##VIDEO ID:CBvCncF9hGM## we stand up good morning this is a meeting of the hamon board of Select Board of Health being held in the townhouse in November 4th 2024 at 10:00 a.m. this meeting is being conducted in person and remotely using video conferencing technology please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance flag's over there Pledge of Allegiance for the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic which stand one nation under God indivisible Liberty got got a good video shot of my waist there that was [Laughter] good it was hard to say the Pledge while I was sucking in my stomach uh we have some minutes yes minutes of October 16th 2024 uh you call the order we talked about the special time meeting financial review at the advisory committee uh thoron Burg's lease review uh the health IMA and that's about it second all in favor I okay the next item on the agenda is the uh before I begin though I'd like to say uh first over the over the last week or so the Hampton fire department has been extremely busy responding to an assisting our neighboring towns and mut and mutual Aid Partners in fighting a fighting a series of large brush fires as well as protecting hamon on behalf of the board of Selectmen I want to uh thank them for their professionalism dedication and commitment to protecting the people and property and caution residents the fire danger Still Remains high so please no outside burning and avoid any any ignition sources also as everyone knows tomorrow November 5th is election day W will be at the Town Hall Auditorium from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. in addition to choosing the president there will be other offices up for election and there's five ballot questions uh democracy works best when everyone participates so I encourage everyone to get out and vote which brings us to today's discussion the turnout for the special town meeting on October 29th was to say the least outstanding and very encouraging to see the level of Interest by residents in willingness to participate in deciding the future of Hampton I believe in large part the turnout was driven not only by several large dollar issues on the warrant but by voters being able to vote anonymously through electronic voting clearly those taxpayers who rushed home from work cut their dinner short some cases packed up the kids searched for a spark parking space and patiently stood in line help set up extra chairs that only to be told the meeting was postponed wanted their vo to be heard and their vote account therefore our job today is to make sure their voices are heard and they can participate and vote not only for this town meeting but it would encourage others for future participation on boards and committees our job here today is to make sure every one of those who those taxpayers who came out last Tuesday comes out again and to encourage others to do do so using the words of chapter 39 section 10 of the Mass general laws our duty is to prevent voters from quote being excluded and to prevent voters in attendance from being quote deprived of the opportunity to participate therein for any reason whatsoever and it's our duty to quote provide places and Facilities sufficient to accommodate all voters attending and able them to participate therein therefore I open the meaning to discussion I guess we hear from Mr moderator we are well first and foremost I think it's clear that special town meeting the fall is no longer special town meeting let's bring it closer so we can hear yeah yeah I have to STI with you people no no you can roll a crushing pretend you like that right next to the pretend you like I'll stand here so I can block out Don's waste better get a couple of people there so I I think it's very clear that special town meeting is no longer a special town meeting it's especially the one in the fall uh it's clearly what do you go whatever you want to call it town meeting part two etc etc we now have um questions that historically had only been heard at the annual town meeting now coming over to the special town meeting and I think it's fine I think it it's it's the direction we're going in there are so many reasons for it to happen we don't need to beat it to death and the reality is that it's probably a good thing and it's also a good thing that we had the attendance we have now that said chapter 39 section 10 says it is the moderator's job it is not our job it is my job to make sure that no one is excluded from voting that no one is disenfranchised that we do everything we can to provide what is available for folks to best exercise their Democrat right Democratic right to vote that said I did send the selectman a letter on an email on Friday that we are going to honor what was stipulated at the town meeting that night we are going to continue the meeting to se to November 12 6:30 at thoron Burg's Middle School I understand and I have heard that there's some conversation with regard to going to the church that its capacity is larger both those issues are correct but its capacity is larger and you if in using the church to get to its fullest capacity you still need to use two rooms so the issues that face us with regard to two rooms will face us whether the it's at the church or at Thorton burges although it is clear that the church has a larger capacity that said Thorton burges has been used previously with the two room scenario the gym was set up before and quite frankly when it was done years ago we didn't have the technological capability we have now we didn't have zoom we didn't have teams we didn't have anything so the reality is whichever facility we use folks are still going to need to come into the main room to make any address to the public body and it is not going to be much different with the potential exception that maybe all of the people might fit in one room depending on the total attendance I have spoke with herb U herb Foley the custodian over at twb there is currently 300 chairs in the cafeteria and the gym is designated to hold up to another 160 my best guess would maybe Eva not to Second me or confirm it because she wasn't out all the way out my sense is we were at about 240 people with probably somewhere between 70 and 80 waiting to check in that number would still keep us well within the capacity of twb here's my big issue we said that night that when the meeting was continued we had a brief caucus with the selectman and the consensus the general consensus I don't put words in anyone's mouth is that we would continue the meeting till two weeks there and that we would not go to the church we made an announcement to stay there there's a lot of folks who do not participate in Facebook there's a lot of folks won't necessarily get to the town website and the and the other side of it is by Wednesday more Wednesday midday we were floating around three or four options for ways to move it ways to do this ways to do that um it would involve canceling the meeting having the moderator going over to the school and declaring it was turning into a spin cycle and anything that starts to go like that you really need to get back to the age-old adage keep it simple stupid and the simplest thing we can do is keep it at the twb and for the vast majority of the folks who were at the building heard the announcement and now have the expectation that that is the meeting where the meeting will occur it is my decision and without changing it that is where it is going to happen on the 12th at 6:30 if we exceed the capacity of the two rooms again then we need to have a plan B and that is most likely the church we would need to confirm their availability and whether or not they could accommodate us that's so that's the first part the meeting is going to be the 12th at 6:30 at Thorton burges and is going to be up to us to figure out the logistics inside the building Rick you mentioned about the possibility going to the church if this plan exceeds or has an electronic problem whatever now you're into a posting thing if on the 12th the decision is oh my gosh we can't do this meeting we would need to a either have posted a meeting like today or you'd still I don't believe it's you think you'd have to you have the ability then to say we're going to continue to another location from that meeting yes that's my understanding is we could do time and place certain Okay naming another location the big issue for me is that of the the excuse me the probably 70 to 80 people that were waiting in the hallway when we stopped the check-in or I stopped it as well as the 240 that were sitting in the room we told them where the meeting was going to be and we said time and place so my understanding of the law is if we exceed the the uh fire code for the two rooms we can announce time and place again and I think it would be in all of our best interest to coordinate with the church and say we may still need you we should have time and place certain in our Hip Pocket and ready to go that night okay is that's still the 14-day rule it would still be the 14-day rule is my understanding of the law yeah 14 day again from the last it keeps rolling from the last so that's the first point um the second one and you guys have the email um one of the things I talked about was potentially moving the questions around uh I'm I'm going to withdraw that thought I think we should keep the questions in the order in which they were perceived because very similar to announcing time and place if we start and this is on me if we start um if we start changing changing the firing order the question somebody might feel the same you know I can't I can't get there quick enough to cast a vote there no change to the order of the questions the third thing is can can I interrupt anyone can interrupt you tell me how early do you open the registration well I Le vond when to get there for 3:30 I thought that was a little early but we can be there for like 5:00 even it doesn't really matter I mean if if we anticipate a bigger crowd people don't really typically start checking in until about half an hour before and then they're it it doesn't really hit till about 15 minutes before the meeting so but we can certainly open up earlier but if we open up you know like if 6:30 is the meeting so you typically open at what you would open at about 6 y there earlier than what if we open at 5:30 and some people could bring a sandwich and yeah I mean I mean as soon as out as soon as Eva wants to check them in that's fine I mean we know the posted starting time is 6:30 mhm but but we've in my time if there's still people coming in I've held off on starting the meeting I I think it would be that would be inappropriate for the moderator to gavel the meeting to order at 6:30 and say question one now theoretically you could bang the gavel and say want you to know it is 6:30 we have a quorum in the room however we still have 60 people waiting to sign in we are not going to start the meeting until the vast majority of those folks are seated and go from there so that that's fine are we just just to ask Evo question are we able to get more people to check in because there are those people that are not coming straight from work that aren't going to be able to check in early we had four people checking in we had the alphabet was divided as it was and that's typically the way to do it I don't think that that hall or that situation is conducive to having more people so break up into four checkin tables not to mention there's a lot of confusion because people don't know until they a Little Closer where they should be going and now they're all over the place would it be helpful to have six people and two people working as you know over your shoulder getting things ready prepping and stuff like that they're already they're already doing that these guys are pretty well organized you may not have nothing I'm just trying to mitigate that you know last minute that 15minute rush you know where people are coming in right from work and now we have that backlog is there a way to get not really backlog I mean again they're they're pretty good they're you you don't go out there in the hall I check that often but they're they're pretty darn good I did anyone here have a problem checking in well we were there early though there was some confusion because people didn't know whether to go to the left or the right and it seems like so simple but still ordinarily we would have had something in the hall earlier and I thought for some reason I thought we were going to use the easel for that that was my my misunderstanding I thought the easel when we were asking about the easel upstairs it was to direct people but we can certainly put something in the hall that says a to J K to Z that makes it a lot easier right so that or get a Walmart Greer say no you're over here want be our Walmart okay okay then Rick your other thing about the clickers well I wanted to speak on what was already said if you will okay well you told we could no I don't I thought we were going to I thought I thought Rick was going to inform the board where he was going with that and then we'd go out to the audience for CU it's kind of like his meeting to us tell us what what going on with regard to the clickers okay my initial reaction to the issue of the use of the clickers is I think the night is going to be fairly chaotic given what happened on the First with our original posted date I think it's going to be somewhat chaotic further to that we're going to have the um the gym in use now there was some conversation when we did the first demonstration with uh Mr Babel bble there was some conversation about how the units would perform from a distance and going through walls so I'm not I don't even want to plant a seed that there's a doubt that this system is capable but that said if we with the expectation of what is coming at us that night my primary concern is if there's even a hiccup in the system the future use of the system is doomed and I'm a little concerned that we really didn't have a we we had test runs with the system we had one here we did two we did two test system we know the system works but we hadn't used it in a larger environment and now we're asking whether or not it's going to be capable of doing even more I would my preference is to but I'm willing to I think we should have conversation about this part I'm my preference would be to go with the cards because and have four counters available two in each room so basically the conversation I had briefly with herb is that the two rooms would be set up as they were back in whatever it was 93 when we used it and it's typical setting the we did that for the regional after after thato after that we did it twice in that it's been done in so my point is you'd have to have four count we'd have to have four counters in place one for each of the four sections um and then an assist obviously you need an assistant when we had the meeting at the church I assisted Bob so you'd have to have an assistant to run the other room because that's you know there'll be some coordination of the counts and each of the counters would bring up the cards and we would do the the typical count as it's been historically done um again my concern is not the the system itself I mean what we've seen it works it works well I know all the pros and cons because we've talked them extensively which is whether or not you know it gives anonymity it it takes away the herd voting mentality I'm a I'm I'm a Believer in the system and was looking forward to using it the other night I'm just not sure with again not to belabor the point but with well I I think it's going to be a chaotic night with a ton going on already um I think it's a lot to ask the voters to deal with all of this and deal with the use of the system that said I'm willing to listen maybe we can go over to the school and test it using two separate rooms and all that but I think it's going to be a lot what if someone makes a motion to have a ballot so secret ballot so Eva doesn't know but we were going to talk about this um last time there was a secret ballot with the fiber optic it was a requirement so we have one of two options putting the clickers aside for a second because on the secret ballot with the clickers the system can be switched to Anonymous mode so nobody will ever know how anyone votes realistically even in its regular mode no one's going to know how anyone voted unless they come down to make a freedom freedom of information request for the voting record didn't match up the voting and they have to go back and match up so my my feeling is the secret ballot is is fine now since we had to do the secret ballot with the fiber optic Eva and I worked together and we made a change to how the town does secret ballot so to quickly lay it out because I know we don't want to all be here all day but to quickly lay it out in the typical environment if a motion is made for secret ballot then we have to recheck in the entire room typically so that means you'd have to go everyone would have to go back back through the process and be GI be given their yes no ballot you then have to set up the t a table with one counter checking the yeses one checking the Nos and one checking the discards so basically you'd have to have a room set up yes no discard we'd go row by row by row to do it now the way we did it with the fiber optic is even I rewrote the historical perspective of this together what we did was we went back and said if we know or we have a reasonable anticipation that there's going to be a request for a secret ballot when we check in the voters we can hand them the perforated card so they could be clearly checked in up front so we would not have to do it if some we could just take the vote if somebody requested a secret ballot at that point we would shift over and say hold on a second you have your yes no ballot here's how we're going to do it row by row by row all the way through The Ballot Box like we did to just like we did did a fiber optic so we could approach this one or two ways and my inclination would be to hand out the yes NOS right up front right um because anticipate I the last thing you want to do is knowing that what we know and knowing how well we did it before it worked well it worked really well and I would so I would we would do it this way up front because the last thing from my perspective I don't want to get into having somebody say let's have a secret ballot no by the way we're going to recheck in the whole room would be there till 12:30 if we finished it off so if we go with the clickers then that is going to require Brian we really need to do some sort of a test run over there my preference would not be to would be not to use them this time simply because of all that goes along but that we approach this fully prepared to take a secret ballot not use the clickers for a singular question or the whole meeting I wouldn't use them for the whole meeting right not this if it my preference and and again we could go way down in the weeds here but my preference on this is that with the clickers did I did some homework I sent you guys all the emails I received from all the moderators in Massachusetts who responded to my question um I'm aware that there are moderators out there that use the clickers for some questions but not all the questions to to my line of thinking either you use it or you don't because the voters need to say they have some sort of feeling of continuity to the process so either they're in or they're out so as far as I think trying to get with so many people with all that's going to be going on again I'm kind of back to that keep it simple stupid thing because in my mind I have to live that way cuz it's not always a lot of gray matter spin in there so the pros and the cons Pro for not using the clickers would be faster checkin potentially because we're not doing no it would avoid that second step that second step in Step the Second Step the cons are you know there's a lot of people thought Anonymous voting was be beneficial and so and that's why we would have the secret ballot ready they would be given those are perforated by the remember right so we'd be ready with that we would do it as conveniently as POS possible for the voters and we would do it right up front if we're going to do this if we're going to go without the clickers then we're going to have that we're going to check everybody in secret ballot in hand with the expectation we're going to do it and I'll just you know we can use one of the four two of the three of the four counters that we were willing to step up to participate in the secret ballot and we'll to set up another table up front does it does it need a motion for a secret ballot yes so it come from the floor somebody would move for a secret ballot discussion I can't see any discussion that would swe it one way or the other I think if somebody makes the motion it's kind of a fade to complete that we're going to the secret ballot on that secret ballot topic what if someone questions the count and asks for a recount and that is that I don't know how you would do it simply because exactly I don't know how I don't just recount the balance yeah that's the only thing I that's the I mean answering your question like recount like okay let's have another change of hands well clearly you wouldn't do that but the ballots are there so you just count them again and so and you know the other side of the coin is with the with the secret ballot using the yes box the no box and the discard box I actually think it makes the tally even easier because it's easier to calculate the 66 and 23 just on yes no hand because if it stays to a then basically you've got people coming up giving me each of their individual sets of numbers and then doing the math so but the math isn't the hard part it's so yeah I think see about but we would go into this prepared to do a c b what if you would you have one box one Ballot Box no no three we have I'm sorry two ballot boxes the discard is the trash right theoretically basically yeah you have two boxes one that's your vote is the part that you're disposing so if you're voting yes you're disposing of the no if you're voting no you're disposing of the of the yes so basically when you check in you're given a perforated card yes no you rip it in half yeah yeah you know so yeah but I guess my question is this if I'm sitting there and I see Mary Ellen go to the yes box it's one box you put your yes or no in that one box okay that's what I want to know I thought we SP those out no no the Box you got a yes or no box then I could say okay yes oh that jerks a no mean we can we'll get it right you know was right before it worked out fine it worked out fine we did on fiber optic and I thought the way I remembered it is we had dick counting dick counted one box and Norm shest counted the other box and was just a disar okay so we yeah so either way it's going to work one box one box for vote one box for dis okay if a secret ballot what else we got all right so let's see um so we will have a second moderator if we would have a second moderator in the gym um both let ask you about that let's so let's so if we're not going to use the clickers and I'm I'm still I I still would like to use it but and H how do you determine so you're in the main Auditorium and you'll say I don't know on the uh let's say transfering the money to the stabilization fund right and and everybody and and the people in the auditor say I and the people in the gym are saying who knows what how do you know how does that how do you know that what he's saying telling you is you you know what I mean I know exactly I mean you're going to have the I mean the bottom line is whoever the whoever the alternate in the other room is let's say let's make it simple majority you know whoever the alternate is is going to have to you know have a sense of what a majority vote is going to look like and usually majority votes are easy two3 twoth third votes are much harder from the states yeah they got to be counted you know and they will be any two-third votes going forward are going to be counted and I have to say that each time that that's happened I agreed with you in your first in your first call but then when they count you know well the thing with the first vote on the senior senator is so many people left the room after they voted and then the challenge came so the the count got thrown out but it it is but again no matter what happened or how it happened the the primary issue is is truly the belief that the system works so what happens now I'm in the I'm in the gymnasium and I want to address the the uh that was going to be my next point so and we did this this every single time that we've had to use the split room system even when we use the split room system at the church those that wish to address the meeting came into the came into the main room so basically the way I see it is and we're going to make allowance I mean I know not everyone's going to be able to Sprint to a mic um you know thank you yeah it's not me I'd fall down before I got out of my chair so on the flip side of this um Brian and I had had a conversation already about you know making sure the microphone you know the last couple meetings the microphone has been on a music stage well we're not going to do that it's going to be on a table it's going to be on that type of thing my expectation of the questions that have the you know the larger money issues be it the senior center or the extension of the of the water district there's probably going to be a fair amount of requests for public comment so my announcement to the group would be to address the meeting proper you must come into the main room and we'll line line Folks up coming right up the middle of the row like we've done in the past um even using one room there's times when we've had people lined up to use the microphone so my feeling in that is whether you're coming from the gymnasium which is whatever 30 40 50 ft to that microphone there's already going to be a line there there's going to be plenty of time um and let and be clear on one more point just you know when there's nobody standing at the microphone and the Motions are done I'm not looking at this and saying well there's nobody standing there we're done let's vote there's going to be a qu a query because with the understanding you've got two rooms there's going to be a query to the crowd has everybody made a Salient comment that wishes to do so I mean obviously we start to get to redundant comments and that type of thing we're going to move the question but if somebody wants to address the meeting they're not going to be excluded simply because they have to walk from the gymnasium there there's going to be time and we're going to whether it's the coming into a line that already exists or making multiple announcements before we take the vote to say has everyone had the opportunity and we're going to make sure that you know the voices get to be heard but that would be the same in either location because again keeping in mind the church the church Sanctuary proper I'm not sure of its total capacity but I'm sure it's larger than the cafeteria 620 I think I think the whole I think the total of the church is 620 using the back room and the I don't think so I think I thought it was 900 with the whole thing I thought the back gym was several hundred in the sanctuary was 600 I thought it was different we did have over a thousand people that attended the school vote okay so most of those were in that main room I don't think that we had anywhere near 300 in a separate room okay so that said my mistake I thought I thought the total was a little bit different but either way I mean my sense of it the other when we the first meeting is we had roughly probably 240 people in and it looked like about 80 people to go so we weren't reaching the 460 number but all of that to me becomes somewhat immaterial when we stood up at the end when we adjourned that meeting and said this is where we're going to be and so if we suddenly change it for all those people that don't do Facebook or Tik toac or I'm not good on all this stuff who don't do those things and don't necessarily visit the town website what happens when they show up at at the school on the 12th at 6:30 and there's nobody there um sister show up on Monday yeah well so and so we're going have to work with the chief on parking um but to me this is what we said we were going to do we need to do that if we exceed the room again I know it'll be frustrating for all of us nobody wants to go out a third night no one wants to line up babysitters I mean most of us in the room have kids and we've been there I I get all that but I I think and again I'm now I'm really beating it to death but to me is the continuity and credibility of the process and if 20 people show up at that school and there's no one there then we've disenfranchised them and that's wrong so we do it this way we have the option for a continuance again to a date place and time certain we'll talk to the church and we'll go from there I agree with you I think there there's no reason to change the day in time we've already said it it's already said we just go through it it's already been put out there multiple multiple sources so so two things and I think first off I want to do commend when I reached out to Steve Hail you know late in the process he moved Heaven and Earth to get that babysitting going together and again we really want to thank the Min Key Club what I think for in integral in getting that going I think hopefully they'll do it again you mentioned that how the meeting ended but understandably the meeting actually never started right you made the call that we cannot GA this to order because of people do not have reasonable access into the room and right so we never actually started the meeting we're said we're pushing it back we're going to start it again in two weeks right we adj right did we adjourn it can't adjourn we if we never started you made the call not that actually no return of the warrant none of that happen too late now we didn't have the meeting and we're not there right basically yeah I mean on the I mean I I guess you know if you start to dig into this procedurally we we did not gav the meeting to order we made the announcement that it was not viable to have it and there was no point gaving it to order when we stopped people from checking in and there was no point having somebody wait in line for 20 minutes to check in because we already knew what the end result was going to be that said John I still go back to the same thing for the for the people that were standing in the hallway my announcement to them was you know we are going to we are going to recess orj the meeting and the same thing inside so we're in the same place see you in two weeks see you in two weeks we're in the same place this is nothing to do with you parking well yeah I was my only suggestion on that and I was I did not go on the parking lot but my only suggestion on that is typically what's happens with the parking at the school just to give you a piece of FYI something we all on the lawn they park on the lawn but I'm wondering is if we talk to the chief about having an officer there and make sure people are parking because you can park in the back of the right you you've got another 70 80 spots down that side and including the back so before we even put them on the put folks on the lawn we have enough room you know when well we have a I I'm convinced we didn't use all the parking that was available and you it would be better to have an officer out there especially a couple maybe more than whatever with flashlights gu people into space well that's the thing you really can't have a separate entrance in from the back there because it would make it crazy for Eva and check in ETC no yeah you'd still have to walk around but hey geez our grandfather walk to town meeting period uphill uphill both ways in the S the checking tables if they came in the back door you could direct them the Jack well that be the thing we have to like block it off and go that way well you logistically speaking that that raises a couple concerns we're going to have two rooms typically we have one police officer in room are we going to want to have one in each room now probably and then as far as parking and goes I've heard a lot of people say that the parking lot was a nightmare especially leaving that parking lot is a safety hazard because it's so dark that's why we need cops I left there was somebody had fallen when I was leaving and I I left late yeah so that's another concern is that if we're parking around the buildings now we have people that may trip fall get hurt because the inadequate Lighting in that parking lot so how do we address that more cops on scene I that would be up to you guys but that would be my thought process is you need more officers on scene I'm thinking four that two inside two outside but Eva raises um Eva raised a point as you were saying that and actually I learned something from this meeting if you can't learn anything else you'd help to learn something every time um like Eva said and this is what made me think of it if they could come in the back door and we could direct them up that middle Corridor to go to you know to funnel into the checkin the one thing we've never done in any meeting is actually describe the exit from that room if something goes wrong and we're all only human beings we're going to probably go one way and that's the way we came in e but all those rooms both of those rooms have at least four ways out and we that's on the moderator we I will do a better job making sure people understand the ways out yeah you can go behind you it's like an airplane the best exit might be the one behind you so you know it's forwards and backwards so we I'm going to cover that but you know that's a small thing but if we can get them in that way and go from there all right so it's going to be a twb no change in the agenda order nope prepare for secret ballot yep Ballot Box uh extra police you know yeah I think it's a good idea and now for the crowd o o opening a half hour earlier how do you make that known to everyone cuz you know people are going to say they oh there's a few people that knew we could be there at 5:30 well we we we'll just have to we could do a robo call we could Christ's right here to put the right there for the newspaper uh do our Facebook page and you know we will I mean the meeting is still going to start time at 6:30 but we're going to open at 5:30 for registration and what we'll do I'm sorry I no no I owe Miss Sternberg a chance to speak as I cut her before let you speak and she is number one on the list that's okay I have several so maybe you'll say one so the rest can go and then all right one is s pretty basic though um with the 160 in the gym does that include bleachers are you counting bleachers no I don't think they're counting bleachers well where are they getting the shars then if they're planing a chair me people number people I did have corre number of people in that Capac not number of chairs okay so I guess more to the point then how many chairs can be foot placed on the gym floor right so with regard to that I had a conversation with the with the head custodian um and I told him that the pref not the preference we could not use the bleachers because you certainly can't ask especially those of us that are more mature to start stepping over rows to get to the top especially me fall out the um but so so it will be chairs and there'll be chairs on the floor that would say if the bleachers were out and somebody wanted to sit on the first row they could but that's it's chairs and and herb and I had a conversation about that speaking pardon me speaking of somebody who was integral in getting the bleachers and the new floor there I would definitely check on with the custodian about putting chairs on that floor that was not a good thing when we went out to get that floor not a good thing I'll I'll check with her but we already talked about it he said he could get chairs I'm sure he could get chairs I'm saying it's not good for the floor right so we'll have to ask him again one we'll all have to do we'll work on it together or work with gr but my understanding was we were going to be chairs and he didn't say a word about chairs on that floor I understand where you're coming from CU I get it I got to tell you Craig at the church I don't recall chairs in their overflow room I recall standing watching the screen over or sat on the floor no I I sat in chairs you buy your own chair no there was chairs church I don't see I work that room and I see there was a lot of people standing in there how many had chairs I don't remember those a lot of people were actually standing in there just to be clear then when you said 160 you really that's the capacity of the room for a sporting event or whatever that doesn't mean that 160 can chairs can be fit in that room I don't I don't know the answer to okay that's good just fire codes 160 oh okay um I have a few more of others 160 anybody else chair okay can I the water sure um the water the Acoustics at twb are terrible yes did was there any thought well first the question is do we have to hold it in town yes go to schol that was checked up you need you would need a town meeting to adopt a bylaw that would allow you go outside Town let's kick that to the government study committee for consideration so we always have that in our pocket the option to go to Minar I think I think it' be a good question for the future because I think oh I mean there there is a segment of the population and and I think it doesn't it should go shouldn't go un said that the church has been extremely cooperative and they've been a good friend of the community but there is a segment of the population who don't feel it's right to have this meeting in a church um so I mean there's I think the church has worked well this I want to be very careful that we speak well of the the church because they have been helpful it's a beautiful facility and it works but there are folks that fall into the separation of church and state and and for other various reasons would not want this meeting to be in a church so I just I think that needs to be said too I mean the bottom line for the final decision on this is simply because this is what we told the voters it it really doesn't have a lot to do with how many chairs will'll fit how comfortable it is how you know this is what we told you this is where we said we were going to be um that's the driving issue here I agree I think we need to focus more on Logistics now rather than agree do the best we can Jim yeah I with regard to the parking lot the you know the difficulty seeing I don't know uh you know how you would coordinate this but I would volunteer to be an escort with a flashlight after the meeting and you just go back and forth good idea good idea we public safety lights you know don't they have some like good on the truck that go up and they can the fire truck must have something right big lights you know as long as that's not putting a hindrance to Public Safety there was a time John years ago situation not important where you and I went and got lights late at night to light up an area and they had freestanding lights and I think at the time Peter hatch brought them to us so they have freestanding lights we had some of those old clipon shop lights a couple extension it's not a carry away boy the 1800s were good Rick that was good times all good times right anything else anybody we got more crowd Lisa's got more okay um with regard to checkin could the front hall be considered because it's wider and in that way when people have checked in there could be a sign that says gym seating auditorium seating that was very congestive if you're you're checking them in the front hall you're not going to do it in that first part because then everybody's going to be waiting outside that's right that's why I'm saying we locate the whole operation we can do checking anywhere that's convenient I don't know that it's going to be so convenient you know logistically you put at the end of the front hall straight in all the way the end then you go left into the auditorium or left into the gym right or right into the gym that's that's talking straight down straight then you still have to the right to go to the the child care or you continue on straight and then you have that long cor there yeah I don't think that HS any wider necessarily gives you much more room whether you go left or straight but it makes more sense where coming in left right because if you come in way of going now you're going through the cafetorium to get to the gymnasium rather if you have it straight down at the end of the corter and you're checking in on the left as soon as you go past the check-in Booth you're either going left or to the right I think if you have it at the entrance though you got more people standing outside potentially at the end of theall yeah but I think that's 61 half do the other what do you go left and at the the auditorium entrance or you go straight down to the gym wall that's about the same distance going left or straight you through the cafetorium to get to the gymnasium right but I'm just saying there's no more storage area going left they going straight they have the checking tables all the way down at the end go if you to St down theall have more room so people don't have to be out the door and then they can go in that back door of the other okay you'll pick up another 30 ft then banging left the that point yeah my I that's what I'm thinking um as far as uh everybody who can speak um ought to be allowed to speak I was dismayed when at the last meeting the architect was told okay you can go and you have two minutes I I just felt that was very unfair to those seniors who are pro this the new Senior Center I don't see why we had a resident talked on for nearly 25 and okay and yet the architect was told um okay if you can get it done in 2 minutes and I just think that's wrong maybe you should liveit everybody to lesser time than 20 minutes I don't know well personally the architect is not a town resident so I mean should only be there to ENT technicals right so I mean along that line I was contacted ahead of time um by by someone from the making the presentation for the for the senior center will use that question and asked if look this is about what I think we would need for time to make the presentation and my first question was would that include your time or is that going to be your time and then the Architects and then other and and the answer was no that's that's what I'll need 15 to 20 minutes then we'll do it I I think the one thing we we need to be a little bit aware of sure is this could go on under three hours oh yes I got another no on one question I got another point I got and pretty soon it all gets pretty redundant right and now people are just repeating the same thing over and over again so the and and to Craig's Point theoretically the argument could be made if you don't live in time you're not allowed to speak at all except for the fact that these are technical consultants and you want to give them the opportunity to answer the questions for we pay for the technical but but there's an argument actually be made and this I belong to as a moderator I belong to the gavl L and this question comes up all the time do we allow non-residents to speak and most moderators will answer the question the same way absolutely not except for if there's a technical question so really to have the Architects make a full-blown presentation I'm going to tell you no okay if they want to answer technical questions based on the original presentation and questions that come from the crowd that's good but to have a 20-minute presentation and have them do 20 minutes I think get pretty soon we also get onto information overload I understand that um I guess I don't think that the technical questions really really were addressed by the architect we did hire him I think didn't did we not I agree but I think the the ultimate example of what this happening in Pastrick the school superintendent has always been allowed to speak to a school question and never lived in town that bolsters what you said it's a technical answer it's a technical question right exactly addressing the budget something like that we've always allowed that type of technical aspect Absolut so maybe the highway superintendent before if it wasn't Dana Mark will answer a question doesn't live in town but it's a question about hey what kind of tractor are we getting what are you doing with the dumb truck so the the thought process on this and just to finish the answer maybe for Lisa or anyone in the room a little bit is then I've been pre-approach and said look we need x amount of minutes to do a full-blown presentation we've worked on it we feel we can keep it tight and my response to the to to the person yeah you can have 15 or 20 minutes and I'm not going to sit there with a timer and go 1959 done it's not going to happen it's never happened before it's not going to happen now then so during the course of the conversation when the question was asked about the presentation and again not the belabor it I said did does this include is this allinclusive yes it is I said okay so you do an allinclusive and then clearly the floor is going to be opened up to technical questions from that may or may not be answered by the presenter but they might be answered by the architect so this has been taken into account and you you make the presentation as Fair as you can before before somebody from the crowd says I want to move the question so that that can come at you at any time too so back to Lisa's question about the consultant who's paying for him or well I believe that the town had voted the Monies to pay for for the architect correct okay so therefore as a resident and a voter then I believe that we paid for this man to give us the technical aspects I'm not sure what you're saying perhaps when Mr Collins gave his presentation and that you feel as though the architect basic it was all pretty much covered and that the architect would only need very few minutes and as someone voting on a very expensive $6.6 million question I would like to hear from the architect and not what what are we getting for it and I don't think we got a thorough answer for that and are they are there Alternatives I can think of quite a few uh questions for the architect I don't know so much that at that meeting that immediately after his presentation that we didn't so much have an opportunity to ask those kinds of questions and how do you define technical I don't know so my my request would be then that that the Architects be given a reasonable amount of time I don't think that we spent that kind of money to only hear him from 2 minutes for 2 minutes we're the ones that are the legislative I I would make one comment and Gary could probably speak this better but that was what the building committee took to heart your concern right there we heard that like we heard about the money issue the explanation wasn't there and that we spent six months on if people had doubts we need to answer it you know so that is how the presentation is going to address I think your concerns Gary would you say that's what Lisa has said is very true if people had that concern we need to address it and you've got this multimedia presentation that just going to blow your socks off right I don't know about that just to push back on that a little bit Lisa the the committee had open forums where I believe a lot of that stuff was addressed um that the architect was hired by the committee to come up with this plan based on the committee's needs now it's the committee's job to take that information and present that to the public all the technical should be able to be Ed by the the committee and anybody there that was served on that board um the architect is just there as a paid consultant to provide the necessary information to the committee so I find it inappropriate that an architect as non-resident should be making a presentation he should be there to answer any square footage questions or any of those types of technical but the committee is the one that should be presenting the information that they learned and why it's necessary yeah I can the committee asked uh Rick um for between 15 and 20 minutes it's not going to run that that long it is not the architect who's going to do the presentation um and we put it together to somewhat M mimic The Forum because there seems to be a lot of information out there that's not quite correct we're going to address that um and any technical questions I would say that the architect is planning on being there but uh similar to the last meeting he was not planning on speaking unless someone said uh I'm wondering about the beam withd uh that you guys are looking at for the new new addition that's not probably not going to happen but he was only there to for the technical if the committee could not answer the questions I can pretty much certain that the committee after two years plus knows this project inside and out and can pretty much answer and handle the questions disagree okay but again if if a technical question does come up um the architect's planning on being there to to handle it but not as a presenter good that's the decision sure um and then I had a concern about the clickers there were those two votes that were very close and did get flipped I'm fine with that that's that's the way it goes um but they were so close and I I know that Rick maybe just said that it's harder to C 2/3 versus um you know 1/2 and you're do you're working with two groups of people as well so I would be Pro to clickers if it can be at all accomplished I think the ACC accuracy with such a a big uh expense that it would be better I think it would have been better for fiber optic and I think it would have been better for the previous com that sure if you actually have the ballots me if you actually have the ballots do the math I mean you have yeses and you have Nos and you have a physical count it's not just let me see that handing and you actually have a physical count a person has pass the ballot Just Like voting for Tuesday for tomorrow we have the physical ballots you want to rec count good we'll count these again we'll count these again I don't see how that's an improvement of How It's how an improvement would be cers okay SEC bot is just only time only time wise probably I would just like a clarification then would we get a voter card and the secret ballot card and will the secret ballot be only on the senior center question that's that's a question we won't know until that night we know we're anticipating for the senior center if there are others and they vote for secret ballot then we'd have to go through the process again okay would you uh would you be asking with each question do you want a secret Val on this issue no typically you going to present it no no matter of fact even on the senior center one I wouldn't see it as the moderator's role to say do you want a secret ballot I would see that as coming from the floor in the form of a motion for a secret ballot um typically anybody any anybody theoretically you know on question 20 do you wish to transfer from stabilization to lower your tax rate somebody could I want that on a secret ballot so any question can be called to the secret the triy part gets to be again um we anti we would work from anticipating it with the senior center and hand out the cards ahead of time if it came up a second or third time we'd literally have to recheck in the room so right right the way you got set up is I mean some of the issues just just as a food for thought with regard to the clickers one of the things that entered my thought process aside from the just what's going to be an incredibly busy night with a ton going on and trying to educate folks in the use of those clickers I did have two folks come to me after one person um dropped their clicker and the batteries fell out I had another person come to me and said let me just show you the back of my clicker and again keep in mind let's you know you want everything to be as Fair as possible and we want to be fair to the company that this is a demo kit they sent us it's probably been used in many other municipalities I did have a another person come up and say take a look at the back of my clicker for which I have to put on cheaters and the little screw was missing and his thumb he kept sliding I kept sliding the cover up so one of the questions that inevitably you know in in preparing for the use of the clickers one of the questions that you know came up and we worked on this extensively is how the vote would work so just to kind of give you a sense of this the first question comes up it's a clicker vote so the motion is made it is seconded advisory recommendation we have a discussion it's time to go to the vote the as the moderator I would say we are prepared to open the vote I now declare the vote open Brian clicks a button the vote is now open everybody is now actively using their clickers you can click yes you can click no you can even change your vote Yes to no while the system is in active operation at a point certain they recommend 30 seconds which we're not going to do we're going to say has every had the opportunity to vote are you all set then we'll close it the system is capable of counting up to 500 votes in 30 seconds so it's going to work I mean theoretically but in a night like this with all that's going to go on the last thing that I'm going to as a moderator that I want to have happen is Mary gretti goes I dropped my clicker I can't vote the the back fell off and the batteries are on the floor and I can't find them this is not a negative comment toward W the manufacturer this is a comment that says if we have or the person who this keep in mind I'm sorry let me digress a little bit the first night one of the a voters says I'm pressing the button and nothing's happening Brian and I talked about this before I close the vote I'd be saying is everybody has everyone voted are you all comfortable are there any issues the first night with these things in hand with just the stress of the moment how many people are going to go my clicker is not working and as soon as it fails now we're back to Was the vote right I never got a chance to vote the continuity of the system the system didn't work I never want to see him in hamon again and so now the system hasn't got a fair Shake because of the moment because of a technical glitch and there's with so much going on that's why I would prefer not to use them I know they can be handy in other rooms if you know provided they can make it through the walls I want them I want you guys to all know something after the after the fiber optic vote I was was off by three votes on the 2/3 from the stage three votes doesn't look like anything on the senior center the vote I'm still to this moment convinced I got it exactly right but about 25 people or 20 people left which threw and the challenge was welld deserved it and it threw it off I want those clickers more than anything because I believe it's in the best interest of the community and my ego is not so big that I think that I don't need it I want it to be I want people to have a belief in the process but they there be no belief that the clickers don't work because people don't understand it the stress of the moment the chaos somebody drops it on the floor the person whose thumb can slide it off this whole thing would go down the tubes in a second and to me with all that's going on in front of us right now and what's become special town meeting as I said before is no longer special town meeting it is a function of running this town on a regular basis as opposed to answering a few special needs questions people have to have faith in the process and I'm concerned that the with with all that's going on there's not going to be faith in the process and I don't want that to happen that's all I got good thank you that's it we're done with this discussion good can I leave so we're doing TW we're doing tww B no change of the agenda prepare for secret ballot uh start the registration a half hour early extra police try to figure out lighting for the park maybe look at the gim suggestion about escort right yeah okay check with the fire department they might Che with the fire they might have something logistically speaking how do we transfer what's happening in the main room to the secondary room soorry do you do that with zoom we got to do the more technical question for Brian figure H somebody or I I think it's probably best we just hire somebody at this point and and that was my reason and and again at the risk of dragging this out anymore and I apologize that was my rationale when I sent it saying that people would need to come to the main room to make whatever comment they wish to make so we wouldn't have to set up a microphone in the secondary room or even another one of these setups in the second room all we need to do is make sure that people are getting the information for which to make their decision in real time and that to me is accomplished by that screen with a computer Brian and I talked about that this morning again should we get another company whether it's the AV company that does minog something like that Brian knows a firm I think right now we need to give him the authority to select Brian if it's 2 or 3,00 ,000 take it out of Select expense you've got more but my point is you've got more than enough on your plate than to figure out how you going to be moving cables across the hall or something get somebody to do it for you some I agree basically exactly yeah the board's in favor of him look just get the job done don't do it yourself just oversee it yeah all in favor IE uh Child Care also on the agenda here I think Steve again did a great job and I think he reach back out are you uh we done yeah I [Applause] work sorry Bob's got one thing I a few more Assurance claims go ahead um when we were in line to vote I noticed that the sign at the end of the table was not there I think that that would alleviate a lot of confusion as to a through G or or you know H through whatever cuz it was a sign on the wall but not everybody could see it especially if you're at the end of the line and you're looking at a wall on an angle no I agree with you they the signs on the ends of the table in nice big letters that's where they had them like we used to do that yeah yeah and I agree and I think that directing people as they're going down the hall A's J people in front of me what if the people in front of me that were the alphabet they had where were those 10 minutes ago I got are you guys all set with me now yes we're all done with this topic building building use request you have a building use request yeah there's two all right this is the so we had the form it's got to be changed a little bit so Jane actually helped me edit the policy last week which is in your folder okay take out what we thought should be included in there is this this this one here yep all right we have the release of the general release type thing right and what did we determine this group is a what a local um one of them is PTO Abraham Community Preschool for profit when we said yeah that's not that's a for-profit right that's a group three group five yeah group five is for profit oh n look are we considering are we considering that wilam that local yeah thought it was CU it was for profit Yeah but whether it's three or five local oh I seeit just right below that says non local nonprofit I think there's probably a potential that some of the hand people use that preschool just as much using our yeah it'll be local so I I would I would agree with Don that we classify them as a group three and get back to them that's the pricing right yeah yeah yeah um in terms of the dates I guess that's really at the Brian and Warren as to you know looking at the building usage is the 15 but I mean pretty much every Friday is going to be pretty wide open yeah now I go back to my point from before and I know Craig talked about this as well do we ask for a deposit because look what happened at that Massachusetts pageant thing you know even if the $100 wouldn't have covered what we had to do to fix the B I mean they're they're paying the rental fee and a refundable deposit I think so I don't think you want to go any more than the the actual rental fee for them right not I think a refundable deposit is fair right yeah but like I'm I'm just trying to the monetary amount or or it is a local group something they signed they're responsible for a new damage we have Rose check that out right yeah but I think that's fair too I mean we're not like just we're giving him some credit but you're credible Place fine here's where it cost the rent it look if you bust it you own it yeah the only other question I have is if it if it's a established charity or business do they have to have their own insurance I think any 401c probably would right but you know then it goes to our people who want to rent here that are not established like that they don't have insurance I think I'll typical just to share that uh when I was helping with the theater Guild yeah we went through HUB insurance and they had a binder for every place they were so they were covered he you have a motion U I guess I would make a motion that they are we classified them as a group three but we don't really have a date yet so well I guess have the Town Administrator and Lauren get back to them and saying this is what the board direction is what now we need a date and we'll make a motion for second all in favor it works all right anything else to come before the board got the The Guild also I guess what the Guild's also asking another request oh put a theat deal the car days they want all from Carol they heard about our great aarum and they I believe they're doing dial M for Murder which I'm not familiar with I I saw you picture what was your picture on your Facebook page a new picture oh that was uh sweet charity oh okay you know that one If You Could See Me Now a little friend I was trolling him oh yeah thanks he didn't like it though he put a nasty is a theater build a nonprofit or they for-profit they are nonprofit they are registered 501 Z3 and they do have an insurance binder through HUB insurance so they have been I think Workman Lauren in the past moving more things over to the senior center auditions Etc things like that I know they're requesting Tuesdays and Thursdays but um do we have meetings going on up there those days well that's what makes it difficult I can they they need to know way ahead of time and I can put them in but then sometimes a meeting can come up last minute I I think we've said before any town meeting it takes president over even if they have a scheduled in there Tuesdays Wednesdays Thursdays is usually what K yeah and Tuesdays is planning board and conom they're not asking about Sunday it's unusual I can tell the Melville to be more safe in case there is a meeting that comes up well I just think you know if it's been in the past that there's an understanding that all a sudden arks recogne the auditorium you guys outside you know that's how it is if they're expecting a big turn off or something then hey is what it is no and we encourage them to continue to work with the senior center on usage over there that's worked out well you could always open up Academy Hall be a great spot to have a I just time I mean that turn the heat on do we have a motion on this motion to approve motion approve that request as a so are we going by the policy for them as well or like what group I guess they be group two a local nonprofit group yeah all in favor anything else any other giveaways you want to do yeah how you doing with that tree lighting thing you got the songs picked out everything do I not myself do we have any selectman reports no yeah the assistant superintendent search committee met last week we narrowed the subjects the applicants down from 7 to 5 of the five one dropped out so now there's four we're meeting tonight to interview to the candidates I do have one report um Housing Authority so they have asked if the town would be willing to help them out as their truck has gone bad I believe it's down at a local place being fixed and they're not going to be able to plow this winter they don't know when they're going to get it fixed um they have spoken to Mark Mark did not of course give them permission but he would be able to do them after the town roads are done when he does like the park when he does like uh maybe the 7th you know what I mean in that second tier of things uh they're not asking about the sidewalks they have the ability to do their own sidewalks as with their own equipment so I looking for and they would pay for that service as well at a rate whatever the town decides heck the way the Winter's been going lately we might be talking two plow events should we have them submit official request so it's right cuz you you just talk I think we here I'm bringing it to you and I think we should direct Mark to come up with a monetary thing before we bring it back to them they should know what kind of money we're talking about he can probably go down and scope it out and say this is uh 45 minutes of work or this is an hour work whatever and then we can direct okay every plow vent will happen after the main roads are done and it will cost you $500 or right that we should get a we should get a official request from request oh Leisa type something yeah but I'm prepping you up for it okay tell administrative report uh just one thing to announce uh we got verbal approval of the $1 million grant for the uh Water Project M so we will finalize those contact that's the emerging contaminat Grint that we were hopefully optimistic about so that'll be good for got the I have a cookie I there yeah anything else to come before the war well that type of thing is all put into before the time meeting you know so are we posting again same thing half hour before she can meet with advisor I gu all right to all favor thank you Kristen problem