on. Um, so a shout out to all of them because if we didn't have them, there's a number of services and programs we would not be able to offer. Um, I'd also like to do a special thank you to the friends of the family senior
center board. They're the ones that put on a yearly fundraiser each September to help support the many uh programs, special programs that we offer here at the center. It allows us to offer free programs or reduce costs. So, they're a
big supporter of ours. They've also um helped fund our open house and our volunteer appreciation events um that we offer twice a year. Every September to recognize National Senior Center Month, we do our open
house. We've done it since we first kicked off and opened up the center. So, we held it um this last September 15th from 2:00 to 4:00. We had 500 people in attendance at this health fair. These
are just some pictures in the lobby area because within those two hours we had 85 new enrollments in just those two hours and we had a lot of people also bring the forms home. So because it was so busy they were going to come back. Um it
was a huge success and part of our outreach initiative that we started to do and are going to get do each year and my outreach coordinator we worked with the town clerk. We got the database of town residents. We merged it with our
senior center database um because we wanted to target them with residents who had not enrolled with the senior center as of yet because we want to make sure if they haven't enrolled, they got some uh a mailer about the senior center and
an invite to the open house. Here's a couple other pictures in the rooms in the hallways. It was a fantastic um program that was offered in September. >> You can see in four years Jill and her
staff have come a long way. They've brought a lot of people into this building and it's a place of joy. Uh and it's a place of service. As far as the U senior services department, we will continue to expand the program of
service offerings to meet the needs of our participants. We will enhance outreach to Felmouth residents uh about the programs, resources, and services that are available. We will implement the annual outreach initiative to reach
Felmouth residents who are over 60. increase social media awareness on appropriate platforms. We're newly on Facebook, so if any of you are active on Facebook, you can friend the senior center and keep up with all of the
initiatives. And lastly, expand the senior center hours of operation. That's been a goal for the last couple of years and it's happening now. So, could I just ask a question? How has that been going the those expanded
hours? >> So, um, so right now we're only in week two and what we've done is we've done it as a a stepping stone Mondays and Wednesdays, keeping the center open until 6:30. So, at that point, um, this large room and our small room upstairs
is where we do most of our, uh, fitness programs. So, we've been able to schedule four programs each of those nights. We've had the fitness center open and we have one of the open rooms for game and our pool table room. So, um the people that have signed up free
signed for the programs are thrilled. We've got people using the fitness room and I think it's going to just grow, but I wanted to start small because I'm the staff person right now covering the evening hours. >> So, so the fitness room is also open on those evenings until 6:30.
>> Yes. So, what we do is we keep every program runs until 6:15. that will give people time to get themselves together and leave the building and the building will lock at 6:30. So, it's a step in the right direction and it's something I want to continue and build upon.
>> Thank you. >> Uh, Miss Coulson, >> related question. Um, first of all, thank you for the use of this space. It's a wonderful place to meet. Um, since we've been meeting here, I've had a number of people ask me, "So, can other groups use the senior cent's
meeting space in the evening?" >> So, right now, we are strictly senior centered programming and we've been accommodating for the selectman and if the town planner needed a meeting. Um, so we're starting with that. We I would work with the town manager and assistant town manager. We are looking at uh town
committees first because if we do open it up to the entire town when I first opened we were bombarded. So we need to focus on it's a senior center for senior center programming then how can we accommodate town departments and town committees. So we're going to start there first.
>> Jack's got one and then I >> thank you. Um thank you very much. I attended the coffee and conversations uh with our legislative delegation with my day job. It was fantastic. There was 50 people in here. It was packed. Um my question is around um how much has the
senior uh population uh if to what degree uh had complaints or feedback on transportation services to either to and from medical appointments or to and from uh the center. >> To be honest with you, we don't get a
lot of the one-on-one feedback. You know, for us, we work very closely with the CCRTA. If there's PT1 opportunities, our vans, um the CCRTA we have here, um for many presentations, helping people get the go-karts, talk about their um
smart dart, which is like a Uber application. So, we've been really proactive in trying to teach people about these other programs right now. Um so, I don't have specifics for you. >> Thank you. At our last board meeting, Jill did tell
the board about the uh new vehicle that's about to be delivered. Could you elaborate on that, Jill? >> Yeah, so we run uh we have two of the CCRTA. They're 12 to 14 passenger vehicles. Uh so actually CTRTA is very good with us and Fmouth actually
provides the most rides on the Cape. So, we um we are our 2018 vehicle is being replaced and we are getting a new vehicle as soon as I can meet with the town manager and sign the paperwork. >> Awesome. >> Mr. Brown. >> Yes. Thank you. Every time we get a
report, you tell us about growth and it's all >> Oh, you got one more slide coming. >> Everything is expanding. >> How are you able to manage it with the staff that you have? >> There you go. >> Okay. So, let me show you the numbers. And if you know me and you do, I always
try and make it work. But at some point the pressures get tough and we need to do something. Um so this next slide is how we doing. So I always like to show you if you look at um fiscal year 19
that was the old center. We add and we look at active participants not just who enrolled but active. We had 1,367 active participants. This last fiscal year 25, we had 4,682
active participants. That's a 240% increase. >> How do you define active participants? >> Active using this. They're using the center. They're actually checking in and using the center. >> How does that differ from the check-ins? >> That is the check-ins. So, what I do is
you take the check-ins and then I'm able to see how many people are doing all those check-ins. So last fiscal year we had almost 5,000. We had that 4,600 doing the check and so they've been actively using the center
and that's what we want. We want people to use in the center and using the services. So if I look at um we talked about our service units. So if you look at the service unit number in the blue in fiscal year 19 it was 18,588.
last fiscal year 74,595. That's over 300% increase in service units. I want to look at our first full fiscal year here in the new center. That was fiscal year 22. We had 47,585
service units compared to our last fiscal year of the 74595. That's a 56% increase in the four years that we've been in this center. So that is huge. So when you ask how do we do it? I've got a great team. We keep
building the volunteers and my team, my staff, when I need to do more, they do it and they help me do it, which is incredible. Like I said, I wanted the extended hours, I'm making it work. I
have a plan, but right now I needed to get it and not can down the road and get start getting us openings. So, I'm making it happen. >> Okay. >> Well said, Jill. Well, I'm very impressed with this slide when she put it on our uh our board for our our board
meeting. It was overwhelming to see the numbers, the sheer numbers that come through this building on a daily and weekly basis. And Jill and her staff make it work. And I have to stress that to the select board that you see the
volume and we need your support and we're glad you're here in the building and using it because that's what it's here for. So, thank you very much. >> All right. Okay. That it, >> Mr. Chair. >> Yes, Mr. Reed. >> Uh, I now serve as the select board
liaison to the council uh on a aging. Uh, so I've had the benefit of two meetings. I think I'm filling your shoes. >> Well, you're filling very big shoes. I'm feeling very big shoes. Um, I just want to thank this team because they've taken me under their wing, shown me around,
showing me just how these service units and active participants are using this place. Um, thank you for fighting and choosing this site and making it happen. Thank you for being uh what you're doing for the for the seniors in town. Um, I
think Jill, your approach has been amazing in regards to you start small, you try something new, you achieve results. Um, you repeat it. You know, good engineering terms, you're repeating your success here. I think we're now at the question, and this is for our future
considerations of the budget, and I'll say it out loud, that we're going to need to scale soon. Um the num the population of 65 year olds is growing or of people above 60 here in town is growing. um if we have 4,682
active participants today, what is that going to be as that population grows and what does that scale look like both in terms of crowdedness in this building, this beautiful one, but also how you're able to keep it staffed with volunteers
and not without burnout because we also have to take care of you at the same time. So that's something that I think I've heard in the two meetings. Um, one last piece is just on the transportation issue. I'm so happy you're getting an additional uh vehicle because what
you're able to do to provide for the services for the seniors to get to services to get to medical and get to get to food is really really important and you know we got to scale that up too and I'm hoping that we can connect you more with the veterans committee to then
you know help that very important population as well. So, thank you very much for everything. >> No, you're welcome and and thank you for the comments. Much much appreciated. That's for sure. But I I truly can't shout out to my staff enough. They really are hardworking and they really
support me as as the director and what in the direction we're going and what we're achieving here. So, thank you. >> I got to say one last comment. I love coming here for lunch. It's so busy and such a fun, >> you know, congenial atmosphere. So, it's
great. You know, a good thing, Doug. >> Yeah, >> I wish I could. >> Yeah, >> it's going to it's going to be a while before I unfortunately. >> Have you seen this booklet? It's amazing. I immediately looked up where my folks lived and hoped that they had these these kind of services and they
have drawing at 2 p.m. and that's it. The amount of things that you offer is just absolutely amazing. And you are a gem for this town. >> Great. >> Thank you. >> You have one more comment. >> One quick question. I mean, I'm I'm looking at the growth trajectory here
and still growing but slowing and and one big change and I'm I'm not sure where it falls with regard to the fiscal years but was the the residency um requirement. Correct. >> The uh the residency requirement was between the 24 and 25.
>> So I'm wonder Yeah, I'll be curious to see what that growth rate is going forward. I mean it's how much of it is is purely Felmouth driven growth and how much of it was also an influx from other other towns >> to be honest with you it's mostly it's it's Felmouth because when you talk
about the non-residents you're talking a couple hundred >> okay >> couple hundred what will happen is we will continue to reach out and target those that aren't enrolled that are age 60 and up and every time someone turns 60 they're going to be targeted to say hey we're here come check us out especially younger 60 year olds when
they walk in the door they're like oh my god this is so much more than we expected Um, your service units will be based on basically the volume of people we can we can uh hold and how many programs we can put on. I book this place out like no tomorrow. Um, same with our evening
activities as we build upon it. But what will happen is those service units will kind of flatten because if they're all full and you only have so many. We just did our online signups. We do our fitness classes two um two months at a time. I'm not kidding when I say it's
like Taylor Swift concert tickets, you know. The biggest frustration I didn't get into the class I wanted, you know. So, >> hear that, Jack? Younger 60y old. >> Yeah. >> Well, you extend those hours, you're going to continue to get those active
60, 60, and 65 year olds. So, thank you for doing that. Yeah. >> Okay. All right. Well, thank you very much. >> Appreciate your report. We'll move on to the shellfish advisory committee. Mr. Renure, anything on that?
>> No, Mr. Chairman, I do not have >> the chair has a presentation. >> Yeah, we we've received the report. >> Is that hi? Introduce yourself, please. I'm Peter Chase, chairman of the shelfish advisory committee, and I'm
just going to provide a summary of what we've accomplished in the past year. I don't have a PowerPoint, so I'll just I'll move kind of briefly through these points. Um, but we've had another really productive year uh at the shellfish advisory committee. We met roughly every
six weeks and focused on a variety of shellfish issues important to town residents. Um just uh to to be honest in the summer we were not meeting every six weeks. It's a tough time for our members. Everybody's very busy. So uh
had a few months of a break there in the summer. Um we continue to support the town aquaculture pilot project in the Eel River. Um this was designed and implemented with input from the committee. The project's been very successful. growers are producing a high
volume of oysters and they're also providing gear rental fees to the town uh which in turn are used to purchase cohog seed to support commercial and recreational diggers. So the program uh really supports the committee's mission of maximizing
shellfish production and reducing nitrogen in our estuaries. We do have a MEES representative join us for every one of our meetings. Uh and we work closely with that department on shellfish related decisions including
timing of shellfish area openings, locations for seed dispersal uh and also budget management particularly in regards to cohog oyster and scolop seed purchases. We also work with MEES on develop uh
developing experimental projects. Uh for example, the MEES department has now been working for two years on a cohog seed netting project with support from wild harvesters. Uh the goal is uh to determine the best methods for reducing mortality of field
plant cohogs. The idea for this work came out of meetings that uh our committee had along with me with neighboring shellfish departments back in 2023 and the results are continuing to look very promising and the experiments are
going to continue into next year. I think our biggest accomplishment in the last year was finally getting Falmouth Harbor open for shell fishing during the winter months. We've been trying for years to do this and uh we finally got all the permitting required
from uh the division of marine fisheries and open it up opened it up in the winter for commercial harvest and this provided diggers with a highly productive area to fish during the winter months and it also reduced fishing pressure in other town shell
fishing areas. The committee's also been participating in ongoing discussions with Amy Lol and the DMF regarding the proposed outfall project to ensure that any potential impacts to commercially important shellfishing areas are considered during
the planning process. Uh Amy was here earlier, so I was going to say thank you to Amy, but she's been very nice to include us in those discussions and uh and taking our comments very seriously. Um and just as a reminder to everyone, the shellfish advisory committee is here
as a resource for the mees for the select board for town residents. Our group is comprised of marine scientists from HOIE and Noah, uh commercial and recreational diggers, commercial shellfish growers. Um we have we have a
broad spectrum of experience in on our team. Uh, and we encourage you to reach out anytime with shellfish related questions or concerns. We regularly address comments and questions that are emailed to the shellfish committee email account and we can be reached at
shellfish advisory at falmouth mass.gov. And that is all I have. Happy to take questions. >> I have a question. >> Thank you, Mr. Chase. What type of uh harvesting are they doing and found with harbor cohogs? >> Cohogs. Yep. >> And all by boat, I would imagine. Yeah,
I believe so. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> And it can't open until uh there's a a reduced number of boats in the harbor. Um the FDA, I think it has to get under 20 boats in the harbor or something before they will allow us to open it for harvest. >> And now, do they have to take those and
put them in a basket and let them rinse out somewhere else? Is the harbor clean enough? >> No, they Yeah, it is. That's what all the water quality testing has been about over the years. So, it really became an issue of uh of boat traffic. So in the off season the harbor clears out and the
water is clean enough to to harvest without depirating the product. Um and and they sell it go hogs. >> That's good note. Good to know. Thank you. >> Yeah, >> Mr. Chair. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Two questions. Uh first, you going to Oyster Fest this weekend? Well fleet?
>> Uh I don't think so. >> No, it's been a while. >> I I'll eat oysters in your place then. Um, second, uh, you know, in in my day job, Senator Fernandez is chair of agriculture and fisheries, we did a tour of the oyster farm in the south coast. Um, and they had noticed that the size
of shellfish across the board has been shrinking, the actual size. Do you know if there's any data that we have here in Falmouth that shows uh, a trend there or that's an isolated thing? We're well I don't know about hard data on that
because we're not taking measurements but in terms of harvest size product we are not seeing that same problem. We're we're having outstanding growth rates in at least speaking of the Eel River um we can get oysters to 2 and 1/2 in 3 in. If
you leave them in too long they're four and a half. Uh so they grow really quickly. Tons of food in there. >> Great. Thank you so much. >> Plenty to eat. Right. >> Plenty to eat. Yep. >> Not not a problem. I will contribute to eating of the oysters. >> Okay. Anyone else? Okay. Thank you, Mr.
Chase. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, committee. >> Okay. We'll move on to vote article recommendations for November 17, 2025. Mr. Reno, >> thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, as you all recall, select board voted to approve um
and move forward uh 24 of the 26 articles that were presented at the last meeting. Um the six articles of those 24 that fall into this perview of the select board are articles 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, and 18. Uh Peter's done a great amount of work putting this together,
working with staff, and kind of coordinating the process. So I'm going to ask Peter to kind of lead us through the discussion. Peter, >> thank you, Mr. Chair. So the first of the six articles Mr. Wrench um just mentioned article 10 is to authorize a
special act for purchase of grinder pumps and partial reimbursement of private property owners installation costs. Um you see in your packet I know it's a lengthy packet so I won't uh assume that you've had a chance to read and digest it all but there is an
explanation um of article 10 which was actually written by uh town council Mora O'Keefe. Um, so essentially this article does the same thing for future sewer projects as what the town has done for
the Little Pond Sewer Service Area. Um, so recognizing that some homeowners do do have a grinder pump that's required on their property in order for the sewer system to function, others do not. So, in order to try to provide some equity
among all of the um properties that are connected, the town has paid for those costs. Um at least the the cost of the grinder pump and a partial reimbursement for the installation cost. >> It continues the practice of replacing
it when needed. Um, >> so I don't the what this special act does is it um it provides legislative authority for the select board to do that to the extent that it chooses to do so.
>> I see. So it's flexible that way. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Do we know any history of this type of application before as to where the state legislature ends up on questions like
this? other towns or anything. >> Um, this has been approved before for Felmouth, so I I see no reason for them to not approve at this time. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. We're going to take one at a time
to uh to to vote it. So, the recommendation is uh to vote article 10 as printed. Is there a motion? >> Some moved. >> Second. >> Okay. A motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? Hi. >> Hi, Mr. Richardson. I believe may have
abstained, but with involvement with the state legislature may have been. >> I don't know. >> Believe it may have just gone to the bathroom. >> Well, that's I'm not quite sure whether that was a formal abstension or not, but in in any event, it was four of zero. Okay.
All right, Mr. Johnson, stop. The next article that involves a select board recommendation is article 11 to see if the town will vote to authorize the select board to petition the general court to enact special legislation to amend the charter to change the position
of town clerk um from elected to appointed. Uh I know we've discussed this with uh the select board before. There are a number of reasons to do this. uh as a you know as a practical matter the question becomes is there
anyone qualified who is a resident of Falmouth who would be eligible to you know run for election and be elected as town clerk with an appointed position. Um you have a bigger talent pool to draw from. Um there you know there are checks and
balances. You know, one of the one of the advantages of having an appointed town clerk is it ensures that the town clerk is part of the management team. So there's it allows for good coordination. And I should note that I've said it before, Michael Palmer is outstanding
town clerk. We've not had a problem with coordination with Michael Palmer. he is supporting this charter change because he recognizes that the job requirements um the technical uh challenges and expertise that are required in in the
modern day are different from what they were when he first was elected to town clerk. Um the other check and balance I just wanted to mention is this ensures that the town clerk is not a partisan right. So the town manager works for a select board that is comprised that can
be at any time comprised of Republican, Democrat, independent, you name it. So the town manager has no vested interest in swaying to one political party or another. If you have an elected town clerk, that's not that's not assured. And also is sorry isn't this is to my
knowledge almost becoming standard in the Commonwealth but there's been a number of communities that have made this change. I think that's important to point out. >> Absolutely. Thank you for making that point. This is this is absolutely the direction that most communities are moving. Not that it's you know there are still many that have elected but those that are making a change it's only going
one way. >> Right. Thank you Miss Co. >> Oh one question just wondering if it's worth including in the explanation um appointed by whom? Sure, we can add that. Appointed by the town manager. Thank you. That's an excellent idea.
>> Um, is there a residency requirement for the town clerk? Would there be a residency requirement that would need to be waved? >> So, you know, we if we didn't find a, you know, if the person didn't live in Fmouth, obviously, >> right? We haven't determined that. Um,
it might make sense to treat the position the same as other division heads so that it allows the select board to to wave that requirement. Okay. Thank you. >> And also uh to vice chair Goldstone's question about who appoints uh it would be town manager's appointment but with
affirmation uh from select board as a division or department. >> Right. I'm just think it might be worth including that clarification in the explanation. >> Good time. >> Okay. Well then uh is there a motion? The recommendation is that the town vote
article 11 as printed with the possible amendment to the explanation as proposed by vice chair Goldstone. Is there a motion? >> Uh real quick, can I just uh I uh just for the record u article 10 uh I vote
yes. >> Okay. >> I can Yeah, >> we had you down as an abstension. I wasn't sure whether you because of your involvement with the state legislature or >> letters of support are a no. >> Everything else is a yes. >> All right. >> Yeah.
>> Very good. >> We'll record will reflect that. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Motion here on article 11. >> Motion to move the recommendation um and explanation amended to include the appointment uh >> by the town manager.
>> Yeah. Appointment by town manager with with affirmation. Second. >> Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? >> I >> I >> Okay. Article 12 to authorize the select board to accept from New Cape Cod
Country Club, Inc. a gift of all or a portion of land. Um so this is as the board is aware the Cape Cod Country Club and all of those parcels are listed. Um we have uh this this is a select board sponsored article. Um so we are um
recommending that the board recommend this article. Um I know there has been a lot of uh community input on this. There are a lot of folks who you know really don't want to see the golf course be lost and would like to see it you know remain as undeveloped space. Um the you
know the the developer is the the land owner is in control here. So, um, there is, you know, potentially an opportunity for a solar development. If that solar development doesn't happen, then, you know, it's back under the control of the owner to do it as they see fit. Uh, this
these two articles, article 12 and and article 13, allow the select board in the town an opportunity um to, you know, to have the the town take control of the land long term. So
certainly for a 20 to 30 year period uh there would be a solar development and then the town would have control of the land thereafter. Some of it with an open space protection and some without. and and many of the um many of the questions that have been raised with respect to
decommissioning, bonding um and and all that have been would would be within our jurisdiction going forward with any agreement that that is with the development. >> That that's correct. And in in a number of those cases you just mentioned,
they're required by both state and local regulation that there be a decommissioning plan. And we would certainly insist on a bond to cover those costs. And I I will remind the board that although Mr. Brown was on the board at the time, the select board had went into an a non-binding memorandum of
understanding with the uh with the proponent to uh to develop it in in this fashion. So this board has supported that uh back in September of 2023. >> Right, >> Mr. Brown? >> Sort of a conceptual approval. Mhm.
>> So, I'm interested to know about the language here that says enter into a lease or leases for a term of up to 40 years as may be extended by agreement of lease parties. Now, when we first were talking about it four years ago, I
thought we agreed that it would be a lease period of up to 30 years with the potential to extend to 40. Does this language now mean it's going to be 40 with a potential to extend beyond 40 or am I misunderstanding?
>> Um I don't recall what it was before. Um but uh you're correct. It now is the idea is to have it be up to 40, which could be 30 with the possibility of more. I I think realistically we're
looking at 30 to 35. You don't see a lot of large scale ground mounted solar arrays that are for more than 35 years just because it's not it's not realistic to have um a a
long-term lease agreement like that with one company. >> I agree. I just curious about this language and I'm just trying to make sure I understand what it actually says because to me it seems to be saying that we're agreeing to 40 years as may be
extended. Does that mean we may extend beyond 40 years? >> Sure. >> Okay. >> Mhm. Could but not without controls. You know there there will always be multiple checkpoints along the way. Um what we
are trying to avoid is coming back to town meeting for that. >> Right. I have another question if I could before we get you know too far down the road with this. If we start to realize that we want to request additional
features in this project that hadn't been previously discussed and we get to a point where we're not agreeing with the developer. Can we undo this or do they have certain rights that would be attributed because of our continued support for the project
by voting these articles? >> Well, nothing's been fully committed yet. All this does is authorize the select board to act. That's all this article does. >> Okay. >> At no point is is there um there's no
triggering event contained in a town meeting article like this. >> Okay? This just gives us a chance to start talking about it. >> Exactly. >> Okay. Okay. Any further discussion, questions? If not, the recommendation is that the
town vote article or that the select board vote article well that the town vote article 12 as printed. Motion. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. Any further discussion? We have a motion in a second. Hearing none. All in favor? I
>> I >> No. Okay. >> No discussion. >> Four to one. Okay. >> I don't I don't think there's I'll get to it with the further articles. I'm going to vote on all three, but >> All right. Thanks. All right. We're on
article 13, Mr. >> Article 13 also addresses the Cape Cod Country Club. Whereas article 12 was authorizing a town meeting authorizing the select board to enter release um and to acquire the land. Article 13
addresses the procurement process um which under the typical chapter 30B section 16 the managing all of the moving pieces would would be difficult to impossible.
So this article 13 seeks special legislation to allow the town to negotiate the lease terms with the one party that owns this one parcel of land. Any questions?
The recommendation is the town vote article 13 as printed. Is there a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? >> I'll discuss on the next one. >> Okay. >> All right.
Hearing none. All in favor? >> I. >> No. >> Okay. Mr. Richardson votes no. Okay. Next, article 14 also um presumably related to the Cape Cod Country Club. So, this is a petition article on the
petition of Richard Hamilton and it seeks to amend the official zoning map um with respect to the largecale groundmounted solar overlay district. Um the
wait why do we have Oh, the recommendation is indefinite postponement. Uh and the town council has advised and and I'll let her speak to it directly. There is the intent appears to be to um
prevent the Cape Cod Country Club from developing solar. However, given the uh case law and the state law that's applicable here, it may have the or it will have it the unended effect of the town losing control over the sighting of
largecale groundmounted solar >> beyond just this project. >> Yes. >> Right. This project and others. >> Yes. Any project. >> Okay. Okay. >> Sorry. Can you explain? >> You want to go further there? >> Happy to. Um so groundmounted solar
array or any energy sighting facility is um dop protected under the zoning act under chapter 48 section 3 which means that um municipalities are prohibited from unreasonably restricting them and
there's a recent case from 2022 tracer lane to realy um v the city of Waltham that addressed this unreasonability issue. for citing ground mounted mounted solar arrays. And that case states um stands
for the proposition that if you have a solar array district and it only um addresses 2% of the total land mass or less, that is deemed unreasonable. Right now, the town's uh groundmounted
solar array overlay amounts to just about 2%. So, if you remove these parcels, it will absolutely be an unreasonable restriction to limit ground mounted solar arrays to just the
overlay district. And if that is the case, if the town gets sued for not permitting some a ground mounted solar array, if it's requested in some other portion of town, the courts will order the town to issue a permit for a ground
mounted solar array wherever it is. >> So, we would lose control of that. >> Yep. >> I also I think it's in the explanation. I I I don't even know that this would pass muster with the review from the AG's office cuz it's likely considered spot spot zoning anyway. If you remove
these parcels from from the zoning overlay district, um it undermines the public purpose of the overlay district and that's one of the hallmarks of spot zoning. So, I'm not certain that the AG would approve this
if it if town meeting voted for it. >> And and this rationale will be in the explanation. It says pending. I mean, you'll be working on an explanation. I don't know why. >> Oh, yes. >> Yes, we have we have an explanation. I'm not sure why it it didn't get in here, but we have it has been crafted
>> will effectively be what we've just discussed. >> Yes, exactly what I just said. >> Okay. >> I appreciate that. Um because I didn't fully understand that. Now I changed my vote but yeah I just with respect to 12 and 13 I just couldn't with my conscious
I was not a part of the previous boards that worked with this project the level of outreach from the community and I feel like with my stance I had just had of a police station I think it would be an injustice for me to have a different stance on nature and on our our
preserved lands and recreation space to have a different vote on this item. Um, so that is why I'm sticking with my principles and what I've said, uh, and why I voted no on the previous two articles. Um, but thank you very much for the description because I do think solar is incredibly important. I just
was not a fan of this particular project, but I really do appreciate the town's work on it and understand how limited our options have been with the site. Um, thank you. >> Make a comment about >> Yeah, please. just the the project in general, you know, four, five years ago, they first came to town informally going
to energy committee meetings and trying to lay the groundwork and get support and I think in it's been about four years that we've been actively as a town engaging with started AMP energy now pure sky or blue sky whatever it is and uh when that first the conversation
first started the golf industry was kind of slack and there wasn't a lot revenue that we could identify that our own country club was kind of struggling and then co came along and all of a sudden things changed. So now
energy credits are changing, golf revenues changing, we have a sort of a different landscape. So it's certainly understandable that people couldn't comprehend why we would be doing this now, but we're not really doing it now. We did it four years ago and I 100%
understand that. I just I wasn't part of that process then, which is why I'm voting the way I am. >> I don't I don't fault you at all. And I'm just saying I understand >> the people that are making these comments and I I sympathize with their position, but at the same time, you know, I'm in business and a deal's a
deal. And if you say that you're going to support a project, I feel like I'm until I'm presented with another alternative, I don't want to join with those folks, even though I believe in their their position because if we vote against this or undermine this and and ruin this project
for the developer, we could have another example of the Liberty Green on Main Street where we get, you know, spiteful development, >> right? >> That's the last thing you want. Even though we're in safe harbor now, we could probably manage it better. But still, I mean, if you don't have the goodwill of the developer, it's
challenge. >> That is certainly a concern of mine as well. So, the recommendation is indefinite postponement. >> Is there a motion? >> So much. >> Second. >> Okay, we have a motion in a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor?
>> I. >> You're eye. >> Yeah. Well, this is the so the reason I'm an II is well I'll explain it for the for the record. >> Um I think the town should pursue solar in the future and there's questions on how this would impact how the town pursues solar in the future and I think
that is a problem that is big enough and I've I've already been outvoted on the other two articles it wouldn't make sense to to vote now. >> Okay, >> very good. So, the next article that the select board has a recommendation on is article 17. And that is another petition
article on petition of Eric. I'm not going to try to pronounce his last name because I'll butcher it. Eric H. Um, and this article seeks to essentially reverse what uh town meeting voted on a
select board sponsored article, which was to allow a parcel of land on West Falmouth Highway to be sold and developed for affordable housing. Um, so this article 17 petition article would
um grant a conservation restriction. There are two articles with the same uh concept here. This first one would um would grant a conservation restriction to the 300 committee and the 300 committee is on record not supporting
this article. >> So the recommendation is indefinite postponement. Any further discussion? >> I'm I'm I move to recommend a definite postponement. >> Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor?
>> I. >> Okay. >> Article 18 as I mentioned is same petitioner uh same purpose. The only difference is that the conservation restriction would be granted to the um the town as opposed to the 300
committee. >> Motion to uh for indefinite prop postponement. Second. >> Okay. Motion and a second. Any further discussion hearing? None. All in favor? I. I. Thank you. And that's it. >> Okay. Very good. Thank you. We will now
move on to consider a vote, I'm sorry, to discuss draft regulation to create an art and cultural sorry, arts and culture license for the sale of alcohol. Mr. Renro, >> thank you, Mr. Chair. We are asking select board to uh discuss and consider
a vote. Um, a few months ago I asked town council uh working with staff in the front office of the select board office to uh come up with a I'll call it a solution a way to allow some of our local arts and cultural centers um that make application. As you all recall, let
me start back. Uh the ABCC recently revised its guidelines and interpretation um and now require these types of venues uh to um uh basically seek and obtained one-day licenses for their events because um
they um they're not they're um they have been relying in the past on licensed caterers to provide these uh types of events and this change in the guidelines from ABCC kind of remove that that option. So, I asked town council working with uh the front office staff to come
up with a way for us to kind of streamline the process and I'll say similar to uh the town of Barnstable offers this um art and culture license application process. So, I'll turn it over to more to kind of walk us through that. >> Great. Thank you. Um so you have before you a draft of an
arts and culture license and what I am proposing here is simply a a subcategory of the general on premise license that we already issue. Um here in Falmouth we
have um special legislation that um makes us uh not subject to the quota system for licenses. So it gives us a lot of leeway with how we manage that system. Um the state legislature under the liquor control act has a certain set
of rules, a quota being one of them. And then after that they just say mun municipalities do what you want with your restaurants. It's it's okay with us. So where we're not subject to a quota, we have this pretty wide latitude
and discretion to do what we want with our general on premise restaurant licenses. And so um here the easiest pathway forward with this problem that we're having um is just to create a regulation, enact a regulation that has
this substrata of arts and culture licenses. So, this one would allow um art galleries or museums or historic entities uh cultural venues like
Highfield Hall for example to that have um that want to sell alcohol for some part of the year but don't want to operate like a restaurant and have um pay for that uh extra additional fee to
operate operate year round, but they also operate more than the one-day licenses. And at a certain point, the one-day licenses become prohibitively expensive and just difficult to administer. Um, there are certain problems with that. You can only get 30
per person of those one-day licenses. So for some place um like Highfield Hall they have to sort of ask people to come forward to apply if they need more than 30. This strikes a happy balance. So um
here it would um it it defines some of the classes of businesses or organizations that would be entitled to this. And you see it's in three categories. gallery or exe exhibition hall where works of art
including paintings, drawings, um other media are placed on display. And this this would really be like an art gallery if they want to have wine tastings on on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sundays. Um a cultural venue where you're going to have theater or dance or music
performances. And then three, I'm going to propose um a um an amendment here to incorporate um the libraries within the town that
also might have events um that would fall nicely within this category. So three, I propose to have it say a museum, library, or historic building that displays or exhibits artistic, historic, scientific, natural, or
man-made objects of interest. So that it would incorporate something like the West Falmouth Library. They actually do quite a few events and then that way you wouldn't have to stretch to actually, it's just more explicit that way. Um and then the applicants
um successful applicants would also be subject to other requirements of the general on premise license which really come down to like they have to provide some sort of food just so you know you don't have too many glasses of wine and then wander out to the parking lot. >> Yes.
>> Presumably with this when uh like a restaurant is getting a a liquor license they're giving us hours of operation. Um in this case where it's in that some more than one day less than full-time operation is like part of that
application will be they'll give us dates or times or a rough number of date like how much information I guess would applicants be providing about the frequency of this or or is this just a license to provide alcohol as many times
as you want within a year. So that section C would address that for any kind of general on premise license. Um these other requirements that aren't listed here are things like hours of operation. You have to have a responsible manager on site. You would
have to provide a plan that shows exactly where the alcohol service is going to be and then alcohol service would be limited to that area only. Um you'd have to show where the bar is set up. you'd have to show that your servers are tip certified, for example. So, all
of those other sort of um and also requirements that restaurants have would all be subject to this arts and culture license, too. >> What just to clarify, what we're being asked tonight is to authorize a schedule
of hearing to hold this license uh to move this license forward. Is that correct? >> That's correct. because it's a regulation and not a bylaw. So, it's not going to be submitted to to town meeting for approval. You're going to hold a regulatory hearing. So, if you want to
move forward with this with or without the proposed amendment that I gave to you tonight, then this would be scheduled for a public hearing. This would be published in the paper. It would be noticed properly so that people could come and provide commentary. Um
the notice would allow uh um invite responses and um invite people to come and attend the hearing and then you could um enact it that way. >> Mr. Brown, >> uh are they able to um secure an
entertainment license? There's no prohibit prohibitation from that now. We don't need to include that here, right? >> No. So um that it would be a separate that's a completely separate licensing structure. Uh it would be a different kind of license if they secure this
alcohol license. There's two different licenses. One if you have serve alcohol and one if you don't. >> Okay. >> So they would be entitled to either one of them. >> So that doesn't need any special >> No. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Mr. Richardson. >> Um first I just want to say love this
voice crack. Um this is great. I like this direction of making this easier and being able to, you know, promote the arts more. My question is if we uh did something like is in Yarmouth where they have the mixed uh the cultural center,
if they wanted to serve liquor just as part of their day-to-day operation, would that not be allowed under these regulations or and would that more fall under a regular bar or restaurant? Uh, that's an excellent question. I It's
not what was contemplated for this. Um, this is intended for um not a full-time operation. It doesn't have a maximum hours set out, but I
think that that's something that should be considered. I didn't want to put that kind of um black letter cap here, but certainly if some entity were to try to get this
license which is meant to be for less hours and would be monetarily discounted because of that but then operate 7 days a week, it would undermine this. >> So there should be a control on that. So the I guess hypothetical I'm talking
about would be almost a different license or would that be a different I'm just I you know I I attended Mass Cultural Council had a great event where they talked about the success of that and I think that's a model that we should try and replicate a center like that in town and I think if they served you know food and drinks that would be
great. My guess I guess then if you can this might be too hypothetical this is why I'll never be a lawyer. Um, is would that then just be like a regular restaurant and would be kind of separate from this regulations? >> It sounds like it would be. >> Okay. Thank you,
>> Mr. Brown. >> So then would we consider language that we'd say that to host occasional events not to exceed >> four >> not to exceed something >> four per week less than a full-time
basis. I can toy with some language and come back with that. >> Do you need that language before going to schedule a hearing? >> No, I'd prefer to schedule a hearing and I'll come back and then you you can even um you can still change the language at the hearing. That's perfectly
acceptable. So, I would just like to say thank you to you and to town manager for hearing this and seeing this and adding an efficiency because we I've seen West Felmouth Library as their example and College Light Opera House and others come back continuously and they're small
businesses and nonprofits and you know this could save a lot of time. So appreciate the effort and therefore I'd like to make the motion to schedule a hearing to adopt the arts and cultural license for the sale of alcohol as presented.
>> And I'll second that and the comments. >> Yeah. Okay. We have a motion and a second. Further discussion hearing and seeing none. All in favor? I >> thank you very much for that. >> Appreciate that. That's a good idea.
>> I similarly echo those comments as well. Uh, okay. We are now to consider a vote to declare an emergency pursuant to MGL chapter 32 section 91 for the purpose of a retiree working
more than 1,200 hours for the Emergency Communications Center. And I'll ask Mr. Wra. >> Thanks, Mr. Chairman. I uh again, this has a lot of moving parts. Peter worked with our HR director uh Mr. Susan Lumping um and uh town council looking
at retirement regulations and laws. I'm going ask Peter to kind of walk us through the discussion and we'll answer any questions. >> Sure. So the issue stems from the limitation under the general law with respect to um a mass pension retirey.
So, in this case, a municipal retirey who's collecting a pension and there's a limit that says you can only work so many hours or earn so much revenue in the pension system um without paying a penalty in terms of losing some of your
pension benefits. Uh and you know we we do from time to time find it extremely helpful to hire back some of our retirees to take advantage on a very typically a very part-time basis of their um their expertise and their
knowledge. In in this case, we um you know, we have an acute situation with the emergency communication center, the police and fire dispatch where um because of a combination of issues related to staffing and also migration
of two new systems that the um that the communication center is uh is incorporated a few months ago. Um and we're still experiencing growing pains um working the kinks out of these new systems. So that's a computerated
dispatch system and a fire station alerting system. Ultimately, it's a a huge efficiency um movement, you know, that's going to improve the operations and response times and it's absolutely movement in
the right direction. But um as we as we work through the new system and make sure that um you know we don't um miss any calls uh it has required an inordinate amount of time after hours for the director of emergency
communications. Uh and we one of the ways that we've been able to get through and this goes back to when we had more acute staffing issues in the communication center. um town manager declared an emergency and we had the police department personnel um working
the console and and taking shifts covering dispatch. Um police then police lieutenant Shawn Doyle was supervising the police officers working in dispatch. He has since retired uh and he has expertise in the union contract and the
running of the of the dispatch center. um and to get through this next six-month period um we have a we have an urgent need for him to exceed the hours um that are permitted under this general law. The general law does provide for a
process whereby the appointing authority, the select board can declare that there is an emergency and bear with me. I'm going to that there that an emergency exists with respect to the need for this position. In this case, the acting emergency
communication center director. Um a vacancy exists in that position and there is no other person that is able to fill that position. Um, and it is our representation today that those three conditions are met and we're seeking a
board vote to affirm that. >> So, does this only I'm sorry. Does this only apply to Lieutenant or former Lieutenant Doyle? And if there were another person that fit within the guidelines, if you will, more than 1,200 hours or something, would that require
another decision of this board? That's correct. Specifically related to this specific individual. It's this emergency, this individual. >> This individual. >> Okay. >> So, if any of those three stipulations that are sub bulleted are
no longer needed, then the whole issue is no longer needed. We we're already filling it. All right. Is that correct? >> That is correct. I also should mention that under the law, this is only available for a one-year period. >> Okay. That was my next question. Is this
perpetuity or duration? So, it's one year. >> Yes. >> After one year, if the same condition exists, we'd have to take another vote or we're not allowed to take that vote. >> You're not allowed to take the vote is my understanding. >> Okay. >> At least not without a break. >> Yeah. Okay.
>> Are you ready for a motion? >> Just one other question if I might. >> I think I heard you say though that you expect this to be alleviated within six months as a result of measures that are being taken right now. Is that is that hiring or is that the the systems? If you could just elaborate a little on what those measures are, that would be
great. >> Well, Peter again has had a big hand in this, but it's both. Um, so you mentioned the two major systems that we're lifting and rolling out. Thank you. Um, the uh the Mark 43 CAD computer assisted dispatch and then the station alerting. Um, but it's staffing as well.
Um, we've been uh pretty aggressive on the recruiting front. Um, uh, hiring full-time employees. Um, the select board uh approved the creation of two new positions as you recall. Um, so it's a combination of the two that leads us to believe that 6 months is going to be adequate.
>> Thank you. >> I I I would just add that part of part of what we see happening in the next 6 to 12 months is promotion of uh emergency communication staff to supervisory positions that will um help
take some of the load off the director. >> This is a very needed thing. So, I'd like to make the motion to affirm the following conditions have been met to declare an emergency service need pursuant to MGL chapter 32 section 91. Do I have to say the next? Okay. An
emergency exists with respect to the need for an acting emergency communications center director. A vacancy exists in the acting emergency communications center director temporary position. And there is no other person other than retired police lieutenant
Shawn Doyle with equivalent knowledge and experience available at this time for this position. >> We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? >> Hearing and seeing none. All in favor? >> I. >> Thank you for >> Thank you for that.
>> Okay. Uh the next has to do with the land retirement process for the chief of fire rescue and Mr. Eno again. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh I'm allocated 15, but I'll keep this relatively brief. Um as you all may have heard, uh last month, Fire Chief Tim Smith submitted
his letter to the town manager's office indicating he's going to retire. Um Chief Smith began his career as a permanent firefighter with Felmouth Fire Rescue way back in August of 1987. Um he was appointed as fire rescue chief on December 7th, 2020. And uh certainly uh
in the two and a half years I've been your town manager um he has served that capacity in an exemplary fashion. Led the department as you all know uh through some major changes. Uh construction of a new fire station on Hatchville Road and uh staffing increases
because of the process of recruiting a fire rescue chief as you all can imagine is complex and takes time. Um Peter and myself uh began um reaching out and uh talking to some consultants. Um it's my uh desire uh that we open this up um to
uh both internal and external candidates. In the past, I think this is important to state um recent history. Uh the position has been limited to internal candidates. Um I want to literally look more regionally uh bringing in the most qualified professional next leader of FEL with
Fire Rescue that we possibly can. Again, Chief Smith has done just an outstanding job, but I think it's time to look um look outside perhaps in regionally and uh looking for very specific leadership and management skills. Um the important part of my message tonight, giving you a
sneak preview of the process is that we have reached out. Um Peter and I created a request for quotations. We did receive three uh quotations from three very well-qualified firms. We're still kind of reviewing those. Um, but I wanted to run through the select board kind of the
process as I see uh kind of the vision of how we see this unfolding. Um, we're looking for um I'm not going to spend a lot of time talking about the qualifications of the actual consultant. Um, it's going to be consultant and I'm going to use the example of our um I guess most recent recruitment efforts
for the police chief. Um, using a firm of that caliber and using the same kind of techniques. Um, importantly, um, and I know this is important to the select board, um, community engagement and soliciting input from the community, um, in addition to the select board, obviously, as far as the qualities and
characteristics and attributes and skill sets of the next, uh, Felmouth Fire Rescue Chief I think is important. Uh, so the consultant as part of that scope of services will provide that kind of interview and survey. um again including staff with the current department
working with the union um as well as reaching out to select board and the community itself. Um the actual interview panel I'm envisioning kind of a similar process that was utilized again with the police chief in terms of a a community panel uh ma made up of of community members in addition to town
staff. Um obviously an assessment center um having the ability to measure the effectiveness in these different areas. um priority areas is identified by the surveys and questionnaires. Um having a professional assessment center conducted by the consultant who has years of experience running these because as you
all know if you haven't participated in one of those in your careers um they do require a specific skill set to put them on and put them on successfully um to again kind of glean and and and and get the best possible candidate. So, all of that being said, um it's probably a
four-month process and with Chief Smith announcing his retirement in early September, um it caused us to kind of get this process moving. Um before we got too much further into the process though, I wanted to kind of give you a sneak peek again, a preview of what that process is going to look like. Um we'll be um once we engage hopefully in the
next week um with the consultant of choice uh we'll be um scheduling some time to sit back down with the select board and again solicit that input uh from you and from some community members. >> Do we have an idea Mr. Renure how much the compensation will be for the
consultant? What the range would be? >> Um a range Peter do you recall? Do you off the top of your head? >> Um I should know. Give me a minute. No. Okay. >> I'm going to I'm going to hazard a guess. I mean, I think it was in it was in the 13 to 15,000 upwards of 25,000, I
think, was kind of the range of of some of that. >> Okay. >> M Mr. Chair, >> we're not looking for any >> No, this is just a just a discussion. And again, because it's kind of a recent development with regards to the chief's announcement of his retirement. Um, number one, I wanted to kind of congratulate him for an outstanding
career, make the select board in the community aware of that, and also give you a little bit of of a glimpse about the process to ensue. >> Mr. Reed. >> Yeah. Um, thank you for this. It's an extremely important position. So, appreciate that you're engaging with both internal and external with a
professional search firm. Having been through various search firms for high level positions, four months is very aggressive. Um, so I guess my my question is going to be more of what if what if we uh our system is slow enough
that we don't meet the uh retirement date? How do we fill in the position or will he extend >> the deputy chief? >> Is that is that how we'll do that? >> Yes. So we do have options with regards to some some existing personnel. uh he as you all probably know there are two
um standing deputy chiefs um that could fill in in my opinion but we'll get when we when we reach that point we'll make that determination but that would be an option for us. >> Okay, good. >> You never want the emergency option but better be thinking about ahead of time. >> Well, we're in strong position because
again we do we do have um two deputies that are familiar with the system and would be able to to assist. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Chair. >> Yes, Mr. Richard. >> Do you have public comments? I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Fineran.
>> Mark Ferin, Grand Pre Precinct 2. Uh, first um it's very difficult to hear in this room. I I think um that everyone should have a microphone and also when you lean back in your chair, it it
becomes impossible to hear. Um but um so I wasn't able to hear a lot of what was said throughout the evening, but I I'm just um wondering and it sounds like you did. I'm hoping that uh this process mimics
the process that you use to select the police chief because um it obviously worked very well and I uh just want to be sure that that is uh you cast your nets very widely because uh the people
of this town deserve a similar outcome to what happened with the police uh chief's position. And now if we could only get them into a place where the water didn't flow like an open sewer would be heading in the right direction.
Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Now uh move on to discuss and consider a vote to submit a home rule petition to create a licensing commission. >> Mr. Renure.
>> Uh we're we're bringing this back, Mr. Chairman. Town council has done a lot of work on this as you all recall. I think she's given a couple of different presentations. I'm going to let Mora kind of walk us through this item as well. Um and I sorry and I think in included in your packet is a copy of a draft uh petition and some language.
Town council. >> Thank you, Mr. Town Manager. Um, so I'm back again with the um proposed home rule petition to create a licensing commission. And based on feedback from
the last time I was before you on this, um, I have two versions for you to consider. um one that looks exactly like the one um that we discussed the last time and then another one that also includes
a section B3 which would also delegate authority to issue entertainment licenses to the proposed licensing commission. So that
B3 says the power to issue licenses for entertainment including theatrical exhibitions, public shows, and public amusements of any kind pursuant to the three statutes um that pertain to entertainment
licenses. The first is for a Sunday entertainment license. The second is for entertainment licenses for those businesses that do not sell alcohol but have a common victual license. And then section 183A, which is for
um restaurants that have uh alcohol licenses. And so I'm looking for um authority to proceed and go ahead and submit these. One or the other or neither, whatever you want to do. >> When when do you make the decision or
we're going to make the decision tonight? One or the other? >> If you want to. This is just for this is for your consideration. It's the third or fourth time I've I've been before you on this. Um, you do not have to do anything you don't want to do. Um, but
this is hopefully progressing forward. >> I think we should Sorry, Mr. agent must be recognized, but I think we should move this forward tonight simply because where we are in the legislative calendar
in order to get this through the legislature, if we want to do it this cycle, the sooner the better. Um, just with the way Beacon Hill doesn't work. Um, it's important to be get these type of home rule petitions to Repier, Rep.
Mole, Senator Fernandez, as as soon as possible if we want to get this done in a timely fashion. I I'll say for the record and and I've said it before that I'm not in favor of this licensing commission as proposed. uh I think it gives the licensing
commission too much the proposed licensing commission too much authority to make all necessary rules and regulations regarding such licenses. I believe that that is a function of the select board and I think the select board should retain that uh you know that that power that authority. I'm also
concerned that uh that there be there if if a license is denied uh the only recourse uh is for someone to have to I think pursue litigation. Uh I I would hope that u that there or consider that there
is a way would give some authority to the select board to uh to overturn overturn such such a determination. So, uh, I'm not in support of this, uh, this this proposal. >> Yeah, Mr. Brown.
>> Well, I got a different view. I I am in support of this because to begin with, we've had a charter review committee look at it and recommend it a couple times. And we need to get streamlined as we get bigger. This town gets bigger and bigger every year. more and more
responsibilities and more and more things that we should be considering carefully. We're fragmented when we have to worry about the smaller details. We're taking our eye off the big picture. So, I'd like to see this move forward and I like the second version with including the entertainment license as well because I
think that the alcohol and entertainment are somewhat tied together. I think it makes sense to add it. >> Mr. Chair. >> Yeah. Oh, please. I'm sorry. Here's the microphone to be able to hear. >> Um, I would strongly uh support moving
the second version with both uh restaurant liquor license and um entertainment licenses under the purview of the licensing commission because um as Mr. Brown alluded to my goal in pursuing this and I think the the you know the reason that it has come
up in the charter review is to ensure that the select board has the time to focus on the strategic plan that is our purview and the comprehensive plan that we are co-responsible for with the planning board and major policy decisions. So, it's efficiencies for us, but I think very important in this
process is considering efficiencies for applicants. And as we just talked about with nonprofits and small businesses and occasional events, the ability to go to a single licensing board to get both their entertainment and their liquor license or both their restaurant and liquor license in one place and not have
to come to two different licensing agencies or three different licensing agencies to to do that. Um, just just makes sense from the perspective of of applicants. You know, I I appreciate the comments. I I still think the the giving the
licensing commission power to make all necessary rules and regulations without any input from the uh from this select board, I think that's just wrong. I I I I see that as a major problem regardless of whether there's some appeal or something from select board might
retain. But to give the licensing commission without having to come to the select board uh or to uh you know a discussion with the public and have them be able to adopt rules and regulations regarding such licenses and empowered to attach such conditions I just feel is
giving a commission way more authority I I think that even maybe the charter revision commission even thought about. So that's that's my position. Chairman Mscoly um I this the any regulations would be promulgated pro with um using the same
process so would be in a public hearing >> but but >> and every I just wanted to correct that that you said that it wouldn't be with any input from the public >> commission shall make all necessary rules and regulations regarding that's what it said >> and in the normal course regulations
cannot be promulgated without a public hearing and input. Yeah, I appreciate what you're saying, council. I'm just saying what it says here on the on the paperwork. >> Well, in any event, that's my position. >> I if I may, Mr. Chair, um I I am in
favor of uh the second version of this as well for the uh reasons outlined by uh my fellow colleagues. Although I do hear um your concern um Chair Mscali and have heard that from other folks. I think something that we can't um forget
is that we have the power of appointment as well which um as listed we have various levels and various times but that's we have the power of meeting power of appointment power of um regulation and policy here and so with
the power of appointment we can make sure that we are aligned while you know the select board you know streamlining is very important we're we're spending a tremendous amount of time on these types of um sorry Mr.
I got to talk this way. Um, we're spending a tremendous amount of time on these types of licenses at a time when I think the town really needs the select board to focus on the highlevel directions so that we are in unison and
in lock step with town management on on many different things. Um, so therefore, I'm in I'm in favor. Chairman Mskaly, I would uh move that uh we authorize uh the transmission of a home rule petition
version two uh to the state for consideration. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any >> public comment? >> Yes, Mr. Um, don't you think that uh if you were to write in and guarantee an appeal
process directly to the board of selectmen, the end result would probably be reducing your load a good 80% because most of these things are just preuncter if you will. And that way
anyone who thought that they were um wrongly uh uh you know wouldn't wait have to wait for the next person to get appointed on the board to make it more reasonable. And um I mean they could appeal right to the guaranteed they could appeal right to the board. >> I mean it would certainly reduce your
load. Uh I would guess 80% at least and it would keep you happy as well. Chairman Mskelli. >> I had made that request uh when we first started discussing that. Mr. Ferick Mr. Brown. Apparently, there's laws that control licensing commission
appointments. Did you say that that was not a >> council's advice was against anything that it might complicate the I I'm not speaking for you, but I think No, please. >> You you were saying that it would might complicate once it gets up to the legislature that having some kind of an
appeal process might complicate. >> It's really about um it being beyond the scope of the municipality's home rule authority to do so. When you start talking about appellet process, the um licensing
framework here is so comprehensive and it's already robust. Any um if you just take it how it is right now, an appeal goes from the slack board to the ABCC and then from the ABCC to the superior court and then up the chain. If I I I
find it highly unlikely that the legislature would approve including an additional step into what is already a very complete appeals process, especially when no other community does that. >> But we we don't know unless we try. But
in any event, that's >> in in my field. >> It is my expert opinion that that is would never pass. Muster. >> Okay. Well, there's a motion and a second. Uh, we've had public comment. Any further
discussion? Okay. All in favor? >> I >> opposed. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. I think we are close to the end here. discuss and consider a vote to
accept a municipal digital equity implementation grant program in the amount of $84,954. Mr. Ren, >> thank you, Mr. Chair. This is exciting. Uh a great opportunity. As you all recall, last year 2024, um the municipal
light board and town manager's office uh co-applied for funds to conduct a uh municipal digital equity plan. Cape Cod Commission um facilitated that process. Um the plan was generated and the plan
became kind of the launchpad for the town to then uh submit an application for a digital equity implementation program grant um which um we made that application back in July of this year, July 30th. We submitted the application
again joint effort between the municipal light board and the town manager's office. So, I think there's a lot of great collaboration. Um, we received on September 29th uh word that uh we were awarded the $84,954. Um, what the uh MLB and town manager's
office envisions is uh cons contracting with a nonprofit that will run and operate manage a digital navigator program. Um if you all are not familiar with the digital navigator program um it helps connect um people with the digital
environments folks that don't have access perhaps or don't have the skill set necessary to do something that we all sometimes take for granted navigate the internet. Um part of uh one of the interesting results of the digital equity plan was that of the 14,000
almost 15,000 households 2200 households were identified as being at risk and uh and perhaps not having access um the official word uh multiple demographic barriers related to greater digital disadvantage. Um so this implementation
grant if accepted will allow us to again uh retain the services of a nonprofit. An RFP was generated um through the finance office again collaboration with the MLB and and town manager's office. And I'm happy to say that we had three well-qualified proposals that were
submitted. The group is still reviewing those proposals, but the important next step is for the select board to hopefully vote to accept this $84,954. So, if I may, so um the group is composed of uh who who's reviewing the RFPs?
>> So, it's going to be um a couple of members of the MLB and uh Mr. Peter Clark, who is not technically a member of the MLB, but he was heavily involved in in in in writing the original grants and worked closely with um with us with the uh the equity digital equity plan
last year. Um and uh our finance finance office finance director. So, but who who make the ultimate determination? Will it be a recommendation to this board or will that once we do this, we're done with? >> No, we'll come back with a recommendation that committee will make
a recommendation to make and then Yes. And then I'll bring that recommendation forward. >> Okay. Thank you. >> That's the process as I see it unfold. >> Okay. >> That's the process I would like to see. >> Are there any extrenuating circumstances that come with the grant? >> Uh any any strings? Any strengths? No,
there's a it's a one it's it's a onetime grant. Um so there are no strings, no no uh no local match that's required. Um importantly though, it's um it's we're we're we're optimistic we're going to show the program to be a success and the nonprofit that that is selected will be
able to continue the program going forward, but this is a oneanddone kind of an opportunity. >> Wow. Great. >> I think this is awesome. Um, and with that motion to approve the acceptance of the municipal digit equity implementation grant program grant award in the amount of $84,958
$954 as presented. >> Second, third. >> Why four cents? >> Uhhuh. >> Yeah. >> Why $44? >> Yeah. Right. >> Couldn't they round it off like they do
at the uh, you know, McDonald's? the option to put it up to a dollar. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing and seeing none. All in favor? >> I >> I thank you very much. >> Well done. >> Okay. Review and consider a vote to
approve minutes of meeting September 8, 2025 and September 29th, 2025. >> So move to approve. >> Okay. And second. >> Second. >> Okay. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion?
No. All in favor? >> I I >> I'm going to abstain. >> Okay. >> Uh did not have a chance to review the minutes. >> Okay. All right. I did. Okay. All right. You're abstain. Um town manager supplemental report. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Real quickly, um
so a couple of Fridays ago back on October 3rd, we had a beautiful day and we had our third consecutive uh employee appreciation cookout over at Goodwill Park at the pavilion. um it was well attended. Um happy to see one of the things I love about our uh staff
appreciation cookouts compared to some of the others that I've done in the past is that the departments mix and mingle. You don't see the DPW standing together and the police officer, everybody's kind of talking and engaging. So, it was a great event. Um and and as you all know
um public service is not an easy job and and and it's important for us as management to recognize uh staff and employees for their hard work. This is one kind of small uh token of our appreciation that we show. Um we're also Peter and I have been working on developing and I'm hoping to launch
beginning of the calendar year an employee of the quarter and then employee ultimately an employee of the year kind of recognition award um that we're going to bring to select board kind of for for review. But again, I think it's one one of those things that it's important for management um and the and the governing body to uh
periodically recognize the great work being done by staff. So those are two projects that >> we're excited to bring forward. >> How about that pulled pork? >> Yeah, Jim Guz, our veterans director, did a fantastic job with the pulled pork this year. That was a new addition to the menu.
>> That was nice. >> Okay. Any other reports? >> No. Yeah. I uh attended the energy committee meeting uh last week and uh just want to share a tip for the public that that came from that meeting which
is that um I believe it's uh beginning with the uh it's either the November or December electricity bills that we get. Um there will be a heat pump uh discount rate um that the utilities will be applying. Uh so if you have heat pumps,
please check your bills and make sure that you are seeing that discount. And if you have questions, um our sustainability coordinator, Stephanie Madson, is going to be kind of looking into that and has more information. >> We need that discount.
>> All right. Anything else? I >> I have Mr. Richardson. >> Uh I did meet with um I don't have her last name. Uh I met with uh Liz from Lawrence
School. Thank you. Uh to discuss a potential uh and I've been talking with uh David Garrison of the affordable housing committee. They're working on a really great proposal kind of copying what some of the other towns on the Cape are doing uh with a property tax exemption to incentivize year-round
renting. Uh and I think that hopefully should be available soon. But um you know really cool p pilot program they're working on um should be ready soon that will have very very very minimal impact on the taxpayers of the town of Fmouth
but has pretty cool potential to incentivize some long-term leases so we can um look to fill uh units across the town. So very excited um from that and I look forward to when they give the final recommendation. So, uh, waterways committee is
considering doubling moing fees over the course of the next three years and, uh, so look for that to be coming our way sometime in the near future. The uh justification is because really there's so many moorings that seem to be
vacant that and when the one of the board members, one of the committee members offered to do some research on what other towns are charging, apparently we're very low comparatively to other towns. And we the the suspicion
is that the the fees are so low that people don't worry about if they don't have a boat on it because it's so cheap, who cares? I mean that's that's this that's the point I was getting I guess. Um so that's coming. They're also looking at holistically figuring out
even though we don't have the money for it. What would it really take to dredge all these embements that we have that we don't really even try to deal with. But just to get an idea kind of like what you did with the buildings figuring out where we're at whether or not we can
afford to fix them. At least we know where we're at. So, they're starting to think in terms of that. Uh, on another note, the short-term rental uh advisory committee has a draft for consideration at our next meeting next week on the 22nd.
And hopefully we'll be far enough along that we'll send it off to the town council's office and they can put it in proper form and be ready to go. >> One more update, Mr. Chair. Um the Senator Fernandez and our office were
working on sending out a letter to EOHLC asking that the seasonal community designation regulations be out to the towns of Barnes County by the end of of of uh of November. Um so be on the lookout for that so we can finally, you know, there's been a big question of
what's actually is in this. What's it going to do for the town? I think there's a lot of great things, but to actually see what those are and what the stipulations will be on the town. Um, so hopefully, you know, working with the OHLC to get that um to Falmouth and other towns in Mars County by the end of November.
>> And u one of these days I'll remember to bring my notes from the tour of the Lawrence School where, you know, we got a great presentation on the school and all the needs and the actual danger that the custodians are in when they have to go under that building to fix those
steam pipes. It's a very hazardous situation. So there's a ton of work that needs to be done in that building and the the height of the the ceilings are very advantageous for using uh forced hot air which would be more efficient
way to heat the building plus provides air conditioning. So there's there's a pretty good plan in place for renovating that building. We still got a long way to go before we get to it, but maybe I'll bring my notes in one of these days and give you a little bit better update.
All right. And I appreciate Mr. Renure adding the future agenda items so we can take a look at what's coming up. And uh with no other discussion or miss, >> I would like to add one additional to the future agenda items, I would like uh
to ask that this board consider conservation restrictions for lands abing long pond. Hear no >> uh parking talk about parking or hear the report from the um committee that studied that just before the board.
>> It's actually coming next meeting. >> Oh, is it awesome? Thank you so much. I don't have any other items done. All right. Motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? I.
>> Thank you very much.