[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Good evening everybody. It is Monday, June 16th, 2025. I think we have the agenda. Wrong date on the agenda. Oopsie. Uh 5:30 2 p.m. Uh
with a quorum being present, I'll call to order the free temple select meeting. This meeting will be recorded and will be available on our YouTube page. Um, so with that, we'll just jump right into agenda item one, discussion of vote
whether to approve the fiscal year 2026 reappoint list from the town clerk as presented in attachment A. And we're not going to go through all the appointments because there's like a couple hundred of them. Um, I looked through them, nothing seemed to jump out at me. Any questions or concerns with this
list? There's just that one addendum, an amendment under agenda 1A, and it's highlighted on your desktop here. Okay. Yep. So, this is amended uh to include That's a tough one. Natia Frances
Francesca Fana Fana Fana. I know that. I know a lot of people that last name as senior cleric. Fire. Okay. It's a solid Portuguese name. Fansa. Okay, this all looks good.
Yeah, I know. I'm sure it's not easy to get all this together. So, pretty sure everyone's working on that. Ready to vote? Absolutely. Let's do it. So, with that, I'll enter in a motion to approve the fiscal year 2026 reappointment list u from the town clerk
presented attachment A with the amended uh amendment also mentioned on the agenda. Motion made. I second. All in favor? I I Okay. Uh agenda item two, discussion of vote whether to approve the surplus list and attachment B and what to do these items.
These are some um some large folding tables from the Council on Aging. There's eight of them. um email went out to all department heads and uh the transfer station would like
to take them. Um take what they want to use and then whatever they don't use they can it's a perfect place to dispose of them because it's transfer station. Yeah. I mean I was going to say they go should go to the transfer station anyways, right? Everyone okay with that?
Yes approach. Okay. Okay. So, with that, I entertain a motion to um approve the surplus list and attachment B and to send those tables to the transfer station. Motion made. Second. All in favor? I. I. All right. Agenda item three, discussion
vote um on awarding the insurance contract for 712025 through 6:30 2026. Um and last meeting we had presentations um from Maya
as well as well it's travelers and why am I blinking? USI USI. Thank you. on this. I'll I'll recommend that we move our insurance to the it's USI. Um with the exception of the IOD insurance,
which is injury on duty insurance, which we currently have with CHUB, I haven't had time to really review the coverages of the CHUB in current policy versus the proposed policy from USI. And I'm I'm making this recommendation to the board because we've had so much issues with
the service of Mia. And for the last year and a half, I've been having these conversations with Maya that their service needs to improve. They've forgotten to put things on. We've just had some issues. And um not to mention
USI is less expensive than Maya. I think that we've done all this work and it was a heavy lift for Lann. I can't even take any credit for this. Um, the bulk of the work is done and I think why go through all this work if we're really not going to change. I mean,
there were really significant issues with Maya. So, I'm going to say I'd like to try USI. They've assured me that the onboarding is going to be easy now that they have the bulk of the information. um the coverage is similar, the cost is less
and I would re either um give me the authority to decide the IOD piece of it or leave it right where it is for now. I I think moving all of the rest for right now is enough. Chub is the heavy lift too because that's all our first responders and we have to go
through all their information and I don't know that we have enough time to do that through the end of the year. It's a lot and I don't god forbid we miss somebody or we make a mistake in the um transition. It's just too much for I think us to handle and we haven't had any issues with the THRUB piece of
the insurance. Um, for the most part, the departments, police and fire, do the paperwork themselves and they have not complained to me or had any issues that I know of with the service on the IOD piece of it. I talked to both chiefs. They don't have a preference. they're
okay with whatever we decide. But I think for um all involved I because we're not really having an issue with the service with Chub, let's just leave Chub where it is with Maya and move everything else over. Health insurance will stay with Maya because Blue Cross
wouldn't quote it through USI. So, I've left the health insurance through Maya because otherwise we would have had to change from Blue Cross Blue Shield, which is not uh not good for anybody and and that's not something that the town wants to entertain, I don't believe at this time. All right, appreciate that
info. Um, yeah, like my biggest concern personally was this was like what the lift would be on for LUAN really, you know, um, and like I'm sure it's a lot of work that goes into that, but if if you guys feel comfortable, you know, it's just the administrative kind of
lift there. Um, I mean, I think it makes sense to try something else and and uh see how it goes. And I think the, you know, that's the nice thing about a competitive market here, like if it doesn't work out,
go back. Go back. No, I I mean I I listen, I agree with everything because that was my biggest concern as well. Yeah. Um I And this will lock us in with the pricing, right? There's there's nothing stating anything that the pricing can
change throughout the course of the year that will affect us, right? I mean, because you've had a lot of problems with Meer and that's unfortunate, but we've we've kind of known that animal, right? And I just worry that um if anything will change and I don't think it will, but I'm only asking it is being
pessimistic. So, I I mean because I my recommendation would I'm just saying that my recommendation would have been to switch just based on cost alone if everything for your side was okay. Yeah. Um the the price is the price. Nothing will change with us. They've given us
the quote. Unless we add, you know, we add things, subtract things, that always changes our price. Um, Meer, yeah, that's different. Yeah, I don't think I think Maya's price on Chub was just a little bit higher than the other quote, but not significantly. I don't think they would change that. I mean, I don't
think it changes anything. We have put them on notice that we may be, you know, we had to give them 30 days notice, so we put them on notice that we might be changing. Um, and again, I was very clear from the beginning that this was a service-based problem that um, we would
not be looking for new insurance if the service was there. And I have given them a year and a half to fix the problem and it hasn't been fixed. And they're I mean, shame on them. Yeah. They keep saying, "Yeah, they're going to fix it, but it's not being fixed." And so I feel
like shame on me if I don't do if I don't put my money where my mouth is, right? like if we don't actually make a change after all of this. So, absolutely. Then it's a no-brainer in my eyes. Then I have no issues. It was from presentation to everything that said
today, it's it's a it's the right move for the town. All right. All right. So, with that, I want to entertain a motion um to award the insurance contract for 7125 through through 63026 to USI um excluding the uh IOD. Sounds good.
Motion made second. All in favor? I I All right. Agenda item four, discussion of vote whether to approve the agreement between the town of Freetown and all states construction for chip sealing um various roads for fiscal year 2026
and and that's a different one. Do I have this contract in here? Yep. Price 15. You need the price. Is that it? Yeah. I just want to put How is it right here? Oh, yeah. Sorry. It's right in front of my face. I thought that was for something else. All right. So, the
uh price here is um $3.90 per square yard for single chips, $6.95 per square foot yard for double chip seal, and 605 per square foot for 20% rubberized asphalt surface treatment, and $225 per
ton for asphalt shimming. Any questions or concerns? No. Contract looks good. It does. All right. So, with that, I'll entertain a motion to approve the agreement between the town of Freetown and All States Construction Inc. for chip sealing for various roads for fiscal year 2026. Motion made
second. All in favor? I I All right. Uh next we have uh the contract between the town of Freetown and the chief of police. Um I know a lot of work went into this. Appreciate everyone's hard work. Um
any questions or concerns? No. No. All right. So this is contract that's effective from July 1st 2025 uh through July 1st 2027 right
sorry June 30th 28 2028 I'm sorry be a contract okay standard contract all right so with that a motion to approve the agreement between the town of Freetown and Chief Scott Rose effective 7125 through 6:30 2028 motion me second all in favor I I
Hello folks All right. Agenda item six, uh, discussion of voteing cleaning services at the police department. Looks like we got a quote or our contract is here for $277324
per month with Eminem contract cleaning. Any questions or concerns? No, it's got to be done. It's a big building. It is a big building. Um, all right.
So without a motion to um award the clean cleaning services of the police department to Eminem Contract Cleaning, Inc. A motion made. Second. All in favor? I I So that was the only quote we got, huh? It was. And they are the ones who are
doing it now and they're uh the the the police are very happy with them. Perfect. All right. So this agenda item seven is related to six. So this is just to approve the agreement. So with that, I'll enter intend a motion to approve the agreement between the town of Freetown and Eminem Contract, Inc.
for cleaning services of the police department. Motion made. Second. All in favor? I. I. All right. Agenda item eight. Discussion of vote whether to approve and sign the agreement between the town of Freetown and Merrill Engineers and Land Surveyors
for professional land survey and related services. sewing at four corners. This is that continuation trying to lay out the four corners so we can at least get the road laid out so we know where it is for all the the future work. We
just we had a recent another accident there that was um more severe. Yeah. So we need to we need to keep working on the four corners coming up with solutions. Yeah, we do. We have put in a grant to work on the four corners. I just don't know with the MBTA communities act that
will receive the grant. Yep. So, this is a fixed fee for 11,000 for this. Yeah. I was excited to see fixed fee cuz God only knows how long it'll take to dig up some of that stuff. They've done a they've done a lot of they've done some work on this already with the sewer line. Yeah. The engineering for the
sewer line. They were able to start the survey, which is why we kind of know we don't have what we need and it's sort of like an extension onto that sewer line contract. It's a tricky spot. Mhm. I don't want to the work that we've already done to go for nothing either. I
want to complete it and at least get the road laid out and that way at least the engineering money we've spent we don't lose that it's done and once it's done and it's laid out and accepted at town meeting it's there forever. So yeah, I totally agree with that. Makes sense.
All right. Any questions or concerns? No. Happy to hear this is at the next stage. Yep. All right. All right. So, with that, I'll entertain a motion to approve and sign the agreement between the town of Freetown and Merryill Engineers for the land uh and land surveys for professional land survey and related services for the four corners. Motion made me second. All in favor? I.
I. All right. Uh agenda item nine, discussion of whether to authorize town administrator to negotiate contract with John's Johnson Roberts Associates, Inc. for the design services for the COA library building. So this is the um the Seaway Library
Committee picked this uh company as their number one choice. So the procedure is generally we try to negotiate the contract. If we can't, we go to the number two choice. So I'm just uh looking for authority to negotiate that contract um with them
uh so that we can move to the next step for the engineering of the the new building. Yeah. conceptual design. Really sounds good. Any questions or concerns? No, I'm excited. Yeah. Excited for this one. All right. So, with that, we have a motion to authorize the town administrator to
negotiate the contract with Johnson Roberts Associates, Inc. for design services for the COA/ library building. Motion made. Second. All in favor? I. I. All right. Now, I'll kick it over to Suckman Lopes for personnel. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. All right. Personnel board
item agenda number 10. acknowledge the resignation of Linda Fornier from the Toronto River Stewardship Council effective 6:30 2025. Thank you, Linda, for everything you've done for that uh stewardship council. Uh number 11, discussion vote where to approve the following appointments. A, Ryan Pereira
as acting sergeant on the 42 schedule, police department, effective 71 2025 through 6:30 2025. B. Nicole Deliner the liner uh a senior librarian effective 78 2025 through 6:30 2026.
All right. So Nicole was uh recently interviewed, hired or selected by the library trustees as well and then acting sergeant Ryan Pereira is based on um shift changes and availability and everything that's going on within the
police station. So good good promotion little semi-promotion for Ryan. And of course, welcome to Cole. Any questions, concerns? No, I just want to call out Ryan because he's been with the town for a long time and he's fin, you know, he's in school and taking the next step and
it makes me happy to see him climbing the ranks. So, absolutely. Welld deserved. Yep. All right. I entertain the motion to approve item agenda number 11, uh, individuals identified as A and B. I'll make that motion. I will second it. All
in favor? I I. Item agenda 12 discussion vote which selection to appoint to the local emergency planning committee and make set appointment effective 617 2025 through 6:30 2026. [Music] Well, this is up my wheelhouse. So I I
wouldn't mind taking this one on if it's all right with you too. Absolutely. I've taken the last couple from you. So why not? Yes, you have. We appreciate that. All right. Want me to make that motion then? Please. Yeah. So, I'll entertain a motion to appoint uh Squan Lopes to local emergency planning committee and
um and have set appointment effective 67 2025 through 6:30 2026. I will make that motion. I'll second. All in favor? I I all right. The only thing I wanted to mention is that we have a um Do you want to do signatures now? I'll talk while
she does signatures. Um Nancy from planning is working on a grant application for the intersection with um Chase Road and County Road. You know that intersection that will be like a makeshift roundabout that that we're trying to get a grant. Okay. The problem
area that we have. Yeah. The one with all the accidents that we've had different people. Um uh she'll be uh submitting that application at the end of next week. I'll bring more information on it. I just want to make make you aware of that. Okay. Right. Um
and again with MBTA Communities Act, we're not sure that we'll we'll get it or not. Right. These are the things that we don't know, but we're we're we're moving forward as if we might have an opportunity to get these grants. The HVAC system is being installed in the
second floor of the town hall. So that's been a long time coming, too. So exciting. Yeah. Kyle is working diligently with them and getting that done. Um the windows and the new doors went into fire station one. Okay. So, we found a roof leak over there that that's
being taken care of. So, that's another big project that's getting done. Again, thanks to Carl and everybody working together to get that done. So, there's a lot going on as usual in the town. Um I think that's it for right now.
Uh well, we're talking about town meeting coming up, scheduling that for July 28th to come back before the town with some things. Um one of which came up today is the the roof is leaking at FES that we need to do some repairs.
Yeah. So, we'll be looking to get some funding for that. Probably if we have a July meeting or whatever the next town meeting is, we'll be looking for funding to repair those at least to keep the roof intact for a little bit further. So, that's about all I have for right now and I have the rest. You want just
Trevor on this one or is this all I know. Always trying to get some time off here, but uh we're good. Deb, we haven't heard anything new about the uh Chase Street Bridge. Have we? Chase Street Bridge. Chase Road. Chase Road. Uh DOT is doing that. No, I haven't. We
haven't. Sometimes we get updates, but I haven't heard anything new. I can ask Nancy if there that's probably on that's probably going through joint transportation committee at the surf. So she's Is it the bridge or we have Yeah, the overpass of 140
I remember supposed to be like shut down for like 2 years or something right 18 to 18 months I thought they had said right and that was on that. Yeah. So I don't know what's going on with that. We are uh working on the RFP for the
brid for our br for to get the engineer for the bridge um update that we're doing. Okay. So that uh actually is in my paper here to review and see if we can get that out. Okay. Want to call a recess so we can Yeah. Uh yeah. So um 10 minutes. Yeah. 10 minute
recess. Do I have to make a motion for that? I always forget. All right. I want a motion to go into recess until uh 6:00 p.m. A motion made. Second. All in favor? back. Okay, it is 6:00 p.m. and we are now back from recess and in open session.
Uh, tonight's a very special night cuz we have um some third graders from Frettown Elementary School who are here um because they won the selectman for the um for the night essay contest. Um, so everyone wanna just wave and say hi
to the camera up there. So I guess first I'd like to say, you know, we're very proud of you. Um, reading your essays could we could really I could at least really feel uh how proud you are to be from Freetown. Um, and how much pride you take uh in
here and and you really you guys did a great job of um of articulating all the great uh assets that our town has. So we appreciate it. Um, so I'm going to give each of you the opportunity or the op, you know, the option, but not you're not required to, if you'd like to read your
essay. Does anyone want to read their essay? Okay. So, and I'm just going to say, so we're going to start off here with Alexander. I want to just state your name and then you can read your essay and then we'll move down the line. Wait, I say my name first. Yeah, you say
this is what we make everyone say their name during a meeting so that for the for the record. I'm I'm Alexander. Why I'm proud of why I'm proud of my community. I'm proud to live in Freetown, Massachusetts. Because it's
a special place with a lot of history, n nature, and kind people. Freetown is one of the oldest towns in the whole country. It was started a long time ago, even before America became a country. We even had a small battle here during the
American Revolution. One of my favorite things about Freetown is the Freetown Flav River State Forest. It's huge and full of trees, animals, and trails. I love going for walks there, riding my bike, or just enjoying nature. There is
also a big rock called Profile Rock that looks like a face. Some people say it looks like a Native American chief. It's very cool and fun to see. Our town is also pretty. We have a long pond, which is a big lake where people go fishing
and boating. The sunsets over the water are beautiful. But most of all, I love the people here. Everyone is friendly and helps each other. We have good schools and our teachers work hard to help us learn. I feel safe here and that
makes me proud to be part of this community. Free time may be small but has a but it has a big heart. That's why I'm proud to call it home. Great job. Why I am Why I'm proud of my community. I am
proud to live in Freetown, Massachusetts because it is a small town with a big heart. It is full of history because it is over 300 years old. There are a lot of cool places to see and fun things to do. One of the coolest landmarks is the Freetown State Forest. You can go
hiking, ride bikes, or even or even have fun at the splash pad. There are even legends about the Freetown State Forest, including the mysterious pug wedgies that live there. There is also a long p There is also long pond which is one of
the longest ponds in the state. My favorite thing to do in Freetown is play softball for the town. I get to play with my friends and have fun. I love wearing our team colors red, white, and blue. One of my favorite one of the best
things about playing softball is I get to be part of the Fourth of July parade. It makes me feel proud to be part of the community. I also love watching the fireworks from Hathaway Park. Me and my family go every year. It is
one of my favorite town traditions. Freetown is where I get to learn, grow, and have fun. It has lots of history, pretty places, and awesome people. I am happy to call it my home. [Applause]
Charlie. [Music] Hello. My name is Charlie Salman. I um Why I'm proud of my community. I am proud of my community because it was it is clean, safe, and fun. My town is
clean because people that live there are proud of their community and keep it clean. I rarely see trash in the streets or parks. My community is safe because I can ride my bike around my community and feel comfortable while doing it. I also
feel safe to go for a walk at night with my family. My community is fun because there are sports you can play like soccer, softball, baseball, ba basketball, football, and more. It is also fun because there are events and
festivals you can attend to. In conclusion, I am proud of my community because it was clean, safe, and fun. [Applause] Max next.
Hi, my name is Max. Why I'm proud of my community? These are a couple things I love about my community in Freetown, Massachusetts. One thing I love about my community is it is thoughtful. What?
Because they do events for grown-ups and kids. There are some events coming up like Fourth of July fireworks and parade. The parade throws out candy for the kids. A second reason I love my
community is it is quiet. There are not many cars driving, so it isn't noisy like cities. We have big yards that we can read and relax in. A third reason I love my community is the school is
loving and has fantastic teachers. The best principal ever and the best principal ever. They have lots of fun field trips and events for the kids. There are many kids to play with, even if they are not your
friend yet, so you can make new ones. The last reason I love my community is they have cool trains that I get to see sometimes when I go home from school. Sometimes I can always hear
the train at my house. The train goes all the way to Boston. So someday I can ride it to Boston to see lots of cool stuff. These are a couple things I love about my super cool community in Fleettown, Massachusetts.
[Applause] So, first thing I like to say is the other kids have very good essays [Applause] and mine is called Freetown the
Beautiful by Lucas Carrier. I am proud to live in a in a very nice small town called Freetown. It is a great place that is filled with generous people, kind people, and appreciated people. I love living in Freetown because it is
because of the great small community we have. There is the Freetown State Forest with a splash pad, hiking trails, and the best thing is that you can bring your dirt bike or quad. I even take my dog, Gunner, for walks in the forest. My favorite family time is when we go to
Annie's Ice Cream, which is also in Freak Town. There is there are many other cool buildings and restaurants around town. I like to visit the libraries to check out all the nice books. Freetown Elementary School is also a great great place. It
has nice teachers and staff like Miss Fazone and the principal, Mr. Ward, and other teachers. Thanks to our selectsman and our town clerk, we get to set up events like Earth Day where we get together and pick and pick up trash and clean up our community. In the
summertime, our town has fun events for the community. We have some summer concerts and some big screen movie nights. Sometimes after my baseball game, we watch some late night baseball games and we get some food, drinks, and I always make sure
that we don't forget the snacks. In summary, I am proud to live in a very nice small town called Freetown. It is beautiful. It is a beautiful community with nice people, cool buildings, and has fun things to do. I love Freetown.
Freetown is the best. [Applause] Well, that was so well done everybody. Um, I just want to, you know, make a point here that that public speaking is the right the number one fear among
humans and you guys, even scarier than spiders and bears and everything else. So, uh, I'm we're really proud of of the courage it takes to get up here and and do public speaking. So, I think I see some some future politicians up here for sure. So, really well done. So, one of
the um one of the things that we have to do as a selectman is we have to vote on certain items. So, we have an agenda tonight of some things that we're going to vote on. And I think I think some of these items um are definitely going to resonate with you guys because related to some of the some of the topics we saw
in your essays, um including the Fourth of July and you know, maybe some candy related type things. So, so um we're going to kick we're going to kick this off and we're going to do some voting. um and we'll we'll walk you through it and teach you how to do it. It's pretty straightforward. Um all right, so agenda
item 15 and this is uh discussion of vote whether to approve the open session minutes from 5/19 2025. So what this what this agenda item means is that after every meeting um our great staff they they take notes of everything that we said and that's put into the public
record as as a document and we have to go in and sign off that that this is what in fact what we did say and then anyone can look that up whenever they want to say hey you're saying this now but last week you said this so it keeps us honest. Um, so we're going to vote
and what happens here is I'm going to maybe we'll do this one just the selectman and then you know to get a feel for it and then and then you can follow along for the next vote. So I'm going to entertain a motion to approve the open session minutes from 519 2025. Motion made. I second. So once I've I'
I've entertained the motion motion was made and then it was seconded. So now I say and don't worry about it. You don't have to get this right the first time. All in favor? I. That's the most important part. And so now we all agreed. So now we've assigned and we've approved those minutes, those those the
notes from our last meeting. All right. So, and we have a a few votes that we'll do in a moment. Um, next up though, before we do those votes, we want we want to congratulate the Tuesday club on on the Strawberry
Festival. Did anyone here go to the Strawberry Festival? No. No. Well, you guys should go next year. I went I went with my wife and my son and we ate uh a lot of strawberry shortcake and it was delicious.
I know Deb, you were there, right? Did you go? No. L, you were there. You were there. Yeah, it was awesome. So, um there's some stats we have in the agenda here about the the strawberry. What page is that on? Okay, got it. So, this is the 35th
Tuesday club strawberry festival. And so it takes 300 lbs of strawberries to be cut up for the for the event. Um there's 130 pans of shortbread equal to 1,125 shortbreads. There's 500 hot dogs eaten.
And the Tuesday club is 132 years old. So they've been in operation since 1893. Pretty old. That's pretty awesome. So I went, it was great. Um, thank you very much and and congratulations on another successful year.
Okay, so agenda item 17. This is discussion of vote to close the town hall, library, council on aging, highway department, and transfer station for the 4th of July holiday. All right, so we have to make a decision here. Do
you guys think that all these folks who work in our town and work hard all year, do you think they should get a day off and we should close the the town hall and library so that they can enjoy the 4th of July? Um, probably. Do you think so? Yeah. I mean, if you
don't if you don't agree, I'm I'm willing I'm willing to hear your uh your perspective. Um, okay with you. Close them down. What do you guys think? Well, I think if everybody's already like celebrating
that stuff, they shouldn't really like people won't really go to there. I agree. So, I think they should get a day off. Good point. Good point. Any other perspectives on this? What do you think, Max? Should we close it down?
All right, Lucas. All right. So, now I'm going to entertain a motion and we're going to walk through this. All right. So I enter a motion that we close the town hall, library, council on aging, highway department and transfer station for the 4th of July holiday. Do I have that motion? So who wants to say it with me? Motion made. Can you guys say motion
made? Motion made. Motion made. Motion made. Motion made. All right. Now, do I have a second? Does Does anyone else agree with that motion being made? Does anyone else want to say second? Um, say second. Second. Yes. All right. One
second. All in favor? Now we're all going to say I. I. I. I. Great job, guys. Thank you. It's your first official vote on the record. Pretty cool. Okay. Now, the next gum agenda item is
18. So when anyone wants to sell things in town like they you know the the Fourth of July parade or the fireworks you you'll find people selling you know different kind of um treats and candy and and bubble guns and all kinds of stuff. So anyone that wants to sell
stuff in town they have to come before the board and they have to get a license in order to in order to do that. You know, sometimes we turn a blind eye if it's a lemonade st stand stand that someone's setting up, but generally, you know, you gota if you want to do business in town, you have to have have a license in order to do that. So, do
you think do you guys think that we should approve the hawker and pedalers license, what it's called, so folks can sell different items down at the Fourth of July parade. What do you guys think? What do you think? Yeah, balloons. Your parents
might not want you to pass it. Yeah. I don't. Good idea. Okay. So, we're going to do the same thing now. I I unless anyone has a, you know, wants to discuss this and has a thinks that we should not allow them. I'm I'm all ears. Allow them to what? What's that? Allow
them to sell stuff like the balloons and the key. Balloons, candy. Cookies, girl. Yeah. Okay. It's a good idea. Cookies. Good idea. Yeah. Who doesn't like cookies, right? Sometimes there's ice cream down there
as well. Ice cream truck. Ice cream truck. Ice cream. Yep. It's like a snow cone on a hot day. It was hot. No. All right. So, with that, so I'm going to entertain a motion that we approve the hawker and pedallers license for the 3rd of July fireworks in Freetown
for the Is it should that be 4th of July? Is it on the 3rd? Fireworks are on the third. Okay. This year. Yeah. Third of July fireworks in Freetown. Uh for Nico's Novelty. So, want to make that motion? Uh, motion made. Motion made. Motion made. Do I
have a second? Second. Great job. Second. All in favor? I. You guys are quick learners. Yeah, you guys are good. It took me a lot longer to say. I think it' take me at least 10 meetings. Yeah.
Okay. So, now agenda item 19. So this is discussion of vote whether to grant exclusive access to Haway Park for the Fourth of July parade fireworks in July 3rd and 4th 2025. So now generally anyone can go to the park whenever they
want and use it to go play games and you know have fun. But when we have a big event there, we don't want someone to show up and you know and and uh or we want everyone to be very well aware that that only the folks who are allowed to
be there to set up the fireworks can use the the park. Right. So So what this motion is related to is saying making it known that only people involved in the firework committee can use that area for
those two days. Otherwise, someone might show up and say, "Hey, you know, I I plan on having a big picnic here." And they can't do it because there's fireworks going on. So, this is Or someone's trying to have a yoga. You can't have yoga at the same time that you're that you're trying to
have fireworks. Does anyone have any issues with this? I don't get the question. You don't. So, this is just giving exclusive rights to the fireworks committee to use Hathaway Park where the fireworks are. So, no one else tries to use that same park. I
didn't do a great job explaining that. Not that bad. I just think gives us time to set up, make sure they have all the vendors have a place to be, shut the traffic down. Put it this way. What if someone tried having a softball game at the same time that they're trying to set
for the fireworks? That would be a mess, right? 20 on 20. Be cool. We have lights. Okay. But some fields don't have lights. It's true. I'm sure we can find some
lights and some bases. All right. So, I'm going to issue a motion to avoid confusion that we uh grant exclusive access to Hathway Park for the Fourth of July parade and fireworks on July 3rd and 4th, 2025.
Anyone want to make that motion? She wants to see motion made. Motion made. All right. All right. Do I have a second? Second. Second. Second. All in favor? I I I. Great job, everybody.
So, this agenda M20 is is similar. So, this is discussion of vote to close South Main Street and Water Street for the Fourth of July parade on July 4th, 2025. So, think about this. We We don't want cars driving around the same time that the parade's going on. That would
be very dangerous, right? Yeah. So now we have to vote on that up here to make sure that that everyone is well aware and that no one's trying to drive on those roads. So are we all are we all in consensus on this? Do we all agree that there shouldn't be cars and parades
going at the same time? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Crush the community. Right. Okay. So with that, I'll entertain a motion to close South Main Street and Water Street for the Fourth of July parade on uh July 4th, 2025. Want to make a motion? Motion. Motion
made. Second. Second. Second. I I I. Great job, guys. Hope everyone. Okay. Yep. Okay. So, now after we vote on things, then we have to sign to um to finish the process. So, that now it's in
the public record that we vote on this and we signed on it. All right. We're starting and starting right above your name. Doesn't have to be in Christmas. You can be whatever you want. Yeah, good job. I throw in your last name. Yes, please.
Wait till you see my my signature. Yeah. Everybody watch this. Nobody No, nobody can read it. Cool. They want you to make You think his is bad? Just look at mine. The record. That doesn't mean anything. Okay. Find your name, Emma. There's your sign right above the line.
right here. Yep. Sorry about your name. Perfect. Practice. See what you got. On your sheet and see what you got. pass it over to Charleston. Oh yeah. All right, pee with that. Thanks, bud. All
right. Right above your knee. You think? Was that fun? Are you going to I thought you going to say no to those things. Perfect. Thanks. Oh, changing. Good idea sometimes.
All right. So, now each of you are going to receive a certificate for winning the contest. So, Lan and I were thinking that three of us will stand up there, three selectmen, and then we'll call each of you up
individually so take a picture and get presented with your certificate. Does that work? Okay. I might have you hand to me. I mean, Carlos, you want us? Yeah, that's right. Show up the new wings.
All right. I'm usually tall on both of them. So, Lucas, you're first. This might be the first time we had a baseball uniform. [Music] Congratulations. This way,
Charlie. Bring it down. Congratulations, [Music] Charlie. [Music] Want to hold that like this way? Either
way, pick one. Congratulations, Emma. Great job. Congratulations. All right. And now let's congratulations. Awesome. All right. So, do we have to sign anything else? We are done. Okay. So,
this is the best part of the meeting. Now we have to vote on whether we want the meeting to be over or not. All right. You guys think keep having fun? And I haven't had dinner yet, so um well, any questions before I close
the meeting? Everyone good? What do you guys think? Yeah, please. It was fun. Thank you. So when you guys are watching the Fourth of July, you go, "Yeah, I did that." Thank you. Okay. Know what I mean? Are you guys going to go watch the full?
You can ask me after the meeting. All right. Okay. So, with that, well, first like to thank all all you kids for coming up here and doing this. Awesome. Great job. Thanks for the parents. Really appreciate it. And the
teachers obviously and and faculty. Um, you know, Oh, Charlie. See, I was killing time letting you come up with your questions. Yes, Charlie. Um um so um wait um wait I had oh uh is this how every single like meeting is like pretty
much yeah this is the the most fun meeting uh a lot of times you know a little boring sometimes but but yeah I mean if you guys come to every meeting if you want you have a question yeah do you ever use that mouth I have had to use it
uh once yes it's a long story. [Laughter] Sometimes when people don't want to listen, it helps get their attention. Sometimes people get very passionate about, you know, the agenda item that that is related to them. And one time I had to use it. I did. I don't like to
use it. Yes. Um, is this more or less people you have had in the meetings? This is uh a lot more than usual. Yeah, great question. I I think that more people
should come to meetings because the things that we're deciding, you know, they do impact everyone's life, right? If you live in this town, you know, people have voted us in to make these decisions. Um, so we'll have some meetings that, you know, for some reason anything's about the trash. Anything to
do with trash, we get a lot of people show up. But, uh, sometimes, you know, there's hot but button items that people show up for, but generally we have a pretty low turnout. You know, we have 9,300 people in town, give or take. Is that right? 9206 was the last 9206.
Um and yeah, sometimes we have zero people. So yes, um do you have to come to meetings? Uh at least two of us need to come to a meeting for to have a quorum which means that there's a majority of the board is
present. Um there's nothing legally obligating me to come or us to come, but you know if if you don't show up to your meetings, you're not going to get voted back in. So, um, the voters keep us honest and keep us, you know, to show up.
That's great, great questions. Yeah, it was this is a this we should remind me in future years we should add this the Q&A is like, is it we have a question? Yeah. Are those cookies in the back for them
or for us? Question. I was thinking the same thing. Plenty for everyone. I think we're sharing the cookies maybe. Great question. Okay. So, with that, I'm gonna enter entertain
a motion to adjurnn. Who wants to make the motion with me? Anyone? All right. So, we're going to say motion made. Motion made. Motion made. Do I have a second? Second. Second. Second. All in favor? I I Nice.
Nailed it. Thank you, everybody. [Applause] [Music]