[Music] all right it is Monday February 24th it is 5:32 I will now call the select board meeting to order if you can join me for the Pledge of
Allegiance I to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation individual lice for thank you all right so I would just like to
introduce our new interim Town Administrator um IRA and sorry about the last name brazinski thank you uh welcome and thank you for being here thank you um and then our next or our first appointment I should say is the West
Street Building committee good evening good evening evening hello how are you great all right so before I begin I just wanted to let you guys know that we have our OPM here and our architect here so if you have any particular questions for them
they are here to answer them okay and also I want you to know that the building committee is behind me so if they want to interject or say something in addition to what I am covering they're more than welcome to you okay thank you okay so our committee has now
completed the building conditions report and the schematic design of this project and we are here to present you with some options regarding the renovation to see which option you would like to support before we go out to bid so in your
pocket of stuff you'll see that you have three options a b and c so I'll go through each option with you and let you know which one the committee recommends so option A is the option the committee is suggesting for you to go
forward with it's a full scope complete renovation of 22,000 Square ft of the building the cost includes among other changes abatement of the occupied spaces of the building with replacement windows fire suppression accessibility
ventilation and electrical services upgrade it's really the best case scenario for the municipal offices however the cost of construction alone is 11.5 million and then when you add into that cost the soft costs such
as contingencies um which are different from the construction numbers that total project budget goes up to 14.4 million and just as an aside on top of that number the committee did discuss
whether or not we wanted to Abate the whole building to prep it so the upper part of the building which we're not using if we Abate that and put in new windows now to prep it for future renovation that would be an additional 1.2 million which would be the third
column in the paperwork that I gave you but that's not that is an option we investigated but it's not a requirement for the municipal offices to move in at this point so with that number we asked the designer to go back and to do more
minimal Renovations so what what we call Value engineering that's option b option b is putting all the municipal offices and the COA into that 22,000 Square ft but with less renovation using less
expensive Alternatives without sacrificing functionality so for example for option b we'd be reducing the windows by 30% reducing the number of interior partitions and making it more of an open floor plan we'd also sacrifice some of
the finishes and reduce Paving in site work among other changes so with those reductions the construction budget came came down to 9.9 million and then the total project budgeted came to 12.6 million when you add in those soft costs
and contingency so by doing the value engineering you reduce the total budget total project budget by approximately 2 million and then of course if you want to Abate the rest of the building you have to add in the 1.2 million
so then the committee pushed back again onto the architect and asked to design something that would be even lower in cost and that is option C option C the committee does not recommend however I wanted to present it to you as a remote
possibility option C drastically reduces the renovation to just town offices and only includes a batement for the areas of the COA the gym and the cafeteria so that area would be prepped for future
renovation the total project budget of option C is 10.6 million however it's only 2 million less than option b and I can assure you that we will not get a renovated COA in the
next few years for $2 million so hence why that's why we do not suggest auction C so we know these numbers seem large however remember that we still have the 5.6 million already slated for this
project so those numbers will be reduced by 5.6 million and additionally after talking to Chris we do have 1.2 million in the municipal stabilization fund so if we pull out a million from that and then pull out perhaps a million from
free cash we can reduce those numbers so for example option A would come down to about 6.7 million that we'd be asking the town for option b would come down to a total ask 4.9 million and
then option C would be 2.9 Million so I know I'm throwing a lot of numbers at you but we needed to come back to you before we went out to bid to know what option you guys want to pursue uh excuse me Lyn what was the uh free cash number
million um um I don't think it's been certified yet free cash I think is 2 million and we would ask for probably a million of that is that is that true Chris is free cash 2 million right now hasn't been certified there yeah hasn't
been certified but that's a speculation but you would ask for a million of that too well yeah because we don't want to use up all the free cash absolutely thank you and um Lynn can you just tell me for option A so 5.6 million it was already slated on Town floor then we've
got 1.2 from the municipal stabilization St and 1 million um from free cash so you said it would bring it down to asking the taxpayer six 6.7 approximately okay and of course these numbers haven't gone out to bid yet so these numbers can change slightly they
can go lower they can go a little higher hopefully they go lower so at 6.7 million if we just do the 22,000 square feet of the occupied space if we do the unoccupied space abatement you'd have to increase that
number by 1.2 million which should bring up to 7.9 would um and I don't know if you can answer this or if this is a question for the um for Chris would the 6.7 million require tax
override it would and what we would propose as a committee is to do it in a special town meeting to keep the timeline going because we are hamstrung by the annex being the the lease being up in December or perhaps
shortly thereafter so the quicker we get the town to decide that they want to proceed the quicker we can continue the project and stay on time so I guess my next question and I don't know Ira if you can answer this so say
this SL board decides that you know option A is the one that we want to go with and we say okay put it out for bid but we still have to have the funds in order to do that so we can't put it out to bid until we have the special town meeting to acquire the funds no we still put it out to bid to see what comes in
okay um and the way you draft the special town meeting warrant would be more or less than the 6 6.7 million right so then by I don't think the bids would come back in time for a special town meeting if it's
before how how how many weeks do you need for the bids six weeks and they won't go out for another four weeks at least six so we 12 weeks out so we're 12 weeks out from getting the bids back I mean we're going to will go out
to bed regardless of the decision but once we get those bids we'll know with more certainty what the number actually is I don't have the paperwork in front of me but I'm trying to remember back um when there when you guys first started doing this on what the options were for
renovation versus building new it seems like it's pretty comparable to building new right now is it not do you guys remember what the figure was for the building new well so building new that was how many years ago 2018 and now building new is about a th that's right cuz it was
6 forget exactly what the number was but whatever the percentage was on top of what was bid in 2018 there's a certain percentage that went up square foot but and now even since then because it's been a year and a half almost two years it is currently now if we build a 22,000
square foot building new it's a th000 per square foot just for construction alone okay not with the soft cost not with the soft cost or the contingencies so um so at a th per square foot it would be
extensively more excuse me Lyn yeah if I'm not mistaken too the new building they were talking about um building was smaller than what we're talking about now yes and so the building back in 2018 was
two maybe 6,500 square feet building which would be half of what we're getting now at 22,000 sare ft what's the Thought on on having two proposals for town meeting
so people have a choice what because it I don't know it might be something hard for a lot of people to swallow $6 million override and you know so you want to go two options at town meeting so if the first one fails go to the second one
well get people a decision to make and they can see you know it's their money let them spend it the way they want this is option A if this isn't this is how we can cut cost with option b it was an option C but we really don't recommend that one so you know I wouldn't bring
option SE to a unless you yeah you're roughly you know I mean you have to do something because we're not going to have a building for municipal offices relatively soon and this doesn't account for any grants right sorry right so so correct so we we
do have Letters Out to the legislators right now seeing if we can find some help for the project um that's and the grants the grants would be above and beyond right so like the grant that we're talking about with
the um for the construction of the kitchen would be above and beyond this it' be doing that in addition to what you know you know what I mean so it wouldn't be would that be an option Ira or Chris
um giving them two options at town meeting at town meeting would that be an option giving them two um want I like that idea put the decision
on them personally no no what' you say would you advise giving two options oh and they said no well that good SL did s too what I'm hearing that he from it would be difficult to practically go out bid two different
projects based on any scenario but then it goes to town floor at the higher one and it comes back as a a no vote then we're then we're 12 weeks out again for the second option with also the cost of a special town meeting which
is over $3,000 not to mention you're starting over and through that process again so we're that much farther out we're going to lose the tele phone June um what' you say June 30th I believe is
the um the end of the contract with the telephone company at this time and we would be renovating um the sections first that those people would need to get into so we can get them in
and still renovate more of the building is it June 30th 2026 no it's June 30th 2025 I thought she extended it to December 202 I thought it was December of yeah we asked we extended I thought it was
December of 25 there was a request to extend it still time I know it doesn't yeah yeah if you go to town meeting and they turn down the six million if they approve the Six Million
then it has to go to a vote um and it could it could fail at The Ballot Box so a lot of um times when this happens for the override they want to know what does that mean individual household wise right so did you guys run those were you able to run those numbers yet no not yet because I wanted to see
what how you wanted to go and then what we would do was probably go to the assessors and try to get an average okay of what that would mean in grany and bring that to town meeting all happens at town meeting is that they'll vote to put on the ballot to do an override
what' you say it's going to go on the ballot to do an override that's what they're going to vote at town meeting they're actually not going to approve the money right they're going to say we think this should we we're okay with this let's go now to The Ballot Box and then more people will come out and vote at The Ballot Box okay and who knows how
it'll go could pass at town meeting if fail up The Ballot Box too okay that's a possibility as well right we haven't checked with scath the but we do have the the town election in May so if we had a special town meeting I don't know how far out that needs to be for Kathy
to put something on the ballot right get pass the meeting maybe we don't have to spend extra money to have a separate election either right that's true we could we can Pigg you back on them that Steve
well I I do agree with the committee that option C is I mean sure it's going to save the most money up front but then you're looking at the additional costs of the abatement and the cost of construction never goes down
and moving forward on that it's everything from material to labor to additional finishes around that we wouldn't finish up front well I mean I'd say move it forward I
mean what it's going to be decided by the voters be decided by the resident so move it forward and town meeting people can decide whether or not they want to move it forward to the next step at that point and I would tend to agree with that because these are large numbers and
we shouldn't be the ones to make this decision it should be up to the taxpayers and the town as a whole if we want to get into this so we would just need to know from you which option A or B do you want us to bid so Lynn um at the Town meetings when
someone sees a warrant and then they don't agree to the warrant they can amend the warrant so I'll Le I'll ask the other board members I think we should go with option A because if we need to amend it we can amend it to option b does that
sound as far as M the cost the cost you can yes you can amend the it depend on how much the amount is right it has to be okay there's a judgment call there yeah just trying to figure out how to
get both options to them but say like this is the option that we we recommend but if this is too much or it's going to cost the individual person or household too much in taxes then maybe we can go with option b I mean I guess if um as select board you could fill out what the
town is saying and then create an amendment at that point from the select board okay and then do do the lower cost see if that passes and if that fails and you go back up to the higher cost okay I see what you're saying so it
would still go back to original warrant M which if they don't want option b they probably would vot down option A which puts us in a not necessarily they not want option b because they want the whole okay yeah makes sense I I would tend to put documents
together for option A and then as crystal says see what the town's people have to say and then go from there and find out how much it's going to the average percentage it'll increase your taxes well hopefully we'll sell this building and that can defer some of that
as well right right that's a good point Kevin too that takes got be put into the equation what this building would sell for then comes taable when a
business uh can we get an appraisal on this I don't know one was already well I'm sure the assessor already avable well I mean that's helpful information when again we're just basically what at the town meeting at this point is whether or not we want to go to option a
option b that's they going to put out the bid that's where we be presented at town meeting and they'll say whether yes or no we want to go forward y the Val box well there's only two decisions two for you guys option A or option b and then option A with complete abatement of
the building for future use you know how much are you going to add on to that starting point yeah I mean in a few years time it could be another million dollars for a baitman for the same cost that a million to and just so you're that abatement that 1.2
million that's including new window that would finish that that building would be all set ready to be built hopefully Building Maintenance could slowly but surely maybe they can work on some of the rules the only thing that we'd have to work on at some probably be adding on to the sprinkler system before we could
occupi but so the windows would be included I assume because the windows are hot and also the cocking around it as and that number I was just speaking with a gentleman then that could actually even come down a little depending on whether it's actually pain
windows or they put some of those Thriller panels in that's a lot of Windows across the front yeah a lot of right they say that number could drop a coup Poss with with some of those by eliminating some ofone know yes we still want natural light in the
building but correct but just depending on how rooms might be broken up and might be feasible to eliminate some things so I mean I'm fine going with option A with everything there and kind of then the whole projects done
um it's going to take a lot of information I think at town meeting to explain everything to everybody um then with the option what they could know too if they you know we didn't do the he took away the 13 the 1.3 million from
the um finishing remain of the building what that would do to a tax override too that may save some people some money so I guess so there's some options going into it's as Chrystal said where people in the town for May to say well how
about we do this and we save $2 million and then it might be seem feasible but I just think and override it's going to be a tough sell right now so there's a few there's a few articles the free cash getting the money
out of free cash getting the money out of Municipal Building stabilization fund and then approving the money so there's at least three articles correct yes yeah I so my understanding
is the design team is here yes yes where oh okay um so and my understanding is that you're going to go out to bid and at the same time schedule a town meeting and then have a have an override
to meeting goes well have an override vote for debt exclusion um and you'll have the bids in before the vote is known have that all all correct I think that's what they were trying to do but they're 12 weeks out right so six weeks until you can put the
bid out and then six weeks for the bid yeah that's the the fastest to okay so my my question is um does it make any sense to look at doing option b as a Bas with the additions to get to option A as
ADD alters and put that all out together so when the bids come back you got all the information okay see what you're saying you you know that you would need the voters would need um so you could start with what you you got a starting you can add if you
want and if the voters go with the with a higher number then you can there are add alternates with the the respondents to the to the bid to work with some of it yes is appropriate to work
that way some of it is more wholesale where it's not easy sort of like deal but we there may be an to your point there may be an option kind
of5 if you will where it's we do essentially take B add things in it from a that can't easily be out as a separate number and then the
pieces that can which I would say are things along the lines of partitions folding partitions quantity of Windows those kind of things are relatively easy to make a quantifiable
amount and then also the abatement of the unoccupied portion of building those are all things that are easily quantifiable and that's what we'd want if we do alternates because otherwise we're just going to make the
process almost impossible to get a clean number thank well sounds like the 1.2 $1.3 million can be removed because that's that's at the end and that's on all three proposals so
that can always be removed right so that would be an add is like what you're saying right that that's that that's kind of almost separate for each yeah so if you in your packet you should have get this yeah so these this is it without this number right here is
without the additional abatement of the unoccupied space that would be the ask before you take out the 5.6 before you take out the 1.2 Municipal and 1 million free cash so can if everything goes favorable and
the town says yes to this uh Municipal stabilization fund money and yes to free cash you're looking at 6.7 for option A and 4.9 for option b without the full abatement I do agree with you Lynn as far as the
COA 2 million you're not going to get a COA building for that so um I think option C as I think we're all in agreement needs to um be Ned from this because we need to see away so we go along with option A to get
numbers forward and then bring the town meeting at the highest number or can we I did go with Ira's recommendation of starting with option b and adding up I think I do like Iris yeah I mean the
goal is to have a pass at The Ballot Box absolutely you know everything else is is which we know is still in question well right but everything else is just a it's just a it's just a task that needs to be completed to get it to that store sure
that's where it's going to take place I just think I think option b is is I think more feasible we we might be okay with with $2 million less but who who knows I think it's just a tough time I heard a
lot of people complaining and concerned about their their property taxes right now so yeah yes just just to clarify so I wasn't making a suggestion one way or the other about what to ask the voters for I was just suggesting in terms of uh
the bidding process to try to get it get as lar broad as much information as possible in the bid in the bid results by using a base bid and with ADD alternates to so then you youve got you
don't have to go back out to bid hopefully right thank you for re clarifying that so with that said option A would be um I think the best one to put out there for bid and then that way um the
engineer and the OPM can figure out what is easily quantifiable that we could take off should we need to so it's just the way that they put it out to bid but it's the same amount that we're asking for right so the maximum amount would be or what we would be suggesting if the
board agrees as option A Y and then when you put the bid out you would have the base bid and then add whatever you can quantifiably take out as add-ons correct okay so and it would still get us to option a correct we have to work with
the build committee to figure out what those items are and to prioritize them okay as the way the bid laws work for public is you accept them in order okay so we would just need to prioritize those items so that we end up with the
right outcome but that would be generally the best practice for us as a way to as you had said Ira to make sure that you have release BS essentially to get all the numbers in place and then
see each of the incremental pieces of it and then be able to then back into the number the budget you actually yeah if if the bids are 12 weeks out that's not going to make make
the be doing the election we did it yeah I don't is it usually Jun I mean next week the election is M the election is and then town meeting comes after that second week in May for town meeting so
let's see um so if we did a special town meeting it would be with estimated numbers which L we do have another round of estimating during construction
documents we do we do so the numbers will be more Sol yeah this point will they be firm or just refined refined the bids are firm fir until
so two three four pting it out a bit keeps the process moving right 10 11 12 so May 19th 12th week and that's if he puts it out to bed tomorrow
it's kind of close so realistically probably like May 26 at least give him a week realistically real wait would that be enough time to get the bid documents together you're on camera
so no okay I mean realistically realistically um annual Town second half of the annual town meeting we'd probably have numbers if that's the 10th of June yes okay but that's going to push us but we still need to put the bid out we have to
put the bids out we have to also have a debt exclusion vote so there's there's like a lot of things going on and we're in a time crunch yeah because of the annex well again like we said we have a special to meeting and then C can get
that on the bid box we save some money that way if it's for the town elections yeah but I think what Glenn's saying is you want more definitive numbers definitive numbers at The Ballot Box yeah let me say we they plus or minus and and say look we should have
real numbers in a couple of weeks the only problem with the plus or minus Kevin is it it always scares the the people you know you say plus or minus okay it's a million dollars okay well that's okay but then it turns into two million or two and a half million and then everybody is up in arms about it so
that that's a tough call too this was point6 does this board think a $7 million override is going to pass I don't I mean that's that's what I'm saying I'm asking that to the point where our our what's the ultimate goal that we want to happen at the end well
and you also have to think what is the alternative yeah if it doesn't pass I mean you have to be prepared to tell town meeting if this doesn't pass this is what's going to happen and that would be from you right I we're in a rocking a hard place
yeah we are and it's it's just it's sadly more we delay increase in y well I think everybody understands that but I think I said when it comes down to you know I I I got it earful and
everybody's taxes went up and they thought we jacked up the the property taxes and just home values went up and you know that happens all the time but I mean that was concern that people had and well Glen like you said though it's really have to break it down like you guys said break it down through each
home they know where they and and then course adding on how important like we you said we're in a rocking a hard place we need to do something for this town and and move forward we have to decide what we have to do with the account and move forward yeah so I mean I guess we
we better off having a a special Tom E when we have all the information prepared and then just have a and then have a um not an election but a vote at another
time I guess what I'm saying is you're asking for we're asking for a lot of money and at that point I mean the you know a lot of people are going to say no it's not going to pass and if you're looking to kind of get this to pass I think as much information you we can
supply to the voter beforehand is just better off if people have doubts then they just but to go to Lyn's point I think we should put it out to bid because that's going to give them more information um and have more definitive numbers well I I I don't I I agree it's
got go out a bit I don't think it a question but that but I just think there's you know you have a $7 million or $6.7 million or $4.9 million no $2 million is a big difference right yeah to people per household
yeah all right so then need just make a decision option A or option b is going out to bid the amounts because he can do the base B and he can do the add-ons like we're asking so if it comes down to it a town meeting when we have more
definitive numbers we could say well we can take this out we can take this out we can take this out I say that's probably the best way to well we're not going to have more definitive well I guess have a little bit more definitive numbers at town meeting perhaps depends on what town meeting is but that's my question again is that all that information going to be at the time of
town at the town meeting or not well it depends on how quickly you want T if Tom is going to be in four weeks we won't have any more definitive numbers than what you're seeing in front of you but June 10th we might depending if you wait to June 10th we'll have more definitive numbers because our bids will be in but
we will be way off schedule okay for for um renovating that building we will not be in right now we're pushing March of 20126 pushing that yeah so if we're going to delay us three more months we're going to delay that three more
months Chris did want to talk too Chris I just want to make a okay you're talking going with the lower price and doing ads to get up to pay I would go the opposite way I would go
with the A and then do deduct that way you can schedule your Deb exclusion vote at the higher amount that's the maximum you're going to raise depending upon and you you sell to the vo that depending
upon what comes in with the bids you not that will actually have the raise will be less than 6.1 million you're giving them to an upper limit Yeah by going a lower amount you still don't know it's
going to range between 6.4 and 4.6 depending upon what you add and don't that okay I'd rather go for the highest you give the people exactly the maximum month you're going to raise and then they
dedu that way that that way you can start planning your exclusion vote while you're waiting for the B because it's a 30-day notice to schedule an election okay so if you wait until the town meetings then you're going to be 30
days out you're talk in July at the earliest of schedule your vote that's just my suggestion you know it's up to the board to decide how they want to proceed but I'd rather give the voters the maximum you're possibly going to raise the tax
and hopefully get it down through a conduct process the best necessary I thought that's what he was saying originally yeah I thought that's going option option A and then taking some of the things off that we could take away from the project that would
lower lower the cost but I I agree I mean we got to get it to town floor I mean that's that's the first part of it and you know and at that point they'll decide whether they want to move for or not so you find going with option A and and
looking at some of the things that if need be can remove from option A so you know they're saying well option A is too much money okay we can take off this this and this now that gets us down to $5 million okay people maybe say that's
okay your point2 so you it's helpful for uh for the people to see what it's going to cost you know for ,000 what the house is valued at and what it's going to cost each individual at that point yeah but that's you know again this is just the
point to get this to The Ballot Box right this is the engine that's going to take us there so I would like to make a motion then I will make a motion to accept option A as
the number to move forward towards for bid documents on the West Street School uh excuse me on the West Street Building and did you for future Town Offices so with that sorry go ahead do we have a second I'll second the motion
any further discussion no fur so with that said are we going for the 14,400 or 14 million sorry 4,000 or 400,000 my gosh or are we adding the 1. 1276 to it and we're going for the full scope I think we go for the full scope
at the 15, 676 and as they said there's things that they can take off one being the 1.2 million can be removed if need be and there some other things that might be too so that's where we start and when people start asking questions those
options that can be provided okay I agree great so the agreement is the 15 M6 76,000 option to move forward with on the bid agreed all in favor
I great and then as far as the special town meeting you want to wait until you get the bids online and then we'll go from there when we're going to schedule it I would suggest you schedule it as soon as you can okay yeah because I would they're not going to be in
regardless so by that time right what I'm better estimate I think at the time but not exact numbers when's our our first part of annual
May 12th I is that the second yeah May 12th and then uh Lyn you already said our second one was June 10th 16 uh is it June 16 is it the the second in June or is it
the second do you know what the second annual the date is for the second annual month later so it would be the second Monday in June so it's June it's June and Chris said we need 30 days to
30 days notice to schedule an election oh for special meeting you only need seven or two weeks two weeks post it two weeks two two weeks two weeks special time meeting is two weeks
yes all right so we already have a SL board meeting on the 10th and the 17th do you guys want to keep it on a Monday or does it matter the day the town meeting special town meeting yeah yeah keep I think we should look at anything else that we need to bring up
at the special town meeting so we should um I don't think we need to schedule right now we should see if there's anything else that we need to bring up you mean that's not related part of this so this will generate a lot of a lot of questions so just got to be
careful how much you put on that town special town meeting well I think we only had um what was at our last meet um town meeting which was the leash law and then um there's one
one storm water bylaw thank you oh also just said something to uh Town Council regarding Ali's law which is has to do with the kettling licensing and that has to be in place by the end of
June so there are some things that got so I guess we just I don't think we need to plan right now we should look at everything that needs to be brought up and then come up at a date so okay I would at sometime in
April oh I was being overol and I was thinking March 24th but okay well Lu thank you L could thank you needs to be done yeah because we would still have to have an open hearing for that one for the le la if we
were to do that one thank you ly all right next one we are late accountant and treasur software thank you very much to the westre building committee for all your
hard work thank you thank you good evening good evening I'm in a different seat tonight um last time I sat over there I had the good news of informing the board that our payroll and general ledger
vendor was going out of business as of July 1 so we contacted the school Mr n my s and representatives from the school attended two
demonstrations uh the first one was for payroll which was through ADP and then the second one was through Vadar systems okay um I'm going to do the ADP one
first uh they have a very comprehensive piece of software that does a lot of uh human resource uh pieces that could be automated no longer requiring uh uh someone here to have to do it
manually the they have a time record uh module they do they'll do all the processing for W2s 1099s all that information the
price we if we sign by February 26th we get what they a promotional offer where for the first three years we won't have to pay for three months for each of the three first three
years so when you go and look at the prices for years one through three the cost would be 36,000 per year and change and then year four and five it would be 51,000 and
change now for the 5year period there will be no price increases where normally they would do usually 0% for the first three years and then do 1% 1% they can get
everything in place as of July 1 2025 if we Act now that's the problem that we have um and if we delay past February 26th we
will lose that free 12 months over the first three years of the contract I don't know what's going on up there but know I've never heard that much noise here because usually there's nobody up there so uh the
we then met with Vadar Vadar uh is a good system for accounting they have you know accounts payable they have Ledger they have uh
payroll interface they do Treasures receipt cashbook they do schedule a balance sheets um you also have a report writer so you can develop your own various type of reports you would want to do
they have automatic Revenue uh going into the accounting system uh we can Implement where instead of everything coming to the treasurer and the accountant to be entered into
the system departments could enter their own Revenue which would cut down the amount of time required for the town account and the treasur um they do have a payroll system however I have to be honest we did they
use Harper's payroll system as their payroll vendor Steve and I had looked at Harper's I want to say about six 7 years ago we were we were ready to go with Harpers the day before they were to go
live they pulled the plug and didn't do it I have a bad taste in my mouth with Harpers to be honest with you um as you can see under Vadar they are on a state contract it
ts75 through Shi International and we can fund the system over a six-year period of time for a level funding of 11,000 and change for six first six years
and when we talk to them they would be able to get us up and running as of July 1 2025 also it'll be tight but they could do it Chris what is that last column right next to where it says payment option one
payment option two what is that column for we got option or are they just adding up all the I think it's totals totals okay oh yeah that's the total six years okay so it would' be 11, um $377 per year for 6 years yes
okay you have and this is because again this is because our old system is no longer it's Antiquated you said right and they're no longer they're no longer going to be supporting they're going out of business as of July one what's what's your
recommendation yours my recommendation specifically for Vadar is yes uh go with our system uh also with the ADP system in particular because they offer U the human resources module um it's the uh
one of the things that disappointed me in Harper is that the time sheet module is additional cost uh so this ADP is comprehensive I was very impressed with their system than now the total that was on the ADP that's
annually we would pay the 51,6 on year four and five year one through three we would end up paying the 3676 $ 3676 per year which is getting the three months free for the first three years
each of the first three years but is the difference in cost compared to what we have what we're currently paying I know technology increases I know software increases well number one is we pay
for Braverman for his package I pay $5,500 a year and I believe and that's mainly just support and I believe the school pays about another 5,000 a year and that's just for support because
the payroll the system has been purchased a long time ago okay is think it's going away right or something getting obsolete he's going out of business years ago well it it basically is a dospace
system if you really want if you really want to know and all he did was put a interface to make it work with Windows but it's all do space and where would these um funds come from well that's the decision of the
boards have to make I know we have some money in a leftover money in our Aral like $220,000 uh for accounting software so the first year could take care of that outside of that it's just going to have to come AC cost of business at some
point that we move forward and come into the 21st century for budgeting payroll human resource but there's a significant difference between the two between ADT and Vadar well they're two different system
ADP is just payroll yeah just payroll just payroll payroll and human resource yeah so it's both of so if you wanted to compare Harper was payroll and ADP was payroll right you don't and Vadar is also what the uh tax collector used to
say as well right so would be connected correct there is a discount uh for that as a matter of fact uh $5,000 total or for first year
and continuing $1,700 a year discount for having the uh collector's module so um Chris the $20,000 would cover the Vadar system but not the EDP 117 I'm saying the 117 y would be the
accounts payable receipts general ledger package okay okay and payroll and human resource would be done through ADP right but I'm just saying as far as the total because you said there was about $20,000 in an account that we can use and move that
over to pay for the software but we still have $16,728 and another 11,717 so that would have to come from free put into a budget have to be put into a budget and become an operating
cost okay so then the ADP would come from the would that be the treasurer budget or does it matter at this point whether it's a town count or the treasures right it's under the selectman's budget overall with account
and okay just keep it there too that's okay and so would betar right yeah you know that's just a call the board do you want it under treasure you want it under account well the betar makes sense to have it under accounting right because it's the accounting software the ADP who
does the uh payroll we both do okay now I enter the time sheets and I process and then I give it to Steve the right to checks and go forward from there okay and we're only allowed one dlta Grant
per year right yes and we're already using it so yes DTA DTA no that but I think isn't the time period closed for it uh no that
there's opportunity there if you need to for software because I think we're using it for the Building Commissioner right he put in for it yeah I I think maybe you're not think speaking about DTA the DTA is the program through pbpc right which is
funding for technical assistance correct okay so our Building Commissioner already put in no he put in through the Commonwealth compact oh okay I thought you did the DL no he did he did Community compact
okay we did use it for the open space the last that was DLT yeah that was DT and you so there is possibility that we could go for a grant to help with the software um yes but I can't say for sure
if if pdpc really has the expertise to you know the Hands-On expertise to help with financial accounting and that sort of thing you talk about in terms of migrating the whole system and help of that no just the software purchasing the
software because the town um clerk used it to purchase Vadar at the beginning didn't she yes yeah so there was a grant out there two three years now well the no Community compact's been around for a lot what happens is is the
collector for FY 23 allocation used it to Pur purchase her new tax module because she did it in 23 we can't we couldn't apply in 24 we're now using
25 to do the permitting software for the building inspector okay so that means we won't be able to apply in the 26 round but we can apply in the 27 round okay are you referring to it it Grant
through the yeah commity compact yeah okay and that so that window is window is closed it closed last month be available again but I don't think we'd be able to apply because we if we get the grant
this year we can't apply next year we can only apply every other year Well it has to you you could technically apply year over-year however one Grant has to be closed out before the other one before you're eligible for I don't think
so I'm pretty sure the instructions say that if you received one this year you're not eligible for another one if you got one last year but all right so what are the the board members
thoughts yes it's a chunk of money yeah and we need but we need it well said I think it's comes down it's it's a cost doing business yeah U unfortunately but was a we've been very fortunate for the past uh 25 no 30 years
more for br because the price has been so low yes Chris who would you recommend are you recommending ad ADP yes yes I would recommend ADP I we let the the board know as I'm
looking down here I see the name of the uh the sales rep I guess is um Don d'angel Someone I used to work with at Hampton County Sheriff's U we both moved out to different
positions I guess here so was an FYI I mean that wouldn't impact my decision or discussion but just so the board the board realized that he knows his product line I can tie it that well only he's only I don't know
when he left I left a year little over year and a half ago and he was still there so he left after that shortly after that well he answer all my questions that's a change going from a sheriff's office to ADP so if we vote on these tonight you'll
have you'll need us to sign the contract so that you guys can get started on it right Steve was able to sign the contract already but we can pull out if we have to if the board says no okay then we would just turn around
and say we're not going to EDP but then you're come July one you're going to be stuck do yeah because it's like I said talking with them actually we had
three conversations with them back and forth and it's the time frame that that we're having the issue with uh to be live to actually be live you're going to have to be running dual systems probably in June yeah in June so
you're only talking about three four months out to get everything converted to them I think they said they would download or upload seven years worth of history from our current
files and then uh like I said they're just there to help us all along and to put things in perspective too when we were looking at Harper's uh said to 10 years ago it took me probably around two or 3 months to extract all the data I
wrote all the quer to extract the historical data so it takes quite some time to verify all that and they're going to do it for you guys we're going to work together yes okay so is this going to be part of um the town accountant and the treasurer's
duties or part of your um plus the school the school school too yep okay that's why we made sure that David Lucas seus was involved uh Todd dorant and Mary H
was and they all like the system as well I think so they liked it I think Mary's a little overwhelmed by it okay okay I think I don't think she's been through conversions before and it can be a very
daunting process and I think she's just overthinking it more than what she should be to be honest with you but they'll be there to support her through it yes yes all right so the ADP um was contingent on whether or not the board
approved it and what about the Vadar that we haven't signed anything with v actually he called me today and I told him we're meeting with the board tonight and I'd be able to let him know tomorrow whether or not the board wish to proceed with them or
not then adp's Al expires tomorrow the on February 26 the free 12 months free 12 months will expire so instead of 36,000 we'll be paid 51 be 51 for the five years yes
which is quite a bit of savings yes for three years yes plus we like I said we got the fiveyear 0% increase in in the cost of their services I think we have the town treasure and the town
account recommending it um we also have majority of the people at the school recommending it as far as it would use the the service I think that's that's a obviously little more money than the
other one the more correct and does the the Personnel hrp f as well yep and it also has the ability for us to be able to write additional reports to they have like 300 canned reports
that you can do for uh payroll type of reporting and we can ask for and right additional reports as we need [Music] okay okay I will make a motion that will
accept the AVP and Vadar systems for payroll and helping for the town and Randy I'll second the motion any further discussion no
discussion all in favor I I I didn't see anything in here we needed to sign Chris nothing nothing there correct uh before I walk away to um referencing the prior conversation we
were having the lease for the annex actually expires June 30th we were trying to negotiate an extension December 31st okay maybe going to March 31st that was discussion if we could push it
however remember she said she wanted the driveway paved yes yes we did check with David the price to pave the driveway is 375,000 37,7 $500 to pay it and that's with David doing the work okay that's the
cost of tonnage for the asphalt and his and his labor and his labor and stuff it'd be more if we contracted out okay so I just wanted to give the board that information just so you have something to go by and really a contract extension
should be being negotiated with the land owner at this point in time I just want to give the board that information thank you thank you because if you can't if we can't extend that contract and come to an agreement then we need to look at other options well the only other place you
can put them is Library the old library top floor which would be a huge move over yep it' be very costly to move and then if you do go forward with the municipal offices at West Street you'll have to move them
again so okay Kathy has our contact information and everything right yes okay I mean that's just something we got to look at and look at the expense what can there's an expense to moving yeah there
is there's an inconvenience to moving as well but also we're talking about paying rent for [Music] another six to nine months plus an additional $337,500 on top of that so that's mhm we don't have $37,000 in the
budgeting to to yeah so well you still have money left over in that Cemetery Paving account so if you wanted to you at a town meeting you could transfer the excess funds in that account to another special article to do the PVE so it
would be zero zero zero additional dollars let's put it that way okay I'm I'm just saying that's what you can do no I'm not saying that it's going to be a zero cost no there will be a cost but no additional funds will have to be
appropriate can you refresh our memories as as far as the number that we saved on the cemetery I recall uh we had put in I believe for 160,000 we did and I think we did it for yeah something like that that's what
I recall yeah so no we actually we did it for 59 okay okay but then we also transferred an additional 10,000 to the library Paving project cuz the prices came in higher than what we
anticipated that was like another 10,000 there so you still have money left in there enough to cover the paving cost if you so desire well like I said it would just be you go to town meeting you would ask for to uh an appropriation for 375 the
funding source would be the old Cemetery Paving article right so just move y okay y thank you thank you thank you thank you before you uh entertain your next appointment um I'm going to request the board have me on your agenda for the
next meeting I'm issuing a $275,000 uh 5year serial note uh for the purchase of the dump truck for the highway department and the rate uh negotiated today was 4
um 75 no 4.5 4.5 4.5% thank you senior moment um also I want to uh uh thank the building committee because I've served on many building committees in the past 30 years and I appreciate the work
they've done and I think they deserve Kudos thank you absolutely and we will put you on um our next meeting will be March 10th that's fine thank you thank you I get to go home
now that's that's different thank you Chris thank you all right next appointment is chief ogrady for facial recognition policy good evening good evening so this
is something all new the uh Mass Chiefs came out with a facial recognition policy a couple years ago and I never adopted it because we really didn't need it but now the District Attorney's office is
um really suggesting these policies getting put in place because the times are changing and facial recognition is becoming more uh expanded the use of it uh we would not buy any software for this this would be a through the fusion
Center and the policy is very specific on what we have to do saying that we actually have to fill out a form to the district attorney's office and they choose whether or not that information is going to be sent to the um Fusion center to see if that it matches up
there's also reporting that needs to be addressed and all of that is in this policy okay so just using a basically a policy from another the the mass Chiefs have have put this out yes it has been vetted through their attorney and so again this
is like I said we didn't have any options to use it and now the District Attorney's office is asking us to be prepared to use it if necessary I don't this think this is going to be accepted for shopliftings and things like that you know again I think it's going to be
our more serious crimes and okay but they vet it so all right it sounds like um from reading it it's a process too it's not easy correct so correct it's not just hey I want to know who this person is exact exactly
everything's documented we have to we have to report quarterly on what we would run through the facial recognition so there's no pattern of uh any improprieties y good I will make a motion to accept the facial
recognition program policy policy policy thank you for the gry police department and Chief hrady and his design I'll second the motion any further discussion
no discussion all in favor by thank you very much thank you another part of Technology all right next is 615 um bill shaheim is he here I don't think so
I guess for time sakes we'll just skip over that and then if he shows up we can do it yeah but I think we do need to look at that even if he doesn't come so uh next is Ry morset and Jay Joyce for win house
J Joyce 18 Jennifer Drive grandon mask can you hear me okay with this mask on and stuff I can okay I ran out of ink of my Apprentice so I couldn't make a whole bunch of these P I'll work with that um I'm not going to be presenting
anything new tonight because we've already given all this information to the building commission and to the board but it hasn't been acted on and Ray asked me to come out and do this and all this information is
available in the select Board office or the building commissioner's office and we've got most of our information from the public records request and from the ABC and Massachusetts ABC Freedom of
Information request I want it to be clear and so the other people behind me nobody over there is against businesses we love legal businesses we do not like illegal businesses and that
is an illegal business which I will explain if they want to relocate all their business activities to a general business area they can grow all the grapes they want on that property but they can't
conduct business activi there that's against not only General bylaws but it's also against uh the what do you call it um cease and assist order that was put
out by the Building Commissioner that has not been enforced I we don't understand why and also the select board liquor Authority which is the select board uh have failed to enforce
Massachusetts General Law chapter 138 section 15 because you are the people that are actually in charge of the Lial licenses and verifying that everything on the permit is correct and everything on the
permit are not correct because we now have copies of everything from abcc and and uh we know you got the special Town Council with $250 an hour to look over this stuff
the wine housee from all the records we got and the questions we ask they do not even have a building code certificate what means the building can't be open it says a Massachusetts billing
code certificate of occupancy refers to a document issued by a local building department in Massachusetts that conforms a building complies with State Building Code 780 CMR and is legally
permitted to be occupied essentially signifying that the structure has passed all necessary inspections and meets the required standards for sended use it is required for new construction major Renovations
or changes in the occupancy of the building now that building if you look at the deed on that building it's specifically states that that was a uh garage slash storage
area that's got nothing to do with anything else on the deed it also states that uh it says subject to and together with the benefit of a variant SLS special permit recorded in book
10386 page 350 allowing a garage SL storage building exceeding 1,000 ft in the area provided that no business service or industry is conducted there from or therein so they're in violation
of their own deed besides the town's uh bylaws and they should have caught that when they purchase it on the deed either the one who purchased it or his uh attorney that used it it's clear
that building is for a garage and storage building only it's got nothing to do with commercial activities and you can get a true copy of that uh from the town of grany you can get from the Deeds office and
everything else and that's the The Wine House off occupy the same building as the special permit defines exactly the same building okay also the M Mass real estate
disclosure massachusett General law 93a and there a Latin word which I can't pronounce it's CA v e a t em PTR basically it's let the buyer beware
the phrase Let the buy bewar is a legal Doctrine in the state of Massachusetts calling for that Latin word which I can't spell or can't pronounce it means the buyers are responsible for inspecting a property before buying it and that they have
limited Reco if the property does not meet their expectations so all that is on the buyer when they go in that's Massachusetts General law it's far far as his farming goals because he can't have a
business he is in violation of massachusett General law 48 Section 3 he's in violation of Massachusetts General Law chapter 111 section 125a is in violation of massachusett
General Law chapter 128 section 1A and Massachusetts General law 243 section 6 to date if you go up to the assessor's office there's no property on that land
classified as farming it's all single resident family with the exception of his latest change he's now had a classified and I don't know how he did it because as the cessor record St
is uh residential single era he has it now classified as a nightclub slash barar don't know how that got in there but it's there we have an appointment to meet with the assesses and find out how uh that got to be
there also the Alcohol Beverage Control Commission did an inspection on uh the 8th of January and their inspection concluded
that uh where is that I get oh yeah there is over there uh it has a complaint report ID 2024 d265 cm- F what I'm going to do is I'm
going to email this to um I know Kathy's up here I'll email it to upstairs okay because I say I couldn't print anymore I ran out of ink you can get Ira's email excuse me you get Ira's email okay whoever I was going
to S I forget who's that upstairs that works with Kathy oh dale dale I got her email I thank you do that the attached ABC report that had investigators and I have to spell his
name because I can't pronounce it kuj a wski and Fleming addressed the complaint on January the 1st of 2025 the investigat enter the premise unannounced and deserve no beer or wine from any source of the than the wine Hub we spoke
with the owner James who was informed of the complaints he was able to show us beer which is produced by the drunken rabbit through a tenant Brewer contract but is labeled and sold Under The Wine House brand name there is no sign of
drunken rabbit beer or labos on the premises James also had a documentation proving that he purchases his grapes not wine from California he has invoices on on these premises for the grapes he displays a map on the region and his
building to show where they come from Massachusetts General law for farming is very clear a minimum of 25% of the product being used on that land has to come from that land he's not
using anything come from that land the grapes are coming from California the beer is being brewed over the drunken rabbit and then sent over to him with his label on it also you got to have a minimum of 5 acres to have a farm as I said the ess's
office doesn't show any acreage for a farm at all okay and I say there's no evidence that the wine house is producing any farm products for their wine and or beer consumption and or sales it is not a
farm and this is from m Massachusetts abcc it's not anybody who going over there they're the ones writing out the report where everything's coming from it's a bar that's what it is he's not
Brewing any beer and he's not making any wine from his own production it does say he's bottling it if you look at a bottle and believe in not he's been he bought it in September of 2020 and he's been bought in it and
selling since 2020 I don't know how you grow grapes in 3 months particularly in the winter time and we have all that evidence if you want but I know that um uh upstairs
the building only has copies of all that stuff he's also selling other retail excuse me other retail products you can't sell retail products in a residential area he's is also selling beer I mean
excuse me wine by the bottle ABC told us he can't sell he's a pouring he's got a pouring license he doesn't have like if you go into a bar anywhere can you buy a bottle of beer or
a bottle of liquor and walk out the answer is no some states you can not in Massachusetts yeah not in Massachusetts you can't because they have a pouring license only you got to have the other licenses if you want to sell he's also
wholesaling his product to a number of different areas was Atkins Farm there's one called The Grape and then there a liquor store right down here in 202 he's not authorized to even do that and Ray wanted me to let you know
that since the one of the big things he has not even been issued his licenses yet they're sitting upstairs in Kathy Leonard's draw because he has not met the special requirements that your board gave him on 16
December he has inspection he needs to comply with so our question is if he doesn't have issued his license why is he open according to the attorney we talked to the town is at risk of lawsuits if
something happens over there whether it's a DUI an injury or anything like that the lawyer can drag the town right on in because the town has not issued him the proper licenses to conduct his
business the town is withholding his licenses so as when I was on the select board I heard many a time when Chris Martin would say well we can't do that because it's a liability to the town and we'd have to address it another way this is a
liability to the town and the town residents do not deserve this liability particularly when you hear all the time on how little the town has in funds we can't afford a major lawsuit uh Ry has filed a complaint with
the Massachusetts Attorney General's office the complaint is for government corruption because the people in management and the offices here are not following Massachusetts General Law And since the people concerned
are town of gry management or elected officials now the uh what is he got here the massachus ethics commission is now involved investigating everybody to see what's going on I don't know if you guys been notified or not but he's gotten
calls and I've gotten one call myself they are investigating so the biggest thing is we don't know why he's allowed open when he has no licenses one of the big things if
you went into any liquor store or you go into cin Farm you go anywhere the licenses are all displayed on the wall they have to by law in Massachusetts if he hasn't been issued any licenses how can he display them on the
wall it's illegal completely illegal that place needs to be shut down if he's not going to comply with the law he's done like I said we have no problem with
him growing his grapes there if he wants to move his commercial operations to General business that's fine yeah that works but you cannot do uh business where in a residential
area how would you like to leave your house in the morning and come back and there's a bar uh somebody bought a house right next to you or since you're not putting any restrictions really on any of the
licenses you're issuing it could be adult entertainment center CU it's just a general license you're given them you don't put no restrictions on anything we've talked about that before but there are
none and you're putting other danger other departments at risk the Board of Health is a big example they follow that common Vic license and if anything goes wrong they're going to blame the select Port
because the select Port according to what they say the select board already has approved their common Vic license I understand back in September On The Board of Health did their inspections and stuff like that a common Vic license was inforce for 2024 but it
hasn't been enforced since 31 December of 2024 it died on 1 January 2025 so they shouldn't even be doing anything with food or anything else over
there again they're putting the town at risk do you have any question questions for me or anything like that I don't I know uh the information that you have emailed Kathy has sent to our special Town Council and we really
can't say much about that Jay um all we can say is that we are exploring all of our options okay like I said we hear you we understand uh that the people are upset we understand both sides um and we are exploring all options and that's
really all we can say at this time the attorneys we talk to you don't have any options it's not negotiable he's a Massachusetts General law that he and the select board are not in compliance with so if a lawsuit comes it can come
against both we don't want to see this town hurt can't afford to be hurt so why have we taking these chances I don't understand when I was in the select board we never took these chances Glenn will tell you that if I had something to say I'd say it well I
think the Crystal's Point too and again we sent that to special town councel and we're look we're waiting Damian told me that he understands it goes to special Town Council but he doesn't have any information because it only goes to the
Sight board he doesn't get copied on the step of special Town Council so the owner of The Wine House Jim trumpy will get uh information from his attorney and you're getting the information from the town's attorney but the town residents
are not getting any information we've been told if we want information we can get a lawyer real inexpensive and he can get in there we don't want to P the town we love this
town but we have a set of rules and when you got the chairman of the planning board violating all the major rules that's not a good practice at all and than J is as crystal said we reached out through the information is with our
special Town Council and like most places we'll act on what the special Town Council advises us to do and you don't have any idea that's the lawyer you don't have any idea when it's going to be come to AE I we're hoping to meet with them uh this week but I guess I
don't know if uh we do have another meeting on Thursday in which the special Town Council will be here but it's not for that matter yeah it's probably your gravel pit yes yeah but it was asked of Kathy to reach out to him though mhm well we're going to see uh Ray and
and the other people over there are going to keep sending the stuff to Damian which we understand is last day is 7 March so they'll have to go into uh the select Board office and they can do what they want with it probably put it in the drawer and let it sit there like
the last inspector they didn't do anything with it cuz we didn't have one so um Jay when the information comes to us we do like Glenn said send it to special Town Council but due to the sensitivity of the matter and possible
litigation on whether it's with the owner or whether it's with the town's people that's why we can't we can't let you know what's going to happen because then well okay we would be telling that's perfectly fine but just to let you know if the town doesn't do anything
about this and I know it's budget time and he gets $250 an hour you better put a lot of money in there CU you're going to get another suit from the people over there that's not a threat it's just a promise the people have talked it over
so when you plan your budget out I would plan it accordingly you can always put the money into something else like that uh dryway for the annex which I heard about I I'll just get up subject Qui why
did you just buy the place and then it's 335,000 you buy that place and when you move the people to West Street because I don't know where you're going to get the money from that to make that move then you sell it when you sell this place why
put another 33,000 into there and then you're going to pay another 335,000 if you want it I don't I don't think the board discussed to put $33,000 into it so no but you know what I'm just saying that was said tonight I I never heard about it cu the only way I see stuff
anything is to kite and G cam cuz this is only the second time I've been out as you know I don't come out because I can't any no other questions for me I'll get out of you here thank you Jay thank
you Jay y but I'm I'm really concerned about the liability for the town I really am we understand that you spent your time here addressing a lot of issues and we understand that they said and CH said
that you know we act on what our town Cal Town C wants us to do I just hope no lawsuit comes out up that we're about lawyers up here no I'm just that's why we have someone representing I I've sat up there with you before thank you take care Jay no
problem all right next up is John Edwards for du Frank forestry cutting thank the board for listening to sh for me still having a hard time the neighbors so been really good
about it and they're all favor of what we're doing just so you know okay thank you thank you thank you Hi how are you good evening sorry my last appointment here was I I was tardy I had a family issue that I needed to resolve no
worries I'm glad you were able to make it today all right so we did phase one we did phase one okay I'd like to continue with phase two if that was um acceptable to you folks so can you just clarify what phase two is because I don't think
Dave was on when we started the um phase one pH sure I understand what I what I have um here to guide you little I was hoping it was in here but I don't think it's in here here my
agreement with the town here's a copy of the map of the and in the dark line that you see dark outline was what was done the first time the blue uh which was on the kend
street Side Y exactly and so the Orange is more or less the remainder of the park that's forested the park um has a forested section and a open section okay uh the forested section is about 135
acres and the uh the open section is about 65 so the field and the complex that you see with the um with the uh gazebo and all the structures and parking and all that is about 65 acres so there's about 100 acres left that is
UN undis disturb let's let's say um so I could incorporate that into another phase phase two I could I could break that out into two pieces to do a phase three um I suggest that we do it in one
uh in a second phase that would complete most of the most of the remainder with the exception of stand four if you look at the map down in the bottom right hand section you can see there's something called stand for that actually is only partially outlined and I know that's confusing so I'm gonna yeah I see stand
two stand one stand three stand four sits alone down in the dog leg down on the bottom and that's kind of an un un we don't see stand Bo I'll give it I understand sorry it's not don't apologize that say St St for oh you said
bottom I did Bott don't follow my anyway it's sting alone it's it's a younger it's it was open probably when the when the property was purchased so it's forested in now and it's kind of thin and it could stand
alone and just stay alone for a while that could sit un untouched for a longer period of time that's four section four okay this right here yeah up top y so I know um another reason why we
asked you to be here John was because there's a lot of um a lot of of talk afterwards after we started doing phase one um people were really upset with the trees being cut down now you know as well as I do when you walk through there there's a lot of
dead trees and there's a lot of liability just walking through those Trails I've run them there's trees down all the time I usually when I do run them have to call Building Maintenance and tell them that there's a log down in the trail and then you can see throughout there's just so many dead
trees because there's no sun coming down to the ground so the saplings are dying and all the big trees are dying so I guess I don't know if you can speak to that just to kind of help the people at home understand why we're doing this
sure no that's as far as Forest management sure thank you thank you for that as you as anybody who visits the park knows before I came on the scene um it was very clear that there was a gypsy moth defoliation for probably three years running one after another after
another and it killed uh probably 65 maybe 70% of the oak that was there in the in the park and it was especially concentrated in that upper portion of the park that uh we operated in in this phase one um to the point where there
were whole sections where all the trees were dead uh all the oak trees anyway were dead so um it was pretty obvious that there was no other option uh to to deal with it in terms of the liability issues that you mentioned uh you know
people recrea there walking the trails trees are falling down and that wasn't going to stop that was only going to get works and the value of whatever was standing was being diminished through uh Decay and and and insect damage so uh we initiated a Timber Harvest there the
town netted uh about $60,000 in Timber uh value out of that um that operation finished about March of last year and um as a result it's walkable uh there's no risk for
those for that section of the trail system you walk it you see uh disturbance clearly um the operation that we initiated was a biomass operation where the trees that were cut down were also chip whatever wasn't used
for a high quality product a chip was made of it and so the debris on the ground was kept to a minimum for that that way so um I'm proposing that um well logging is disturbing yeah and you
can't you can't put lipstick on a pig it's not pretty and it's in the short term it's very disturbing to look at I think that over time you know we haven't seen a a full year yet of
rebirth if you will uh seedlings are in this in the forest canopy there are seeds there are the seed bank in the soil is is tremendous the sunlight once it hits the soil will generate a new crop of trees of all varying species and
competition will over time you know we're talking 10 20 years probably will shake out and we'll we'll have a new Forest there so anybody who recreates in the park will curse me first and thank me later because I think as time goes by you're
going to get to see the results of taking away that un dead canopy basically so the next phase if if you if you allow me to continue I if you walk the park you might see
there's already some paint out there um those are trees that are I'm proposing that we could Harvest again in another phase they're Hemlock predominantly Hemlock has Hemlock willia delid the willia delid is a is a is an aphid that
uh sucks the the the the nutrition out of the needles of of H trees and eventually um if the infestation is is uh is uh bad enough will kill Hemlock and so uh anybody who travels to
Connecticut um can see whole hillsides of dead henlock just rotting away and so I the The Hope was in this plan this uh 20 odd page plan that I generated for you folks in
2021 um um talks about Hemlock talks about um gypsy moth and this is the next the next disease or insect that I'm hoping to get out a little bit in front of try to get the value out of the hemlock before it becomes standing dead
just like the oak was and start to regenerate something in there uh now so that's the intent thank you does the uh saying mostly Hemlock but does it also affect uh any coniferous tree that's in there
well the the hemlock will be one we'll cut some Pine there's definitely Pine that needs to be cut in there uh there's some Pine that is way overdue for a harvest we're going to thin in there this is more of a thinning more of a selection Harvest okay this is not a large scale wide big openings that you
see now this is more selective small patches will be opened acre or less uh where it need be this that's not the goal the goal is to improve what's there and to try to begin the process of regeneration so in technical terms it's
called The shelterwood Harvest uh the first first phase of shelterwood harvest is to take out the the worst trees uh take a little value if you can and create small openings and disturb the soil so that soil will the seedlings will have a
chance to get into the mineral soil uh and and get a root get rooted and by taking these older trees larger trees you'll open the can of for sunlight to hit the ground exactly redevelop exactly this is what the people in town were wondering about so I'm glad that you're
explaining it it's appreciated it does take time like he's saying no secondary succession doesn't happen overnight it takes at least it do been 20 years um as you said it kind of looks like Devastation when it first when you're first doing it it's very shocking
there's no getting around it especially what we did what we did was was was a remove basically it was a s it was a sanitation it was a salvage operation there wasn't a lot of trees that were alive well I shouldn't say were along it was more
than 50% debt yeah and so you as you're doing the shelterwood Harvest you would also get rid of the dead trees as well that are like knocked over chip those and okay yeah clean it up a little bit Yeah the the the idea here is to take out the
weak and the and the and the dead and the weary and if you have value that you can take you know if you got a stand of a fully closed canopy of oak trees uh that are 20 20 in in diameter it doesn't hurt to take one or two of those because you want the sun to get in there and if
you don't take them and if you don't create the openings you don't get the you don't get the understory development and they'll just compete for resources anyways right right and I don't have the contract uh sorry Kathy isn't here um for phase two
how much was it estimated to cost or to I that's that's a great question I would be um shooting from the hip at this point because I haven't marked everything okay um looking at what I have here I I think would be I think it would be less than before but I'd rather
under promise and overperform um and then last time you did in the winter too you did it around when it was just starting to TH or not even starting to thought the ground was frozen so that we didn't rip up the ground as much well I'm glad you brought that up because that was our goal that
was our goal and we waited for that to happen and it didn't win yeah this is the first winter we've had in about seven where we've actually seen ground Frozen conditions okay and so we waited and then we waited and we waited a little more and then I got to the point
where I said Chris those trees are not getting any better you know and there and we're getting a lot of a lots falling down that are marked so the cont contractor who purchased the wood now is looking at wood that's on the ground where that's not where you want it to be so we
decided to go ahead and go and I think it was a good choice because if you look out there um you know the the main skid trail that runs up the hill um is is just you know is is rutted but it's not bad but I don't think there's any any
evidence really of mud there any evidence of really bad ground disturbance so I'm trying to picture this this goes around the p Pond right the Kendall Street's here yep this was the Kendall Street side so we're looking at it like this right so this would be
the rest of that side actually it would really be the rest of the wooded area yeah yeah okay I see an email too from David saying he so Dave yeah so four yeah I was going to get into that once we'd made a decision on phase two but maybe that will help the board make the
decision on phase so I don't have a print out of it because he just sent it and then I had um Ira um email it to everyone but Dave desolates did um email me um letting me know and I just want to bring up the
email um the Woodland and Watershed regeneration pilot program so they would come in and um replant trees well and that's through the
and I know um a couple of the town's DCR so I know a couple of the town's people were um interested in starting a tree planting program but this would be through DCR it's Woodland and Woodland and Watershed regeneration pilot program okay and if
you want I can send this to you if you're interested in see the F that be great so I don't have to try to read my scribbled notes um yeah I have your email right here so I'll email it to you well you know I'm a trained Force manager and as a you know all of my
experience tells me that you don't have to plant anything in New England you get what you get through through manipulating the over story now that having said that I planted trees myself so I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth if if you want if you want to try
a pilot program to plant trees I think that's that's fine uh there's enough open space there um that it would be interesting to see how they responded to the Natural landscape around them and it's 25 to 30 free trees and
shrub SE seedlings to plant on their properties and it's for any municipality or land owner with forested land with an active Forest man Forest management plan or Forest stewardship plan and you have you meet all that criteria yeah and the
contact is Mike Downey at TCR I know Mike so can't hurt yeah if the board's okay I'll reach out to them and see yeah I think it's what we need to so that would be for phase one but I do think that we should move
with phase two um the trees are not getting any better they're just more and more dying as I uh walk through there and I know we're going to get people who are upset about it but I think as John said we need to get ahead
of the aphid infestation before it takes all the tres yeah I do too and this is just a way of making it a healthier area for growing the for the trees to grow and managed
trees managed trees tend to be healthier and maybe it's my bias I know there's a whole cohort of people that believe we should not touch anything and let nature take its course and in the in the whole scheme of things on a large time scales that's a fine idea and I'm not disputing that over large time scales maybe that's
interesting and and worth while in certain Landscapes but when you have a recreational area where you have people coming and going um while I was marking trees in there I saw people every day while we were harvesting trees in there despite putting up signs we saw people
there every day at winter ice you name it they're out there it's a heavily used landscape so there's a lot of liability with trees that are falling down yeah and um I'm actually a biology teacher and we teach about um f uh
Forest management and forest fires wonder and if you leave the um trees that are dead there it be it increases the carbon sink it's drier and more forest fires yeah so I'm I definitely agree with managing it before it gets to that
point I agree y I'm ready all right so um I think John would need a motion to move forward with phase two you'll map it out and then you'll come back to the board and let us know yep from there I will make a motion to continue on on phase two at D Frame Park forestry
management Timber harvesting I'll second the motion any further discussion no discussion all in favor I I do you have any questions for us chn no I think you see the agreement I think it's still enforce I don't think we need anything to formalize what our Rel relationship
is okay um I I imagine Chris left good notes um I have a copy of the old uh contract that we used to go through this process um if for any reason there isn't you I'm sure Kathy can find it I'm sure she can too I've got a I've got a paper copy just in case
do you want these back um no I I give those for your uh for your use okay thank you thank you so much thank you thank you John all right yes I I heard you say something about I was supposed to forward something through the board oh
it was the Woodland um seedling program you did they got it did yeah we got I did yeah you did yeah I saw it in my email this afternoon somebody did I got it they got forward to me all right citizen participation do you have two over there yeah
okay sorry I know the meetings can make it long and the citizens have to wait sure said that was all right first one Dennis W come on up um before I get into what I really
came for that gentleman struck a a nerve in my brain when I was fire chief one of the big issues we had was dredging of fire ponds and through my networking I was able to contact the operator
engineer Operating Engineers union and went through a whole Spiel they were willing to come in and dredge du frint ponds all it would cost us was to move their equipment and
fuel unfortunately the board of selectman denied it because they said there was liability I got back to the operators engineers and they said we have all our liability insurance policies and
everything there's not an issue hence I moved on nothing went on so I know du France has been a thorn in our side for years that might be an Avenue to get it done for almost nothing so
what um I we've looked into we did the feasibil feasibility study and it's 1.5 million to dredge that fond they would do it back then I'm going back probably 2001 2002 know anyone that
for free now oh well but still they he said we are always looking for projects for to train our Engineers you know operate they um what company Dennis it's it's a union operators union yeah which is
probably a little Springfield or I was talking to a gentleman hady but they no longer used the they used to have their equipment out there and I happen to go by and it's like investigating yeah absolutely because if cost us a little bit of money
I mean he said they were always looking for projects He said this would be perfect for us I said they got to train on something okay so that's an Avenue you guys can look at um unfortunately I'm going to bring up a
couple of things that I know Glen you're not going to want to hear and Dakota is here so he can he can either stab me in back or Pat me on the back um we got our tax bill
in my taxes went up $2300 okay let me explain I built my house myself and started in 79 we moved in in 80 it had a second floor it had a first
floor it had a wing where my bathroom is and it had a two-car garage I have altered the roof I used to have a gamber ale style and I removed the gamra ale and went with a conventional did not change the square footage at
all okay um when I saw actually my wife saw it she had a heart attack I had to revive her and she said what's going on so I went up to the assessor's office who she looked at the card so people
know your wife actually didn't have a heart attack no she did not no no no she did not I see her at school yeah you see her at school so but anyway so I went up to the assessor's office and um the lady there was very professional and
explained she it took her a while to actually figure out well this doesn't make sense why did it go up so much and then she found out that they have not been taxing us since day one on my second floor I have a house that's 2,000 square
ft right around there my concern is other than paying $2,300 increase all at once um how many other people have gone through
this they have had many reinspection at my house I've had to got a permit to redesign the roof took out a permit to do the front porch over different permits that should have triggered
something where when they take the card and look they should see what has been done or what has been missed the last that I know and they take pictures my card still shows no I'm
sorry still says gambero style roof and it's not trust me I know I did it um my concern is again I I really think
that is there a way that we could have all the boards audited on a regular basis like every 3 to five years because if they did it to me there's a possibility some other compies
are not being tax corrects and that's our Revenue that's what 85 90 95% of our revenue is through taxation um so I wanted to bring that up I seal all boards should be audited at
some point on a regular basis I'm going to bring up a sore thumb it happened to the fire department to the tune of a quarter of a million dollars okay right after I
left and I'm not going to say anymore okay um so this is something I think it keeps everybody upboard honest and everyone knows what's going on in town so when somebody says why did
my taxes go up you'll have a good answer for them they have been good we we had a meeting uh with the actual assessors board we went through that and they're going to come back and reinspect an area that and being taxed
wrong according to their description but that's okay um but I think that's important I think all boards should be audited on a regular basis whether it's two years 5 years whatever I don't think any boards have been
audited what audited what do you mean a board to be audited well there should be standards and somebody should be able to look at those standards and make sure they're met so there's got to be some some Association
out there that will do audits of this sort anyone that takes in money they should definitely be audited make sure the receipts are right and all of that um well we get audited every year but it's for the treasur the town
accountant for all of our accounts all our accounts anybody coming in it's it's audited yeah no I think what Dennis is looking more at is the process making sure that everyone's doing what they need to in their board or their committee yeah and I don't know that there's a there's someone out there that
does that really that wouldn't that fall underneath the Town Administrator to make sure that everybody's doing their job in town well the Town Administrator then was say over elected officials right so but someone's got to be I I see what Dennis is saying someone's got to
like how we know the elected officials are doing what they need to do or and I know not every house can be assessed right Dakota in a year right so you do a certain percentage each year lot of Errors townwide okay yeah and then you
as you see them you fix them yeah but doubt yeah just know to his benefit he been all these years without getting taxed yeah to whoever was sitting my predecessor right and the other two but now he's in shock as
right and there's really there's really no way around it like you're saying because until you know that the error is there you don't know to fix the error and your house probably hasn't been reassessed I don't even know what the cycle is it was done this year well yes
but before that it was done oh it's on the card and there's been probably three official audits by the assessors but to me when a building permit is taken out that should give
them the opportunity to readdress the card and make sure the card says what the building is um without it being online I don't think it would trigger anything for the assessor's office though because that goes to the Building Commissioner can I
address yeah absolutely when you get it do you get notified when somebody does building permit it's closed okay get if the building commiss send it over okay we're trying to integrate our
system so we get them faster right a lot of unfortunately this town's done a lot of stuff on paper for years yeah yeah and we've lost a lot of documentations town right right and and I hope you understand I'm not I'm not bad mouthing you guys because I understand it's not
an easy process see a lot and I say wow how was this caught I'm just hoping dep like that yeah and that's what I'm concerned it's just us it's other municipalities the Eon see the same thing but just those errors made yeah we're
human and I understand it's just that's our only Revenue sharing and to lose all that revenue for what 44 years that's a lot of money and I you could pay back the past 20 no that's okay I'll
pass I I'll tell you what you talk to my wife and she says yes we'll write a check okay the other thing I brought up I want to bring up is I've been trying to catch your meetings online and and
the um West Street uh committee meetings unfortunately the way the world is today in the United States we were allocated I'm not sure 1.6 1.9 million
doll through ARA arpa arpa ARA okay I thought it was ARA but and okay you know the funds I'm talking about y American what was our American I thought I thought it was American Recovery yeah
recovery yeah it St Co yeah yeah okay so my concern is here we are getting ready to spend what was it $15 million roughly if we don't have those funds because everything is Frozen there's going to be 1.6 1.9 tacked on to
what we're going to go to the town for and I haven't heard anyone addressing that what do you mean the well we don't have the funds correct no we have the we have the funds are they in our account yeah they're already earmarked for the
West Street building project okay they might be earmarked because they had to assign a project but I was under the uh yeah I was under the point of we didn't get the money yet it's still with the federal government I don't think we
trying to think back when and now I wish Chris was here yeah uh I don't but no we had to use it by a certain date right didn't we had the E mark it but we didn't get funds we had to accept it at one point AC we have the funds okay have
the F and then I apologize for that the time frame where we had to accept it by or or and it had to be earmarked for our project and has to be spent by 2026 yes yeah it sounds right okay so it's already
it's yeah yeah there you go that's what I was and it was um 1.9 million and it's part of the 5.6 or 5.7 that we already allocated right okay that's all I was concerned that the funds weren't you know still with the federal government
and with everything going on we don't know if we get the money back that's a good concern well especially after I see their presentation I mean I love the project but we got we
got oh which brings me up they should look at doing a um information session yeah set you know set up a time people come in quiz them and see what
the project is because because if you take this to taxpayers all at once without an open meeting which they did do the first time that we put it on for last year's yes it did go all changed and
dollars funding for but like you said it's it's going to involve yes yeah I think that's a great idea I'm sorry I'm over my no that's okay um just been partial answer to the question about what services are available for audits
thank you government yes the division of local Services DLS um and I don't know if gry's done this many many municipalities have but they'll come in and do a review of all of the various Financial departments and make
recommendations suggestions about uh what you places to improve where what you're doing well what you what you think about improving but DLS that's an ongoing program it's been going for many many years what do they look at review
they'll look at at uh all all aspects of finances so it would include on uh uh treasur right they're not going to know the house isn't being assessed the right value they're not I don't know that they're not going to get into that
amount of detail but um you know those the opportunity is there and they I I can tell you from firsthand experience they welcome the opportunity to command and you know they'll just take a look at whatever it is basically you're asking them to look at okay I think I do
remember seeing a very old document I think it was either 2015 or 2016 when I first joined the select board in which they had DLS come in and they looked at um not only the financial part of it but they also looked at how the different departments were working and that's when
they had recommended the Town Clerk and the uh Town treasure emerged at into one position but it got shot down at town meeting okay so I do remember they did that but that was a while ago at least 10 years on wol yeah yeah
yeah they do all that they'll yeah well we have to we have an annual audit they do make sure we our money is appropriated the way it's supposed to be so all right and George Randle hello George folks Tonight George good
how are you thank you I'm feeling better finally it's good to see you uh yeah it's good to be seen um I have three things first of and most important is a welcome to Ira um hope you know what you're getting into here getting an idea it's just
beginning sir you know where he is he's close to the door but really welcome thank you um second of all um my compliments on moving forward with phase two of the trees at at the park um I wish it had been uh followed right
immediately after the first one but here we are finally moving forward I think you've done the right thing um why I'm here tonight is uh several years ago when Kell Hall was uh decommissioned and uh turned over to um
GPS uh a cable came to the historical Association which we believe was used in the select Board office it's um looks like an oversized kitchen table 3T wide uh 6 and 1/2 ft long uh and we would
like to um de accession that and send it back to kellock Hall we think it came through the permission of the board of Selectmen at the time our archist is looking for paperwork which which I don't think we're going to be able to
find due to changes long ago and things getting thrown away so basically what I'm here for tonight is to ask the board's permission for us to return the table to Kell Hall to the preservation Society instead of the historical that's correct it
would still be in the in the town and still be used for a uh historical purpose if you will do they want it uh yes yeah yeah I'm I'm sorry I I should have uh I should have said that we asked don't want to like say yes take it and
then they don't want it we asked uh if they would like it uh before I came came here so uh I'd like to ask you folks to think on it or and just let me know either either way at some point in time well if the Historical Society doesn't want it and the preservation Society
does want it seems like a no-brainer seems pretty logical correct but uh uh we need your your your blessing on the on that on that motion I will make a motion that the table where is it currently George it's
in the kitchen at the uh uh H white Quirk house the K the table in the Quirk house be returned to Kellogg Hall correct okay and the preservation Society I'll second the motion any further discussion no discussion all in
favor I I thank you very much we're not responsible for delivery now are we because we voted to do that was that was phase phase two of my my request I shall return so phase two is thank you very much thank thank you
George all right Ira do you have anything for us uh let's see you know well there's there's a couple things that are still on the agenda yeah I can go through that but I just didn't know if
you had anything that was pressing I mentioned the uh uh Reserve fund transfer request from uh facilities okay um it's
for uh repairs that are needed to a vehicle comes to 4,296 34 he doesn't have it in the budget um and told it's handled in a couple of different ways it could be
just acted it up on by you and then would additionally have to be acted upon by the finance committee and we're just moving money the reserve fund okay you do have now a a special time meeting coming up so if you wanted to hold off and put that on as an
article separately I don't they already fixed the vehicle though right or they're the process I mean they either fix it or it's not available to be used and okay U according to J
he needs it okay and this is for snow removal right I think so uh I think it's one of trucks 2019 Ford F350 I I'm not sure if it has a plow on it good yeah yeah um but it's uh remove and replace
front brake pads rotors front uh rear shocks shocks new joints other hard so and the reason why it's coming in front of this so the select board can
decide to take it out of reserve and we don't need so you and the finance committee together you both sign it either the I I think I'm not 100% sure but my guess is
that in the past Chris probably signed these there's a line for elected official or Town Administrator okay and then there's a line for chair of the finance committee so anybody has to they're going to put it on an agenda they can't vote on it until obviously
they meet okay um and my guess is that maybe the Town Administrator in the past just took care of this on his own which is fine I've been here this my third day so I wanted yeah you know I just figured i' let you know you have meeting so y
it's fine I'm trying to make the last time was a while ago something like that happened and you and there's money set aside for that yeah there's 130,000 in your reserve account
unexpected however since you apparently haven't used the there's a a law that's been in place for many years that in the last 60 days of a fiscal year the select board and finance committee jointly can make decisions to transfer between
accounts yeah um you know you haven't done that process it makes more sense that your reserve fund would be larger okay you know when you're preparing budgets a year and a half in advance of all the money being spent things change
yeah so anyway that's really the only thing that's not already on the agenda okay other than to tell you I'm happy to be here it's exciting it's nice that I live two miles away if I can find 10 minutes to get out
maybe I'll go home for lunch but we're glad to hear that uh so do you want a motion for that we would just need to know what the amount was so that we can make that motion yep uh so it's for repairs of a 2019 Ford F350 Superduty truck replace front and
rear brakes rear shocks and front U joints uh the amount to be transferred is 42963 and that's from the reserve fund yeah okay I will make a motion that we move
4,296 34 from Reserve fund to pay for repairs on a 2019 for F350 do we actually I don't we actually the finance committee does that well we have to do it for um either the TA or the select board right but we're we're
approve to send it we're approving it yeah and then the finance committee will do it too separ approve okay I'll second the motion can't remember the way we did it last time in a few years I was going to say we haven't done it since I've been on so I'm not sure a while ago doing it once or twice any further
discussion no all in favor I and for Ira to sign it on our behalf I should have said that I'm sorry for iro to sign on our behalf select board yes only can sign as the Town Administrator anyway right thank you all right next is
to accept departmental reports I will make a motion to accept departmental reports I'll second the motion um any further discussion and Ira I don't know if you're going to know the answer to this question so I'll reach out to Jeremy for it but uh for the gry safety
complex it said that there's a health advisory posted do you know what that was for okay so I'll reach out to Jeremy for that did you hear anything about it okay all right Al yes I don't know if there's something with the water we just
cleared the COA you know it's been months he with the water yeah it was in um Jeremy's report so I'll just reach out to him with more questions all in favor I I next is to approve and sign maintenance warrants
I will make a motion the Tom gramy authorized for payment warrant number 49s dated 2725 with a total dispersement for Warrant 49s of $128,100 and5
I'll second the motion any further discussion no discussion so I will be abstaining from my reimbursement per curriculum um that I bought through the school for $11.22 other than that I will rule on
the other ones so all in favor I I thank you all right well make make a motion the town of gry authorized for payment warrant number 49 dated 27 2025 with a total dispersement for
Warrant 49 of 9145781348 getting cold up here really for the first time I'm not cold in this room that's true she does have the key I will make a motion for payroll account summary town of Granby warrant number 50
dated 211 2025 with a total expenditure of 464,000 $676 I'll second a motion any further discussion no discussion so I will be abstaining from the teacher salaries and the select board
salaries all in favor I I always daveid and I will V have necessity for the select board s not as always but yes I hear you that's stand I
know I got to say it every time but paper uh no just one I will make a motion the town of grany authorized for payment warrant number 51 dated 214 2025 with a total dispersement for
Warrant 51 $16,692.34 thank you thank you I will make a motion the town of gramby authorized for payment warrant number 52 dated 221 2025 with a total dispersement for
Warrant 52 of $71,900 I'll second the motion any further discussion discussion all in favor I thank you I will make a motion to town of grany
authorized for payment warrant number 52s dated 221 2025 with a total dispersement for Warrant 52s of 162,163 40 second the motion
any further discussion all in favor I thank you all right next next is to approve and sign the 2025 Class 2 license so that should be n
appointment your business right there I will make a motion the Commonwealth Massachusetts P of ramby make uh for used card dealer license class two to buy and sell secondhand Motor
Vehicles in accordance with provisions of chapter 140 general laws with amendments there too for Jason W Aller doing business as Roger CaRu Imports is hereby licensed
to buy and sell secondhand Motor Vehicles at 185 West State Street grany Mass described as follows least office space at 185 West State Street gramy Mass this office will be used to post
vehicles for sale on the internet and in publication there is a limit of 10 cars for sale on the identified portion of the property where cars can be displayed at 185 West State Street at one time any signage for the business
is only permitted on the existing Marquee sign and there shall be no service of vehicles on property dated February 24th 2025 license number 2-5 license will expire on January 1st
2026 I'll second the motion any further discussion no discussion all in favor I I thank you thank you okay I will make a motion on behalf
of the gramy police department requesting that an HP p3015 printer be deemed Surplus equipment and be disposed of the printer is no longer functional as it is outdated and unable to get updates for
the drivers and will no longer communicate with the network I'll second the motion any further discussion no discussion all in favor all right so next is to discuss
the Building Commissioner position so did the board have a chance to review all of your notes from the four that we interviewed for Building Commissioner I'd like a little more time
that's possible just want to follow up on a couple things okay that's fine weing and there was another one just so you guys know I don't know if you saw that there was another one that came in on Friday I did see that so are we
another applicant for for Building Commissioner oh is closed was it there was closed date right or that I thought there was I don't know if we had a closed date on it did we thought we
did well let's let's find out this not that's fine let me see if it's here I don't think I have it here for the posting that actually end dat yeah I don't have the posting here in my
paperwork if we didn't have an inate I don't have she would interviewing another person okay but I guess it wasn't until we it might have said until we fill the position team I I want to say that's what it did say but I'm not positive so
I don't want to I don't want to say it as fact but I think it said until filled so I guess we can go that's possible I guess I think she did post that until filed until filled yeah you know where
posted place online I I know it's on our website she posted it on our website and she posted it in the newspaper so good thinking Ira this before I get this um we can do that after we'll do the discussion of
that we'll wait for IR hopefully can find it fast well I guess if there was no limit on the posting we have another candidate we could we could we could we wish if we wish to we did do it in the process of
deliberating on the four that we did interview Ira while you're looking if you don't mind we'll go on to the Council on Aging um approval of COA agree agreement unless you can I don't know it's not very easy to navigate
sometimes um The Building Commissioner ad that we put out did we post it with a specific deadline for the date or did we post it until filled is what we're looking at Kathy would know but um she's on vacation welld deserved
vacation employment opportunities it okay it just says that we're looking for a Building Commissioner okay sorry so um I know Glenn wants some more time to look over the applicants and to check a
couple things out are you okay with that okay so we can so we'll put it on the March 10th agenda yep sure because Thursday is just for the Gravel Pit here corre
is you you could amend the agenda for Thursday you have time if you want to do that no the gravel Pit's going to take up a large portion of the time and we're paying special Town Council to come all the way down here I mean we don't know how fast or how slow
that hearing is going to go but looking at just the past hearings it's been a full night understood um I will I don't know if you have this information about interim Building Commissioner said Daman no that no so he told me his his
suggestion is um let's see that he said Jason Ford who is in South Padley M also does a bunch of other the hillt where started
is available the week of the 10th to the 14th to fill in here okay and um and that Kevin Ross who's the Building Commissioner in Northampton will be available beginning on the 19th and that would be on interim basis
right so they would do um in addition to their cuz you said he's Northampton right now yeah and he's the one I he and Tom quinland are the two actually was involved with when you guys were when your
longtime Building Commissioner retired involved in s Padley anyway yeah that's how Tom and Kevin has done some work here that's how they ended up here okay year or two ago so if we can't fill it we do have a
a couple Ops couple options for inter but with that said you do raise a good point because the Building Commissioner is done on March 7th correct so we do if I know Kathy can't um you guys had moved the meeting right from the 3rd to the
10th yeah because Kathy wasn't going to be able to be here right do you want to at least have a meeting where we deliberate a Bela Building Commissioner next week so we can get someone in here before the Building Commissioner currently that we have now well leaves most of them had already so that's true
so we'd still be waiting okay so if you're if you're looking for a recommendation I suggest that you go with Damian's suggestion I haven't worked very much but I know both of those guys and they
are building Commissioners yeah not just inspectors and okay they're available to go in so you need somebody and you said Kevin Ross the 19th and then just he didn't give a dead like a ending date he he would be available beginning the 19th okay
basically as needed until further not okay and as far as what that looks like you'll reach out to them and see how many hours that would mean a day what time they would be present here because we that was something that Glenn and I um and you were here for D no were you
here for Damen fire no that was before but that was one of our concerns is making sure there was a certain amount of hours on site so that people can come and and um file their applications with the Building Commissioner yeah I I mean I I can tell you in both cases it's not
going to be a lot of onside hours like I can't imagine I think I want to say Kevin Ross gave like two hours a day or something like that it was minimal not need a lot right now it's not yeah that's true it's cold it's cold and but I would imagine within the next month
from now so we might see a take his building starts yeah yeah according to his report it looks like he is just doing inspections right now there's no new permits being P at this time so so would you Ira be able to reach out to both of them and see what they can give
us for Onsite and then what other services they'd be giving us for inter and do you want me to just uh work with you on that to communicate with you on the that's uh who's the Building Commissioner um leison oh that's me okay that would be
Dave that's me I was like I don't think that's me anymore so you can just send me an email of when they're available y if we need them we know they're there okay well I think we have to have a contract with them is what I'm saying yeah yeah we will and we will need
them there's no doubt about it so and if we can get at least an hour to two hours on site got to have something yeah or or they they can work by appointment at oh that's true come down and meet people that's mine too so your your next your next meeting is on the
10th which will be first day that Damian business day that daman's not here right yeah so okay I think they were here for two night for two hours thur yeah but said even they can't commit to
certain days or nice least they if they can commit to people can reach out to them he will to be here meet on certain times for people but long as it's available to meet with people that's what we need if need be
all right in discussion of the TA position I did watch you guys' meeting from Thursday um with Tammy Martin um and I did actually call her today and followed up with her um and just asked her a couple questions of my own as well
um and I I feel very pleased with her interview um when I called her to follow up um my main concern was that she would be traveling 50 minutes to an hour and
really I just reached out to her to ask why gramby and I know on the interview tape she or on the interview that you guys had with her she had said she liked small towns and um I was able to get more clarification on what that means
she just feels like she loves to drive out this way and she feels like her vision of a small town is more aligned with our vision of a small town so um I felt the conversation that we had was very um truthful and transparent and I
feel that she would do a good job in gramby um if given the opportunity so I will listen or hear you guys out and see what you guys think as well want to go David sure I was also pleased with the interview um she does
have a lot of background of things that we're looking for obviously and town Administration she's currently doing it in Barry um she was a clerk she was a
branch administrator for a b bank so she has a lot of background in finances um a little bit of realy so it gives us a little bit more on that end of things um I do I did think that she was very
straightforward very honest and wants to involve the people of town and inform them to the best of her ability um so I was pleased with the interview yeah I mean I would agree with both of you um I think you know
she it was a pleasure really talking to her about it that's the sense I got and I was kind of put myself in in a spot where if I was someone from the outside I wanted to talk to the Town Administrator she was very pleasant to talk to um very open about talking about
things and stuff like that uh I like her experience um and his experience as a Town Administrator a town assistant um part as well um her HR um experience she has work in the
banking industry as well um I was very very pleased with it U like I said their knowledge her experience um you know something I look at in that position and I think she has both of those right there and I just said like you know
her just her demeanor and talking to her and stuff like that um I think she would be a good fit just for people to come in and talk to that you know talking to her I think she Tak it out as going out around people to meet people in town and stuff like that she's uh she was excited
if she could be part of Brandy uh getting to know that I mean she said she you know love to finish her career here if she had the opportunity she did say that yes um so we get to you know she also has uh certifications in
procurement supervision and accounting so it's an added B like I said you know experience wise she she to me she checked all the boxes and knowledge was there as well um she didn't shy away from any questions that we asked I
thought and she did answer him very clearly to the point so only downside I with her was 90 days Days days so she she we do offer the position it's uh she has a current
contract which I might get that and she Honors that M wouldn't wouldn't expect anything less which is commendable but she did say with that that if need be um I think the day off is Friday so she be willing to assist on
a Friday if need be maybe you know we do offer that position it might be something to look at too so from talking to her on the phone I also got the impression that she can be strict when she needs to be or she can put her foot down so to speak when she needs to be but she's also very
collaborative and she's um she works with her colleagues and uh she tries to understand their perspective on what's Happening in a situation um and I did like from her interview too that when she has two employees that are not
working together correctly or not making it work she puts them in a room and they hash it out and they figure out how to solve it because you can't just sweep it under the rug and expect it to go away so I did like her management um or her HR skills as well um and the way that
she had answered that question so she did mention that yeah well I was referring to the video Sor but I did um I did like the way um your conversation no and then she also said I know Glenn you had mentioned
that you know the internet is what a lot of people use how would she deal with that when you know people are saying negative things and um I know uh she had said don't take it personal but I do believe that you're right don't take it personal but also be reflective on
what's being said so um I think that's also something that is very important because we're not perfect you know so um I think maybe there is maybe what they're saying or the way they're saying is not accurate or correct but also be
reflective in what they're saying because maybe they're just trying to you know get a point across and they're not getting it away or getting it across from the right way but yeah so yeah I don't know
so I would like to make a motion to off for Tammy Martin the Town Administrator position and to make a motion and to enter I will make a motion and to enter into contract negotiations
negotiations I'll second a motion any further discussion all in favor I I all right we ask iow to contact her and send her an email now yeah and let
her know that we're offering her the position and we would like to enter into negotiations with her actually Ira what I can do because I don't know if you have that email is I can send you the original contract that we drafted and uh you can send that to her as our first
step in negotiation of the contract okay yeah I can send that to you so uh did you want to in terms of salary or any of that no that's all going to be in the contract that we send
her I think first just reach out to let her know that we offering her the position yeah and further information would come yeah we can do that want to make sure that she knows she knows that's all so if we can do that this steing it would be great yeah okay absolutely um so the
contract that you're going to give to me the I'll just send it to you tomorrow and I'll call you so okay so this is the one that you offered to the previous candidate or um it's a standard contract that we had started off from Chris Martin and we
just built from there on what we were willing to start with our offer for any candidate that came in so it's not just from the previous candidate it's for any candidate that came in to this position it's our starting point so we'll send I'll send it to you because Cathy's on
vacation this week Y and then you can send it to her and then she'll go through it and she'll counter it and then we'll at our next meeting I don't know um do we want to wait wait till March 10th because she like you said is on a timetable of 90 days no I think if
if if she's open to the still to the position she would be I think you look at scheduling something next week sooner move forward that that's just in time I guess yeah yeah so um when Ira emails her the
contract when she sends it back to you Ira then we can go from there on what dates work next week okay y okay do you want to wait is this week on out with the Gravel Pit hearing on Thursday that would put us out Friday
and yeah so this week would be out we would have to meet next week either Monday or Tuesday yeah does either one work does either one work for you I can because it would just be executive session for contract negotiation Wednesday won't work but Monday or
Tuesday willon okay well I had Monday already scheduled guys so Monday might be it all right hope that works for um Tammy then we can look at that Monday Monday well
so would this so to clarify would this just be executive session when we're negotiating the contract we're going to discuss the contract yes it's just the executive session okay perfect with with her potentially or just um no it doesn't fall underneath
executive session to have her here we negotiate as the board and then you bring it back to her cuz we talked to council about that and she can't be present for executive
session okay so March 3rd yes at 5:30 5:30 work for you do five 5 five so March 3rd at 5 o' unless you can't make it that five and no I I should be okay no not you heard he doesn't care about you
no I can make it up by can't start without her just kidding she won't be anyways but no all know right now I don't have the town's email on my laptop okay also I'm going to send it from my personal email
if that's okay okay but I'll do it right that's fine that's fine all right so next is is for our COA to approve approval of the COA agreement policy so this is for the tablet Loan
program user agreement and this is to provide iPads to seniors as an important tool for social connection education and virtual medical visits this program is funded by title 3 grant funding through the older
Americans act and West Mass elder care so this would be a contract that or a user agreement that they would sign and it goes through the uses so I think this a great opportunity for the seniors absolutely yeah
agree is it only a three-month loan and then they return so I think it's a 3-month loan they return it so another senior can have an opportunity with it but I I can clarify that with the um Council on Aging director because if there's nobody that wants it I don't see
why they couldn't just take it out again right right make sense um but only one iPad per household so the only thing I was thinking about as I was reading this is is there an insurance policy that they could like schools for example they give
every student a laptop but there's an insurance policy that the parents can pay for so if anything happens to the computer the kids break the computer the insurance covers the um rep the computer it replaces it so that it's not such a big expense so they pay the $30 for the
insurance for it instead of the $250 for the laptop or for the iPad or however much it is now so that would be my only concern is because we don't want to give this technology to senior they drop it and now they owe $250 like so I would like some kind or
some form of protection for them um and I don't even know if it's something that we can have here I don't I don't know I mean that's we have to reach out to a vendor a vendor to see I mean I don't know who the school uses I bought it and I couldn't tell you
I mean that's that's probably what it is I mean it's almost like when you you know you buy something at a store and they have to extend a warrant to or whatever I didn't buy it last year and I owed $250 for my son dropping the computer so I bought it this year but no
I I think that's that's that's a a good idea there I really do and um not just that you know it allows us to replace the iPads as well yes yeah I agree they reach
out yeah I'll ask what they use um Tammy Justin will know from guidance I'll ask her and I'll um I'll email the vendor's name to Natalie so she can reach out to them and see what she can get in place for the seniors all right
so guys agree with the policy yeah yes I will make a motion for the Council on Aging town of grany for the tablet Loan program user agreement I'll second the motion any further discussion no discussion all in
favor I and then if you guys look on the back there was a Council on Aging Transportation program policy and I guess I just have questions because I don't know what the previous policy was to compare it to so this is
going to charge transportation to our seniors and I don't know if we currently charge them I'm I'm unaware yeah I don't know I agree I didn't know there was a charge from the bottom places I didn't think there was I thought that was part of what the COA did but I could be wrong
that's what I understood but so um would you guys want Natalie to come in and talk about this on March 10th before we approve it so we can have the before and or at least get the before right yeah get get there one before what wasn't so we can kind of get there go from there
so we'll table the transportation policy IRA for uh March 10th meeting before we approve that policy uh for the COA um and I'll reach out to Natalie and see if she can give us the before document on what the
transportation policy was so that can be put on the agenda for next time all right and then do you guys want to go back I know uh Bill Shaheen was not able to be here but um I know we do have to look at the disclosure of
interest um that he filed so this was in the appointments if you want to take a look at that and I have my own copy all right so Bill Shaheen is a member of the Conservation Commission and his duties require him to participate in the particular matter
described below and at the this time he is disclosing a financial interest with the applicant a request a determination from my appointing authority about how I should proceed so the particular matter it is anticipated a Wetlands permit application per Mass General Law chapter
131 section 40 will be filed by redire farm so his required participation is as Conservation Commission he would be the permit application review he would review the application sorry and
conditioning um he is an officer director trustee partner or employee of a business organization and the business organization has a financial interest in the matter the fee historically paid to analytical engineering Incorporated by
red fire Farm every 5 years as required by the 780 CMR chapter 10 for performing structural erress inspections and he needs us as the appointing official as required by General law
c268 a section 19 um that we reviewed the particular matter and the financial interests identified above by the M Municipal Employee and we have determined that the financial interest is not so substantial as to be deemed likely to affect the
Integrity of the services which the M municipality may expect from the employee so IRA and I before the meeting reached out to Town Council to discuss um this disclosure to see how we or you know to get his
recommendation um and Ira he told us to look up this 268 section 19 and you have it in front of you right are you able to read that to the board so they understand sure so section
19 uh letter A accept as permitted by paragraph B the Municipal Employee who participates as such an employee in a particular matter in which to is knowledge he his immediate family or partner a business organization in which he is serving as officer director
trustee partner or employee or any person or organization with whom he's negotiating or has any Arrangement concerning prospective employment has a financial interest shall be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or by imprisonment in the state
prison for not more than 5 years or in a jail or House of Correction for not more than 2 and a half years or both uh section B it shall not be a violation of this section if the Municipal Employee first advises the official responsible for appointment to his position of the
nature and circumstances of the particular matter and makes full disclosure of such financial interest and receives in advance a written determination made by That official that the interest is not so substantial as to be deemed likely to affect the Integrity
of the services which the municipality may expect from the employee or if in the case of an elected Municipal official making demand Bank deposits of Municipal funds set official first files
with the clerk of the city or town a statement making full disclosure of such financial interest or if the particular matter involves a determination of General policy and the interest of the municipal employeer or members of his immediate family is shared with a
substantial segment of the population of the municipality good so our question um was what is uh Bill's role as the in the analytical Engineering
Corporation so we looked it up and he is the um sole beneficiary of that company so he's the CEO he's a Treasurer he's everything for that company and so every 5 years they pay him for their 780 dcmr
uh chapter 10 for him to do the filing of that paperwork um I was hoping bill was going to be here to explain a little bit more so in the paperwork that we got from Kathy they're looking to be doing a septic system so we all know that red fire Farm
um had a fire and they had burned down so they now have to rebuild so he's also on the board of health which he um isn't coming as that he's coming as the Conservation Commission right now
so Town Council and correct me if I'm wrong um Ira did not feel that this was a substantial um what's the wording that they use here that this was not a substantial amount of
money that would fall underneath this where he would not be able to do his duties as the Conservation Commission for the Wetland application he said he he didn't believe it would have any effect on his ability that uh Mr shaheim
was really just acting out of an abundance of caution and he actually spoke to Bill about this um himself just to kind of get clarification and oh and so the
other piece of that too is um Brian o also just got off the phone with the state on this and they had no concerns either depure the Department of Agriculture was also notified of it and they had no
concerns and our Our Town Council has no concerns so there's a letter here yes we do have to talk about this too don't say on here though right so I have no problem um as the
appointing authority um letting Bill still be on the Conservation Commission for the wetlands application if special Town Council and Department of Agriculture doesn't have any concerns I don't have any concerns and he's again just disclosing it here
so that um he's being extra precautious yeah I don't yes I would I would agree I mean I don't see a problem with it we don't see a concern with it Our Town Council see a concern with it so okay or state so do I need a motion in order for
me to sign it oh yes Dennis sorry Dennis uh I was chairman of conservation quite a few years ago we had a very very similar thing went through the same process the only thing I contacted the state ethics
cour and they said make sure that he is not running the meeting that he is a vendor like anyone else would come into the room and do a presentation to the board so uh his vice chair would have to run the meeting and obviously not have a
vote yeah he's not part of the meeting yeah I don't think he I don't think he is a chair is is he the chair of the it doesn't matter if he's a member participate in the meeting he's not he's not part he's not there as as a as a member of the committee he's there correct he's the mayor as someone else
consultant for his firm yeah you have two one yep so then um would I put that restriction on here and I don't know because it just says name of appointing authority title
agency Department address phone email I can put it on their comments right yeah okay I'm not sure laws have changed yeah I mean we could just again reach out to
the best way to just separate it yeah right so um does one of or do one of you want to make a motion for me to sign this after talking to Town Council if he says it's okay okay and I can put in the comments cuz I can reach out to
Ryan and do that with him yeah um but I can put in the comments based on what special town or based on what Town Council wants us to do um so that he doesn't if that's what he recommends he doesn't chair the meeting and he's just there as another I don't know if Fender
is the right word but as another participant or U well if he's yeah an engineer presenting a project to off his business okay he's not there activan his
capacity as a board member okay so I will make a motion then to accept the disclosure form for non-elected Municipal Employee William Shaheen Conservation Commission in regards to
redire farm um septic system appliation application appli Wetland application I'm sorry for the septic system and allow Crystal to sign for the
board after talking to after talking to councel there be disos board Health too so I'm wondering the same thing and I'm going to talk to the the Town Council about that what was the question if there should be a disclosure for the Board of Health too because Bill's also on the board of health and that's an
elected position so that would be a different form wa because this is the non-elected the so I'll talk to Brian about that one as well but I don't know if he's designing the septic system as the analytical engineer right so then he'll worry about that yeah I'll second
a motion any further discussion no discussion all in favor I hi all right and then um so actually I as we're talking now I don't see it on this one printed out but it was on the
online one for the red fire farm for the first step in order for them to start their septic work remember the MD a r it was on the online one but I don't see it on this agenda all right number six am I like looking oh my goodness yeah I'm looking
right past it yeah I was looking your P well we skipped around a couple times so that makes sense now put back all right so the first step for red fire Farm to um get their septic and to
rebuild their area is for us to do the MD which is the colder approval form for Department approvals so they need us to give them approval am I saying this wrong Ira for
the MD no mdar mdar y yes y so one of the requirements for the well is that there is it has 150 undisturbed no roadways parking fertilizers or a pesz radius around the well so this one is for the well and
then the septic now why that come in front of USS so the way it was explained to me was because it's a um what did um Brian say for the actually he didn't talk about this one
did he he just talked about the disclosure I well other than just he thought it was going to be on the next agenda and then discovered that Kathy had put it on this one this agenda so they're running into complications
with where to put the septic because of the um stringent regulations about the designs that the town of gramby has much of the space on the 2 acre exclusion falls into a 100 buffer zone from the edge of the Wetland so this space cannot be used for the septic
infrastructure other parts of the 2 acre exclusion are needed for the store customer in delivery truck driveway and parking areas for the new building itself the only solution for moving forward the construction process is to locate the farm store septic system in
leechfield onto this sliver of APR land that's why it's coming to us oh okay um that is north of the farm store building and the space between the building and the Carver Street Road this space is planned as outdoor display space for the farm store where items such as plants and pumpkins are displayed and outdoor
display flower gardens are on display we'll be able to build a septic underneath the space so that it's attractive and not noticeable and blends into the landscaping and grade of the new building so they were told by D that we need a to build a well for the new
building that is certified as a public water supply one of the requirements for the well is that is 100 it has 150 undisturbed radius around the well the to accommodate this and avoid inter in with the customer parking areas near the new near the new building we are looking
to place the wall as indicated on the map can say I don't see the I don't see the well on here upage somewhere this the diagram of the property yeah so this again is on the APR land in an area that is a swall and swamp Zone
where brush and trees are growing the recharge Zone radius will be on the swampy part of the APR property where no farming activity would happen anyway we want the APR committee to be aware of our plans in regard to the septic system and public water supply well and hopefully issue formal approval for the
septic and also for the well if needed we need this paperwork as soon as possible in order to move forward with the town and state regulatory a agencies on getting all additional regulatory approvals for the construction so by signing this what Brian was saying Ira was that this only gets the process
started they still have to go through the Conservation Commission and they still have to go through the Board of Health so we're just saying that we're aware of it that they're going to be on the APR land um and they also filled
out their Improvement and or evacuation or excavation sorry um so they filled out that paperwork as well through the um MD APR program it's pretty much get what you just read on the front page yeah an
explanation of it yeah the process so got one looking at the same map as you there is a the well is identified the approximate location did you print it there's
a right parking I can see that approximate well what fans do you have a coupe on your map right hand corner I know that's all
we see on the right hand corner yeah the Wetland is a Wetlands wet lands is it this we don't even have a circle on ours maybe it's a that's in this package is that
this yes yeah so we didn't have it in ours okay it was in was in here business there is at least we're not going crazy no I'm looking at this was the top left like in the last that's when I started looking at the other it's got to be here some
now we know y now we know all right so who so for the co-holder approval form for departmental approvals that's the one that we would have to sign yes all right so the APR land
owner all right so I can fill this out the town is the co-holder right with if it's an APR land we are right I would think so I think that's right yeah yep so we have to the form why we got
right so we have to decide do we want to approve the um the requests approve with conditions or deny so again well if we don't approve it they can't move forward right and that's so again that's what Town Council said is that this is just
the first step it's not that they still have to go through the conservation they still have to go through the Board of Health so they still have to go through all of those so I don't see really why we would approve it with conditions because they still have to follow the other yeah they still have to go through the other steps
I agree all right so if you guys are okay with that I just need a motion for me to sign on behalf of the select board I will make a motion for Crystal to sign on behalf of the select board the co-holder approval form
form with the Department of agricultural resources for red firearm I'll second the motion any further discussion no no right all in favor bye
bye all right moving along did I miss any Glenn that's everything so many checks everywhere um and I don't know if we should really leave do I I want to leave do fren pond dredging on here just so that we keep on the lookout for
Grants but there we already said that the freshwater dredging they didn't do the pilot program this year so we can take up I'll have um Kathy uh take off January on there and Ira do you know where we are with um meetings for Budget was that
discussed yeah I know it's your only it's your only your third day I apologize I um I met today with um finance committee right John La John La um we kind of mapped out a
schedule so I'm going to go tomorrow I'll see what if anything is missing departmental request the deadline was last Friday okay so I've got a folder of stuff I think they're mostly there if there's probably a committee or two that
needs to come in and I'll plug some numbers in just the numbers that are being requested into uh the spreadsheet see where that comes to um a meeting this week with the school superintendent the police chief
and DPW director at a minimal okay and maybe some others um I I request Ed John's a little more probably active
participation early on because I don't have any of the institutional knowledge okay that I know obviously Chris had for more than 20 years here right y so you know far be it from me to say no you you
know it's in some Department you don't need this or whatever all right so but what the time frame is um for us to have an initial budget within two weeks no later than
March 10th just internally and to then discuss that with a small committee not a public meeting but just still internally so you know I don't know maybe a representative from the select board if one if somebody wants to be
involved in that uh John from Finance um reach out to the school school committee for a rep and then to have uh you know the school superintendent and business manager involved in that to just have an internal meeting to talk about whatever that number comes up to which you know
is likely going to be more than what's available yeah and and to work that down so that during starting in the week of March 17th through April 11th um the finance committee can hold
their public meetings and review um all of the requests bringing you know whatever however they want to do their process but at that point so basically around the 17th of March the first public draft budget would be
available and then um with the goal of by April 21st to have the budget uh ready for distribution to the public which is about 3 weeks or so prior to town meeting and I understand
that you probably aren't going to act on on the actual budget until June but you tell me if if you know if I'm getting any of this wrong but my understanding is that the Tom meeting
starts the second Monday of May and then it's just continued to June it's not a a special meeting or a second and it just continues two parts right so if I have have understood it all correctly that
means that the budget has to be available for the March the May me I probably said March May for the May meeting even though it's not actually going to be voted on until June yeah because it's good good it's it's continued from that first it's it's one
meeting that meeting just continued to the next next date yeah it's not two separate meetings but we do vote on some of the budget on May 10th right don't we I'm pretty sure this a small part of it that's all what my thing it's like the cemetery right the cemetery offer payments John seem to think that
Capital items were voted typically voted on in May does that sound right I'll go back and look at yeah the majority of the budget for departments has voted on the second half yeah so might think a different
board member voting who was here talking about for a time frame um so what we've done in the past the the two years that we had is they whatever departments that we were in charge of came in and they walked us through if there was any substantial
increase in the budget like if a line item so I think last year it was recommended 3.5% increase for the budget I think that's what I recall yeah yeah I think that's so I don't know what um is being recommended this year was it three so
the the short cover letter that Chris sent out last month was he asked for 3% suggestions no I'm assuming when all said and done it's not 3% across the board well and it depends on um different things like the T the town um
treasure and the accountant need software so that's going to be more than a 3% increase so but that's what I mean like when there's something that is needed that doesn't fall under capital and is more than 3% they would come in front of us and they would explain their
needs to us so the that does that does qualify as capital okay those software purchases they're they're over I mean the the state recently changed their guidance to say the threshold is 25,000
as opposed to 10,000 per capital item and at least a 5year uh contract life lifespan so you know that it definitely falls under Capital if you want to do it that way okay
right all right so but what I was hearing you say IRA and the reason why I was asking that is that you meet with them and you go over it in a smaller group yeah as opposed to them coming to a select board meeting and then you just bring it to the board after that for for our review or how
does I you know I'm I'm happy to do whatever you guys want I you know I don't know your practice so yeah the department had come in front of us and explain the budget yeah that's what I was yeah um that's what is that done in advance of the finance committee
reviewing it or at the same time or how does that work I think it's done in advance because then the finance committee reviewed all of it afterwards all of it after yeah so we would have at a select board meeting say the Building Commissioner um was doing his budget he would come at 6 then the next one at
6:30 then the ne whatever the appointments were they would come in and it's just the ones that we're in charge of so we never met with the school because we're not in charge of the school oh gotcha okay but I mean you so with that said the liaison for the school meets with the school and the uh
Town Administrator we've done that in the past where the Town Administrator and leaon met with the their um school committee school committee with this uh superintendent talk about their budgets and kind of work on something prior to
so they had understanding what where the amounts were and stuff like that so and the finance committee chair yeah so that all comports pretty much with what John and I talked about the only difference in all of this really is just that I'm suggest you know I'm here for a short
time right and I I live two miles away but you know I don't I don't I haven't been involved at all in what you're doing and I don't want to I don't want to it wouldn't be for me to be making decisions unilaterally on your behalf
that and then you know know two months down the road or 10 months down the road you know you guys say what the heck was he thinking about you know so it would be good someone go get iron it's only two miles away
know uh I I just think it would be appropriate for this one year Well we think you so in this interim to have a couple of other eyes and ears of yeah yeah so I guess in the past it's
been well like that where the the police department so the chief would sit down with u the town administ Chris the time they look at everything chrisy anything really out whack no but if not explain if something was above beyond what they
needed he'd explain at that point then the chief would come in front of the the board to present the budget and the same thing we'd ask questions of some seemed you know out of you know out of range or something like that and Chris is looking at it at that point saying yes the town
can support this and and so those meetings with the chief with DPW with buildings facilities all of that those are I'm I'm going to be doing that starting this yes
yes I guess the only um so it's you know the time we're starting later than probably normal right little bit well know we're usually into it February late February early March we're rolling into it I mean it takes time
we're not that far behind Okay yeah I I was going to say the discussion usually starts end of January right and then Chris start and then Chris has his deadline but you said the deadline was just Friday so a little late little late we not that far behind though well so
the and all the Departments have been working on their budgets anyway so like it's a surprise to that said just would like to and I can do this maybe I can do this Crystal with you it just to make sure I know I
haven't left anything out about which budgets are under specific r that you want to see come forward so we should we have those discussed at the March 10 meeting do you just need a list
of the Departments I mean I can send that to you in an email because you're GNA be meeting with them up until that point yeah um I mean we can actually list them now if you want the list now let's not take it's late
enough I okay by the way just with with regard to March 10th I currently have a conflict that night so I'll for March 3D March March 10th the March 10th meeting yeah I'll figure out what I can do on
that okay okay s right any think Kathy will be back she'll be back then she will be that's why she scheduled for the Tilt okay she'll be back yeah so maybe she can stand in in your replace for that meeting that's potentially the
case okay all right so anything for next time guys I mean we already have on the agenda we're going to discuss the Building Commissioner y we are going to Steve n wants to come on March 10th as well and
I think that was it right so far so far okay all right so um we will now enter executive session 38- 21- a-3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open
meeting may have detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares and we will only come out of executive session to adjourn the original meeting roll call vote du frin I Leon I se and I
thank you