[Music] good evening everybody Uh it's Monday March 24th 2025 at 6 PM and I'll call to order the border select meeting Uh today's meeting will be in person as well on Zoom This meeting will be recorded and will be available on the
town's YouTube page Uh tonight we'll be going into executive session and then coming back into open session We will be going into executive session for the following reasons one master general law chapter 3A section 21A3 to discuss strategy um with
respect to collective bargaining or litigation if open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares and I do number two mass general law chapter 3A section 21 A2 to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-UN
personnel or to conduct collective bargaining sessions um or contract negotiations with non-UN personnel for the town accountant And number three master law chapter 30A section 21 A6 to consider the purchase exchange lease or value of real estate
if the share so declares and I do that a open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the negotiating negotiating position of the public body So with that I'll entertain a motion to go into executive session Motion made second All in favor i I select we need a roll call vote Selectman zer Yes Selectman
Matthews Yes Sorry what was that mark uh no I was just going to confirm the roll call vote Sorry We usually get the first couple down It's after that I'm too quick on the drawing All right So we are now in executive
session All right We are now back in open session from executive session Um next on our agenda is a presentation um from Girl Scout Troop 77318 Um and they're here to request to install some butterfly uh houses Great
Floor is yours Thank you very much Good evening My name is Michelle Heck I am the troop leader of this wonderful talented troop Um I'm going to give them each a minute to introduce themselves Girls if you could say who you are and what town you're from because we are a troop that represents a couple of towns
Your name and town My name is Ella and I live in Lake Thank you My name is Emily and I'm from Freetown My name is Quinn and I'm from Freetown My name is Emma and I'm from Freetown
Excellent So um I'm sure you're all very familiar with Girl Scouts One of the things that Girl Scouts do even at a very young age is try to work on um contributing to their community and helping society in some way And so these girls um approached a badge
recently and we had to decide what it was they were going to do to take action to make their community a better place And so girls what was it you came up with as your problem that you wanted to help solve to save the monic butterflies because they're endangered Very good
Okay So they didn't just come up with one thing they wanted to do They came up with three things they wanted to do Love it Yes So um the first thing they came up with was what girls what did we make food Yes We made seed bombs Mhm We made
seed bombs to help feed them right and we're going to be giving seed bombs out at some upcoming events like maybe the egg hunt right mhm What was another solution you came up with by making butter by painting butterfly houses and
making and making shelter for them because they're running out of shelter places Yes And so who made us the butterfly houses because someday we'll be able to make them ourselves but it's a little bit challenging So who helped us does anybody remember yes Quinn Uh
actually no I don't That's okay Teenagers Yes teenagers So we called on the help of the two vocational schools that support Freetown and Lakeville So Old Colony uh and Bristol Plymouth were both um very willing to help us out We paid of course for supplies with troop
money that we earned from cookie sales but the schools uh made the houses and you can see on page eight uh examples of the unfinished houses But these girls have been very busy Uh we had a total of 18 houses So this is just a portion of our troop here this evening Um but
they've all been very busy painting their houses in whatever style they imagined And so you can see a couple of designs here We have a wide range There's a space theme There's an American flag theme You you name it They've done a great job So they have a
big question for this uh select board Girls what's our question for them what do we want them to tell us if we can do if we can put the butterfly houses in a certain place
Yes So on page seven is a list of public places that the girls imagined for Freetown that they would love to be able to put houses up We would handle the installation working with whoever's in charge at the respective locations Um
but we're seeking permission We understand that you are the governing body for the majority of this list but perhaps not all of this list Um I will say there's been a separate separate effort with the town of Lakeville Um but we welcome your feedback and questions um on their request All right Thank you
very much And great job girls This is really impressive Um so I guess one question I have is um so if you put these butterfly houses out there and they're really cool by the way um will you know you pass this down to next
year's troop or maybe you next year take care of those same butterfly houses so that they're they're sustainable So one of the things that um is in process right now is adding several coats of polyurethane to these butterfly houses to make sure they will last a
number of years Um they will each also have a little plaque on them that uh signifies the troop uh number and the year that they were constructed But it's our belief based on the quality of the um houses and the care being put into developing them that they'll last for
years to come Awesome Any questions from you guys well first of all the Girl Scouts are awesome Someone said cookies just in case You may bring any for me Yes they did Actually that we didn't want to we didn't want to give that to you at the start because we felt that
could be misconstrued So we thought we would give it to you at the end regardless of the outcome of the discussion Um well thank you for that And I remember you you girls I I was with you at the Earth Day last year and I hope to see you out there again this year Yes we
are going to be there Um congrat Well my question is how do I get one i would love one for my house You have any design plans you can share with us well what what what can we offer selectman Lopes How about a seed bomb and maybe a seed bomb and maybe a
bookmark Yeah You want to go ahead tell them Tell them Um how about a seed bomb and a bookmark would you like that i would love one Thank you so much I think you girls are doing a great job and um I
think the town would be honored to put them up I um I I can't make the decision on my own but I I'm pretty sure that uh you have my vote So great job So our next step here is we're going to have a vote and the locations here are the Freetown
Libraries uh Water Street Park Freetown Elementary School Freetown Police Station Freetown Fire Station Freetown Town Hall and the Freetown Lakeville Middle School Um the middle school being in Lakeville we probably can't do that one Yeah Yeah
We're happy to take that up with the principal there Yeah Yeah Should we replace that with the beach the free town beach that sounds good Yeah You said you had 18 of them Yes So what if you vote yes on these today then what if we come up
with different ideas can we call you guys and say "Hey we have more locations." Uh you have 18 just for Freetown or we have 18 to share between the towns Um it's a handful that are going to Lakeville So there is certainly some wiggle room If you have ideas we welcome them All right Clearly there was
excitement about the beach So we fantastic to try and spread them across town You know where geographically how we're spread out So also I think one of the locations that we had thought of was the library and we were speaking with the librarian just before the meeting
Her concern was there's literally like a foot of space I think that's technically part of the library all around She's like I tried planting something once and it the guy who mows is like the neighbor who mows and she was a little concerned about that So we might have to Yeah we
welcome alternatives and it might be a little bit more difficult because it is stateowned but the maybe something over um right out in front over here Um at the memorial park Oh no Well you have
Memorial Park too but I'm seeing that the state forest like the main gate area over a splash pad is Yeah one of the scouts is pursuing that location um with the ranger station there So we'll see They haven't got an answer yet Yeah I'm like I said I'm just thinking of it
geographically apart So how about the Council on Aging yeah Nice garden to see the butterflies there Yeah that's a great idea Yeah All right So um I'll have the motion and I'll include these locations and then you know we can discuss anything else that comes up
Great So I'll entertain a motion to approve to have the um Girl Scouts install butterfly houses at the Freetown Libraries Water Street Park Freetown Elementary School Freetown Police Station Freetown Fire Stations Freetown Hall the town beach and the Council on
Aging Motion made Second All in favor i I lops Yes Fleckman Zager Yes Matthews Yes You guys got your butterfly houses Woohoo good job girls Congratulations Now girls one one thing I want to see pictures of the butterflies when they have Of course
Well I will tell you so the Namask News was very interested They already came out and interviewed the girls Awesome And they're going to do a follow-up story as we seek to install them when the weather gets a little nicer But uh would you like to carry this over carefully carefully Carefully We uh this
troop sold almost 5,000 boxes of cookies Oh my gosh But we made sure we saved some to show our appreciation to groups like yourself And we'll also be uh Good job girls We'll be heading around town on Good Friday delivering it to other
public offices as well Thank you for all that you do Thank you We appreciate it Thank you for all you do tonight Good job girls All right ladies Great job today Thank you All right Keep it keep it up I want to see those badges full All right Sure will Fourth of July parade They'll be right Yes We'll see
you guys out there again Yes of course And Earth Day and the egg hunt and anything else Freetown comes up with We will be there Thank you You're very welcome Thank you so much for coming So now our our our
town clerk has a tough act to follow here I was just about to say the same exact thing Can you folks hear me okay Yep Loud and clear Perfect All right So agenda item five is presentation from town clerk on the annual town elections Cheryl take it away Thank you so much Um first of all I'd like to apologize that
I'm not there in person but you're giving me the opportunity to speak to you tonight and as well as all the voters and residents of Freetown Um as usual I'd like to present to you before any upcoming elections Just a a normal review of some deadline dates and some things that are happening Um so with
that we'll continue to the first slide I just wanted to um let everyone know that the voter registration deadline for the 2025 annual town election which was is scheduled for uh Monday April 7th um voter registration deadline is going to
be this Friday by 5:00 p.m So Friday March 28th um I'll be in the office to take inerson voter registrations And if folks want to register online which seems to be the way to go nowadays uh convenience right in the palm of your hand they can uh register to vote in at
voteinmma.com As always if you're already an existing registered voter in Freetown you don't need to register for this specific election This is for new voters Um continuing on to the next slide we'll discuss absentee voting As always absentee voting for
cause is available for all elections Uh for cause we have three reasons According to um pursuant to state law absentee voting is available to any registered voter who will be unable to attend the polls on election due to one an absence from the voter city or town
during normal polling hours Number two a physical disability preventing them from going to the polling place Or number three a religious belief Um the deadline to apply to receive a absentee ballot through the mail is
going to be by 5:00 p.m Monday March 31st And then um or if for some reason uh you find out late that and you don't want to receive a absentee ballot through the mail you can apply in person And the last day to apply in person
would be 5:00 p.m Friday April the 4th at town hall Both options whether you're requesting um a absentee ballot by mail or voting absentee in person at town hall both avenues require an application
So it's the application deadline So the sooner you get those applications in the better Um moving on to the next slide Um I have a picture here of the specimen ballot As always with every election on our town web page uh we have a landing
page for anything any documents any information any materials um having to do with that specific election So folks want to go online freetownm.gov2025 which stands for annual town election that brings you right to the landing page where you can
see copies of the specimen ballot the warrants that were signed the calling for the election etc Um we have a pretty short ballot Um it's a short ballot It's one-sided Um just like to remind folks to make sure that they fill in the oval
completely so that the tabulators can read the actual document and the actual ballot Um and then the one thing that I wanted to call attention to which is very important is a new traffic pattern So um you'll see on the slide there there's a new traffic You can see the
slide real quick Cheryl just now I'm trying to get that one to come up and it will come up I can't see it on my end So if you just want to let me know once it's up There it is You try and reshare the screen maybe
It's weird It shows you're sharing No pressure There you go There we go Oh now I can see it There you go Thanks Lan So as you are aware um the the town has
installed a new door in the rear of the gymnasium State law uh encourages us to have one entrance and one exit So this is going to be the major change that's happening the new uh traffic flow the new traffic pattern the entrance door Um
I've been working with the highway department to include signage Um we've got some extra election workers on to help with traffic flow but the new entrance is going to be at the rear of the building There's been um an ADA accessible ramp It's over there on the
far left of your screen So the entrance is going to be that way So folks are going to queue up almost behind that gymnasium the existing entrance and exit door that you've been used to for the past couple of elections
that's now going to be an exit only So folks are going to queue up in the back of the gymnasium Uh we'll have signage there We'll have um vehicles there to make sure folks aren't driving through Um and then once you enter the gymnasium
the actual floor plan is going to change So it would be similar to the floor plan that was in existence prior to 2021 Um so they'll come through we'll have breeders there they'll go through through the marking station and then
then exit the current door Uh parking is not going to change Um so that's still the same thing Uh I will make note that school is in session that day polls are going to open at 12:00 p.m and they'll
close at 8:00 pm Um working with the principal ward and the elementary school for parent pickup Um so that they are in their appropriate lines there against the school and they don't get confused with what the voter the new voter entrance is going to be So hopefully with the signage and the folks that I
have stationed out there it should be really simple and we'll get our voters used to the new traffic pattern And then um that's about it So if anyone has any questions they can always refer to the website give the office a call and again uh annual town election is going to be Monday April 7th
Polls open at 12:00 and close at 8:00 p.m Does anyone have any questions no No But I will need I'm going to be absentee voter this year So yeah I'll be in Canada So yeah So you
can come on in or we can mail that b that ballot to We just need that application in So yep You have those two deadline gates Yep All right I don't have any questions Anyone questions thank you Cheryl All right Thank you very much And I'm still on for the next
one though Yep Yep So um that's item five We're going to take care of five and and six and then we'll jump probably to the public hearing or the uhformational meeting um because we have folks from from Eversource here So agenda item six is discussion of vote
on the annual letter from the board of selectman to the town committees for a list of members seeking appointments I looked at them pretty standard Anything any uh comments on that Cheryl um no So just pursuant to master general law chapter uh 54 section
12 the board of selectman has to make a notice via mail um to the chairpeople of the town committees requesting um any a list of persons from those um political parties that may be interested in becoming election workers Um the
maximum amount of um names put forward would be eight that letter from the town committees for interested parties should be um voted to the board of registars and the uh by June 1st that's the deadline and then um by June 13th the
board of registars will have to notify the board of selected with a list of interested parties and lists for appointment by August 15th So it's a pretty customary standard letter I did include a sample in my memo Um but that's for your department to to put
together I'm just here to answer any questions and just put you on notice that um that needs to go out Yep All right Any questions or concerns no All right Thank you Charl So with that I'll entertain a motion to um to send out or approve and send out the annual letter
from the board of selectman to the town committees for uh list of members seeking appointments Motion made Second All in favor i Sleman Lopes Yes Sleman Zer Yes Matthews Yes All right Thank you Cheryl Thank you Thank you Thanks Cheryl
Have a good night All right So now I'm gonna move on to Is this a public hearing or is it a informationational meeting informationational meeting I don't Have we done that before i don't know if we have but not really We'll treat it like a Okay I'm just going to read
theformational meeting notice Uh so Eversource Energy request permission to make upgrades to industrial park station number 636 including new duct and manhole system with impacts to Phillips Brily and Chipway and Chase Road
Representatives from Ever Eversource will uh present results of the cluster study and plans for these upgrades Um anyformational meeting to uh anformational meeting sorry to learn more about this matter will be held on March 24th 2024 at 7 p.m at the police
station community room 15 Memorial Drive East Street Mass Persons interested in um commenting may appear uh at this meeting If unable to attend the meeting comments may be submitted in writing no later than close of business Wednesday March 19th 2024 uh to the board of
selectman 3 North Main Street uh and signed by free temporar slman So with that I guess I'll open up theformational meeting Um so thank you for joining us Uh Mr Chairman thank you Uh my name is Anthony Valu I'm community relations for Eversource And I I wish I
was coming here tonight to also build butterfly houses but uh we have just a unique proposal uh for you folks And I'm here with um John Ventur who's the engineering manager and Terresa Fersanger who's the rights manager Um it's just an uh I'll turn it over to to
them in a second but to start uh we have a unique proposal we just wanted to run by the board first to connect some distributed energy resources in Freetown and the north end of New Bedford to our north end substation which is off of Phillips Road in New Bedford Um it's
sort of four miles connecting those those uh sites And I'll turn it over to John who can explain a little bit And I also have the map here I'll just share my screen because I'm plugged into the Zoom Okay great Perfect This is related to solar farms correct yes correct So I need to recuse myself
from this conversation because of my solo So I'm just going to step out Okay Thank you Deb All right Lots going on in this uh slide deck here Yes Yeah So I'm starting on um
and I think you guys have the whole slide deck but I'm starting on page 14 which basically shows the route that I just highlighted and I'll turn it over to John who can speak to sort of the engineering why we're looking to do this So um I mean the the the current ask now
is to build a double circuit up chip away Um the project was submitted to the DPU and um the cost that came back to build it what the initial proposal was an underground duct system was too cost prohibitive Um another alternative that
was investigated was building a new substation which was also cost prohibitive and pushed the schedule way out So the alternative we're looking at is to um build uh two pole lines up u
and chip away up to like the hub of where all these sites would be located So um it's a little different because normally we we keep you know pole lines on one side of the road but in this case to run the second set of circuits we
would come up the other side of the road In some places it crisscrosses and we would basically bring um the circuits both up both sides of the road the whole way up to the the the h and that image there it's where the
red line breaks to the left that would be the the termination of the the four circuit So there's advantages besides being able to host all these solar sites it brings additional reliability and capacity to Freetown for other reasons
Um so that's that's the the big picture is that you're going to have um and actually in some of those areas there's only one circuit right now You're going to have two coming up all that way from industrial park which is a very you know substantial substation with ultimately
will be three large transformers Currently there's two there but they're much bigger than the ones that Sonet substation uh which um is fed from a single source from a national grid substation So it's not quite as you know
reliable as we would like but this pathway is is the one that we're seeing is the most uh cost effective probable Uh I grew up off of Chipoi Uh pretty narrow windy road um adding additional
telephone poles to it really doesn't help um safety in my eyes for the residents Um looks to put telephone poles down both sides of the road consistently um I don't think will be very eye
appealing Um I think that you'll get a lot of push back from the residents um myself included about the way that it would look if you were going to do that That being said I will also say I have a gentleman in the back of the room over
there who's not wanting me to probably call on him but um he just repaved that road Um so if we're going to put stuff down the road and you know underground I know you already s you know talking a little bit about cost um it it would
have to be brought to its current condition So that you know it it would have to be repaved curb to curb um is what we we've recently done at on another spot In my eyes I don't see how we don't do it because we just spent quite a bit of money to repave that road
So we wouldn't want to have ditches dug in and then you know patchwork done right up the road that was you know newest paved road and one of the newest paved roads in Freetown So uh I just look at it as if you some roads are wider and it that that might make a
little more sense but someone you know like I said chip away go look at the layout of chip away And right now I'm trying to think off top of my head it does zigzag right where it kind of goes from left to right in certain spots but it's not on left and right the whole way down the road So yeah there are
definitely a couple narrow spots I'm familiar with road myself so uh that that would be a concern And then we'd have to do significant amount of tree work you know Yeah that's what I was thinking about Super tight I mean it's like a I used to drive you know I lived
King Phillips up that way or Paper Acres and so I would drive every time I go to New Befford Dartmouth I'd drive down chip away and it's like it you know you feel like you're in a tunnel at some points because there's so much tree cover but that's kind of the the beauty of it all right where now to your point
where it's and I guess that's what I was trying to say is that it's the aesthetics of it not just having two telephone poles down the road but how much it's going to widen and how it's going to make it feel And now we're telling residents that we're cutting down trees in their front yard that they've had there They have this
beautiful oak tree in their front yard that we're going to now chop down so we can put a telephone pole to feed that I I just I don't see it going over well and it wouldn't have my support at all um for that reason and I'm usually a pretty fair guy about things but I just
look at that and and everything about it screams no to me You said you from going from two transformers to three bigger transformers Correct That's at New Bedford That's the New Bever side All right I wouldn't see that to be out of sight It's really the the a lot of these new customers There's 11 customer sites
in East Freetown area right that we're trying to get to from that substation and that's that's really the challenge Now we're all for you know green energy solar and all these things right and here in Freetown seems like we've we've we have a few of them right here and
there How does this benefit Freetown over the past months over years actually you know we've entered into a um a community aggregate program to lower energy costs for our residents Earlier you mentioned this being beneficial to Freetown having a bigger line Now does
that mean somehow we can tap into the energy that our our properties are doing uh as far as delivery charges uh the cost of everything seems to be going up especially in the electricity world How does this benefit for those watching at home hearing about more solar more solar
usually from what we understand solar is leaving our town It's here we're paying for the infrastructure We're listening to the buzzing of the batteries for some of them but it's not really staying here as far as cost savings Um any any insight as would that benefit our residents other than the ones that own
the property um so what I can say is it it it the load there is just isn't that much load in Fremont right so it becomes a what's not used locally is exported That's kind of what happens And actually the in southeastern mass in the spring
and fall we generally export more energy during the day than we use believe it or not So with all the solar across southeastern mass we're net exporter uh you know many days during light load periods Um as far as um the extra
circuits what I was referring to is additional reliability that you have you know if we have a broken pole on one side of the road you know we'll have capacity on the other side to carry the same customers and it could be from a storm it could be hit by auto it could be anything So the additional uh
circuits adds that redundancy and resiliency that we're trying to do all over our company Um as far as the underground options so I think that that's sort of set aside right now because the the the as far as the question about paving so we would be off
the road with the poles so there wouldn't really be paving work so to speak No no but I'm saying that if you decided to go to the underground right we I I'm saying I'm completely against having the extra the additional poles going down both sides for all the reasons we just stated but I'm saying
that also just keep in mind that if you decide to put structures under the ground in the roadway that we would then need to then repave that road because of it's not like the pavement's you know uh
you know 100 years old It's it's brand new So um understood Yeah And and then I guess that the only time I would say then is well then let's take down the telephone poles that are existing because we don't need them right like I mean then it would just it will help the
So you're saying it's c it was it was ineffective Yeah Like just cost prohibitive like so like Yeah I wonder how much because I think long term right I totally agree with your concerns like it should be repaved but I think long terms you know I'm sure in general the
push is to go underground when possible right just because just seems to make more sense right um but like it it must have been a huge delta in the total cost right in order to try to go with this other solution which you know has a lot
more of you impact to the residents and um you know I'm sure there's a lot more upkeep on these on having poles more things can go wrong right um so was it that much more expensive like do you have any numbers to say like was it twice as much to go
underground versus um it was one of the the big cost drivers is the cable cost because it's copper copper cable y so it's much uh not only the the non-electric cost of excavating the manholes paving all that it's the
material cost is much much higher Mhm So that's kind of why kind of to go back to the drawing board look at what are the what other options we have and even if we did do underground uh the existing overhead would essentially have to stay to maintain all the existing connections
You know you think of all the houses So we would need to keep a pole line communications everything else So it may not be a main path but it would still be there for local local power distribution Yeah Which is fine I I'm I'm just trying to think of a positive of if you went
could you remove polls but I listen I'm not ask you know the polls that are there that are there but I just don't want to add to so so one question I have is like so I heard this crazy stat the other day about a lot of the solar farms that we've seen
built and this is across the country they're built and they're not actually put setting the power anywhere because the infrastructure is not there in order to move that power So like are these solar panels solar panel kind of arrays we see all over town are they actually connected to a grid yet
so I don't know if you have any statistics on that but there's there are I mean we do have to there are some that are the schedules are a little bit off Yeah Um where they're not connected yet or they're not generating full output because we haven't upgraded the infrastructure Yeah A number of these I
don't I don't think any of them have really invested in that yet until we say you know this is this is the pathway this is okay so these are not built yet these are for these are for these are for future future state ones yeah I believe all the the previously approved ones are in and running okay you know I
I don't know about all but the majority are because it would be a big you know loss of uh investment if for yeah that's what I was thinking yeah that's why but it was like a crazy amount this was I heard on this on the video but yeah I forget what it was but it was a huge
percentage are built ready to contribute and don't can't because of problems like this right where they can't connect to the grid Yeah I I don't know what that number is but imagine there is some number Yeah we I guess I guess you know there's a lot of pros and cons right the
cons is a lot of it that Zerger has to say is you know we do have concerns when trees poles visual You know let's face it people aren't the greatest drivers sometimes right we all get distracted by these little squirrels and cell phones and everything else So
but the con but the pros seems like less and less We're not really benefiting from this whatsoever other than potentially adding to the power grid sometime down the road allowing additional solar fields to now give them the ability to build That's the only
upside I see to it And that's I you know what I mean there's people who own large masses of land and I would like to be able to see them do that I'm not opposed to it but at the same time I don't think putting that on our residents in order to help someone else down the road
potentially put in additional solar fields is the right answer It just it it doesn't doesn't seem right to me Yeah I I hear those concerns Uh we're not we don't actually like build the solar fields We just our only job is to get them connected You know what I mean oh
absolutely But I'm saying they're not they're coming to they're coming to Eversource and saying can you support this right Right Because they don't want to build it unless you can support it to take the power back into the grid So
it's really you doing this is helping them to be able to get that checkbox that they can now build on this 30 acres in this area So so I just I've thought a lot about it once I
saw it and where it was and you know like I said as someone who's grown up over there and driven I don't I don't live there anymore I live on the other side of town but um you know it's just it it just doesn't seem like the right thing to do
Yeah it's tough because you know the sole fields that you do see a lot of it's clearcut around it obviously right the name the games get as much sun on those solar panels as possible Um aesthetically speaking yeah there I don't care how many bushes or Aphrodites you put there you still have solar power
there right you know our pollinators were just here You know that's a lot of butterfly boxes we'd have to build around there to make up for it Um yeah it's a tough one but like I think we we could all say in principle we support energy right green energy We
do At what cost i just don't see the benefit to the free town or free town Yeah All right Um tough one So I don't think we have any specific vote on this tonight do we well discussion vote to
anything pertain pertaining to it I mean I don't I mean do we have to call out a specific vote on what we whether or not we allow them to do it this was really just uhformational That's what I mean That's so I don't So
I'm saying do we need to I don't think there's a specific vote So we've been asked to provide a solution by the DPU and we did propose underground and that was a non-starter for them So we have a very limited uh ability to solve the
problem we have very limited choices and you know in full transparency we just wanted to bring to you where we are in developing what the solution is going to be um and to get your feedback and to see if we can somehow put you know your
feedback your concerns into what that ultimate design ends up being because we do have to come up with a solution and that's why we're here Yeah I hear you the problem the you know I look at it like this we want to work with you to get a solution right but we don't want our solution to contribute to the the
bigger problem right the aesthetics of it all right um we want to say yes yes yes like with like the wind farm out in Nucket Bay right it's it's great but who wants to look at that right so we get to the point that we're saturated in solar farms throughout the town I guess to the
point the residents are like hey what about the public land what about why we we bought here and that's to enjoy nature in and the quietness of it all in between trains Sorry I throw that in there Um so that's that's our concern right we understand that at at your your
point you have to try and find a solution to to the bigger issue right our issue is we love our small town the way it is right we don't want to look at these things all everywhere we go especially on a windy road that can sometimes treacherous Last time it's a storm there
was a massive tree on Chipaway that crossed the entire roads and there's a lot of wetland right so that's the other part There's a there's a good chunk of that road that has a lot of wetland which you know is another issue So I
don't know clearing trees away from wetlands and I know that they give you guys can go through permitting processes and stuff So I'm not saying that you can't do it but I'm saying like in that area too it's just I don't know It's just adding more complexity to it all So so what's next i would say sorry go
ahead No please I was going to say so so what would be the next step when you go back to them and say listen they're giving us a hard no that they do not want this So are they going to come back and what are they going to do is that a hard no you're giving us i
yeah I I think we can all lean one way saying hey our residents are going to say no we can we can safely say that's going to be the case right so instead of saying no it's let's find another solution right uh but I yeah it would if we were to vote today I almost not guarantee that's you I don't like
guarantees but I know I'm leaning that way well and then I'm leaning that way so there's two out of the three so without a hard vote it's it's a hard no that's fair I mean it gives us something but we want to work with you as well we believe in green but we also don't believe in in doing the steps that
you're taking right to us tunneling on the ground is our solution right in that sense I know it's not it's cost prohibitive for you folks but we're the ones that have to live here at the end of the day so so just to provide some context it's the rateayers that bear the cost of these projects so that's really
what the DPU looks at and that's why they said you know what this is a non-starter go back and see what else you can do and and that I can appreciate right you're right and I I've thought about that but then it also leans back to what I originally said Now when someone has a parcel of land over there
that they want to put this on you say we can't support that system So it's not going to fall burden back on them because if we don't if you say that's an onstarter it doesn't work then it just makes that property unviable for future
projects So it's not it's just I think that okay you won't do it but then all that translates into is down the road no solar farms will be over there I'm not opposed to solar farms I think that they're better than a lot of alternatives that can end up on properties Look around town We have
plenty of them I'm just saying that I'm opposed to doing that because I feel like it's just not not a good idea for the residents over there So yeah it does present an issue It's it's a congested area right it it truly is And to add
more infrastructure there it just gives you even more excuses to hit in a sense right like we don't want to hit any poles or transformers or things like that but you add more you tend to hit more right and it's already a treacherous area I I don't believe there's any any additional street lights
or anything like that um or many in that road because I I too use King Phillip often and when I go to different parts of town I use Chip away like my highway right um yeah and it's I wish I had a race car like I was like I was a teenager again it's a great road
so it's tough why should you say that with the the chief of police so it's it's I bit ironic to our our next agenda item is actually discussing a problem telephone poll we have the corner of Journey Road and Chase Road where we've had like Chief can speak to
in a minute but like 377 accidents and this is all in that same area like where the telephone poles themselves are becoming a problem right um it's just kind of Is it a visibility thing or It's in the middle of an intersection Oh okay Which is crazy It's a little bit of a
Yeah source Want to move a pole yeah we've had and we actually had a another we had a a students who were doing a project they came and presented to us about this problem uh a couple last year and um
Oh that's bad Yeah we can we can do something about it Well stick around No we here You know it's a public safety It is It really is We could probably do something with Ballards on a situation like that You can uh the town administrator can always send something
to me Okay And we can try to address it Yeah All right One quick thing I just want to correct the comment So these these major projects is cost sharing It's not all rateayer Yeah The the developers are paying a portion and the payers are paying That makes sense All
right And just curiosity the people using the solar farms there are they LLC's outside LLC's or are they local do you know if there are some people from town or are they like is it China buying into Freetown it's the the property I can speak to this because of dealing
with him somewhat in the past is it's property owners subleasasing their property out to different companies Got it That then are selling the power back into the grid They're paying them to use their property and then these power
these companies are selling it back into Eversource and such So it's not it's not China owning the land Ideally that's a great idea It truly is That's it's you know if you have land and you can use it for that Fantastic Right Yeah Well if you guys got any land we
can build a substation on let me know You know we have to work something out You guys do sewer You guys do sewer We can work out a deal if there was a sewer involved Um all right So I think we're clear I mean I think we all there's no vote being taken right now
but you know I mean we'll see what happens Um I'm going to close theformational set um theformational meeting um and then bring in Deb and come back So I'll entertain a motion to close this informational meeting Motion made All in favor
i Matthew Yes I'm not sure if I have to do that but I always rather take make a motion if I have an abundance of caution Okay Um so you guys might want to stick around for this just because I think it it actually is uh one of your polls That's that's a problem So agenda item
um seven here is discussion and vote on conducting a traffic study to address the safety concerns for the intersection located at Gurnie Road and Chase Road So Chief if you want to uh jump in here and kind of tell us about the information you pulled Sure
Ken Uh so our most recent accident at this location was uh at the end of uh February and knowing the history of this uh intersection and this utility pole which is again located directly in the four-way intersection prompted a
analysis and a survey of our activity responding to numerous accidents at this location So uh Sergeant Ashley spent a lot of time and uh researched uh our motor vehicle accidents at this location
all the way back to January 1st of 2018 So we're talking just over a sixyear um stent And during that time frame we've uh responded to 37 motor vehicle accidents at this location Over half of
those accidents are accidents that are involving that utility pole where the crash makes contact with that utility pole The other half are mainly uh accidents involving uh other vehicles
traveling in the area So it is a very concerning intersection Um the ch over half of those accidents involving the utility pole are accidents involving vehicles that are traveling on
Gurnie Road making the stop at the uh stop sign and attempting to make a lefthand turn heading east on uh Chase Road to go towards the highway And uh I other than the utility pole being in the middle I
can't you know foresee why people are driving into the pole when they're making this left-hand turn They're probably the attention is looking to the right looking west to see if there's oncoming cars coming And because the intersection is so wide I imagine some
people are confused whether to go to the left or to the right of the pole to go around the pole So this intersection definitely needs some sense of attention to uh increase the safety here Out of all the intersections in the community this
lines right up to our son at four corners of one of the more dangerous intersections We have plenty of activity here We have plenty of data Uh we've supported that uh and sent it to the border selectment for review But uh I'm happy to answer any questions of the
data that's there I can tell you that uh all of the accidents of all I would say looking at what I'm seeing here half of the vehicles are being towed Half the accidents are reported having injuries Um but I can tell you that uh in the
past couple years I don't recall any serious or fatalities at that location but definitely um warrant some other safety measures to make things better at that location Thank you J So I think like even we should get rid
of the pole right we should get out of the middle of the intersection right i still think that's a it's a dangerous intersection probably regardless of that just because it's a it's not it should be a four-way stop but it's not or it should be something right so just at from you folks just you know you can leave after this like how long would it
take from everything to get that pole out of the middle of that intersection if we were if we were to request that formally tomorrow we'd have to look at the polls on either side of it on that pole So we have to look at that to see what the feasibility
is of a solution to just remove it Um in just looking at it though I would um I see all the reflectors and I think the markers are a great idea but the other thing to consider is ballards You know the concrete filled pipes that are it's
it presents a more um it's going to cause more damage to a vehicle and it's more visible Yeah we have all sorts of reflective pallets and maybe you know um maybe for around it with the reflectors so that it's more visible I would say
But I don't know if you know I'd have to look to see what the distances are because because what I'm thinking here right is I I like you know if we have a highway department do something to you know what you're saying but do we want to make that investment you know how much of investment do we want to make if
we're going to move that pole anyways right But I mean I think we do need to to do something Obviously my my concern is is I think that you say what half the vehicles that have involved in an accident over there were weren't towed away So what were a lot of those were
they people in and kind of piggybacking off what you said They're looking to the right they're going left Well widening out what they're going to possibly hit might save the telephone pole but it's not going to reduce the amount of traffic accidents that because
I think that they they know the pole's there but they are looking to the left because of the intersection they're driving into the pole So I think that we need to find a way to remove that pole and then maybe do something with the intersection as a whole But I don't know that putting anything around the telephone pole is going to save anything
other than the telephone pole Right Yeah To chief's point you mentioned the four corners right at the four corners we have every gizmo known to man from blinking lights to signs to things painted on the ground Yet we still have a problem with basic looking you know at the end of the day the driver has to
take some responsibility You know I look at that poll it's been there since beginning of time right um 37 accidents over six years seven seven years That's a lot Um but some some responsibility is on the driver right absolutely It's one of those things Don't fix it if that's
not broken This is almost like half broken Like we removed the pole Are we adding lights are we adding letting our lights like little blinkers like we do at the four corners to people make people aware come down Chase Road So there's you know we even had a the uh the children the student high school
create a plan So whatever we do do we got to get them involved make sure that they get their train came to us and said said to us that they thought there was an issue at that intersection and we talked a little bit about it with them but it was a you know it was an informal thing but that was kind of unfortunately
where it was left at that point because you know so but now with this telephone pole thing this is a little bit more hot data that that's been put to us that says that we need to do something yeah so I guess Chuck you're here like is there any short-term kind of fixes that
you see that could be I'm I'm going to be the bad guy Okay Do we know the traffic counts drop i don't know Um 2,000 cars a day It's hard to say I I I can't give you a figure but I mean if we were looking to
do a traffic count I'd be I mean we really can't do much as far as stop signs or traffic lights or anything without getting engineers involved Just can't do stuff I mean the concrete ballards that's going to protect the telephone pole but that's just going to
have him run into a concrete ballard Yep The the lineators that TJ put on his little photo thing there that might help They're reflective Possibly a yellow flashing light on the pole if you're
traveling towards 140 might help Um but if you've had 37 accidents in seven years And if there's 2,000 cars a day you're looking at 6 million cars driven through that intersection in the last seven years And you've only had 37
accidents That's a gloss half full perspective Chuck I like it Well again I mean I drive through that intersection Yeah 20 times a day Yeah Driving everything from bicycles to motorcycles to tractor trails Yeah Never had an
issue Never had a close call Never said "Holy crap we got to do something." Yeah But I say the same thing about us on four corners I've never had an issue But I mean we can put up plastic lineators like the railroad did at the railroad
tracks Yeah Cheap money Probably if I put in 10 around that island it's probably going to cost us maybe $500 Okay that makes sense I I can do that I can have that done If I can get the line I can have it done tomorrow Okay Uh and
that doesn't require any kind of traffic study We don't have to bring in engineers Once you start with stop sign fourway stop sign people are going to get hurt real bad You're going to have real accidents Mhm Um roundabout I don't think the town's prepared to spend you
know $8 million on a roundabout for that particular intersection Yeah Not now Not yet Yeah But uh moving the telephone pole I don't I think if people in tribal east and west at least they've got that
telephone pole in that island separating them Mhm If you didn't have that are they going to start crashing into one another well that that was why my thought was going to be Chuck is do we still have some if they remove that do we still have some sort of like rumble strip almost in between that's like uh
you know concrete so it differentiates the the road But you you could and I think TJ proposed painting a dotted line from Gurnie taking the left onto Chase That's an easy thing too Once the weather cooperates we can do that in
house and that won't cost that won't cost $5 to do that We can bang that out easy All right I mean if you want I can get the lineators ordered and when the weather cooperates we can get that stuff
installed It's cheap money and we can see if it makes a difference All right Yeah I really don't I I can see a tractor trailer taking a left off a gurnie bouncing the trail the end of the trailer off the pole the guy not paying attention about how a car and I've seen
it seen it firsthand live action The guy takes a left and drives right into the telephone pole Again until you take until all the cars of the world are totally autonomous you're going to have these issues happen Yeah maybe he really hates telephone
poles No I mean it's it's just it is human error 110% of the time Yeah But tomorrow I'll make phone calls I'll get the lineators ordered and as soon as we get some decent dry weather I'll paint that dotted yellow line through that
intersection and we'll play with it Absolutely But I still think at the same time we could do we should do all that plus remove the telephone pole if possible It's a it's a pretty ordinary injunction I don't see it being an easy removal Yeah it's the way the wires come
off But I mean at least we can try and get steps forward on see if they can do something with it And you haven't worked We can take a look Yeah it's just not ideal for sure the way it is Data wise if you need data to to uh send it up the
chain we can provide this to you if you need it as far as emergency order or anything like that Although you know out of the six million vehicles traveling in the past seven years 37 out of how many accidents we h have we had in town over those same period the majority of them are right here right just at that
location Uh I can't think of another intersection that you know active with accidents and the whole idea of this conversation is to improve the safety there and people not hitting the pole So reflectives and paint on the roadway if
it makes things better and reduces the actions by half I think that's a win Um agree But on the same note you're absolutely right There's some responsibility that belongs to the operators out there And we all know they might not be doing 30 miles an hour in that general area which it's
posted They're doing faster They want to zip to get to the highway right so not me Chief Not me the wrong road All right So what I can do is reach out to Serpent Serpent's our regional planning agency These kinds
of situations generally when they arise you you bring them to SERD and they have the joint transportation committee Um they they provide information and studies to the town So I can uh reach out to them The other thing is I know we did the complete streets um
study I just can't remember if this was in it Do you remember it was Serpent's been brought in on this years and it's to them it it doesn't qualify as a dangerous intersection You don't have the accidents You don't have the bad
accidents for that You've had 37 accidents in seven years with 6 million cars That's just a general Maybe it's 5 million Maybe it's four million but percentage wise it's minute So if it wasn't the complete street study I'll take a review
of that I have that on my uh on my filing cabinet We can get a grant to do improvements on that Um if if we're able to get grants all depending on the MBTA uh zoning uh stuff So I can look at that
and follow up with that as well So you can work on the short term and I'll work on something I can get the stuff It'll be done by especially with a new planner coming in and I can pass this off to her and have her start looking at it with the complete street study Perfect Do Do I need a vote on this
i just wanted to add Deb if we Can you also reach out to the high school to the students that did the plan as well make sure they're somehow involved or just maybe an email saying "Hey we're looking at touching this We're looking at some of your plans just in case they need something for their study or for their
project." That's a good idea Just get them involved back back in it Good idea All right I think we're I don't think we need a vote there Right This is kind of just within Chuck's normal job Um and then Ser to do All right I think we're good All right I really appreciate
everybody Thank you for sticking around for that Just you know you might be hearing from us on that front So be available All right Great Thank you Thank you All right Thanks everybody So moving on to agenda item eight We have an easy one Discussion to vote whether to approve the open session minutes from
424 2025 and 33 2025 Motion made A second All in favor i I select Lope Yes Sleman Zar Yes Sleman Matthews Yes All right Agenda item nine Discussion and vote whether to accept
the following donations for Earth Day 2025 Um A Borges Brothers Trucking Inc $500 B Bradford Steel Co Inc $100 Copart of Connecticut Inc $1,000 And Stop and Shop for $1,000 Thank you very much for
these donations and we appreciate it Um any questions or concerns no Yes I have a qu I have a comment Everyone get out and help us out Let's go Step up We have plenty of plenty of shirts to give out Let's go Clean up town Perfect All right
So without entertain a motion to accept the donations listed in the agenda A through D Motion made Second All in favor i Moes Yes Flew Zer Yes Flea Matthews Yes Agen item 10 discussion to vote whether to approve the decrease in the number of parade and fireworks
committee members to 11 which I read this and I was like 11's still a big number Yeah Well we went to 13 a couple years back because I was added to it and so was another individual Sam DS because they needed help with the parade Um we didn't want to have it a third year in a row no parade So like we're having a
parade So this year we had people just too busy with their daily lives that they couldn't uh commit that much time right we have about six more meetings seven meetings before the fourth of July Then fourth of July the parade and the fireworks is quite a bit of an
undertaking right so the to get a quorum at 13 is just sometimes impossible So going back to the original number before I I came into it is was the reasonable thing to uh to vote on at the last meeting Yep that makes sense to me Absolutely All right So with that I'll
enter a motion to approve the decrease the number of parade and fireworks committee members to 11 Motion made me second All in favor i And so you guys know before we go off the parade it is 250 years this year Oh wow Celebrating America and we're we're I'm thinking
about it Hot dog eating contest Pie eating Get ready Selectman May be a challenge card Yes Selectman Zagger Yes Selectman Matthews Yes That's funny All right Um agenda item 11 discussion of vote
whether approve the insurance health insurance rates for fiscal 20 year 2026 Yeah So the insurance advisory committee had not met because I was trying to put our insurance out to quote to get um cheaper rates Mhm Um which I wasn't able
to do So um I just we just got these rates last year They haven't voted But generally I mean they just vote to recommend them to There's nothing we can do about them Um so it's just you can I mean I don't know what else they would vote on but you could always vote subject to their recommendation which
I'm sure they will get Um this is exactly what they've had in the past I've added um uh a plan at the the $300 deductible plan based on my negotiation with four of the five unions that new employees
would um be on that plan as opposed to our premium preferred plan Um and then the $2,000 deductible plan came in last year because if we don't offer something less expensive we we have to not only do we pay 75% of the insurance but we have
to pay um a penalty to the IRS of $12,000 a year So it's a necessity to have that less expensive plan on there So the only thing I've done is add plans but I haven't changed or not that I you know this is the same insurance they've always had with Crossbow Shield same
package other than what's being offered to new employees under their union contracts Okay perfect Thank you It's gone up almost 10% unfortunately Yeah Yeah All right That's terrible but that's is what happens It's expensive
Yeah it's tough you know make a motion to accept the insurance rates subject to recommendation from the insurance advisory committee I would that's the vote I would take Okay Well I'll entertain that motion Motion made second
All in favor i I Sleman Lopes Yes Sleman Z Yes Sleman Matthews Yes If they come back with something different I'll bring it back in front of the board Perfect I'm not expecting that though Nope All right Uh agenda item 12 discussion of vote whether approve the engagement
letter from Ross Roselle Rosselli Clark and Associates for a single audit uh for 2025 in the sum of $5,000 And this is required because we hit a certain uh threshold because of the amount of grant money if once you hit $750,000 of
federal grant money uh you have to do a single audit Okay It's good problem to have Yeah Yeah Yeah And that seems like a reasonable thing Y I I don't I don't um All right So with that I'll enter intend a motion to approve the engagement letter uh for the single
audit 2025 and sum of $5,000 Motion made Second All in favor yes I I Sman Lopes Yes On an audit Selectman Zer Yes Selectman Matthews Yes All right Agenda item 13 discussion of vote on next steps
Uh surplus radios did not sell on municip bid That stinks Yeah Yeah We tried if you remember we tried to drop the amount to so that this wouldn't happen because this is what we always talk about is like just get everything at a low
starting bid Who would have won 30-y old radios come on But I think they're really old I I I even called um I think I reached out to Monty who does all our a lot of our radio work and he's like I don't even have any use for them I don't have anybody on them anymore you know
But I would just say to donate them Maybe there's another town that can use Yeah I think donate town even like maybe even the mountain bike association and they go through the woods I don't know Every member they're probably huge Oh yeah they're the bulky ones huh i don't know Or maybe Monty will take them if they're free I don't Okay Yeah So So
said to that Monty would take them if we wanted to donate them to them Okay So we'll just put them up to donation Maybe this we have to declare them in surplus I think we already did Oh we didn't at that I didn't Oh yeah Yeah it was declare a surplus and decide what to do
with them So now we're just changing what we're deciding to do Do I have to say who we're going to donate them to or just donate them at east Coast Electronics East Coast Electronics Okay So with that I enter a motion to donate the um radios to East Coast Electronics
Motion made Second All in favor i I Selectman Lopes Yes Selectman Zer Yes Selectmans Yes All right Agenda item 14 This one's cool Uh discussion to vote whether approve the presentation on the Bridgewater Triangle at the police station community
room on October 17th 2025 from 5 to 10 p.m So this is going to be by Tim Weisberg He's the host of Squeaky South Coast Um figure something fun for Halloween time
for Halloween time Um we had him here last year and he was great He did haunted objects and he allowed people to bring in whatever they thought was haunted and he would do an investigation Um so it was just a fun time and we figured something um like a talk that's about around here would be really cool
and I do it with Nicole from the library as well I think that's perfect And I I think I've seen I saw him at the um Chamberlain Farms Oh yeah Do pres and it was really interesting It was Yeah He He's a good guy He was doing a live thing today from the train He took it
from like four o'clock in the morning when it started in New Befford all the way to Boston and back Oh yeah that was his whole thing today So maybe you'll tell us some spooky trails on the stops along the train We never know All right great Well we look forward to it and thank you for putting that together So
um thank you Yeah So that a motion to approve presentation on the Bridgewwater Triangle the police station committee room on 10:17 2025 from 5 to 10 p.m Motion made Second All in favor i I Sleman Lopes Yes Sleman Zagger Yes Lman
Matthews Yes J 15 discussion vote whether to approve the proposal from vertical communications for fire uh for the fire station This is just for the phone system for the new the new building Yeah
So am I reading this right it's a $100 a month now Recurring charges for the trunk lines Yeah That's great I would say reoccurring charges 100 I know that Steve Maderas for the fire department's really been working on this Um it's what
we do at all the monthly license It's going to be just like it's going to be $100 a month It's $15,000 to install the system and then $100 a month and and it was it was the same thing we just looked at for the for here and it was the same thing with the reoccurring charges Yeah Yeah Would it pay for itself over time
absolutely It's the same thing we had at the town hall as well All right So any questions or concern be good No No So with that I want you a motion to approve the proposal from the vert from from vertical communications for fire
station Motion made second All in favor i Sleman Les Yes Sleman Zar Yes Sleman Matthew Yes All right We want to do board and parks So kind There you go All right So agenda item number 19 discussion vote uh whether to
approve the park signage for Haway Park kayak storage area Welcome Kylie So uh we we did get some um updated signage I I think it all looks good but I don't know if you want to talk anything in specifics to it or
No no not really Um there have been some kayaks that are left there unattended Um which I mean there is no signage there so how did anyone know uh the only issue I have is what do you do after the signage is there like when it's like
subject to removal if someone's assigned that slot what happens afterwards like if someone takes their slot and they haven't applied So are there still currently I know there was some stuff going back and forth and there was like two of them there that were just sitting there No one knew who they belong Are
they still there yes they are There's three now Yeah I got I got an email from someone saying there's a canoe there too Yeah All right So what I would say is we put up the signage Um and then we should probably talk with the chief I wonder if there's a way to like sticker them or
something to do something or if we can do something I don't know I'm just trying to think because if people think that they don't know that it's they're not paying attention and they feel like they've been putting it here for the past six months they come back and they put it up They don't even pay attention to the signage Signage is great but you need
someone to read the signage in order for it Do we do we do like a time limit right It's only what six spots right uh I believe there's eight eight spots So do we So there's probably more than eight kayaks right i have six at my house right so for for reference right
we each have one go kayaking So we put a time limit on there I think there is one for the season isn't it right Like shorter than the season This is what the You can use the rack throughout the season but you can't lose You can't use it longer than a 48 hour period of time How many people did we
have try and pull permits for it do we know um no And you don't have to know that It's fine But I'm just curious I mean I didn't hear anything that oh can we hurry up and put additional stuff there because there was a huge pull on people trying to do it and no space to
put it So I don't know that we need to shrink it down at this point I mean that might be a good idea if all of a sudden we have 40 people trying to put kayaks there in only eight spots Um my thoughts my my concerns more around is to what you're talking about right now We have
three right things sitting there and we don't know who they belong to and they don't belong there So could we lock them up like in there like I don't know how what the what it actually looks like but I was thinking like like if they're unused ones that people don't have credit to you like if there's a
mechanism that we can lock them so no one can put anything there until someone they come and get a key come and get a key for it Right And then the ones that are there that no one's claimed we lock them and say try and get in here contact the town more than happy to give you a permit for it or or you know I'm sure
people put them there just thinking they could not like meaning to not do it One thing on the sign that I wanted to talk about is the last sentence that says or visit the town hall or council on aging for an application We have no idea what the application is So I don't really
want you sending people to the town hall because we're just going to be all looking at each other like what do we do with this so I think the online thing or maybe um to contact like your email or something but you send them to the town hall We're going to be like we don't know The clerk's going to be like we
don't know We don't have the we don't know what's going on So I just I'm concerned with that I don't want people chasing their tail trying to figure out how to get one So that was my only comment on that But my guess is the people have put kayaks there because the rock is there and they didn't know they needed to permit Yeah of course That
makes sense Yeah I don't think that there was someone doing it with ill intent But I guess that's my issue right is like what do we do because them having to unlock something to put it there and they could get the key from the town And I do think that they will be widely used once people realize that
they're there to use because a lot of people kayak from there right Yeah And if you don't have a truck to bring a kayak you know there's ways you get get it in a car trust me But you don't want to be driving it up and down Yeah No I hear you I was just thinking I
might go kaying this week All right I mean I'm I'm okay with the sign with the with the exceptions of what Debbie said Um so that that helps that but then we just really I think we do need to figure
out something some way to to let the residents know about the existing canoe and kayaks that are there Um so I don't know if there's a way for us to talk I don't know if you can go to the police chief I mean I don't think there's anything we need to vote on specifically but we need to maybe talk
with the police chief and see if there's something we can do some sort of mechanism Um and then maybe also we can look into I I do like selecting Matthew's idea of maybe finding a way to lock them up so that someone and then have a master key to each one they when
they get the permit we give them a key that allows them to open that Yeah And then um pros and cons pros and cons I know we're complicating it It's supposed to be something that's simple and beneficiary to the resident So I don't want to make it cost of government We're
just making Right So So I mean I think we'll we'll we'll kick back on that but I I think for now I say um I'm okay with the signage with that last part Do you guys do you do you any addage to the signage trying to make it more convenient Is there any way to add a QR
code yeah to the application That way people can instead of trying to type it in with the wet hands or a kayak you take a quick snap and on your way you go That's a good idea Yeah Um All right
So with that um I entertain a motion to approve the park signage for a Hathaway Park kayak storage um with the added QR code and removal of the bottom uh bottom callouts for town hall and
council on aging All right I'll make that motion Second Uh all right All those in favor i I Sleman Lopes yes Sleman Zer yes Sleman Matthews Yes And then agenda item number 20 Um discussion and vote whether to approve
outdoor movie nights at 39 Memorial Drive East Freetown on 8:1525 82925 9625 from 5 to 10 p.m So uh you know
went over well in the past and um kind of looking to build off it this year Yeah exactly Um I thought I was on jump of the gun starting early planning and then I reached out to the the rental guy that we got the um the movies from and
he's like already booked up I'm like "Oh my gosh this is so quick." I was like "I'll take whatever dates you have at this point." So we're planning for something else in October Um but yeah it it went well really well um last year And actually it's kind of better that
it's not in October because it got kind of cold Yeah Um rescue Yeah it got chilly We're trying to sell blankets but they didn't really work Yeah But it went really well so I'm excited to do it again Mhm Oh good Yeah No I mean I I don't see any downside to
this I think this is like little wins for the residents right something that's easy enough to I say it's easy and it's easy for me to sit here and say how easy it is to do but I'm saying it's something different that the residents can buy into And I'm sure there there was a lot of kids right from Yeah
All three events all two both events except the third one we got cancelled Uh weather wind was the wind Um you know we had well over 100 people at the events right on average And and especially the second one which was colder right um
people started you know as it got colder and colder I mean it dropped pretty quickly Yeah Um but Hocus Pocus 2 it was still a hit you know That's awesome And the first one I think didn't get the numbers because Netflix had just released it Um I think it was what is it
the uh Migration Migration yeah Netflix had just sent it out a week or two before and then I think people were just like "Oh we already watched that one." But these all being in the summertime in August I think I think it's going to do very well But I also think that it also builds off right so someone who came
last year had a positive experience now comes this year you know they remember taking their kids there right so um so I appreciate all the efforts I know uh residents appreciate your you know your your job Yeah These are the things that
make a community a community So I think it's awesome So So thank you All right With that I entertain a motion to approve the outdoor movie nights at 39 Memorial um Drive East Freetown Um as dates mentioned before I'll make that motion Second All those in favor i
Selectman Lopes Yes Selectman Zagger Yes Select Matthews Yes All right Thank you so much Thank you kick it over to select one votes All right I got a I got a treat I got a treat for you guys on this one All right item agenda 16 Acknowledge the
resignation of A Ronnie Fritz as equipment operator effective 321 2025 and B Elvis Cody as call firefighter EMT effective 313 2025 I'd like to say thank you Thank you very much uh for both of you for everything you've done for the
town That was my impression for the night All right Item agenda 17 We send the appointment of Robin Kendrick as public records clerk council of aging board Thank you Robin for all the work you've done All right Item agenda 18 Discussion
and vote whe to approve the following appointments A Nancy Dery as town planner effective 3:25 2025 through 6:30 2025 B Nina Dumont as senior clerk board of health in building departments
effective 3:25 2025 through 6:30 2025 C Brenda Ma as public records clerk council of aging board 324 2025 through 6:30 2025 D Melanie King to parading fireworks committee effective 324 2025
through 6:30 2025 and E Alicia Lynn Boyven to Council of Aging Library Community Building Committee effective 3:24 2022 through 6:30 2025 I've spoken and to all every one of
them great people Any questions comments objections no All right Awesome I entertain the motion to approve item agenda 18 individuals identified as A through E for their
effective appointments I'll make that motion I will second it All in favor i I Selectman Lope Yes Sleman Zar Yes Sman Matthew Yes Lopes I think you need to go back to 17 and vote
Send the 17 Yeah You have to vote on recision Oh yeah Yeah I don't think we did vote the recision I think you just um Oh it didn't Oh we just acknowledge it Good catch D All right Um back to item agenda personnel board item 17 Uh the
recision the appointment of Robin Kendrick as public records clerk council of aging board I detain the motion to resend the appointment of Robin Kendrick as public records clerk for council of aging board Make that motion I will second it All in favor i I Sman Lope Yes
Select Zer Yes Slackman Matthews Yes All right A little sign and then a journ First cassette tape I ever bought when I was a child was Elvis Greatest hits Radio This is real Showing your age
Yeah Yeah You're the best First cassette tape The old boom box Thank [Applause] you creating fireworks Yes
That's right 250 years This made just anywhere Not anywhere where it says sign Two documents just for the vertical fire station Oh wait This one I heard these just you
right Nope No that one Um yep It's just Yep Shoot that back Sorry This This one and these three are just missing as well It's just you Back to Nancy Make sure she's already on there
Yeah she was an alternate now she'll sign You're good So with that I'll intend a motion to adjurnn Motion made Second All in favor i I zagger Yes Matthews Yes
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