WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=WNck8pKC7J8

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: WNck8pKC7J8):
- 00:00:05: Introduction of Select Board and Meeting Expectations
- 00:01:47: Challenge Facing Freetown: Library, Schools and Roads
- 00:03:08: Freetown's Budget Allocation Process Explained Simply
- 00:04:14: New Library Details: Location, Funding, and Amenities
- 00:06:28: Existing Libraries' Problems: No Water, Limited Capacity
- 00:07:31: Supporting Quality Education: Balancing Opinions, Facts
- 00:08:58: New Town Projects: Parks, Pickleball, Hydration Station
- 00:10:48: Streetlight Policy: Balancing Safety, Rural Character
- 00:12:30: Keeping Classroom Sizes Small: A Team Effort
- 00:13:06: Improving Existing Parks: Playground and Accessibility
- 00:14:09: Biggest Town Projects: Library, Fire Station Updates
- 00:15:32: Protecting Long Pond: Budget, Invasive Species Control
- 00:17:51: ADA Compliance: Accessibility in Future Projects
- 00:19:50: Favorite Spots in Freetown: Parks, Waterways, Forest
- 00:21:59: Becoming Selectmen: Improving Freetown for Future
- 00:24:56: Less Known Spots in Freetown: Forests and Trails
- 00:26:37: The Train: Balancing Access and Noise Concerns
- 00:28:24: Selectmen Workload: Meetings, Planning, and Hiring
- 00:30:53: Freetown in 20 Years: Growth While Maintaining Charm
- 00:32:23: Prioritizing Town Improvements: Fixing Existing Infrastructure
- 00:34:39: Changing One Thing: Library, Sidewalks, Through Roads
- 00:37:06: Biggest Projects Involved: Fire Station, Long Pond Access
- 00:39:11: Lack of Big Retail Stores: Maintaining Small-Town Feel
- 00:40:30: Improving Waterfront Use: Accessibility and Safety
- 00:41:57: Motivational Signs: Student-Generated Inspiration
- 00:43:17: Selectmen Day Jobs: Defense, Reseller, Consultant
- 00:44:51: Fast Food Chains Discussion, Upcoming Essay Reminder


Part: 1

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job well. This is a very special event that has been going on for quite some time at Freetown Elementary School as you are learning your unit of study around Freetown. Also, part of it is learning about the

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government of Freetown or local governments. And I'm sure you have some question. So, I'd like to introduce the three Preown uh selectmen or the select board. All right. I have Mr. Zerger, Mr. Lopes, and Mr. Carvalo here. And I'm

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certain you're going to be a great audience by being respectful, responsible, safety. Yes, I've already shared with you. It's a bit warming. >> I got We're going to get through it. We're going to listen. You're going to ask your questions. You may have

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follow-up questions. And I hope that you have a takeaway from this at the end. Sound fair? Mrs. Fzone. Anything else I need to Anything else to add? Good. So, I believe you have children

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who are ready to ask questions. And students, you will go to the microphone that's there. Is it on? Let's see. It's on. And the selectman or select board is going to answer your question. I'm not sure who's going to answer the question, but they're going to try their best. All right, they're

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ready for some hard questions. All right, >> got you. Perfect questions. >> All right, who's our first guest? >> Come on up. >> What's the biggest challenge our town's facing right now?

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>> The biggest challenge our town is facing right now? Hm. What do you guys think? >> Uh, new building, >> right? One of the challenges we have is like, uh, Sleen Zagger said, we're looking at trying to build a new library and council of agent across the street.

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Oh, someone's excited about a new library. So, that's a challenge. You know, some people like it, some people don't. Some people are concerned about what it costs, and other people think it's been too long since we haven't had a real library or council of aging or expansion of the library or council of aging. So, that's one area. What else do

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you guys think it's affecting our dayto-day? Schools are also always a concern. I know you guys need some new windows and roofs and things like that. So, we have to make sure that you have those to keep you safe and and nice and cool as needed. Um, roads are always a

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big thing, right? We have to make sure those are nice and fixed. Uh, money things called budgets. Those are always fun and ugly things to discuss. What else do you guys think? >> That's about it. some major stuff yet. >> Yeah. A lot of adult stuff, I think.

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>> Yeah. >> All right. Did that answer your question? >> All right. Ronaldo, New Jersey. >> The town's brother gets spent. >> Where does the town's most of the town's money gets spent? So, we have this thing

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called an omnous budget. And every year we make sure that every department whether it's the police, the fire, the schools, um the highway department, our clerks, and every little piece of money goes into those areas. Some areas are higher than others, you know, like police and fire schools are a little

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higher on on that that budget. Then um and we use that every year we get a budget and every year we take what we make and then we add we use that for next year's planning to make sure that we have enough money in those budgets based on what just happened last year. So for instance, did we just have a big snowstorm?

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Right? So that snowstorm was the first one we've had in many, many, many years, right? So that cost a little bit more than we expected. So next year, should we add more money to the snowstorm pile or funds? Yeah. So that's how we do it. We take what we learn every year and we

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add it to the next year. So that way if it happens again, we're prepared. Make sense? Yeah. Just like you guys have homework, right? Homework's for what? prepare you for the next day at school, right? So, makes sense. And guess what? You'll always have homework.

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Great question. >> Can you tell us about the library you're thinking about building across from our school? >> Well, I'll take that one. I am the chairman of that committee, uh, which means I I get to talk a lot and and run the meeting. But, let's talk about the

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library. So for about 3540 years, so probably your grandparents have been asking for a library and a council of aging. So because we're such a small town, we decided that we couldn't just build one library or one council of aging. So all the adults in the room got together and we decided to make one

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building into two, right? And because of that, we got a lot of federal grant money, which is about almost $10 million. It's a big number, right? To build a new building. But first, we had to buy the land across the street. We're about 32 acres, which is a lot. Um, and

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then now we get to build a library in a cost of aging based on what the sizes for each room needs. So, if we need a room for teenagers or young kids or for reading or for teaching, we'll make sure to have a big enough space so that you

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can go in there. Not to mention, the current ladder we have ac down in East Freetown only fits about 11 people. So think about that. How many people are in this room? Are there more than 11 people? So all of us couldn't fit in that room together or that that same library that we have in East Creek Town

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next to Long Pond, right? So the new library will be able to accommodate hundreds of people along with uh a community room where we can have things like dinners and events, maybe even some some voting down the down the road. So it it's a a good place to be um for the

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town of Freetown. And it's also that we got a lot of money from the state and federal government, which is our bosses in a sense. Uh well, not really our bosses, but that's where we got a lot of their funding from. So that library is going to be here if it gets approved by your parents and grandparents, right? So

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make if you want one, make sure you tell them you really want one. Um that should be approved hopefully June 1st coming up in a couple weeks at our town meeting. It'll be a pretty cool area. >> Sonet library has no run water. >> Oh, that's Thank you. live in Cavalo. Correct. So, we do have another library.

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It's a smaller one. It's been around for many years over in the Sonin across the street from the town hall, but guess what? No water. So, if you have to go to a bathroom or wash your hands, you can't do that. If you go across the street from town hall, um, and again, that's even smaller than the other library. So,

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we can probably fit about five people in that library. Again, how many people do we have in this room? More than five, right? So, between the two libraries, you can fit about 15 people. Um, as you as you know, you have probably more than your classroom. So, we wouldn't be able to have a full classroom in there. The

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good news is once that library is open, if it gets approved, you probably going to take a few trips over there. Would that be cool? >> Yeah. >> Go across the street. Hopefully be all Well, maybe not. Maybe not. You're in third grade now. You're the the big kids

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in school this year, right? So, maybe we'll visit during the day. So the next class may be kindergarters or first grade to be able to do that. That would be pretty cool though, right? Answer your question about the library. >> Awesome.

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>> All right. >> As students, our schools are important to us. Do you believe all students in our community are responsible for ensuring access to quality education for students for great health?

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Great question. Um I I think I can safely say that all of us up here support our schools, our district, our teachers, and everything else. Um do all adults respect that? I I think they do. Um I think what we can agree is they all have their opinion how that should be

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run and that's probably one of the toughest things that we have to do as a select board. We have to take all the information we get from both sides of the conversation, right? There's always two stories to every conversation you have, right? Some people may approve going up in spending. Other people want to keep it low and and lower in

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spending. Our job is to kind of take it all in, filter it and make sure that the right information, the facts get out there so that we can we can have the conversation or the argument or the discussion. But the only thing that we can hear about is make sure we have the same discussion based on all the facts

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because there there's still the facts no matter how we feel about it. So that's probably the toughest part about our job is making sure those facts are louder than opinions, which which can be tough. >> Are there any new things being built in

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the town for kids? >> Well, the the library, right? That's something. Um and then we're also we're also currently trying to work on um all the parks. So we've done some stuff. We put a pickle ball court in

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over in Sonic. Uh we currently have some people some some very smart people looking at how we lay out the land over on the pond possibly to do some stuff over there and maybe do some upgrades over at Central Park.

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um to try and make things better for you guys. Maybe basketball courts. We've looked at stages, a new playground. So, there's a lot of things that we're looking at doing. Nothing's official yet, but we are trying to do that so that you guys all have a place that you

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can go or places to go. Do you have any ideas of anything that you want? No. Just curious. Don't forget to mention the hydration station. the hype the uh the new thing I have in halfway park. So halfway park also has a kayak place

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you can do kayaks also the place that you learn all about swimmer safety water safety that the girl scouts put up put up with with selection just recently. So, you know, we are thinking about a lot of things in town that so that when you grow up, you can say, "Hey, when I

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was a kid, I had a ton of things to do. What a great town to live in." Right? We want to make sure that you're not just leaving town and all that fun stays here. Right? Make sense? Great question. Do you think >> street lights?

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>> No. >> If it was stop lights, it's a hard no, right? The town does not want stop lights. Um, but street lights. Yeah. >> Um, we do have some street lights around town. Not many. Um, I think that the the

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community likes it dark, likes it rural, likes it um the way they used to be for many years. And the more lights we put up, the more or or even stop lights, even even stop signs, to be honest with you. Um, our town likes it the way it is, right? Um, I I don't I don't think

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there's any plans right now for additional street lights. Uh, maybe some around the parks, so that little brighter like Long Pond, Halfway Park, maybe Central Park across the street. As far as the street lights around town, I don't know. They have a lot of animals. I like the dark. I have a lot of bats and owls and everything else. They don't

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want to make them upset. Street lights are obviously something that can be put up into areas of concern, right? Turns in the road or maybe somewhere where there's a stop light coming up that or stop sign coming up that people are

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unaware of. Um, so anytime someone has a good suggestion for one, then absolutely we're willing to listen to it, but a lot of residents don't like them to the selecting losses point. So yeah,

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we do like safety. So safety first. Correct. >> Great question. I think we've had that question before over the years. How how are you involved in keeping my classroom small so I can learn?

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>> How are we involved in keeping classroom small? Well, one again we speak with your your teachers. Well, not maybe your individual teachers, but we speak with Mr. Ward and all the other principles across the schools as well as your superintendent and at times we do get to speak with the school committee. So, it

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it's a team effort. Um, do we always listen to each other? Not always, but I think we're all all our hearts in the right spot to make sure that they're there. We're there to support any way we can. >> Okay. >> And we have supporting the budget. >> Yeah. Support the budget.

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>> Are there any >> a new park? Commission. So, so not to build a new one, but what that what I was just talking about before is we're trying to look at the one hand car in town and maybe do some

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stuff with a new playground, putting up um putting up bathrooms, putting up a stage, um adding some parking so that way if there's one event going on, right now we

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don't have much parking space. maybe doing some stuff where you know to make the mutual a little more accessible. So that's really it. But I'm I'm hopeful that sometimes great question.

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Do you have any big projects going for now? >> Any big projects going on town? So our biggest project right now would be I would say the council of Beijing in library that way across the street. So that's the one we discussed a little bit earlier and that's for our seniors our

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senior our older adults to make sure they have a place to grow older with their with their community as well as the place they call home. And of course libraries um they're not just about folks anymore. the libraries are there for for you to grow into make sure that you have a community to share that space

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with. So probably our biggest project uh we did buy the land about not even a year ago. Uh that's very recent. So you know this is like any project it takes time. Uh we just finished the Las Vegas project we had was the fire station right here. Right. Um so they got a new

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addition right now. We're going to update the roof for them. Um we just updated town hall a little bit. Right. private windows and air conditioning and heating, right? That was overdue. And also a fire station over across from uh

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Long Pong, Fire Station 2. They also got an update to their windows and siding and now their parking lot's getting done. So, we we're cleaning up the town, make sure it looks nice and awesome for everybody so that when you're driving around town, you you say take pride in what's what you see. That make sense? >> We'll be fixing the roof here as well.

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>> That's right. That's right. that we just approved yesterday to make sure that the roof you're walk here especially the old part of the school gets it done um sooner than later so make sure it doesn't leak on you anybody ever get leaked on before >> I hope not only a couple of you

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>> well we'll get on it faster we'll get on it pretty fast okay we approved it yesterday we'll move forward um as quickly as possible sounds good all right next As a select man, what are you doing to help protect

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Long Pond from mil? >> That's right. Right. Long pond. So we All right. So to start off with the long pond, we do have a long pond budget. So we we give it to the long association to make sure that they're doing everything they can keep the water clean to make

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sure that we don't have invasive um seed weed or all other things growing right and not to mention we also have we've updated the bow ramp as well to make sure only certain amount of boulders get in there at any given time keep it nice and safe for everybody using the water.

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Um it it is one of those things that we take very seriously because it is our the largest pond of all Massachusetts. So we want to make sure we keep it nice and clean. Right. I've mentioned all the all the sea creep creatures the the pond animals and fish and

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turtles frogs and all the fish that live there. Make sure they're nice and safe as well. So uh so not not too long ago we work with um the fun association which is very big by their front group that's really big

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boy the largest issue with right now. So um they got some new equipment they're going to house over at one of our fire stings. Um, so we're trying to work those people directly and indirectly to

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hopefully keep on say even better than our question. >> When will Great question. So, I'm a big handicap enthusiast. Um, I, as you can see, I I have a chair. So, everything that we do

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in touch in Freetown moving forward over the years, uh, we're making sure that it's ADA compliant, so accessible to people, uh, with handicaps, whether you're in a wheelchair or other disabilities. We're going to make sure that they're there for everybody, not just people that can walk and run around

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freely. Um, we started with the ramps over and electrical ramps and the automatic buttons at Town Hall. Um, and everything we do at the parks, we want to make sure that it's accessible to everybody. So, looking at the new pickball court, fast ball court. So, I

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have to add nice material on top so you can get to it and and use it freely. As we move forward, other parts that is something we will take in consideration as far as swings, right? and make sure that people with disabilities can use those parks just like anybody else. Um,

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so we we can't promise that, but we're going to do everything we can to make sure that happens. Um, as long as I'm on the board, I'll make sure I know I will cuz I want to play too, right? Nobody makes sense for all of us to play. >> Upgrades across the street. There's some upgrades.

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>> Oh, correct. And also across the street at at Central Park, uh, they updated the bathrooms. Um they put some areas some swing sets that are accessible to people for individuals with disabilities. Make sure that you're able to use them, right? Again, we should everybody should

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use them, not just people that can freely do it. So big important thing to us. Great question. Did I see you yesterday? Smile. All right. >> Place

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halfway park right now, right? >> Way Park. >> Yeah. So, so mine's Halfway Park because we get to see the fireworks and day the parade. We can hang out down there. The new pickle ball court they just put in. >> Uh when I was in your school, we used to

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like we used to have te-ball down there too. So, we used to play T-ball. >> Yeah. Good sport. So that's definitely my favorite spot. And then you can like get on a kayak too. Go underneath the over pass and go to the Sona Bay.

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So there's a lot of nice places in Freetown. Show of hands. Who is you who's been on the river before? Who's been to Long Pond and been on the on the the war? Have any of you ever been to the state forest and bike trails or anything like that? How about one of

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the one of our parks? baseball, softball, football, soccer. >> That's two hands, right? >> That's a lot. >> So, sounds like you have a lot of pretty cool places in free for us to really enjoy. Uh, if I had to choose a favorite, I would say the baseball park across the street. I'm there a lot. Um, I I like playing baseball. I I love

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coaching baseball. I see a lot of my players um sitting here. So, hi everybody. Um, and football players, too. Some soccer and softball players. So, my nice soccer player right there. So, yeah. Say I I love to be outdoors. So, anything we can do to make sure that

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you're having fun. I mean, we're having fun as well as parents and coaches. So, keep keep giving us uh your best and keep laughing and smiling and we'll keep showing up. >> All right. How about you, Steph? What's your favorite spot? >> All right. I'm I'm with you there, but

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I'm going to try and be different. So, I'm going to say Long Pond because I do love the water as well, >> but I also love the woods. So right. >> Um I I think the forest can bring a whole different aspect of walking,

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biking. I mean >> yeah, I mean it's it's tough to choose one place and that's kind of a winning response on my part. But there has truly a lot of good places and it all depends on what you're trying to do. I think uh will change how I feel about >> and I would say which one of us out here

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hasn't drove our kid through state forest and told them all the scary stories. >> Right. Right. >> What is the deciding factor um position? So the deciding factor why

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we chose to become a selectman head for me I was I remember this clearly I remember talking to my wife and she was telling me how great her childhood was or childhood was when she was growing up here in Freetown and that we needed more things to do in Freetown keep us here so

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we don't have to go places like Lakeville or Newford or wherever to go do things right so I ran to make sure that I make sure to do our best to make sure that that feeling was back get to Freetown to make sure that we're able to do all the wonderful things we have

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discussed so far here in Freetown, not anywhere else. So that's what made me grind. >> Yeah, I guess I can kind of echo that. But I was born and raised in Freetown. So I came to this school. This was our gym. We played what fourth fourth grade

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used to come here at the time. We used to play uh little hockey in here. We used to just right. But uh same thing. Um I wanted to keep the town going in the right direction so people wouldn't want to leave town. Uh I have three

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children. One is in second grade here and I want them to always want to stay in Freetown as well. So trying to keep it going in the right direction. >> Yeah. It's exactly right.

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Uh so so just like both of them uh I actually graduated with so much came to his school with him um this town and lived there my whole life. Um, my daughter was complaining about not being able to go to a school she wanted to.

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And we were talking about that and one of the things was he's always preached to my kids to not to just say something to try and do something about it. So when I was talking to her about that and I was up there, I was talking to them

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about it. I said, "Well, if I'm going to do something about it, if I'm going to say something about it, I'm going to try and do something about it." So that was what got me to go the other position. Um I've since learned a lot and um wouldn't change the world and probably to be

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sitting up here with with these two gentlemen and hopefully continue and make the town even better than it currently is. Good question. Great question. What are some places in Freetown that people may not know about?

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>> Great question. So, what are some places in Freetown that people may not know about? >> Oh gosh. >> Pasture pasture as well. So, we do have a porest pasture over in the Sona side of town. It's been there for many, many years.

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used to be our town beach years ago. Um, and it's been down a lot of loom life. I believe the Boy Scouts were just there cutting down some trees and making trails. So, that's pretty nice down there. Just past the highway. Um, there's so many places in town. There's u plenty of fishing. Uh, plenty of

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trails out in the woods. Please go with an adult or another buddy if you do go out there. Um, I'll watch you. There is that little pond like if you go down Campanelli there's that little pond if you walk through the woods a little bit. >> Yeah. Camp road. That's true. That goes

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at Rabbrook Spring. >> Yeah. >> As it is over to Campellian side. >> Yeah. Runs into Rab fishing there. Little tiny fish. Still catching near our house up the road. >> All right. What else? I know S Bay

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Shores does a lot of cool things playing releasing turtles and everything else. We have a lot we do have parks. We do have K area. We have a central park across street and across the beach near Long. So that's pretty fun. Uh Lakeside Festival's coming up. >> I'm sure they all know about that,

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>> you know. >> Yeah. So there's plenty of places in town. I guess it all depends what you like to do, right? Some people like to read, so they go to library. Other people um you know like to listen to the birds. Um I know I do. So I don't know. It all depends. It's a great question.

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That's a hard one. Great question. Thank you. You're not getting a fishing one. >> Yeah. The show secret fishing. >> As the train goes on. >> The train. Well, you tell me how many of

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you can hear the train when you're trying to fall asleep. >> Okay. Okay. >> And and for those trying to fall asleep, are you set the trains making noise? Raise your hand if you are >> but raise your hand if you're not upset by it.

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So it also great hey that's it's called democracy right so we listen to both sides so we do get quite a bit of residents people live in town that email us call us when they see us or talk to us face to face about train and some people love it because it's access to

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cities and transportation to other places in in in the state um another people not so much other people are upset with the noise uh the way they put fences up um the railroad crossings, um the vibrations. So, it's been uh it's

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been tough. Um as far as what can we do as a town or you the answer is very little, right? We have to work with the state and the federal government um and they tell us what we can and can't do. So, it's been a very a big challenge, but it doesn't mean we're giving up on it. Well, we have plenty more we can do

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and we're going to continue um not I hate to say fighting, we don't fight, we will continue um pushing back on behalf of our town. So, cuz I know not everybody's a big fan of the train. Great question. >> For example, work day, right?

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>> Okay. Well, I'm assuming me for the town or our personal days. >> The town for work. Well, I work about 50 to 60 hours a week plus coach everything else and I come work for the town um different committees, right? So we know we're here today. So we take about a

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while out of our day to be here with you. This is one best time of the year for us because we get to listen to what the other side of the residents tell us, right? Um so typically we have about two meetings a month. Each meeting could be different. One meeting could last 3 4 hours. Other meetings could last like

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yesterday 1 hour. So that's usually after hours around 6:00 till 7 8 9 10:00 at night. Of course coming up we have the annual town meeting on June 1st. I'm sure your parents are talking all about it. come with them, right? Um, and so we

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have to have that and there's a lot of planning for those meetings because there's a lot of discussion about the budget and the discussion about projects we have coming up whether it's new library, school roof or roads coming up. So, there's a lot of back and forth, a lot of emails, a lot of reading, a lot

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of phone calls at times. Um, sometimes you you you feel great about your decisions. other times you we you think really hard about how how to change things or do things the same. So it's very difficult making sure that uh we're doing the right thing for the town. The

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worst part about it or the toughest part I should say is I can't talk to selecting Zigger on the phone or in person or anything else. The only time we get to discuss things is like like today live on camera. So sometimes we get to read all these things and we have an agenda

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with a million things on them and all those million things we get to discuss it for the first time together as a group make a decision. So sometimes I may feel very strong about one thing they may have they may feel strong about different things uh which is great right we listen we respect each other and we

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make sure we leave there for doing what's best for the town >> so >> we hire everybody >> yeah we also hire people as well for >> sit through all the empty basic fire interviews to our clerks to staff over the band stand um or sorry conference

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series or over at the boat ramp. So we do a lot of hiring and things like that. So yeah, they they can get can be a lot sometimes. It's like a it's a big town. Great question. >> I don't see free time in 20 years.

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How do I see free time in 20 years? The exact same as I see you today. No stop lights. Um well, you know, I I think that's a tough question, right? again to >> if I had to bet I would say that you

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might see some more houses, you might see some more businesses, but I would hope walk past the town feeling the way it currently does, which is that it's a town. Um, it's the the train will probably bring in some new people. U

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businesses tend to bring in new people, right? So the people who work in stock and shop might want to live in town because it's close. So, so I think it'll continue to grow, but I hope that we can keep it so that it still feels like a small town

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>> and and we've started already, but maybe more community events where the town gets together, feels more like a small town to everybody and again, so keep everyone close in town. So, but in the day, we do what our

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residents tell us, right? We we at times speak louder than others because we're the ones with the microphone or on camera, but in the day, this is how we do it. Give me a show of hands. Who wants to keep the town safe in 20 years, right? And that's how we vote, right?

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Every June 1st, we have a town meeting and you by that time in 20 years will be adults. You'll be there voting. You're going to tell us what to do, right? And you and then we put it together say, "Hey, here are their options, A, B, or C. Maybe D, E, E, E, F. Who knows?" And then you tell us what you want. And the

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great thing about it is we do what you ask us. Is that awesome? Great question. >> How do you pick what things in town need to be fixed or improved first?

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Great question. So, so like we discussed earlier about the snowstorm, we learn each year on the things that we need. So, u we have very many wise people that work in town, not just us. There's people that work there fulltime every single day. And in our model has been

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this. Let's fix what we have today before we start building something new, right? we must take care of the things we have from sidewalks, buildings, um vehicles, everything versus trying to build something new, then forget about something that's been there already. So once we get past that part of fixing

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what we already have, then we look at things in the future like the library, um the boat, Hong Kong, it's like has said, right? So we want to make sure that we do the right things and we spend the money that we get from our residents very wisely, right? And again, at that

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same town hall meeting that we're just talking about, they didn't get to vote on Sunday. We ask those same questions regarding the budget and everything else. Again, some people want to raise it, some people want to lower, some people want to keep it the same. And again, we have to sit there and listen to all everyone's opinions, make sure we're doing the right thing for the

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town. Now, do we all agree on that? No. And that's that's okay, right? As long as we're respectful and make sure we're doing it for the right reasons, we'll just put it in town. Town must always come first, right? But at the end of the day, we listen to our residents and they and they help guide us and we talk a lot

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and have a lot of meetings throughout the year to make sure we're doing the right thing and if they if they're not, they let us know and then we adjust course from there. Great question. >> If you could change one thing in town,

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what would it be? >> Change one thing in town, what would it be? All right. Who wants to take this one first? >> The library. There you go. >> Right. It's >> um what was it saying before about not

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having running water or libraries that small? Um I think changing the library would be a good start to um that's what is really lacking right now. So I think that's the one thing and

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that's why we're bringing this stuff forward for the residents of that if I were to change one thing I would have to say sidewalks. I know I know the sidewalks and that doesn't give much attention but like I was talking about

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earlier about our ADA accessibility. There are times that I see moms with stroller, dad stroller trying to push their kids and they don't have a place to to use them, right? Either a hole in the way or get ball into the street and lately I've been in a wheelchair and for

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me to get around sometimes it's tough and I wish I had more sidewalks around town so I can go from point A to point B. So like for instance when I'm in my neighborhood I don't have sidewalks. I have to cross street um and then when I do get those sidewalks it's a little tight. So, we've been working on we have

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a lot we have a good planner and a planning board um and you know and a great modeling party and about more sidewalks. I think we all have the the right to be able to walk around town freely and and without thinking twice about it.

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>> Yeah. I don't know what we do about this one, but I would say what I would change is some of the way the roads were designed back in the day. We don't have any roads going down. So like from the middle school and the high school to here, you either have to go left or

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right and you loop all the way around to come here and there's no through roads and uh I live on Holland Road, so yeah, that's a problem for me, but that's what I would have paid that uh that'd be a big undertaking now, >> right?

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Some neighbors going to be upset with us. >> Great question. I'm curious to know what you would change in town if you could maybe that's something we ask your teachers to write down for us then we uh get started on that right at the end of the day you're our future so if you think we needed it's probably you're

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probably right so spell zone we're going to task you with getting us some answers okay um I'd be curious to know what you're what you're thinking all right who's next >> what is the biggest project or

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you guys have been involved in. >> So the biggest project we're probably involved in to date recent years I would say probably the fire station right before that probably the police station the police station where you did the police station. >> No time that was when I got on my hand.

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>> So I think for us it's probably the fire station that right which is right here fire station 3. Uh we've also been involved in other areas as well to like Ja said we have a lot of smart people trying to figure out what to do long-term long pond make sure it's more

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accessible to everybody. U we're talk about so like the four corners a lot making sure that bridges are safe and making sure that that's a nice area. The school project that you have here and taking care of your roofs and then thinking about doors and windows down the road. Gosh, there's a lot of things

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that happen in town that we we have to discuss constantly to make sure we're doing the right thing for everybody. Uh, a couple of things that would be your point, the bridge in the snow, right? That that's going to be something that'll convey that four corners right

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there possibly because that intersection is not really that safe. um uh the fire station that's uh updates to the town hall. >> Right. That's right. >> So um there's been a lot of projects that that have happened

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a hard time taking credit for and a lot of other people who have been involved. Um but yeah, I think and obviously everything that big bank is the CO library is there. involved with that person

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and great question. >> Why does retail not have any big stores? >> That's a great question. So why does free time not have any big stores? Uh so maybe

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>> so I can from uh from some experience with some different people and big stores tend to want to go to places where there's a lot of people or a lot of crowd and we've sat here and talked about how do we want to be a small town. So, um, big stores don't want to come

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in, which is probably a good thing, right? Because we don't want to be a big town and we don't want big business that's going through generating a lot of traffic. So, uh, yeah, that's that's real. They they looked at it from the amount of people around, the amount of

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people that travel on a road and although some of these roads are pretty busy to us, so there was a big difference to us. >> What do you think about McDonald's Chick-fil-A? >> No. of the waterfront for the community.

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>> Do you mind saying that again? Sorry. >> Are there any ways the town could make better use of the waterfront for the community? >> Good questions. Sorry, stealing tight. Okay. Okay. Um, one of the things that we talked about

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before was, uh, you know, some architects looking at how we can rework the boat ramp, uh, sorry, the beach, uh, to make it more accessible to people with the vents and make it more user friendly. Um, and then we just talked

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about what the the Girl Scouts did with the water safety station over there. Um, we've also looked at that park fality of seeing the thing that we could do over there that would make it sense to try and make the water more accessible. Um,

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and then we just talked about board ashes. They just put in a new path to get down to that water. So, yeah. So, there there's a couple of things going on. I know some of that may not be too big and exciting for you, but that's um some things I like doing because yeah,

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the the water is a beautiful place and I love that going. Yeah. Hey, great question. That's >> Can you put up motivational signs around town to make people happy? >> Oh, yeah.

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>> Yeah, you can. Yeah. What? Yeah. >> Yeah. I I think that's a great idea. Motivational. Maybe you guys can work on what they should say. >> Yeah. >> We g you a lot of homework today. You didn't know this was going to happen, did you? I think that's a great idea. I

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think I think your class should come up with what these sides should uh say and look like and we'll bring it up on our regular meetings and see if we can get something. >> Yeah, there might be something. I'm just trying to think of like other events around town and I don't want to

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sit here and say, "Okay, yes, we can do it." But but um you know like over we have the signs over the band standing in different areas and I'm just trying to I'm just thinking out loud maybe there's something we can put signs or maybe we can um if we don't have anything on the

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sign that we current like right now we have that it says you know the meeting's coming up the voting if we have some different inspirational sayings from them that we could put up kind of in between. >> Yes. >> I love that idea.

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Even some of the smaller signs in front of the buildings or something if they if they want, you know, just temporary signs, switch them up. >> Like it like >> Yeah, I like that idea. >> Add to your list. Thank you. He's lovely.

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>> Yeah, this is great. Some good ideas. Do you have any other? >> So we we do uh we do we have our just like moms and dads or guardians or grandparents. We we work during the day or at night, right? And make sure that

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you know we have homes and everything else. And u and then when we're not working there, we work for the towns as best we can. Um, so yes, you do have jobs. >> Probably not as exciting as this stuff,

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>> right? Yep. >> Yeah. So I I work for well for a job. I work for the Department of Defense. I do contracts and I buy stuff for the Navy. Pretty cool stuff, right? Um >> I'm an

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>> I'm an online reseller, so that's >> nothing. Yeah. Yeah. And we all do other stuff like uh I coach for the football participate junior warriors and baseball

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and yeah stuff as well and I'm sure you done you know >> I've done some stuff but nothing I'm not a coach I'm a consultant for business small smaller operations so nothing really exciting to do that

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Great question. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Remember McDonald's? >> McDonald's. We'll put on the list. >> Chick-fil-A. I heard Chick-fil-A. >> You have a great barbecue. All right. Show one

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82,000 to1. All right. How about a Chick-fil-A? >> Oh, you guys. >> I heard a KFC. Who wants KFC or >> Popey? Any guys trying to put a disy? >> How about

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pharmacy? >> We have pharmacy. Boys and girls, you guys have been amazing. If you have anything that you want to ask today and you you didn't have a chance to or you maybe forgot, Mrs. Lo, she's a great person to reach out to, right? Or your teacher, I'm sure

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you can get get us any questions you may have. Um, and don't forget one of you maybe slept for slept on the night. So, make sure you get those uh your your uh essays in. Okay. >> Don't forget the homework signs >> and signs as well. Some signs and

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motivational signs like be kind to everybody, right? Things like that. And and the other one was some ideas around them. Let us know what you're thinking. Okay. >> Thank you everybody. I don't know.