##VIDEO ID:jRkc06Fphz0## e e clients since 1983 our goal as a family-owned company has been simple to give our neighbors on the Capen Islands a great shopping experience rest easy knowing our professional team will listen to your needs and help you pick the perfect appliances for your home at crane Appliance we know how difficult Appliance shopping can be our team is here for you crane Appliance we call the cap and Islands [Music] home Carlson printing 508 548 7303 [Music] our email address is Carlson printing at AOL.com good evening and welcome to the meeting of the fou select board it is Monday January 27 2025 at exactly 5:30 p.m. and I would entertain a motion to move into executive session to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining police sergeant NE PBA local 61 and to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining police lieutenants neba local 65 second okay I have a motion in a second any further discussion amongst the boards seeing none uh all those in favor by roll call please Goldstone i m scly i Brown I Taylor I and we will return to open session at approximately 6:30 p.m. e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good evening and welcome to this Open session of the fouth select board it is Monday January 27th at exactly 6:30 and the board is returning from executive session to this Open Session and I'd like to just announce that the board did come to an agreement with the collective bargaining with the police sergeants local 61 and with the police lieutenants local 65 so I would ask that you please uh check Che your cell phones and silence them during this meeting and notify me as the chair if you are audio or video video recording of This Open session meeting thank you and the placement and operation of the recording equipment will not interfere with the conduct of this meeting and I would ask you to please stand and join me with the pledge the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge alce to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you okay we do have a proclamation tonight and I would ask um select board member Mcall to read that Proclamation okay thank you whereas Black History Month was first celebrated nationally in 1976 during the United States Bicentennial and whereas Black History Month has a rich cultural history throughout the United States symbolizing the enduring strength and significance of civil rights Pioneers including Martin Luther King Jr Rosa Park Phyllis Wheatley and Frederick Douglas and whereas the town of Falmouth must continue to move towards equality recognizing the barriers faced by the black community and addressing structural racism and social political and economic inequalities and whereas Black History Month is an opportunity to recognize the many contributions and achievements by black leaders and members of our community in the town of fet throughout the course of our history and whereas the theme African Americans and labor intends to encourage broad Reflections on intersections between black people's work and their work places in all their iterations and key moments themes and events in black history and cultural across and culture across time and space and throughout the US Africa and the and the diaspora like religion social justice movements and education studying African-Americans labor and labor struggles are important organizing fi for new interpretations and reinterpretations of the black past present and future such new considerations and reconsiderations are even more significant as the hisor iCal forces of racial oppression gather new and renewed strength in the 21st century and whereas Black History Month is a time to celebrate and acknowledge the significant history and contributions of the black community throughout the town of found with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the United States as well as to bring awareness to the challenges faced by the black community and the methods in which they have tirelessly worked to conquer such adversity now therefore for we Nancy or Taylor Edwin P zinsky II Douglas C Brown Robert P Mcall and Heather Goldstone members of the fouth select board do hereby Proclaim February 25th to be Black History Month in the town of fouth and urge all our citizens to observe this month with appropriate programs ceremonies and activities we have here and two set our hand and caus the Great Seal of the town of fouth to be affixed on this 27th day of Janu January 2025 thank you very much Mr Mcall okay we're going to move into recognitions hi hi my name is Aaron Bryant and I'm here from the woods hle diversity advisory committee and I was asked by that group of which I'm a member representing the ca Education Association in wol um to receive the proclamation if that's part of your agenda great here I am yes I also have some advents that I could share you would be great I was wondering did everyone sign a good time for me to yes you can give us the program I so as you mentioned the uh Woods Hole diversity advisory committee and the Woods Hole diversity initiative which is a collaboration of the six Woods Hole scientific institutions um have declared their interest and um commitment to the the Black History Month celebrations in the following ways um the theme being African-Americans and labor so the community events include Thursday February 26th or sorry February 6th Tales of transatlantic Freedom Falmouth Academy's Simon Center for the Arts will host um a powerful performance by soprano Andrea Baker composer Howard Moody director John Paul mcroy song poetry and movement exploring African diasporic narratives and celebrated shared music musical Heritage you can find details for that at felth academy.org uh Saturday February 15th there will be a film screen screening at who's the oceanographic institution's Redfield Auditorium on Water Street in Woods Hole this is part of the Woods Hole Film Festival uh their dinner and a movie series you can find more information at Woods Hole film festival.org Tuesday February 18th at 6:00 there will be trivia and a food truck at the cape Verdian Club on sandwich Road um join us for Black History Month trivia prizes delicious food from the kitchen food truck um you can find more information at woodshole divers unity.org BHM 2025 Thursday February 27th at 5:30 there will be an author talk at Highfield Hall you can register for that at Highfield Hall and gardens.org um Dr Michael prgo I apologize if I'm mispronouncing his name we'll discuss his book slavery and abolitionism on Cape Cod and finally and maybe most excitingly Friday February 28th there will be a harami community celebration at the MBL SW Hope Center on the eel pond in Woods Hole enjoy food fellowship and uplifting music by Naomi westwater and friends as we honor the contributions of African-Americans as change makers and again you can find more information at Woods hoold diversity. org thank you so much thank you I would just comment that's really great that you put all that together thank you for that and I would also like to comment the uh attendance at the Martin Luther King breakfast was exceptional the entire KET was packed so I'd love to see that thank you Mr Brown okay we're going to move into recognitions and I would like to just take a moment to recognize that today is the national Holocaust Remembrance Day it's the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the aitz burken concentration camp and I would just like to take this moment to um recognize that any other recognitions for today uh I'd like to take a minute to recognize um lieutenant governor Kim Driscoll uh took quite a lot of time to meet with us at cap and Island Municipal leaders Association at the U M at the um MMA conference up in Boston on Friday and you know she's a very busy lady but she took the time not only to listen to the prepared questions that our association had but she took questions all all around the room we only didn't get to a couple of people when she had to go she must have been there 45 minutes at least so I I really appreciate the way she listens and she takes notes she writes things down and then there's results from it so I'm impressed thank you Mr Brown Miss Goldstone U thank you first uh uh Mr Johnson stab and I uh attended the uh The Pride Celebration here in town and recognition is due to Susie hman and her staff for for putting on a truly wonderful uh wonderful event uh following along with what Mr Brown said at the uh MMA Awards uh at the MMA conference and this is an award uh and thanks to the town manager's office Diane and and Phyllis uh the town of fouth came in third for the best annual uh report uh in in the category of towns 30,000 and and UPS so thank you for that good point Thank you thank you Miss GST okay um first of all I love all of these recognitions and Nancy thank you so much for that really really um and thank you so much for that really important um recognition of of Holocaust Remembrance Day I'm loving that we're getting all the way down the table and I still have some more to add that are not redundant um I would love to recognize and congratulate for uh fouth organization ations who have received Mass cultural Council grants uh the Cape Cod Cape Verdian Museum and Cultural Center the cape Verdian Club of fouth the fouth chamber players and linking indigenous and non-indigenous knowledge um congratulations to all of those groups and then um a happy Lunar New Year to all of those who will be celebrating starting later this week great thank you announcements is there any announcements from the board just make make one announcement uh there was a a a a discussion this afternoon at the uh Herman room uh at it started at 4:30 so was a little inconvenient for us to get there but uh it can be watched on fctv uh it's the beach committee and it's an erosion report uh at the progress of of of that committee and what what they're doing so worth taking a look uh it'll be on fctv at some time thank you Miss Goldstone yeah I'll second that I was there for the the presentation portion and it was an excellent um very educational talk um uh the other thing I wanted to announce is uh Super Bowl Sunday not the football game but the uh soup uh benefit for the fth service center is this Sunday and advanced registration is needed um so just Google soup s o u p r bow Sunday if you want to register for that fabulous event 12 to 1:30 right Mr MC did you have another okay I have any other announcements Mr Brown one that's not really a select word but I noticed that I have on my calendar that Dylan Fernandez our newly elected Senator will be having office hours 3:30 to 5: at the library at the Herman room if anybody wants to share their thoughts oh that's on uh Tuesday tomorrow okay any other announcements from the board for the general public okay we're going to move into public comment public comment may be made on routine matters not on the agenda this evening and your comments will be limited to 2 minutes please introduce yourself and since the matter has not been included on our agenda the select board will not participate in any discussion or debate of your topic is there anyone here for public comment yes sir minutes Malcolm Donald town meeting member Precinct 6 at last April's town meeting uh petitioners of article 22 requested funding for uh y diversion pilot project the town's position was that it was not ready consequently the article was voted down with the understanding that the town would come back at November town meeting with the project ready to go however November's town meeting was pretty much a replay of April's I believe I can speak for two groups of taxpayers those who are interested in implementing urine diversion and those who will not want to be forced to pend to spend $60,000 on an IIA considering that we are now midway between Town meetings we are apprehensive the town will again present a similar excuse at the UPC coming April town meeting therefore we ask you the select board to see to it that the urine division pilot project is ready for a vote at April town meeting which is now only two months away additionally we request that you provide us at your next meeting an intro report on the urine diversion pilot project progress to date additionally we would like to hear reports at each subsequent selection select board meeting so ta taxpayers can learn what progress is being made thank you thank you is anyone else here for public comment yes sir [Music] hi my name is Ben Weiss uh town meeting member Precinct 9 just have an event that I wanted to announce as well um there's a film screening this Thursday speak to the board sorry direct your comments to the board thank you there's a film screening this Thursday at hooie in the Redfield Auditorium it's the cape vidiians a legacy of service and this event is jointly going to be it's not on the black history month calendar it's separately uh just for a January event um and it's jointly run by the committee for diversity equity and inclusion at huie and also the cape Varian Museum and Cultural Center so we'd love to see people there uh it starts at 6:00 p.m. uh is an hourong I believe and then there are 30 minutes for Q&A could you send an email with those details please I'd appreciate that building uh Redfield Auditorium and yes I can send an email that would be great thank you anyone else here for public comment okay we're going to move into committee interviews first is the Conservation Commission and I will recuse myself based on my relationship with the applicant Mr Brown thank you madam chair um for the Conservation Commission uh Russell Robbins Mr Robbins here yes good evening R Robbins Conservation Commission so I guess you're an old hand at the Conservation Commission aren't you yeah I got a little bit of time then yeah when you took a year off for the the break I had um some health issues the last couple of years sorry to hear that yeah so I had kind of had to fade away and limit my time on certain things got it so now you're feeling back up to it I'm going to try Okay U I don't have any questions I've seen you in action and questions from the board uh yeah certainly no questions I know Mr Robins from the CPC as well uh I just will mention for the public that there are still vacancies on the Conservation Commission there I think after this evening there will be still one voting one full voting member position and there are three alternate positions so uh if anyone out there in the audience or on television when they see this is interested in the conservation uh commission they should get in touch with Jennifer or uh or Jamie Matthews the chair of the Conservation Commission very good no further questions I would entertain a motion to appoint Mr Robbins I'll make a motion to appoint Russell Russell e Robbins to fill the full voting member conservation committee vacancy with a term that expires June 30 2027 all those in favor I'll second that and yes oh sorry all those in favor I I thank you Mr Robins glad to see you feeling better okay our second committee interview is for the cultural Council Sarah Glover welcome Sarah hi there I'm Sarah Glover is there anything that you would like the board to know or consider that was not on your application um no just that I'm looking forward to and excited to help bring value to our local community any questions or comments from the board Miss Goldstone yeah I'm just uh Curious based on your application um kind of what the connection for you is between your own experience and the the business community and Entrepreneurship and uh cultural devel sure well you know I um was involved with the Art Market this past season and um appointed the chairman of the Art Market and which brought me to a cultural council meeting um to meet some um local names I'd been hearing and in doing so um I was really interested in the work that they're doing and um got really excited to be part of it any other questions comments from the board Mr Brown um I've been interested to uh think about the economic impact that the cultural council's new invigorated uh energy seems to be bringing and I wonder if you have anything you could comment on that um I'm part of the Art Market this the cultural council is um new so I haven't been a part of that yet okay um fair enough okay than it's a good time to join yes I'm excited Mr just as if I may just as with respect to the Conservation Commission there is still one uh one vacancy on the cultural commission uh so if anyone is interested you heard tonight about the grants and and you've heard about the economic impact so it's certainly a very uh worthwhile Endeavor so uh if you're interested you can see Alice at some point thank you I would motion to oh did you have another comment no okay I would motion uh to appoint Sarah Glover to serve on the cultural Council to fill a term ending June 30th 2027 second okay have a motion second any further discussion amongst the boards seeing none all those in favor I thank you for your willing to serve thank you okay we're going to move into business and we're going to have a discussion on short-term the short short-term rental bylaw development status and our next steps moving forward and I'm going to pass that over to Mr Rena thank you madam chair and good evening everyone uh as a background summary back in March of last year the planning board created a short-term rental working group consisted of six members um and the purpose was to discuss shortterm rentals in the town review and current regulations or rules and taking input from the community the last meeting of the working group was held back on August 27th um during which the working group had a discussion on the drafting of a general short-term rental bylaw uh that General bylaw was drafted by Town Council and presented to the select board as you all recall back on September 9th of 2024 the select boards um voted the articles that evening that meeting um and opted to indefinitely postpone that short-term rental General bylaw Madam chair select board uh placed this item on the agenda tonight at the request of uh a couple of the select board members wanting to bring it back um to the board uh what I'm doing right now is seeking Direction uh from the select board as to whether to proceed with the redrafting of a general bylaw to address short-term rentals perhaps pursuing a zoning bylaw or taking no immediate action at this time so that's really the purpose Madam chair at SL board members seeking the uh the board guidance and direction as to uh where you want to take this the next steps so to speak with regards to a short-term rental bylaw thank you Mr rsha comments from the board before we have a few people here that I would have invited to speak to this um any comments or questions from the board as to what our charge at this moment is Mr Brown what what I was hoping uh when we indefinitely postponed it back in the fall I was hoping that it was postponed in to have a larger conversation more engagement with the public and make sure everyone was aware of what was coming if anything is coming and I think that our uh bylaw is a really good start we didn't really get a chance to uh fully vet it and talk about it and my hope would be that we would hopefully form a uh select board appointed committee that would break this out and talk about it talk about what may be good what may be bad what might might need to change in a public setting where people have the opportunity to do uh to make comments and constructive comments and and the like and uh what I hope we could do tonight is each of us uh maybe make comments as to what we identify as concerns just to give us a starting point should we choose to form that committee that I'm hoping to do and uh we'll take comments from the public hopefully and that will help us get started with the next round of discussion so so I see it in in two ways do do we want to restrict or regulate short-term rentals or Andor do we start by enforcing what we have in place and so I I have a lot of questions I agree with you about formulating a committee that the select board appoints to to take another look at this um but what I would like to do unless any other board member has a comment I would like to um bring up the chair of the planning board M who started this to find out where they're at Miss Gone um very much uh want to hear from the the chair of the planning board I guess I would um agree with you that in terms of Direction and next steps I feel like this Board needs to align on what our goal here is um what I feel the the general bylaw that we um that came out of that working group uh does is essentially regulate um or or create a framework for ensuring that uh short-term rentals essentially are good neighbors right and enforcing good behavior in short-term rentals it does Less in the regard of regulating if we if we want to put limits on how many um and uh what role short-term rentals play in our community in terms of impacts on our housing stock and our economy and so I think we need to get clear on what is our goal is it just to ensure that there's good behavior in short-term rentals or are we actually trying to limit um in some way or or put some constraints on what role short-term rentals play in our our community I would agree and I would hope that if we were to put together a committee that that's would be a major part of of their work so may I call up the chair of the planning board Miss Charlotte Harris so I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity to come talk about this to see and I was so glad when Nancy called to say that you're moving forward on it so quickly more or less a promise was made at the last town meeting that although we didn't pass the regulation that had been drafted um we would get back to it very quickly and we are doing that so thank you very much I'm very pleased to see so many people turn out we didn't get a very good turnout on the public hearings that the planning board held and that was as I understand it the main reason that the the select board said we they would vote indefinite postponement because there wasn't enough input so um getting a committee going I'm in complete agreement on that making sure that we allow them in some fashion no problem with all of that is how do we move over forward but in anticipation there would be people here who are not completely conversent in all the issues involved on it I'd like to go back through a couple of those if you don't mind go right ahead okay great and I wrote them down just to be sure I don't forget um we got going on this cuz we're really worried about the supply of rental housing here in town and we knew anecdotally that short-term rentals were decreasing the amount of long-term rentals that were available but we felt we didn't have the numbers the exact information we were just at the beginning of learning about it one of the goals of the workforce uh that worked on this last spring was to get some of that data and to get a feel of what the public really wanted several people did come we had four meetings several people did come and testified the people who came were people who had been aggravated by short-term rentals in their neighborhood the people who were on the board represented the health what was the health commissioner and Doug Brown was there for the select board I was there two individuals that the uh real estate Community had selected from an informal group that meets regularly because the real estate people rely on this on short-term rental as part of their income so we knew that they would have to be involved and morea of course was helping us and listening to us there was some things that we didn't know at that time that we've learned since and I do want to talk about those the regulation that we proposed to town meeting when I looked at it again yesterday and today I thought you know that's really not that bad it was really taking care of the major issues noise trash parking uh control over it who's going to be responsible for this how are we going to do it and forcing a correct registration process the town actually has on the books a requirement to register all the rentals but because there's nothing on the books about short-term rentals they kind of haven't been included in that so they're not registered here they're registered by the state Massachusetts something on lodging register on on lodging and when I looked in December there were 1,574 short-term rentals in fouth people have been guessing oh that's the tip of an iceberg people don't actually know we don't really need to know an exact number to know that they're there and that they're growing one of the things that was animating the planning board was knowing that that industry it only started really as an industry in 2008 when Airbnb really started to take off because the internet was taking off and suddenly Airbnb is now one of dozens of platforms and real estate agents generally who used to be the rental people are still very involved making it part of part of their income so it's building all the time that industry now has grown so that there's a real estate industry that will commun range take care of all your registration problems do your laundry take care of the sheets the towels put in a little food if you want put the lock box on so when people get there they can get in the house they'll take care of everything it's really growing into huge industry and if you were to Google short-term rental now you'd see they're pushing a new frontier they're sing oh wow you know if you put amenities in like the other hotels swimming pools fire pits basketball courts you'll get more people you'll have a steadier income and that's what people are doing this for it's all about the money but while they're doing that they're subtracting from the value of the neighborhood because it's been shown that short-term rentals crowded a neighborhood lower the value of the pro of the property that's not a good thing for many of us who really went into residential housing because we wanted to live in a community of houses since we failed at the town meeting getting a regulation passed something that was already on the books but hadn't really come forcefully to our attention has now loomed up it turns out that um I'm going to tell you a story up in Windfield which is another water front Community there were short-term rentals and an individual who had a five-bedroom house was renting his house out and his neighbors didn't like it but they didn't do anything about it they hadn't really been annoyed enough to get active and then he rented it to someone who was holding a College reunion at his house cuz a lot of people rent somebody else's house to have their parties and make a mess at 100 people came to that one of them came with a gun and shot somebody dead that really was too much for the Neighbors so they took him to court and it went through Lan court and it made its way through to the Massachusetts uh Supreme Judicial Court I think it's called is that the right name yeah I think that's the right name and what they found was that it's against own that's a commercial Enterprise in a residential Zone and it's not allowed it's prohibited and they also made a uh finding that quite obviously the way most including FAS zoning is written unless something is specifically permitted it's not allowed so if you look through our zoning bylaws and you're looking for something that allows short-term rentals you could look under lodging you could look under commercial accommodations you could look under I think there's a house thing I've forgotten its correct name but you won't find short-term rentals anywhere they are not allowed yet in fact elmou boarding house Bo thank you thank you it's not a housing as board thank you Bob right the is there a fourth one I think that's it but it's not there it's just not there so anything the town decides to do now about short-term rentals it'll be the first time those words get on paper in Something official for the town trying to regulate it one issue and thinking about it that we need to think about when we do this again and have a committee is do we want to leave the zoning alone that's already determined because the court also said it could be an incidental use it could be an accessory use but they didn't Define that and you look through our definitions and you see well where did we Define that not in any way that would be really helpful now so there's wrong to be able to have a regulation that defines that without touching the prohibition and Zoning there's room for that but that's that's an issue we could consider when we think about an effective date when should this happen how should be involved the final thing I would like to say um of course I think our our little panel did a great job uh we were well supported by the planning department we took minutes uh we put a public notice out so even though it was a work for task force thing at least it was correctly run under open meeting laws but if it's a committee instead then it definitely will be and that would be a really good thing and I think that we ought I hope we we you add to the composition of the committee so it includes at least two kinds of homeowners a homeowner who really depends on short-term rental income and a homeowner who's really annoyed by it so that we get both ends and maybe somebody somewhere in the middle we need a broader committee when we go forward and I hope I get to serve on it thank you thank you Mr BR thank you Charlotte I I don't think we're going to figure out all the details tonight but just to get the uh committee rolling I think I think would be a good goal and I do agree with you that leaving the existing zoning in place would probably be beneficial because we can just do the uh license and then if people are not in compliance with the license the zoning is there to uh refer back to I I'd like to ask Town Council to speak to that Court decision and how it applies to fman it doesn't have any applicability to fouth the the conclusion of the Court um was that in Linfield interpreting the lynfield zoning code that um it was a fair interpretation that Lindfield wanted to prohibit short-term rentals in in residential areas um those very particular facts are limited to the the lynfield zoning code they don't have a specific application to the fouth zoning code you really have to look at it on its own separate and apart I can't say as we sit here today whether or not um the styler case that particular conclusion in the styler case would have any translation to the fouth zoning code it certainly the styler case certainly did not conclude that short-term rentals are banned in residential neighborhoods that is not the right conclusion from that case what it did say is that communities have a lot of leeway in being able to formulate their own interpretation of their own zoning codes when it comes to short-term rentals Falmouth can um that does have the ability to um it has choices right now where we're on the precipice of looking at this again um there may be room in the zoning code to um um look at where short-term rentals want to be located or if there is a desire to ban them in certain areas I don't think that I would recommend that uh my recommendation has and always and continues to be that the a general bylaw is the way to go here um from everything that was taken from the working group um and I I just don't think that the styler case should have any role here when we're talking about this going forward thank you Mr Brown and then Mr Mcall goe Mr Brown well I I was just going to say it it just gives us something food for thought as we to build our own I mean there a lot of people who depend on the income the town appreciates the income I mean was almost $2 million for the town last year I think in shortterm Ral is that right I think so okay I I might be wrong but anyway it's important to a lot of folks uh yes chairman and uh SL board member Brown that that that number is relatively accurate I don't have the exact number in front of me but we did pull that number from uh staff and that's pretty close and it also goes to um Miss Harris's com comment that we need people from both sides of that aisle on the committee um I'm going to go to Mr mcell and then first first of all thank you Council for clarifying that because I had the same feeling as regards the effect of the styler on on on our code uh um on our situation um You' be very um well well educated to Google there was also a case in Nantucket uh and that Nantucket case talks about accessory use but what's really interesting if you Google the history of the past six months or so in Nantucket I think there have been a couple of special Town meetings and what I found very interesting in reading through the various articles about their town meeting is there are a number of different ideas floating around as ways to go after the uh you know the the U short-term rental issue uh some different uh you know uh different compromises and different ways of thinking about going after it so it's educational to to to Google and see what uh what Nantucket has been talking about not that it's applicable to us we're way different Community than than antar is but it it gives you some ideas of some of the ways that you can go about regulating short-term rental so thank you thank you Mr mcell Miss Goldstone well I guess I I had one question uh for Town manager Rena the $2 million can you just clarify what that what that means is that tax tax revenue to the town what what that's uh that's my understanding it's uh we we asked the uh uh Town accountant I believe ran the information provided that report I believe it's revenues revenues uh received impact Fe I can share a little bit about that it's uh the total tax fouth assesses on a short-term rental is 13.6% that includes a 3% Community impact fee which is something we added last year so we are at the maximum amount of tax that we can apply to that under the current law and that's where the revenue comes from thank you Mr Brown do we have our chair of the board of Health here Mr Kroger would you like to add to this conversation sir uh I don't have a lot to add we we had a meeting a discussion in one of our meetings a few months ago um because we we learned uh what the the draft text was indicating that the health department would um would run this program essentially and including enforcement and tracking and and that sort of thing um there was General sense that we didn't vote anything there's a general sense that uh of of support for for um for the measure but um we didn't see anything in the health code that indicated that it's a health issue that the health department should manage um the health department does manage um the housing code and it does that already and um and the health agent is um he's just told me that he's um more actively pursuing uh fees from short-term rental rentals um so in addition to not seeing what what in the in the health code indicated that it should be the health department that would that would manage the program it seemed that it could be a quite large effort um as as it was described might require significant additional staff or staff time and so we we sent a a note back to the select board just to indicate those those perceptions thank you Town Council could you clarify the statutory responsibilities of the health department with short-term rentals sure um just in general as to as to housing um Boards of health and health departments across the Commonwealth are charged with enforcing ing the sanitary code which is the housing code that the chair just spoke about it um deals with the um health safety and the cleanliness of any rental unit and short-term rentals fall within that so putting short-term rentals within the purview generally speaking of the Board of Health and more specifically with the with the town's Health Department with the health agents the full-time daily staff it really makes sense considering the this Board of Health is statutorily um a the jurisdiction of Housing and rental units has been conferred upon the Board of Health by the legislature thank you go ahead Mr Brown so I'd like to just share an example in uh Provincetown which is one of the towns that we used as a model for our uh bylaw they have a a contractor who does the majority of the work including in expecting the properties um bringing them into compliance for smoke detectors they they help the residents if they need it and residents can help themselves you can go on like um on your camera on your phone with a video camera and walk through the house and show where the smoke detectors are if you're a person that wants to do those things yourself uh for the health and safety part of it a lot of it can be done by the contractor under the administration of say for instance Province toown uses the assistant Town manager to to monitor the the contractor we'd have to decide who that would be if if Mr Johnson St or somebody else might be available to work with the vendor uh I don't see it as a heavy lift for the health agent other than if during the course of the management of the property there turns out to be some sort of health issue then it might get referred to the health agent I would suspect thank you Mr Brown I think it yeah I think that makes sense I just um I guess the only other comment I would have is it would be in substantial additional number of inspections I think um and um and then there's the question of chasing down the ones that are not um registering um which which as has been discussed can be done hired uh as a contracting company to to do that right well they they can help with the inspections and all the compliance and if the people are not in compliance with the vendor they don't get the license and if you don't have the license just for instance with the uh Airbnb if you don't have your Department of Revenue certificate filled out you don't get online so people can do them you know word of mouth but that'll be a small amount of business compared to the online uh right do did you look at costs of that Contracting that service out no but I understand that the town manager's office has been looking into it so I'd be curious as to what that cost would be that would maybe have to come out of the revenue that we're receiving pH might be a way to balance it right Miss gone yeah a couple of thoughts I mean what I'm hearing in terms of the role of the Board of Health is that it doesn't really matter if it's a long-term rental or a short-term rental rental units need to be safe and sanitary for whoever's there and that would be the role of the the Board of Health or the you know the the um the health agent as it is for for other rentals right I think I keep coming back to this bigger issue of yes we need to ensure that short-term rentals are good neighbors that they are safe and sanitary that they're not causing undue noise um but we're still not necessarily addressing that bigger issue of whether and how we limit the number of short-term rentals or provide incentives for um home owners to use their the the properties that property owners um to use those as long-term rentals as opposed to short-term rentals and I think both need to be addressed but I I just want to make sure that we do especially if we're forming a committee to move this forward that that piece of thinking about how many we want and how wec excuse me um how we how we shape the impact um of short-term rentals specifically on our housing market and the availability of long-term rentals and I think that would be part of a mission statement that I think this board would need to develop for this committee I agree with you that we can't lose sight of the big picture while we're working on the details Mr Brown I would suggest that that would be a separate program really that would be like the fail indeed where you incentivize yearound ownership I know I might complicate it to try to incorporate that into this I think guidelines and and good management practices for short-term rentals is a good start and the the separate initiative to get the uh the home ownership and the year round units I think could be addressed in a separate way but that's something could be part of the discussion go ahead so can I ask I mean with the the regulations that we currently have in place is something additional needed or is it simply enforcing what we have if what we're talking about is having all rentals short-term and long-term registered with the town inspected complying with noise bylaws like those are all things that are expected of any rental do we actually need something specific to short-term rentals to accomplish that well they're not really actually they don't come out and inspect every rental you just register your rental so they know where they are the only time they come out and inspect is if there's a a tenant that complains that says I've got a moldy ceiling I'm in to unhealthy unsafe space then they go out and inspect any other comments Dr Kroger no I think uh I think the health agent could probably say more but I think that's all from the board okay thank thank you Mr McAn is there anything you'd like to add well I can add a lot I can add a lot to this um essentially the registration is now passive for the last since 1975 it's just been people register or they don't um this year we've taken an active role by taking the tax list and then taking that list and trying to generate a mailing from that to let people know that there's a rental B um in terms of the health department I'm not we're not afraid of the work um the board um said their decision if it's something that everybody wants the health department to pursue we certainly can there's going to be some staffing obviously that you're going to need to manage whatever that number ends up being 2,000 1,000 whatever it happens to be so we'll we're definitely going to have it will definitely be an increase in work um and we just need direction and we're not experts on parking plans we're not NE like some of the things that came out were were health and we already have the housing code for all that stuff smoke detectors carbon monoxide the temperature of the water coming out of the faucets already codified in the in Chapter 2 so um whatever comes out of the um whatever comes out of this will certainly if it's in the health department do what we need to do to get it comply to get it to comply IED with so essentially what we're trying to do this year because we still have the 1975 bylaw and we still have a rental registration is we're actively trying to get them and that's just what we're doing now and if there's a whatever comes up in the future we'll definitely if you put it under the Health Department's purview we'll definitely tackle it so thank you it's a huge step to go after the the short so far it's been 10 days yeah so 10 days so far I've had one staff member working on that 1588 list to find the addresses cuz they don't have the mailing addresses interestingly enough we've only found four units uh four entities that own three units we found 22 that own two and we found none that own more than three so far by looking at interesting that's good St just by looking at looking at a common mailing address would probably be the best way to find out they could have multiple trusts but they might be in this same mailing address we look at the tax bill we've gone so essentially what you doing is going to the Assessors for each one each address that we have on the list and so we're going to generate more of that and I will send out a letter once we're done we're going to have a a mailing party if anybody wants to show up and help us mail the 1500 out um and we're going to go from there and so we'll make the system better um and then when the bylaw comes in or if it's a Board of Health whatever happens I mean a bylaw would be the way to do it or or something through zoning we'll certainly do what we need to do to get people to comply thank you and thank you for those those numbers because that of numbers flying around out there yeah it doesn't seem like there's a lot of like entities that own 5 10 15 20 we haven't found one yet so great thank you Mr Crane would you like to come up Madam chair thanks Tom crane appr Precinct one toown meeting member Juniper Point Road excuse me for my scratchy voice um clearing my throat today it's that time of year I think um I've uh submitted extensive written comments to all of you and so I'm just going to try to be brief in my verbal comments and I'll of course answer any uh questions um I thought a starting point is uh and the the um board members have touched on this but what's the current status what is currently regulated I think it's important uh my analysis is that we actually have a zoning bylaw that I think is very helpful that regulates owner occupied rentals including short-term rentals I think it's very clear when you read that that uh bylaw that only those arrangements are legal and all others are illegal I think you look at the regulatory framework when a town regulates in a certain area specifically it it's really hard to argue others are permitted Town Council did I think a great job in the analysis of the styler case and I appreciate or focus on the specific facts but I slightly disagree in that you know I think the reasoning of the Supreme Judicial Court um could be applicable here and that is you know they basically found that short-term rentals in a residential area is a commercial use and I don't have any difficulty find and that's completely consistent with my analysis of the existing zoning bylaw and why is that important I think it's important as we move forward in a bylaw I think it's important to have a bylaw but we're not going to be restricting any um existing legal rights and you know people we've heard a few comments of board members you know they're depending on income I understand that but you know if you're depending on income you're not legally entitled to I I view that in a different lens and I think the Committees and by the way I think that'll be very important in any potential upcoming litigation if we pass it by a law someone's agreed that's going to be a very important point and also you know I think throughout the fall I heard some comments that maybe we should grandfather existing uses and given the frame framework that existing uses are not allowed I I just think that's an exceptionally weak argument so that's the framework I think you know I have going forward um I think the new committee um hopefully will apply just a few quick comments I have on the existing draft you I agree the uh working group did a great job and by and large it's excellent but a few quick points one I think there is really no rational basis to prohibit corporate ownership corporations can and their shareholders can be treated in the same manner as any other forms of ownership um also I think the committee didn't um consider other ways to approach the problem it sort of treats all short-term rentals as one kind of activity and I think um as my comments later indicate I think it'd be more constructive for the committee to look at the relationship that the pro the property owner has with that property and I can touch on that later um the current draft prohibits uh an owner to have uh no more than one short-term rental property I think that you know for example I think probably is a very reasonable restriction um if you have an investor uh only situation but I think maybe a less U restrictive approach could be be used in other kinds of ownership Arrangements um draft doesn't uh place any restriction on the number of owners of a short-term rental property uh for example in an LLC I think that's something that could be looked at more also in section five there's an odd prohibition on fractional ownership and I just I just don't understand that it doesn't make any sense to me and you know just one example of how it sort of doesn't really work out so if you have like two family members just say two brothers uh owning a property together and providing a short-term rental that would be prohibited as a fractional ownership but somehow if they form an LLC that's okay it's not a fractional ownership so I think that should be sort of thought through a bit but I don't think the fractional ownership provision really makes uh much sense so just uh in concluding um you know looking forward uh first of all I'm I'm really pleased the committee seems to be going in the direction of forming a new committee um I just point out I think there's some urgency in my mind I would really like the work on the um draft from last fall to be completed in time to present a fall town meeting um you know a fall town meeting there's some indication that maybe it come back at Springtown meeting well that's clearly passed but you know please let's get it done for fall town meeting um just very briefly um you know I do think there's three categories I've thought up uh where the relationship with a property is actually very different I have a chart at the end I'm not going to spend any time on it um but one is just um where the owner um um uses the vacation it really is vacation property it's sort of the traditional model people wanted to be on the cape they're here for 3 weeks in the summer and they rent it the rest of the time um through a short-term rental you know that to me is a pretty traditional model and maybe with some thinking we can sort of look at how to treat them maybe a little bit differently the other we've talked about the community impact fee Community impact fee applies as I think I this right when you have a professional um uh rental agent well I think there's still people who manage the property uh I I don't think that's accurate I think it's just applied across all we tax them all the extra 3% because we recognize there is an impact to the community I don't think there's individual okay well um I I uh defer to selectman Brown on that but in any case there's still I think a lot of short-term rental properties where the owner manages the property and um I think if we look at those kinds of ownership Arrangements where the owner really is in more contact with the property maybe we can be thoughtful about um dealing with them a little bit differently and the final um category I think is what people have been focusing on more where I do think we want to have a targeted approach and that is where the investor the the property owner has no contact with the property it's really an investment only deal and I think that's really where we want to focus our energies and Target the most restrictive approach um so I appreciate happy answer any questions but thank you thank you any questions no but I think we'll be it's good good stuff to have upcoming committee and to have these comments for the committee thank you thank you sir anyone would anyone from the public like to make a comment before we move on this yes I do see you Mr ran and while my client's coming up I just want to comment that uh the two realter who did help on the working group have indicated a willingness to serve again if needed they just couldn't be here tonight so that's why we're not hearing from them and if the board moves forward with a decision to form the committee I believe that we would put it out there like the formation for any other committee so they would know to apply yes thank you Elizabeth Klein Precinct six um so I've been oh sorry Mr Crane maybe it was um folks on the select board know that I have been involved I attended the meetings that were run by Miss Harrison the working group as a citizen and helped tried to help provide information um that I thought would be useful to the process and so I'm here again I've been continuing to to dig into the issue since the November town meeting and I just wanted to give you some examples of the types of people I've been talking to so I've been making an effort to connect with Town officials in our neighboring communities um and on the phone they are kind of wondering who I am um and why I'm calling them and I I explain um so for example I've been in contact with the Tisbury planning board the Tisbury Building Commissioner the sandwich director of Community Development I've had meetings with multiple Realtors who manage a large swath of short-term rentals all in the efforts to try and find a sustainable solution to our housing issue and um for example I've learned about how the sandwich um town is funding a part-time position to alleviate the extra workload that comes with actually going and inspecting rentals um to the health agents point that this would increase their demand um there was an article in last week's Enterprise the sandwich Enterprise um to that point um and um the Tisbury um government for example decided to house this under their building commission instead of of their health department um for a variety of reasons um and I just wanted to to generalize I I have like lots of notes that I'm happy to share but I I recognize we have limited time this evening um that having these conversations with these um peers of ours um has been really interesting and provided some fruitful ideas that I think could help improve the bylaw now to select board member goldstone's Point um do we need an additional bylaw and I I would argue that yes we do because the current bylaw doesn't tackle things like having someone available to contact 24 hours a day which was something that was mentioned in the draft bylaw that went to town meeting so I would argue that the short-term rental the nature of a short-term rental is not adequately addressed by the um rules that we have right now um and so again I'm happy to provide these notes at another time and I Echo um Mr Crane's sentiment that it would be really good to move this forward because I think that what could happen is that some individuals in town who are feeling frustrated by um the lack of forward movement might attempt to put together for example a um a special bylaw and submit that as a petitioner article and I don't know if there's enough support in town for a petitioner petitioner article for that to pass and for it to become a bylaw that maybe we're not ultimately happy with so I would just encourage the select board and urge that we um keep moving forward so that we can come up with something that will address the needs of the town thank you Miss gostone yes a question for you miss kleinet first of all thank you um for all the the time and effort um that you've put into this and I know that you are also um passionate about the issue of ensuring that we have um housing available um for those who work in our community um the sorts of things that you were mentioning right whether it again whether it's under health or building um whether there's somebody available 24 hours um to respond all important things still doesn't address the impact of short-term rentals on our housing stock and I'm curious if there are takeaways that you've learned from your conversations or or ideas you've come to in this this process about how we achieve that goal yeah um so I think that um most of the communities that I've talked to the the number per owner has been two um Tisbury is a lot stricter they're one and then they have lots of rules about um the owner has to live in it for so many days of the year and it can only be rented for so many days of the year but in my conversation with the Tisbury Building Commissioner they're in a much more extreme version of the situation than we're in um hence the stricter regulations um they had an interesting component in their bylaw that addressed a timing issue that I know was a concern at the November town meeting so they have an special exemption in place um because their rules went into effect really recently and will apply for this summer so their bylaw actually has something written in that rentals um booked before and I forget right now the exact date but basically rentals booked before these rules were in effect are not subject to these rules and that will expire at the end of this summer season but that was something that was interesting that um we hadn't it hadn't come up in the planning board working groups um discussions I thought that was an interesting approach um and in my conversations with um the Realtors around town um there's this sense that the bookings are generally down for short-term rentals this coming season that um there was a really big swell um covid and then a couple of years past Co when people were not able to travel in the way that they had in the past now that um one realtor used their phrase that the bubble feels like it's burst and so then my mind goes to kind of where you were going select bird Goldstone um that now people are considering is it sustainable for them to continue to own this property that they got to essentially rent short-term as an investment but if they're not getting enough bookings does it is it worth it to save and so um I think we need to think about that um in addition to potentially adding a cap per owner um how can we incentivize year round renting um for some of these property owners who are now struggling to make it to make their balanc budget uh to um manage their rental great thank you thanks Mr AMT Madame chairman thank you and members of the um board thank you um I'm Bob AMT I've practiced zoning law in fouth for over 50 years For Better or For Worse um and I've thought a lot for many years about short-term rentals I have some thoughts they are just my some thoughts uh they are um an incomplete set of options and they don't take into account the financial issues of how much taxes the town uh gets um query whether the town's funding should really Drive zoning issues um and they don't really take into account the politics of dealing with the fact that there are apparently 1574 or more um um homes being used um in a particular way but I have a bunch of thoughts first the phoning bylaw has for decades decades and decades defined Comm commercial accommodations as quote premises for rental to transient guests including boarding lodging or tourist home motel hotel or Inn those who rent by the week or two for a weekend or just a day are most certainly transient guests and the rental of all or a portion of a dwelling to Trent guests is commercial accommodations while the bylaw zoning bylaw allows a permitted accessory use in the Agricultural and residential districts of the taking of borders four or fewer borders in a single family dwelling with a resident on the premises in all other cases commercial accommodations under our zoning bylaw now requires a special permit from the zoning Board of appeals many many apparently 1574 or more property owners have operated commercial accommodations without obtaining a special permit in fact I'm not aware of any special permit obtained from the zoning board of appeals for uh a short-term rental by somebody uh wanting to rent their house the town simply hasn't enforced the zoning bylaw with respect to these commercial accommodations and maybe for good reason maybe it's too big a job while data may be lacking the number of dwellings used as commercial accommodations for even a portion of the Year probably has an impact perhaps a significant impact on the availability of dwellings that residents can rent to live in and the use of dwellings as commercial accommodations is probably a factor in increasing the cost of housing in Falmouth short-term rentals may help non-residents afford to own second homes how many yearound residents are using their own homes for short-term rentals I don't know the answer to that the Massachusetts courts have held as has been discussed that short-term rentals are a business use not a residential use the 2021 case which has been discussed its Styler versus zoning board of appeals of lynfield the Supreme Judicial Court said and I quote short-term rental use of a single family home is inconsistent with single resident zoning purposes namely preserving the residential character of the neighborhood and developing a sense of community and a shared commitment to the common good of the community the SJC further noted that short-term r rentals unlike other commercial accommodations have renters with exclusive use of the premises without the owner or a manager remaining on the premises now of course the town can allow short-term rentals the fact that the SJC says that they're not a residential use doesn't mean that the town couldn't by its zoning bylaw allow the use now what do we do here are some suggestions just perhaps consider an amnesty for existing short-term rentals but I'll come back to that but prohibit new short-term rentals altogether or only allowing them by a special permit with criteria that aim to protect neighbors and Community interests including customary special permit considerations which include the impact of the project on the adequacy of the supply of affordable housing with the zba having to take into account whether the proposed short-term rental will have adverse effects that overbalance whatever beneficial effects there may be on either the neighborhood of the town from allowing the short-term rental a special permit requirement provides notice to neighbors and an opportunity to raise concerns object and even appeal a special permit can be granted for a number of years giving the town and neighbors an opportunity to review the impact and create an incentive for the owner to avoid adverse impacts on the neighborhood the zba might consider whether a dwelling is mostly occupied by the owner of or a long-term tenant and I realized that getting a special permit can be burdensome it's expensive but do we want to allow short-term rentals by right by contrast the recent state law allows accessory dwelling units by right in most cases but specifically precludes their use for short-term rentals now regarding a potential amnesty for existing short-term rentals with some proof that they've existed as of a certain date perhaps been used in 2025 or earlier existing short-term rentals would be required to register within perhaps a year of the town meeting approving an amnesty bylaw or protection would be lost and a special permit then would be required registration would require inspection for safety maybe that's unnecessary as has been discussed the number of bedrooms septic capacity contact information all of the information that um is has been provided in the proposed bylaw to date amnesty might be for the special permit of current ownership only if that's allowable I've got some question about whether it is under the zoning act or can be for a term of years which is allowed when there's a change of ownership a special permit could be required perhaps similar amnesty Provisions have been part of our zoning bylaw before we have an amnesty provision in our zoning bylaw that was put into effect with regard to Illegal Apartments an exception might be made for short-term rentals of not more than a limited period of time per year I note that the Internal Revenue code allows home home owners to rent a residence for 14 days per year without needing to report the rental income so we're now we're talking about people who this is their home they live in it but for short periods of time in the year they rent special permit criteria might require the zoning board of appeals to consider the cumulative effect of allowing more than one short-term rental in any given neighborhood just as a bylaw already provides our zoning bylaw already provides that consideration for homebased service businesses there are probably aund more suggestions and options we could think about um but uh I offer those thank you is there anyone else who would like to speak before we take this for the board yes so I'm gonna uh rep oh Joan Letterman Precinct one I live on Leslie Street and I have a short-term rental uh in my home I always live in my home so I am super careful and also very optimistic about the good outcomes that can happen and I want to suggest how I think I've attracted those good outcomes probably uh well 130 at least maybe 150 uh short-term rentals in since 2018 uh maybe half possibly a little bit more are whoie and MBL uh summer scientists or uh posts that are coming to stay uh everyone always has a connection and I am tyrannical about how I represent the place and I've thought about my neighbors first I know and I represent where the parking spaces are I meet everybody I don't share the whole house it's clearly delineated all the photographs are absolutely clear so the expectations are are clear when people come people try to bend the rules before they come I don't give them that opportunity I go uhuh that it was written there clear as day you signed a contract blah blah so I just wanted to tip the scale the other way in how it can work I've never had one complaint from my neighbor and another perspective actually is that I have a neighbor behind me who it lives in Pennsylvania and operates his house as an Airbnb and what I can say about that is that he is super responsive because he cares and so I would hope that in the um committee going forward that it takes into account the good outcomes that are possible and what helps contribute to those and defining the use of the property up front you know like no parties or parties are fine you know so um that's it thank you for your comments is there anyone who would like to speak before I take this back to the board okay it's time for the board to come up with direction for our town manager Mr Brown did you have a suggestion I would just reiterate my previous suggestion that we form a select board appointed Committee of I would say at least seven people I don't remember if we had five on the first six so maybe it would be seven on this one if that seems reasonable to the rest of the board I would agree with that and I think we're not taking a vote but we are looking for consensus to give to the town manager moving forward Mr SC do you have a comment um no other than u i I think one of the things that we need to make sure of this committee is that it uh that it holds meetings or when it does hold meetings open to the public and all meetings will be open to the public that it stagger the timing of those meetings so that they are attract the widest part of the town as possible people so evenings during the day earlier in the day for certain people so so that we could get a broad uh response from uh from the community I think that's a good idea and I think that the board while we're moving this forward needs to really think a little bit more about parameters that we want to set for this committee moving forward because it will be a select board appointed committee it'll be an official committee um and then we'll we'll need to take a look at what the mission statement is and what the parameters are but but I I I do think and I agree with what's what's been said here before that I think I think it is imperative that that committee be um you know formed with a view towards bringing something to the November Town Town town meeting and I think uh that's that's a critical part of go going forward and I believe that that is M Harris's goal as well to make sure that where are you oh okay you moved she was giving Bob some she was giving Bob some hints oh boy that's not good okay so moving it and and asking this committee to have it ready for the November town meeting correct that was your goal as well yeah okay Miss Goldstone beyond that I would I would like to um I think we want completely agree I think we want to make it explicit that the goal is um barring extenuating circumstances um to have whatever the measures are or might be ready for November town meeting and I would like there to be regular updates back to um the select board in the interim um as that's proceeding I think the the task force I think did did an incredible job with the work it did but one of the issues we had was trying to get something for November town meeting and um and nobody else seeing it until we were right up against that deadline I think that one of the members of that board I think it would be wise it's just a suggestion it should be a select board member who could them report back um I I also yeah just want to uh make sure that in the mission for this uh committee that we ensure that um there are a few very specific issues that are addressed upfront and that we have alignment on right and that's this um issue of whether short-term rental is a commercial use um and uh how whether and how we limit that use as well as how we regulate that use to ensure good behavior and what I would ask is that if the board has suggestions very specific um suggestions I would ask that you get them to the town manager so that as he takes a run at crafting a mission statement he can take all these pieces into account and bring that mission statement back to the board for a vote um you know I I sitting here listening to everyone I mean I think most people who know me know I'm a big advocate for housing in this town and the need for affordable housing that being said I think the the struggle here is is what is it we're actually want to accomplish going forward is it to regulate U the short-term rentals so that there's no issues with respect to Neighborhood problems sanitary problems noise and all of that or or is it and and I'm still in my own mind struggling for the connection between regulating shortterm rentals and actually being able to solve the housing issues that that we have this town and I think that's something that the committee will need to struggle with to to see uh because you know if you force somebody to sell their you know to sell their house because they can't short-term rental it you know they're going to sell that house for a lot of money and I'm not sure that that's going to solve the affordable housing issue that that we have here so I think you know I don't have the answer but I think that's something that the committee is going to need to struggle with is what are we actually trying to accomplish and you know I don't think we want to get over our skis either as far as it goes so thank you thank you so moving forward I'm going to ask that we have consensus to move forward to create a committee to ask the town manager to start to look at a mission statement select board members will send ideas and suggestions for that mission statement both broad brush and specific and then we will advertise for the committee does that make sense yes thank you and sooner read it or later because by to make the November town meeting I'd like to bring this back perhaps the second meeting in February um this draft Mission charge yes so get your comments and your suggestions for the mission statement to the town manager that would be really helpful okay great thank you all very much okay we are going to move forward and overview and discussion of Public Works snow and ice control procedural manual and policy and Mr mcconnery put the timer on good evening Peter mcconn director of Public Works um it's been approximately 10 years since uh Public Works has uh come forth to the uh uh select board and presented our update did um snow and ice procedural manual um the last time we did it was in 2015 so we thought it would be appropriate to have it done at this point over the last several years we've been somewhat lucky that we haven't been having a lot of heavy uh snow storms but we're do usually about every 3 or four years we get a pretty good storm so um our manual is a living document it requires update updating to reflect all the the New Roads that are put in town our new equipment that um that we have um that our different plow roots and our different um contractors and our different um vendor roots that we have for our contractors the plow so it's a living document that we review every year it also has contractor um information as faring as far as hiring contractors payment to contractors um what we're looking for for requirements for contract of vehicles so the manual is the uh was uh implemented in 2009 it was brought to the select board and it was endorsed and and um adopted in 2009 in 2015 the manual was presented to the select board again and that was following a multi-week snow pattern pattern um incidentally yesterday and today was is actually the 10year anniversary when um the snow really started falling in 2015 and uh we had about 6 to 8 weeks of snowstorm that uh led us to about 42 48 Ines of snow so we were out for every week we were getting another additional 6 8 in of snow for or 9 in of snow for six or eight weeks so that was quite a task for us so there were some complaints that did come into the um Town manager's office and public works because of the amount of snow um and our capabilities so um we presented back then in 2019 Public Works did a manual update to reflect just New Roads and additional routes that we had installed that we had implemented and then in 2005 U 2025 is now so we just wanted to go through the additions of the roadways and also we have some procedural changes that we wanted to uh to bring to the board we are not requesting a vote it's just uh it's the the uh manual has already been adopted it's just an update to the um to the manual if there is some feedback we'll gladly take that back but um as we go through this manual this manual has been put together over 15 years and if you once you change something small in the manual it can lead to bigger items in the and so we just want to be careful with that but we'll be glad to take feedback back um and and and be able to review it so I think in your selectboard packets I sent you the front end to our uh our manual um our manual is very large when you put all our main roots and all our contractor Roots it's very very large so we have to really condense condense it down so we just gave you the front end so I'm just going to go through some of the general information that we have on our front end our general statement the biggest thing out of our general statement we want to say that black asphalt and dry Road roadways it's not reasonably possible during winter storms it's not the Department's mission to create be roads throughout the town we do the best we can but the size of the town and and um between the different weather pattern that we have in different sections of town um it becomes very challenging for us to be able to get black roads we get them as fast as as fast as we can but it's not reasonable uh expectations to have roadways uh down to to Black to Black roadways to Black um implementation of it basically under the implementation is just the highway department is the lead agency tonight we got Jim gr James Grady he was he is a Highway superintendent I'm giving you the overview if there's any detailed questions that you want to know from uh the actual on the ground what we do and how it how the winter storms progress and how we U manage it in our office Jim would be glad to answer it for you um so that's the big thing about the implementation the responsibilities so the department is responsible for approximately 230 miles of town roads as well as 185 miles of I put in red vetted and approved private roads that are open to the public and I will explain that in a minute but the way we always said to this is we have many pieces of equipment in town that are moving around and many many operators many employees but if a person started in fouth and dropped their plow and got on the highway and went over the bridge and got on Route 95 and drove all the way down to Florida and got to the state line and turned around and came back that's about a first pass for for public works when you look at the amount of passes that we do on each roadway um as an example a route like 151 we drive a t trucks in tandem that's 6 to eight passes just to get one clear of a road on on 151 from 28a all the way over to the mashby line and we also have many other roads that are uh just as wide so it's not a one plow goes down the road they're driving in Tandem and they're going back and forth um pretty much throughout the storm so in addition to uh the public roads and the private roads we also have you can see here 37 other facilities that we also take care of in town um and of course it's depending on the Storm when the storm hits if it's weekends if it's night um if there schools or if school's going to be on or school's going to be called it all um it all has a um a uh a decision not a decision making it all has a factor and how we move forward so the way we set up is we go through storm level classifications so for a level one storm Which is less than 3 in that's a call in from all our our our our um employees so it's not it's not our our contractors that come in it's our employees they go out and they pre-treat the roadways and then there's possibly plowing um done depending on what the level of events going to be if it's going to if the temperatures are going to drop if uh we're getting additional snow if uh depending on on um the weather predictions so a level one event is less than 3 in we do all the main roads and we do all the secondary roads on a level two event from 3 in to 12 in same thing all of our that the level one is the highway department level two is all of Public Works comes in and we also call in our contractors level three is uh 12 in or more or blizzard conditions and that's everything that we do in level two it's plowing it's mobilizing all the resources we enact power parking B parking bands and also um the sidewalks uh and everything else gets done in town throughout sidewalks is not a priority for us we get to sidewalks once we done once we're done with our roots and we have um um staff available to go out and do sidewalks so plow rout priorities once again when we do our uh priorities the priority one is with the main main arteries of the town they given the first priority and it's because of emergency vehicle access and priority may be extended to bus routes during early dismissals and then returning to priorities once completed priority two is roads which are secondary roadways that connect to the main roadways and residential areas that are in the hill areas we found out over the years that we go out and do a level one event or a level two but a level one event more often and then we close up for the evening and we're getting call from the police and we're getting calls from from Neighbors that it's either the hills and it's salt it's icing up and we haven't we have to go back out so we end up initiating going back out again so sometimes during our priority events uh Priority One events we will go out and and put salt on some of the Hill roads that we know that they usually uh become a problem for us priority three roads are all the other local roads which res which are residential areas and they're the last areas to be completed sometimes you might hear you know I haven't seen a truck or a truck came by and I haven't seen him in six hours or five hours I know I'm up in a shumit valley and I know that that plow driver route has all of 151 all of B me all of aumet Valley and he comes down through to the mashby line so you might not see him for several hours but he's constantly out there plowing and going back to the shop and and um getting a Reload of um salt this slide I wanted to spend a couple of minutes on uh the first part of is a private Road policy we've always had a private road policy except in the past we've always said that private roads are done as um done um to for the town of fouth to be able to access for emergency vehicles but um it wasn't a requirement for the for the town of fouth to do that however what had happened this year um is we came across a uh town meeting vote that happened in 1962 was actually question one of 1962 that actually dealt with private roads so the town accepted the provisions of section 6 C of chapter 40 of the general law Mass general laws that states that the uh cities and towns can appropriate money for the removal of snow and ice from private roads therein open to the public so the open to the public is a thing that's that I wanted to spend some U amended on also this does not include common driveways or condominium developments so we have we said 182 Mi of um private roads so we have some private roads that we can commend and we can plow we have some private roads that have a sign on the front that says Private Road keep out Private Road no entry so that to us that's not that's not open to the public we have been going in there and doing it but it's not open to the public we also have um residential communities that have uh God God Shacks or God houses that's another item that um for us to be able to get in there as public works we can go in to plow that and we can get through the by the god Shack but that is also a road that's not open to the public the third one that can be a concern to us is gated communities and we have several of them in town if Public Works is going to a gated community and we can't get in then we we have too many other things going on we're not going to wait around for someone to open the gate or someone to give us a fob or some I'll try to make phone calls what we're looking to do is is uh we need to keep on the roads and keep the other keep all the roads clear as much as we can so if we drive by a gated community and the Gated Community the the gates this is what we're looking to to to to um make a decision on but if the gated communities that the gates are not open we're going to drive by that gated community um that's one option another option is the gates remain open for winter months are the other option of the gates are removed because once again um it's not in u it's not with what the town approved with the question one of 1962 so I already had mentioned that the town will pretreat Hills and bus routes because in the past it's become problem problems with us and we usually get called back in after everyone comes home to to to take care of that owners of private roads they're always free to engage their own plow service contractors if they would desire more expectations or expeditious service um that the town can provide this has always been in our policy this next one is uh is a concern for me too so owners owners of private roads are collectively responsible for ensuring that the PO proper maintenance of their own Road and the town will refuse or the town can refuse to provide plow services on any private road when the condition of the road becomes impassible or if the roadway becomes encroached with overgrown branches of Shrubbery so what happens is we'll go out to do a private road and there's many of them in many of them in town when you have a storm you have the heavy wet snow on the on the branches of these trees and they they start to cave in on the roadway sometimes they get more narrow than the driveway and when we put our trucks or the contractor puts their trucks down there we're breaking mirrors we're breaking uh side markers we're breaking um blinkers we're breaking uh antennas and we're really scratching up our trucks so this year is something that we want to create a um a no plow list that um for for public works it's something that other towns do Mash B does it sandwich does it but it's something that we want to imp Implement which would be um we would have a list of roadways and we would reach out the neighborhood associations um earlier in the year so we give them time to be able to uh take care of the uh um what we're asking them to take care of the imperfections but that's something we really want to have implemented on our side because we're putting a lot of time and effort into our trucks and we're breaking a lot we have a lot of cost in our trucks and we're breaking some of these mirrors a typical 10 wheeler today for our for uh with a sander and a plow in the front I believe today is around 450,000 so uh if we're out on private roads and with we're breaking equipment on it it's um it becomes costly and this item on sidewalks this is a new item we've always had sidewalk plow Maps but this is a new item because we didn't have it listed in the front end so the sidewalk clearing is focused on Main connectivity roadways including Main Street downtown area the schools and primary roadways Public Works does not have the Staffing Resources or equipment to clear all sidewalks in town sidewalks fall under priority two and they commence once the main roadways and second roadways are open and staff becomes available staff um sidewalks included are under the um appendix D of the policy so um they're in the back of the book under the plow map roots that we do have so this is pretty much my last slide this is a typical plow map that we have so we basically took the town of fouth map that has five different Villages and we broke it up into we it pretty much holds on to the Villages but some of these um plow roots are very very large so we ended up breaking them up so we have nine plow Roots nine plain main plow Roots where when we have a level one event our highway department will come in and they'll jump in the larger trucks and they'll be able to go out and salt and do the main routes from Woods Hole to East Falmouth to North Falmouth um we have once and once that's completed we go into a level to event we have 53 contractor routes so each one of those um main routes are broken up to 53 smaller routs um for the contractors so what happens is when we have a level two event contractors come in we sign them in we give them a plow M map and they go out it could be wherever it is in town and they go out and they plow when they complete it they come back in and then we give them another map and that usually that continues from the beginning of the storm till the end and then we have eight sidewalk routes um it includes the downtown area the Schools main arteries sidewalks a lot of the main sidewalks are in the downtown area shua Street area and I think look at that look at that I'm not sure how you did that but it worked but don't go anywhere stay right there okay so thank you for that we are going to any questions or comments Miss Goldstone and Mr Brown yes uh thank you and I uh appreciate the uh very timely proactive communication um about uh how the town handles this this issue um three quick comments um uh first uh you there's a part of the manual that deals with communication um and uh one one thing that I guess kind of idea uh wish list item uh wonder if text alerts simply letting people know you know level one this is what we'll be doing um might help with some of the the expectation setting um not saying you know text every street we're about to come plow but just kind of let people know resulting we'll be plowing um kind of generally what that plan is might help um second is uh understanding it's a resource issue I would love to see sidewalks a larger swath of sidewalks be a higher priority uh we want to be encouraging active transportation and we also just have a really active Community who's out there walking dogs and and that sort of thing um and making sure that the sidewalks are safe I think is is really important and then third and by far the biggest is just given all of those red boxes around private roads um rights and responsibilities around private roads uh relative to storm water was an issue that was part of the planning uh Workshop that the select board had this past spring and it just feels like there's uh more conversation to be we had there around um private roads I mean especially given what you're saying that we have almost as many miles of of private roads that that we're um working on as we we have public uh as a flag for me thank you Mr Mcall yeah following on that though what is what is the procedure Peter for vetting and approving private roads is that a so so yes I did say I was going to speak on that so so um the planning board and the zoning board they're getting a lot of uh new applications for developments in town so we have standards for roadways for private roads for widths for w widths of RightWay for sidewalk wrists for Lane widths um and how roadways are to be built so if it goes we're saying with developments for new private roads is that if it goes through the planning board or if it goes through the appeals board we go we uh collaborate back and forth with the boards and we we send comments back to them if it is approved that's what I mean by approved anded roads if it goes back and forth and it's approved and it's in the order of conditions or it's in the documents um when the when the road is um taken over in the uh Insurance um the bonds or what have you completed that's when the town will come in and um will come in and plow um if a road is not built to town standards uh we are looking at consider still considering it a driveway um for the developer is they they know the standards they know the how the road should be done um and if it's chosen that they did not want to build a a a roadway or a subdivision Road not to town standards then um we would be looking at to be a driveway so there's there's some different things there's different things that are going on but um we're looking that for the private roads for uh snowplow and also for solid waste collection so when we have a we're doing a few right now when you have a roadway that it could be narrow or it doesn't have a proper cesac or a hammerhead at the end of the cesac when we have our trucks go in and to go in there you take a 10 wheeler and you have to put four to 6 feet in front of it because of the plow and then you have to put 2 to three feet behind it because of the sander for us to be able to go in and turn around it's almost impossible you're doing seven nine point turns to turn around so our job is to go we need to go in get the road cleared for the first pass or what have you and just keep on going down the road so that's something that we need to have more conversations with with the uh with the uh planning board and with the appeals board and with started those conversations but that's what we meant to say by vetted and approved um does have anything to do with the condition of the roads so we we um we uh grade gravel roadways and we grade them twice a year um so we so we take care of the gravel roadways as there there are several of more asphalt roadways in town that are very tough for our trucks when we go down the roads it's it's very hard for us to be able to plow so that's when we say implementing a no plow list if if that's come comes to fruition this year that would be something we'd be looking at those first six or four or six or eight roadways we' be looking at saying and it's it should not come become come to a surprise for the abds because they we've had conversations with in the past we've already known we've had some dialogue with the U abas so and the same thing with the gated communities we've already had dialogue with the gated communities um so it's uh it's just something that I think we need to uh to to hammer out what we're going to be do just for our efficiency for public works for the town with with gated communities don't the fire Personnel have have a way of getting in there I mean I think they I I don't know May so they may so um I know so we're such a large operation we have so many things going on it's it's well multitasking when we go into a community it might not be the same truck we might have a different trucks in different sites of the area so if we have a fber if they give us a strip on the windshield we can't get in if I'm if I wanted to go out and check a a a roadway to see if the the side roads are pushed back or the driveways are pushed back I check into a complaint I can't can't get in I can't get into a gated community and and and some of the inspectors in the engineering department that go out and inspect the contractors we can't get in so that's something we're going to be looking at to say it's up to the it's up to the development cuz we're going to say we're not going to be able to we're not going to wait we we not we're we're just going to go by and we don't want that kind of situation we want to be able to have it plowed out but um for our time and our efficiency we also have to keep on keep on going thank you Mr Brown did you have a question and then I need we need to move on okay I just want to um comment you said you might be having to put together a list of uh places where you can't practically get in whether it's trees or road condition or whatever and I think I heard you say that you were going to reach out to the associations but it seems like in these private roads a lot of them are not really organized so I hope you would just actually consider individual mailings to all the people on the street cuz they might not have a leader and they might find they might need to get organized once they get the letter so yeah that's I think we've already had some of that dialogue but yeah we will be we we do find out that a lot of them don't have associations thank you you can stay Mr mcconnery but we are going to move on okay um we're going to go to business number three update and discussion on recommended Traffic Safety improvements in the area of railroad ab and lusum ab in woods hle Mr rench I'd like you to start please thank you madam chair just real quickly before I turn it over to Peter uh so back in August of last year I had an opportunity myself the police chief uh Peter mccy uh several of us had an opportunity to meet with representatives of the Steamship Authority uh the purpose of the meeting back in August was to discuss uh some traffic safety uh vehicular Traffic Safety pedestrian and bicyclist Traffic Safety in the specific area of Railroad Avenue and lusam Avenue um during the course of that uh that meeting in August um we documented with the representatives of the St ship authorities several concerns that the town had the volume of traffic um departing uh fairies and heading straight onto railroad the interactions or the the intersection of railroad and Water Street uh began to become a concern um unfortunately I can report this evening that none of those concerns uh that were raised back in August of last year have been addressed to any level of satisfaction um so when I directed uh staff to do the DPW engineering working with town councel was to uh take a look specifically at and I'll let Peter kind of elaborate on this uh the uh adverse taking of of town property in the intersection of of LOM and railroad if you all I know you're all familiar with that area there were some traffic Islands uh several years ago uh that delineated uh that curve in the intersection separated motorists from from pedestrians and bike bicyclist uh we learned um looking at aerial photography over the past several years that those traffic Islands have literally been removed obliterated um by the Steamship Authority um so uh Peter and his staff have had again some since August had some conversations with the Steamship Authority Town Council has had some some dialogue with the attorney for the Steamship Authority again putting them on notice that you we're taking it back so to speak so with that Madam chair I'm going to turn it over to Peter he's got a great presentation um working with our consultant GPI uh who prepared a traffic safety uh assessments uh report again um of that specific intersection and some recommendations of what we can do to make that intersection safer Peter so thank you uh Mr enaw so tonight we have our uh Town engineer James McLaughlin we have uh uh Jim James Grady our Highway superintendent we have Chief uh Jeff Lori and we also have Sergeant Josh Oliver Sergeant Josh Sergeant Oliver is also the chair of the uh Transportation advisory committee the tack that meets on a monthly basis so he is more familiar with the operations and the the U the the doings down in this area this is the area that he patrols and um excuse me I'm sorry and mo one of the most important is we have our consultant our consultant uh John Diaz from GPI has been working on it we've been working on this for for for quite a long time but uh has been working on us um over the past um multiple months uh going down taking traffic counts flying drones drone drones over Lum and railroad to see what's going on and he's been working with the town to uh come up with implementations of what can be done down in that area so I just wanted to start off with this this plan this plan here is uh it's I call it the Woods Hole triangle right so you have Water Street you have lusam a and you have railroad AV and you have Woods Hole Road I created this plan back in 2012 2013 we've used it multiple times um it's it's surveyed in we found multiple bounds out there I'm very confident that um survey wise that it's the location is is accurate this plan could be uh filed at the registry um so I'm very accurate with that as a registered surveyor in the state of Massachusetts I I could certify to this plan tonight we're not here just to talk about all those areas we're here to talk about the lower corner of lusum a and railroad AV so as you can see the red line that's that's the property line going up lusam a this is the property line coming up railroad AV so there was a traffic Island there for many many years decades and between March 27 2019 and April 14 2020 that traffic Island was is removed Public Works had no aware awarness we not we were not notified can I ask a question yes so is that town property yes okay both of the the boxes are Town property how is it that an entity can remove traffic Islands from town property exactly so so what we what we do is how we know that there's work going on in town is that we have permitting and we have uh plan review and when it it's brought to our attention that's when we know there's some work going on the area of the roadways uh we were never informed of this work on lus MAV I do have I do have a um a series of email correspondents that might be able to shed some light on this so uh an island in kurbing that was removed also from September 2nd 2022 to April 8th 2023 okay so I'm stuck so I'd like to just ask Town Council is that is that legal for an entity thank you it's all I need I I just find it very very Troublesome I I'm going to get into this but it's it's frustrating for us it's Troublesome but it's frustrating for us because we have been trying to work with the steam ship Authority and there's there's not a lot of um reciprocal coordination on response back so this plan shows a 2025 existing conditions plan that we showed with the red lines of the property line on the left and then on the right is the 2025 aerial plan if you look at the 2025 aerial plan if you went off from fouth if you didn't work from Public Works you would think that that area down there is all the Steamship Authority it looks like glav is a dead end that stops at the the restaurant up at the top of the parking lot and that railroad of um is a dead end and it starts where the uh Crossing is at the end of the bike path so if you did not know today if you went down there you would think that um that is all owned by the the uh the uh steam ship Authority and they are actually using that as their circulation patterns for the um terminal so on the left hand side we have a 2013 aerial on the right hand side we have a 20 25 aerial I tried to make them exactly as as um to the size the same size as possible so you could see the difference so when the in the left um hand side you can see that there was an island there and it forms the outer edge of lasam MAV and then there was an island a little further up with trees in curbing that also formed the side of railroad a if you come over to uh the 2025 aerial once again it just looks like a sea of asphalt that's that's owned by the steam ship Authority currently here are the current photos U um if if I drove down if I drove down lusam MAV on the top view if I drove down lusam MAV and came to the end of Lusk MAV where railroad AB sits that's what I'd be looking at where do I go what do I do do I go straight I got a bus I got I can take a right I get some faded that's a faded paint and then in the lower lower um photo is a um is the corner of lus Avenue and all those vehicles on the side of lusam Avenue are all park and ride or a stop and go or what have you so if you notice in both photos the upper the upper photo has a do not IGN the red and white do not IGN and if you correspond that with the the uh same do not ENT sign in the lower level people would think that that's the property line that's not the property line that property line is about 10 ft further in towards the um towards the terminal which means that all those Vehicles probably right through the back windows of those vehicles are are all within the within the layout and what happens the reason I bring this up is what happens down there is it's already tight you have vehicles you have uh pedestrians you have bicyclists it's down in the summertime this is off season don't you get on there in the summertime it's just it's a it's it's a free-for-all it's crazy so can I ask a question about the positioning of the fence yes has that fence always been in that same place I I can what I'd like to do is I'd like to have Sergeant Oliver answer that um if he wanted to come up at the end on but so what happens is being the chair of the um the TAC Transportation advisory committee I know there's been a lot of going back and forth of the moving out they're moving back in they're moving Planters so those things are um transient sorry I'm a little short of than everybody else Sergeant Oliver found Police Department co-chair of the traffic advisory committee um those fenes have been fluid they've had moved them back and forth uh if you look at the original pictures that Peter had up of the property there was a taxi stand inside the steam ship's parking lot they removed that to make staff parking the fences then got pushed back towards the roadway they left a slight amount of room for taxis to park along there um as Uber and lift became more popular they've taken over the area the taxis were basically pushed out and instead of the vehicles parking along the roadway as they should Uber and lift head started backing in like that to fit more Vehicles into the area then crowding the intersection and blocking the roadway um just to the north of where those Uber vehicles are parked there's actually a loading zone um that's taken up in the morning by a school bus drop with parents so between the school bus drop with parents waiting to put their kids in the bus blocking up the roadway then the uers the intersection is very tight you can't even get a truck down there time so the midnight shift officers go down in the morning and try pushing them out um I just went down there tonight to take some photos the of the new construction fencing that's down there and there was three drivers still sitting there at this time um we pulled the fence back towards the roadway to eliminate the taxi stand that wasn't being used and to try and get people to stay out of that area um it hasn't worked there's actually no parking no toe signs along that whole fence and and does it impede Town property at all Yes it impedes the roadway um also to be noted too with the tra Island that was removed um if you look at the aerial photos originally the traffic Island actually when you come off the north B unloading from a boat that traffic Island actually deterred vehicles from going straight out and up into the roadway with that being pushed back if you look where the fence line is now they're using the north birth for their commercial vehicles because it allows them to go straight up and out instead of using the southern birth which would put them going up cery and crane thank you and we had a video from a wood told resident uh this week that showed a 18-wheeler pulling out into railroad AV and then backing onto that third slip that just seems crazy that that's the practice that's going on down there Absolut I apologize for for interrupting your presentation I just this is a very frustrating anyway go ahead sorry will you always for Public Works we pretty much forbid backing up we try to we try to uh when in tight areas like this if you have a gasoline company a gasoline delivery company that's delivering gas they always offload in the right side they do not allow them to back up if you go through a site when you design a gasoline station they have to be able to make come in one driveway and go out the other driveway without backing up they really take that serious because especially down here you could have a person a kid a bicycle anyone behind you I might run a couple of minutes over on this I'm going to go fast through this but this is just an indication that some of the correspondents I only went back to 2021 it goes way back further but I just went back to 2021 so June 6 2021 we had email correspondence with the citizens from citizen from Woods Hole saying that there was um some asphalt being done in the area of railroad and lusum without any notice the public works and June 23rd 2021 we had a correspondence with the steamship project manager uh for about the um the uh setup of a meeting to to discuss schematic design and um that they met with they same ship said that they met with the fouth fire department to review the design July 16 2021 we had a meeting at over at the office building on palar similar to the one we just had this past summer it um and uh to go over the terminal plans after that meeting we did not have a lot of correspondents uh regarding that uh nove and that was also with the bike ways committee was over there there and they they had a lot of concerns about the design so they did attend that on November 18th we had an on-site meeting with the steamship uh Authority staff to discuss vehicle and pedestrian safety on November 19 2021 we had an email from the town engineer to the uh steamship general manager stating that if you do any work within our roadways you have to have driveway permits and and um RightWay permits for our roadway so it gives us a chance to look at openings site distance design drainage um all that stuff and and and it every time someone opens up a driveway it changes the circulation on the roadway so that was the beginning of it and then in June 6 2022 we had another on-site meeting with the general manager in August 25th we had a uh request to meet and discuss the reconstruction plans of the drainage and Grading utilities on March 15 2024 we had an on-site meeting to discuss the encroachments on August 8 2024 we we met with over at the pomar ra building the attendance was Steamship Authority Town manager public work staff Falmouth police we let them know that at that time back in August 8 2024 that we were looking to make safety improvements along uh R uh railroad AV and lusam M and and due to and and um due to the removed Islands in curbing October 3rd 2024 we met at public works with the steamship and this is when our consultant came in for for our meetings with us um we offered them multiple options within the steamship site and within um within U uh railroad AV our goal was to reduce the traffic on Railroad AV because of all the traffic and and um Freight going up railroad EV Steamship Authority implied their staff and their their Engineers implied that they will review the information and we'll respond back to us they never responded back to us we ended up getting back hold of them and they came over and met with us again on October 22nd basically we went through we the our Consulting engineer gave went through the options again and basically the steamship already said that they are continuing with the current design with no incorporations of our recommendations and options on December 23rd an email was sent by the town manager to the uh steam ship Authority uh uh general managers stating that the um the lack of uh correspondence and meetings listed above and the lack of communication regarding safety concerns for motorists and pedestrians at the intersection of railroad AV and lusam MAV that we are moving forward with our intentions that are taking place right now um just before I would say on December 22nd December 23rd our engineering department went out and marked the property line with orange paint for the line so everyone could see that it was there this time of year with salt and sand it doesn't last long but it was a mock to say this is our property line uh and then on January 2nd 2025 we got the we had a recommendation letter from our town engineering consultant um John Diaz for the necessity to reestablish to raise islands and concrete cribs along lusam and Railroad and we to to just to reduce the number of conflict points when we say conflict points conflict points for pedestrian vehicle bus vehicle vehicle vehicle you know sideswipe we're in however so this is the letter this is the area once again that uh and I I believe you have a copy of a letter in in your in your packet this is an area once again of the area that's been um basically occupied by the steam ship it looks like their property they're using it for their circulation and their movement of their um trucks and freight and vehicles and so that I'm going to leave that open for that we're going to show the 2013 aial and the 25 uh area where what it look like before and what it looks like now comments from the board Miss Goldstone two comments and two questions first of all thank you um Mr Rena Mr mcconn Sergeant Oliver all of you for um your thorough efforts and and documenting all of this that's comment one comment to um I'll maybe be a little bit stronger in my wording I don't find this problematic or Troublesome I find it completely unacceptable um so my two questions are um do we have any uh do they have a curb cut do we have any legal or contractual obligations to provide access from the Steamship Authority parking lot to Railroad or lusam AV and related to that would it be um legally possible and feasible to harden that entire Edge is that you know is that and when you say reestablishing the curbs is is that what you're you're talking about what's the extent so uh to answer first question is if you look at this you can see the 2013 aerial you can see the island that was removed and you can also see the curbing with the trees that were removed um the operations today in 2025 is not the same as the operations as it was in 2013 behind that curbing just in the bottom of lusin is those two lanes that was a taxi area where they taxis would commend pick up drop off and they'd Swing Out they'd come around that opening where the opening was and then go back up railroad EV they don't use that no more um they put the third birth in so the the operations in the circulation is completely different down there so there's no correlation to what they were doing their operations at back in 2013 and what they're doing now in 2025 our goal is is we went out in in December and we marked the property line the actual property line um what we would like to do and recommend and um we also had the recommendation from our consultant is to be able to go out there and reestablish that curb line to reestablish that curb line at this point in time with granite curbing would be um expensive you're probably talking $75 to $100,000 what we would like to do um at this time if it's agreeable by the board is we have um the portable Jersey barriers that have the lug hooks on top of it I think we have 40 30 40 of them so we would be able to go out and put them on site and and locate them um at at any time would have to it would probably take us a a good solid day to be able to bring them down there and unload them and be able to we would not make it a blunt end like this shows at the property line we would make it a curved Edge so it would kind of it would relate to the to the um edge of railroad a so it would bring it back in it wouldn't be a blunt Edge it would be a curved Edge so that that's what our recommendation would like Mr Rena so thank you madam chair Peter thank you for that I just select board member Goldstone asked a very specific question about restricting access I wanted Town Council to weigh in she's had some conversations she's been heavily involved in this process as well so more thank you um I I do have concerns about blocking off the entire area we cannot um inhibit the operations of their business as a an agency of the state they have a mandate to be able to um run that operation um however comma they have removed all of our property those are Town facilities and they are using Town property to operate the business I um I caution against closing off the entire intersection but if you look at some of the historical aerial photos and also some of their proposed plans that are part of the renovations you'll see that eventually they also want to close off part of the property line with Curbing and leave um just a passageway for um for vehicular traffic and I would strongly recommend leaving a passageway for vehicular traffic and closing the remainder and then putting up whatever you want to do for the borders thank you just Mr Brown and then we'll go right back to you Mr M I would like to see you put the barriers up in all the areas where you feel like the uh curbs been removed I'd also like to come up with a budget for the project to restore it to what it was including replanting the trees it's a shame that those were cut down unnecessarily and uh when we have that budget figure we submit that to the Steamship Authority because they should be the one paying to restore this stuff and and I have a question if what they're doing now is negative ly impacting Public Safety I think we need to do everything we can possibly do and I agree with you to take it back and positively impact Public Safety because that seems to be the one place hopefully that we have something to hang our hats on the other piece that is is and you don't like my word troubling you don't think that's strong enough but I'm going to stay with that is that they are allowed or somehow not allowed because we don't allow it they just take Town property they ignore correspondence their pattern of behavior is to say to sit there and whatever shake their heads and do nothing you've been at meetings where you've come out and nothing's happened um I really feel like the town and maybe potentially our legislators need to get behind fixing this problem and not just going along because they're not working with us I think we need to take this on as strongly as possible Mr mccon did you okay Mr Brown did you want to say something yeah I just I think you should just take action immediately and restore this uh safety pattern we also need parking in the town and all this stuff ripping out all the Curbing and all the parking areas it's just not helpful to our town and our residents and I'm just disappointed with the whole interaction down there with these guys the uh the new boats are more polluting than anything it's just there no no thought put into any of it just do whatever they want so I'm just about had it Mr rch so uh one final comment or recommendation and I'm going to ask Town Council again to assist with this uh so to give the authority an opportunity again to be responsive a very short leash um I believe it's Town council's recommendation that if the board I wanted the board to be comfortable because we are going to be um aggressive with the move to restore what they took um so that was one purpose of tonight's uh presentation the other purpose is to one last time to put them on notice and Mora could you kind of highlight kind of that what that communication is going to look like and what the intent of that is absolutely um I have already put general counsel for the SSA on notice that um depending on what this board says that um it would be my recommendation I'm not quite sure what the town manager would say but that I would ask for um a one last one last try at communication um and give them a deadline of 10 days and if they do not come to the table this time if they ignore our requests to have a conversation again then then we'll put the barriers up in 10 days I do think it's worth it given the stakes here and where this is headed that this is headed to a courtroom that we give them a last opportunity to at least try and come to the table and have a a conversation with us and I would agree with that and personally and the reason I would agree with it is that you are dealing with their councel we haven't gotten anywhere with them so I think taking it to that next level I would be okay with that as as really angry and frustrated as I am um I don't know how other board members feel I I wouldn't uh discount Our Town council's advice I think it's reasonable to expect that they would respond at this point but we'll see what happens any other comments I add one thing yeah let me just go to m gostone and then yes Chief Lori can I just clarify what the in that one last communication what the ultimate ask is so all along with the history of emails and the the meetings that town staff has had with them the ask has been submit a driveway permit and they haven't been able to do that and the reason why we've asked for a driveway permit is because there is an evaluation that goes through that it is anytime that someone is asking for Access onto town roads the reason why we ask them to submit an application and meet with the town engineer is so that the town Engineers can look at sight lines it's this public safety aspect that you were talking about um to be able to evaluate the traffic flow and make sure pedestrians are safe at that Crossing we're not able to do that we have our own traffic study but there should be a dialogue and we should be willing with the SSA to have that dialogue but they just haven't come to the table to Mr Brown's point why would we not ask for them to restore what they have taken at their own expense I don't see why we wouldn't okay chief just real real briefly um just so everyone knows especially the folks in in Woods Hole we've been working with them uh to deal with some of the issues hopefully over the summer you'll see something I think at Springtown meeting uh but SJ and all of a can attest all three shifts have been directed to conduct uh stepped up enforcement down there to try to improve the quality of life with the motoring public and down at the steam ship we had 24 car stops on the day shift today uh in Woods Hole alone uh we're also focusing on obviously all areas all villages in Falmouth but I just wanted the folks in Woodle to know you're going to see a steed up presence with us um as we continue to hire we've got a couple in the academy um when call Vol allows especially this time of year we're trying to really focus um on quality of life and enforcement in all areas of town but specifically Woods is a major priority for us right now does the board Mr mcal I was just going to say do you do you want a motion of any sort or just a consensus I don't know that we need to vote it so I wasn't asking for a formal vote again I wanted the board consensus I wanted the board to feel comfortable with the direction that this is proceeding because it could be a bumpy ride um and I think Town council's recommendation to give them one one last opportunity sh leash to come to the table to discuss we're taking it back you know the parameters and and and and and the mechanics of that and who pays for it that'll be part that's my I Envision that'll be part of those discussions so the consensus that we need to come up with is that we agree with um Town council's advice and that will move forward and will allow one more communication with a time limit for a response and then the town manager if I'm correct directs the Department of Public Works to go to the next step just to take that a little bit further I don't want just a response I want a collaborative effort with our engineering and DPW Department to come to a amicable solution that creates a more safer environment down there not just a meeting that would be the goal yes that I would agree that that would be the goal and it's a good point so do we have consensus to give the town manager the direction to move forward yes yes Mr mcal yes any you know where we're going are there any public comments anyone like to make a public comment okay I'm going to limit you because you know where we're going but I will start sir we'll start with you and I'm going to limit the comment because you know the direction my name is Nat Trumble on behalf of the southeast Massachusetts Regional Transportation citizens task force or smart we wholeheartedly Endor the fth dpw's uh DPW director's proposed project for both a temporary traffic barrier but also more permanent solution in a form of the proposed Granite curbing in the immediate vicinity of the lusum and railroad AV intersection smart members have observed and documented countless traffic infractions by Steamship Authority operation related cars buses and trucks at and near this intersection due to the fact that the Steamship Authority has remove the previous curbing in this area it's time for fouth to stop Steamship Authority encroachment and industrialization of wood's hole it's time for fouth to take back its own roads smart ask that the granite curbing be installed in place if at all possible by by this Memorial Day Weekend actions speak louder than words um but not nearly as often thank you thank you yes thank you Katherine Jansen chair of Falmouth bicycle pedestrian committee I'm on The Advisory Board of friends of fouth bikeways and I'm on The Advisory Board for vision zero in Cape Cod uh I want to thank DPW and uh police chief and Sergeant Oliver and the select board um this is we have been lucky this intersection is a nightmare u in season and our town has simply been lucky that someone hasn't been killed or seriously injured in that area so I applaud the actions thank you love the Jersey barrier's idea nobody's going to be moving those around thank you thank you another comment yes sir Miss Bumpus did you have your hand up I'll take you next Peter Jeffrey U the town of fets appointed board member to the Steamship Authority I just I just want to say I share your frustration with Steamship Authority management I am even angrier today about the management than I was before coming to this meeting um I have asked repeatedly to be in on those meetings with the town to hold the management accountable I I think Mr Renshaw can speak this I've been at one of those meetings I've found out once about them and been invited so first of all I would ask that when the town meets let me know so that I can hold them accountable on the board side much of this information is new to me today even though I've asked for it this is not reported to the governing board of the Steamship Authority their encroachment on the town property and um I will do everything possible I can to keep that line of communication open if you're having frustration please come to me and as far as the uh Steamship Authority paying for um the replacement of these barriers the curving um by all means let me know what the budget is and I will at least raise it with the rest of the board so that we have a motion and it doesn't just get filtered or not filtered through management thank you Mr Jeffrey yeah I'd like to give you a copy of the PowerPoint thank you I have a couple of scratched notes but it's all there you're welcome Miss Bumpus first a thank you to you all to Peter everybody who's been working on this um I would say don't go for something permanent yet because they are still in construction I would also say to Peter take pictures where you put your jersey barriers because they're going to move them and and document it thank you thank okay Mr Oliver oh Mr uh sir come up and then Mr Oliver I'll take one more public [Music] comment uh first of all thank you to Chief lurry to you to Peter to everybody the anger and frustration that you're feeling we who live in Woods Hole have been dealing with for seven years at this point we've been lied to we've been treated atrociously at public meetings uh insulted and dismissed as if we're not we don't have any right to say anything I'm very gratified that you are finally hearing what we've been dealing with because it's a nightmare I would just like to point out that I think this intersection is probably the worst in terms of Public Safety but it is not the only parcel that the Steamship Authority has seized without notice to any of you or or compensation or anything they have now also seized The Crane Street Bridge which goes across the little roadway that goes along Little Harbor into the town parking lot which they rent they have seized that bridge and use it's a two-lane Bridge they use the right hand lane going down to the steamship as the entrance ramp to their facility and when they back the traffic backs up it backs up across the bridge all the way up up Woodle Road as far as Harbor Hill Road or Beyond those of us who live on Juniper Point have no access to our homes that we own that we pay taxes on we are prevented from getting to and from our homes because the bridge is occupied and we sit in traffic for as much as 45 minutes at a time waiting to get to our houses going out the uh P&B buses now use what I call the left hand lane but that's looking towards the steamship the exit from on the crane Street bridge I have been backed off of that bridge multiple times by buses coming at me full speed they don't slow down they just take the bridge so if I want to leave home I'm in danger of getting run over by a bus all the time if I try to bypass the traffic and go in the left hand lane to get to my house I risk getting hit headon by traffic getting off the ferry and it's not just me it's everybody that lives on Juniper point something has to be done they have to put in their own entrance ramp at their expense or I don't know I don't know what you're going to do the old bridge that used to go to Little Harbor Road which was dismantled many many many years ago when the new bridge was put in if that were restored and made gated or something so that residents on junifer point could turn left and get on the Little Harbor Road and then get to where we live and that the the steam ship traffic couldn't use that would help but I think that that's really expensive and impractical and I'm not a traffic expert I don't know what Solutions there might be but the the Steamship Authority is is a rogue organization they answer to no one I know Mr Jeff has been incredibly frustrated on serving On The Board of Governors because Martha's Vineyard and then tuet totally aside from the voting strength that they have rubber stamps every that the SSA wants to do and I'm not sure anybody knows what the SSA is actually going to do because they present plan plans that get accepted and then they do something else they put a 100 foot tall Wi-Fi Tower in the middle of everything I don't know what that does to my property value because I used to have a beautiful water view on that side of my house that was not shown on any plan they did it over a weekend when nobody could complain about it ma'am I'm going to ask you to to move on I just want to say I absolutely hear your frustration thank you very much for paying attention and and anything any of us can do to help we will appreciate that thank you I'm going to take one more comment and then I want to hear from um officer Oliver okay thank you um I want to thank the group that put this effort together introduce yourself and uh my name is Bob moris quis edwood's hle um I was at the meeting in 2021 I think Doug Brown was there Peter was there um and my uh effort on that was to keep the curb cuts for safety uh they had already torn up the curb Cuts uh they tore up the islands uh at one point the island that you see at the Apex of that triangle angle uh at rusam and and railroad there was a kiosk there uh a lot of people here can remember it and it was a movable kiosk and that was to control traffic in that area and we got to take that back um so in 2021 the point was they had not uh shown a site plan at that point and anybody in construction or development knows that your site plan has to accommodate your program and it was obvious that that site cannot accommodate the program of the traffic that they want through it um I'll end it by saying last Tuesday at the board meeting um they were discussing what they're doing for traffic in hyanis they were talking about their new blue line for Vineyard people on the uh it's a quick traffic lane here and I said well you know um I posed the question uh it's been announced that you're going to continue construction on this terminal through the summer what are you doing to accommodate the traffic problems and the heavy equipment and everything nothing silence same thing that you folks are getting so again thank you for this effort thank you officer Oliver serd I just like to point out that in the last few weeks um the steamship has again changed their traffic patterns uh if you look in the aerial photo from 2025 it shows the buses lining up to the left of the photo uh where they're sitting now um in the recent weeks they've blocked that all off with construction fencing and have started their project in the center of their parking lot and have moved their bus lanes to where the parking is in front of the building so they are now using that as their main access for the buses which if you look at the AAL from 2013 that would be where the trees were at that point so the rest of that is now kind of blocked off by construction fence except for their um birth which empties out straight into railroad AV thank you okay we're going to move on um we're going to go to business number four we're going to hear and discuss a status update from ever Source on the cabling project Mr mcconn and I really am going to keep you to 15 minutes you're not going to keep me you're going to keep eversource to 15 15 minutes oh I'll keep him to 15 minutes I have no idea I'll do 15 of them it go ahead all right all right uh good evening Philip Bert uh ever Source community relations nice to see you all again uh director mccy had asked me to come in uh and provide a brief update on the progress on the various projects we've got going on specifically with the cabling project with the vineyard um it's not too often I go into one of these things and say that I'm glad I'm with eversource and not with the not with the previous folks um so anyway I'm just going to run through I I think the packet has the information in there um provided you with a sort of a written summary of of where we're at and some pictures but really just wanted to walk you through just give you an update um I think so far so good uh you know kind of knock on wood but we've been we've been pretty fortunate um things are going I I think uh pretty well um on the vineyard side uh things are progressing well and then here in town we've made a lot of prog progress and I'll just take you through some of those things so um the the first piece to this has been uh the shining sea Bikeway which I know folks have seen is obviously shut down from T Hune uh down to Locust Road um so at that location all of the duct bank is now in uh all of the manholes are now in or the vaults uh I think there's seven or eight of them uh the next steps for that location are some path widening in areas so we're going to do a little bit of um like uh gravel work on the sides um to to where where it's possible to widen the path um we'll be running conduit through the depot AV parking lot to do EV uh charger installation so that's part of this um so that's coming up uh and then the next step before we can repay will be pulling cable actually through it so the actual cable that's going to run from um the substation on Steven's Lane actually has to go down through underneath the bike path so that cable will get pulled um and then we'll go ahead and do our restoration activi so that'll include Paving and then restoration at the edic so we've been working with the edic um on some plans to kind of uh spruce up the the backyard there of that it had originally looked like we were maybe going to have to um remove one of the sets of train tracks turned out we didn't have to do it um but we still because the construction went right through there it just kind of made the area kind of a mess so we're going to work with them to improve that and make it a little more visually appealing for for folks to visit that area so everything on with respect to The Shining seat bike way is on schedule um we're still looking at sort of like a a late q1 early Q2 opening is the the is the thinking um uh and uh so far so good like I said you know no major delays in that area um so I think where the biggest impacts have been recently in town obviously have been down on surf drive and most of this has been actually the town's water main um our little piece to this is actually kind of hard to see in these two pictures here but really a lot if you've been down there and you've seen all the work going on most of what you're visually seeing is us uh there's a dewatering system in place um which is to basically make it so the water table so high there um pull the water uh so they can cut the road and actually do the installation of the water M uh and the duck Bank work that we're doing uh so most of that is anticipated they're just about done with the with the water M um I think as of last the last meeting we had last week it sounded like around February 12 15 somewhere in that time period um we'll be good to actually uh turn the new water M on so uh that entire section will have been replaced it was actually we were very fortunate to originally it looked like we were going to have to um put a bunch of those business business uh well there's one business down there and several of the residences onto like a bypass system um that was a little scary with cold temperatures we were a little concerned about doing that ultimately we're able to come up with a way um to not have to do that which is great so there'll be kind of like a there'll be one day where there'll be a switch over that'll happen um in February where all of those those eight or nine folks will be switched over to the new water M the duct Bank down there is basically done um so we have uh one section at the end of M Road and one section right near surf Drive parking lot so both of those pieces are in um and so in terms of that civil work on surf Drive most of everything there will be wrapped up um mid to late February will be kind of off of the road there there will be no longer really any construction going on it'll then switch to uh the HDD the horizontal directional drilling work in the two parking lots and that's just a picture of the one of the duck Mains that's the duck Bank going in right at the end of milroad there so this is the unit one of the a picture of one of the units that'll be coming into town so right now these are on the on the vineyard side so we currently have drilling operations going in Tisbury uh and Oak Bluffs um so this is just basically what one of these units look like is just a gigantic drill um you'll see in the in February this is this is uh sound wall this is uh sort of audio and VIs ual visual mitigation that's in place um on the island right now so similar materials be put in place here again to like block the noise block the um block the lights any of that kind of stuff that might be a problem so that's just a picture of that what you're seeing here is actually in Tisbury right now um this is out uh on surf Meadow in Tisbury so the the obviously to the right there is the actual drill and then what you're seeing to the left there are essentially kind of like the drill bed so they're long sections of pipe they're each about 30 31 ft long and they just get attached and then continually attached um and there's days where it seems like I think they go you know a couple hundred feet there's some days where they can you know get up to about 500 ft in a day of horizontal distance oh and that was my last one that's my last picture questions or comments from the board Mr Brown so I understand there's some uh materials shortages on the bike path portion is that corrected itself yeah that's no yeah no no material shortages actually we got some good news the other day that one thing that we thought might be looking at like a March delivery date is now looking like a mid-February delivery date so it's even it's even pushed forward a little bit but again we've been really fortunate we haven't had any really inclement weather um you know no the Cold's been a little difficult but nothing's really slowed us down in that area there sounds good thanks great M gone um yeah I guess I'm I'm a little confused with the the bike path um if it's not a a shortage given that this work was planned months in advance it sounds like there's Supply ordering still going on and and the work has stopped as a result of that no no that's no so we actually had multiple Crews going so they the Lawrence Lynch is our vendor and they're doing both sections so they're actually doing surf drive and they're doing the bike pass so we've actually been moving Crews back and forth between the two when we finished the the vault in duct Bank installation they took that crew moved them down to Surf drive to make sure we sped up that process we get out of there on time um and then that coincides with us now going so they once they're done down there that crew goes back up there and we'll do the finish up work up on that part but all the ordering of materials is long since long since done okay and and then um thank you for clarifying that um in terms of the directional drilling work um am I recalling correctly that that was originally scheduled to start in January and we're now talking about it starting sounds like beginning of March so what does that mean for timeline in terms of of Directional Drilling and and how much of that work might be uh happening 247 I to to the how much is going to happen 247 I really honestly I don't know um because we have that built in uh on the vineyard side as well and they they haven't had to use it very much um with respect to the timeline though uh so our materials are due in fouth in February with drilling starting in February uh so I don't actually think we're we're not off of our Target uh the the it was the end goal of being out in April I think was the was the timeline any other question questions no I just comment that uh all the safety measures down on Swift Drive is appreciated it's a well-run site thank you great thank you very much you're welcome okay we're going to move to the uh Board of Health and is that Dr corer again and I'm going to keep you to 15 minutes as well all right that works for me okay uh okay so Kevin Kroger chair of the Board of Health and uh thanks for the opportunity to tell you a bit about um what we've been doing for the past year how do I Advance these slides your presentation should be on the left there oh I see uh there we go all right Madam chair while they're figuring out their slides I have a question go ahead given uh the time that it is and and what remains on our agenda I'm wondering um if there are items later in the agenda that we might uh opt to postpone to a later meeting and let folks who would be staying around for those know that sooner rather than later I'm not going to do that at this time okay so um this is the current composition of the the Health Board we've uh picked up two new members Jed Goldstone and George top topulos uh this year um and there's as you can see there's a a nice uh spread of expertise and uh and backgrounds across environmental science and uh medical um field and um toxicology Etc and and many years of experience on the board or as uh as health agents um or in a health agent in the case of George Hoy Felder and this is our um current um Health Department staff um also many years of experience uh within the um the the staff of the department um so in in 2024 we had 19 meetings uh 62 Title Five related um items seven tobacco hearings for violations uh 10 uh housing code violations for failing to uh obey an order of the uh Board of Health uh seven meetings with um smart citizens and 10 meetings with liaison uh from the water quality management committee um some of the major activities include updates uh to the local septic regulation which I'll talk about more uh working with the water quality management committee and stakeholders on the development of regulations that will require um Advanced uh denitrifying septic systems uh under certain circumstances and um uh we have a regulation update uh under draft at the current time um we developed a decision guide for property owners to Aid selection of denitrify septic systems uh because we have not noticed over the years that um some of the systems uh operate well and meet uh targeted uh nitrogen effluent concentrations and some types of systems do not and so we want to uh turn the um selection process towards those those systems that function well and will meet the objectives um we've been uh engaging with the the smart uh uh task force as I mentioned on um steam ship Authority activity and air pollution um we've had several hearings regarding uh violations of the uh tobacco sales regulation VI uh regulations and um we've been receiving updates and providing comments throughout the year on the proposed uh plastic reduction regulation which we decided uh in tonight's meeting to advance to uh public hearings um and we voted on the role of the health department on short-term rentals as we discussed earlier tonight on Title Five we we um in February of 2024 we did an update to our local septic regulations um with the objective of um of um uh helping to move on the objectives of the water quality management Committee in terms of um U managing the nitrogen loading to the estuaries um we now require that all operators of denitrifying septic systems are have a class 2 wastewater treatment plant operator permit because or or um qualification because we've noticed that some operators maintain them very well and some not so well and so we want to increase the quality of of that maintenance um we adjusted um the elevation the minimum elevation of uh groundwater near the coast to 2 feet uh as part of a a preparation for Rising groundwater levels with sea level rise so that uh septic systems are will still be at the proper elevation above uh groundwater um during their lifetime um we reduced uh the applicability of Technologies to uh reduce soil absorption system size close to the water um let's see uh we we've we now require that um that that new uh uh construction includes a space where a future IA denitrifying septic system could be installed um um and several other um updates to the title 5 system one high-profile um Wastewater uh management topic that that we had that we reive uh we managed to resolve successfully this year that had been going on for a couple of years was the autoc camp campground on Palmer a uh which everyone is familiar with um when they proposed a new Campground round we required a very high level of um of treatment to reduce the nitrogen load and um they installed a waste a small wastewater treatment plant to achieve that um fortunately the company that installed it made some errors and they crushed a lot of the pipe so we had uh raw sewage released into the environment and the public let us know what they thought about that as they should have and um um however after that initial uh misstep I'll note that the uh the autoc camp company worked very effectively with us over a very uh long period of time they totally rebuilt the system we had them truck away all of the affluent during that time so there was no more release of of material into the environment and then we allowed them uh around May of last year to start um operating the system and releasing to the environment again and they've achieved 7.3 average milligram per liter total nitrogen in their affluent um that that is with very lowf flow faucets and fixtures throughout the system so they have very high concentration on the flow into the system so they're achieving about a 93% removal on average so we have more than a 90% Improvement in protection of the environment in the end so we appreciated their their work and uh cooperation uh on Tobacco we updated our uh tobacco regulations in 2021 um we had a number of hearings uh around one particular establishment um that had a number of violations and then there was a sale of the property within the family we had to make a determination of whether we should consider that to be a new business it was a very important decision because if it were not a new business it would have been their fourth violation and we would have uh um removed their their permit to sell tobacco the business would have been eliminated um in our um our new reg our updated regulation uh we have capped the number of permits that we have in town at 35 that's the current number and so if and if any of those um permits are not renewed for any reason or if they're revoked then the number will go down by that amount so the idea is that children smoke more uh tobacco uh if there are more establishments in their vicinity um so the goal is to gradually reduce the number of permits over time uh on housing uh the department uh perform performs uh housing inspections upon tenant request as was mentioned earlier tonight um and in a number of cases they bring those before the board in order to uh achieve compliance and so we have used fines in the past but uh the the objective of of of all of those efforts is to achieve compliance um on the smart citizens uh engagement um I I find a lot of the information they've been presenting to us compelling um the very large number of um visitors to Martha's Vineyard each year maybe on a given day there may be three times as many people on Martha's Vineyard as as the yearound resident uh population in fouth so that does involve quite a lot of traffic through town as as we've been talking about today um 89% of the visitors use the SSA uh fairies um the trucks in particular seem to be increasing in in number um those heavy diesel emissions have um really substantial consequences for public health um the cast report um which I'm sure the board is familiar with uh projected 2% growth in traffic per year uh so it is pretty serious problem for the town to figure out what to do about this uh growing traffic um some of the actions we've taken are to to write uh letters to to the select board to Chief Lowry to the D D and the EPA I very happy to hear Chief Lowry indicating they were're going to increase uh enforcement at the at the ferry terminal particularly what we're asking uh them to do is to enforce the uh anti- Idol in law um it's very low hanging fruit and walking around the terminal uh it's pretty easy to see lots of idling Vehicles unnecessarily and so that would be a very easy way to uh reduce emissions uh it did occur to me during the discussion tonight that maybe the town has more leverage at this point with the Steamship Authority than they've had in the past uh we definitely need better signage there the signs that indicate no idling are located on your way into the facility it's just a little sign on the booth there where you buy your ticket and when you're sitting and waiting to get on the ferry there's no signage that's obvious to see so that's that's really where the signage needs to be um okay and that's it thank you you questions from the board questions or comments from the board just one go ahead Mr doctor with respect to Tobacco uh I know some towns in the Commonwealth are looking to uh prohibit the sale of tobacco based on age as people get older and and stop selling tobacco uh has the um has the board considered any regulations or any thoughts with respect to that going forward as a prohibit prohibition on the sale of tobacco in the I could if I could uh clarify so so reducing or eliminating so some of the towns are are prohibiting the sale of tobacco to people at certain ages so that at some point in time you won't be able to buy tobacco products in the town it's the oh gradually yeah gradually yeah I think Newton just just did it if I'm not I'm I'm not explaining it properly it's at late at night but but I I'm just wondering if there's been any I'm just wondering if there's been any thought from the board about looking at something like that I'm not advocating it necessarily one way or the other I'm just wondering if there's been any discussion about it be an outlaw it would outlaw the sale of tobacco at different stages of people's ages as they hit those ages going forward W that's that sounds like it might get some push back but um Newton passed it huh huh but that's newon yeah it hasn't come up I I'll I'll look into we know Mora has a special feeling for Newton right um well I don't know if Newton did it but Brookline instituted a a regulation like that they set a date um and ju and then the date uh the birth date stays static so then anyone born after that date right for going forward cannot purchase um tobacco products and it went all the way to this uh to the SJC and the SJC upheld it there's a lot of leeway for local um Boards of Health to uh regulate tobacco products interesting and and did they include Vape products as well yes oh thank you I'll look into that any other questions or comments thank you very much Dr corer my pleasure okay we're going to move on to a presentation by the edic it's really loud why is this turn welcome Mr linga Felder thank you and we're timing you for 15 as well I'll take the under I can get it started open left clicking right Madame chair select board members thank you very very much for the time um and to hear and for hearing from us I think it's important that you do hear from your committees and uh we're happy to um present to you tonight my name is Colin Reed I'm a co-chair I serve alongside Mark Lowenstein who cannot be here tonight um and with me tonight is our executive director Wayne lingafelter uh we want to give you a quick update of what we're up to what we did in 2024 what we're going to be doing in 2025 and Beyond and then review some of the items where we think your attention might be needed in the future um I think most of you are familiar with the edic overview you I'll save you time there um key takeaway edic is a unique entity within fouth that can be leveraged to the benefit of the town of Falmouth in in in intriguing ways um one major point to bring to your attention we have a board of directors our aim is to have seven we have six currently we are missing a Treasurer so if you know of anybody that could fulfill that role uh please let us know we're putting announcements out um we have two new members that started in 2024 to help us bring us to a critical component uh and a critical core but a treasure is greatly needed um I'm going to turn it over to Wayne now to talk about the 2024 accomplishments before I jump back in with the 2025 work thanks Colin good evening um selectboard so I have just five quick highlights I'm going to give um for 2024 um first of all the board typically is budgeted at the EDI operates um at a break even we were able to do slightly better than that in 2024 um we had total revenues of $538,000 and as a result of some operational savings at the FMA station that I think all of you know we have responsibility for we did generate a positive net income of just under $40,000 um I think it's important to remind the board um that we had uh $127,000 of solar revenues collected at the um blacksmith shop landfill site um that we did in turn um hand over to the town we share those revenues with the town um it is our single most significant source of Revenue and it is reoccurring so it's very important um to our Financial Health um the third point that I would make is that we were awarded uh a community planning Grant um in November um which was an important Milestone some of you will recall that we did develop uh Planning Development in 2022 on the felma station um vacant site we have a Workforce housing project planed there and um so we've been granted um a combination of funding $145,000 from the executive office of Housing and liberable communities um we were there was um a total of 97 applicants we were one of 33 selected um for this grant it is um the uh full amount that we requested and it's the maximum grant that they're able to give so we felt very good about that we're one of three Cape communities that received um executive office of housing um grants um this work will start in uh March we're in the process now of soliciting for our planning and engineering firms um we have a fairly broad scope of work that includes um site planning and layout work uh we're going to do massing studies we have traffic analysis planned uh with the funding uh we'll be doing utility infrastructure planning and estimating um and then we'll be looking closely at at the development economics of the overall project is Our Hope um to deliver somewhere in the range of 50 um affordable Workforce housing rental units on on the site at the station um the the fourth bullet point I have here is is what we're calling the lot 93 due diligence that's actually at the Falmouth Technology Park um we spent quite a bit of time in 2024 getting ourselves in a position to be able to sell that lot um you'll recall that the technology park is a legacy project for the um edic this happens to be the last piece of real estate that we have there um that's of any salable value um so we um we're now in fact I hope uh next select board meeting will be in front of you with the request to finalize the easements um that um have been outstanding uh and approved by town meeting but ultimately the select Board needs to approve the reconfiguration of those because we're subdividing a site um that currently has the water tank on it and then we'll have a building uh a a vacant portion of that that will become a marketable parcel so um we're in the final steps of that um and we have been actively marketing the site in the meantime and hope that um mid to late um summer will'll be able to close on the sale of that parcel to another business for Falmouth um the the um the final point that I wanted to make here is just with respect to the felma station reset um the board directed me to spend quite a bit of my time um particularly in the first half of the Year resetting the operations at the station um the um there were a number of different steps we took to do that the focus really was to return station to the Transportation Hub that it is for the community in addition to making sure that we continue to serve the patrons of the um shining sea Bikeway so we had four or five different steps that we took um to do that um we didn't we did put a pop-up ice cream stand uh Whistle Stop ice cream which has a store in mashby and up in uh Monument Beach came and opened a a pop-up station there um we implemented um a ambassador what we called our ambassador conier program which um was funded with the support of the bus companies and basically it gave us a presence in the station every day this summer so when people were coming in or leaving and they had questions and wanted to ask about whether it was the buses specifically or about the town there was a person there that was available to answer questions it was really very well received um we did some collaboration with the museum on the green and then we also have completed two um CPC funded projects um one which was a masonary restoration work on the exterior of the building and then in December uh we completed the uh upgrade of our HVAC system to provide a more consistent and reliable source of heat um and all of that we were able to still find a few extra dollars and we generated an income at the station of just under $10,000 so all in all um we had a busy 2 24 BR one that I think we thought was successful to wrap up as promised um what are the items that we may need your attention on um on the last slide here uh Wayne just spoke about the the close on the sale of FTP lot uh 93 talked about the ambassador program and talked about the outdoor Plaza previously mentioned by our friends at eversource but the pieces that I really want to draw your attention to are those middle um bullet points 2 through 4 um with the most important being board strategy session um we have an opportunity to really consider um what we can do to support and create Economic Development here in fouth for the town with a capital T and and a lower Cas we know housing is needed we're jumping on board with that if we have the opportunity for 10 areas of energy now I will mention that we have a very small staff to do this uh every day day in and day out with a nice board that includes Mr Mcall here um but what else do we need to do what else do we need to do to um meet the needs of the town both now and in the days to come I think in the next few years we'll put put us on a pathway of success if we do it right but we're going to be hosting a board strategy session um to really talk about that and we've started collecting information from folks uh around town uh from different offices I know we've put a call in uh and will put another call into to the select board here um but it's really important that we think about Beyond housing what does the town of Falmouth need so we'll stop it at that hopefully we give you some time back to your schedule and thank you very much for your time thank you questions from the board I just have one quick question about the coner program is that like a paid staff or volunteer uh it was paid we did uh we advertised we brought in four uh residents from the community who were paid an hourly wage and and as I said we covered about 80% of the hours that the station was open great thank you Mr Mcall well and and we did have uh other entities that contributed to to the bus the bus companies were a big supporter of the program that's right good any other questions Miss gostone um I will just say to a couple of the the points that you didn't speak to on this slide um the uh reminder to monitor the jbcc Housing Initiative is is a good one and and a welcome uh nudge um I'm wondering if you could say just a few quick words about the new outdoor Plaza space behind fouth station and what what that plan is um sure and and um Phil made a comment to it they when the when the cable um project came through essentially our backyard um they were very good they reached out to us and we've had it dialogue back in forth about essentially reshaping that space to make it safer number one because if the if you're familiar with that particular area there were some fairly significant grade drop offs there and some um uh uh foliage and trees that were that were not in a good position so they've helped us clean that all up and now we're going to focus on the Plaza areas themselves and create a more welcoming area to transition people from The Shining sea Bikeway to the station and hopefully have a bit of a gathering space so that we might be able to host different events in the in the outside space there um and and at the same time I think first and foremost we all recognize the importance of the safety there at the Depot a crossing and the balance of uh of our property it's a rather extended property we go all the way down to to the Steamship Authority he sounds good thank you very much okay we are going to move on to business number seven a report from the committee still got enough energy to do it and you also have 15 minutes thank you sorry I'm technologically yeah I just need to pull up the I think it's that top one it is just a computer um so you are there and where's my uh yeah it's a key it's a it's a computer so you've got your keyboard and your mouse so you can use the arrows you okay good evening my name is Scott Mueller I prec S one I'm chair of the fouth energy committee um also here this evening is David Lesley who's Clerk of the committee uh the purpose of my presentation tonight is to update the select board on the issues and activities uh that the energy committee had has been addressed in 2000 oop sorry um moving really fast yeah okay there we go thank you very uh to talk about what we did in 2024 and what we're planning in 2025 uh the energy committee's activities are Guided by the select board's uh fiveyear strategic plan as well as the Commonwealth's climate action uh goals the select board strategic plan EMP emphasizes the pursuit of Energy Efficiency the promotion of infrastructure to support electri vehicles and the exploration of opportunities for clean energy and electric grid modernization meeting these goals involves analyzing energy data and establishing priorities for Energy Efficiency upgrades reducing our Reliance on fossil fuels and investing in clean energy facilities such as solar projects and electric vehicles Energy Efficiency is often referred to as the first fuel in the transition to a cleaner energy efficient environment and we're fortunate that for the past 15 years Massachusetts has led the nation in its support and implementation of En Energy Efficiency programs the Commonwealth has also been a leader in supporting the use of cold climate heat pumps offering generous subsidies through our local distribution utilities and organizations like Cape light compact heat pumps are used for heating and cooling and there's a number of programs available to found with residence to help underwrite the cost of converting to a heat pump system pardon me um I you know just for example I recently had to replace a 25-year-old AC system um and I opted to go with a uh a heat pump system for my uh AC and heating um um I received a grant and tax sub uh federal tax subsidies to cover over half the price of that uh upgrade um and I and for the remaining balance uh I have a 0% interest uh loan for eight years so it's it's a it's a terrific program um that I think we need to make sure everybody in val knows about consistent with the board's strategic plan the town's been exploring opportunities for solar installations and Municipal and school buildings in addition to maintaining the town's existing solar installations the town sustainability Specialists has been overseeing feasibility studies to consider potential solar installations and identify those projects that are most economic and achievable the town has also pursued use of econom vehicle electric vehicles we're viable and the expansion of infrastructure to support the charging of those electric vehicles um both the select board and the town's Administration should be commended for the accomplishments in the past year in promoting Energy Efficiency and clean energy the energy committee is an advisory body that tracks and supports the town's goals for sustaining ability and a transition to a clean energy future but the real work of achieving those goals is conducted by many Town employees and organizations like cap light impact to support those efforts the town took a major step in 2003 2023 by hiring a sustainability specialist Stephanie Madson to coordinate the town's efforts for increasing Energy Efficiency taking advantage of the green communities program and providing leadership in maintaining existing clean energy facilities and identifying opportunities for Energy Efficiency and new clean energy projects Stephanie is not a voting member of the energy committee but attends our monthly meetings where we share our goals and priorities the sustainability specialist has been particularly effective in coordinating the maintenance of existing solar facilities uh they do require maintenance and uh some of which been in place for over 15 years and and in overseeing the planning and installation of new solar projects such as rooftop arrays at the hatchville fire station and the Planned solar installations at the senior center and the water treatment plant for those residents that can't take advantage of installing solar at their own homes Community shared solar programs offer an opportunity for supporting clean energy and reducing their electric bills this past September the sustainability specialist and the energy committee hosted an informational program at the main library to make Falmouth residents aware of community solar opportunities the town's also been proactive in the expansion of electric vehicle charging stations again over town seen by the town sustainability specialist the energy committee has also been active in exploring the use of electric landscaping equipment this past summer we conducted a meeting and demonstration with Town employees and local landscaping companies to discuss the status of the technology and both the challenges and benefits of using battery operated equipment vers versus gasoline engines other Outreach and education programs the energy committee has supported or coordinated include use of the MIT nroads climate solution simulator a presentation in October by eversource on its electric sector modernization plan and authoring a monthly column the fouth Enterprise energizing fouth on current energy issues and developments there are a number of issues the energy committee continues to follow and intends to pursue in 2025 particularly in light of the uncertainty regarding Federal support for many clean energy programs these include supporting and monitoring the feasibility of installation of new solar projects on school and Municipal facilities being coordinated by the school department and the sustainability specialist we will also be tracking the progress of the pure Sky solar array project at the Cape Cod Country Club it's our understanding that the pure sky is in the process of revising its proposal based on input from the Cape Cod Commission and we want to ensure that the project lives up to the commitments it has made in the past including replacing each tree removed with two new trees and making use of native pollinators around the solar panels themselves D committee will also continue to support the feasibility assessment for the use of electric school buses and taking full advantage of the State uh State planning and funding programs the committee also committee also intends to continue to advocate for the exploration of electrifying the steam ship fairies in order to Pro reductions in the use of fossil fuels and noise pollution in Wood tole another opportunity the committee supports is implementation of the property assessed clean energy program or PACE program this program allows commercial property owners to finance Clean energy and Energy Efficiency upgrades through a betterment charge it's my understanding that implementation of pastes has been put on hold ending installation of new accounting software for the town but once that's in place it's our hope that Falmouth can join the over 70 communities in Massachusetts offering the PACE program to its businesses while there's a great deal of uncertainty regarding the development of new offshore wind facilities we will continue to monitor those projects which to provided significant opportunities for communities such as barnable that hope interconnections the cap light compact provides significant benefits to the residents of fouth not only by making available a green electricity Supply option but also by sponsoring a number of programs such as energy Audits and grants for clean energy upgrades the energy committee will be hosting a presentation by cap light compact in March at the Falmouth library on its disc Carbon on its carbonization plan and the programs it offers to Residents and businesses in fouth in the last month the energy committee has been planning its activities for 2025 one of which is to recruit up to three new members for the committee uh which uh is a seven member committee and we now have only four uh I note that this year we saw the departure of two longstanding uh members of the committee Meg Megan Amsler chair of the energy committee for nine years and alesandro banchelli uh we thank them for their service and hopefully look forward to welcoming several new members to the committee this year we' of course would also welcome any suggestions and input from the board on how we can be of assistance to the town thank you I'll take any questions questions or comments from the board go ahead and then Mr Brown um two questions for you um you uh cited the the Massachusetts state emissions reductions goals and I'm curious if we have any data for the town of fouth to show where we are in terms of we we don't at the moment we're waiting to receive that from the Cape Cod Commission um and that's something that Stephanie's working on excellent and uh similarly um I love seeing all the the new solar projects do you have a sense of what um the town the municipal total solar capacity might be how much how much could we generate if we we kind of Max things out I don't have a figure that figure I don't know if Stephanie can provide any details on that just go here um hello Stephanie mass and the sustainability specialist for the town if we our total usage we could could cover um would be covered for the municipal buildings in the schools combined with 6 to 7 megawatt of solar installation I think we have a cap of 10 cap to 10 megawatts we're fine yeah they lifted the cap good thank Mr Mcall yes sure um given what we've heard in the news about the uh the current Administration and what it's thinking about doing with respect to to uh reducing uh you know renewable energy and and and clean energy and so forth uh is the committee thinking of speaking about how it's going to respond if Federal money starts uh drying up or or what it might need to think about going forward as alternate uh options for funding and grants and so forth well well yeah uh I think one we're we're fortunate in that uh the state the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has been you know very supportive of uh clean energy measures um um some of which obviously uh comes from federal funding some of which is from the Commonwealth itself um we did I mentioned that we uh sponsor a monthly article in the Enterprise and um the article uh at the end of November was encouraging uh residents to take advantage of programs now because we don't know what uh the future might hold hold in terms of uh you know future support for uh solar installations but that's certainly you know we don't have a crystal ball um and uh you know we'll just have to see what happens at the federal level any other comments or questions just Mr Brown I've been installing some uh heat pump systems all electric with combination with solar panels and people are investing a lot of money and finding that they still have really high electric bills in the winter and I wonder if we should be considering and advocating for continuing to use gas in the extreme winter months I know you can use a heat pump on a gas furnace and it doesn't kick in until like 34° or whatever you set it at just throwing that out there I find that are really surprised and disappointed after spending $100,000 between panels and a heat pump system and they still have 56 $700 electric build how's your electric build well I just installed it in December so okay I'll let you know thank you yeah but there are two things going on there electric bill you can separate a little bit from your heat pump so the heat pumps are evolving in quite a bit as technology advances and so cold climate heat pumps are working more efficiently you don't have to get rid of your your gas as backup if you can show um Mass Save that you are primarily using your heat pump and only keeping the gas hookup for emergencies they allow you to do that and you still can recoup that um rebate so that's advisable for resiliency um the electric bills are skyrocketing and there's a lot of reasons for that so there is some concern about electrifying so quickly um staying balanced managing it properly um and taking a look at your utility bill and really analyzing it you'll see a lot of fees are going up and eversource is sharing the cost with us and so you're going to continue to see aise in your electric bill that's why I highly recommend you put in solar and we'll have um cap light compact um share with you the new solar um loans low interest interest loans that they're they recently just launched sounds good I just say my experience is is uh it takes a little while to even out but over the course of a year we're we break even let's put it that way okay electricity with heat pump and solar so great thank you very much appreciate it okay we're going to move on to consider a vote to approve an application for a change of hours to its common Victor license badm marth's farmer Brewery LLC 876 East fouth Highway Mr Rena thank you madam chair I know the applicant representative is here so I'll keep my comments brief uh the purpose of the application tonight is to request a change of hours to his current common vict rer license simply to allow breakfast service to begin at 7:00 a.m. the current service begins at 8:00 a.m. Monday through Sunday for both food and Beverages and Madam chair and select board I'm recommending that the select board approve the application for change of hours to the common vict license requested by bad marus Farmers Brewery LLC and they'll uh allow the uh business Representatives has there question thank you Mr anot questions from the board you have the application go ahead Mr BR I'm glad you came I didn't even know you were serving breakfast none of us knew yeah it's a new adventure so we're excited any other questions comments of the applicant tell us your menu and then we'll move approval yeah so uh my name is Ralph I'm the newly appointed uh general manager there yeah so we're just looking to expand the business um we're offering Artisan Bagel sandwiches avocado toast um uh breakfast burritos breakfast breads coffee um things like that nature sounds good just a question maybe as a misund misunderstanding are you currently serving breakfast from 8:00 onward correct you are so we're looking for 7:00 is that okay so you're just looking to you said it was a new Venture and I was wondering since none of us were aware that you were doing yeah yeah we really didn't know you had breakfast okay well good I live down the street so now I know where to get my breakfast yeah exactly I move approval want to read the motion uh motion to approve the application for a change of hours to the common victual license requested by bad marus Farmers brewi LLC 876 East fouth Highway as presented second okay I have a motion in a second any further discussion amongst the board seeing none all those in favor I unanimous than good luck thank you thank you appr appreciate it okay we're going to move on consider a vote to approve an application for a class 2 used car dealer license hiato Inc doing business as Executive Auto 118 East bouth Highway East bouth Mr renock thank you madam chair as the board recalls this is a continuation from the last meeting the applicant uh did not attend the meeting there were some comments made um and some discussion with regards to some potential violations of the special permits uh during the last meeting uh for background summary hicky AOS Incorporated which is doing businesses as Executive Auto did not apply to renew its used car dealer license in enough time uh for select board approval at the board's December 16th uh meeting last year and the establishment's current license expired on December 31st 2024 uh the business was notified by mail through the select Board office a copy of the notification ation letters attached to your packet uh the fact that the license would expire on the 31st of December and that sales of automobiles prior to the issuance of a new license would constitute operating with other license both the fouth police department and fire rescue Department have reviewed the application and have no objections to its approval um an inspection importantly uh since the last uh meeting an inspection of the property was conducted by the zoning and compliance inspector it was noted during that inspection that outside outside storage of vehicle parts and junk Motor Vehicles were present on the site in violation of special permit uh number 157 z00 and a copy of the ceas theist order that was issued by the zoning compliance inspector included in your packet this evening the applicant was given until January 20th of this year to bring the site into compliance um I was told uh that a reinspection by staff was conducted on January 21st and the violations noted on that cease and assist order remained on the site therefore fines were issued based upon that reinspection Madam chair and select board members received notice today that the zoning compliance inspector again did a reinspection uh there have been some improvements um although the site is not fully in compliance with their special permits um there continued to be materials tires stored outside and there what there was what appeared to be two junk Vehicles still on theine a lot so there's still some ongoing violations on the property Madam chair and select board members this my recommendation and I believe a representative from the company is here tonight it's my recommendation that the board deny the application for a class 2 used car dealer license to hickey AOS 118 East Falmouth Highway until all violations of the special permit have been Abad thank you Mr Rena is the applicant here no okay discussion amongst the board um I would say it's we're not ready to approve we don't have the applicant and we don't have compliance with the special permit what about the number of vehicles I believe the special permit was uh 16 Vehicles it uh I'm reading the notes I apologize Madam chair select board member Brown it appears that the the lot has become less crowded some of the vehicles have been removed from the lot I don't have a count and I'll try to get some more clarification uh so it appears some effort some improvement in terms of the reduction of the number of vehicles on the site has been made okay questions comments I guess I'm just wondering I mean what happens if during this time uh he's actually selling vehicles I mean is this he's being fined right $300 a day uh do is there any way we know what his business is or or is there any way to increase fines or anything like that I mean if he's selling I mean operating and just operating without a license is one thing but operating and profiting without a license you know is is an entirely different situation I'm wondering if $300 a day is a sufficient uh sufficient penalty honestly it's pretty stiff it adds up quick um there's actually it has to do is sell one car and he makes 300 you know a lot more than that uh for used car car dealers there's actually two opport unities for for fines here there's one under the license and then there's a separate fine um for the violation of the special permit um violations of a license to operate a used car car dealership is actually a criminal matter and there are fines of $500 per violation so it is separate and if this continues to be a problem we may want to investigate that i' certainly would given the how uncooperative the applicant has been unresponsive uh so anyway be sure to look into that thank you I would agree with Mr Brown that we not move forward to approve the license the applicant this is the second time and the applicant isn't here maybe Town manager can monitor the Improvement and if there's significant Improvement we put it back on the war they can come back I would agree with that so do I have a motion I make a motion to to uh hold okay I'm going to make a motion to deny the approval of the application for Class 2 used car dealer license Autos Incorporated doing business as Executive Auto 118 East fouth Highway East fouth until all violations of the special perimeter abated and with that motion I guess it gives the town manager The Leverage to DET determin when those things have been rectified and then he can get back to buiness business I mean technically the way that's wor I don't know does he have to come back to us or can we let the town manager decide if he's ready I I if I may uh I I the the processes I see it unfolding is that we continue to issue we definitely will look into the transaction the sales of vehicles potentially uh but we continue to send the zoning compliance inspector out to make sure and and it doesn't come back until he provides evidence that all of the violation have been abated removed from the property well I mean just in the interest of uh being as helpful to him as we can we don't want to put a business out of the business unless we have to but if he gets everything squared away say for instance two or three days from now he's got the place all cleaned up and he calls town hall and says can I please get a break on these uh fines and I've got it all cleaned up take another look and then he doesn't have to wait for two weeks or whatever for our next meeting more I believe the select board has the authority to to issue and only the select board to issue the license is that correct that's correct but as far as the fines go he could get relief from that oh we can suspend so once the violations have been evaded removed then we can we can cease the the fines that's just again we're seeking compli seeking compliance we don't want to um unfortunately we're not getting that so we're going to continue to rat up the fines until we get them to come to the table okay thank you okay we have a motion on the table do I have a second I'll second okay I have a motion in a second any further discussion amongst the board seeing none all those in favor I okay we're going to do business number 10 consider a vote to approve an application for an automatic Amusement device license KK cters Mr ansha thank you madam chair uh the applicant KK Carters I believe is here again I'll keep my comments brief this is a juke box I think a pre-existing juke box that was on the on the property um that uh was discovered we have a copy of the site plan um the uh the fil the building department coding Appliance reviewed the application um had no objections however stipulated as you can see in your packets that the egress path must not be blocked or reduced by the device fire rescue also reviewed the application has no objections questions of the applicant not really not not here move approval unless anybody else has any comments okay let me just read the motion to approve the application for an automatic Amusement device license filed by KK cter Corp doing business as anchor alhouse 100 David Straits as presented so moved second okay I have a motion in a second any further discussion amongst the board seeing none all those in favor I unanimous thank you very much good luck thank you okay consider a vote to approve an application for a secondhand dealer's license capstan yacht Court doing business as capstan Yachts 56 Grant nav Mr Rena thank you madam chair capston Yachts has been in business as the select board knows it's a present location for over two years now the applicant had not had I'm sorry the applicant had been operating under a Class 2 used C dealer license previously um which has been determined not to be the correct license for the sale of used boats in accordance with town code chapter 136 which governs secondhand dealer licenses uh boats are regulated property under the code um the president of capston Yachts Mr Kyle Smith submitted the application for secondhand dealer license back on December 30th police and fire rescue have reviewed the application and stated no objections to its approval uh the Harbor Master Mr GRE Frasier has reviewed the application stipulates the boats are not allowed to be tied up to town property without authorization of the harbor Master's office and the town property shall not be used for conducting business to include picking up or discharging customers or potential clients it's my recommendation Madam chair and board that the board approve the application for a secondhand dealers license capston yach Corporation doing business as capston Yachts questions Miss gostone uh yes a question for uh Mr Renshaw uh the stipulation from the Harbor Master is that based on past experience do you know I believe some some past observations perhaps uh Harbor Master indicated that um he just wanted to be on record in stipulating those conditions those Provisions be observed by the by the applicant any other questions does that need to be uh stipulated in the license does that need to be a condition of the license I I missed the question want to R talk you out uh the you know the Harbor Master reviewed the application stipulates that boats are not allowed to be tied up to town property without permission Town property cannot be used for conducting business including picking up and dropping off clients and potential customers so you want to know if that needs to be a condition written into the license it should be thank you um Madam chair I'll make a motion to approve the application for a secondhand dealers license capstan yacht Corporation DDA capstan Yachts 56 Granton Avenue fouth with the stipulation that boats are not allowed to be tied up to town property without permission of the harbor Master's office and that town property shall not be used for conducting business business to include picking up or discharging customers or potential clients okay we have a motion second okay we have a motion in a second any further discussion amongst the board seeing none all those in favor I I okay discuss seasonal communi designation and I'm going to throw that over to Mr Mcall and Miss Goldstone they requested that it be put on this agenda well uh thank you madam chair uh yeah well um the uh The Advisory Council has just started uh a meeting they had their first meeting a week or two ago uh I've actually brought this matter up to Lieutenant Governor Driscoll uh at the meeting that Mr Brown uh mentioned before uh I've also spoken to our state senator Dylan Fernandez and uh Kip Diggs who is state representative from barnable to who is on the advisory committee uh my purpose in in asking it be on the agenda was to at least start a discussion uh with respect to how or to what in what Manner uh we might look to become a seasonal Community as uh the packet indicates and Mr rure included the guidelines that have been put out by the U uh executive office of Housing and livable communities uh fouth did not make the cut uh with respect to an automatic inclusion as a seasonal Community but there is a process yet to be decided upon uh to allow uh other communities to uh uh to opt in uh and along with that does come certain responsibilities on the part of the seasonal Community those are out outlined in the guidelines uh with respect to what responsibilities would be on a town that does opt to become a seasonal community uh at the very least I think that um that we should be looking at the guidelines that stipulate and What U what we would need to show to uh to be a uh seasonal community at least we will be prepared for that uh if if if we learn of what the process will be uh and some of those criteria they're listed High rates of short-term rentals in relation to overall housing inventory I think what we've heard today that probably meet that significant population increases in seasonal visitors excessive disparities percentage of housing stock high high viol variation so I what I would ask the town manager and staff to do is to be looking at these criteria and to gather some of the data necessary to support it and then at least once the process is outlined we can have a discussion as to whether the pros of being becoming a seasonal Community uh are are are significant and any of the obligations that we have as a result of it would be in keeping with what we want to uh accomplish in any event uh those responsibilities include tiny homes and uh you know and using smaller lots and so forth all items that I think we have you know discussed before so that's all I wanted to say I'll turn it over to hang on one second Mr Brown go ahead go ahead go I was just going to say that I feel like it needs to go through the planning board as well because it's going to in involve zoning because if it says if you want to incorporate the tiny houses you have to use zoning uh to do it so I'd also be curious as to when and how this process is may be amended to allow f to meet the criteria so I think watching for that as well is important M Goldstone yeah I I would agree I think at this point it's um a matter of uh well watching and waiting but not passively ensuring that we we do um keep the pressure up uh to get this phase uh where additional communities are able uh to apply for that that designation um lieutenant governor uh Driscoll did say um on Friday that that um that is one of the top priorities of the working group uh similar to Mr Mcall I've been in touch with uh senators sier and fern Fernandez um who both say it's it's a top priority but I think just continuing um to be vocal that this is um important for other towns on the cape um that did not meet that immediate 35% and if if um Senator Fernandes can certainly signal to us when you know the process and how it's changing that would be great is that all you'd like to present at this point at this time I don't think absence of regulations during real certainty I don't think there's anything can't do anymore okay great thank you okay we're going to move on here an update on South Coast wind landfall at Brand point and recent concerns with South Coast wind messaging Mr Johnson stop thank you madam chair um so we received notice there were some good media coverage um or there was media coverage of uh South Coast receiving a permit from the Bureau of energy management um which caused us to just sort of recheck where fouth stands with respect to this project and as I think the board is aware but certainly for the Public's knowledge we have not had any active conversations with South Coast for um better part of two years now uh they have shifted their focus for the the project has broken up into two phases each 12200 megawatt two separate cables and they shifted their focus to the first phase going to Braden point and that has cleared many of the perming Milestones um we did get some clarification from South Coast that the second phase is also planned to go to Braden point at least that is their first alternative and even they have they have various verbiage for describing their Alternatives they have several different um locations within Braden point that they're looking at there is a variant still for phase two for fouth um however there has not been any active permanent movement with the energy facility sightings board or other state agencies on that fouth variant um so I I don't I'll be honest I don't have a full grasp of all of the intricacies of their perming process because it's you know there are many agencies involved and it's pretty vast um but in the process of getting this clarification I also did check the South Coast website and it it did have some misleading information there that implied that the town was actively supporting the project which is simply not the case as the board is aware there was an initial investigation and dialogue which really did never got very far um so they did subsequently update their website and it no longer has misleading statements about the town being actively supporting the project or receiving Revenue as a result of the project none of that has been determined thank you and I appreciated you updating um the language Mr Brown just like to comment that I don't want to make it sound like to the public that we' just been all negative with this project because we we're willing we were willing to meet with them and we did offer them six alternate sites for their consideration we didn't get much feedback so that's where it ended I would agree with that any other comments M go um yeah Mr Johnson stop I'm not sure when your last conversations with uh South Coast were do you have any sense of what um the new federal uh I don't know Pro prohibition I don't know what the exactly the right word is um stop work on offshore wind means uh my understanding is they're fully permitted but I'm not sure if that is enough for that to be considered at the federal level in process and able to move forward or if they're essentially on hold yeah so my last communication with them was January 10th um and so yeah I don't have insight as to exactly um what it you know what the uh the recent Trump Administration decision means for them um there is an article on the um in the Enterprise from Friday that makes a reference to most of the federal permits have been received but there may still be some you know some lesser thresholds to cross so that's as much as I know thank you what do you know any other comments well they they cut their funding of the Cape Cod Marathon so I think that's a pretty telling indication as well they've been a prime sponsor for a couple of years and they're not sponsoring it this year okay we're going to move on review and discuss meal and travel policies and Mr rer I'm going to cut you back a little bit on this on time because I believe that uh this is a first read go ahead perfect yes uh Madam chair it is a first read um a few months ago I I requested that our finance director uh working with assistant Town manager uh draft uh a set of policies with regards to uh meal reimbursement travel lodging reimbursements um is is indicated in the packet best practices um I was I was kind of surprised quite honestly that the town didn't have a policy in place to kind of govern that and regulate that um as Madam chair indicated this is a first read you have a copy of the draft policies this actually started a year ago um our previous Finance director sat down with me and and and and indicated the need for the policy so it started back with that Santo and du culminated with Laura citen the new Finance director putting this together working with assistant Town manager um in in in effect what this does um particularly with regards to meal uh expense reimbursement is based on the US general Services Administration GSA rates as you all probably know um and Peter can talk a little bit uh more detail about this based upon um particular um zones and and in cities um the rates um for instance uh rates reimbursement rates in Boston are likely going to be higher than uh don't want to say de Mo Iowa um so larger Municipal areas you get a higher reimbursement amount um so again basic best practices um currently um without in the absence of a policy I think the town does a great job but it's it's left more in the discretion of the Town accountants to kind of make the decision and make the call as far as reimbursement what's reasonable you know in looking at Massachusetts General law um so this removes that gray area so to speak and uh and really uh memorializes um this in in in a policy in two policy documents um so if you Happ answer any questions again this is a this is a first read um we're going to be bringing this back again for a potential vote but uh if you have any questions tonight I'd be happy to try to answer those um but it'll be brought back in the subsequent meeting for so would the board like more time to send their feedback to Mr renad regarding the development of this policy Mr Brown I would recommend it might be something that uh staff would comment on as well right I mean they're going to be probably more impacted than we will true well I me so uh so we meet Peter and I meet um monthly with the uh senior management team and then um quarterly with the larger uh Management Group so we can certainly kind of take this out to the Troops so to speak and get their feedback haven't done that yet quite honestly we can do that that would be my thought who gostone personally I'll say I'm I'm glad that we're creating the policy so that there's no more gray area I don't see a need for the select board to nitpick a a staff policy of this sort it's based on uh best practices and and seems pretty thorough I'd have to concur with the with that as well okay so I think um you are not asking us for a vote however it is a first read I would say take it back have staff review it and then bring it back to us for a vote I agree okay but it looks good though I mean make sense it hits everything um okay we're going to move on to consider a letter of support for the Grant application of Tisbury Towing and transportation Mr Rena thank you madam shair uh in your packets this evening is a copy of a draft letter of supports um in in addition to some information in regards to this Marine Highway program uh Transportation grant program it's administered by the maritime Administration I'm not an expert in it but I have visited their website a couple of times uh funds for this Marine Highway program Grant are awarded on a very competitive basis to projects on designated US Marine Highway routes that provide a coordinated and capable alternative to landside Transportation or that promote Marine Highway Transportation you have a copy of a sorry December 20th 2024 U Martha Vineyard Times article that I think does a good job of outl in uh the goals of uh RM Packer uh or I should say Tisbury Towing and transportation companies Grants application in effect they're looking to construct a new boat ramp at the Tisbury Marine Terminal which proponents of the grants application say could help relieve the steam chip authority of hazardous materials and trash and increase commercial transportation between the island and New Bedford if awarded construction of a new boat ramp repairs to existing bulkhead and modernizing electricity will help expand and ttts Tisbury Towing and transportations business operation and streamline the Island's commercial transportation I did Madam chair of Select board have a chance uh earlier this week uh La late last week I should say to talk to Debbie Packer uh of the company um she's excited that the select board is taking it up tonight considering uh issuing a letter of support for their Grant application um a lot of the data in terms of removing the uh the amounts of Vehicles you can see in the packet here um they talk about um 33 tractor trailers uh reducing um the amount of traffic uh on fouth roads by 33 tractor trailers um and talking to Debbie she mentions that you know their business really is about it's less about removing the tractor trailers and and and basically moving aggregate materials from New Bedford on barges I think is is what they use um across um versus eliminating you know per se transporting uh tractor trailers uh by by Ship by by faer um but it has the same effect reduces uh truck traffic through fou in particular in the woodo area so Madam chair I'd be happen to answer any questions um again Debbie Packer was very much um enthused that the select board is taking it up um the uh draft letter of recommendation or letter of support I should say um is eily similar uh to a a letter that the Duke County Commissioner Commission recently approved last month actually um but again I haveen to answer any questions but my recommendation would be that the select board approve the draft letter of support for the federal Marine Highway project Grant application which is being submitted by Tisbury Towing and transportation questions from the board Mr MC uh Ju Just A a comment I I certainly support the uh the initiative and the Grant application uh with respect to the letter itself however um much of letter seems like um you know this is independently known to us and um I'm not sure that that all of that information really is uh I mean it comes from our understanding of the Grant application newspaper articles your discussion with u m miss packer so I I would maybe urg to take a look at the letter and maybe frame it in such a way that does doesn't indicate that you know we have made these decisions or come to these conclusions ourself based on information that uh that we may not you know actually have ourselves and the only other comment i' have with respect to the letter is the U the third paragraph from the bottom discusses the benefit to uh to the six towns and residents of Martha's Vineyard you know I think we might want to just uh you know change that wording to make it more why it's important to the town of fouth uh and why we're supporting it and I think the paragraph above that actually does indicate where it's of a value to uh to fouth to be uh in support of this the congestion on Woods Hole Road and at this terminal so that's my my suggestion I think the the board wants at least I want to support the application I just think the letter you know may need may may be better if it was looked at a little differently and maybe some tweaks made to it that's my comments what the language particular are you talking about where uh it says we want to be clear that this would not just benefit te DT and the Tisbury and woods hle communities you know but but all six towns and residents of of Martha Vineyard I mean I I think we just you know stick to why it's important for the entire town of found I would agree with that and I I think I would agree with focusing on woodo given what we just went through tonight so well go ahead yeah the people in the vineyard have been uh concerned about traffic and asking for better planning for quite a long time and I'm not completely I'm not sure why we would opine necessarily on that I I think I think we make the statement that we're fully in support of it but I think we tie it more to how it affects our community and Madam chair um so in my conversation with miss packer she gave me some additional data points that are very specific to fouth and I agree I again I didn't want to use plagiarize the letter written by by Dy just to get it on the agenda tonight so I I assume there was going to be some some tweaks yeah and that's all I suggest and as far as that goes You Know redraft It submit it to to to the chair we'll make that change go ahead and and send it but I just so can I make a motion Mr Mcall that uh motion to approve sending a letter of support support for the federal Marine Highway project Grant application submitted by Tisbury touring and transportation with the stated amendments yeah with yes certainly I'll make that note okay maybe there should be a a mention of the environmental impact as well not just the the relief of the is that already no it's not really Spilled Out again M Packer gave some information in regards to envir Environmental benefits too is all included I trust that that redraft would be you know exactly what we want to say uh and un comfortable with it that leaving it at that okay so we have a motion I will second that motion okay we have a motion in a second any further discussion amongst the board seeing none all those oops do you want any comment would you like to comment sir very quickly thank I don't always take comments on business uh I'm Phil Logan I'm representing uh Southeast Regional Transportation citizens task force smart we strongly endorse the your intended letter of support the chisbury towing okay improvements of chisbury Towing's Freight Ram including barging infrastructure will help the vineyard and will permit carrying to and from the bed for at least a portion of the freight that's always increasing that now passes through Woods as you know more than 60,000 trucks now pass through fth and Woods Hole each year by smarts best estimate 80% of those passed by new bed on I95 I15 improvements Tisbury Towing's infrastructure would benefit not only the vineyard and Woodle residents but all those residents and visitors have pass over the born Bridge who travel and live along the born def fam car thanks for your support okay we have a motion in a second on the table any further discussion amongst the boards seeing none all those in favor I thank you for bringing that okay and our last one uh vote articles and execute the warrant for April 2025 I'm just going to remind everyone that we are not debating we are simply reviewing them and executing the warrant tonight Mr Rena thank you madam chair included in your packets tonight is a draft of the in both the index and the town meeting warrants as slug board knows uh the board will be voting the recommendations on these articles at their meeting on February 24th February 10th was scheduled to hear uh petition article presentations um the proposed April 2025 annual town meeting warrants includes 42 total articles of which 32 are Financial including three petition articles and 17 Community preservation articles I'll I'll select board knows this but I'll just make the point um the uh CPC approved articles uh the select board is obligated to to vote to approve those and put them on the warrant um we have included an article and I'm going to just go through these briefly and then we'll go through each um I'll run through through those and answer any questions you may have uh We've included an article to amend the physician classification plan specific changes to the plan will be identified again in the recommendation there's an article that seeks authorization to enter a lease of land or buildings for the install of solar energy there's another article Madam Shar and board that would seek to expand the veterans exemption through acceptance of general laws chapter 59 Section 5 Clause 22nd J this is known as the heroes act which authorizes an annual increase in the amount of the exemption granted by 100% basically doubles the exemption to qualified um veterans and their their spouse's families uh another article seeks to authorize the select board to petition the general court for special act to amend the Charter to establish a licensing commission as has been discussed in previous select board meetings um this article does not start that does not um have any such language it basically gives us the authorization working with Town Council to draft that uh petition so you that information will come back to select board at a future time uh town meeting would be voting to approve us going forward with that process um so with that what I'd like to do and I'm going to um rely on assistant Town manager to help me out with this if I um need any any assistance but we'll just go through each of the Articles again there's 42 total 17 of them are CPC and uh there's three petition articles that we'll be hearing about on February 10th um as you can see uh the first uh few articles um well the first couple are hearing reports and shoing town officers fixing salaries of elected officials uh you can see moderator town clerk select board members and the chair of Select board in article three article four as I mentioned previously uh seeks to amend the town's position classification plan Article Five um seeks to vote to appropriate uh monies as may be May deemed necessary to defay Town's expenses and determine how the same shall be raised and by whom expended article six um votes to appropriate a sum of money from the special education stabilization fund for the purpos of funding costs associated with providing special education this article 7 uh is a vote to appropriate a sum of money the capital Improvement and debt stabilization fund as you recall we combin uh those two the the capital Improvement and debt debt stabilization fund into one fund um for the purpose of cap future Capital Improvements article 8 is to see if the town will vote to appropriate sum of money is for the purpose of wage settlements to employees um of the town and to determine how the same may be raised and by whom expended or take any other action again more details will be provided in the recommendation article 9 uh seeks to uh see if the town will vote to raise an appropriate sum of money to other post employment benefits the oped trust fund for further appropriation do you have a amended number for that yes um do we have aend number do you have uh we we do bear with me than uh 500,000 good thank you uh article 10 um is raise an appropriate amount of money to the F with the form of a housing fund or take any other action on the matter is that 950,000 850 uh yeah 850 plus 100 yep 950 950,000 total article 11 is uh seeking Town vote to transfer some sum of money within the fiscal year 2025 budget to make necessary adjustments article 12 is to seek a vote to appropriate a sum of money to supplement the FY 25 budget approved by Article 5 of April 8th 201 24 annual town meeting Article 13 is seeking to authorize um use of the following resol revolving funds for certain Town departments under mgl chapter 44 uh there's a chart included in your packets outlining those five line items the revolving funds article 14 uh seeking a vote to appropriate sum of money for Capital and other spending and determine how the same be raised and by whom expended um I'll make a quick mention of this um there's going to be again some additional detail um one of the Committees recently appointed the 250th committee is looking to make some uh so for some additional funds to fund some of the projects and whatnot for the 250th celebration uh Peter and I have been working to include some additional funds for that purpose so that's one just very small element within that article 14 Article 15 uh seeks a vote to appropriate sum of money to fund the engineering design and construction of the Wastewater collection system for the northeastern part of the Marist Peninsula this is obviously the large one um for pump stations and force M to convey the Wastewater to the town's main wastewater treatment facility and the rehab of the town's existing northernmost open sand beds for discharge of treated Wastewater the next four articles are petition articles uh again some more detail will be provided during presentations of the next meeting on February 10th article 16 seeks to appropriate a sum of $48,750 from C preach uh for the purpose of conducting an assessment of equipment and installation cost to incorporate urine diversion technology in 50 homes 17 Again related to urine diversion seeks to appropriate a sum of $94,200 [Music] article 18 the uh third petition or article uh seeks Town vote to transfer and appropriate a sum of $80,000 from the faer embarcation fund for the purpose of funding costs associated with the provision of a police detail in a pilot uh to uh the village of woods hle 7 days per week eight hours per day again um pilot period from July 1 2025 through September 13th of 2025 uh the last petition article Article 19 seeks uh a town vote to amend chapter 191 Solid Waste in the code of Falmouth by adding prohibition of the sail and release of balloons inflated with lighter than air gas you can uh includeed in your packets again as a a brief explanation purpose and intent of that petitioner article article 20 is to see if the town will vote to accept the provisions of chapter 59 Section 5 Clause 22nd J again this is the hero act that I mentioned which in effect doubles the existing benefits to qualified uh individuals article 21 seeks a town uh vote to authorize the select boards at least certain portions of land or buildings owned by the town as further described below um there's uh you're going to see this on the 24th when we present the recommendations there's a list of uh town-owned buildings and land um which uh the sustainability specialist has put together um has done quite a bit of uh evaluation and study for these particular Town assets um and again seeking a town vote to authorize the lease of those properties for that purpose article 22 seeks the town vote to appropriate a transfer from the community preservation fund some of money U friends relatives with Autism and Related disabilities or forward um for the rock Phase 2 Regional community housing project and man select board I should have mentioned uh the next 17 articles literally articles 22 through 38 are those Community preservation committee articles which have been already approved by the CPC so the board is is obligated to to vote those to the warrants so unless there's any specific questions with regards to those CPC I'll save a bit of time and and not go through each of those but we can certainly return to any one of those if there is a question that I can try to answer um moving on to article 39 is to seek to a vote to authorize the select board to accept from Margaret sharf Demi and Barbara dimmi Collins as trustees um a certain piece of property a gift of land shown as portion of zero hatchville Road described in the Assessor's partial ID 21- 06- 01-a it's about 7,968 Square ft so a very small parcel uh a budding land owned by the town of felm withth Conservation Commission article 40 um seeks a vote to authorize the select board to petition general court for special act to amend the fouth charter to establish again the fouth licensing commission the said licensing commission to be the local licensing Authority for the time of fouth with the power to issue suspend modify cancel or revoke licenses to sell alcohol pursuant to chapter 138 of general laws entertainment licensees pursued to to chapter 140 of the general laws and any other license deemed appropriate and desirable by the select board article 41 seeks a town vote to authorize select board to lease land and fil Village area for municipal parking purposes and Peter this is the uh is it Martha's Vineyard Bank parcel yeah you want so this is an article that's needed in order to issue an RFP actually to um seek competitive proposals from any properties that might be willing to lease land for parking and and Martha's Vineyard bank would be one of those that we would hope would submit a proposal thank you Peter and lastly article 42 is uh an article seeking Town vote to authorize select board to accept a gift of an access easement on a parcel of land owned by the church of the Messiah in Woods Hole um the said easement would be used for Access purposes over said parcel the church land to and from The Shining sea Bikeway and a further appropriate sum of money for cost incidental and related there to so Madam chair select board it's kind of a a quick recap or summary of the 42 articles again um 17 of those are CP articles already approved by the community preservation committee and uh obligated to place those on the warrant and the four petition articles that I I've described so be happy to answer any questions before board may have questions on questions on any of the Articles go ahead um not exactly I guess a statement more than a question um as came up with the the fall town meeting warrant as well [Music] um I guess a a statement of personal preference that I understand we're just setting the warrant now and we will vote recommendations now but articles that show up as on request of the select board it really feels to me as if those are things that shouldn't be a surprise when I read them on the town warrant they should be things that that we have actually discussed and um that that they're actually on request of the select board and so would just make a a request moving forward that item that are going to show up on the town warrant um should be things that we're we're actually discussing and and moving forward Mr Mcall uh yeah I actually just want to uh to make a comment and and acknowledge that the petitioner of Article 19 is is here in the uh in the audience uh this evening on a school night on a school night no l don't do petition articles tonight do we no it be February 10th but there's just an acknowledgement okay so you're not here to present are you okay I don't want to put you on the spot okay any other questions or comments he Madam chair it's my recommendation select board tonight uh vote the Articles and and execute the warrants as presented I move that we what is that motion motion to vote the Articles and execute the warrant for the April 2025 annual town meeting as presented second okay we have a motion in a second any further discussion amongst the board seeing none all those in favor I okay and I do need everyone to sign off on that before you leave okay we're going to move over to the consent agenda I'll readed through the consent agenda if any board member wants to hold an item please notify me administrative orders consider a vote to accept a donation of $4 and $50 Aldi gift cards totaling $2,000 from Falmouth Elks Lodge to the veterans department with our thanks considered to vote to accept a donation in the amount of $500 from the F Jewish congregation to the cultural Council donation account for music at the table again thank you consider a vote to accept a donation in the amount of $5,000 from the Katherine Goodman Foundation to the cultural Council donation account for music at the table it's a lot thank you consider a vote to accept a donation in the amount of $1,000 from Mr and Mrs March to the Falmouth Police Department consider a vote to submit a letter of intent to the National Estuary program watersheds grant program 2024 requests for proposals 2024 okay consider a vote to approve a request from the task force on the workforce sustainability to change the task force name to the task force for workers and families I'd like to just hold that for for discussion consider a vote to accept the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security and Department of fire Services DFS FY 2025 fire safety equipment Grant in the amount of25 ,000 okay I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda holding item F okay I have a motion I have a motion in a second any further discussion amongst the boards seeing none all those in favor I Mr Mcall for item I I really don't want to make a big deal about this but I don't understand how what what anyone would understand this task force to be when it says task force for for workers and families when the purpose of it I understand is to you know to to prevent the out people moving out of town and so forth I just don't think that uh in my opinion that that change of name indicates in any way really what uh what this uh what this task force will be doing it just it's task force for workers and families retaining workers and families right but that's not but it just says task I understand what they're doing I just don't think that the the name actually conveys what it is uh that that the that that the task force will be doing that's all just a comment I put it out there board wants to go forward that's that's fine but I just I just have trouble figuring out exactly what that's supposed to mean to people when they see that task force for worker and family retention well again it could be a number of I mean hon yes something like that I just I just don't think that name as presented really says anything to the public that's my comment once they get busy we get to know them it'll make sense as they said I I think they the reason for my understanding was they wanted the word sustainability taken out of there because they were getting calls and concerns about sustainability and they would and they thought that this was the best name for their group so because it came from within that group I'd like to move it forward and their mission does also mention families as well as Workforce so I think that was another part of the the desire to change that name was to ensure that was included in there I hear you that it doesn't say much about what they're trying to do for workers and families but again to to Doug's Point uh it's not always entirely clear from the name exactly what they're what they're doing but what's the name as I said before I certainly don't want to make it a big deal but I do think I I do think there's a better name out there to convey what it is but I certainly defer to uh to Max John's and the task force as to what they want to be called I they'll come back with another me later okay so does someone want to move that I'll make a motion to approve the request from the task force on Workforce sustainability to change the task force name to the task force for workers and families and I will second the motion okay we have a motion and a second on the table any further discussion amongst the boards seeing none all those in favor I okay we're going to move on did everyone have an opportunity to take a look at the minutes that's something we could put off till next week if you want I'm ready to say okay we have made amazing time I I had a feeling but go ahead all right I I move to uh approve the minutes of uh both meetings of public session of January 6 2025 The Joint meeting with the zba and the regular meeting of the select Board i' second that okay have a motion in a second any further discussion amongst the board seeing none all those in favor I I and how about public session January 6 2025 have people okay do I have a second sorry second I thought we done both I thought we did to but oh oh yes you did Regular meeting I'm sorry that was my mistake so you approved it perfect okay save more time all right Town manager supplemental report Mr Rena thank you madam chair real quickly I just want to uh select board is aware of the press release that was issued uh today in regard to the uh John Neil baseball complex um but for the benefit of the public that perhaps had not seen it uh we posted some information on the website with regards to that release I want select board in the community to know uh that the town is very much concerned um our priority right now is is is the safety of the community um we we have a consultant that we've engaged with um it was the first kind of testing of the soils and it's a it's it's basically a uh some some non-compliance SS uh were were discovered as a result of if you all recall the phase one improvements of the ball field the light poles that were placed yeah required some borings um to to set those light poles the spoils from that project replaced on site and piled up um when we tried to have our subcontractor remove that pile of soil it was discovered that there was some metals and glass in it so we had to have that tested goes back to December 20th when we Engage The Services of our consultant Arcus uh our LSP uh to go out and and test that soil and as a result of that initial testing um lead Arsenic and pcbs were discovered in that soil um the did 14 borings kind of scattered strategically throughout the entire complex and uh some additional um non-compliance soils we discovered on site uh so I want the commun select board to know and the community to know um that we've had an initial discussion with mass D Department of Environmental Protection um we're developing a plan going forward to address it um it's going to be a work in progress we're we're currently awaiting the results of a of an additional uh analysis of those soils it's called a risk assessment it's going to give us an indication of specifically where on the on the site um the exposures are are are our greatest um It's Our Hope um working with the mass DP uh that uh we we will be able to phase in remediation and mitigation so that we'll perhaps be able to utilize some of the fields going forward as we kind of phase in the uh the remediation All That Remains to be seen and it's probably premature for me to even say it but that's that's the hope questions Mr mcell Mr Brown just a quick one what what what impact will that have uh on article 23 the uh I I assume it will have a big impact on on that uh CPC article with respect to the field so so yes s uh Madam chair SL board member Mcall um it will uh Peter and I are going to be scheduling a presentation uh to the CPC they were involved as the select board was um and as was the Board of Health and the recreation committee um of the is of the ISS um today um so we're going to be scheduling a presentation to the CPC um Town Council has done a bit of research more can you kind of just hit on that briefly I don't want to misstate anything eligibility of the funds uh just briefly I don't want to get too far away from what's in the agenda but um I just did some preliminary research just to ensure um that CPC funds uh CPC eligible uses um for those funds include any kind of um work to the land to make it usable for any any of the CPC um proper purposes Mr Brown I'm just curious should we think about maybe a contingency plan for the season because who knows how long it might go maybe like the administration be ball field we certainly we certainly will um take a look at some optional Fields um and we've had some some very preliminary discussions on that that contingency plant if you know we're not able to utilize the current fields in anyway but again I just wanted to uh make an announcement to the public I thought i''d be remiss if I did not mention it tonight um the other only other comment I have Madam chair um just wanted to uh give a a preview of uh potential future uh agenda items that are coming up in the next uh month month or so uh discussion of um land acknowledgements uh policy member of the community requested that be brought in front of the select board um there's a uh a couple of residents that have circulated petitions for a green dog off leash program um that's going to be hitting an agenda within the next month or so and lastly a discussion on immigration enforcements um we going to bring that to the select board for of a PO a policy discussion you that's a policy on that I was going to do a recognition on that but we have so many tonight I didn't want to overload it sorry about the time that took me to get through uh but that is all I have motion thank you okay any select board reports yes yes um a few and on the the note of uh future agenda items which uh by the way I really appreciate um uh as mentioned uh Mr Brown Mr mcal and myself all attended uh the uh Massachusetts Municipal Association uh conference um on Friday and Saturday as did uh Mr Johnson stab um and uh one item of note is uh the uh Municipal empowerment act um which uh lieutenant governor uh Driscoll is strongly encouraging uh local officials uh because that very much uh influences uh our potential Revenue sources as well as a number of other authorities to take a look at that act and provide input so would love to see that on a future agenda um also a couple of uh questions or requests um coming from a couple of the Committees to which I'm alaon the deib um committee is beginning a planning process for their activities for the coming year uh so if other members of the select board have any uh thoughts on items or topics they would like that committee to consider uh taking up this year uh that input would be welcome and uh from the beach committee um a request for updates on two processes one is the uh build townwide building assessment and how that might impact um uh the ability of the beach Department to to move into a a new home um and also an update on um the RFP process for uh the food trucks that uh will uh will be issuing for this summer not the the full food truck RFP next year but for this year great thank you thank you Mr Mcall no nothing come on Mr Brown uh I attended the water quality management committee uh meeting this week and they are trying to decide if they have a sufficient material to bring a report to the select board but one of the things that they're grappling with is the um the equity of mandated IAS and whether the town should find a way to help offset that cost it's going to be a townwide thing to consider that's one thing that they're working on another one is the um oh sorry I did that I'm sorry sorry another one is the uh Health agent I mean the health department is propagating regulations for mandating the IAS and there's some thought of uh mandating them in sewer areas that are not going to be sewer within 5 years and I felt like I spoke it to that comment I just said hope we don't mandate people to change their septic systems and then in a short time later make them hook up to septics sewers so that's something for us to think about going forward um the next thing uh the agricultural committee they've identified a need for some it help and I'm sure a lot of committees need need that and it made me think that I wonder if this the town might want to sponsor some sort of a group of retired it people make some kind of a it help committee which might be something that could happen I don't know if that's practical but I just I I noticed there was a need for it they could use help putting putting their website together they want to put some stuff on the town website but nobody really seems to have the capacity I know our policy now or informal policy has been that uh each department had managed their own it needs and I we've identified in the past that some departments are better at that than others and I don't know if that committee could also help staff or maybe it's just another bad idea but it just seems like the something we might try to think of going forward how we could make get some volunteer effort to to help with that we'll take a look at that I I know that we're currently having some some issues and Peter and I are going to be uh discussing with it um some of the U the virtual meeting uh the zoom meeting support um there was an issue with the Conservation Commission recently um so it kind of resulted in us taking a look at options and how we can better serve committees and you so in in boards so we can take a look at that okay great thanks thank you just one quick question um this was a long meeting I get it um but if we're going to be talking about about the land acknowledgement policy and we're going to be talking about the WMC and looking at whether we can help with IAS um and talking about the PO the um immigration pieces I'm wondering if we should do a workshop in February to Hash some of that out I think trying to take a look at the policy that was sent to us um in a meeting like this I just put it out there let me know if if you're on board with that or not i' prefer that than July I I think February is a good month unless I mean school vacation for some folks um who have kids and just get back to me about your thoughts about that and Mr Mcall it is 11:00 I'm going to ask you for a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn okay I I have a motion in a second any further discussion amongst the boards seeing none all those in favor I thank you folks all right have hour early e