[Music] Good evening everybody. Um is Monday, April 28, 2025 at 6:03 p.m. Um with the quorum present, I'll call to order the free time board select meeting.
Um today we're going to just jump right into it and go Oh, sorry. This meeting will be recorded. I knew I was forgetting something. This meeting will be recorded and will be available on the town's YouTube page. Usually I write it down up top and I forgot to I don't mind. Thank you. Um, all right. So,
agenda item one is discussion and vote whether to open, add, and remove articles and close and finalize the annual and special town meeting warrants for 62 2025. So, we have some changes. Should we start with the special or annual?
This was the what the outline that Lan prepared. The first one is the annual. Okay. Where is that? I have it. I know you show it to me. So, we removed some articles. I just go over that. Do you have it? Yes. Yeah. Special. I don't know if I have that.
That's in the packet. Okay. I got it right here. But there's one additional thing on there. The one that you just added that US has that. Okay. I got it. Okay. So, it starts off with the annual. Yep. And then it starts off with the articles that we removed. So, we removed the
capital request to fund the repairs for the fire hydrants because they had money from the last article. So, they are all set for right now. Okay. We re we removed the article for maintenance of veterans graves and since he asked for
the same amount every year, I put it in his budgets $500 um rather than do a special warrant article for that. Um the re recall provision for the school district as I had mentioned in the past I felt like we were rushed and didn't have um time to really uh get that one
complete. Lakeville had questions and remarks and there was uh details that needed to be addressed and so I removed that. Okay. The um personnel bylaw updates that um is still being worked on and it also should go to the bylaw
committee. So we remove that for more work. the layout for the road for Son at four corners. As you know, that road has never been laid out or accepted by the town. We are working with council and engineers and we need to get the actual
uh like deed reading to do that. So, that won't be ready in time for town meeting. That'll be on fall. And funding the stabilization fund. Originally, I had funding the um school stabilization
fund. Uh, I actually added funding the stabilization fund, the capital stabilization fund, and I removed the school stabilization fund. Okay. And that's just going to be whatever money is not spent at the special. I'm not sure. I don't know if I can that on the
annual. Um, other than that, the ATM, we added the police cruiser lease pro purchase program, which is on every town meeting warrant, but I I must have missed it the first go around. So, that's just the same that we always have
to keep. We purchase new um lease new police vehicles every year. Yep. the cable fund appropriation that just allows us to take the PEG access money that we get from Comcast and utilize it to pay for the things that we need to such as John recording and things like
that. It's just a a procedural thing to move the money. And we just added today funding for the union contract for the Freetown Police Association in hopes that we get to an agreement prior to town meeting. So it may it may we may pass over it at town
meeting, but it's there in case we need it. So that's what was added to the annual. And then um for the special town meeting again, I took the funding for the school stabilization off and I put in the regular
stabilization and I think those are the only changes to the um special. I did increase the amount of the money for I think parks I believe to 125 and because if we have a couple of
feasibility studies and have to put electricity in that money is going to go quickly and I increased the repairs and maintenance I think of the elementary school is at 175 now. Um same thing there's a lot of work that needs to be done there.
Other than that, I think that's all that we changed. Uh, we increased the funding for the engineering of the salt shed. We talked to an engineer. They said $50,000 was not going to be enough, so we put it in at $100,000. Okay.
All right. Any questions or concerns? [Applause] Uh, we added a another warrant article from the citizens petition for North Main Street. Is that new? I don't know that that was new. Article 19. I didn't see that from last time.
Definitely had to be on there. Was it already on there? Yeah, because they would have been due by like the third or fourth. Yeah, we had three last time, four this time. Maybe maybe because it was cut off. We don't have much to say about those due. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just just wondering where where 27 North Main
Street is. We did we we just had a placeholder for the pilot agreement. So now you see the full article on that one. Um but we had the placeholder. This is just the full article um at the request of the board of assessors. They're not sure they're
going to be ready yet, but if they are, they'll have that. And I I just increased the amount for purchasing the land by $10,000 so that we have money to pay for um recording fees and those kinds of things. Okay.
Any other questions or concerns? No. I think that it it it actually helps um smooth some of the stuff out, right? So, I think it's all good shaving some of this stuff off there. It's definitely a living breathing document for us for a
good I'd say lean probably two months for me the last few weeks but it's definitely a work in progress until we get it to the point where it gets published and then we can step back but it evolves and same process every time though I think we we start somewhere and
we end up somewhere different but do you want four different motions here you can approve them as submitted to you? Yeah. Should we just do that? Is that easier? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah. I don't know that we need to do with with the with the noted changes.
Yeah. All right. So, with that, I'll entertain a motion um to approve the changes um presented in in the packet for the annual and special town meeting uh for 62 2025. Motion made. Second. All
in favor? I I think I might need a motion for you to actually open Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. remove and then you know what I mean. Close the the warrant articles as presented just because Okay. So, yep. So, first So, scratch that one. So, I'll
entertain a motion to open the uh annual special town meeting for 625. Motion made. Second. All in favor? I I All right. Um and then I'll entertain a motion to add Uh so then do I need you going a motion
to add articles as as presented remove articles as presented and close close the warrant. So that can be one motion I think so. All right. Yeah. So a motion to um add articles as presented remove articles as
presented and close the annual special talent town meeting annual wow annual town meeting and special town meeting warrants for 625. Motion made. Second. All in favor? I I All right, that was stumbled through it, but it was
efficient. Okay, agenda item two, discussion of vote whether to uh send a letter of support for the Freetown waterline extension community project funding proposal from Cong Congressman Aenclaus. So I I got the I I've applied for community project funding, federal
funding from um Aenrossass for the engineering for the extension of the water line up towards the Holland road area. They are asking for me to finalize the documents on that which is what I was doing before
I came here. And um so in that they request a letter of support which yeah I think we'll any any questions or concerns in this? No no I think it's it's a no-brainer walked in with
I did well we want to support I think we want to show a lot of support for this because I think it's important. Absolutely. Yeah. These and this federal fundings it won't be it won't be impacted by MBTA. Um, and just to get the ball rolling with the engineering, which came
in at around a million dollars, it requires a 20% match. So, if it does in fact make to the finish line, we will be requesting that 20% match, but that should come out of water uh and sewer reserve funds. Mhm. So, it shouldn't
impact the taxpayers. So, we'll know more as that project moves on. Okay. Good to know. 20%'s a heck of a lot better than 100%. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So, with that, I'll take a motion to uh send a letter of support
for the Freetown Waterline Extension Community Project funding proposal uh for from Congress Aquas. A motion made. Second. All in favor? I I All right. Okay. Agenda item three, discussion of vote to use the town seal
for the selectman visit to the school and selectman for a night items. I have no problem with this. Anyone have a question? We're looking to do something like a water bottle or something like that for the selectman for a night. I think that's great. Kids that are up here and we did just get some pencils that just said town of Freetown. They don't have the
logo on them for the school visit. Okay, it's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Sounds great. All right. All right. So, with that, I want a motion to approve the use of the town seal for a selectman visit to school and selectment for night items. Cheryl, you you don't have any issues with this, right? Because you're
technically the keeper of the seal, right? So, motion made. Second. All in favor? I I Great. Agenda item four, discussion of vote, whether to issue a proclamation recognizing the 56th annual professional
municipal clerk's week from 54 2025 through 510 2025. And Cheryl has put together a very nice proclamation here. It's the standard proclamation. So every year the IMC, the International Institute of Municipal Clerks, which is the governing body and um who uh issues
out all the certifications has a week that they recognize municipal clerks. So, um, this is just the year's proclamation, but in addition to this this year, I'm actually last year was a busy year for us in the office. Um, so trying to do some community outreach.
So, I've planned um coffee with the clerk or just brew it event. So, on Monday, I'll be at the council on aging. Um, Tuesday, I'll be at the James White Library. in on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I have an hour set aside each day for folks and residents to come on in and get a chance to know the office,
ask any questions or kind of meet and greet and see what it is that we do. That's awesome. Good stuff. Great. Thank you. All right. So, I guess first I'll I'll issue I'll create a motion to issue the proclamation and then I'll read it. Does
that make sense? Okay. So without so I'll entertain a motion to issue a proclamation recognizing 56th annual professional municipal clerk's week 54 2025 through 510 2025. Motion made second. All in favor? And I'll read the proclamation. So this is the 56th annual
professional municipal clerk's week. Dates stated. Whereas the office of professional municipal clerks a timehonored and vital part of local government exists throughout the world. And whereas the office of uh professional municipal clerks is the oldest among public servants. And
whereas the office of professional municipal clerks provides the professional link between the citizens, the local uh governing bodies, um arid agencies of government and other levels. And whereas the professional municipal clerks have pledged to be ever mindful of their neutrality and impartiality
regarding equal service to all. Whereas the professional municipal clerks serve as the information center on functions of local government and community. Whereas the professional municipal clerks continue to to continually strive to improve the administration of the affairs of the office of the professional municipal clerk through
participation in education programs, seminars, workshops, and annual meetings of their state, provincial, country, and international professional organizations. Whereas it is most appropriate that we recognize the accomplishments of the office of professional municipal clerks. Now therefore, we the board of select of the town of Freetown do recognize the week
of May 4th through May 10th through 10th, 2025 as professional municipal clerks week and further extend um appreciation to our professional municipal clerks, Cheryl Estrella and all uh professional municipal clerks for
the vital service they perform and their explanated this day 28th um of April 2025. Perfect. I don't know why I can't say that word. Exemplary. Exemplary. Exemplary. There we go. Exemplary. All right. Thank you, Sharon.
I I almost got it down messing up. We appreciate it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Some days I wouldn't I would I wouldn't want to train space with you, but it's really appreciated for you, D. All right. So, now I'll kick it over to personnel. All right. Thank you, Mr.
chairman. All right, personnel board number item number five. I'm going to skip that one for a second cuz I can't remember the answer or why. So, as I read the other ones, I hopefully it comes back to me. All right. So, number six, discussion vote whether to update that appointment date of correct cabal
to the scholarship committee to be effective 414 2025 through 6:30 2026. Any issues, concerns, or comments regarding Mr. Cabraw to the scholarship committee? No. No. All right. Uh, pretty straightforward. I entertain the motion
to appoint Craig Brawl to the scholarship committee effective 4:14, 2025 through 6:30, 2026. Make that motion. I will second. All in favor? I I. All right. Item agenda number seven. Discussion and vote where to approve the following appointments. A through J. Rob
Ka as veterans agent, director, and veterans graves officer effective 51 2025 through 4:30 2026. B. B. Chad Kavalo as public records clerk planning board effective 4:15 2025 through 6:30
2026. C. James Oly to board registers effective 412025 through 331 2028. D. Nancy Dery as sered JTPG representative effective 612025 through 6 to through 531 2026. E.
Deborah El Pedy to sir as Sir Ped JTPG alternate effective 61 2025 through 531 2026. F. Jeff Field as public public records clerk board of assessors effective 414 2025 through 6:30 2025. G.
Jeff Field to taxation aid committee effective 414 2025 through 6:30 2026. H. Dr. Barbara Starky to scholarship committee effective 429 2025 through 6:30 2025. I Cheryl Ca Estrella as
National Voter Registration Act Coordinator effective 417 2025 through 6:30 2025. And last but not least, Jay Patricia Damanche. Sorry Patricia if I said that wrong. To Council of Aging Library Community Building Committee COA
representative effective 429 2025 20 429 2025 through 6:30 2025 maybe work today. All right. Any comments, concerns, or questions regarding these uh appointments?
Absolutely not. All right. I obtain the motion to approve the appointments just read A through J item agenda seven. I'll make that motion. I will second it. All in favor? I I All right. Back to item agenda number five. Discussion of vote whe to make recording clerk Nina Dumont as a special municipal
employee. Uh I I can't think of the answer. Um I'm going blank on this one. Holds two positions. Yeah, she holds two position. As soon as you say it's like yes, thank you. Um, yes, this is the proper thing to do holding multiple positions in
town. Thank you. Any comments, concerns, questions? No. All right. Is a comment from the Yeah, sure. I'm not sure if you want to make a correction or have a discussion, but you can't uh you cannot appoint an
individual as a special municipal employee. It has to be the title. So, if there's going to be reporting clerk, it has to be all recording clerks. It can't be just on an individual basis. That does ring a bell. And I believe that's what we do as the recording clerks
because it's very minimal. Like she might do one meeting a month as opposed to the part-time position she holds with the board of health. So I would say you want to make the um recording clerk as a special municipal employee. Yeah. So the
title is it says senior clerk here, right? Or that's I guess that's the that's what she is right now. But I would just make the position of recording special municipal. Uh so yeah, recording clerk. Does that make sense, Carlos? Yeah. So we're instead of So what we're doing is we're creating the recording clerk as a special municipal
employee versus the the individual as a special municipal employee. Yeah. Literally just removing her name. Correct. Right. So you'd have to make a motion to to change it as the position and then to forward the the town or the information so that she can forward it to the state the state ethics commission. I'm
surprised we haven't done this in the past because we've had multiple recording clerks that work multiple jobs within the town. So my job is when I see it in my checket, I notify the individual and I give them the ethics phone number to call because it's
all confidential and they're supposed to call and get direction from the state ethics commission as to what to do prior to filing any disclosures or anything. That's step one is call state ethics and then barring what they say and give them the options. That's probably why you
haven't seen. So I don't know if that was done. I don't know what the answer was. I can only assume that was done because this is on here. Um but I don't necessarily have to tell you how that you know how that conversation ended or what transpired in
that conversation. Right. But I mean we've had for a long time since I've been here mos I can think four of four people that have worked other jobs within the town and who have also been recording clerk. So I see it I I say hey there's the phone number call speak to the attorney of the day. They'll offer
guidance on what you can do if you can do it if you can't do it if you can do it or um will there be a disclosure or what the next steps are. So I have no so this should just clean us doing this this one time will clean it up here going forward. So then it makes noision
as long as the statement not senior clerk. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yep. All right. That said, I believe I'm going to amend the mo amend the agenda item number five to vote to make the recording clerk a special municipal employee. Any objections to that? That's
what I'm going to be making for. All right. Perfect. All right. I enterain the motion to make the recording clerk a special municipal employee. Make that motion. I will second it. All in favor? I I And if we need to, we can clean it
up down the road once we hear back. All right. Uh so, but do we need to make a motion? You're saying included in that sheriff? Just give the directive to the admin to fill the information to the town so you can report it with the state ethics commission. So, you just have to
add an emotion. Oh, Adam. Yeah. I don't think it matters. Yeah. Oh, okay. Thank you, Cheryl. We'll make sure it gets done. It gets sent here. Yeah. I didn't know if it needed to be part of the motion. That's why I didn't want to set anything back. I'm sure there's room for improvements in a lot of our motions,
mine specifically. So, you know, mine might mine as well. Don't worry about it. I love it. It helps make my life a lot easier. So, you don't have to. That's right. It's my life a lot easier. So, I mean, do we start? We can go. I
mean it 6 minutes till we start our next meeting. Should we start on my stuff? Yeah, might as well. Okay. All right. So, agenda item number eight, discussion and vote on any updates needed on the ball field leases. Um, so
we are actually um making good progress. We have a couple of things signed. We do have some feedback in from one of the field from um one of the groups and uh you so there's some different things
that we kind of need to go over about it and make some decisions to to send back to them. So um I believe did you print it out separately for everyone and no I think it's in our packet. You want to see mine? No no it's I think it's in the
packet. So, I can just give you this one if you want. I can just read them. I mean, the first comment, this is from the softball group. Thank you. I it it's up to you. So, do you want to go through it,
Debbie? You want me to? I can I mean, I can go through the um the first comment is that the licenses were um talking about football, baseball, that we need to add the word softball, which I did on some and I must have forgot on this one. So, that'll be changed. That's easy.
Yeah, the utility bills in counted. I don't know if Carlos can answer that, but I believe the only utility up there right now is electricity. Um, and the baseball has been paying that, so they will need to pay it. I have no idea of how much that bill is. I can try to
reach out and find out. Um, it will have to be prrated between the teams that are actually using it. Um, they're going to have to figure out a comparable way to split the electricity. I can't imagine it's that much money. It's right now right now it's not. It's I want to say
it averages $134 a month on the off season and during the season it gets minimal use during the at night time with only the spotlight on to keep people away from the building. So it's it's not a big lift. Okay. And Carlos knows but Trevor just so you know at
this point they're the only ones who will be actively using the site as of right. So we don't have I mean what we're talking about and some of their questions things will change over time but right now the baseball um league has
agreed to relinquish the three fields with the caveat that they'll have the opportunity to use them if they're not being used by softball for practice. Gotcha. So it'll be the three softball uh fields for the softball and then the soccer field in the back right which hasn't been created yet but I'm assuming
that they'll be able to they're going to work on that. Yeah, they already brought nets over and different equipment and everything else. So, looks like they've been uh using it pretty pretty good. Mhm. Good. Um there's a request for a sub lease, but that's really a hard no.
Um that we've we've broken up the lease into, you know, four different license agreements and they really can't be subleasased beyond that, right? Because we need to make sure we've got liability and and who's doing what. So, that's a
that's a no. I would think I mean that's what I would suggest I'd recommend to the board. Um and this is what it how it all started. That's what that was my conversation in and around this with Debbie was is that you know this all started because of a
sub lease to football and then having to and that's really not part of the lease. So they're through a separate lease. So us giving a separate sub lease to them is bringing us right back to where we kind of started with something else. So, I I understand what they're asking, but
unfortunately, we we just can't do that. Then they're they're asking they're concerned about the sharing of the um the concession stand and the storage space. And I understand the concern. We just don't know how to make it any more fair
than I can tighten the language up, but their bathrooms are there. Everybody needs to have access to the bathrooms. Everybody has to have some access to the storage. and maybe they can work out the concession stand. So I might just try to tweak the language to make it tighter.
What's this for? Um for for the the actual building which right so at GR the that building and so so um you know one of my thoughts was is you know they're worried about safety of their equipment and other people using
their equipment and I get it right. You bring in stuff that's expensive. You don't want other people to use it or or to mistreat it. So, um, you know, is there a way to anchor poles into the ground on the inside to secure the equipment into place? Is there a way to
break apart the inside of the building? Do we give them the ability to put up a separate shed to put just their equipment in? Um, you know, I think that's something we'll probably have to hash out with them. So, there there is one shed in the on the property next to
on the on the right side and there's also a cage within the back building that is lockable. Yeah. So, if they added and then there's also a storage area where the old golf car used to be. Um, so there there is ability there is an ability to create a second cage with minimal costs just by adding like a
little fence like they have now. So, it it is doable. There's plenty of space in the back to be able to have multiple. I know soccer has a conx container over in Lakeville which is always full. And then so the same thing with softball, but there's there's plenty of room back
there. Yeah. Maybe bring in a storage conx. I think I'm going to add some language if if the board is inclined that if there's any repairs that they prata share in that expense like he's saying that they had to fix the water
lines. So should I add language about repairs to the infrastructure? Well, over the years we we we have as baseball we have fixed water lines, we have fixed electrical, we have fixed painted the building. Um it's that's why there's a lease. You know, we give them to the for
a dollar a year so that the town doesn't incur the cost of repairing, right, the wear and tear. So, uh but it's a little bit different because you have two different people using it. So, I think to Deb's point is is to to do it. The only problem being is right now is it's
not fair to say, "Hey, soccer, you they fixed the water line, you got to pay for it when they're not using the facility." So, so upon acting it's upon Yeah. Um, act because Yeah, I think that's a they have to do
something because there's a clause that says if they don't use it, they they lose it. So, I put in there that as long as they're um actively trying to improve it, they don't have to be actually playing on the fields, but they have to be doing something with them. That makes sense. Um, and I will put some prora
language in that for repairs. So, And I'll look into adding a second cage or maybe I'll respond to this email with something like that if there's a way to add a second cage so that each can have one whatever for storage.
Yeah. The way it's set up now it be as simple as just adding a door and some fencing. It's probably 6 foot wide to where it sits back near the bathrooms. It'd be pretty simple to just add connect it to the wall and and close it up like the other one. It's once you're in there, you'll see it. It's I forgot
about that. That's a good call. So, all right. And then the last um comment is um just going to repair the fence and the dugouts and I don't know if he's asking to be able to start working. He
can start working on the projects, but I don't know what he wants the language modified to to account for that. I don't know what he what I'll ask him what he's looking for for language changes. So other than wear and tear on the fences, um right it's a fence. It's been out
there for some some of it 20 30 years, right? If not longer. Is some of the trees that are have had been growing through the fences that have stretched the fences out. So is it those fences or is it the infield outfield fences? Um comment is just um does the replacement
repair of existing fencing and dugouts require permits or approval through the town? Well, fencing doesn't, but the dugouts will require permits. So, I'm not sure. I'll talk to Kyle about that. All right. Uh, question on that. So, dugouts, does that include infield,
outfield as well, moving dirt, the mounds of dirt, or are we going by a dollar value? I try to make it simple because I I look at baseball, they and and softball, they repair their fields at least once a year, one field per year, every year to keep it fresh. I think softball does maybe do similar things as
far as maintaining their fields. So sometimes those fields cost, let's say, $10,000. Are we holding them to the state standard for us that we have to go to out to bid or we we saying go ahead and do it? I think he means like the dugout where they sit. I don't know.
Yeah. Um they if if money if they using a nonprofit and they're using their own funding, they don't need to go through procurement because the town it's not using town town monies. So, it's easier for them to actually get things done than it is for us. Absolutely. And then I and I will never put words into Carl's
mouth. The only my only comment to Deb is is I know that like for a homeowner to have to pull a permit, you need anything under 120 swift, he doesn't need a permit, right? So, I don't know, but I think it this is really a question in in around Carl. I haven't called
Carl. Um I'm sure Carl will work with them to get it done. Well, it's one of those things that makes our like night to say our town or their town like we share a lot of the fields the free lake community right between Ted Williams camp um and little Fenway and and forgot
which one the saw Paul team uses uh my go yes thank you uh sorry Mark saw Paul community um and I know Lakeville has the the parts commission that they they they pay per head per per person playing
so they're very limited in what they can do over in Lakeville, right? Us having the the lease program that we have now, they pay their dollar a year and they can update as they need to, as they feel fit, which is a much easier model, more efficient. Absolutely. You know, um, you
know, I could always wish that the other town does the same thing, but we all do things differently, but it is a very efficient way to get things done and make our towns fields look beautiful, you know. Oopsie. So, so I mean we we're all seem to be kind of on the same page with what Debbie just went
over, right? Um, so I think that this means we just really need to go back to them with the approvals. Should I call it out for a vote to get because I mean I don't you can or I can go back work with them and tweak the language and bring Yeah. I think I mean I just don't know that there's really you're going to have to
sign that agreement. Yeah. Okay. But I mean, we're not going to sub lease, right? I mean, then nobody on the board wants to subleasase these. So, but should we vote on like the approval with the appro approving the contract so we don't have to bring it back up on another meeting? Like you can approve it
subject to me tightening the language for pro share for repairs. Um, and you're going to see it anyways because you're going to have to sign. Yeah. All right. Your call, Jared. Yeah. So, so it's actually um agenda item number nine is discussion and vote
whether to approve the laces uh laces licenses. Wow. For ball fields between the town of Freetown and Aonica Junior Football, B Freetown Lakeville Athletic Association, C Free Lake Youth Softball Association, and D uh Freetown Lakeville
Soccer Club, Inc. So, um, so what I'll say then is I will entertain a motion to, um, approve the full licenses read with the caveat of, um, softball agreeing to the tightened up language
that we just discussed. All right, I'll make that motion. Second. All those in favor? I I So, that really takes care of eight and nine. All right. Excellent. And I know this is one that's years in the making. So, congrats on getting it done.
Yeah, it's it seems I know Debbie is going to be happier than me to have it off of her desk because it's been up on her board to be for us to get done for forever and it's it hasn't been easy. So, all right. All right. So, next we have the um a combined meeting with the
board of stock and the finance committee to go over the omnis omnibus budget. Um, so folks want to come up and who else is here? Finance committee, come on down and join the fun. Hey, welcome back. Make copies for all
of us. Pass it out if you can. Are we going to do recommendations with you or not? No, I guess not. Yeah. No, cuz I didn't put it on my You guys having fun today? Never a dull day here in Freetown. All
right. Being 6:38 and having a quorum present. I will call our Freetown Finance Committee meeting to order. We are ready to move. Do you have any any business you got to take care of? Nope.
All right. So, first on the hot seat, community program director, Kylie, let's see it. Come on up. Can you guys join your Yeah, if you want to join her. It's up to you.
Just bring another chair around just so that she's already So, there microphones on. Yep. Yep. John needs to turn green. Yep. The green. I am green as green can be.
Do you want to put yours on? Not really. Okay. Rob's just here to hang out. What number are we at? So, it's 699. 699 is Kylie, our community program director and 541 Council on Aging.
Rebecca, the director of Council on Aging. All right. So, first what what we've been doing is taking both boards taking a couple minutes looking through uh seeing if anything jumps out at us, kind of put our questions together and
then put you on the hot seat. And I'm going to open it up by saying um air condition that our budget is funded um as presented to everybody, the FINCOM and the Boris Sleman. the numbers that you see um are is funded. So that's
where we're at. One of the reasons that I wanted to have the community program director and the council on aging come in is this. There's um Kylie works part-time as the community program director. She's the one that um does all
of the programming for the town, the concert series, the Zumba in the park, the um paint nights and the comedy show and the things that we've been having throughout the town that people are really enjoying. And then um she has a degree in public health and together
Rebecca and her wrote a grant and got money for an outreach worker under the COA and she's been doing that part-time with grant funding. However, that has um been a success and they want to continue that program
into next year uh for the seniors which are you know a third of our population. So, one of the the issues is there's two different positions, two different pay scales. It's becoming a little messy and they've talked about combining the position into one. So, um in
anticipation of tonight's meeting, they did create a job description. It it is my recommendation that we do not combine the comp position as of yet because both positions are brand new positions that we're still trying to uh come out, you know, really figure out
what exactly the town needs and how we're going to move forward with that. That being said, I would recommend that the pay scale be the same for both positions, which will alleviate some of the issues we have with what job she's working at because she can be at the COA
working um on programming for the town and a senior will come in and need her assistance and then she obviously takes care of the senior. So, it's hard to track the timing. in your budgets as you see for both budgets it is funded that she would work part-time for one and part-time for the other at the uh the
new rate of 20 $29 and change. So that's my recommendation. I'm just going to give that to you and and and let you ask her questions about the job and what that looks like. But I I think we need one more year maybe just to define how uh one of the concerns
is she's a department head for community program director. you would work under Rebecca in the COA and it's a it's just confusing. I need to I think we all need to work on how what that actually would look like as a single position. So, that's all I have to say, but that's why I asked them both to come here, not
because their budgets were crazy or anything, but just because there's some unanswered questions that I think the boards need to look at and and help make some determinations on how we move forward. Makes sense. And are you do you have a
strong opinion I guess either of you what way we go whether we combine those rules or just bring up this the salary just to make it easier for tracking and probably more fair anyways. Yeah. Deb and I and Rebecca discussed right now we think that's kind of the best move.
Okay, great. Kyle, I see you asked for initial $2500 for I guess. Did you get a grant? Did you apply for the grant by Oh, yeah. Um, so last year I got the festivals and projects grant. Um, and I am hoping to get it again. This year I've applied. I
just don't want to bank on that. And this is for all the things that we've been doing around town as far as the concerts and the movies and events that keep the all our residents entertained. Yes, exactly. Um, you sure? I applied specifically for the concert
series because that usually takes like yeah a good chunk of my budget like at least five to six grand. Yeah. $5,600. Yeah. So $6,500 you'd say. Yeah. So I can see I can see your your
uh reservation on that. Yeah. Okay. Same uh same people coming back this year or we have new people? New? Well, there's three that are the same. Okay. But three are new. They're welcome back as well. All right.
Think that's it. Any questions? Anybody else? Oh, actually I have a question. The uh community program director salary is the 28,464. Is that a request? That's not
the previous salary was 22,500 or 256. What percentage increase is that? I know that's where we're talking about bringing the salary level funded for both positions to what to 28,000
28 28,000. Is that what you said? I'm sorry about I'm reading the 28,464 but that's for both positions. Is that correct? That's for a part-time of one position. So it's like a combined I think total it would be around $58,000 for the position for the year between
okay where is that reflected so the 28 is reflected there and I should let them answer but the other 30,000 is in the COA budget so it's split between the two departments which is 541 it's not a like for like and this is this is only the this is
department is only two years old right one years old one year old uh three years old Maybe. Is it? Is it? No, because Jack was here before. Yeah, that's right. Maybe just 2 and 1/2 years old. Yes.
Okay. So, you don't The number here, the 28,000 is That's not correct. No, that is Well, that's correct for that's the request. That's Oh, no. I understand that. But I'm saying what you're saying is now you have two salaries. They're both going to be the same. They're
separated. They're 20. They're going to give the the same dollar amount per hour, but they're Let me Let me ask you a different way. What is the total amount for both salaries? That's what she said. 58,000. Rob. Okay. So, 58,000 isn't on the That's why it's not on the
sheet. Yeah. It's 28 here and then on 541, you'll see 30,000. 30,000, which is the next agenda item. So, yeah, it's just it's confusing because it's split between two budgets, right? So, can I ask you about participation? I mean,
That's something that I'm assuming will increase is correct. So what is the part participation now as far as the it depends on the event. Um so the summer concert series I've gotten the most that was my first year hosting events and I
for part time. Um and I would say the highest amount of participants I got for that year was 300. Um but it varies. So for the comedy night I got 100 people. Outdoor movie nights 80 to 100 people.
Um but paint and sip 30. Zumba in the park. Yoga in the park 15 to 30 people. It really depends on the program. Okay. So we're talking a very small percentage of the population. But is it getting bigger? I
mean that that's the other time will tell. And that was just my first year. I started in February. Um and programs didn't really kick up until the summer. So I only have that baseline to go off
of. Yeah, she's going off of zero. So 300% increase in one year. 300. Yeah. So So and I I say it half jokingly, but we didn't have anything, right? So she's bringing something. And I'm not trying to defend her or her, but I'm just saying that she I'm not trying to attack
her. A lot of activities to the town that we didn't have. So yeah, I mean I'll tell you that from my standpoint, I enjoy it and I hear from other people that they enjoy it. So I I'm percentage wise, I get what you're saying, but I think it'll work. And yeah. Well, I'm
just looking for a what's going on, you know, as far as cuz you got other departments that are leaning the same way according to the numbers anyway. Mhm. Right. And uh if we're going to do it, is it a grant that
you're going to get for the $2,500? Is that to increase the number of people coming to or is it advertising? What is it? So the grant is to help sustain the program. Um it's a festivals and projects grant which I applied for the
summer concert series. Um I mentioned before it the concert series it goes from June to August and it costs about5 to $6,000. Um so that grant in hopes would supplement some of that cost so
that I would have more money to spend throughout the rest of the year the fiscal year. Okay. So you're going to be adding programs. You're going to be adding things. Yes. Oh, okay. She wants to see you out there, Bob. Huh? She wants to see you out there. Yeah, especially yoga. Yeah, a lot of people
say that concert series is great though. I went to a bunch of those last year. I I suspect that now that we've given it more time and people have, you know, are they've heard about it last year and now we've given them more ample time this year to know it's coming. I I want to
say the numbers are going to increase, especially especially with the with the movie nights. It was pretty successful, then it got cold, right? And then all rain, then it got cold on the second and third, but you still have people show up. but now they're all in the summertime. So, I suspect that to grow as well. Um, that all came down years
ago when the community said to us, "We want more events. We wanted to feel like it's it was this is home." And this is one of the things that spawned from that is getting people outdoors and talking to their neighbors again. So, hopefully it works. So far so good. So,
I just have a quick question. Um, I know you're getting paid from two different budgets. Do you have one job title or two job titles? You know, so you have one title and you just get paid from two different budgets or do you have like two separate and distinct job titles? Right now, two
job titles. Okay. Yeah. And it's tricky, right? Like like on the face of it, I think your original idea makes sense of just combining it into one title and put in one budget. That makes sense. But then when you start looking into it and you realize that one of those positions is currently a department head, the other
one is not. So then you get like union kind of situation there and then it just like and then it just gets confusing. There's not really an easy way to do it. I think both of them have their and I think the outreach how new is that the outry director outreach
started in September um at 8 hours. So that's a week. Yeah. So that's very new and that's why I said I think we need one more year to define what this looks like. They're both new and for the COA it's absolutely indispensable. Um she is
my right hand. I could not do what I do in the town without her and I wouldn't want to. So it was fine. How how you said that it would be a problem as far as a union. How would that be a problem? Yeah, I guess I made that assumption just because I know in
other situations where you have somebody like department heads like they're, you know, uh, usually not a part of the union, right? Whereas the employees are part of the the these are part-time positions. Is that correct? The outreach. Yeah, both are
part-time, but it equals one full-time, huh? It equals a full-time position, but it's two part-time positions. Yeah. Okay. So, again, become full. That's why I I was I didn't understand why that would be a union issue. I mean, maybe it's not. I don't know. No, no, no union issue there. I made the assumption just
cuz I know that I've had situations similar in the past where, you know, just the difference between a like uh like I think in the transfer station we had a similar issue, right? Well, it's a 20-hour cut off. Is that correct? Yeah, that makes sense.
Okay. Yeah. That that was my question. If it's going to be where are the other numbers as far as union is concerned there's no other numbers for union but the other half of the salary is in the COA budget 541. Yeah. So I guess we'll
jump Can we jump over there to 541? Say again. Can we want to jump over to 541? Yeah. I again I just this is probably simple but I was and the reason I Well, obviously I'm not the only one that was confused a little
bit here. What' you say? 541. Yes, sir. I think may they might have already asked answered the question. I think when and Kylie and her two different roles, especially when she's at the COA doing events and something more pressing comes over, let's say one of our senior
citizens uh need helps needs help or our new new senior citizen comes in, she is then pulled from an activity she may be doing to assist the greater need, which is the the residents of our town, right? So I think par or equal pay is what the
question is. So that keeping track of the hours and what duties they're performing can get a little difficult. So my question actually what just what what are you saying? Are you saying that there's a discrepancy with the hourly wage is or is it the same wage? It's not
the same wage now and they're proposing that both her roles become the same wage. Okay. So there's no issue. Let's say she's doing one thing and then So that's an equal amount of hours and and an equal equal amount of pay. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. That's what we're trying to say and do. Yes. Okay. But that was why
I was confused because I thought there might have been a discrepancy in the hours because they're both part-time positions, right? Goes so they don't fall. There's no union involved here. I I was mistaken with that. Yeah. No, I'm just saying. Yeah. But, you know, we're thinking about the equal wages, you
know, equal pay for the amount of hours each each each of them do. There's no discrepancy in the hourly wage, but there might be a discrepancy in number of hours that they work. Correct. Yeah. I think that like Well, right now
there's a discrepancy in that. Right now there's a discrepancy, but we're trying to correct the discrep. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, we're trying to create a stop a future issue through occurring, especially payroll and everything else sitting there trying to figure out what
hours or what exactly they did at that exact moment. If they if everything's level or the same, it it doesn't matter. She's fully employed, right? She's doing her job and she's just picking and choosing. Well, not pick and choose. Sometimes she can't pick and choose. Uh, as the priority comes in, which is the
set the resident versus the the event takes, right? We want to make sure she's paid equally and then not sitting there trying to adjust time cards on the fly. No, I I understand it. It just it just didn't make any sense to me as far as the discrepancies between the two and
being part-time. Is it equal part time? You have you allocated 50 hours in each work 25. But then what do you do if it if it slops over into 28? You know what I mean? Yeah, that's what we're just not reflected. It's not reflected in uh as
far as the job. It doesn't seem to be reflected as far as the job description. And the other question is, is there a job description for this? Yes, there is a job. There is there are job descriptions for both. Okay. All right. Yes. So, how many hours right now do you work
for this as an outreach? It's up to 20 um and then up to 19 for community programs. And I just kind of balance it to equal 36. Okay. So if it's in two different
budgets, are you going to keep it even? So I'm sorry. 18 and 18 out of each where it gets I think it's going to depend. It's going to depend on the season. Um so with the honestly outreach is a little bit heavier in the wintertime for us and her
um community programming is a little bit heavier in the summer. So it actually kind of balances out really nicely. Um, so we but she she keeps it at 36 no matter which way we sway she keep it which is really nice the way if we can
make it one one pay rate then this will solve right right oh some of the issue okay you know we could always add a Halloween and Thanksgiving decoration contests just throwing it out All
right. So, has everyone had a chance to look at 541 that that that budget you have? Yes. You have any other questions? Pretty much level funded for the most part is what I'm seeing with the exception of the salary for part-time
for Yeah. which is at the bottom there. That 30,000 number there that I scratched in. Okay. percentage increase is the uh the director looking for here. So the the uh bylaw employees were instructed to
include a 2.5% cola increase in their salaries. A majority of them came back uh to me expressing um that they felt like that was not sufficient. And after sitting with a lot of them and reviewing
their information, uh they are a lot less paid than many surrounding towns, keep in mind that your unions get colar and step increases and your bylaw employees do not. So in their bylaws, uh I've talked to, you know, Margaret and
Carlos, the personnel chair, and there's a 2% wage adjustment included in their salaries plus a 2.5% coler. So, their salaries are 4.5% more than they were on prior. Well, actually, I had a question asked to me the other day and it was by
a senior citizen, even more senior than me, and they uh was a woman, and I happen to know her, and she asked me, she says, "If somebody's going to get an increase, what more are they going to do that they're not doing now?" And I didn't have an answer for
it. I continue to do their job would be what I would say. you know, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter on what level you're talking about here. It doesn't matter what the employee does. It's just that if you're asking if you're asking more money every
year, what are you what are you doing to get that increase? What extra are you doing? You're getting extra money, but what are you So, and I I understand, believe me, I'm not trying to browbeat this. I'm just looking for if you were approached with that question, what
would your answer be? I mean I I have a two-part answer. First would be you know inflation so cost of living things cost more therefore people need you know and then second would be that that we're not we're not working in a factory here where you're taking one thing and moving to somewhere else. As year the years go
on, you get more experience, therefore your your time and and value your value goes up, right? That's why I I I'm a consultant, right? I charge a lot more I do now than I did 10 years ago, right? Because I have that experience. Well, either that or you eliminated the
competition. You're also trying to prevent attrition. You know, when you've got skilled labor, you want to try to prevent attrition. So that's why you're if they're evaluating what other towns around them are making in the same role, you want to make sure that you're competitive so the folks don't even go to another town. I understand that. I promise you that you
don't want to go down that road. That I have done. You do not want to go down that road as far as what people are are starting at and as far as it just you just do not I love our town and
I'm willing to work here. I just it's a typical practice in municipal world that the way that you get more money is to move, you know, make lateral moves to other towns in order to increase your value. I mean, I could say I can understand if it's an educational uh uh
uh upward rise as far as that if your responsibilities change. Yeah, I was going to say you don't want to talk about education for the two ladies that are sitting there in an LICSSW. I I just taking that into account. You know, the value comes with how good they are at
their job. They have the institutional knowledge that comes with the time at their job. And if if we lose our current staff to replace them, we have to pay more. So that's like the caveat of all this. If they leave then to go get more money in another town, we have to pay
more. So you want to try to be as competitive as possible without breaking the bank. And I I think 4.5% I I I think some of them could have gone more, but I thought that was fair and equitable because it's across the board and you know it's expensive for the town and I'm
trying to balance the need of the taxpayers, but we don't want our staff leaving because that creates a whole other onslaught of problems for the town and we have great employees right now. That's not the that that that again that wasn't the thrust of my question to be perfectly honest and I did get the first
part of this as far as inflation but I understand where you're going with this but the other thing was and the other question I got was isn't there a cap on anything and obviously there's no cap on anything. No. So I can just you know but
I and I did get that question. So yeah. Yeah. Well, it's one of those questions I would ask um I would ask her like, "Have your attendance increased? Has your morale increased? Has your programs increased? Um are there more faces coming in?" Right. Just a little bit.
So, those are the questions I I would let the resident know is the COA of years ago to today. It's in many ways night and day. I understand everything's moving up with and the way I I personally look at it, I start looking at down the road 18 months in the
economy what it's going to be like. I don't know. I I think that the I talked to a bank of the today and she told me that in the past month they haven't been writing any loans. Very very very very few loans. Not even car loans. Oh, that's that's interesting because my
wife does mortgages and it's quite the opposite really. So again, it's big. It's a big operation and she was saying that just uh it's not happening. It nowhere close to where it was or even at the downside where it was. So people are
just I think people are scared of spending any money because they don't know what's coming. I I believe a lot of folks on this side of the table, such as yourself, are are scared to spend money as well. We're trying to save as much as we can, but at the same time, I at the same time be as
fair as we possibly be with our employees, right? Like do do the employees, all employees from police, fire, teachers, everybody deserve 10, 20, 30%. I say yes. Fortunately, that's not the unfortunately we just don't have that. I understand. But again, when the questions come like that, you know,
there's a lot of it's very difficult sometime to explain it from the from my standpoint to their standpoint. you know, senior citizens, they're on a fixed income. They, you know, they're getting pounded from every direction, you know, and what they're looking for more is relief. But when it comes to
that, there is no relief. There's never going to be any relief. There's always going to be an increase in taxes. There's always going to be an increase in in all the rest of this stuff. What what I'm looking at is all the other things. you see what petroleum is right now with the prediction in uh in the
crude market is is scary to look at and if if that happens then it's going to be something else on top for the seniors. I just had dja vu because it was it last year I believe that we sat here and you wanted to increase the fuel budget to like reflect 10 or $15 a gallon. It was
a year before year before. So So I I just that was full circle again. So thankfully that never happened and you know Well thankfully the money doesn't evaporate. It actually goes into the general fund if you don't use it. Correct. It's like a little savings bank. Mhm.
But yeah. All right. Great. That's enough. So any other any specific questions or do are we good with these? Yeah. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you.
All right. Next up is Chuck. And uh 420 is highways. Chuck gets 420. All right. [Laughter] Electric official. Leave me alone. Once again, Chuck, we're going to take a
couple minutes look through your budget. So, it's 420, 423, and 424. Chuck, how's fuel? Excuse me. How's the fuel? Everything's fine. Everything's peachy keen.
[Applause] How many training seminars has come up this year, huh, Chuck? We've we've been busy doing other That's right. things, school and baseball fields and pickle ball courts and
highway the highway department yard and we've been pretty busy. Yeah, I noticed the uh that problem telephone pole, right? Those those things were new, right? Mhm. Chuck, you got you did it quick. It represents about $5,000 right
there. All right. Yeah. Looks good, though. Knock on wood. If they hit it now, it's really their fault. Just is what it is. All to make everybody happy. Yeah, it's nice and bright. You definitely could
see it from uh That's what we do. Far far away. And Chief, no accidents since then. Correct. Under report. Fantastic. Knock knock. All right. I guess first question like uh the highway and
other employment benefits in the CBA. First thing I had checked. Yeah. So like is that just that's CBA right? Uh right here on Oh yeah.
You looking at page 78? Yeah. It just goes from 750 to 9750. [Applause] Why is that 9,000 handwritten? I don't know because I think it was there. Was it in 9750 last year?
Um, say on the page it's it looks like the nine was written in after the It says 9,750. Oh, we probably requested is 10 10,000. Remember we did the article to cover union costs once we negotiated. Okay,
that might be um stipens for their CDLs. Okay, hoisting licenses and whatnot. I'm thinking that might we just put it on that budget line item? I would think so. Yeah, just wouldn't be reflected in that number. Okay, that is contractual.
[Applause] All right, Chuck, your your budget also went up for salary for yourself. 10%. 10%. Yes, sir. I was asked to do a survey, which I did. Um, surprise surprise. Three times the
lowest paid highway surveyor in the area. Berkeley at 89,000, Matapo at 912, Westport 915, Lakeville 97, Rochester 973, a cushion at 1085,
Dyton 112, a way 1449. I'm just trying to get on the right playing field. Just so you know, you should have that survey in the back behind his budget in that the last page of that budget. Um 240, I'm sorry, 420.
You should have the information so you can look at it. Large percentage, but it's not really a large dollar amount for the amount of money that we've saved this town in the last year just on various projects. We
easily saved 100 150,000 at the COA. We easily saved $100,000 at the school last week. Absolutely. U again, it's one thing you've never heard from the highway department is no. It's always yes. I will test.
Unfortunately, majority of the people here have never been to the highway department. They have no idea what the highway department even is or what we do. The question the the re answer is we don't there's nothing that we don't do. Yeah. Whether we play musical chairs down at the town hall and we move
employee A to over here and back and forth and up and down and side and side. Who moves all the crap? That would be the highway department. So again, I know it's a big number. I just want It would be nice if you guys would support it at town meeting. If not, I think it's going
to fly anyhow. So again, it's not a huge number. I think for the amount of money that the highway department, not just me, but the the work is what we save this town is astronomical. Yeah. Um, again, you you've just you've never
heard no from the highway department. I will attest to that, Chuck. And you know, the highway department is always open. Some people have never been there. If your board and you want to see where some of the money goes, you should pull
in there, you know. Pull in. Pull in there now. It looks like a million dollars. I know. I noticed it looks We finished paving it on Friday. it it's phenomenal. Yeah. You know, and it's coming together. Um the drainage base and all front looks good. I like it.
Yeah. That's going to be hydro seated later on this week. And like I said, it's it looks phenomenal. Uh I think the budget we tried to keep it basically the same was what it was. We moved some numbers around. The biggest number we
asked for I think was in signs and lines which basically represents the road striping. In the past, we were able to use OPA money and different funding sources for that, but you know, and usually costs anywhere between 40 and $50,000 to
stripe the roads, you know, to do the town. Again, if if if it's the the town is in such a hardship, uh we can always cut that number. You know, I can strike one side of the town this year and next year I can stripe the
other side. But with the amount of money that the town has in stabilization and free cash, I don't think it's uh it's it's worth worrying about. Well, I mean, I do the chief is sitting back there, but when you talk about striping of the roads, I would think
that that's a safety issue that I really wouldn't want to go. Listen, we're all getting older. To me, you know, we years ago, we never painted the fog lines, the white lines on the side. I find I need those lines at night, you know. It's just as we get older, our
eyes aren't as good as they were and you know, is we're all getting older. So, yeah, I think that's that's um that's not a place you want to cut. Yeah. You know, no, we you know, unfortunately, we we have asked other departments if there were things to come
up, come tanks, where where they'd be cuts. I'm glad you're thinking about it. Right. It is a ultimately you can take anything you need, right? The question is, do you need it? You know, we're working with what, six employees.
I had more employees 25 years ago. You know, the town's in great shape financially. Great shape. Yeah. The problem is, you know, we were talking about people's salaries and pay and what do you get for your dollar? I can't I've had an open truck
driver's position for the last year. I can't fill it. You know, you're there with me when we talk to these people. We've had many interviews over the past year. Nobody's going to come to work for the town of Freetown for $24 an hour. It's not going to happen. And when you try to explain to the town
people, what do you what do I get? Well, you get a pretty damn terrific town, you know? Yeah. You got the best police, you got the best buyer, and for my money, you got the best highway. Nobody can touch my roads in the winter.
That's one thing that we hear a lot is that's going to go on my head when they put me in the ground. I mean, we spend a lot of money on snow and ice, but nobody can touch my roads, right? So, going back to the 10%. Yeah, I know it's it's a big number, but it's
not. So, kind of along those lines, Chuck, um sounds like you did a comparison for salaries for yourself. Are there any concerns? You mentioned it's hard to find a truck driver at $24 an hour. Have you done any of the same comparisons to make sure that there's not any other discrepancies that we
should be? There there are discrepancies. I mean, we we the town has tried to offset it with certain stipens that my guys get. I would love to say that I would get the same stipens, but it doesn't happen. But that's fine. But it's it's just not
enough. I just lost a four-year employee that we pretty much brought him from nothing. We got him his CDL. We got him his oyster license. He was a good worker. And but he's a young
man. He's drowning in debt. So he got a job making almost $9 more an hour, working closer to his house, and he's, you know, moving onwards and upwards. Um it's tough. Yeah, it's it's one of those
We've discussed it. We I think we've all discussed it at one point. It's one of those things we're all fighting for the same resources. A lot of the towns are and at the end of the day they have to and and it's they're realizing back in the day 25 30 years ago when I first
came to work for a town 36 years ago you took a town job because the benefits were that right? You listen I don't care I'll make less money but I get the best health insurance. Like it's not there anymore. Yeah. You know, a lot of companies are paying 100% health. A lot
of companies have all the little they have glasses and you know, all the things that go with it. You don't you don't have that edge anymore. Oh, they they definitely cut up. That's for sure. You've got the stability. That's what most of us are here for. But the reality
of it, we're starving. Me, my workers, I don't know how my workers live. I make more money than they do, and I don't know how they survive. I know I've sold basically everything I've ever owned just
to if it wasn't for Craig Cabraw I wouldn't have eaten in the last six months you know it's just you know it is what it is he's always buying stuff I'm sure well no but I mean you know that food pantry as much as sometimes it's a
burden yeah to me coffee I need this can you do this can you help me here absolutely but he's the one That puts food on my table now. Yeah. And I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that. You know, as your big- time 36 year employee, department head, you're supposed to be
all doing all right. I get it. There's no shame in that. Oh, there is. I mean, I understand what you're saying, but you don't. It's But it's I thought you were saying Craig was buying all the stuff you ever owned because Craig does that, too. No, no, no, no. But but it it it's just like I
said, as far as the the wages, the town most of the town employees are suffering. But I mean, I'm I'm going to hold true to the 10%. I I wish the town the selectman and the finance committee would would recommend that at town
meeting. It would make it that much easier, but you do whatever you got to do. All right. Any other questions? Appreciate the honesty. Yeah, it is what it is. See you this week. Does everybody have that survey? If not, I can just
Yeah, it's in there. Yeah, that's it. You do? All right. Cuz I can give you my copy. Where am? Wow. Huh. Well, I am. Big place. Yeah. That guy takes care of uh the beaches and that in itself is a huge job. I can imagine. Um so yeah,
more money, more headaches. Yep. Surprised with the Marion one. That was my biggest surprise. Usually it's it's a well but Marian comes if you add in the rest and Marian's a pretty small community but he just started the end of January. Okay. This this was done
February. He was only at the job for 3 weeks. So in last time I talked to him he was up for a substantial fall but you remember Marian has less than 30 miles of road. You know
it's a little How many How many miles do we have? I've ever depends on who you talk to. According to the according to the state, uh state says 778. Okay. It's more like 100 107. Wow. 2300 catch basins, manholes. It's the
largest the infrastructure of the town is the largest thing the town owns. It's the most expensive thing the town owns. It's just, you know, last year we did $1.1 million in paving. should be pretty close to the same this year.
Um, state aid, chapter 90, uh, much as I shouldn't say I dislike her, but more Healy's been good to a lot of the municipalities as far as giving us funding. Yeah. So, you know, this year will be another boom year for the
town. We should we're looking at another million million one in paving this year. So, just before you go, I asked this last year. I'm going to ask it again because I'm trying to plan the best I can because we know we're going to get hit with the BP budget. Capital expenses. I
know we're in good shape. We're doing engineering for the salt shed. Anything else that you foresee in the near future for capital? Big dollar items. We're probably going to need a new street sweeper next year or the year after. It's
probably three and a quarter, I would guess. 300 and a quarter. 300,000 or 30 $325. They come from China. Um, those little hands, the good things. Yeah. Well, um, I I would think that's the
next big ticket item. Other than that, we're in pretty good shape. Okay. You know, and I knew about that. So, the yard project is huge. I mean, and that that went together pretty well. Um, that was basically done in three days. So, um
when we do the engineering around the salt shed, will we come up with different solutions where maybe it makes sense to not spend on a permanent structure and do more of like a a cheaper solution, I guess, cuz we're talking about a million dollars for
houses for the shed for salt rather. The cheaper solution are those tents. Yeah. Rochester put up two of them. Mhm. It was just over a million dollars. Really? They're really not that much cheaper.
Wow. And my 20 years I'll be dead. I don't care. But I look at it this way. You've got it's a tent. Yeah. No, absolutely. But if it's if it's close in price, then it makes no sense to not do it. I'm just thinking about to to tell the town's people that we're spending a million
dollars to house road salt. makes you're gonna get to the point where you don't have that decision where Environmental Partners tell we just spent the $150,000 to pave the yard because Environmental Partners told us to. I thought that's what you were going to start with this. Environmental
Partners wants us to build a shed just for the pile of sand that's outside. They hop on me every time they come, which is four times a year, because they're concerned about the sand that blows when the wind blows. And they're like, "Well, can you cover it?" No, I'm
not going to cover 3,000 yards of sand. You know, again, what's the longevity of a tarp? You know, the wind blows, it rains, whatever happens. So, you know, ultimately what they want is a separate
building. I would like to put up one big building that could house both the sand and the salt. You know, we ran into a problem this year. We put 3,000 tons of salt out to bid every year
annually. We can't store 3,000 ton. So we buy salt as we use it. So if every storm I'll use 150 200 ton of salt. I call for salt. They come, we put it back in the salt shed. We replenish what we
use as we use it. This year we couldn't get salt. We went through a twomonth period where we had no salt. The supplier couldn't supply it. Mass do has
priority. If three truck three ships of salt come to Fall River or Providence and they unload, if the state says that's ours, it's theirs. We don't We're on the back of the bus. We don't have an option.
The mindset is if we get a bigger facility, I can get that 3,000 ton or 2,000 ton delivered in August. Mhm. Trucking's cheaper. Everything will be cheaper. You know, because they're not
moving salt in August as a rule. It it'd be b more beneficial for the town. It's more of an insurance policy. You know, I know Rochester, not Rochester, Rainham put up their salt shed in 2018. That was just under a million dollars. They've
got a beautiful facility. It's a wooden building. It's a gamrell. And that mindset is we can get we can buy salt or sand in August. You know, I mean, Debbie would know the price of
salt sand this year is $27 a ton. In a million years, Freetown sand and gravel never got $27 a ton for sand. You know, sand was $5 a ton or whatever it was. So, prices are going up
exponentially. So, you need to explain that to the senior lady that asks, "What do I get for my money?" You get the same. But unfortunately, you can't buy a pickup truck for $5,000 anymore. You got to spend $70,000 for the same truck. It's
just that's just the way it is. So, I agree. I figured you were going to say it was something environmentally related and yeah, I unfortunately they're the driving force on everything and when they speak, you have to listen. They're kind of like EF, you know, so you got to
kind of do it. Fair enough. That it. Thank you, sir. All right. I think that's it. Thanks, Chuck. Thank you. Have a great night. You as well. All right. Next is animal control. Where are they? Trevor 292. 292.
Get this. 292. Come on down. Okay. How you doing? Hey. How are you doing? Wonderful. All right, we'll just keep a couple minutes look through [Applause] this this number. Yeah. So this is very
similar in that the salary ask was a lot higher. I put in the 4 and a half% as I did across the board with byar employees and that 41185 is the number that you see there.
Um but I I asked u Lisa to come in because I don't know um she had asked for more originally and I wanted to have her come in. Like I said, most of the department heads asked for more money than even the four and a half% and I
felt it would only be fair for them to come before the boards and discuss their backup and their the support for their salaries. All right. And then so the everything else pretty much level
funded besides salary, right? Yeah. I actually um moved kind of some things around. I didn't ask for any more in the actual budget. Yeah. Mhm. I mean, overall, I don't really ask for
much. I had to get a new car cuz there was a big hole in the floorboard, you know, it was a little cold in the winter. So, and I love my new car. My new to me car I love, but I generally don't ask for much of anything. I don't ask for equipment and
things like that. Um, basically what I um was looking into was I actually do two jobs as well. I was it was interesting listening to council on aging um because I also am
the animal inspector which falls into the board of health um and that has become increasingly busy for some reason um a lot more so than it has in the past. Um there's kind of a a lot of things
that went into that. Um you know looking for a a substantial increase. Um first 10 years I was here we had a I had a which you are aware of. We had that process of you didn't get a raise until you were here 5 years. You didn't get a
raise till you were here. Then again not again until 10 years. We I never got even a cost of living raise. So I'm already behind. Um, some of the things I do can be pretty dangerous. Um, not that money
helps that, but would help my husband. Um, you know, I go on search warrants with the with the department. Um, I don't have an assistant. It's only me. I only work 32 hours a week, but I'm on call 24/7. There's nobody else. I go on
vacation, the phone rings, I answer it. [Music] um there's just nobody else to do that. So I I a lot of things I can do over the phone. I try to take care of that. If not, a lot of times I can get David in an emergency to come over from
Lakeville. Um but he is not a young man and he doesn't get any compensation for it. Um he does it out of the goodness of his heart because he's my friend and he helps me out. Um, so I I believe the part the
part-time is still up on the site, right? I don't think I think we've received at at first going back to the employment thing. Um, I'm trying to think, was it last week or the week before we got another another person? Yeah. No, that's a tough one. Yeah. I
mean, nobody's going to come out in the middle of the night for 20 bucks. They're not going to do it. So, you know, and there's plenty of nights that I've been out for that reason. A drunk driver gets stopped. They have a car. They dump a dog in the forest. I go out and pick up the dog. Yesterday, I drove
down to Cape Wildlife because I had to relocate. I had to turn in some baby raccoons that the mother didn't take that we trapped in. somebody. She had an elderly couple had a family living in there and she only took uh four of the I'm sorry, three of
the five. So, um you know, I'm driving it every week. Yeah. Driving to the cave. So, she almost came out to see me yesterday. My little old man got out of the house. I was laid up and someone post, "Hey, look at this beautiful dog."
I'm like, "Yep, that's my dog. Is that the dog?" So, I was like, "No." Yeah, that happens a lot. So, um, you know, I don't get longevity because I'm only 32 hours a week. The bylaws state you have to be 36 hours per week. I do,
however, get benefits. I get insurance and things like that. But I've been here 14 years alone doing it by myself and I do all of it. I most inspectors get a stipend. Um, a lot of the animal control officers in
the state, it's a tough position because we're not all, we don't all fall under the same. An animal control officer can be under the police department, they can be under the board of health, they can be under the board of selectmen. There's
no regulation for that. Um, the only regulation they have is that you have to go to the academy, which I did. Um, so you know the the in when you combine the two jobs, I'm actually doing the animal control
position, which is supposed to be domestic animals only. It is never, and the board of health animal inspector position, which is all of our livestock, which we have a lot of in Freetown. Um, so most of the towns at when I
looked around there, um, if they if the town combined the animal control and the health inspe um animal inspector positions, uh, the health, oh my goodness, the animal inspector still falls under the board of
health, but um, they got a stipen because I don't get anything extra for doing that. That's barn inspections. That's guinea hen complaints. That's, you know, loose cows in the road. Um,
uh, rabies quarantines, um, zoning issues. If they, somebody's moving into town, a lot of people come here because they think it's a right to farm town, which it's not something I'm looking into. Um, but they look at a house and they call me and we go out because they want to know if they can
put a barn on the property or not. Um, so it's it's a more involved job on top of just being the animal control officer. So you mentioned some of those responsibilities typically fall under the board of health. Now, is it a
similar situation we had uh with the folks prior where there's a different salary breakout in that budget or is it all in all in this budget? It's all in this budget. There's no separation at all. Isa, the animal
control that you're talking about, animal inspector, that's not in your job description. I'm not sure off the top of my head. I'm not sure either. I'm not sure. Off the top of my head, I don't We worked on that and but I don't know. Um,
did you get any comparisons for like I did, but it's so hard because again Dyen is a small town. They're under the police department. It's a totally different scenario, you know. Um, so I
have looked, they run the gamut. We talked about this. I mean, it can be nothing because it comes under the police department or it can be up to 80 $90,000. It's really one of those positions that does vary so widely on how each town handles it that it's hard to really do
that. Right. I was curious. I know you kind of alluded to that first, but I wasn't sure if I'm just kind of throwing that out just to kind of give you guys an idea. We in 2012 the Pause Act um came out as well. It's a new animal control law or animal law and I had to
rewrite all the bylaws. Well, Ali's law just got passed and now I'm rewriting all the kennel bylaws. I have to do that now. Everything's changed. And that's talking about possible zoning. So, it's not it's not just driving around and picking up stray dogs. It's it's very
involved. There's a ton of research to be done. There's a ton of um laws to be, you know, bylaws to be written. It's just not playing with puppies and kittens all day long. Um I just joined the rabies
task force. They included us in generally it's Plymouth County. they reached out um they want to include parts of Bristol County in that task force. We're very close to Lakeville, which is Plymouth County. Um I actually have a meeting with them tomorrow for
reporting and possibly getting bait put out here. Right now, they only do it in Plymouth County. We're trying to get them to expand that to put um they drop bait from either planes or cars, not generally planes, but mostly people like in the
state forest. And it we have a really high incidence of rabies happening right now. West Westport has last count when I talked to Westport, they had 27 positive animals. So, you know, that's just another job that I'm going to have to do
and another um um reporting, baiting, reporting. They're going to take any um animals that I pick up that are deceased or potentially going to be deceased and do their own testing, which doesn't cost us
anything, but it's more work on my part. So, so those are just some of the things that I don't and you know, I like I said, I don't ask I don't ask for new cars. I don't ask for equipment. Um I just would like to get
paid for the jobs that I do. You wanted to know the answer to that question. I do a lot more than is even in the job description. So I don't I don't see it in there. No. So you know as a specific it should be because they combined it way back when.
So I think it might have been in the 2011 one. I can look when I applied for the job. Yeah. And I've been here almost 15 years. So there there is at the bottom of the first page a line item added for stipens for Yeah, because
that's something we talked about, but then I also wasn't sure, did we find out if a bylaw employee could get a stipend? Yes. Oh, by employee can get a stipen, but we had talked about it, but as I talked to each department head and everybody was all over the place with the salaries, I needed to be consistent.
So that's why when I talked to uh Margaret and Kus, we decided on the 2% wage adjustment, the 2 and a half% cola. Um and for those that were severely, you know, we put a stipen, but I just left that sort of there. That's why that's why she's before you because it was sort
of an open ending. Yeah, it's kind of it is kind of all over the place. So what what do we think that do we talk about that now? What that stipen number is, you know? So just for a figure-wise what I make
now with the 4 and a.5% um if you if I got a stipen for health inspector for animal inspector I'm sorry um I was thinking 1,500 it would bring that up to close to what
I was looking to get anyways you know per hour. So I did do that math. Yeah. You said that falls on the board of health threats. Well, as far as that position and that that position. Yeah. So any rabies quarantines, any livestock
issues, things like that. Kevin and I work really closely together. So yeah, well aware you guys, it's it's one of those jobs like we just had a little side meeting is about about a problem. No, it's like one of those things like Chuck said, right? ways to get a right in his grave is we got the best best roads in town, right?
And uh for you as as far as you're concerned, um I hear the same thing from the residents as as far as when we call right when we call ESO in control there that you're there, right? You're there at a reasonable time. So, um try to be not always, but I do try to be like I
said, I'm it's only me. So, 247 that's a whole another thing. I'm always That's what she said. I don't drink, but I go out to dinner. If I wanted to have a drink, I can't because I could get a call and have to drive. So, I mean, it sounds stupid, but in reality, that's what it is. I was in Hawaii and on
vacation answering the phone. So, yeah, I think that's a lot to ask. No, personally, but Yep. I agree. I don't any what any questions or what else are we thinking? So I guess
so we recommend uh well I've been not voting I the adding a 1500 stipen would be the recommendation. Yeah that's what requested at the end of the day four and a half%. Yeah yeah exactly. Yeah in addition to the four and a half% I don't know Bob any questions?
No no questions. I'm okay with the 15. Yeah I'm okay with it. I think seems fair. Okay. No questions. Huh? No questions. No, actually I uh I don't have any questions, but I will be in contact.
Okay. Oh boy. Needs a barn. You can't release wildlife. You can't relocate wildlife. All my calls right now, love is in the air. Everything has babies. Oh yeah. And all the woodchucks are moving in. So all the garden going to be I got a family on my shed. State a
nice fat one of my shed. add to that budget. You have you cannot relocate it. I my attempts have failed over the years. So I have now we call him Chuck literally. Okay. It's entertaining me. Just watch him. They seize you. They're down. They start
crawling. Spring is spring is tough. Spring is very tough. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next would be police. I know. Police. 210. 210. Nothing to do there. 210's the big one. It's the big
one. But we're almost done. We are. You love every animal. I do. Problem. Want to hear about all these these cows roaming the roads. Chief, how are you? Hanging in there
dealing with bronchitis. Stay there then. Yes. Yeah. They look good though. Got your color. You're awful kind. trying to work through it. I heard the radio was was on fire right on as I was leaving to come here. So, yeah, it's
been pretty busy today. So, there's a lot of activity going on. So, but yeah, guys earning their pay. Hopefully, nothing serious. Can't comment. Okay, we'll wait patient. So, everyone want to take a cruise through the 210
and let us know if you have any questions. I guess question for you, Deb. I know getting close potentially on the union. The union? Yes. Is that inclus? Is this number inclusive of that? There's no union uh stuff in that.
That'll be in a separate article that got added to tonight's now. I don't know if we'll get there. Um, but I spoke to the union president and he felt like we're close with language. It's just a it's just a money thing now. And I think
if we can just hash it out at the next meeting, we might get fairly close and we may be able to do this by town meeting. You never know. You know what I mean? Yep. So, this does not include any raises for the police officers, but we do have money to handle that if we need to.
Yeah. All right, Chief. While they're looking at all this, I'm going to ask you the question I've asked your counterpart over at fire um and any in the other department. You know, when you look out on the news, you look in the paper, it seems like it's all falling all falling
down around us. So, if we were to, you know, unfortunate in the position that we have to make cuts, you ever had that thought in your head as far as what would go first or what could we cut from the budget? Well, we're at the whim of the town in the budgeting. Right. Right. And
whatever decisions that are made by the town will definitely reflect the impact of the safety of the community. Um, as time is going on, our calls have been steadily increasing. The demand for
law enforcement as a profession has been increasing. Um there are uh mandated requirements that are set by the state. An example is post that we have to meet and it gets pushed down to all
the other local cities and town governments to abide by. We have no funding to support those mandates. So there is a constant uh impact to our agency in maintaining a standard that's
set by the town by the government in general and we try to absorb that into our budget and our program to the best of our ability but going forward I hate to think that if the town does have to make
cuts um we're trying to maintain a standard here on patrol lines of having three officers working on every shift and I'm finding it very very difficult because there's issues of predictable overtime and issues of unpredictable
overtime and it's probably been one of my biggest challenges as a new chief in dealing with these issues. I manage it to the best of my ability. Um I don't uh allow overtime
willy-nilly. I constantly look at the uh the scheduling to make sure that uh things are run being run appropriately and I'm always trying to be creative and uh trying to reduce overtime when I can. But at the end of the
day, it's unavoidable. There's no way of not paying overtime. But I am proud to say within my first year of chief, I worked within my budget. I did not have to come back to the town and cry for more money.
Right? I was able to transfer funds from different areas of the budget to support u the expenses that we occurred. Here we are in my second year and I'm predicting to again work within my budget, but I know at the end of the day I'm going to
have to request the the town to transfer funds to make this happen. So I am very responsible in working within the budget that I have but at the end of the
day answering to you as the board um I present my challenges dealing with the department and we have some challenges coming ahead. So I've expressed some of those
um recently. Um, I'm not here to provide you with doom and gloom, but I'm here to tell you that, um, I'm a department head that stays positive and looking to manage these issues and steady the ship through these
stormy waters as we go forward. Yeah. Thank you, chief. You're welcome. Um, as far as the MBTA, any calls there? I just curious past five, five, six weeks been open. Just curious, have you guys responded to anything over there yet to
the station? Off off cuff. Normally I get notified of any major issues that take place at any location in town. It's required by policy. The supervisors are very good about that. If it's not major, I'm probably not aware of it. And if
it's something minor, I know that the people that I have in place that are out there on patrol are handling it appropriately. And um it's something that I can focus my attention on. something else versus these minor situations. But first initial reaction is no, nothing major. I think the most
major incident we had and I think it was all over social media was the bus that had the crossing arm come down on it. Right. And I think it was more of an operator error situation versus an MBTA issue. So Chief, I got a similar related
question. So, I know a friend of mine who takes the train, he asked if uh he reached out to me to see if he could park his car there overnight because he had to stay up at a hotel in Boston for three days, right? And I went I went looked at the MBTA website and we don't
allow overnight parking. So the property belonging to the MBTA is primary responsibility of the law enforcement agency is the mass transit police. So that's my my next
question. So are you like responsible for going and checking cars like you know to make sure they we are not primarily responsible of doing that. Okay. Do we occasionally go in there and patrol? Absolutely. Because when the call does need and it arises, we're going to answer that call because we're
going to be the quickest one there. Of course, especially if somebody's safety or some fight that's taking place or whatnot, but at the end of the day, we are redirecting and force focusing those issues to the mass transit police and we will aid and support them um with their
responsibilities of the property. That makes sense. Okay. I actually saw a mass transit police cruiser the other day for the first time and I'm like, "Oh, that sign that times have changed when I saw one passing through Freetown." Yeah. So, so
to answer you, I guess at least they're going there, I'm assuming. Well, yeah. Just just a question made me think about like, oh, like where does that responsibility start? That makes a lot of sense. So, just so you're aware, there is an officer that's assigned to our area and he basically has southeastern Mass, both the Fall
River, New Bedford, and I want to say almost all the way up to Quinsey. Um, he does not have an assigned cruiser. He leaves his house, he goes to Quinsey to pick up a car, and then he drives down here. You can estimate the the response time regarding that, right? So, just
like the train stations, about four and a half hours here to Boston. too soon. We should look into that. By the way, side note, I I I don't understand why we don't have have overnight parking at the train station because like I the way I think about it, it's like someone wants to go to a ball
game, have a couple drinks, taking the train as a as a healthy as a safer alternative, but then you still have the issue of your need to drive your car later on, right? Where like I have not investigated it yet, but I understand that there is some type of parking fee process that's there. There is an app.
Mhm. There's certain there's certain MBTA stations that allow overnight parking and some that do not. And we're on the list that do not. I don't know why. I have a daughter that uh regularly goes to Boston for an internship and uh she likes it when I drop her off at the station. So, I'm avoiding that that
parking fee, right? You know, so but hey, she's using the public transit system and definitely promote that when I can't when anything need arises. Yep. So, we confirmed that that's governed by the Massachusetts Transit Police, not Freetown. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I was wondering. Yeah. Like I didn't know if we were doing, you
know, if it was our responsibility, right, the chief's responsibility to have his folks go through and and check plates to make sure that, you know, it just made me think about like, oh, I don't I don't I'm not 100% sure how that works, right? Like obviously if there's an emergency, first person there is going to respond, but it's just the more of the I think we have enough
responsibility with the town beach and the boat ramp. Yeah. Well, well, my next question was going to be do do we ever get anou MOA with the state with the the transit authority? So after um looking at other departments and uh their protocols um
most of their uh protocols are built into a policy and specifically uh agency and jurisdictions outlines and just like the state police, we recognize the state police as being the primary law enforcement agency on the state
highways. We assist them. There's times when they need our assistance and having those extra bodies out there can really make a difference. But we know our role. We're there to assist them and they accept it. We don't go out there normally running radar and doing traffic
accidents and and things like that. But however, when you have that safety call, there's a domestic on the highway or someone's physically fighting on the side of the road for whatever reason, we are there to quickly respond to assist the state police. So that's one example. Another example is the state forest.
Okay, the primary jurisdiction there is the environmental police. I mean, we don't normally patrol the uh the state forest and uh hunting regulations or even abandoned cars or whatnot. It's focused to the state police, the environmental police regarding the state
property. And again, getting back to mass transit, any type of the railway and the property belonging to U MBTA they are responsible for. That's what we figured. I wish there was a way to like uh like ambulance abments, right? We get some money back from
Medicaid, Medicare, all that stuff. And maybe we get some money back from, you know, from the state. But just a wishful thought wishful thought at this point. Chief, you mentioned that you had a a large increase in calls. What What kind
of calls? Is it domestic calls? Is it um well start off with the uh overall um behavior of our own country has a different change reflection on law
enforcement. And I believe that times are changing that um that the the the the view of of law enforcement is getting better respected than where
we were about four or five years ago. And you're getting calls about that. But we're still getting calls and we're still getting my opinion a lack of respect to law enforcement regarding us trying to do our professional uh job. So for example, if
we're asked if we're ordering you to stand in a certain location and the person refuses, we shouldn't have to sit there and explain it to you, hey, the safety reason, we need you over there. Please comply. they're more willing to resist
and conflict with law enforcement. And I just think that we have turned our attitudes and behavior to coddle and defend so we don't have to cause more of a an issue
um going forward. And I just think it's prompting us to react and uh getting more involved with uh use of force and making arrests. I'm seeing use of force reports increasing. Why is that? Because we're
interacting with these disturbances and we're forced to do our jobs and and and make law enforcement actions. Um, I'm seeing I'm not sure it's if it's because of the financial climate, but I'm seeing
domestic disturbances increase. So, what does that mean? We're responding to these incidents, and some of these things were mandated to um enforce getting people with restraining orders, removing them from houses. Um, yeah,
it's it's increasing and it's it's disturbing. What percentage would you say that increased 10% 20%. Oh, it's hard to say because things go hot and cold too, but I would say it's a slow it's a slow progression. Um, and the
mandates in dealing with these incidents, we have to as soon as one call is done, we're going to the next call. This times, I mean, I have just talking to a dispatcher today between 4 and six o'clock. It just seems on every day it's off the hook with uh calls coming in.
Today we had a smoke investigation, an unattended death, and a domestic violence within two hours. Two hours. And um you have three officers on shift to respond. And we got three officers on shift, sometimes four,
rarely now because of our current situation with our officers. I have officers that are out injured. I got some that are on leave. It's it's a challenge. It's to have three officers on a on a shift is a
challenge. We do the best that we can. And I'm a chief. When I sign, you know, became chief, I was told right from the get-go that I am a working chief. I will be there with my men. Fourth of July, I'm there. When I order all my men
there, I'm there working alongside them. I have no problem scrapping down with the rest of them if I have to. But I hope to uh maintain a level of um officers within the department that I may not need have to do that. I am 55,
but I will do my job. You look a day over 50. I get the I get the same calls between 4 and 7, but they want to sell me solar panels. And you're all over that. I just can't wait. That's 9:31, Bob.
Right. We're not What they usually say is, "Wait, I'm going to tape this call for the attorney general." That usually ends the conversation. They just ring my doorbell. They don't even call these uh that challenge that challenges that you mentioned. Could you expound on that just a bit?
So en in able to maintain um what what this I'm not I'm not talking about nationally or even statewide but just as far as the town's concerned it's just being able to provide a um a
ready and available service to the community when the need arises. And um if you can imagine that if three officers are working on a shift and you're dealing with one arrest and our policy says that two officers are
required to deal with the arrestee, that's the law, isn't it? Not a law. It's a safety issue, not a law. Isn't it a law that when you incarcerate somebody, you have to have two officers there?
I'm not a familiar with the law, but for safety purpose, safety reasons, we don't allow that because we don't want an individual to overcome an officer. Right. Right. So that leaves the one and only last officer responsible of whatever call
comes in. Sometimes nothing happens, sometimes it does. and we try to manage it as best we can by using mutual aid and other um available resources to handle those situations. But I'm just
we're just finding that these calls are becoming more frequent. Um like I said, the use of force is becoming more and more um relevant and the responsibility of law
enforcement's agencies is to document all use of force reports and then if anything that deres a complaint, the state government post is also notified and investigates and reviews. Well, I suspect it's because
it's getting more laticious as you go along. I mean, you're not just dealing with an individual. You're dealing with probably a family and lawyers and, you know, everybody else is piling on there. The risk of litigation with law enforcement is every single call. It's
constant. It's constant. It's constant. And that's why we have rules and regulations and policies and pro procedures because it's a double-edged sword, right? As long as you follow with file perform within the policy, it can be very protective. You
work outside of the policy, it could come back to haunt you. Is all the officers, do they have body cameras? Well, I'm glad you mentioned that because in the I have applied for u a body warn camera last year which we got
denied. I suspect that our current climate regarding grants may play a factor in that because of the housing regulations here in our
community. Yeah. However, it's not going to deter me for applying for more grants in the future. But I recently found out the grant that was supposed to come out for this month for body warn cameras was cancelled. So, I don't have that opportunity to apply for the body warn
camera grants again. How much money are we talking about here? Um, ready? I recently spoke to an officer about this. If we just got the basics to get up and running, you're probably looking between 100 and
$130,000. That's giving getting a camera for every single officer, including myself. the charging units, the extra batteries, and the uh the server that the video would be recorded. Does that include processing fees?
No, I we would be required to have individuals here to be able to maintain and um review if u records request. Yeah. So there's more, right? It's like an editing process too, right? Because
that's what you had talked about the last time was is that the strong pull of people then saying, "Well, I got pulled over and this officer treated me unfairly." And then the the person having to go back and get the information and cut it out and be able to send it over and right will become um
rather large. there is a um you know a redaction that's within the statute that we have to comply with and when someone watches the video they have to like okay it's got to be redacted for this reason and then they have to right it time and
energy money all plays a role in it well again it's just it it seems to me I mean depending on what our responsibilities are as far as situations like that it might be uh insurance actually for the you know, that they could prove that somebody's in
the wrong who was asking for $10,000 cuz they stubbed their toe, you know, right? Uh it just seems to me it would be it would be in the in the best interest of the department too to protect the officers. Well, we have um the district
attorney in our area is promoting the local law enforcement agencies to get body warn cameras. And over the past several years, we have had a number of police shootings very close to our community. You know, Lakeville,
Lakeville, Kushnet, Fair Haven, Rainham is probably the most recent one. and they've all been very fortunate to all have bodywn cameras and it's expedited that whole investigation pretty quickly because of the body warn cameras. Not
that the saying that would work against the officer he didn't but it definitely have it's a piece of evidence that can support and protect you actually you're just trying to validate his his procedure. You know, you've got a procedure for pretty much every situation. They're all not
all-encompassing because every situation's different, but I mean, it really protects the officer, I think, in the long run if he uses the correct procedure, right? You don't want to you don't want to wind up on YouTube, you know? Right. I actually love watching
body cam footage. Uh yeah, there's so many. There's just so many. Um All right. Any other questions budget related? No, this is a pretty pretty level funded budget. All right. And all the
explanations are pretty comprehensive in the back, too. It all makes sense. Absolutely. Yeah. All right. Thanks, Chief. Thank you. Anything else? What about communications? Yeah. Sorry. You're right. You're right. Good. Sorry. Nope. Thank you. Uh 95. Oh, it looks like a bear. Well, I didn't
know what to expect. I think he's jumping to town, too. I I I think between u the board and the town administrator town sorry 215 you're right we um had discussed in the in the future of potentially making a a second
lieutenants position within the department and um I haven't got any solid feedback uh but obviously with this budget it does not reflect that. Um, but I again I'm I'm probably going
to push in the future that um a second lieutenant's position is needed within the department. Um I have sergeants that are working a sergeant that's working out of class and we really need to make some adjustments. So that'll be for another
topic at another time. Yeah. And maybe if I'm here next year, we can have that discussion. Oh well, let's let's plan on it, shall we? Well, I I hope so. All right. So, we got it looks like for
so 215 communications uh total grow uh increase is 35,000 6.6%. Is that what I'm seeing? Most of that's in the tower lease. Tower lease. Yeah. Right. Which is a fixed number. Can't do
anything about that. Go ahead. It's been in articles in the past and that's why you haven't seen it in the budget line items. Really? I'm proud to say it's one of the best investments this town has made. Yeah. Communications is impeccable. Impeccable. That's awesome. So, it's great to hear. It's
come full circle since you showed up to my neighbor's house for a false alarm and I got to learn that how bad it was. That's a true story. The first time I realized how bad it was, our now chief showed up to my neighbor's house for a false alarm. And I got to witness him
trying to talk on his handheld back to dispatch and see how bad it was. And he was like, "This isn't even bad right now." And you see them like, "Holy." Yeah. So, yeah. Mine was about four corners during the Fourth of July parade of fireworks night. And then
the officers knocking on door to see who had a house phone. So they can make a phone call to dispatch. Yeah. That's all I need to hear. It's uh I'm glad to hear that's it's it's it's better. Um much better. So, but uh from my offices to you, I I
know they thank you dearly. And thank the town because obviously it was a um you know a considerable amount of money to make this happen. So I'll sell her short because Debbie did a lot us get that across the finish line.
That was not an easy project. It was not an easy project. Very complicated. A lot of moving parts. Uh any questions on the communications? How many officers you got, Chief? Um we currently have 21 full-time swan and we
have one part-time officer. He's an officer that has retired but still likes to patrol. So he is available to fill in and but we currently have 22 sworn officers. So you don't have any auxiliaries at all. Nope. That's been
all phased out because of you know police reform. Um recently we this year we had one guy in the academy. He started in the fall. Uh he graduated. He's still under an FTO program learning all our practices. I'm
hoping that he's going to be up and running and available go solo here within another month. But u this is going to be the new norm now where we can't start somebody off part-time and have them slowly learn all our
procedures and and practices. Now you have to send somebody to the academy completely like fresh with no law enforcement experience, graduate, come back to your department and now train them for another four, six months to make sure they know your community in
your practices. Tough, but that's the life we're living right now with law enforcement. Yep. Crazy. Chief, one of the things with the um communications budget, and I know we
talked at length about it, but then you sent over call volumes, and I know the second shift from 4 to midnight, we are going to staff with one full-time dispatcher and one part-time dispatcher. Correct.
And I I think I was probably on the fence then. Um do you do you think that it makes sense to have two? It definitely makes sense to have two, but here's here's the dilemma is that
when we have part-time dispatchers and they go a period of time of not consistently working, they lose their skills. So when that time arises and someone say you have two dispatchers and somebody
leaves and now this person that's doesn't have their skills at 100% it could cause an issue. So I look at that second position opportunity for part-time dis dispatches as giving them
opportunities to get in there and to work. And I'm if I had to give you a percentage and how many of those open shifts are they working, I'd probably say between 50 and 75%. If I had a choice of having a six second dispatcher every single time. Oh
yeah, absolutely. Just the amount of like the work that I saw today at between four and six, you know. Well, that's what triggered me to say this because of that conversation. And plus, I told you I was listening to the radio as I was preparing for tonight's meeting and it was crazy. Things that were going on were crazy this afternoon. But I see
pros and cons if you are considering another full-time position versus funding these positions as part-time and keeping the part- timer is fresh. Um I'm still kind of up to debate on it. Me too. Well, that's why I'm raising it
because I'm I don't So, are you filling that shift with part- timerrs? I've been filling it with part- timerrs and looking at the budget, it looks like I'm going to be able to make it to the end with the budget that I have. So, that's So, at this point, because you're filling it, you're
keeping your part- timerrs fresh, so to speak. So, so that's really a non-issue at this point, but going forward. Yeah, correct. Just leave it and look at it again. Yeah. I mean, I would never turn down another full-time uh position, but um I
just look at I look at the part-time as in keeping them, you know, current and fresh and and working and giving them the opportunities because if you fill that position, they're basically waiting for an opportunity of someone taking a
personal leave, vacation, someone calls out sick and usually they don't get the time and the notice to be able to get that shift versus if they know that these open shifts are regularly open throughout the week, they're more inclined to I mean, do you think it
makes sense to hire somebody say, "Okay, you're going to work every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday night, second shift." They're consistent. Yeah. I think the challenge is I'm dealing with a variety of different part-time dispatches that have
different schedules schedules, right? And um it's it's a variation, you know, it's it's very hard and we try to accommodate the best that we can. One of the biggest challenges is not too many people like to work midnights. Mhm.
Right. And that's always a challenge. Um I currently have a guy that's in there that loves doing that. I I I thank God that he likes doing that, but I know and I'm already projecting that he's giving me the signs that he's going to be
leaving within three or four months and then this challenge is going to be all over again of fitting someone in the right space and getting someone to replace and it's a constant battle and challenge of keeping the people staffed up there in communications. Okay. and
the demands have been increasing. Their certifications and their their uh between state 911 and APCO, they have different hours that they have to meet and um you pray that you hopefully you make
this investment in this individual and you get some money and value out of that person by them working and hopefully they stay. Um some dispatches have not worked out. they've left or didn't even complete the training. We may lose what grant funding we get
towards them too if we don't pass MBTA. I think this might be one of the grants, the 911 grants that we get. They might be they might take them. What they said is you can negotiate them back. I'm not sure what that means, but I'll certainly be looking into that. Right. Again, we
we've kind of relied on that money for training and Yeah. So that might be another something we're looking at to we may have to put money in your budget come October if we don't get any of those grants even though they're little. There's there's multitude of them add up. Right.
So keep that in mind. Thank you, Chief. Sorry if I expanded a little too far, but just uh venting some of the challenges that I deal with on a regular basis. Understood. All right. I think we're good with you though. Yeah. on the other one would would have been
kind of white fuel which is level funded. Knock on wood. We've been pretty consistent. It's been well padded and funded and we work within that. So I didn't make any recommendations for changes there. Okay, perfect. Thank you. All right. And I think I'm going to go
limp home and try to recover. You have good luck. I hope you feel better. Yeah, I I do too. Hope you feel better, Chief. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Chief. Don't give it to your wife or your daughter. Don't try not to. It might be in the doghouse.
Next, we have health inspection services, Kevin. And uh it's 433 is trash collection. That's the first one. And then we're going to look at 510, which is health. Is Kevin doing trash? I mean, uh our office prepared trash based on last
year's number. Um the you know it's pretty level funded. The curbside um pickup is contractual with Borges. Um everything else the only other number we raised was the
acceptance fees at the disposal because we look like we're going to be underfunded for the current year. So we bumped that up. I worked with Matt on that. Um and the trash bags I I just added a little bit to them. We're okay. So I think that budget is actually okay. It's pretty level funded. It's
contractual and it's normal. Any questions on that? Anybody? No. As far as trash bags, no. Uh board of health has done a great job um working with the vendor and um updating the way it all looks and feels. So, as far as the budget itself, it looks good. All right.
So, let's look at 510 then. All right. We'll everyone take a moment and then we'll uh put Kevin on the hot seat. Yeah, you don't have to. Really, no need. My budget went up by 5 grand. Look at that. Less than 2 and
12%. What number are we on here? 510. 510. Yes. And Debbie, you gave me the most up-to-date budget. I'm assuming that has the 4 and a.5% increase in it. Does it say 72773? Yep. Yep.
So just I'll explain some of this. What we've done this year with the move to the annex is cross trainin the clerks at the annex. So there's one full-time clerk naen that was working for building and um the board of health uh was hiring a
part-time clerk. They're cross trainined. They can cover both departments. So what we did is we added the salary of the full-time principal clerk with the salary of the part-time cler uh senior clerk. We added the cost together and divided it in half. So when
you see those clerical numbers, that's that's that number. It's for combined, you know, because the clerks can do both. They're they're uh hopefully working out that way where they're crossrained and that way if we have a clerk out, a department's not closed. the other clerk can cover while the the
the main department clerk is out. So when you see that number, you'll see in building has the same number for the clerk just to explain the jibber jabish on this page and why then the the number well didn't really go up much but that it might have gone up and then we have a
um a contract and I'm sorry Kevin I don't mean to take words out of your mouth but I'm just explaining the changes that that's fine. Thank you. We have a we have a contract at the dump, the transfer station for monitoring the dump that that is run um
by Riverhawk is got the one that got the contract. We're also doing some other work with them under the board of health. So, it made sense to move that contract under the board of health and which is where you'll see that extra $30,000. So, even with that extra $30,000 contract fee, which is a
contract fee, it's there's nothing we can do about it. The budget stayed almost level funded. So that's kudos um on that. So that's all I have to say. Kevin, I'll let you speak now. Well, you did a great job.
No, I I I think Deb hit all the the major points of this. It it it is um if you didn't have the explanation, it would be a little bit confusing, but we did. We we melded some employees, so we're splitting the costs equally. Um, I know there's been talk about department
heads looking for more money and um, I do appreciate the 4 and a.5%. I I will just make a statement. I just did my taxes not uh, and for last calendar year I made $63,400. And so I I may be approaching my board of health members at the next
meeting to see if I can't get their support for maybe something. Now, that's not what I'm going to be making this year, but understanding that we don't taxes are paid on calendar year. We operate on fiscal year. So, some of those numbers you don't, but at the end of the day, um I've done some initial
looking. Um and and I think that there um certainly is some room to grow within the salary. Debbie hit the nail on the head. I don't know that you're going to get a border health agent to come in here and do not only the agent's job, but I also do the the uh public health
director's job. Now, we don't have that on the books. But when you look at what I'm doing um you look at other towns that have public health directors, the inspectors inspect, right? Directors work on policy, work on budget, work on public outreach, work on all this. And you know that we've been doing a lot of
public outreach lately with these ADUs. Um I will echo um what Lisa had to say earlier as far as animal inspector. We are we are busy with animal complaints, right? She sell herself short. I remember chasing down a baby deer with
her. We saved a neighborhood from a a large uh hornets's nest. Uh there's any number of things. Um so I I just at the end of the day I think the actual position um of health agent, health inspector
slash some of the duties of a public health director warrants a bit more money than what is being offered. I'm not going to sit here and demand. I'm not going to tell you 10%. And I'm not I'm I'm looking to have an honest conversation with my board um to just
let them know that the responsibilities and what we're doing in that office, we are doing well. And I think if you look at similarly situated inspectional services personnel within our own community, there is a disparity I think that that could be addressed. And I'm
not talking tens of thousands, but I I think at the end of the day, um, you know, we only work 36 hours a week, but there's 40 hours of work. Um, you know, public health is public health. It is what it is. You know, when when something comes up, um,
I still have to be just as trained, just as knowledgeable. I have to be just as flexible. Uh, 13 perk tests this month. I had one perk test the other day. It took up four hours. That's over three and a half% of my week. I'm sorry, 10 and a half% of my
week on one prep test. Um, additionally, Kylo know of the other ancillary things that we're doing that are on a higher level than inspection right there that So, I I think an honest conversation and I'm looking forward to
having that with my board. But, but I do appreciate uh the the effort to get to the 4 and a.5%. I I think there is a recognition there. uh that we should get paid commensurate with what other towns are doing, but at the same time, it's what does the job require and what does
the town of Freetown feel comfortable paying their department heads. I can tell you two young women you had sitting up here earlier today have been knocking it out of the park. Phenomenal, phenomenal, right? What they're doing up um they've got a food program up there, an activities program
that didn't exist. So, um we have good people and I enjoy working with all of them. Um, so I I hope that um at the end of the day it's a minor increase, less than two and a half% just under $5,000. Uh Debbie and and Margaret sat down uh
with me and we we went over some things. We we moved some uh some monies around. Um but the responsibilities are still there. Whether you pay me or not, the responsibilities, the need is still there. I still have to go do restaurant inspections. I'm still responsible for public health and safety. Um so I
appreciate you listening. Sorry. Thank you. Thanks, Kevin. I just want to clarify. Are you going to do that for this budget? Because I need to get this budget squared away. So, well, we have a meeting, I think, next week, is it? Or No, I'm sorry. The week after. We We meet every second Wednesday, right? Of
the month. Isn't it May 8th? Could they I don't know if it's anybody wants to give some direction because I um Okay. The 16th. Yeah. Oh, the 16th. Excuse me. Oh, I thought it was the 8th. All right. So, it's the 16th then. We went to We went to the I'm in April. I'm in April.
It's May. Yes. Yeah. The 14th. It's the 14th. Okay. So, all right. The 14th. Okay. We have to have the budget done by then. Okay. So, if need be, if if that's the case, and we have to do it on town meeting floor, then we could if the option is there if we need be. I'm not even saying that my board's going to do
that town meeting floor. I'd rather No, I I I I wouldn't either, Deb. And I was and and my my Yeah, I'd like it settled. Yeah. I'd like to know. I mean, do you have a number in mind? And I mean, that was one of the things that I said, bring bring people. No, and I understand that. And I know you have a board, so it gets
Exactly. You're trying to be respectful of the process. So, I'm trying to tell you to jump in front of your board, and I I know what that looks like. I'm sorry. I get the I appreciate the fact that you're trying to be respectful, but I'm also trying to do my job. And we've talked about this. We talked about you
saying, "Hey, work a 40hour week, and that's a pretty good bump for you." It is. But in in fairness, Deb, if if other department heads in inspectional services are getting paid a certain number above me for working 36, the idea that I would then have to work an extra
four to get there, um it's just it's it gives me pause. So, so at the end of the day, um I I think if if if it makes people more comfortable to change maybe a longevity or my health education career incentive stipend uh to make it
more palatable, I I'm really only looking for another $2,500 at the end of the day. And I and and and I I was again trying to respectful of the process, see if there wasn't a way within our own budget that we could that we could accommodate that.
What do you have for education now? Just I know I No, it's $600. No, no. What What are you tell me all of your certificate? So, okay. So, I'm a certified soil evaluator, certified septic inspector. I am certified food protection manager, certified in pools, certified in spas. I have mass housing
uh uh certifications through the BU uh and I can provide everybody with all my trainings. Uh BEu School of Public Health. Um, I I took it to heart when I took the job and I spent the first year at coming in every day for an hour before work, not getting paid, but
trying to learn and trying to get and I get the idea that, hey, you know, I may not have uh to to to to Trevor's point earlier, I might not have the 10 years experience that Trevor does as, you know, uh, and I came in relatively green, but I it I was incentivized,
right? If you do these things and and you get good at them and you and you and then there should be a way to to to uh be renumerated for that. So, um I could certainly forward my my dossier or my um
my CV to anybody that's that's interested. Um it's it's just there's a lot there's just a lot that public health is responsible for. And I'm not going to start naming all all the things, but I I suggest to you if it's
not zoning and it's not a building department issue, it it's coming it's coming to us from somebody has a bright light to a loud noise to it to it smelled to um No. And and and and this is the reality, right? We are in a farming community. We are and things
don't go away. What do I mean? Regulations don't decrease. They don't say to you don't bother dealing with that. As much as we'd like to prioritize what you want me to do, I still have a legal responsibility under the opaces of
the board of health and mass general law and CMR. So, um there's a lot to it. Uh I think most of the interactions I've had with folks even in in in where they don't want to hear what I'm saying have been positive. Uh we've had some ADU
seminars uh that were wellreceived. Um, so I'm I'm sorry, Jared. No, no. I I just don't want I think I You don't want to listen to me anymore, Jared. I appreciate you. I can't. No, no, no. That's not enough. You understand the relief my wife has by me being I She doesn't have to listen to me anymore.
We talk quite a bit. I I I like to talk to you, man. But based on all those things, right, and there being a lot of certificates, does it make sense then to try and bump his education statement? Yeah, that that makes sense. And that also I think protects the town like down the down the road if he if he leaves
right. Yeah. Don't leave but if you do then you know like we can adjust that number based on the the qualifications of that person. Like I was thinking that or I was thinking like it's kind of late in the game like a a different line item for like the public health director type things you do because I think it's going
to be hard to get somebody to replace you that can do both the things the inspections. Oh you you and they're not making border health agents anymore. Yeah. The reality is uh the state is looking to put minimum requirements. You're going to be looking to have your
health inspectors having four-year degrees being registered sanitarians. Most of them are going to be probably engineers or for inspection, but they don't want anything to do with minimum housing. They don't care about pools and spas. So, you're going to end up having quite
a few of these inspectors that are going to do different things, but you're going to have one director. Like, the town of Westport has a public health director. They have three other inspectors, plus they have the coalition inspectors, and they are wildly busy. But Matt, the director, is working on things like formulating budget, working directly on
policy, dealing, whereas inspectors are doing boots on the ground. Hey, I got a email this morning about guinea hens. get in the car and go look at guinea heads or look for guinea heads. Yeah. Right. So, I did and again I thought long and hard
about this. I wasn't really going to come in and ask, but I I I saw how wellreceived I think most of the department heads were because they come in earnest. They come in honestly. Uh a lot of them wear their heart on their sleeve. They're eminently qualified for what they're doing and they're doing a phenomenal job. And I just said, "Well,
I'm going to I wanted to talk to my board before anything official came out." So, I appreciate uh whatever little support that you're offering now. And I would imagine that the board at the meeting would have to uh would so do we change that line item from 600 to 30
to 31. What would be the path of least resistance for the the health board, your board, if we were if if we' agree on the increase? I don't I don't want to speak for them since they're sitting in the room here in front of me. Makes it tough. Makes it tough. Okay. My
hope would be that I have proven to them that uh uh you know I'm I'm a value on investment. Oh no. My thought would be what what would be the path of least least resistance and would you increase the education statement the salary for you what would be the easiest way to
approach that if the the if everyone would agree on it to get it approved it would be the thought process. I I think the easiest way right now is to change the slightest straight Stipen is the easiest. Stipen is the easiest and
better when you're talking about giving a stipen for qualifications. And as as Jared said, if Kevin leaves, the next person that comes in, if they don't have the same qualifications, then that stipen gets cut back. If you up the
salary, you've upped the salary. I think it's to the skill set that Kevin has. That makes a lot of sense to me. Yeah. Are we all in agreement there? Yeah. Perfect. Thank you for the clarification. I was just curious. So, what are we in agreement? So, so
sorry. So, you going to make it 31? I guess I guess are we okay with making that increasing? I was thinking 25 because that's what I've done for a lot of other ones. But that was my next question is like across I I know earlier um Rebecca was talking about her
education. Yeah. Yeah. All right. What is she? I feel good. 25 2500 2500. If it's going to make the conversation easy, I'd be gladly and happy to take the 25. Absolutely. I just feel like it's No, it's fair. No, no. I I'm It's one of those things that be fair across the
board. That's where that absolutely agree unequivocally. And again, I was undecided whether I was even going to bring it up. And And so I I pushed you, but I I made that clear, right? I'm I'm trying That's fine. I'm trying to get us where we need to go. I
got you, Dad. I got you. And your board's sitting here so they're hearing me. They are. They are. Yes. You don't board writing. That's my get out of jail free card right here. Exactly. That's why I said this is some small town stuff. Right. So, we're proposing to up the health education career incentive to
2500. Yeah. Yeah. No, to 3100, right? No, 225 to level of clarity. So originally we were saying I said 31 and and I think that it's it makes sense though because other departments heads are getting 2500 and then you know um
not saying Kevin doesn't zero the 3100 but you know fair I think at the end of the day fair yeah fair is fair that's what only thing we like I said earlier do we want to give you 20 30% absolutely you all a lot of you have earned it many but it's just we got to find a way to do it
so all right any Other questions for Kevin? No. No. All right. Thank you. Thanks, guys. Have a great night. Enjoy night, Kevin. Thanks for being here. Want to close your meeting and then I got to sign stuff. Can we start signing? Well, okay. So, I will entertain a motion to
adjourn. Move that motion. Is that you, Chris? Yep. Second. Second, John. Yep. All in favor of adjourning. I I All right. Uh, call the meeting
adjourned at 8:34. 8:34. It's late. It's past my bedtime. You got all the changes. I'm upside down world. My nights are days. Days are nights right now. It's just crazy. Charges an assessment. Do you have that for the feds? Baseball. I got baseball. Yeah,
I'm in a in a doing baseball in a chair. did as an assessment for like having a station in our town. That's it. It's all about the kids. I'll I'll have to go back. I can feel as much pain as I want. Good night, guys. Thanks for listening. Take care. Have a good
night. Across the board and it's it's tough getting to some of these fields and know on grass and everything else, but I don't care about the pain. I'll get there early. All right. on their game. What is this?
Going undefeated this year. Yeah, those kids are great. And Ricky is such a great great um I don't know my letter. I don't know if it's where you learn what you learn most. T-ball's great. They're most for the parents learn how to sports are about baseball.
It's the one sport that I didn't know if there were any changes to what we're finding is uh a lot of kids in minors and majors as they get older the kids they're more of their friends are playing so they jump back in. My uh my third grader he stopped playing
baseball. Oh, he's doing fly football. He's He's such a fast runner. I'm going, "Come on, buddy. Get back into it." He did one season of fly football, too. How's the baby? Good. Keep them. My goal is to keep them active as much as possible. And if they're short of coach,
I will find a way to do it. Have a great night, guys. Thank you. Thank you so much. lic. Remember all those agreements you sign, you rattled off? Now you're paying for it. And right over here, I could tell you good.
Oh, no. It's going to be a rough ride home. Do you want I got the hand controls, but just some sitting there. Actually, I have, you know, did I see
these? They're in the packet. I know. I couldn't pull it up for some reason. My computer was having He's having a fit. Canles. All right. Are we all signed up? All right. So, with that, I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. Motion made. Second. All in favor? Hi. Hi.
[Music]