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>> Welcome to the Falmouth Chamber of Commerce. >> The Falmouth Chamber is dedicated to working on behalf of our members to make Falmouth a better place to live, work, and conduct business. We are committed to developing the economic, cultural, educational, and civic interests of our
community and welcome the support from all organizations to achieve our combined goals. Whether you call Falmouth at home, are a summer resident, or a visitor, we hope you take advantage of all that the chamber has to offer. Hi, it's Brandon from Crane Appliance.
Since 1983, our goal as a family-owned company has been simple, to give our neighbors on the Cape 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 Cape Islands home. To wish everyone a happy and healthy new year. And uh if you wouldn't mind joining me with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. >> Um uh as as you can see, we are here at the
uh senior center and I'm going to turn it over to uh town manager Renshaw to just give a little uh update on our being here at the senior center. Thanks, Mr. Chairman, and good evening everyone. Um, yes, as the chairman indicated, going forward, actually from tonight going forward, uh, the select board is
going to be meeting here at the senior center. Uh, we're doing this for a couple of different reasons, quite honestly. Um, the first is that we have, um, other boards that are traditionally in the the garden terrace or basement of town hall um that we wanted to bring up um to have to allow and I'll use one in
particular, the board of health. move them up into the select board meeting room to allow their meetings to be recorded um because obviously they're very busy and active as well. Um so that was one reason and the other reason is quite honestly um depending on topics and I guess this could go with the the board of health as well sometimes um we
get overwhelmed in terms of lack of space um there's not a lot of seating as you all know at the town town hall select town hall meeting room so couple of different reasons we think this is going to work out well I did want to uh we we had an issue unfortunately um uh that we identified uh this afternoon in
regards to the video um there's some bandwidth issues tonight so I apologize for our residents watching from home tonight, you're going to notice a bit of a disrupted uh kind of a lag in the video in the speech. They're not syncing and that's a bandwidth issue that we're working on correcting. We're hoping by
the next select board meeting on the 26th of January that we'll have that issue corrected. Um so there will be, you'll notice a little bit of degraded video quality. Um I understand the audio is good. Um and uh and what's creating it, I'm told, is the new microphones. we have new fancy microphones and uh and
each each sleptboard member has their own rather than having to share and that's what's uh eaten up some of the capacity and caused that bandwidth issue. So, we're hoping to have that resolved. >> Okay. And thank you and uh and thanks to Jill Bishop and the whole staff here at the senior center for making this uh
available to us going forward. We appreciate her efforts. Uh so the first uh item is a proclamation and u I'm going to uh read it. Whereas YMCA Cape Cod has served the Cape Cod community for nearly 60 years by providing
programs that support youth development, healthy living, and social responsibility. And whereas the Upper Cape community continues to experience growing needs related to youth engagement, public health, water safety, and access to inclusive spaces that
strengthen community connection. And whereas the Don and Daddy Smith YMCA will serve as a permanent modern community resource designed to address these needs through wellness, aquatics, youth, family, and community programming. And whereas the Don and
Daddy Smith YMCA is expected to serve more than 10,000 residents annually and represents a long-term investment in the vitality, safety, and well-being of the town of Falmouth and the greater upper Cape region. Now therefore, we Robert P.
MScali, Heather MH Goldstone, Douglas C. Brown, Colin W. Reed, and Jack P. Richardson as members of the select board of the town of Felmouth by the authority vested in us do hereby proclaim today January 5th 2026 as the
Don and Daddy Smith YMCA day in the town of Falmouth and urge all residents to recognize the YMCA's contributions to the community health, safety, and quality of life. In witness whereof, we have here to set our hands and caused
the great seal of the town of Felmouth to be affixed on this fifth day of January, 2026. Someone like to come up and at least receive the proclamation. >> Thank you so so much. >> Now, thank you. Please introduce
yourself and tell everybody. >> Nice to see you, Stacy. Yes. >> Do I need to turn on? >> Yeah, there's a button on the front. >> It is. >> Yeah. >> Enough speeches to know where the button is, right? >> Well, good evening, Select Board. Thank
you so so much. I'm Stacy Pew, the president, CEO of the YMCape Cod. Uh we are really really appreciative of uh your proclamation this evening and really truly the partnership in helping us to bring this new YMCA to the town.
December 20th, our groundbreaking ceremony was a pretty unbelievable day. Mike, I saw you there. I didn't get a chance to chat with you very much, but it's just such an honor. Uh Jack, you know, helping us out with Senator Fernandez's office and Bob. Everyone has
just been so so supportive and we could not be happier about uh this project and Doug, you too. >> So, thank you all very much. Uh we're hoping two years from now we're cutting that ribbon together and uh celebrating and having a great time uh wandering
through that facility we took you on a vision tour of. >> Great, Staca. I'm going to ask you to give me that back the proclamation. We have to process it and then we'll make sure uh it gets to you. I just wanted you to know that it I just wanted you to know it was the real thing. That's that's all. Thank you for being here and
I lean in and the Clays and Bob Antonuchcci as well. Thank you very much all of you. Okay, the next order of business is recognition and I just want to recognize that uh our police chief Jeff Lori recently received the Massachusetts
Chiefs of Police Association's Hector J. Pelleteer award for his commitment to the Jimmy Fund and the family supported by Boston's Dana Farber Cancer Institute. The award is given each year to a member who shows the same
commitment to the Jim Jimmy fund as former Cohasset Police Chief uh Hector J. Pelleter. So uh uh kudo kudos to Chief Lori, Chief Lori for being uh you know involved with with that effort. Uh I know that uh uh everyone here uh joins
me in uh in thanking him and recognizing him for his uh his service. Thank you. Any other recognitions? Uh Mr. Richardson. >> Yeah, I just want to just want to recognize I attended um belonging to each other's uh annual
longest night. Uh and there was you know a multiffaith service uh about you know recognizing the needs of the homeless community and it was well attended by the community. So I just want to thank them and for all the faith organizations and for all the work of of belonging to each other. >> Anyone else?
Okay. Any announcements? >> Uh Felmouth Farmers Market starts indoor winter markets at Mullen Hall School this coming Sunday 12 to 3 and we'll be there every Sunday through the end of March which is a pretty exciting uh next step in expansion. Huh? Where's that >> cafeteria?
>> I believe the cafeteria or the gym. I'm not sure. >> Okay, that's good. >> And I think in that vein, Farming Falmouth is starting their series of community uh forums. I think um I think there are four scheduled, three of which
conflict with uh with select board meetings actually. So, I think the uh the one on uh January 16th or whatever that date is uh is not a select board meeting. So, I'm I'm hoping to be able to attend. Uh but
certainly the dates are on their website and I'm sure they'll be posted in the enterprise as well. Uh okay, our next item is for public comment. Uh if there anyone who is interested in public comment, please step up. If not, uh, I
will, uh, remember to mention to silence your cell phones if you haven't already and to notify the chair if you are making a video or audio recording of this open session meeting. The placement and operation of the recording equipment should not interfere with the conduct of
the meeting. Okay. Uh, we'll proceed to our consent agenda. Uh, first is licenses. uh consider a vote to approve the application by FMA theater guild for three special one-day all alcoholic
beverages licenses to be held at Highfield Hall Highfield Theater 58 Highfield Drive on January 23 to 25, January 30 to February 1 and February 6 and 7, 2026.
Number two, consider approval of the renewal of the annual all alcohol restaurant license, common victual license, and entertainment license for the Pizza Bar LLC, DBA Papa Jake, located at 146 Sandwich Road, East
Balmouth. Consider a vote to approve the application by Historic Highfield, Inc. located at 56 Highfield Drive for a special 1-day all alcoholic beverages license for a Burns night supper on
January 24th, 2026 from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Moving to administrative orders, consider a vote to approve and sign the regulatory agreement for 805 Gford Street Extension. Number two, consider a vote to add a
second April meeting date of April 27th to the 2026 select board meeting calendar. Number three, consider a vote to approve an expenditure in excess of $500 from the fire rescue department donation
account for CPR program purpose for the purchase of replacement hearts saver and basic life support BLS instructor manuals for the volunteer CPR instructors. Number four, consider a vote to approve
an expenditure in excess of $500 from the fire rescue donation account for the purchase of a replacement commercialgrade treadmill at the fire headquarters station. Excuse me.
Consider a vote to approve the 2026 seasonal population increase estimation form for submittal to the alcoholic beverages control council. Number six, consider a vote to approve the annual license renewal certification
for 2026 to be forwarded to the alcoholic beverages control commission. And number seven, consider a vote to appoint the town accountant, Victoria Rose. >> Approval of the consent agenda. >> Second.
>> Okay, we have a motion in a second. Any further discussion hearing? Seeing none, all in favor? >> I. >> Okay, thank you. We will move on to committee interviews. Uh and we were advised uh earlier today that uh Patricia Pinta D Salva uh was unable to
be here this evening because of a health issue and will be with us on January 26th I believe. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. But we do have David. Uh so uh you want to come up and you want to uh give
us a little introduction Mr. >> Wu. I sure will. Thank you. Hi Raven. Uh so Mr. chair and select board. The mission of the cultural council, as you know, is to promote to promote excellence, inclusion, education, and diversity in the arts, humanities, and interpretive sciences in order to foster a rich
cultural life and contribute to the economic vitality of our community and they do a fantastic job with that. I've enjoyed over the past couple of years working with the committee and Alice in particular. Hi, Alice. Um, there are currently three vacancies, Mr. Chair, on the FIA cultural council. Uh, and I
think maybe unfortunately a fourth because we just received word of a resation. So there may be four vacancies as of tonight. Um and as you mentioned um Raven is here with us. Raven is a student at Felmouth Academy. Uh Raven is available to give her give time to the cultural council after school and on
weekends and can offer perspectives on grants and has skills that could aid the cultural council. So with that, I'll turn it over to Raven. >> Okay. When I first heard that I had the opportunity to serve on the Fmouth Cultural Council, I was ecstatic. I thought that this is an amazing
opportunity and that I recognize how much the Felmouth Cultural Council does for the town of Falmouth. Their contributions and funding to projects in the art and community are vital to the town of Felmouth. Town of Falmouth's community and art programs are very
important and the Felmouth Cultural Council is one of those things that make those happen and I would be honored to serve as a board member. >> Okay. Thank you. Do you have any specific plans or improvements that you could see on the commission for the cultural council?
>> I hope to provide a um unique perspective being a student who is um younger and also involved in the arts myself. So I hope to offer a new perspective. >> Okay, Dr. Wilson. >> I think there are uh a lot of students
in Felmouth who uh if asked would have no idea that the cultural council exists or what they do in the community. And so I'm curious how you found out um and and became aware of the vital role. >> It was actually um a couple teachers at my school um George SH in particular who
recommended this to me and um really made me aware of this um amazing opportunity and council. >> Great. >> Yeah. No, the only thing I'm going to say and then I'll I'll make the motion is uh Raven's already put in the work. I was at the last cultural council meeting
and Raven sat in on it to see if it was uh you know for them and then you had fantastic contributions. Uh so with that um I once I get the thing in front of me u piece of advice make sure you're prepared uh when you when you do things
and you have stuff in front of you. So, um I uh I just just need the dates. Uh motion to appoint uh Raven Wa Tvarez to the cultural council for a term ending June
30th, 2028. Uh oh. Do you prefer 2028 or 2026? >> Uh 2026. >> Okay. So mo uh motion to appoint Raven uh Winto Tvarez to the cultural council for a term ending uh for the unexpired
term ending June 30th, 2026. >> Second. >> Have a motion and a second. Any further discussion hearing and seeing none, all in favor? >> I >> Okay, good luck. Thank you very much for stepping up. >> If you like it, we'll see you back here in June to put you on again. >> I hope so.
>> Okay. Yeah. Right on schedule. We have a uh public hearing scheduled for 6:45. I'll ask Dr. Goldstone to read the uh the notice. Notice is hereby given that the select board of the town of Felmouth will hold a public hearing on Monday, January 5th,
2026 at 6:45 p.m. uh in the Old Silver Surf Drive program room at the Senior Center, 780 Main Street, Felmouth, Massachusetts, on the application of AMG Real Estate LLC for a wastewater flow variance under chapter 180 section 56 of
the code of Falmouth, the so-called flow neutral bylaw for redevelopment of commercial residential property proposed proposing uh to maintain a dentist office and two residential units on the first floor and to construct a new building which would contain 20 new
residential units at 303 Dillingham Avenue, Insaid Felmouth, parcel 3921002B002 per order of the select board. >> Thank you, Mr. Renure. >> Just a real quick uh comment because I see Kevin here ready to speak. So, Mr. Chair, select board, included in your
packet are a couple of significant documents. One is the guidelines for the select board for waiver variance consideration. So, you should all have that in your packet. Um the uh and it goes over the criteria and the priority priority areas uh for which the select board should consider waiver variance
consideration. Economic development being one of those affordable housing which I think fits this category mixeduse development and business redevelopment zone. Um also included in your packets tonight um is a memorandum from the wastewater superintendent um
Mrs. Amy lol uh indicating um the uh increase in average flow if I'm reading this correctly to be approximately 1,650 gallons per day and a mention here that we currently have 82,000 gallons per day of capacity in the existing system. Also
is a memo or a note I should say email from our health agent Scott Mcan indicating that on November 3rd the health board heard a flow neutral bylaw referral uh for 303 Dillingham for an increase in wastewater flow. Um, after reviewing the applicant's plan, the board voted that a title five septic
system could be cited on the property without significant variances and that's also one of the requirements for select board consideration. With that, I'll stop and turn it over to Mr. Clower. >> Mr. Clower, >> before I begin, uh, is the podium miked up? >> Yes. >> I work better with podium. >> Okay.
>> You may just need to hit the button for the mic. >> That should be on now. Okay. Wonderful. Thank you uh uh town manager, members of the select board. For the record, my name is Kevin Clower. I'm an attorney here in town with Amed Clower Law Firm and I am before you tonight representing
AMG Real Estate LLC who which is the owner of 303 Dillingham Avenue. We're here requesting a waiver of the flow neutral bylaw uh as we're proposing a development under the mixed residential commercial overlay district which goes by the very unfortunate name of Mr. Cod.
Uh but that will increase the wastewater flow more than 10% above the existing. 303 Dillingham is a 1.7 acre parcel located at the eastern end of Dillingham Avenue. Presently, it's developed with a dentist office, a chiropractor's office, two residential units, all of which are
in one building on the eastern side of the lot. The applicants are proposing to maintain the existing building with those offices and those two units, as well as constructing a new uh building which would house 20 residential units under the Mr. COD bylaw. That bylaw allows for
the development of 20 units per acre if they're maintained as rentals and if at least 25% are restricted as affordable. In this case, there's 20 new residential units proposed, which is a total of 30 new bedrooms. Um, with the existing development, it'll result in 22
residential units, six of which will be restricted as affordable, and pursuant to the bylaw, all 22 would be uh eligible for the SHI. To be clear, this is not a 40B. This is a byright proposal under the Mr. COD bylaw. However, though it is by right, the increase in wastewater flow requires a variance from
this board. So, to this point, we've submitted to the board of health a plan showing that we could in fact site a septic system on this property if we were allowed to, which we can't because it's on sewer, but we need to show that we have the ability to do so. So, we did we did that. That was confirmed by uh
Mr. Man. And uh Miss LOL has also confirmed that there is sufficient discharge capacity to allow for this proposal. It's no secret that Felmouth desperately needs apartments, which was the impetus for the Mr. Cod bylaw. This proposal complies with those requirements. Um,
the site is appropriate. It's an the existing site's already developed with buildings and pavement, a large parking area. It's close to public transportation, um, employment opportunities, shopping, and most importantly, it's on the town sewer. The select board guidelines give preference uh to the issuance of waiverss to this
bylaw to certain developments. included in those categories is affordable housing which this provides and also mixeduse developments in the business redevelopment area. However, u that was written before the Mr. Cod overlay district was in existence and developments in the Mr. Cod overlay provide the same exact benefits as a
mixed development in a business redevelopment area. So for those reasons I believe that the board can and should grant a waiver from the flow neutral bylaw for this proposed development and I'd be happy to address any questions that the board might have. >> Mr. Mr. Could you explain on the
affordables what would be the income? >> I believe Mr. Cod uh restricted to 100% of affordability, but uh that's would we'd have to work that out with a regulatory agreement that this board would have to review and approve. >> So is it set at 100% or they go a little
bit? >> It would be it would be either 80 or 100 whichever the bylaw provides for and I just don't recall that off the top of my head. M >> Mr. Chair, if I might I I think the the town planner is indicating to me that Mr. COD requires 80% of area median income. >> Okay. >> Then would be doing 80%.
>> Well, you know, I think this project exists perfectly in my opinion. I think it's wonderful. >> Motion to close public hearing. I'm sorry. >> Anyone in the public care to say, Mr. Brown, >> I just want to confirm they're uh
rentals, so they'll all count toward the subsidized housing inventory. Correct. >> My understanding is that when held as uh as afford well when when held as rentals that as long as 25% are are restricted as affordable that the entirety of the development counts towards the SHI,
>> but yes, these would all be held as rentals. >> Motion to close second to close the public hearing. Any further discussion hearing? Seeing none. >> I >> I >> Okay. Any further discussion amongst the
board members with respect to the application? >> I I mean in addition to all of the other things listed about positives and I agree with you exactly why Mr. Cod exists. Um this is 20 new housing units that will be walkable to the veteran center, the wreck, and the senior center
as well as all of the other amenities. So yeah, I think it's a a terrific location for it. And I uh Jack did not take your advice and I am not prepared with the motion in front of me, but would love to make a motion to uh grant a flow neutral bylaw
variance uh for a peak Title 5 flow increase from the property uh of 3,300 gallons per day and an average annual flow increase of 1,650 gallons per day as requested. >> Second. We have a motion in a second. All in
favor? >> I I >> I thank you, Mr. Cloud. >> Thank you very much. I'm glad I made it in time because I showed up at town hall and looked inside the room and went, "Oh, no." >> Well, seems like we're going to be here more often. So, >> um before we move on in the thing, this has nothing to do with the vote, but
just has a question for the town manager and assistant town manager. In the memo provided by Miss LOL, it was stated she suggested that the select board review this and all flu uh flow neutral bylaw variance requests with the limited
remaining discharge capacity in mind. Do we have a list of variance requests? Do we have an idea of what will be needed for some of the big projects so that we earmark the remaining 80,000 plus uh gallons?
>> Mr. Chairman and select board member uh Reed, we do not currently have a listing. We we process these variance requests as they come in. Um we to my knowledge and maybe um the community uh development director can speak to anything that's in the pipeline currently that number of 82 82,000
gallons per day of remaining capacity is important and as the board considers these variances keeping keeping that 82,000 gallons per day in mind is important but we don't my understanding Jed we don't currently have maintain a list of of developments that are that are in process that might
require >> well so to answer your question Jed corner community development director. So, there's a two-part answer. I believe Amy LOL does keep track of all the previous um variance requests, but we don't have um any anticipated ones
currently. So, there's nothing circling the runway, if you will. >> So, when we put in a police station, will we have to come back to this flow neutral um bylaw? >> It will depend on whether or not you allow it to connect to the sewer service
area. So, >> so these are the types of questions that we are going to need to >> do. Yes, >> we're going to need to reserve some space. So, if we continue to get these oneoffs, my point being we're going to back ourselves into a corner and we're not going to have any capacity left for
the things that we know we need. So, if we can start calculating this, I would recommend that we start doing this sooner than later so we don't back ourselves into a corner. >> Good point, Mr. Brown. >> I just don't think that we can reserve something that we don't know what's coming. Well, I just used the police
station as an example. That is coming. We do know >> that one is. Yeah. But >> but I just pointed one. So, >> right. If you knew, we'd tell us. >> Okay. Well, thank you very much. Um, so we will now move on. We're a little
bit ahead. ahead of schedule for once uh following along on my New Year's resolution to move these meetings a little bit uh more consistent with the time allotted for the matter. So uh we were going to move to consider a vote to
approve the notice of lease and lease agreement with Sunwealth Power Inc. for the first for the solar rooftop installation at the Gus Cany Community Center at 790 Main Street. Uh we've allotted 15 minutes. I'm not sure we'll need that much time, but Mr. Renaw,
would you give us a an introduction and then I see we have No, we don't have There she is. Yes, we do. I was looking there and you already beat me. >> My Thank you, Mr. My intro is to turn it over to Miss Miss Madison, our our resident expert. Um, and she's going to
go over kind of give a broad overview of the project and then answer any questions the board may have. Stephanie, >> Stephanie Madison, sustainability specialist for the town. Good evening. Select members. Um, I'd like to point out the slide that I have
tonight for this agenda item is about a proposed rooftop solar installation at the Gant Recreation Center. The project solar panels on the building on the building's
roof under 20 lease with an option to extend and it comes at no upfront capital. The system would be owned, installed, and maintained by some power under a power purchase agreement that was fully
executed by the town. The town would simply pay for the electricity produced at 117,000. >> Your mic, >> Should I start again? Why don't you? >> Yes. Start again.
>> Okay. >> Good evening. Select board members. >> Still ahead of schedule. >> See you. >> Stephanie Madson, the sustainability specialist for the town of Falmouth. This agenda item is about a proposed rooftop solar installation at the Gus Kanty Recreation Center. The project
would place solar panels on the building's roof under a 20-year lease with an option to extend, and it comes at no upfront capital cost to the town. The solar system would be owned, installed, and maintained by Sunwalth Power under a power purchase agreement
that was fully executed by the town manager in December. The town would simply pay for the electricity the panels produce at a competitive rate, resulting in an estimated $117,000 in savings over the life of the lease.
The system is designed to supply about 78% of the building's electricity. It replaces very old panels currently on the roof and supports our green community's commitments, climate action plan, and the select board's strategic
goals. I recommend the approval of the notice of lease in the lease agreement to move this project forward. And I'm happy to answer any questions you you might have. >> I just I just have one uh and maybe it's to uh to town manager, assistant town
manager, but before this goes forward, I mean, has the roof been examined and and and all that done in advance of this? I'm sure it has, but you want to explain? >> It's a great question. And um the town manager when I when this came up asked
if we could you know see if the roof structure it had the integrity to handle the solar panels even though we have 7 kilowatts right now on the roof. We want to know the age of the roof when it was installed if it has the integrity. We did have an engineer come out and look
and inspect it and it meets the requirements needed to support solar. Since then, working with Sunwealth Solar, a different company, they've had an engineer on the site as well, and worked with Greg Endicott in the town, and it looks like the solar has the roof
has the integrity to handle a solar um at of this size. >> Uh off the top, if you if you know, are what other town buildings are possibly in the offing for something like this
>> future? Yeah. >> Well, I was here recently for two solar car ports for schools. We could expand that for sure. Um, rooftop solar can be tricky in that there are a lot of variables and a lot of requirements need
are needed to support solar. One being the integrity of the roof, the age of the roof, the angle of the roof, the tree if trees are nearby. there are a lot of variables that take all the solar potentials of all the buildings and it
chisels it down to not as many. Um and then with changes with the inflation reduction act recently there are less incentives for for solar unfortunately. Um, commercial solar has until July 4th
to show construction has begun to qualify for these tax incentives that are offered through the inflation reduction act. That goes away. That's why I'm sort of fasttracking these these projects recently. Um, I don't have
anything in addition that could move fast enough to get the 30 to 40% tax incentive. I'm hoping new regulation comes our way, solar companies lower the price, solar panels decrease in price.
The the program changes all the time, so I'm feeling hopeful that things will happen to incentivize solar in the future. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Any other questions? >> Yeah. >> Um out of curiosity, this is a significant increase in um the amount of
power that that we'll be generating from the the roof of the the wreck. How much of that is increase in number of panels and how much is an increase in the efficiency um of the the panels given that we're replacing much older panels. >> The panels that are on the rec center
right now there's only there's I think less than 10 and it's 7 kilowatts DC. This system is going to be 29 kilowatts DC. 73 solar panels. The w the wattage of the panels on the roof right now are
200 watts. The technology has advanced tremendously. The ones we're proposing are for 10 watts, but they are making panels in the 500s right now. So, it's it's really improved over the last 10 years. >> And I'll just put in a a word that if
you find any other projects that could be fasttracked, please do. >> Mr. Richardson, >> was Oh, Mr. Reid, I'm sorry. hurt. Um, thank you very much for this. Totally in support. One thing that uh
our constituents always bring up is the removal at the end of the lease. They don't want it to be caught uh in our coffers. It most of the time it's what happens to it when it's done. I believe I read in here that if we do not uh take
on ownership that the um uh the provider will remove these. Is that correct? >> That's correct. It's in the contract. >> Okay. they um are responsible for decommissioning the project and um add that into their PPA rate, the power
purchase agreement PPA rate um includes the removal of the panels. >> Thanks. I think that'll give a lot of comfort to our folks. >> Sure. You you had mentioned the uh the new pan the panels now are even better wattage than they they currently are. Would it be conceivable that during this
project the panels that we're approving now would be replaced with these other panels or is that something that would normally happen? >> That's a great question because the Sunwealth the the vendor will own the project. They can
replace them if they want to without changing our PPA rate. our PPA rate is fixed >> in this case for 20 years, which is unbelievable because our utility bills are not fixed. Those are most likely going to increase. >> But if the panels, let's say the technology advances and they double in
production in the next 10 years, I would think as a vendor, I they'll have to pay for it. They might they may want to swap it out >> and put in the higher um rate panels >> and they could come back and ask for an adjustment of the PPA rate at that
point, I assume. Okay, thank you. >> One more. >> Yes. Now, M. >> Now it's Yeah, thank you. Just one quick question. Any impact on patrons during installation? >> Any impact on what? >> Patrons of the rec center? >> During installation,
we're have a we're having a meeting soon to talk about >> or during any point. >> Yeah. >> Uh the rec center. Well, they're going to be I know they're already really happy to hear that 78% of their >> Yeah. >> utility bill would be covered with solar. So, I think there's a lot of excitement. I also create for for the
buildings that we've um installed solar in already, I create an educational flyer that can be um shared at the front of the building and so they can highlight um with enthusiasm that their building is 78%
>> That's awesome. >> powered by solar. So I >> I know Julie's really excited about it. >> Great. >> Yes, Mr. Brown. >> That's great to know. Um curious though, it's a power purchase agreement, so it's not going to really reduce the electric bill by 78%. It's probably cut it in
half or something or or is that the actual savings? >> Uh >> or have you >> 78% is just the kilowatt hour usage calculation. It's not the cost, but they calculate savings per year. And over the
the span of the lease, 20 years, it'll be over $117,000. It can be difficult to predict. They're making estimates, savings estimates based on our utility bills right now, okay? But we all know they change dramatically in a short period of time
without a lot of notice. >> Right? >> The beauty of a power purchase agreement is that it's a fixed rate. This PPA rate is fixed for 20 years in this case, >> right? >> Our utility bill is not fixed. And we've
seen I mean it used to be eight cents then it went up to 14 cents. I mean it's very expensive just the supply and we all know delivery can be be very expensive too and unpredictable if they're increasing infrastructure. >> It's really unpredictable. So it's so
the savings is probably conservative. >> I would not be surprised if our savings are well above $17,000 over 20 years. >> That's great. And we know what to budget. So thanks. >> Yep. In addition to saving the environment, right, with the with Right. Yeah. I mean,
>> that's like the the main driver here. >> That's the main driver, >> but the finances really do matter. >> Mhm. Sure. >> Motion to approve uh the notice of lease and lease agreement with Sunwalth Power for the solar rooftop installation at the Gus Kanty Community Center, 790 Main
Street. >> Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I >> Thank you. Okay, our next item is to review and
discuss FY27 department operational budget requests that were not recommended for funding initially. Uh, Mr. Wrenchure. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I've asked the assistant town manager to put a slide up on the screen. I'll use that in a
moment. Um, but as a bit of an overview summary, as the board recalls, um, on December 1st, I presented, uh, a, uh, balanced FY27 recommended operating budget that totaled about 183.8 million. Uh, this represented about a $9.9
million increase from FY26 spending, uh, or about 5.7%. um we walked through um several slides where I kind of outlined some of the uh more salient uh challenges with respect to uh this FY27 U operating budget. Um,
as you all know, we continue to face ongoing inflationary pressures as well as um the need uh to continue to adjust make make market adjustments to salaries and wages. Again, as I mentioned back on the 1st of December, to maintain uh that competitive edge as we attempt to
recruit and retain qualified staff uh within this uh very competitive, hyper competitive market. Uh we transmitted uh Mr. chairman. Uh the select board voted to transmit the uh recommended FY27 operating budget uh to the finance committee on December 15th, kind of the
second uh meeting where we discuss the budget. Um the finance committee, as you all I believe are aware, um will hold its first budget review meeting uh on January 14th. I believe the police department is scheduled and maybe some other departments as well. Um and there's going to be a series of several
weeks of uh finance committee uh budget meetings. Um, as we also discussed both on December 1st and December 15th, Mr. Chair and Select Board, um, across all of the town departments, uh, the total requests amounted to a little less than
$186 million, um, or a difference of of, uh, about $2.1 million in funding that, uh, as town manager I did not recommend, funding requests that I did not recommend, uh, be included in the budget. Um you have included in your
packets this evening um a two or three page uh narrative or outline of those uh across the town uh organizationally um uh department budgets that did not receive recommendation to be funded. Um, we talked about a little bit again
on both December 1st and the 15th, um, that we were able to avoid an operating override, the need for a Prop 2 and a half override in this upcoming proposed FY27 uh, budget by utilizing um, a portion, a large portion
um, as was discussed on on December 1st and the 15th, a large portion of our excess levy capacity. As I mentioned, we have 1.5 million in excess levy capacity. The proposed budget as it stands now recommends using approximately $1.2 million of that
excess levy capacity. Um we talked about the fact that that um restricts our flexibility going forward and also would uh result in a property tax increase of about $48 a year for the average single family homeowner.
Um however um as you recall uh on that presentation on December 15th, the second uh budget uh presentation, the finance uh director uh reported that um she had just received uh certified new
growth numbers um and that those numbers um came in significantly higher than what was projected. Um about $531,000 higher than was what was projected. Uh Mr. chairman select board. Um as a result of these new growth uh numbers
being higher um the FY27 budget uh now has a much higher starting excess levy capacity and the overall effect of this uh beginning uh significantly higher excess capacity is it will roll forward a higher starting levy in FY27 which
would allow us to reduce the amount of excess levy capacity that we need to use to balance the budget. So rather than utilizing the 1.3, we'd utilize a much lesser amount. As a result of this, by reducing our use of the excess levy capacity, there's an opportunity uh to reduce what I
previously mentioned is a $48 per year tax increase for the average single family home in in Falmouth uh to about $24 a year. Um so cutting it in half, literally. Uh, conversely, the select board also has the option and that's going to be part of the discussion
tonight um to um maintain the use of the 1.2 $2 million in excess levity capacity as was recommended in the December 1st and 15th presentation and then utilizing the higher than projected amount of new growth to fund a small what I call small
but prioritized list potentially of those um departmental requests the $2 million of departmental requests that were not funded. Um, again, I'm going to refer Select Board's attention to that uh document included in your packet that provides a narrative um of of of those
department requests. Um, as you can imagine, um, a significant portion of the $2 million u requests that were not funded um are comprised of new personnel requests. I'll draw the uh the select board's
attention now and the community's attention to the uh the slide that the assistant town manager put up and you also have a hard cap at your desks uh that talks about um shows graphically um over a 5-year period um projected um revenue versus expenses and in effect
shows that gap between those revenues and expenses and uh and it significance and uh this is a good visual representation um for the community. On the flip side, uh Mr. Chair and select board of your sheets at your desk, you can actually see the numbers and I'll give you an
example. Thank you. Um in uh in in in the next year FY28 budget, we we project um a budget deficit, again, revenue versus expense of a little over $3 million. In 2029, that rises to a gap of $5.4 million revenue versus
expenditures. 2030, 7.7. 2031 a little under 11 million dollars. So u the point um that I want the select board to caveat before we start having the discussion about consideration of possibly funding some of these additional department requests. None of
this information that you see these gaps as I think the finance director explained uh back on December 15th. None of those uh reflect any amount of new positions. Um it's status quo. So the caveat warning caution that I I want the select board to be aware is that if we
if if and as I mentioned a large percentage of the $2 million in unfunded request is personnel by adding additional personnel to that that gap is going to obviously increase and it's not rocket science. The important part is that um it compounds itself because
personnel costs as you know include um not only the wages, the base wages, but also the additional um health insurance and retirement benefits and all of that has a compounding effect. I think I'm using that a compounding effect. Um and and those numbers are only going to get larger, those gap numbers. So important
takeaway from this slide as we begin to have the discussion now over that two to three page list of departmental uh funding requests is that we have to be aware of that um by increasing uh uh the uh the burden of expenses um primarily uh with new positions that has a
compounding effect on increasing that gap. So um with that um I will stop and um and again you you have the information in the packet and we can if you'd like I can go through uh that outline or we can select board I'll just turn it over and answer any questions or
we can talk about I'll say this is I use the word prioritization um for tonight's discussion um you know the the the priorities that I I tend to look at is is is town manager and I I've talked to Peter the assistant town manager about this as
well um those items that are mandated, you know, regulatory either by the state, the federal government, those things that we have to do. Um, included in your packet again on that she unfunded department request, I'll use this as an example. There's others. Uh, but one of those mandates, requirements,
the things that we have to do is be in compliance with our storm water uh permit, which is referred to as the MS4 permit. Um, right now our town engineering department is uh struggles with staffing and we are are doing a
good job, but we in order to be fully compliant, they're recommending that we hire an additional position of stormwater engineer that would be able to do the monitoring and set up the programs that would put us in full compliance. um we're we're we're we're holding our own uh with what we have,
but to be in full compliance uh and and and and going down the road is storm water um requirements become even more ownorous. It's going to be important to I think to to look to fund that position and this is actually the second year I believe uh that the town engineer DPW uh
director have made the request. Um, and again, as you all know, it's always a challenge with competing uh needs and whatnot, trying to to make the determination about what's immediately needed in this upcoming fiscal year. But as you look through that list, um, I would suggest or recommend that you consider those things that are are
mandates, regulatory requirements, and and that certainly is one. Um, the other um, uh, criteria that I often use is, uh, health and public safety by add by adding whether it's a position or a program. um how what impact does that have uh in uh with regards to health and
public safety. So those are kind of the broad uh lenses that I like to look through when we start considering what um items are to be included in the recommended and which items are not. Again, um difficult decisions had to be made back in October, November when we
were compiling this budget. Um the budget that was presented to the finance committee is currently balanced again utilizing pretty significant portion of that excess levy capacity to reduce um uh to prevent us um from from needing to
uh to to to seek an operating override um but also to reduce that property tax uh increase to a nominal $48 a year amount. Um, importantly, um, I made we made management made the decision, um, to, um, avoid that two and a half
override discussion because I didn't think it was fair. We didn't think it was fair to to launch that on the community and the public without having an adequate opportunity. FY27, as the draft budget has been uh, proposed and and transmitted to finance committee is balanced again avoids that Prop 2 and a
half um, operating override. going forward and this table summarizes it. Um, we will need to consider and have those those crucial conversations I'd like to refer to them as with the community and prepare for the need to have that operating override. >> Start. Mr. Brown,
>> I have a comment >> comment and a question. Uh the comment would be that if we decide to retain that excess levy capacity for use on some of these budget needs that were not uh funded. I would suggest maybe there
could be stuff that's more like technology rather than staff stuff that's you know really holding us back from efficiencies with the exception of the storm water engineer position. Then I got a question
about the long range budget projection. Is any of this include what might be considered capital infrastructure expenditures or is it strictly like personnel and insurance and >> strictly strictly operating does not include any capital.
>> So there's no room for adjustment on that. Well, I think the sooner that we really get this I mean, you have a pretty clear picture here, but we have yet to really whittle down our capital budget needs, but as soon as we really
get that in line and figure out what it's going to take to really run everything effectively, because for years we've been doing more with less, but we know now we're starting to get a better picture of what it really takes to run this town effectively and efficiently. And once we get that in
place, I think we just make our case to the voters and say this is what it's going to take to make this town sustainable and just and put it out there. I think that's what you're starting to do here now. So, I appreciate that. >> I I certainly appreciate your uh your
your forthrightness with respect to what the future holds. Uh, you know, from from what I gather, I think our threshold discussion is um do we want to increase anything to the fin and just
reduce the the projected tax increase from $48, which was what we were dealing with, to $24. I mean, I I don't know if there's any uh consensus for that position on the board. If there's not, then we can proceed to discuss some of
the items that the town manager has laid out for our consideration. Uh the one other thing though, just if I may, on on the outline that you gave us, uh I did ask you to come up with a number for the
uh townwide contract with a PR firm, and I think that came back to between 50 and $60,000 item. >> Uh that's correct. uh assistant town manager Johnson Stal did reach out to a to and and obtain some some estimates and that's a range. Okay.
>> And that I think is pretty accurate based upon other municipalities and what they're what they're expending. >> Okay. So, uh Dr. Goldson, you want to lead us off? Um, yeah. I guess I see the I guess I don't
see as much of a a distinction between the two different conversations that or decisions that that you were mentioning, Mr. Chair, because I I think um how we might use the unexpected
uh excess growth uh revenues. In my mind, uh whether or not we would do that is conditional on how we spend it. And I very much appreciate um town managers uh comments at both of our meetings in
December and now um about the uh the concern of adding staff positions and the compounding um pressures that that puts on the budget moving forward. Um, I do think there are ways that we could
leverage this unexpected um, excess growth revenue in a way that doesn't do that. Um, and advance strategic plans and or strategic priorities and potentially set ourselves up to help address some of um, the budget constraints in the future. Um, as I'd
mentioned in December, one possibility would be to request an allocation to the affordable housing fund. um that's a one-time expense um that does not incur any future um liability and in fact gives us funds to continue addressing affordable housing into the future um
including uh but not limited to uh the residential t tax exemption for affordable rentals that we discussed at one of our December meetings. Um, another possibility would be to make a one-time allocation to the debt stabilization fund knowing that we are looking at increasing um, capital
expenditures and um, debt service over the next coming years. Um, I don't think I would be in favor of um, unfortunately because I know I'm a person who every single year asks what was on the list that we didn't get to fund um, in order
to balance the budget. Um I those are important requests but given what we're facing I I can't see adding um to that that pressure. Um one question I have for tonight is a
process related one and that's this item as it is on the agenda um is discussion andformational directional. It is it's not a formal vote. Um, and so I'm curious what the process would look like moving forward from a discussion tonight
and actually um arriving at I guess a new uh new request and and transmitting that to the the finance committee in a a timely manner given that they're due to start their deliberations uh in the next couple of weeks.
>> So I I'll take that one. Um so the agenda item was not presented as a vote per se. Town council has advised that it is implicit that a vote um is possible for any item listed on the agenda. So uh
if the board felt like you were ready to make a vote on this, you could do that tonight. But if not, then it would be a following select board agenda posted, you know, as a a follow-up discussion and vote to, you know, and if again, I
think I think this agenda wording covers you for it if you're ready. Um, and if you're not, we would have a more specific agenda item that um that noticed that a an amendment, an adjustment to the town manager's proposed FY27 budget was being
contemplated. Thank you. >> And then that adjustment would be transmitted to the FINCOM during their present uh review. >> Yes, >> Mr. Reed.
So, I want to thank the town management for its five-year budget projection. Uh this is the second, third, maybe fourth time we've seen it. Um and to Mr. Brown's point, it doesn't include any of the capital budget projection needs that
we have. And we know that we have a outflow pipe of 125 million. We have a police station at 50 million. We have a Lawrence school at 125 million. So, this isn't about $48 or $24 right now. This
is about what we're doing to prepare ourselves for 2028 into 2032. Cumulatively, that's a $40 million deficit that we're going to need to figure out. We've just been given a uh
operating budget that had incremental um changes and the operating budget to the best of my knowledge has gone with small increments where our capital budget is jumping by leaps and bounds. So I think tonight is two different
things. one we have what do we do with the immediate found money and then the question is how the heck are we going to get away how are we going to deal with this deficit so for me I think we should maintain the
excess levy amount we should reject all considerations for expenditure that have multi-year commitments or impacts to our budget because we can't afford it clear we can't afford that um I think we need to
carefully consider any one-time expenditures that will help us with our strategic plan or the the sound uh safe operations and communications of the town. And then I think I would second what Dr. Goldstone said which is uh
allocate the funds toward debt stabilization. That I think is our number one priority now is how the heck are we going to stabilize ourselves and get us out from under this? So, aside from this immediate need, I think we're
going to need the town um and I don't know what the proper way to do this is, but we're going to need a 5year financial stabilization plan. We're going to need the town to analyze this and create it. Look backwards to see how we got into this position and why it's
just coming up now, but also how the heck are we going to address this in 2028? We should have that in 30 to 60 days honestly before we start getting to 29 and 32. But to do that, to get to that financial stabilization plan, I think we actually need a budget review
and a baseline u budget projection and we haven't seen that necessarily. We're seeing it at a high level, but we need to know everything and we need to be all on the same page about this. This is a team effort. This is town management, select board, and fin. And I'm just
worried that we're not looking at it all in totality. And uh you know to the board chair's statements in previous meetings. It's going to require more meetings and I'm prepared to you know sign off on those and vote in favor of more meetings, but these are going to
have to be joint meetings and we're going to have to lay the groundwork and ask the town to give us um truly the data necessary to make these informed decisions. because right now we're only going down the path of raising taxes.
I don't think that's the only reason or that's the only way out. I think we need to uh be presented a list of solutions and recommendations for us to consider. Um I think it should include revenue enhancements and budget reduction options when we're afraid to talk about
that. But in the short term, we're asked 90% of the the list of items we were given to consider tonight were all salary and benefits. Those have multi-year considerations, right? So, what are we
out here to do? I think ultimately our job has to be fiscal uh fiscally oriented and centered right now. And we have to do this and we have to roll up our sleeves um as the three groups triangulating to truly get at this $40 million because otherwise, you know,
2006 and 2008 wasn't very long ago where we didn't have the money to operate and we're heading down that path. None of us except for maybe Mr. Brown were around then and I don't want to have to do this again as a town. So, I think again short term
uh put it into a stabilization fund that's in our best interests because it's all right there in front of us. $40 million. >> I'll end there. >> Mr. Richardson, >> um thank you again. Um
finance and and and town manager, you know, you you've been very frank and the situation pictured is very frank. So, I do appreciate that. I do not envy the position you are in. Um I think it is clear while Mr. Reid is
correct that trimming and tightening the belt um you know I get sick even saying that as a progressive but uh is necessary but um I do believe that it shows that we have an obligation to the working-class people of this town um to
keep um their tax burden as low as possible. Um, I have one amendment uh in here and I understand that um this is not a full uh vote on this, but um I would like to change um the uh timeline
on the uh vacant administrative clerk uh just increase the salary to budget for a full-time uh 52.2 weeks, which I know would not be the full-time because we don't have one. I think this is to me and I understand the difficulty nature of this, but this shows to me that if
we're going to raise taxes, we need to get the residential exemption online before FY28. Um, and I think that we need to make the bud the money available uh in this budget and if we find it is truly impossible, then that's okay. But if we do not put the money available in this budget, then we will not be able to
to to vote on it in the future and we're we'll be handcuffing ourselves. I think the the picture is clear that we're really left with no options uh in this needing to get this online sooner and I've really sat with this and I really respect the opinions of the talent
people have discussed it but uh I think it's crucial uh that if we the truth is we are going to have to raise taxes uh and I'm not comfortable doing it if we don't find a way to keep the the the levy low for the working-class people that make this town so great. Um, so I
have that number which I can present um if needed. But um that's was my biggest issue and I shared the the concerns that um select board member uh Brown and and others have with uh allocating you know full-time salaries uh beyond the one I
just mentioned um because of of the the fiscal difficulties we are facing. >> You know I I hear what you what you're saying. I do I do think Mr. Terren's u argument with respect to the need for uh for a compliance person with respect to
DPW the admin and engineering uh is something that uh we really should look at very very closely because there are issues of compliance that apparently we are not really uh up to speed to be able
to uh to make sure we're in full compliance. And I think that uh understanding all the other comments, I think uh I think that one position may may may very well be something that we would be making a mistake and be very shortsighted uh if we didn't look
seriously at least at that position. >> Can I ask two two questions clarifying on two different points? Um Mr. Richardson, if I'm understanding what you're requesting, it's essentially to move up the higher date. >> Correct. So for an already allocated
full-time, >> correct? The m the currently it's allocated for 16 weeks at $18,276. It's impossible for this person to serve 52.2 weeks, but just to allocate it that way. That number is $59,62545. >> So currently allocated for and
>> I don't know if our finance director can clarify here, 16 weeks in the FY27 budget year. >> Okay. at like at the end of end of the year. And so, okay. Um, thank you. That's helpful. And and I
I think that falls into the category that Mr. Reid was mentioning of not increasing future year um obligations if that is funded as intended to be starting partway through the year and then being a continuing
full-time obligation afterward. Um, so I I really appreciate that suggestion. My other question is um with regard to the storm water engineer position. Um Mr. Renshaw, did I understand correctly that you said one of the first things that
the person in this position would need to do is actually come up with a a plan and kind of the systems for what we need to be doing in terms of of storm water management. >> I think I I think that would be an important um uh aspect of the position
is to kind of evaluate where the gaps are. I think the word gap is used a couple of times in the narrative that DPW engineering put together to to kind of justify the need for this position. Um I I think one of the points that I did make is that the MS4 uh permit requirements are only getting more stringent. Um and I think that's part of
the um concern um being voiced by town engineering uh division is that as these requirements become more ownorous on municipalities without having a person that's dedicated to this um there's a concern that I talked about we're
we're doing the best we're we're maintaining um our head above water so to speak but if those requirements next year um the MS 4 uh uh discharge requirements were to to become even more stringent um that potential of falling further out of compliance would be would
be enhanced, would be greater. Um so I think evaluating kind of where the gaps are and and with with regards to monitoring or setting up um various programs and whatnot, I'm not an expert in the MS4 permitting world. Um but in talking to the DPW director, that's kind
of one of the issues that um that uh they're concerned about is, you know, right now the the MS4 permit requirements are are are are pretty rough for municipalities to reach. Um we're doing it but with a lot of effort and there's a lot of opportunity cost because without having a dedicated
specialist, the stormwater engineer, it's pulling from other engineers in that division and the opportunity cost is that they're not able to do their their actual job. um which is also important. So um I mean all all of those are factors, >> right? And I understand that obviously
the compliance issue is is critical. I also know the storm water maintenance um has become a real priority for our freshwater ponds advisory committee um and others concerned about about water quality. I guess what I'm wondering if is if there's a way to start addressing
that compliance issue with a consultant or in a way that doesn't require a full-time hire immediately. um before we know what the full need is. >> I think that's yes a great great idea and I think it's something something that we'll definitely explore you know what what can we do in the interim you
know until we are able to to get a better handle on on on funding this position um in the next six months the next year um having a consultant help us out identifying those areas of of greatest need. >> Great. Thank you >> Mr. Chair. >> Yes. The other item of the recommended
that I do want to support because it is an increase in hours, not a new person, is the uh human service department's request for an increase from 8 to 14 hours a week uh for the um bilingual clinical social worker. I think that, you know, that's a a crucial need as
we've seen uh and I think that that for the amount that that this would uh the amount of benefit uh compared to the the cost uh of this is is an incredible incredible deal. So that that is one that was not approved that that I would like to to add to the
budget. And the only other one that I I was requested this um as liaison to the cultural council. They requested I asked for an increase in their line item uh from 15,000 to 7 uh I have the number written down. Sorry. Uh an increase of
$7,800 um to fund the music at the table program. Uh this is a program that um they the uh in collaboration uh with the um belonging to each other and with uh the uh some of the the churches in our
town uh where they uh provide music and free food to the homeless. They asked that I uh they watched our last select board meeting and uh where we talked about the money uh differences and requested I advocate for this. So um on their behalf requesting that increase.
>> So how do we uh how do we move forward here gentlemen and then >> just one more thing to consider is that we are in the midst of doing that surf drive study. We just recommended a course of action and there's a consideration here of increasing the uh
beach nourishment budget which has also been not really included but if we want to do that project we're going to need some money. So, that's a great point, uh, SLboard member Brown. And, you know, one of the discussion points that we had when we were considering, uh, the DPW
funding requests, I I've said for two and a half years that funding beach nourishment at $25,000 a year is wolffully inadequate. Um, I'm not saying they kind of picked this number out of thin air of 100,000, but in effect, I mean, we have no no basis to justify.
And I think the studies that are being done now are going to to to inform us >> um and allow us to to to um not only the amounts, but also um you know, target uh certain areas where it has the most effect, the biggest return on the investment. So, $25,000 is not adequate.
Um I just and that's one of the reasons why we quite honestly didn't recommend this for funding is because I wanted to have time for these consultant uh driven studies and and our coastal resiliency specialists getting engaged to have time to kind of um come up with a a sharper a sharper number.
>> Right. Okay. Uh would would the board think that this is maybe something we want to table and think about for our next meeting uh as you know to put together what we've all discussed and where we're all coming
from as opposed to being in a position to make specific recommendations at this point. >> Can we Sorry, I should should have waited but can we see the requests that have been made reflected in that next meeting? I guess I was going to say something similar rather than than
tableabling it. Um I guess I I feel like I've heard a consensus from the board, an openness to leveraging this excess new growth um funds for strategic priorities in ways that don't increase
our budget pressure, our financial obligations beyond the next fiscal year. And so would love to if if it's the consensus of the board at our next meeting see uh what the town manager's recommendations for for allocation of
that funding might be based on tonight's discussion. >> Put that together 26. Yeah. Our next meeting is our next meeting is January 26. So based upon the input and that was you know this item was for discussion. Um we can put something together. I I heard a couple of select board members
talk about and I think it's a idea uh with merit and worth exploring allocating this to the uh capital stabilization because of the issues that we we know of the eight $85 million 10-year capital capital plan. So that might be a way obviously that is a way
to allocate those funds without having an impact on increasing those numbers any more than than what they are in terms of adding personnel costs. So that certainly would be one scenario that we could we could prepare, come back and show what that looks like. We could look
at adding, you know, expediting, ramping up um the uh the administrative support in the uh in the assessor's office. I think that's where you're going. >> Yeah. Um so that we um we can also look to uh to at a scenario that includes adding um
well again the 150,000 approximate cost of adding the storm water engineer is significant when we have $530,000 approximately to to work with but we can we can put together a couple of scenarios and options. I think the important note is that the finance committee is about to start their indepth review and the earlier the
sooner I should say that we can get this information any potential recommended revisions put together and packaged the better. >> Yeah. I think if we delayed one meeting I think we'd still be able to by next meeting you know with the recommendations and and potential uses
and whether it be the capital stabilization fund or if we can still somehow find a way to make a contribution to the affordable housing fund. uh one time. Um you know u that would be great and I really do appreciate um your openness to my suggestions.
>> Okay. I think we have consensus on that. >> Yes, Mr. Brown. >> One last question on the bottom item. $30,000 to the budget for comprehensive and coordinated community calendar software. Could you just briefly tell me what that would do for
>> I can. Uh so uh you know one of the uh challenges a lot of municipalities face is that we have these great well sometimes not so great community calendars on our websites. Uh we have one you know that's generated powered by Civic Plus the our web vendor. Um it uh
the problem with it is that it it um well there's a lot of problems in my opinion. It's not comprehensive. Um it doesn't cross over and draw from uh different different outside agencies. If you want a true community calendar, it's got to be more interconnected. Um, this
particular um, uh, vendor u, myself, the chair and vice chair had an opportunity to to sit through a demo and I can pass out a link to that that demo because they recorded it. It's just a it's a it's a software platform that a lot of uh, municipalities, communities that are using now that allow um, for a more
comprehensive poll and illustration of what's going on literally in the community than what we currently have. There's a lot of, you know, it's it ours is static, right? This is more um dynamic and changing and more reflective of what's happening in the community. It allows people to subscribe. I don't know if our current calendar allows people to
subscribe to, you know, specific interests, >> but a but a a community engagement calendar like uh like this um uh and and with WIT is the name of the company that we
took the demo with. um um and there's others um really does kind of give that full um uh uh coordinated, integrated, comprehensive uh community calendar and uh people wouldn't miss things. They could subscribe to certain channels based upon their interests and they
wouldn't miss things. >> And uh and that $30,000 is kind of a an an a quoted a quoted price for the current fiscal year. >> Okay, that might be helpful. I know community engagement um is is one of the kind of strategic priorities. We
talked about it during the planning process um and how we can do a better job of that engagement with the community and I I think this calendar is one one element of that. >> Sounds good. Thank you, >> Mr. Chair. >> Yes. One other thought is um you know maybe it's for the next meeting putting
on the agenda um the five-year financial plan for dealing with these deficits and having that discussion because something that might be beneficial in a one-time use is if we do not have the bandwidth um internally to create such a plan and
deal with it and analyze everything with it, it might be good use of our funds to um hire a consultant to help us get through this um 5-year uh budget game plan to address the deficits of 2028 to 2032.
So, I put that out there as well for discussion for the next meeting. Okay. Anything else? prepared to move to the next matter which is to uh discuss the recent designation of Felmouth as a seasonal
community by the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities and consider a vote to add an article to accept the designation for consideration at the April 2026 town meeting. Mr. Renro, >> thanks Mr. Chair. Um first let me kick
this off by saying that um this is a discussion item with a possibility of consideration of a vote. Um, as I think Select Board uh is aware, um, we've added some additional u uh time quite frankly um, in the in the calendar for
the preparation of the April 2026 town meeting warrant. Um, the uh, select board is scheduled to um, vote the articles and execute the warrants on February 6th. On February 6th. Um, so in effect, um,
this could potentially be, uh, an article that makes the April town meeting warrant. U, but tonight there's no there's no pressure or no deadline certainly for the select board to make that decision. Um, so I just wanted to to so that everybody starts from that kind of, uh, perspective. Um, we have at
least two other meetings uh, the uh, the January 26th and the February 9th. I think it's the 9th, not the sixth, um, meetings to consider this. So, that being said, um you have included in your packets tonight a letter uh that my office received uh from the uh Executive
Office of Housing and Liberal Communities um back on December 12th of last year indicating that the town has received designation as a seasonal community um as outlined in the uh in the letter from EA EOHLC, Felmouth received the seasonal
community's designation because the community has both a rate of short-term rentals in relation to the overall housing inventory over three and a quarter% and a percentage of housing stock that is used for seasonal, occasional or recreational use or is otherwise not used as a primary
residence by the property owners. Um that rate is uh around 12 a.5% as determined somehow. I be honest, I'm not an expert in how they make that calculation, but that's the calculation made by Executive Office of Housing and Liberal Communities. I wanted to outline
and it's included in your packet um a few of the uh benefits to a municipality uh of this designation. They include allowing seasonal communities to acquire year-round housing occupancy restrictions. uh develop uh housing with a preference for essential public
workers, create year-round housing for artists, establish a year-round housing trust fund to create affordable and attainable housing, and increase the property tax exemption for homes that are the owner's primary residence, a topic that the select board recently discussed.
Um, Mass General Law 23B, section 32B, seasonal community statute, requires that a municipality that receives this designation either accept or deny the designation by a vote of its legislative body in accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth and in municipalities
charter. Importantly, the statute also requires seasonal communities to adopt local zoning bylaws to permit undersized lots to be used to create attainable year-round housing and to adopt local zoning bylaws to permit the construction of tiny houses to be used as year round.
These regulations would be promulgated in the near future. According to the letter, um again, Mr. Sheriff Select Board, the designation announcement letter requests that the town consider um uh at at the earliest opportunity, a vote on the seasonal community's designation again at an upcoming town
meeting. And as you all know, um it's been well documented, April town meeting opens on April 6th of this year. Um and the letter goes on to include some suggested language for this article.
>> Okay. Um Mr. Richardson. >> Um I just want to start by thanking um Secretary Augustus, Governor Healey, uh and the legislature, particularly Senators here and Senator Fernandez for their leadership uh on this issue. Um I
personally, uh you know, this is many things that I have not shut up about are in this and and make them even stronger. So, uh I'm in favor of it. Um the reason I think we should move it forward to the warrant uh is it is clearly stated that this is to be decided by the legislative of the body uh of of uh um Falmouth
which is our town meeting and and I don't think it's our role to prevent it from uh being in town meeting. So I think we should send it. I know the planning board does have their concerns but certain portions of it um and those should be voiced but I think that the way the legislation is written it's should be decided by town meeting and
not by us and I think we should send it um for this warrant. >> Thank you. I mean it it should be noted that even if the town votes the designation and accepts the designation there's a process that has to go through uh the town has to go through with respect to certain zoning uh changes
which if those changes are not adopted then the the town would just forfeit its designation as a seasonal community. So we're not locking >> uh anything uh in with respect to zoning changes by agreeing to accept the designation >> point. Yeah. I I just think time
timelinewise to to get to that point it makes sense to send it. But you're 100%. >> Is there anyone in the community that would like like to speak to it? M who? Mr. Green. >> Yeah. Uh well, again, anybody in the community that wants to say anything, go
for it. But um I would agree with uh Mr. Richardson. I especially like the uh allowability to uh have a preference for essential public workers. I think uh many of our questions most notably made by uh Dr. Goldstone when we have
presentations of public workers or agencies uh departments we ask the question where do their people live and we're seeing a group a bigger increase going off Cape. So the more that we can have a preference for essential public workers the better. And I think that's a
major reason why we shouldn't hesitate to put this to town meeting. >> Yeah. I I also agree that um as as Mr. Richardson said um it's a decision of town meeting. Um I know that um the the tiny houses in particular are somewhat
controversial. I would like to better understand um what the concerns are um because I I personally don't immediately see what the the problem is. But again, that's really neither here nor there. Um the state has offered us this designation in its town meetings a
choice to accept or reject. And I think the sooner that we do that um the better because if we end up um accepting it, then there are some zoning changes that we need to make in order to start taking advantage of the benefits. Um and if we're not going to do it, then we might
as well know that sooner rather than later so we can plan with that in mind. find >> I find it interesting that that's our our challenging stumbling block is because uh back in the 40s and 50s and even into the 60s Cape was nothing but
tiny houses. So if you want really Cape Cod character, you want tiny houses. >> The only thing I'd like to add is that their staff has been incredibly responsible. I just want to give out a special shout out to Seth Nadau. is their legislative um liaison and um that
if anyone ever has any questions, you know, when you reach out um they usually respond and I've met with a number of their staff multiple times with questions and I just want to really give this, you know, sometimes the legislature will will pass things and agencies will begrudgingly doing it, but EOHLC has really um really made this a
priority and and I've been really impressed with how responsive they've been to to questions I've had. Um, with that, I'm ready to make the motion to add an article to accept the seasonal community designation for consideration at the April 2026 town meeting and to direct the town manager to draft set article.
>> Second. >> Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing seeing none, all in favor? >> I. >> Okay, very good. Our next item is to discuss and consider a vote to approve a
draft short-term rental bylaw for inclusion on the April 20 26 town meeting warrant. Uh I will note that this evening at our desks was a revised draft of the uh the the revised draft of
the draft that was included in our packet. uh and uh you know the board has not yet uh had an opportunity to uh to to to really take a look at that revised draft. Uh I had asked Mr. Renshaw to put this matter on notwithstanding the fact
that uh when the packet was published uh that that that draft was awaiting a further dis a further meeting of the short-term advisory committee on on that Friday. Uh but you know certainly um you know we can have some discussion with
respect to the parameters of a short-term rental bylaw and how we want to proceed. But uh I think in any event um as has been mentioned we have you know a couple of opportunities to actually u take a look at the draft make
some suggested revisions and so forth before it goes on to the warrant. But uh certainly happy to have some preliminary discussions with respect to it. Mr. Wrench, would you like to add something to that? >> I think you did a great job summarizing and I I guess the important part again
was uh tonight's uh discussion purposes. I have listed consideration of possible votes. Um but again, as you mentioned um we have a couple of other uh uh meetings um prior to and including February 9th for the board to make the final decision. Um and I quite honestly haven't had an opportunity and I want to
thank town council for working with the uh advisory committee to put together kind of this final draft. Um as you indicated, Mr. chairman. What's included in the packet that the public sees um is the uh the rough draft, I'll call it, um prior to last Friday when the advisory committee had a chance to meet Friday
afternoon uh to kind of go over some last minute uh revisions, suggested revisions which town council has reviewed and incorporated in the document that's at your table and not included in the board packet. >> Right. And if I could, Mr. Chair, >> please. >> So, yeah. Um, you know, I was in a bit
of a a stressed rush to get this on the agenda and I appreciate you putting it on. Uh, we did meet on Friday. I have to say I was surprised to receive a text message from a resident who said that on Friday they noticed that the town hall
doors were locked at 4:30 or and after 4:30. I didn't realize that that was happening. And so now that person has raised the question of maybe that vote that our committee made to promote promulgate this draft might need to be revoted where we don't have that
potential for an open meeting law violation which was unfortunate but I didn't know those doors locked automatically like that. So I've confirmed with Mr. Wshaw that that is the case and we need to should have I should have made provisions to have those doors left unlocked. the the draft
that was at our table this evening is the draft that was approved by your committee on Friday. Is that correct? >> That is correct. Yes. >> Okay. >> And all the committee members have received it via email this afternoon. Not sure if they've had enough time. I see Tom and Charlotte are here and Liz
is here. So, I'm sure that they've had a chance to look at it. And if anybody has any comments that they want to make from the committee just to clarify, Mr. if you could come up and use the microphone. Tom Crane. I'm a committee matter uh
member uh precinct one town meeting member. Uh first of all, I'd like to thank town council's work to expedite it. I I thought you did a different uh just a terrific job. I understand if we have some breathing room to have another
committee meeting. Completely understand it. My only comment and Mr. Brown, if I'm uh stealing your thunder about what you're about to say, but the other consideration that we want to bring to your attention is um that in the warrant
article there's sufficient funding for software and that if a revised budget could be brought forward with that amount and keeping in mind it's really just almost like a loan because the idea
is that we're going to have registr ration fees that will start coming in if this is approved January 1st that will this the registration fees are going to fully pay for the administration of the program. So, I
think by the time we get to June 30th and close out the books, whatever free cash might get authorized, we're going to find won't be used. But we really do want uh the computer system to be
purchased as soon as possible so we can help implement this um bylaw as soon as possible. >> And I did have a chance to speak with Mr. Renshaw about that and they have found a company that might fit the bill with the budget that we have.
>> Oh, excellent. Oh, terrific. Okay, >> great. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anyone else care? Miss Miss Harris a similar point to what Tom was making. First to thank um Maher and the others who work so hard on this. >> Please introduce yourself.
>> Excuse me. >> Please introduce yourself, sir. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Charlotte Harris. I served on the advisory committee precinct 5 and I hope that you're going to approve this and it will go forward. But I think both Tom and I and I know that Doug also is concerned that this
this has not had actually the the strength of support from the health department that we had hoped for and that's because it's really going to require extra staffing in order to make it work. They really uh from the very beginning the director Scott was concerned that he's really not staffed
to be doing this. So that there are two opportunities within this as it's written for the uh the bylaw to pay for itself. Decisions would have to be made in order to carry that out. But it really it won't be effective if it's not implemented with funding for it. And in
light of your concern about adding staff, I think that you should be aware of that. Now, other than that, this it's a strong bylaw. And I want to also um bring to your attention and the attention of anyone who might be thinking about this.
It turned out that the urgency of the problem is not as great as we had thought. And that's an important point also. We thought going into this that there might be many thousands more short-term rentals than we suspected and we better quick put a cap on it.
Listening to the experience of provin uh Province Town and Plymouth and others that proves not to be true. Apparently, there's a limited number. There are not now any corporatelyowned situations. There could be in the future. That's what we'd like to
prevent, but it's not urgent. So, if it doesn't get pushed forward now, it it won't create an enormous problem as long as it's within a year or two. So, that's all I wanted to say. >> Thank you. >> I only have one question off that. Uh,
thank you. Um, would this prevent, and I believe it does, but my apologize for misreading it, a lot of text. Um, corporations absolutely should not be able to do this. Does this prevent one person who owns like a dozen um from It does. Correct.
>> It does. The original bylaw, we said there was going to be one per person, one per operator, but then we said, let's do some more research. And Mr. Mcan has the most information on this. and uh he and Liz Klein actually had done a lot of research as well. It comes
to light that there's only u couple people that own more than one and the limit I think we found nobody owns more than three. So in order not to make difficulties for people we said three would be the cap and we think that's
reasonable. We'll see what comes up at town meeting. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. uh you know I I will say that in in looking over the bylaw the one one very important concern I have is with respect to uh to how much authority the
select board is seeding to the board of health with respect to the uh regulations that might be adopted the fees that uh that might be implemented and I will uh you know make some comments when uh when I've had an
opportunity to to look at the revised draft. But I do think that this board needs to consider and uh and I believe in looking at Nucket's uh bylaw with respect to uh to it, it it does uh
require select board u approval for some of the actions of the of the board of health there. So I I do think that is something we need to keep in mind going forward. Uh and the other comment I'm going to just make with respect to
corporate ownership uh I think we're all or many people are assuming that a corporation is some kind of multi-state national organization that may come in and uh and take over the entire market.
Whereas you can have a a corporation, you know, of three individual shareholders who uh who decide to form a corporation to own a piece of property for liability purposes and so forth. And
I'm I'm not really, you know, 100% uh in agreement that those types of arrangements should be absolutely uh barred. certainly uh multinational corporations and uh you know and and and
I think that's what most people are thinking about or some way to uh you know to to to to for one organization to capture the market is what we're trying to accomplish. I'm not sure that that that just prohibiting completely corporate ownership, subchapter S
corporate ownership actually, you know, addresses what what our our real concern is. And uh and and you know to that point uh you know there was a recent article in the in the current uh that Nantucket has supposedly prevented or
outlawed uh corporate ownership and yet they have found that they've now actually had to approve uh a certain number of applications because they didn't fit quite within the corporate structure. So th those are two points that I uh you know intend to look at a
little bit more closely as we go forward. So, >> okay, I would think we can take those on a case- by case basis because there may be special circumstances that might need to be considered and the select board would be the body that would set the fees. The uh state law does designate
the health department or health agent or board of health depending on how the language is read as the uh the legal authority over rentals. So that's why we're kind of pushed into that. >> Yeah. I, as I said, I haven't looked at
at the that the revised draft completely, but I do know that Nucket retains their select board retain the right to uh approve regulations adopted by the board of health in uh and I don't think the state law necessarily prevents that, but that's something we should we
should certainly take a look at going forward. >> Be interested to look at that. Sure. >> Yeah, I was just going to echo if that is the case. I think I would personally support that. Mhm. But I'd like to see that. >> Okay. Well, there's more to look into and uh I know you guys just got this, so take your time and have a look at it and
we'll talk about it at a future meeting. >> I'm glad we could get it on, but I was really just concerned that we were going to be missing the deadline for town meeting. So, >> appreciate all the work you done. I you've done, but you know, it's a big issue. I just I hate to keep hopping back to Nantucket, but they've been
dealing with this one way or another for like six years and haven't been able to get it right yet. So, uh you know, we certainly need need to get it right going forward. >> In their first pass, they chose not to do anything. Yeah. >> So, that's why >> is the um process or protocol that you
will you have to have another meeting because of the locked door issue? >> Uh just to be sure that nobody was excluded from the meeting. Yeah, we're going to have one more where we can reconsider this and have another vote that would not be uh
in any danger of not being in compliance with the open meeting law. >> But I just um I'm trying to sift through the multiple drafts here. Um and I think what I'm hearing is that if we have specific questions about the nature of
the bylaw that we should refer those to the committee at this point. You can send them to me and I'll bring them to the committee. >> Okay. Um >> that would be great if you could do that in the next week or so. >> I can do that within the next day or so. I have a handful of questions. I I think
my bigger concern is um and I don't want to pick on this committee in particular because it's a a much broader pattern, but it is that we're up to this last minute and
thankfully we've got another meeting to try to consider this and and seeing it for the first time before asking it to, you know, asking whether or not we're actually going to move it forward to town meeting. um when there's been there's been no
check-ins along the way. It was as was pointed out by a member of town management earlier today and is in the the charter for this group. The the select board actually requested quarterly check-ins so that we would have a sense of where this committee was moving. That's something that we've been increasingly trying to ask of committees
so that we don't end up in these last minute here's the final product. Do you like it or don't you? let's move it forward kinds of situations and can have a more collaborative relationship when it comes to to these really major issues for our our town. So, I you know, I
think the the questions and concerns I have about this specific bylaw are relatively speaking fairly minor, but the fact that we're looking at the revision of the revision that came from Friday, like it it just it feels very last minute for something that's really
important like this and and would love to see us across the board moving toward much more back and forth communication with our committees that are developing important policy measures. Certainly always better to be prepared early. Uh this is a bylaw that we had almost ready
to go to town meeting over a year ago and the t this uh committee only met five times leading up to the end of our last meeting which is in October 22nd. So uh I'm sorry I came to the last minute here but you know sometimes
around the holidays these things happen. I guess >> you'll certainly we'll have another chance to uh >> we'll have at least one if not two two meetings before we uh agree to move it forward to the warrant. >> Mr. Chair. >> Yes, Mr. >> Yeah. First, thank you Doug um for your role as leazison on this and how
communicative you've been uh on this and then second uh echoing what you just said, the first choice Nucket made was to do nothing. So, uh we need to make sure that we do have something ready and uh whatever that final document looks like, I will be ready to support it if that's the next meeting or the meeting after. Okay, thank you. Okay,
>> Mr. Reno, we had some comments. >> Just one comment. I want to thank uh Miss Harris and Mr. Crane for their comments uh specifically related to the staffing, additional staffing needs. We had the discussion with regards to the FY27 proposed operating budget. Um the community development director has just advised that he's recently met with um
the health agents, uh fire chief, and the building commissioner, and we're looking at potentially needing to add two uh positions to to properly oversee manage this. And I'm looking at specifically section 8, the inspection section that calls out those uh those
those uh property inspections. And I'm assuming that's where the the the primary driver of the additional staffing is in inspections. Uh and we've seen that in some of the other models that we've looked at. Um to Mr. Crane's point, I think we're covered on the on the software platform. We've we've um
had demos of probably four or five different platforms dating back to two and a half years ago. Um and we do have town meeting appropriated $50,000 um to uh for that purpose specifically. So uh the last platform that we vetted um and by we I mean uh the community
development director and the health agent Scott Mcan um everybody was satisfied that it checked all of the boxes that we based upon the draft. Um and and also and importantly um the town of Dennis is currently using it uh and and uh and very successfully. Um, so
having those kind of testimonials about people that have actually implemented it and are using it have been helpful. So, and it's cost- effective. It's about $26,000 a year. So, that's the only comment. I just wanted the SLboard to be aware that we're currently uh further examining the potential additional
staffing. And I'm not confident, I'll just say this, that the additional fees would offset those costs, right, with regards to personnel. Anyway, >> okay. Um, moving on to um, and we are
way ahead of schedule for once. Uh, review and consider a vote to approve minutes of the meetings November 23rd, December 6th, and December 15th of 2025. Is there a motion? >> I, Mr. Chair, would actually like to
request that we hold the minutes uh, from the strategic planning sessions. I in reading through the description of the public safety sessions in particular for the second planning workshop didn't
feel that um our discussion of um goals around uh the fire department were were as well represented as they could be in that and would would like another look at that that section in particular.
>> And what dates were those Dr. So that would be the sorry about this the >> November 22nd >> the minutes of the I believe it was the December >> sixth >> December 6th was the last
>> right the last sorry the last I was thinking of the the two that are in here not the second time >> November 22nd and December 6th I believe >> the December 6th um workshop >> so those are the two you would want to hold >> just the December 6th >> just December 6th I move approval of
November 22nd and December 15th uh minutes. >> Okay. Second. >> Second. >> Okay. We have a motion in a second. Any further discussion? >> Hearing none. All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. >> Mr. Wrencher, a supplemental report.
>> I do have three uh relatively quick updates. Um, first off, um, Lynlin, I want to thank the Enterprise for writing recently an article in regards to the, uh, the Eversource project currently underway at, uh, Surf Drive and in Milroad. Um, I want to report to the
select board that today, um, Peter McCanny, our DPW director, and a couple of engineer town engineers met with the statewide community relations manager for Eversource um, and, uh, received an up-to-date kind of timeline. And here's
what I've been told. Um, Eversource is on track to complete the cabling project. That includes the pulling of the cable as well as testing of the cable. Um, anticipating completely completing that construction uh by uh January 31st. Um, they feel they're on
track. Um, they're going to uh pull out demobilize uh Surf Drive first and then Mill Avenue second. and following them de uh demobilizing the equipment and and whatnot that's in place at Surf Drive and Mill. Um DPW is going to follow on
their heels, so to speak, and and begin their um work on the parking lot improvements. Um Eversource did advise that final restoration work, you know, once they demobilize the equipment, remove the equipment from the both sites, uh would likely occur and be
completed in early spring. So, those are the updates I want the select board to be aware of because I know that's drawn a lot of community interest. Um, the other update I wanted to provide um is in regard uh to uh our fire chief. As you all know, uh Chief Smith has announced his retirement plans. Um
January 23rd will be his last day. Um Chief Smith's done a great job um in his his duties and responsibilities as fire chief. Um they have an actual formal fire service retirement ceremony planned um at fire headquarters uh that is kind
of by invitation um that conflicts and that's January 23rd um his last day of employment um that conflicts with a lot of um plans select board and myself and the assistant town manager to attend the MMA conference. So that being said, um the update is that um I asked the
assistant town manager to work with HR and with uh the fire admin to um schedule a less formal get together and that is scheduled for um the the morning of Wednesday uh January 21st from 9
until 10:30. It's going to be in the town hall meeting room formerly known as the select board meeting room. We're going to do some continental breakfast refreshment type stuff, but just an opportunity for select board members to stop by and and wish Chief Smith well. Um, we're going to open up to members of the community as well. Um, lastly, I
want to give an update on uh the work that's been going on with regards to the recruitment of our next fire chief. I'm working with our consultant partners at Public Safety Consulting LLC, which as you recall, I mentioned were the same consulting partners, recruiting partners that we utilized for the uh chief of
police recruitment. Um, we are wrapping up what I consider to be a very successful fire chief recruitment. Um, 35 total applications were screened and uh and and vetted. Uh, there's been some interviews with the consultant team. Um,
and ultimately out of those 35 applications, we've made the decision to move for four finalist candidates for interviews and an assessment center. The panel interviews are going to be conducted uh this Friday, January 9th. Um and uh followed by an all day
assessment center that's going to be put on by the uh consultant on Saturday, January 10th. Um and we're going to hold those uh events right here at the senior center. They're not open to the public. Um we want to keep maintain the confidentiality. I'm just letting this board know that we're progressing very
well. Um and hopefully um we'll bring on our next um fire chief um and there won't be too much of a gap in interim uh >> and what happens during that interim period as far as who's uh who's in charge. So, I will I will be meeting
with Chief Smith um uh later this week and uh providing some direction as far as an interim acting uh in uh and and they have a protocol in place with regards to the deputy fire chief stepping in in that acting or interim capacity. >> Okay. >> But all that is yet to be determined. Um
but that's that's part of the process. >> Okay. Thank you. Anyone else have any reports? It's been a holiday uh season, so uh I wouldn't be surprised if we don't have any uh any select board reports. I will say that I along with
Mr. Richardson, I was at the BTEO interfaith service December 22nd. It was an amazing uh amazing event and we appreciate BTO's
efforts uh in that regard. So, >> anyone else? If not, >> I do want to It's sent it's so early. I'm going to talk about agenda items. Just a couple. Um, one that uh came out of uh that service and discussions I've
had with members of the community. Uh, I'd like to discuss if there's any way that um the town could look into some some sort of uh employment uh program or support program uh for the homeless in our community. I know that there's been some discussions with uh some folks in
town about this and they've expressed openness to it. Um if if that's something that we could discuss as a select board, I think that would be would be really powerful. And um you know there was over I think it was 28 uh people across the Cape. It might have been more than that and apologies if wrong uh died of homelessness this year.
And I think it's a lot bigger problem uh than uh people assume. You know people Cape Cod they think wealth they think uh the beaches and they don't realize that there's some real struggle here. Uh, and I think that if there's any way that we as a town and as a board can work to to to fix those gaps, I think would be
really uh really meaningful. Um, the only other one I'm just going to ask an update on if we could if it's not a super um large um uh lift is I would like to discuss um the retail cannabis uh license at some point in the near
future. >> Okay. Um, another one uh to discuss and I was hoping that we would be able to get something uh put forth for the April town meeting which is the long pond conservation restrictions. I see that that's no longer on the future agenda
items but I don't know what it would take to get something done in time for that from our point of view with uh potentially an earmark of some of that land for any article 97 transference from other properties. um to be used for
Long Pond. So teeing that up. >> So we is a is an update. Um we we do intend to have some articles drafted and work we're working with town council with regards to Long Pond. A couple of parcels in particular um for the April town meeting warrant. So we'll be working on those.
>> Can we do all parcels between 28 Gford and Kilm and Goodwill Park? I think that's what we heard was very important. >> The two across the top >> the entire everything within the >> entire perimeter
>> in in everything within that perimeter. >> Mr. Chair, >> please. >> Yeah. Um I don't know. I guess I don't know how far into discussion where you want to get on something not on the agenda, but >> be careful. >> Yeah. So um that request is heard. Um it
will take some time to research every single deed around Long Pond. So you're you're not getting any resistance to the concept, but in terms of being ready for April, um no, we we don't know that we can get all of the all of that deed research done for the April town meeting.
>> Roger that. Thank you. >> And not all of them flow to the reservoir. >> That's true. >> Um I I have one more. Uh Senator Fernandez and I we met with uh Peter Jeff uh this morning. uh Pier Jeffrey, excuse me, the
uh our fantastic representative on the Steamship Board of Governors. Uh whenever we can, if we can meet with the new uh head of the Steamship Authority, uh Mr. Chrysa, I think that's very important for establishing a relationship there and improving uh community relations with the steamship. >> Good idea.
>> Jeffrey is actually the new chair of the That's right. the council. >> And I'm look forward to his uh his term as board chair. >> I have a question about the agenda, future agenda items. Does the order in which they're listed have any bearing on when they will be discussed? I
>> I do not believe that that it does. >> Okay. >> Uh before is there a motion to adjurnn? >> Mine keeps moving down. >> Okay. We have a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> All right. We have a motion and a second. All in favor? >> I
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