[Music] is February 13th at 5:34 i w father SL board meeting to order you can join me
for the Pledge of Allegiance States of America to the na indivisible andice no we did all right so the first on the agenda is to interview The Building Commissioner candidates and
first here is Eric is it Chartrand correct welcome thank you for coming in thank you for having me so um you could tell us a little bit about yourself to get started yeah sure um so uh I've been a carpenter since I was 15 my father was Carpenter I learned
the trade through him um I did that until 2017 um that was a my last my last um carpentry drop was as a solar um Foreman um and uh I got to meet a lot of building inspectors doing that uh and I
met a guy out in western Mass here uh Jeff Clement and he kind of said hey yeah you could do this um swinging a hammer for 16 years my shoulder got messed up and I started to think about you know what else can I do with this um uh the opportunity came up that I could
uh that fishburg was hiring I live in fishburg and uh I applied and I got the job um I feel like I was a kid back then it was eight years ago um but I didn't think I'd get the job I mean I worked with a lot of good Carpenters being a building inspector is completely different um swinging a swinging a
hammer here running a saw it's not something that benefits you at all you can't that's not what the skill set is um but fortunately going to Fitchburg was great um I had two other building inspectors and a really good commissioner there uh who's a state inspector now is still my mentor I still
keep in touch with him um and working in Fitchburg gave me an accelerated um it accelerated my career uh Fitchburg is a pretty robust City they had a lot of stuff going on and they treated me very well there uh the mayor there was great I had a great experience there and I
only left because uh the opportunity to become commissioner in Talon 10 minutes away came in um and so I took that opportunity I was lucky enough to get that I went there for three years and um I had a good career there um it was a little tough they they they had a
history of financial constraints but uh another opportunity arose to go to Westminister uh I was able to get that position unfortunately two weeks before the end of my six-month probationary period I broke my thought um and a commissioner with a broken foot
which basically when you're in a small town you're commissioner and a local you're doing all the work you can't inspect so uh I don't know what exactly what happened but they let me go they didn't continue my contract at that point um unfortunately that that's how that played out and then after that I
went to Dartmouth um I had a hard time finding work surprisingly um which is not surprising uh in the winter time building permits are slow um so I had up and I had a broken foot so I had to wait about four months and then I ended up going to Dartmouth for a couple months
and Dartmouth was great it's 2 hours from my house though and um I had originally applied for the commissioner's position down there and I didn't get it but they offered me the local position um and it made sense to take it at the time but it was a large Paya compared to the commissioner's
position and with the two-hour commute each way it just wasn't sustainable it was great at first I mean I really liked working down there it's a really nice community um it was really easy only had me doing residential inspections if I lived down there I would have stayed doing it it was uh it was a little too
easy not not really enough work for me actually but um that was a great position I I enjoyed working with the commissioner down there but I ended up leaving that that position and um I ended up going to an H company after that for a short period of time friend owns to get their permits back in order um get them straightened out as far as
permitting with their company because they were very much behind uh and and since then I've just been out waiting to apply did another job uh that job kind of ended again kind of in the winter time and winter time seems to be slow and uh Community seem to just not need
well they have part-time person they'll have an alternate or something like that and it just seems like the spring is where it really starts to come back around so thank you any questions uh not any direct relation to his
abely um so how do you stay current with your latest building codes and developments yeah so um I'm a member of the massachusett um Building Group and uh also go to other meetings and I like I said I I keep in close contact with my
mentor as a state inspector he seems to be the best source of information right now the state's changed everything a lot um they're not allowing us to have any training that is not approved by the state unless it's one of the corporations like Simpson strong Tha
American Wood American Paper Council something like that gypson National gypson but um yeah they used to let us do a lot of training but I guess what the state is moving towards my understanding is that they want more uniformity so they they put a halt to
mostly everything I didn't end up just taking a 8we course I think it started in October I had to get the rest of my credits so iend up doing like an 8we course uh of onboarding which is usually what you do when you're a commissioner to get your commissioner's position I
didn't do it because I went with the icity on boarding was available at the time um and that was the only training that they've approved since they've made those changes so um but I try to stay current yeah I keep my my uh finger on the pulse keep keep in touch with a lot
of guys I know it's a small community and just pay attention to the news read up on all the new bylaws accessible to units have been uh um you know and there's been some interesting changes with the energy code which that is uh it's it's changing
rapidly they seem to have made some rules and then they seem to uh change them a little bit as they find they're not working so well but um you do the best you can and you just try to stay current and the new 10th editions come came out but it was rushed my understanding and it's still inent
period no one's really using it yet I wouldn't imagine I mean they gu you could have option to want to have stricter codes if you were a builder I I don't imagine most want to do that yet they they usually wait till the last minute for that so are you current on all the
licensing yeah yes yeah in fact um that that on boarding was the end of the last threee cycle where you have to have your 45 hours or you can't renew and a lot of guys actually did lose their license because there was no training so um I I
got lucky enough to get that training in and I worked with a guy named Ross CV at the state and uh he got me approved I actually was like little little sck in that one because I knew I had done the training but there's the state's really big so one hand doesn't really know what
the other hand is doing but yeah Cent [Music] and the here from pit is that like an hour hour an hour yeah it's about an [Music]
hour too bad my brother lives in appol Orange so wasn't too bad I'm familiar with 202 uh and you know I looked at it before I came out here today with the weather and everything really wasn't that bad so and if you were to get this position how early can you start I mean soon very
soon um I'm enrolled right now at Community College Mal shus Gardner and I'm taking fire science um but just be one change and I have an em class at 5: but that's going to end in May starts at 5: on Monday and Wednesday and it goes till 10:00 um that's the
only inperson class you have to take for fire science so it shouldn't conflict with anything once I get through those that little bit but um yeah I I can start fairly soon you know um I'm happy to get back to work like to work I guess where do you see yourself
here in 5 years and I asked that question because it it seems just from you know talking to people that uh seem the building Commissioners seem to to bounce around from one area to another area so that's I guess that's a good that yeah I think it's the nature of the
Beast I mean um unfortunately it's the pay a lot of guys move around for pay um and they just keep trying to ship away um you know so I mean at with the the offering that you guys are offering I see myself staying here for a while it's very competitive um but yeah I mean I
see myself still being a building inspector um I plan on getting my em certification doing that maybe on the side on the weekends and um continuing my education the fire science degree parlays really well with what we do already we work with fire all the time um you know building construction types
I looked at the courses before I took them I said you know it's not going to hurt me to be better to know you guys better because one it's like two sides of the coin you know uh we we do the buildings and they they have to respond so um and you got to work closely with these guys um it's just the way it is
and obviously what they're doing it's life threading and it's life saving so I mean you know my thing is uh we can't put these guys in any worse position already in buildings already on fire it's already raining out it's already covered in ice um you know we can't uh we can't put them in any boards position
and um it's great to work with fire I like working with the fire guys I've learned a lot over the years and a lot of I have a lot of friends from all the different [Music] communities how would you say if you were doing a uh inspection and the
the Builder did not agree with you surprise surprise how would you deal with that well we we try to find a trying to find a common ground I mean um with the code it can be tough there's there's definitely a peals period usually it's
easier to solve it in the field come up with some kind of solution um figure out what we can do without one of the appeal appeal really takes so long nobody wants to do it um you know I have had definitely had to take contractors to the board for or building owners to the
board that didn't want that caused unsafe situations and didn't really want to address them that's a tough one I mean when it's unsafe we're going to have a problem you know that's not going to be too easy to fix if you're going to be resistant to wanting to to address it I tend to try
not to stand on my Island by myself hopefully fire will come in with me and and and uh give me a little back up there cuz if it's unsafe it's unsafe um but yeah I mean it's going to happen sometimes I mean I find that we can usually solve it in the field though um especially if the contractors are
recurring if they're a lot of local guys you just got to get the flavor for what they're doing and U once you figure out what they're doing what they're trying to do they're not Reinventing the wheels um they're building decks they're building garages they're building houses we do it all the time no one's ever come into the office and said I want to build a nuclear reactor uh you know what I
mean so so I kind of tend to think that you know these guys are just guys they're trying to feed their families we can figure it out I mean they're small code things usually um most of the stuff that gets get you hung up is is zoning you know the zoning is really where the rubber hits the road where the town
doesn't allow it you know so we can try to find some kind of commonality in there see if there's some kind of way that can work or probably going to go up town meeting get the code changed you know get the get the bylaw changed that's usually the Avenue that works the most or I've had when I was in towns I
had a couple people wanted to do some strange things I try not to think of them as strange as much anymore um investors are creative that's why I'm not one of them you know and uh try not to tend I tend not to look at their ideas like that because I've seen things
that I thought would not fly at all fly and I've seen things that I thought were slam dunks get shut down so it's kind of tough to to know that um the code stays the same as far as the building code the bylaws change but what I find in when you're moving from from Community to
community is the is the what the community wants that's what changes from Community to community whether it's really ProBuild whether it's really Pro agriculture like Townson was um whether it's really Pro business those are the things that change and um you just have
to figure out what what the town wants and and what they're what they're agreeable to but ultimately you can go to zba get you can get variances you can get you know special perits usually um you can you know pursue those Avenues you know work with them on that and hopefully we can get the thing done um
you know sometimes some things just don't work for the community um a lot of times the bylaws are old you know where somebody wants to do I had a situation in town where somebody wanted to do dog rooming where we allowed a barber shop in a residential home and we allowed the
kennel but dog grooming no kind of uh splitting the hairs there and they ended up having to go to town meeting they ended up approving for social parent for Kel and and getting a changing the B include that because I'm like if you cut hair for people why can't you cut hair
for dogs if you babysit the dogs why can't you doesn't really make a lot of sense but you're not allowed to interpolate like that I thought it was pretty basic and it seemed like a reasonable request it was a really small dog groming outfit I mean it was Tiny it was like closet like one dog at a time
I'm like this is not the end of the world we can figure this out and and thankfully they were able to get it done so you had mentioned the zoning obviously how familiar are you with local zoning I was on the zba in
fitzburg um you know when I started in Fitchburg uh Mark baradero the commissioner there he had be doing zoning from day one um which as a local inspector isn't exactly popular the other two inspectors I worked with didn't want to do it they felt like was his job um but I was new and they had
started under a different commissioner so they had already kind of been groomed a certain way and since I was green he kind of groomed me in a different way so he taught me a lot about zoning right away his brother is a um Supreme Court Justice in New Hampshire he's a pretty
sharp guy um but I did a lot of zoning there and then of course towns in West Minister year you are the zoning enforcement officer and I was the alternate for lunenberg too for a time when they lost their commissioner and I had to do all the zoning there and then I I volunteered to go to Fitchburg Eva and I enjoyed it I enjoyed it a lot um I
I I just ended up having it was just too much work so I ended up stepping down but yeah zoning is uh it's part of the job you got to be familiar with it you got to you got to know what you're doing um it can be tough sometimes like I said I find that sometimes the B are just old and they're sometimes not written well
um you know and to have a community redo their whole Zone bu a lot one you know one big dump it's expensive so it's usually not how it works not not my experience yet at least thank you yeah to add to that U being on the zba
was it taught me a lot more being on the other side of the table is like uh the difference between going to a bar for a drink and being a bouncer so going doing that I actually did open my eyes to a completely different way of looking at things as Eva looks at things
differently your senior Mentor who's a u State Building Inspector now yeah he contact what would you say about you oh go ahead come feel free um you know like I said I talk to him all the time you know um
he's a great guy I I I'm happy I was able to meet him and uh we' maintained a friendship ever since so um yeah he's a big fan I hope I hope he'd say that I usually use him as a reference on the applications um but yeah Mark's a great guy like I said he's with the state now
so he has the inside track to what they're actually doing up there and they're really short-handed um um and they don't pay that well so it's tough um you know I think actually Zone one which is this Zone they don't even have anybody right now um so but yeah you
know he was I mean going to the state he's learned a lot of new stuff too about how it operates behind on the other side of the table but he was sharp from day one I mean I've always consulted him when I always had a when I had to bounce an idea off somebody to say what is what do you think this is
making sense to you or you know and and going to the group meetings is the same way just to bounce the ideas up people to say Hey how do you guys handle this stuff what's going on with you um those meetings are great so I'm hoping that the state resumes them um it's nice to know what belter Town's doing it's nice
to know if they have somebody who's a maybe causing them mess and wants to maybe come here maybe they have a bunch of maybe somebody opened a illegal junkyard and they're going to tow all the cars here well kind of would want to know that you know what I mean it's uh
networking works well again if we called Mark and I said well can you tell yeah go ahead can you tell me some things about here yeah yeah go ahead I'm sure he'll tell you that I'm the type of person that needs to know how to make sausage is what he said to me one day but if I ask what what is uh
Eric's top five uh things that he would what would you say to me um I I don't know for sure what he'd say for you know I know I have strong skills with the code I have strong skills with zoning uh I have good soft skills with people he has he had
really good soft skills was when I first started there he put me on the put me on the desk in the front so I had to do deal with the public from day one um there's actually a book that you got to read when you become a commissioner that tells you not to do that and I joked with him about that and I said this you
know this this soft skills book tells me don't put the new guy on the counter first day he's like s swim you you seem to have done fine you know um but soft skills are definitely something that I developed a lot of work in there I mean sometimes people are are really upset you know that a lot of the stuff is
really important to them and you you know you got to diffuse them you know you got to calm them down you can't talk to everybody the same way you got to learn how to talk to people to get what you need out of them which is the end of the day I'm trying to get compliance you know it's compliance sometimes that
compliance is not sometimes I I always tell people when they come in and they complain about somebody I said you know was like nice to meet you thank you um well I tell them it's a pendulum Because by the time it goes like this and then it comes back down it really kind of ends in the middle and it's not you know sometimes people are looking for more than just a
compliance they're they're they must be frustrated they might want punishment that's not really how it works um so I always tell them well don't thank me I'm just doing my job and if I can help you I'll help you that's the best I can do sometimes I can't help you but whenever I can help somebody I will help you to viability help you with the code help
you figure it out paperwork whatever else we got to do if there's an online permanent problems if there is online Perman at all you know um I'll help you as best I can that's all I can do for it you know but some things I can't do which is I can't obviously look the other way that's not that's not in the
that's not something we do I do have one last question so your interest in coming to or Grandy what do you know about Grandy I don't know that much about it to be honest with you I I looked up a little
bit before I came I see it's a community about 6,600 um that's very similar to towns and uh coming through I noticed there a lot of Agriculture looks like a lot of farms I'm good with that stuff I did a lot of that in Townsen uh Townsen is a community that had a lot of farming it's
traditionally had chicken farms we actually uh had to do a slaughterous out there that was pretty controversial um you know there was one farmer who owns a turkey farm and he needed to build a slaughter house because the slaughter house using closed and um I particularly
thought that that was allowed on his own property because it's a agricultural use um but slaughterhouses are rather controversial and I guess you could say that they aren't they seem to be thinking that that's a industrial process um I tend to read that particular version of the law to say
that you know cultivating processing and bringing to Market is agriculture I don't see how you can process a turkey without having it slaughtered um that and a lot of times they they can do slaughter houses on mobile they can do them on a 18-wheeler truck um it was
really controversial I think the reason being is that people thought it was going to be kind of um barbaric no this is state-of-the-art the USDA is there whenever they operate and they only operate one week out of the year I mean the thing was a real big
concern until it was done and then no one ever mentioned it ever again because it was the quietest building in town and it was located on a poultry farm that had been there since the dawn of time um so I mean yeah I see that I see that you know I looks to me that you know
obviously the commercial District isn't that big or isn't that developed um so you know I don't know too much about the town but it seems a lot similar to some of the places I've worked and some of my experience so the sorry sorry go ahead
the slaughterous you spoke of so so while that was happening you believed it was being zoned properly yeah yeah I mean I went back and forth I read that law about a thousand times and I always kept coming up with the same answer I'm like it it seems to be that you know
like I said processing how do you process a how do you bring to Market and that ended being the outcome that it was loud they ended up approving it yeah they you know they they no one really I mean we went to many meetings about that and I have to admit that there was um it
was sad because the that particular person um you know at the meet at one of the select board meetings said if anyone has any questions let's do this right now and then no questions and then next day I got a phone call and I was like Gary was there last night why didn't you
ask him he was there he answered all the questions he let everyone tore he went you know he's been very transparent I I just didn't see it and like I said the things are super clean it was super state-of-the-art USDA is there on site and it is really not that bad but um I
think people sometimes fear what they don't know uh we we have a lot of residential buildings that go up in town rather than any commercial buildings sure pretty much what we have for commercial buildings is what we have it's rare that something new goes up um can you walk us
through the steps of the residential process of inspection from start to finish yeah sure so I mean my part my me personally um I do an inspe at the footing um I don't do excavation I think it's just I'm going to see it when I see
the footing um so um you know once we get it permitted you know um whether you know is a buildable lot like let's start there is it a buildable lot or subdivision cuz you know subdivision is going to be zba or planning board and that's going to be a little bit more of a process before you can get started
there's going to be probably some more rules on what the town requires for roads utilities etc etc regular buildable lot is pretty straightforward um Regular buildable lot we need you know coming with a permit coming with
plans you do need a hers Raider unless you're not a stretch Community um but I find that the stret the working with the hers Raider saves you money they're going to head off any kind of you know problems that you have where you're not meeting the code um and you know you got
to have septic design and that goes through Board of Health you're going to have to get that stuff done and well um or if there's Public Utilities then great but it doesn't you know it's not the case when I was in Fitchburg I did all sewer and water almost uh when I was in Townsen no it was all septic design
and I worked with a great uh a great Board of Health agent there that was really good um and then conservation if if it's conservation um you know there might be some conservation issues but I mean that again goes back to is it a buildable law you know I mean I can permit the permit I can permit the the
house but if it's stream right there if you proceed you viol in the wetlands act H you know so it's that's not my enforcement but obviously you don't want to let a resident or Builder shoot off their own foot so to speak so you want to head that stuff off um but
yeah I mean I do a um a footing inspection and I do a foundation inspection once the water proofing is up um I do a frame inspection after that sometimes I do a truss inspection if it's really big house and it has a complicated trust system I'll do a trust inspection because I found problems I
had a kid who had one out that trust is out three in on one project um turns out it wasn't that bad he was able to fix it but it was really confusing when you're looking at them going is that crooked did you how did you do that um but I do that and I don't do a sheathing and then
it's insulation insulation now consists of just seeing it because you have to have a her Raider and they are using modeling to to make sure that you're meeting the code so I just make sure it's installed where it needs to be installed but as far as thicknesses and stuff like that that's nowadays you
don't have to do that because you're allowed to add more here and take lay a little bit there if you want to have the staining glass window up there that's fine it doesn't meet the Cod at all we'll just beef up your other windows um so that's what I find that the guys are doing to meet the energy code is it seems like they're beefing up the windows to make up for some of the
shortcomings and then after that it's really just the final okay I mean and uh we do the final walkth through and and get them get them going great thank you what it I think I'm all set thank you so much for coming no problem
have a great night you [Music] too there anything you want to discuss you want to take a brief recess until oh he's here oh yeah just like that y just like that oh he's in the on the back okay hello hello folks how are you good
how are you you can come right up here I'm Kyle Scott nice to meet you nice meet you nice to meet you thank you KY if you don't mind telling us a little bit about yourself um I live in the town of
Hatfield uh I've worked in the various towns uh Northampton Williamsburg haydenville uh town of Deerfield um Southwick currently Southwick and Hatfield I'm the
commissioner and um been uh background was Engineering University of Massachusetts and then and uh Washington state from there I went to work for Beckel um
somewhat in the United States but mostly through southeast Asia and um did proc procurement on different supplies for construction and um various projects that they had going on traveling around
uh uh Asia and um eventually I was running part of their Southeast Asian operations for their engineering uh for civil civil engineering and then from that uh came back to the States I was a home
builder um also did modular homes and steel construction commercial residential built a few banks in the area up in Greenfield area I built a couple locally um various projects around and
worked uh along the Gulf Coast also during Katrina I was working for uh Champion Homes uh running uh projects uh doing Demolition and uh re restarting house housing projects along Route One on in bxy uh Mississippi New Orleans
area so from that uh kind of wanted to stay home more instead of always on the move I had one son that lived with me so uh went uh into inspections and um started some small
towns and then ended up in Northampton and so forth thank [Music] [Applause] you so your current position is with town of Hatfield Town of Hatfield and town of Southwick okay southwick's got a
population of about 10,000 skirts 11 and uh half I think is right on the edge of probably 4,000 I would say Hatfield I do early mornings later afternoons when I come home fit it in
various times I'll go out on the weekend um they also have a lot of commercial for being a small town it's kind of surprising um they've got quite a bit of commercial and uh Southwick on average has about 25 residential homes going
I've been there it's going to be 5 years I believe maybe next month and um on average 25 to 30 new homes uh going at any one time large ones fairly fairly large they keep creating new Lots is the
thing so busting up Fally and so forth um I have a 100 unit condo project going there now um Russ Anderson who referred me to this job actually I I didn't even think about it I had seen the post in way back I assumed it was filled um he
came in my office one day I guess he's your acting fire chief now and rest said hey are you interested in something a little closer to home and I said yeah I says what is it and he says grandby so then I looked into it and I contacted uh
contacted town hall and got the application do you know much about gramby not a lot I've been researching since I read your zoning bylaws through um they seem kind of um in in line with a lot of the towns of this
size so if is Kyle if you uh had this had the opportunity to have this position would you continue with the town of Hatfield and town of Southwick is there um Building Commissioner I I would leave Southwick of course yeah uh Hatfield I would keep it's if uh there's
no issue with you folks um it's it's very simple for me to do it I go and I'm a very early riser I mean by early I'm talking 4 4:30 5:00 I go in I meet a lady who does their accounting there every morning
Brenda we chitchat I do my stuff they have online permitting okay okay so um so that feeli is more of a a part-time thing yeah oh yeah and I I can do it standing on my head it's but it's it's it's nice to be there you know
you uh you don't have any problem if you were here fulltime and they were part-time you would be able to yeah I've never had an issue okay I've only once had uh I had one one occasion on a weekend I was going through the gate at the Big E this is years ago and this is
when I was doing the town of Deerfield too and I got a call for a fire and Deerfield fire and Hatfield at the same time what are the odds of that you know and um but I handled it I just uh went to went to one then kept going back and
forth but that's when I I to doing three or four towns you it's not good right so the one small town one you know like this down it would work well I think there there wouldn't be an issue okay so why do you think you'd be a good fit for
us this is kind of my Niche actually your town sounds like Hatfield and um I did did well up in Williamsburg when I was there um I did uh shared when I was in Northampton Northampton does Williamsburg and we would often do
Williamsburg in the morning and then in the afternoon same thing would I do with Hatfield and this this town seems like I don't know just from looking around you got a residential um probably very light on the commercial I'm thinking and farmland
I would think you must sum it up yeah yeah so um I don't know if expanding your commercial base is something you're interested in but in Hatfield that is something they're interested in so I kind of work that end of it and I've just recently got a new 40 bedroom hotel
in Hatfield and uh 170,000 manufacturing facility uh building up there so I kind of Market the town a little bit too and working with the planning board I have a nice planning board up there so this is
kind of like my Niche uh and it would just be uh I like that easier commute truthfully that driving uh Mass Pike every day and uh the 80 miles 100 miles an hour on icy days doesn't do it for you some days you know so I mean I'm
happy where I am they're very nice people nice folks that town of minist is a peach they're all they're all very nice but would would be would be nice to work in another small town smaller town if you were to uh get this position Kyle
how early could you start or how soon how soon could I be free yeah I would imagine a couple weeks two at least two weeks I I don't know what your needs are I could certainly fill in in between if you need it I mean I could do sooner than two weeks like if you had
inspections I congratulations to Dam and I heard he got the state so I mean if you wanted me to pick up until i' give my uh responsible notice in Southwick and then if you wanted me to uh pick away down here and you know pick up his
Damian's inspections and so forth I can certainly do that that's no problem I'm used to working a lot so I've had three jobs three four jobs my entire life 30 years or more of working well I guess kind with that said
uh you know where where do you see yourself in five years you know we we've noticed over the years and just roughly from us and other areas we we' seen that the uh you know building Commissioners seem to kind of go down to
town and where would you see your to tell you the truth sir if you were good to me and you liked my work I would stay put I wouldn't leave Southwick now except that if this is closer um you know and i' try to get
them on their feet I think I've done a lot of positive things in southw they were bleeding red when I started there their uh building department was losing money I mean I I looked at the fees and they they do a lot of lot of permits and
Fe permits that should be $400 range were 25 bucks and uh I said how can you run your department on these fees oh oh what should they be you I was and I took a look at them I I got them all adjusted I
got the new online system built out which the upgraded system is going online uh this coming week and um I would stay put probably until I'm all done with it I would think hopefully you would be happy with me okay so I could
give you a good number of years yet I look old but I'm not that old you want your best you yeah yeah well you know I'll tell you that's that's the other thing I mean I just don't enjoy that drive anymore you know but yeah it's it's worked you know
and I'd continue to do it if that's the way it is but I think if you called the administrator any of those Selectmen there's not one person and I think Russ probably Anderson probably enforced that I don't think there's one person that's been unhappy with how that Department's
been run so the only reason that looking to leave is just based on short shorter commute tell you the truth I heard you pay a little more on health insurance and that's a plus but they pay they pay 50% so um are you familiar how or how
familiar are you with uh historical buildings I've uh written books on history actually sir so um if you're familiar with the Arcadia series uh of books they're picture books mostly on um that go back in time
through different uh areas I did two on the town of monu uh town of Deerfield and you can Google them there on Barnes & Noble um historic preservation I'm very knowledgeable
about I think I'm probably still a member of the mass historic Association I'm a life member of the hatville Historical Society okay um I had belonged to Greenfield and other towns too we have some historic register places in
Hatfield do you have anything on the register down here or a few yeah there's a [Music] few uh one thing that I I caught my interest is um trying to develop a little bit of
commercial properties right we have a hard time in town here um mostly because of water and SE mhm it infrastructure is a big thing right so um how might you help that to develop if
it's in place now to a certain point how how could you possibly bring that forward with the engineering background would help there somewhat um and um I've have a lot of experience citing commercial projects
and trying to find Solutions um do you are you you limited on sewer or do you have very very limited pretty much yeah any any thoughts of expansion through grants or anything that's why I'm kind of asking
the question I helped um hfield recently obtained a $3 million Grant to extend along Route five a sewer line which is a lot of our commercial development and I actually helped push that through and if you call Diana zel one of my references
from the town of Hatfield I worked on on that for years uh trying to get that Grant through um so infrastructure particularly where I don't know is there is it heavy Wetlands or environmental issues in this community or uh most of it would be along Route 202 so there are
some but um work you can work around workable yeah yep so we um along that section um I dealt with a uh engineer who worked for um uh it was uh Doctors Without border
and she had actually built hospitals and did economic development in poor countries and she her and I were talking about draining wetlands and far Farmers ditches were very common years ago and they created a lot of these Wetlands so
you can create another ditch and drain the wetlands too which people don't really realize and then after a short period of time the wetlands become more buildable and sustainable for development so there's a lot of different things we could look at so you
have a nice background on that yeah great thank [Applause] you and all of your certifications are up to date yes thank [Applause]
[Applause] there's one letter in my package I I'm apologize for some of the old references but there's one letter from uh Hampshire uh five College uh Neil um he's a was a president at the time and I helped push
through the textbook anex into Hatfield um through using the do Amendment um speaks very highly of you yeah Hadley Hadley kind of rejected it I believe so and um I worked with him quite a
while on that and when I was in Northampton I had good ties with Smith college and that I did all the university [Applause] inspections you have any more questions
I think I all so I'm good yeah thank you so much for coming in thank you I hope hope you select me nice T thank you for the opportunity and in any case thank you for being here byebye have a good night so we do have uh Glenn your
comment from earlier we do have 12 minutes before our next one comes in and I don't think he's here yet okay so we can either if you need a break you can take a break or we can continue on well you any other we have two more things on the agenda
sure we have time why not all right so until our next um appointment comes in on the agenda we have a discussion about the Town Administrator position so the select board has uh voted to
notify the applicant that the board has decided not to continue negotiations with the Town Administrator and we will proceed with Recruitment and selection process moving forward
so do we have to do a vote on an open meeting still being vote Yes okay so I will make a motion to not continue with the administrator that
we offered the position to and retract that offer and proceed with Recruitment and I'm sorry and proceed to F Recruitment and re and selection of a new one yeah I'll secondly motion any further
discussion disc so people understand uh we we could reach an agreement in regards to um the contract yep thank you so all in favor I I
so since we are going to proceed with Recruitment and selection the committee that met for the town administrators and they gave us five um we do have one that
was part of the selection process yes they had picked um six to interview and um five came to us right four four came to you um some wanted to go with five five and then from what I understanding
someone else said let them go to six so they ended up just doing the four and um I was told the fifth one um should I reached out to see if that person was still um interested and they are okay
okay interview that person then so with that said I am on vacation next week but if you two would like to interview and I can watch the video and I'll give any questions that I have that I want Kathy to ask um it's totally up to you guys or we can wait the week we come back I'm
just thinking the week we come back Cathy's on vacation we already have our regular select board meeting on Monday and we have the uh public hearing for the Gravel Pit on Thursday so we already have two meetings that week so if you two would like to interview uh the
candidate that would be great next week but I understand if either way I I think that's fine Crystal I think it's a a Time sens yes um matter here and the importance of um having a a Town Administrator and I
know the near future our um current current Town Administrator I would say an acting person will be U retiring as well so I think that's important and as you said you can provide us with questions and uh and if you feel after
you watch the uh the video If you will you need to have a followup you know with the with the individual we could do that as well okay I agree um that person is available on Wednesday or Thursday which does so it
be the 19th or 20th is one better than the other for i' rather do Thursday if possible okay and that work for that work for you David uh let me just check my calendar real quick please I know good for you but knowing your schedule right at the
top of your the 20thth you said yes I'm I'm okay with that what time do you want to do it earlier David if you if you can make it earlier that's fine um want do 4:30 sure 4:30 430 then after
[Music] 4:30 great and next on the agenda is to sign the contract for Piner Valley Planning Commission with the Tog town of oh I like what's TG town of
Ramy I thinking the same thing I'm like what tog what's [Music] tog oh thank you I thought it was in the folder oh no this is sorry all right so we did discuss this
with Eric Weiss the last time and he agreed to all the changes that our labor Council has has made so actually I will give this to you [Music] [Music]
[Applause] D did anyone have any questions about the Piner Valley Planning Commission contract afterwards no um would ask too what's the it expires when early March right March it says
March 5th March 5th um I did speak to Iraq and I sent him he's away the moment but
he gave me all his information I had reach out to him and did send him the um all the budget stuff because I thought that that was the most important thing for be here what what is the contract I think
it's the 28th that it goes to March 28th is it the 28th it says through March 28th through March 28th okay then that's fine okay I think that was because they were anticipating starting the first week of February but we didn't have our meeting yet right that's on okay I just want to make sure that there's some time
there so planning Services through March 20 20 which could be um Extended depending on because we also have a limitation on the budget too right so once it gets to a certain amount and it need am a mentor for the TA coming in
depending on the experience okay okay I will make a motion to enter into agreement with the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission to offer us services for the
temporary Town Administrator I'll second the motion any further discussion no discussion all in favor I I it's just you so then a motion to give me permission to sign up so I will also make a motion
to give our board our uh chair Crystal D Frame permission to sign this contract because it only has one signature slot on it I'll second the motion any further
discussion all in favor I I yeah it's all chair okay there we go [Music] [Music] all right and
Robert wasas here we we thank you you can come up to the chair sir please thank you for coming in thank you for having me good the evening board my name is Robert vek please just call me Rob okay you got
it all right so welcome to uh the town of gramby and if you don't mind telling us a little bit about yourself well um as you know um I'm a well you may not know I'm 52 years old
um I live in belter town um I've got a strong construction background and um have uh a strong construction knowledge and knowledge of working with um people of um all walks of life um my
current position is building inspector in chabe and my parents immigrated from Poland so I was first generation um born and raised in South Hadley didn't learn to speak English till five
um went to Mo delosa and hoo conrat graduated went to stick Western New England went into the military to the National Guard [Music] um decided to start following My Father's Footsteps and doing
construction and I have a twin brother who's a master plumber so we kind of cornered the market with um construction and flips and everything else like that and learned it could be pretty lucrative so
I did that for about 15 years until I needed a hip replacement and knee replacement and age caught up with me um and decided to start looking for a job like project manager or construction supervisor stuff like that something that's a lot less uh wear and tear on
your body so um that's how I got to where I'm at today um just uh kind of bounced around until I found my Niche so to speak um so with my current position
in chabe it's a gateway community um I've been there for almost 3 years um I've passed all the tests I needed to to pass to get my license as an inspector I've taken one of the Commissioners tests and passed the first one it's called on boarding so if I would be
appointed as a provisional commissioner I I believe D Damian would probably know but I'd probably I I think I'd have to get that within six months or within a year to pass those two tests to get the the commissioner certificate but I could work as a commissioner um I would just have to have the appointing authority
sign the paperwork and send it into the pbrs um the uh the background I bring um working in a city like chicke with with 77,000 people um since it's a gateway community there's people from all walks
of life that come through chicke um from from Europe from South America what have you and um there's four four of us inspectors there and I'm I'm probably one of the more communicative ones just
because of my background I try to explain the process to people because I've been in their shoes when I first start when I was a 21y old kid I'm like who needs a permit we're doing sheetrock you know and then you're like okay as you rise up through the ranks and you're
like well wait a second there needs to be some accountability this person sells the house and there's a fire and we need to to track this there needs to be some recordkeeping so um so part so part of working in chabe is is um open up to open up my
eyes to all walks of life and um communicating effectively with people um instead of being like you know abrasive or necessarily denying their permit you you you have to teach them and explain the process to them and you know educate
them so um I think that's who I am as a person you know what I mean I I'm I'm more of a relaxed person than being like a um shoot from the hip no kind of guy you know what I mean I'll give you a little
bit of leeway and let's let's work through this um so sorry if I rambled there thank you will you answer my question about the certifications um I yes one of my questions is why
gramby well that's a good uh that's a good question especially from you um like I said I was born and raised in South Hadley I live in belter toown but I walk my little French Bulldog Zola in D FRS Park all the time I support all the local businesses in town and I
always go to Charter days sorry about last year um but I think um grany would be a good fit for me because it's my kind of town um it's It's a Small Town atmosphere but it's got the growing capabilities and you'd like to see it
grow in the right direction um and it just I know a lot of people I have family here I have a lot of friends in town and um like I said I think it'd be a natural [Music] fit I guess my question would be um Rob where do you see yourself in five years
and I asked that because I mean uh I I've been on the select board now almost eight years I think I we're on our fourth or fifth Building Commissioner understood it seems that people move around a lot so my always concern is that you know how long is
this person going to be here for so um without signing a letter of intent or anything I can tell you my um appearance here tonight is sincere um meaning that this town is about 8 miles closer than
chabe so it's a lot closer to my home a lot closer to my mom's house who's still alive um and I think that if I were to tell you I want to work till 62 I'm 52 now that's 10 years not five
and depending upon what the town of grany has to offer for a retirement system you know investment opportunities you know the amount of time before you can draw retirement stuff like that um certainly we can just we can discuss that further you
know uh what is your um background with commercial as opposed to residential so my specialty is residential and okay in chicke I'm the residential guy but I do handle a lot of commercial permits I do sprack reviews go to zoning planning um
there's not very much Conservation Commission issues but um when I decided to take the tool belt off and try to get into an office setting I worked as a project manager for uh Mount hoyo
properties which has a lot of rental properties um those are considered commercial even though they're Apartments um then I moved on to Enfield Enterprises in Springfield and they're a federal government agency so we CH we
chased federal government money and we had jobs with uh Amtrak here in Springfield we built the ramp and I was the project manager on that um I got my clearance badge and um amp trck certifications and everything I needed to get that just to get that um and then
when Puerto Rico had the hurricane um back in 2019 or whenever it was we were tasked or we were awarded the bid to go down there and um tarp all the um homes that were damaged so that
was a unique experience for me and and just trying to um communicate effectively be with with people down there but we we brought a contingency with us um was was a challenge but um ordering things um and
getting all the supplies we needed so um again that was um a a a catastrophe where you know you're working under pressure and you're trying to get all the supplies you need and everything else so that was um a semi-commercial um um atmosphere and then I started
working for NL construction um we had a a large project in hoyo uh called Library Commons and we took this building across from the library it was an old 1880s building and um basically built it from ground up um concrete
foundations um framing everything and when you you know when you get a set of drawings and they're this thick and you know you're you're sitting in the trailer and you have to be on top of every little detail um and it's it's very um because if you miss
something the engineers are coming and they're going to Gig you for it or whatever so um that opened my eyes to the world of commercial construction and then as I evolved into becoming a building inspector in chicke and seeing all the
sets of commercial the amount of commercial plans that come into the city chabe um it really really open my eyes to the need for uh the fire department um to review plans safety egress all
that stuff and um make sure it's correct and to make sure you have all the accountability from um the paperwork with the construction control documents very thank [Music]
you in your current position uh Rob what do you think uh has been your biggest [Music] challenge let's see my biggest challenge um I would say the biggest
challenge is trying to coordinate um all our efforts together to make the city better um the building we're in now it's not in the same building as the fire department so trying to
schedule uh inspect like certificate of inspection or zoning inspections together there's a lot of phone calls a lot of redundancy a lot of emails um our computer system is okay it's not the best so there's a lot of miscommunication that goes on and when
we book appointments they're in half hour time slots so you book an appointment and you're there the fire department isn't or the the customers you know the owner isn't there so there's a lot of um kind of wasted time which is frustrating
because it's busy it's it's very busy um so I I would say that's the biggest challenge is trying to coordinate all the Departments together and I've you know I I've got a a strong understanding of computers Microsoft Excel all that
stuff iPhones I'm really handy with computers can fix apps everything else like that and just trying to get us all on the same we don't have um uh I iPads or anything so just trying to get us coordinated where we can all
show up at the same time um you know I've asked if we can get like an app like a Robin Hood app or something where we can all like kind of communicate I mean outside of being on a like a fire dispatch radio or something um but I'd say that's the biggest challenge
yeah communication communication that [Music] [Applause] yes do you have more
[Music] questions what what I guess why are we looking to leave the city of chick and come to grany uh well I'm I'm um I'm interested in pursuing my
self-education and bettering myself so the the next chronological step is a step up to commissioner obviously it's a step in pay and it's a step in Authority um and I think um my experience and
training demonstrates that I have a good understanding of it all um back in 2014 I was on the planning board in Belchertown and that's how things kind of like started for me with with the government work um and I like it you know I like call me crazy but I like
going to a zoning board of appeals meeting or you know planning board meeting and you know listening in because it's interesting you know and I used to be on the flip side of that you know I had a non-conforming lot and you're like oh why you know why can't this pass or what's the reasoning behind
it well now you know you know there's like a bunch of other things that go into play not just because we don't like you it's because these are the rules and regulations that the zoning laws that the town you know voted on so I wish it were that easy um but another challenge
will be the uh the adus coming down the pike so we'll see what happens okay uh what is your approach to dealing with um difficult homeowners or contractors that you might be working with so again I'm
I'm I'm like a big teddy bear um I'm kind of easygoing I try to deescalate a situation Defuse The Situation you know if if if something happens you know all you do is turn around you don't get into a confrontation you send them a letter that way it's documented it you
know it's not like you have a camera on or they I mean they may have a camera on but it's you know that way everything's documented this is this is why you know you need a permit or this is why we're giving you a c synthesis letter or this is why you can't do this um and you know
it happens all the time you drive by and you see somebody putting a roof on a house on a Saturday morning morning you know what I mean and then you go into the office on Monday and oh they didn't have a permit what do you do you're not going to go there knock on their door because they put a roof on their house on Saturday morning you send them a letter hey we noticed you put a roof on your house Saturday morning on such and
such a date you know you you do you do understand that you need a permit for this and nine times out of 10 they call you and say oh yeah I I I was going to pull a permit today so thank you they're probably not examples those
probably actually true stories too [Music] yes and you did answer my question about uh zoning and and um such because you said you were on the planning board for Bel Town yes in 2014 were you also on the zba uh no but I do attend those
meetings regularly okay and um additionally with chickabee um we do a lot of sprack reviews um you know with with a lot of influx of new businesses coming in make sure you know everything works with the fire department and all the other departments
everybody's happy so how familiar are you with uh infrastructure uh what kind of infrastructure well sewer lines water lines I have a I have a real good understanding of that I mean I know 202 is a state road I know um you know uh
most of Granny B I think 100% of if everything is septic right not 100% not 100% okay so very very very little yeah okay so that's the flip side of chicke is everything's sewer except a 1% on Bernett Road um so
um with the amount of houses that I built um Excavating foundations um attaching to water line sewer lines in the houses I built in lllo I've got a good familiarity with it good you know curb cuts gas lines um
flowable fill um you know if you're near a constru Conservation Area stuff like that okay so on the flip side um how much familiarity do you have with septic systems and Wells I live in Belcher town okay I I
one of the houses than using them one of one of the houses I built uh probably 5 years ago um it needed an elevated system which I know gramby has a lot of and I needed to put a liner in it it was a it was a foreclosure and it was a non-conforming lot and I had to go be
you know before all the boards before the Board of Health and get all the approvals does you know there's steps to follow and you got to get everything approved M thank [Music] you have any
questions no I think I'm all thank you so much for coming in we really appreciate it well thank you for giving me the opportunity I'd be uh proud to work for theana of grany and I hope you consider hiring me thank you thank you have a good night all right so we do have um some
time before our next appointment we have 15 minutes before do come in you don't have anything else right no want just take a quick recess yeah do you want to take a quick recess
because we have 15 minutes before the next settlement comes in that's fine okay I'll make a motion to take a oh I'm sorry go ahead I'll go right in uh 15 minute recess until the next or until the next applicant or until the next
applicant comes in okay I'll second the motion any further discussion no discussion all in favor thank you thank you I will call the select board meeting back to order is 6:57 on February 13th uh Thomas quinland
if you can come up here [Music] sir welcome Hi how are you good how are you do good thank you good so Tom I know you are acting Building Commissioner for a while yes um so I guess for the people at home if you
want to just give us a overview of you background information sure um back when I was here it was about I think a year and 3 months and I co-shared it with Kevin Ross the Northampton um Building Commissioner and um you know then he finally had filled the position um I I
was interested then and somehow our select board heard about it and the day that I came here to meet they offered me more money and stayed there it's funny how that happens sometimes no idea how but it was a tough situation
yeah all right so you're still currently or presently at Town of Hatley yes okay and why grany had an instance how to put it I had a kind of a political instance where you know State inspectors would call any
anywhere I wanted to go now they' put a recommendation in but I was forced to um basically asked to do something and I was correct and now it's realized that between town counc coun and all I was um I was correct and and they didn't want to uh do it that way and now
Council and everybody's told them that you know I was correct I should have been allowed to do my job okay and just was disappointed because I've never I've worked you know part time even when I was I W say what community one Community I worked as started as a local commissioner and the Building
Commissioner had a problem with the mayor and I was the in between person you know and actually was able to use them as a reference um and just disappointed that the town I grew up in that that happened and you know never like I said never had it happen in over
10 11 years even as a local [Music] inspector D do you have any questions well one that have asked everyone will um where do you see yourself in five years kind of you kind
of made a point where um you know we we've found it hard that uh we seem to be uh building Commissioners seem to to move on and circulate to different towns to move on you know and uh sometimes as you said yourself you were kind of
interested before and then your town came back and offered you more money and um you know since I've been sitting in on the board you know I've seen that kind of be a trend where it's almost like we're you know we're um playing
ourselves against other towns um so you know what what's going to keep you in grany if if you you had the opportunity to work here um I had no I I was in Southampton I actually wasn't I was offered the job there and wasn't fully certified had to work under my
eastampton commissioner as a local um was there for 6 years finished my test you know that first year whatever and stayed there for 6 years and then my town had came I went there and I've been there five um looking at the retirement at all I need at least for 52% I needed
last year I think at least 12 years for 52% and I thought I was going to stay there for 12 more years you know it' be 11 now and so didn't plan on till this till this came up okay it's tough I live I live right on
Bay Road so it's I'm 12 minutes from here but I'm a mile from town hall from where I live in Hadley and I grew up there so and if you were to get the the position Tom how early can you start would be your your notice for them
I guess yeah I would love to give them at least two weeks notice um my problem is is Monday I'm going on a 10-day Cruise so I'll be gone from the 17th to the 27th okay um I you know I know the process takes time and all but I was hoping to be able to tell you the third but I don't like to leave anybody high
and dry um in fact when I was doing um Southampton I was doing West Westampton and they had tried to merge the two to make up for what Hadley was paying and um you know they filled a position in I helped stay on in in Southampton they
filled a position and hadly wanted me to get rid of Westampton but I found two basically they used my license and I was the commissioner and found two people who both got certified and one finally took it over but I wouldn't I wouldn't leave them high and dry like that
so um you know like I said for I think three years they worked under M to get their tests and all and I took care of the zoning any problems and that but so the you know i' like to give them a a longer longest I can it's
understandable um how do you manage with communication with local government officials and other inspectors I feel very good that's that's my strength and I enjoy you know talking with people learning you learn every day um I feel very very good
between State inspectors um fire chiefs every Community I've worked in worked very close with all the Fire Chiefs um Board of Health planning board zba have you ever served on any of those committees planning board zba or nope
just just work with them just work work on the outside and um computer skills I skills um my weakness I'll be honest but I've never had a problem I you know with it
but it's come pretty quickly after 10 11 [Music] years what do you find one of your most uh challenging things as a as a Building Commissioner where you come across
whether it's been a unhappy customer if you will or just you know working with you know different people within the town um outside the one you described so I mean I don't want to say it's a it's a challenge but it's um you know
unfortunately there's no State inspector that's the same I mean no um Building Commissioner in the state that's the same so like when when I first started here filling in you know there was a couple contractors that were wow you're worse than the state police and you know and and nothing to the priate commiss he
just maybe he didn't have the training on it whatever and and you know but you're going to have to do it it's the code I'm not doing you know if I'm wrong show me and and you won't have to do it but basically um like I said it's not a challenge it's it and it became where they've learned they learned a lot for
me and I think we I say we're friends but um you know after being here a year I had a you know relationship where they wanted to be on the inspection when I when I did it you know to to get together and and see what there was anything wrong or ask questions whatever
it be what would you consider the most challenging aspect of being a building inspector or commissioner um I mean the zoning is but it's a I like that I like a challenge I like to be the busier I am the the more
efficient I way I like to say it I am but the the zoning can be but it's uh challenge but it's um just something you take care of so you mentioned zoning how familiar with zoning and working with
zoning with probably you know more than any because we we you know were able to touch it the sad part was working you know both of us at least there was two of us filling in here we weren't able to give 100% And I always had to tell you know um Chris at the time that it's it's we're not given 100% which isn't wasn't
right but at least the town was having some service and being here you know full-time you can give that and and um I'm very familiar you know dealing with it here the little bit Yeah but definitely within you know a few months you're going to know it know it very
well okay what are your means of uh staying current with all of the excuse me building codes and regulations I usually am at least double what is required for for training trainings um you know I go to the
monthly and the UMass 3-day um uh have these been very busy so I um still was double last three-year period but I um think it was almost triple the the amount of hours that were needed the prior threeyear term period whatever it be in class and online class and I was
able to do a lot more um training spend but I do have Hadley does have a uh 20-hour local now which okay freees me in know Monday I was actually this week able to go to one that you know something would always seem to come up that couldn't make it to the last year
or so there I do one other thing with that is and I it's tough um with and how these get the the part-time planning zba and all but um the first and th Tuesday of the month we have a 130 zoom and normally we have two planning board
members uh police chief fire chief um conservation uh who else is on it assessor assistant administrator and sometimes it could be a half hour sometimes hour and a half but we have a running sheet and go over any you know any issues or anything in town it's just
for us and then if there's anybody that a new business coming to town that really wants to ask questions that's better for me to let them ask the police chief for fire chief whatever it be um we put them on right at 130 and it's tough to do but we've worked it in we've doing it for 5 years and and um it works
really well it's something I would you know try if it if it would work here but and it it it gives them the opportunity and everybody to put what issues we have so we can work on it as a team right great so you're also a part-time
Building Commissioner for the town of sun correct yes sir yes so is that something you would continue yes I've been doing it um like 10 years 11 years now I no a lot of these building Commissioners have two other jobs or another job which kind of makes sense because you have the smaller towns don't
need a full-time uh building Commissioners so they have some someone else just makes sense yeah and they've also given me somebody to do four hours of all the programs and that you know as a secretary whatever
you want to call them there so it made a big relief and when any when any project like the last um senior housing comes it's going to be over the 12 to 15 hours um so we actually have the retired um we hire him as a alternate inspector to do
all the last senior housing project so that they wouldn't have to come up with the extra hours that I It stretch it stretch you out too much so the last couple ones projects that's happened like that the 150 apartments and the senior housing it was sourced out you know another
inspector so we know our limits so the hours here would not interfere with the time that you have to give Sunderland oh it's always after it's it's and I didn't when I was here but I'm assuming you'd have a phone so it's
it's uh you know the sunnd is my personal phone and the number here is the one he answered dur hours you know they have to wait the message says after hours you know you'll get to them can you give us a little bit of background on your energy efficient in
Green Building practices um everywhere I've been has been stretch code um you know just keep up with it I mean it's uh I was it got brought up and I was the one that had to
presented to meeting in um I think every one of the I mean in Southampton Westampton and Sunderland actually and and Hadley I was the one that had to they were bringing it up and I had to present it and talk about it back [Music]
then if you've ever made a mistake during an inspection um calling something out wrong or being called out by Builder how do you um go about handling that I you know if there's a I don't want to say
confrontation but if there's any questions you know I'll tell them if if I'm wrong you know prove me wrong I'll go I'm going to go back and look it up so it's all we learn every day and if um one thing um actually when I got hadly one good thing that was said when the administrator told there a reference
there was that um they were never bothered with you know helping out as far as the cuz if if there is a problem that could arise I'm going to let the administrator know right away you know this is my side you might hear about it before you have to hear and you hear you'll hear both sides um and um but I'm
we're not perfect and uh no hard feelings or you know nothing we just move on guys have I don't have anything else no good can you can you just um give us an
example of a complex project that you've been involved in a lot of them trying to think of an example that was it uh dealing with one right now where um the person put a full good siize foundation in without a without a permit
and they had the contractor had the um it ends up being on a farm and um I didn't receive my information the per was put in November didn't receive my information I want to say say the third or fourth this this month and it was it was held up now that I could hold it up but I had never received the plans or
any information till then because it was held up from conservation be luckily they had an agricultural exemption for them but they still had to cut the building half and the um contractor had the farmer call to say that acting you know asking for forgiveness and that and
said I don't you know I don't know what to say here but it's not you it's up to it's on the contractor contractors pulled his permit was issued the next day that I got the you know the information I reviewed it to move it along because a lot of the you have to move a lot of the Agricultural as quick as you can because they have real short time limit for it
and it seems all the time the financing they're getting from the government short time and um you know it's by right that Foundation should come out so that's what we're dealing with right now it's double the fee there's no question who it is it's double the fee they start without a permit um and I haven't heard
back from the contractor but it's through him now so it's kind of on hold right now cease and assist on it yes until the fees paid and and um that's a tough one but disappointing because you know we could have worked something out you don't just call afterwards and say
it was you know they would have gotten it from the conservation though if if they had done it but I couldn't hold the permit up for them as as much as we work together but on the other hand they didn't give me the information my plans yet either so cuz it had to be cut in half the the project square footage wise
too large thank you every day there's something and you say geez it can't get you know just which is it's interesting you know it's it's a different challenge especially with zoning yep okay thank you so much for coming in
thank you appreciate it can I just ask when you thinking yeah when are you it's worst time to be going away it's in cruise and I can't cancel or anything is there any do you guys have a time liit when you think you're going to be making a decision or um I know for myself I
would like some time to look at the um to mle through everything because we' had four candidates today and you were one of the four so I think we just it's a lot of information at once so I would like some time our next scheduled select board meeting is the 24th of February oh
okay good so that gives us some time to uh think about it mle it over and then deliberate on the 24th okay so I'm not hurting anything by being gone by then okay we'll be back in three days after our deliver well thank you all very much thank you good night Julia Cruz yes
enjoy your cruise [Music] all right so I do need time to um mull
it over and think about it so absolutely yeah I think we we've had some good candidates yeah qualify candidates in front of us absolutely so we don't have anything else on the agenda and our next regularly scheduled meeting is the 24th
but you guys will be meeting next Thursday for the interview and yes thank you uh one more thing I do have an announcement to make um to the board numbers I will not be running again as a select board um my sons
actually have asked me not to run so they're getting older my daughter's going into kindergarten so I thank you for this time I will be back when the kids are older I'm sure I do love this town and I learned a lot over these last three years and I
feel like I'm in a good spot where I could continue but it's just not what's best for my family at this time well family comes first it's been a pleasure working with you sorry to see you go thank you um she's not leaving today no I know got till May I know till
May but it seems it seems to fly by it does fly by right I don't I don't even feel like it's been 3 years to be honest with you it goes by quick um um yeah so I just want to make that announcement cuz I know there are other people who would like to run so I don't want to
hold them back good not good but U you know and uh just you know quickly Crystal and I know we'll get a chance to talk as it gets closer but uh you know it has been enjoyed working with you thank you for the past 3 years so as
long as it wasn't anything I said that's making you leave and okay no it was definitely a hard decision to make always is so but other than that that's all I have with that said I will make a motion to adjourn the meeting I'll second your
motion any further discussion no discussion all in favor I thank you