said we recorded. There it does. Okay. Okay. Good evening. This is a meeting of the Hampton Bo select board and the board of health being held in the townhouse in the select board office May 19th, 2025, 6 p.m. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance.
Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Is uh this meeting is being conducted remotely and in person. Is anyone
recording a meeting other than ourselves? Kristen, are you there? Kristen. Kristen did sign in. There we go. There she is. Hi. Good evening, Kristen. Kristen Rivers from the Wilberham Hampton Times. Um, just one little
announcement. The polls are still open for voting. You got two more hours to go. So, please come down and cast your ballot for the three of us will be going back again right now. But we put the disguise on and go up there again. All right. Is there any minutes?
I don't believe so. Okay. So the first order of business is we have Representative Talian Bond here uh to update us on our storm management plan management plan. Could you please identify yourselves? Yes. Hi. Um my name is Haley Rivers. I am a planner too.
I've been with Tai Bond for about 3 years and I do a lot of work managing your storm water management plan. Would you come up here? Oh, sure. My name is Kelly. We'll let you sit at the adult table.
and I am the project manager um kind of overseeing the whole thing. Have you all come here before you look familiar? Yeah, this is annual requirement. Well, I thought so, but it's you were here last year. Yeah. Great. Both of us. Welcome back. Thank you. Thank you.
Crime. C R U M R I N E. Go ahead. Update us. Okay. All right. All right. That's where we are up there. Okay. You want to drive this? Oh, yeah. Sure. Just don't break it. It's my only one. All right. So, smash it, right? Well, we don't. Well, you want a new one, right? Yeah, actually. Yeah, we
can. Nice. They're like They're like, "Wish you had a lot." Okay. Six. All right. So, we are here to update you on your annual um storm water management. I don't know how to advance it. I think
you're just looking. I can't see. Um, uh, I'm not sure. Can you just like pull it up to the top, maybe? Uh, show meeting. Nope. Uh, it's kind of stuck there, I
think. Oh, that black space. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe. Okay, I'll read it off here. Okay. So, we're here to provide an update on Hamen's ongoing storm water management program. Um, we're going to discuss what happened in permit year 7,
which is coming to a close in June, end of June, and then what's happening for the next permit year, which will be 8, and that starts July 1st. And then discuss some future requirements and get
any of your feedback on the program. What is storm water? Um, storm water is rain water that falls on paved surfaces and lawns. If it doesn't soak into the ground, it goes to the nearest storm drain and that is storm water. It drains
um storm drains feed to outfalls that dump storm water into waterways. When storm water picks up trash or chemicals, that is considered storm water pollution. And it's the fastest growing type of water pollution in
Massachusetts. This is a tongue twister. So EPA's small MS4 storm water program that stands for municiple separate storm sewer system. It is a program that's jointly administered by the EPA and the
Mass D. Um, Hamen's MS4 area includes all the drainage within the urbanized area. And you can see it's the red shaded western part of the town. Um, so the notice of intent under
the 2016 small MS4 general permit was submitted September 28th, 2018. Uh the authorization to discharge was received on April 5th, 2019 and expired in June of 2022, but they admin
administratively continued um until a new permit was issued and they were working on that. It was almost coming out and then they decided to delay it again. So EPA holding it up
at this point or DA? It's EPA. Yeah. Yeah. Is there anybody left working there that can work on it or That's kind of up in the air. I don't know what this um Hen storm water management plan um
details some minimum control measures. Um those include public education and outreach, public involvement and participation, elicit discharge detection and elimination program, construction site storm water
runoff control, storm water management in new development and in redevelopment and good housekeeping and pollution prevention. [Music] Um so a lot of the requirements from the
MS4 general permit revolve around uh the impaired waterways um in Hampton and beyond. Um so within Hampton there is the Scantic River and that has an impairment for E.coli. However, Hampton is also within the Connecticut River
watershed. The Connecticut River drains to the Long Island Sound and the Long Island Sound is impaired for nitrogen and so it is required that Hampton um follow the requirements of the permit and adhere to some of the nitrogen regulations.
So why the Eoli? Can I know? Um, so I believe that actually, um, every couple of years, uh, I don't know if it's, uh, it must be EPA, but operating through Mass D, they actually come out and, um, do like a field survey on all of these
waters and they sample, um, and if it's beyond a certain parameter, then, um, it's considered impaired for that. Where do they think Eoli is coming from? illegal wastewater distribution or um so I mean it could be coming from a number of different places. Uh your MS4 in
particular is just designed to uh test what is uh being outleted at your outfalls um and see whether or not that is a contributor um to those impaired waterways. It's not necessarily like a guarantee oh it's coming from your storm water system or it's coming from like
sewer or septic or anything like that. It's just do they test the outfalls of the the the property that comes in before us? Um so there they have an in andout sample. Well, so um like I went through
um every single one of your outfalls during wet weather and sampled it then. Okay. Um so like we know exactly like how much Hampton is responsible for outletting. And so like anything else would therefore be coming from either like you know like a private property like a farm or from But how do we know
that's not coming down before it hits the end? Um because we're solely sampling what's within your actual drainage system. So it's what's coming out of your catch basin. We're not actually sampling like the water volume. Not not scanic or anything cuz I saw the the picture of the scanic and the river
shed down there. But but you're not actually sampling that stuff. No, we're only sampling what Hampton is discharging. And so from that we know exactly what um pollutants are in there. Yeah. And you would think like upstream towns or municipalities also in this
program would have to do the same if they're discharging to viscantic and that's Well, that was my question. If they're discharging to something, how do we know we're not getting contaminant from them? Yeah. And I mean it's possible that you are, but we're not actually measuring it based on um the levels in the scantic itself. It's just
observing that the scantic has an impairment and therefore monitoring to see if um you're contributing to that at all. But does anybody monitor the scantic to see what's coming in there for pollutants? I mean, if you're we're we're solely worried about the storm
water runoff here, but if we're worried about what's going into, you know, the sound and stuff like that, wouldn't it be nice to know what other pollutants are coming downstream or coming from upstream through our towns and stuff like that, you know, eroding our soils and our banks and stuff like that? Yeah, absolutely. And I mean that's part of what this program is meant to do because
you're not like the only one that has to adhere to the 2016 sampling the actual river, right? Does anybody do that? Um I don't know because that would that would make like logical sense in within this program too. D would be doing that every so often. I
know you may not have the answers, but that's a little push back from the town that you know, hey, what are we doing for all these other issues that are within the river that we have no control over? Yeah, that's why we just sample like what's coming out of the catch basin collect. Yeah. Yeah. So when you
say the river is ecoli impaired, that's because of the outlets or that's because of the river itself that mass DP is tested the river of the river. So we don't they don't know exactly what's causing it. Yeah. And I mean it can really be a number of different sources.
It can be non-point source pollution which means I mean it can come from anywhere. It can come from people fertilizing their lawns. It can come from anything like that. And so, but to Craig's point, it could be coming from Mson basically sourcing into us as well. Yeah. And to my point that Brian just hit on there like does Mson also have an
MS4 program. We know what their results are and you could subtract them, so to speak, instead of oh, Hammond scores a six. Well, yeah, but it left Mson at a five, so we only score. Well, that's separate from the storm water runoff. That's solely from him. No, I'm just saying that way we've been like we have
a starting point, not like assuming that we're responsible for everything. More my question is you guys were talking about the ecoli, you know, the river being ecoli impaired. Yeah. And but we don't know where it's coming from, but yet we're very hyperfocused on storm water runoff. We know exactly where it's coming from here. Yeah. Why does the state not do that for everything else to
know why it's the way it is? Well, I mean, every single um community in Massachusetts that has a storm water system and has regulated area is regulated under this. So they should be testing their storm water and they should be doing this as well, right? Yeah. And I mean I guess the point that
I'm making is the the state is not really doing their part to monitor the river, what's going into the river, just what's coming out from towns. Um I mean, yeah, but I think also like you have to start somewhere. Um, so I think they're starting here and um I know that they
are monitoring things like csos. Um, and uh yeah, I mean you can't necessarily sample the entirety of Massachusetts all at once. Um, but what year are we in in the the permit right now? Uh, so we're in permit year seven. So it's been going on for
seven years. Mhm. So we also have the map where we show we only the area is the western part of town. Mhm. So, do we have a sense of the outfalls on the eastern part and if there's any possible sources from them? I mean, we have obviously storm systems on the
east as well. Do we sample those at all? Um, so right now we're not actively monitoring those. Um, however, I don't think you have um very many structures out that way. Mark, there's uh
[Music] spotty, you know, areas where there's I'd say several South Road, Japan Road, I mean pretty decent size systems, Bennett Road, but some Glendale that do
come down on that side, but I think the intent was to start with like the urban compact dens, but in seven years, we've never expanded it, Right. Right. Has there been any issues in the last seven years other than what you know, has there been anything changed over the last seven years that you've seen in the
data from the testing of just the storm water? Um, no. I mean, like I've gone through all of your testing. Um, all things considered, your testing was pretty low. I think there were like two or three that ended up a little bit high. And so I investigated those the
following year to see what would be the cause of those and learned that they were immediately downstream from um like a major goat farm. And so I would guess that the E.coli there um or not a goat farm, it was a horse farm. Um but uh the
E.coli there was probably coming directly from like fertilizer or from the waste from the horses. And so I think our recommendation was um to do like just some outreach and some education about um ways that they could potentially like mitigate some of that
going directly into the water body um or going into the storm drain system and coming out. There was a question that came up from a town's person on Zoom um wondering if we tested positive recolle why wasn't that information being held
from the town's people and was this an issue in the years 1 to six. Um so the information is not being withheld from the town's people. Um there is an annual report at the end of uh well the permit year ends on June 30th and then every
single year you're required to submit an annual report by September 28th. Um that annual report is made public on EPA's website. Um and that report as well um regarding your sampling results was included in your storm water management
plan update. Um so it and uh that storm water management plan update is on the storm water page for the town and um anybody can go on there and review the results. Also you guys have been done with your sampling requirement for two years. Mhm. It was finished from year
five. Year five. So and it's not well water anyhow. It's storm water. What about what about the nitrogen now? Is that from lawn fertilizers and pesticides and stuff? Yeah, it could
absolutely be from lawn fertilizers. It could um also be from like horse manure or even like pet waste. It can be from um improper disposal of leaf litter. And so, uh, I mean, part of the reason why we're looking at the urbanized area is
because, um, there are areas, um, in other towns where if there is like a forested area near, um, an outfall or a catch basin, sometimes the leaf litter there will actually leech nitrogen into the water. And so, we're specifically trying to isolate like man-made um,
sources of these pollutants. It's just interesting when you say urban area like downtown Boston relative relative urban for you he's talking about all this ecoli and everything else everything's coming down from the
mountain cuz I see it I live right at the culvert of laughing now I got oil in the river I have fish stock there can I interview you interrupt I just need you to inter interrupt for your who you are for 722
Main Street. Okay. Um and I got oil in the river. I can tell you when it gets low it stinks. Um nobody's doing anything with it. Um and I have fish stocked there twice a year through the state.
And now you're telling me there's ecoli in there and been there for two years and these people are eating the fish that are coming out of the river and you're telling me that you only put it out once a year. If you you found out that we had ecoli, that should have been
automatic. That's what I'm asking. Um, so we're not testing the river. It's called safety. Well, we're not testing the river itself. Right. We're just testing um where it's just like shouldn't somebody be
testing where the water's coming down from and the other end from Stafford to where it goes to my property. The two streams come together and they form a scant. Mhm. Now, that's a safety thing when it comes
to the people that are fishing there and they're taking it home and eating it. That's a mass mass. Yeah, I was I was that's what I was trying to get at. Their responsibility is just for the storm water runoff which is a requirement from the state, but this is
what I was trying to figure out are this that testing that would probably like we were saying D mass wildlife and stuff like that. Yeah, that's well beyond the scope for All right, go ahead. All right. All right. So, where were we? Um
so um the different components under the MS4 permit um include public education and outreach. So this includes annual messages to residents, businesses, institutions, and commercial facilities. Um I believe currently you receive um an
email I think like twice a year from us including some of this annual messaging and it gets posted to your storm water website. Um, as we have recommended for a couple of years, uh, PBPC has a Connecticut River storm water committee and they manage a lot of the storm water
messaging um, throughout the Pioneer Valley. And so we do recommend uh, that you consider joining that just because uh, it is a little bit more targeted. It will send out like flyers, mailers um, and try to reach as many residents as
possible. And um since this isn't typically posted on social media, residents uh might not even know that the stormwater page is there. Um and so uh again, we we really highly recommend that you consider joining that. Uh you pay an annual fee and they handle
everything. Um and you don't have to worry about it at all. Um that being said, uh uh minimum control measure two is public involvement and participation. Um, as I said a little bit earlier, your storm water management plan is available
online. A physical copy is all is also at the highway garage for public review. And one of the other events that you have annually in town is you celebrate Earth Day. Um, in the past, I believe you've had like a a townwide cleanup. I'm unsure if that happened this year
because I know it got rained out. Um, but you also had an Earth Day um, eco expo on April 26th at the public library and that provided a lot of really great information to residents about um, opportunities to um, recycle,
opportunities for like composting, waste management, um, basically like everything that uh, we're hoping residents see under the permit. Um, as for your IDE program, um, there are three different phases of fieldwork. um dry weather outfall
screenings. So going to outfalls uh during dry weather conditions and sampling if there's running water. Um doing catchment investigations, which is looking for key junction manholes and catch basins. Um and screening those also during dry weather. So essentially
going up through your system and making sure that we're not missing anything important. Um however um I don't believe Hampton had any key junction manholes. So that uh phase wasn't uh applicable to the town. Um and then uh for wet weather
outfall screening, we're supposed to target outfalls that have a system vulnerability factor. Um and those can be identified if we find any like problem catchments during the previous field work. Um Hampton actually had none
of those, but uh with your permission, we went ahead and sampled at every outfall that had dry weather flow. Um and we had elevated results I guess at seven outfalls and those seven outfalls were around um the great horse farm I
believe. Um and I mean even when I was there I could smell like a fertilizer smell. So it seemed pretty obvious what the potential source of that was. And in that final report um that's nitrogen in it and ecoli. Mhm. Um, and so we recommended that you
do additional outreach and um, I'll get to this a little bit later in the presentation, but we also re we also recommend as a best management practice and it is required under the permit that you start installing BMPPS, which stands for best management practice. Um, these
are things like rain gardens or detention basins and these will treat storm water before it is actually discharged into the environment. and that, you know, uses um uh infiltration and plant matter to filter the water um
before it is going into any waterways. Um and so we would potentially recommend that in this area of town um as a way to help mitigate um anything that Hampton would be discharging. Um, but basically your responsibility from here is as
you're doing your normal maintenance, um, your sweeping, your catch basin cleaning, if you notice anything out of the ordinary, flag it, try to investigate it. Make sure there isn't any, um, potential like additional pollutants or um, sewer connections
going into the storm water. Can I just ask a quick question? Of course. Um, you said you did some would you say dry something sampling? Yeah. Oh, and that's where you saw those. Um, so those elevated results, what was that? What
was that term? Not the opposite of wet weather sampling. That's when you saw those was during the dry. Uh, no, we actually saw it during wet weather. During wet weather. And that's surface water that's coming that's water that's moving along the surface from that property to the catch basin essentially.
Yes. Okay. And so um because we didn't have elevated results during dry weather. So um the purpose of that was to um visit each structure um I think it has to be less than a tenth of an inch within 72 hours. Um the idea is that
there shouldn't be any storm water running through the system at all. Uh so if we do see water going through then that is a red flag that there might be something going on. Um, in a town like Hampton, we do notice that there's pretty high groundwater. And so
sometimes, you know, there's a a natural spring or um there is natural water that is being diverted through the system so that it isn't flooding the roadway. Um, and that seemed to be what we were finding in Hampton. And we did have a couple of elevated results, but they
weren't um they weren't extremely elevated. The it's not investigation is only required if certain parameters are being met under
the permit and the elevation of nitrogen and E.coli was not enough to trigger any action by the permit other than the recommendation that you try to treat um your storm water as it's like coming out of those outfalls.
Are those the only two pollutants you look for is E.coli and hydrogen? No. Um in Hampton? Yes. Well, in Hampton, those are the pollutants of concern. So, those only ones that are being tested for? No. In Hampton, um so that's not all we're
testing for. Um under the permit, we are testing for chlorine, ammonia, surfactants, ecoli, nitrogen. Um, we are also testing for temperature,
salinity, conductivity, and dissolved oxygen. And so the only two that were beyond the parameters of the permit were um equal and nitrogen and only in that one area of town. So no sodium or magnes
or anything like that? No. Um um so actually I do think this one is here you okay um the control measure four and five are for construction site and post
construction storm water management um so they do have a bylaw correct yes okay so you do have a bylaw that deals with that it's like if people are building new construction or
Um the that's it for that one. Um municipal storm water retrofit uh inventory. You're supposed to select five townowned properties um for future retrofits. So
um if you have an upcoming roadway project, that would be an opportunity. Um MVP, what does that stand for? Um municipal vulnerability preparedness. Um so you currently do have like a like an
MVP project and that Yeah. And that includes like um like some Culver repairs and retrofits and replacements and those include uh the installation of some of these BMPs and so that would meet your requirements under the permit.
Yeah. So that would be a good um we should probably look into that for them. Um and then planning a rain garden. We had talked about that at a municipal facility for a demonstration BMP. So it's kind of like one that you pick and
make a big public presentation out of it. Signage and um show off some of the good you're doing around town. Yeah. Next slide. Mhm. Okay. Um so then the last uh minimum control measure is good housekeeping and
pollution prevention for permitty owned operations. Um that's doing the catch basin inspection and cleaning, street sweeping. We do that twice a year. Uh we also do quarterly storm water pollution
prevention plan inspections at the highway garage and at the transfer station. Um and then recordkeeping and just implementation of good housekeeping standard operating procedures.
So not much will change for you guys going into the next permit year. Um the the current permit goes through permit year 10. um they kind of just covered their bases with the last one because
there is delays in putting out the new one. So um it's it's just a continuation of what you're currently doing. Um, so planned activities for permit year 8, like I said, they're basically just what you've been doing. Um, for
public education and outreach reach, you should continue with annual messaging. I know we do provide um some of that for you, but like Haley said, um, possibly consider joining that PBPC.
They do it all for you. Um, so it's kind of it's an easy way to meet that requirement. Um, Connecticut River Storm Water Committee. They would be that's the same thing. Yeah, that's uh what PDPC operates.
Yeah. Um, uh, you could also develop messages for developers and industrial facilities. [Music] um the public involvement and participation requirement that we are updating the SWMP now. So once that's
updated, you can swap it out with the one you currently have. Um just make that available for public review and comment. And I know there's one at the garage, right? Yeah, there's a physical copy at the highway garage. have people
review it if they want to. Mark, do a lot of people come by and review it. You got a line out the door, right? [Laughter] Um, consider other safe ways to involve the public in the storm water program
throughout town. That's like cleanups and yeah, any kind of trash cleanups, um, Earth Day celebrations, anything where you're educating the public. Um, and uh, once again, your elicit discharge detection and elimination
program. Um, you've completed all of your fieldwork and all of your sampling. And so at this point, it really is just like that maintenance phase um, until the next permit is um, released and finalized.
Um and as for your uh construction site storm water runoff control, again you already have a bylaw in town and that is um looking at new construction and redevelopment and looking at how much new impervious surface is going to be created to understand what kind of
burden the storm water system will be taking on. And so that is trying to mitigate um additional storm water runoff. And it does ask that uh developers also install these best management practices and um you know try
to do their due diligence towards maintaining the permit and maintaining the quality of waterways within Hampton and beyond. Um and so that's true for construction and post construction. And then your good housekeeping and pollution prevention. Um we perform your
quarterly swift inspections at the highway garage and transfer station. I know I was just out uh last week um doing this for you. Um and then you also are going to maintain street sweeping twice a year, typically in the spring and the fall and um catch basin cleaning
throughout the year as needed. And then um you know as annual requirements develop including any um impaired water enhancements or updates. Um a new impaired waters list comes out about every two years. Um the last one was in 2024. So, I believe a new one is going
to be released this August. So, we'll keep you up to date on that and let you know if there have been any changes. Um, and then just continue to maintain your records. If I go back a couple things you mentioned, I thought storm water control upgrades during paving projects
during the year. And I don't know if that's something Mark you have. if there are any things on your list coming forward that would incorporate that. You know, he's bringing forth a set of proposed projects for this year, and if any of those are in the western area,
the urban area, so to speak, that accomplish that check mark on your Is that something Mark or you do or you're aware of? I'm not sure how much more improvement you could do. basically you have catch
you know you do the work now we so before before we pave a road we'll we'll inspect the catch basins make sure they're structurally sound um conduct any repairs we have to do you know internally or below the ground and
usually we have to change over the the top reset it um if it's a Connecticut style top with has the concrete Um, we'll go ahead. Usually we replace those um or with a another Connecticut
style or a mass top, which is the just a 2T x 2T square grates that you'll see. Um, as far as culverts, we we we do inspect the culverts. I mean, we don't want to pave a road and then have a culvert fail. So, and I'm I'm I'm just
trying to I'm just trying to go through my memory and cuz I'm I'm thinking about the MVP program where we did covert inspections and I want to say a lot of them were out
east. There was very few if any that I recall in our permitted zone. Mhm. that one at Oakill. You know, you and I have talked about that before. The entrance, that's the only one that comes to mind. I mean, there's there there are several. Um, like you said before, I mean, you
you drive over any given road. I mean, you're you're going over we got out of behind house. Um, so yeah, I mean certainly if we can if we can incorporate something into that to get credit for M if you if something
comes across though that you know you see that's in that western part and you want to just you know send it to us we could definitely you know and then as far as the rain you know they're they're planning on a joint task project with the MVP with Mass Autobond but the
problem is that that area that area falls out of um the permitted zone you know so Uh at one point we looked at trying to incorporate that rain garden or LI
um project into uh into the senior center. Um, this is going back years ago and we even had a committee. Uh, we talked about that. Um, as the senior center was performing their renovations and upgrades, um, if
there would be room to put a small little system in with a kiosk or something to educate people that wanted to be educated about that. So, um I mean your
dividing line I can't recall was that Summers Road, Wolverham Road, everything west of that. Absolutely. Yeah. So, again, even there was a rain garden conversation at Memorial Park at one time and that would fall outside of that. Yeah. So, if you're looking for one, there aren't we really didn't have
a uh parcel. It was hard to come up with something um in the zone in that zone, which you know, the the senior center was the only kind of neutral slashlogical spot that was going to be under at the
time they they were going to be undergoing or potentially undergoing um some construction. So and then there's a cost associated with that with that project too that that has to be considered. Is there a construction requirement in
permitier 8 n or 10? Um an actual construction requirement that we construct one of these. So, uh, there was a requirement in permit year six, uh, that you do, um, a demonstration BMP. And at the moment, I think I think the
plan was to try to defer until your MVP um, your MVP project started constructing and then it's possible that, you know, you could put up signage um, near one of those culverts. Um I that would also theoretically meet the
requirement. It just might not be the best for visibility. Um because the point is to try to demonstrate and use it as a teaching opportunity. Um, so, uh, you know, if there is any future construction at any of your like town owned facilities, even somewhere here,
um, like the town hall or if there is going to be any further developments at the senior center, we would absolutely recommend that you put in a rain garden. And, um, I mean, you don't even have to go as complicated as something like a kiosk. You could just put up some signage um, you know, that says this is
a rain garden. This is what this does. um it just increases the visibility of this entire uh program because it it is an extensive effort and it is something that you're doing. Um so you might as well try to take credit for it where you can
well I'd be happy to donate that swamp I own a rain garden. It's worth millions. Um and do note that uh wherever you have a rain garden um it is required in your annual report to actually do a calculation for how um much uh usually
phosphorus and nitrogen is being removed from the storm water at those locations. So um there is an element where it does have to be like planned out and designed. Um thank you. Yep. All right.
Um so, uh for your impaired waters requirements, um back in permit year five, um a nitrogen source ID report was completed. Um and that was in 2022. And the point of that was to do a desktop
analysis of the topography in Hampton and to try to determine which catchments would have the most potential for uh pollutant loading. um and identify any town owned properties with uh retrofit opportunities and to try to incorporate
those activities in new projects. Um that report I believe is on your storm water page and it does list I think up to 10 properties in Hampton um where it would make sense to do um a retrofit. And I do believe that some of
those properties did coincide with your MVP program. Um but um it's been a while since we saw the details of that or heard an update from you. Um so uh Hampton is proactively meeting
the MS4 requirements. The permit year 7 annual report um will be due on September 28th, 2025. And again, the the current 2016 MS4 general permit was administratively continued um until a new permit is
issued and it has requirements up until permit year 10, which would be June 30th, 2028. Are there any thoughts of what anything new might be in the new permit or so just stand
by? Um, so in terms of the currently active permit and trying to complete permit requirements uh by the end of permit year 10, um you're just going to continue doing your annual reporting and tracking requirements. So, your record keeping, your street sweeping, um, and,
uh, your SWIP inspections, everything that you're doing in this like maintenance phase, um, your phase 2 mapping, so all of your GIS mapping of your storm water system, um, and your catchment investigations, that's all completed. And so uh the new MS4 permit
requirements proposed proposed um so in 2024 and November um the MS4 general permit um there there was a draft uh released um with the turnover from
the new administration and with a lot of the changes to government agencies um this program has been affected it right now seems to be in kind of a holding pattern. Um they keep having uh
hearings with updates and they keep extending the comment period. At the moment comments are due May 21st. Um and that is available on EPA's website. Um so at the moment uh they are going to
update the regulated area um from the 2010 census to the 2020 census. Um I grabbed uh pictures of the mapping to compare. As you can see there is no discernable difference in Hampton. The urbanized area remains the same. Um so
uh there will be no changes to uh the current um areas of the storm water system that we're currently monitoring. Um there are some significant changes to the public education and outreach which is again why we would really highly
recommend uh to join uh PPPC's Connecticut River Stormwater Committee. Um, and so they are now asking to have active and interactive messages which allow for a two-way flow of information. Um, are more engaging and geared towards
the residents within Hampton and inspire immediate calls to action or encourage active audience participation. Um, one of the other requirements under this is, um, all municipalities have to determine the top three non-English languages
within their regulated MS4 area. And that is based on Massachusetts 2020 languages spoken mapping based on the 2020 census. And so in Massachusetts um, and in Hampton in particular, um,
1.4% of your population, um, speaks Spanish. And so you will be required to translate all of your outreach and messaging in Spanish um as well as provide it in English. That's state law. Um that is what is
proposed. So none of this is um set in stone yet or required of you yet, but that is what they are proposing. Right. But I mean is that based on you said the 1.4%. Is there a chance that that number could be shifted like you have to show a discernable number over
2% to go to a second language? You said it's if it's over one percent, right? But I mean, is that proposed the 1%? Yes. So that could be changed. Yeah. So that might be changed when the final draft of the permit comes out assuming that it is released.
Um and so, uh in terms of your construction and post construction bylaw, um it's largely the same requirements. Um if there are local code updates for the state, um you would be required to modify your bylaw again. Um
but at the moment, it doesn't seem um particularly necessary for Hampton. I believe your bylaw meets the new requirements. Um but again, it is proposed, so if anything shifts, we will let you know. Um, and so, uh, for the impaired waters
and TMDLs, um, any new nutrient and bacteria total maximum daily loads that were finalized after 2016 have now been incorporated. I don't believe there have been any significant shifts to impaired waterways within Hampton throughout the length of uh, the currently active
permit. And so, we aren't anticipating that that will change very drastically um, when this is eventually set in stone, assuming it will be. Um and so um the other component of this is that you are currently operating
under a notice of intent and with um your stormwater management plan document, you will be required to refresh those and do them over again and include any of the updates um within the actual text itself instead of uh every
year we basically attach everything on as appendices saying this is what you were able to accomplish in this year. And so it will just be a little bit more streamlined and everything will be incorporated into the main body of the text again. Um and it will all be
electronic. Um so for your IDE program um essentially it's asking you to continue to maintain the 2016 schedule uh for completing all of your catchment investigations, your system mapping, any
ongoing screening and maintenance. Um the real only difference is that they've changed the benchmark level for ammonia. Uh previously it was at 0.5 milligrams per liter. They are now shifting it at to be 0.1 millig per liter. Um I don't
think that significantly changes anything within Hampton. Um however uh like as we move forward if there is a need to sample we have already like updated everything um on our end where you know we know to flag it at the lower benchmark. Um and both uh surfactants
and chlorine have remained the same. Um and uh EPA is now um considering including uh PPCPS which are pharmaceuticals and personal care products um and data from watershed
groups as potential impairments to waterways and um municipalities and um pretty much everybody uh governed under the permit are currently requesting clarification on where and how changes for ranking
these illicit parameters apply for communities that are significantly complete with their IDE program. So more than 60% you have 100% completed your IDE program. So right now we're not really sure where that puts you or what
they will require of you if anything. Um so we will stay on top of that and let you know as things change. So just moving the goalposts um potentially proposing. Yeah, it it's all proposed. So, none of this is set in stone
currently. Um, so for your good housekeeping program, uh, there are some really significant changes here. So, uh, this will require, um, all municipalities or I guess all permites to develop a more
formal drainage system asset management program for municipal good housekeeping and program tracking. Um and it asks everyone to do that within 2 years for all critical assets. Um it also has a
catch basin upgrade replacement prioritization program. Um so the idea behind this is that you create an asset management program. You document um like the specific catchbasin structures. At the moment, we know like uh based on
your GIS mapping. Okay, there's a catch base in here and we have some metadata about like potentially when it was installed or when it was updated or when it has seen maintenance, but this would formalize that a little bit more and um have you collect specific data. Um it is
also going to ask um that every single catch basin now has a deep sump and a hood. And it asks that within the first five years of the permit, 20% of catch basins in need of the upgrade to having the deep sumphood are completed. Um,
which we do recognize as a pretty significant burden on most of our municipalities and it is something that we are commenting on as being um unrealistic and being a financial burden. Um, so we aren't sure that that part is actually going to shaking his
head over there. Yeah, let's just take them out. Yeah, go back to drainage and then we can just drop right out of the program like some other towns. Well, that's what I was just going to ask. And when when this came out in 2016, what was the time frame that it was required that they were anticipating? Was it 8
years? Or was it extended? Was it was five and then they extended it, right? They extended it to Can towns opt out of this? No, I don't believe you can opt out. And what's the penalty if we don't? Um I I'm unsure. Do they do they have
penalties? Yes, I know that uh EPA has been actively auditing towns in the area for compliance. Um I'm not entirely sure what like any kind of enforcement would we complied for 5 years with the program came out. Then they shifted the time frame on it. So now they're telling us,
oh something we told you we're going to do, we're going to change it. And then now they're proposing more changes which are just elongating it, you know, stretching out the field, per se. And we have no say in any of it. I mean, I know you have the comment period which you said you're pushing back on some things, but it's almost ridiculous putting all these burdens on the small towns and
it's just it's ridiculous. True, but I assume it's like any other EBA thing where they can find companies and things like that for violating rules. However, I go back to what you said. At this point, everything is such in such a state of flux, we could be at year 10, they still won't have a permit. Yeah.
And and at this point, we're and now we're in good shape. doing well with the rules we have right now. My point was in year five we thought we were done and then they extended it. So now oh so we were never going to be done. Well, no, but they they came out said this is a 5-year plan. Yeah. The original permit
from I think it was 03 lasted until 19. Yeah. So it was just kicking the you said kicking the can down the road coming up with more and more uh you know originally it was just like identifying the culprits and make you know labeling
them all. goes back to my original comment of where is all the stuff that's contaminated the scanning coming from? We've been doing this for how many years and we're we're following suit and everything seems fairly good on our end. So there's really more issues going on that they're not attacking. This is going back to the source. This all
started with the Long Island Sound thing and rolling back up the river looking at all the tobacco farms that basically bled into the Connecticut River at that point and then going back to small river small river cold water source also I think is part of it. Cold Water Fish
Source is part of that thing. I remember Ted Zeber talking about that at one time. So, they're just expanding their reach and fortunately you guys are doing a great job protecting us. Really doing a good report. We're compliant at this
point between your outreach, the highway, etc. You're telling us what could happen down the road so we're aware of it. Right now the no news out there is that Hampton is compliant with everything we need to be and our reports are in good
shape. I mean all of our communities don't want to do this. Well, not that we don't not that we don't care about your brother communities but yeah it's not that but this this one specifically is I mean it's a big it's a big it's
extremely controversial. They've already received many comments on this. Um, and can I mean can the public go in and comment on this? Yes, the the link that was in um that slide, anybody can go in and and make a comment. So like all of
you could do it as a committee. You could all go in individually. Residents can comment on it as well. Um should we draft therefore an official response from our board and highway department as well, you know, with our our public comment back to them? Do you have sample
thing like that that you're encouraging your other communities to? We can definitely ask about that. Yeah. Um I'm not sure. Yeah. I don't know that we've developed a template for that at all, but I mean you can go to that website and and fill out the form and and put in
anything that you want. Well, if you would highlight things that we should put in, I think it'd be very helpful. Yeah. Um I mean like number one would probably be um this requirement for the catch basins. Um, and I mean the the education will be probably a significant
lift for many communities, but we also recognize that we want this education to be available to everyone. Um, so I feel like that's a little bit of a a tricky situation as well where and that's like if they do the the PBPC, they would do all that like they would do the translating for the
different languages and you know, so that's another benefit of getting involved in that. Yeah. So, it would be an entire part of the permit that you just don't have to worry about at all. Um, which uh like um I think every other one of the communities that we work with
is part of one of those committees. Um there's one for Pioneer Valley, there's one for Central Mass, um there are ones out east and like for the Cape for Cape Cod. Um, and those do seem to be one of the best ways because essentially all of those communities get to share really
similar programming because a lot of them are within the same watersheds and are dealing with the same requirements. And so that way um instead of, you know, everybody going out and reinventing the wheel for their residents, um, they instead contribute to one program that
that reaches everybody and then you have consistent messaging um, across the entire region. That's it. Um, really? No kidding. There was no music. No, I think this is Mark. Do you have any quick comments? This is going to be
the last before we just ask for general questions. Um so uh one of the other requirements under this is that for the municipal good housekeeping program starting in year two of the 2024 draft permit um you
would need to install structural SCMs which um this is just a terminology update. Currently they're using DMP for best management practice and again that includes things like rain gardens, detention basins and they are changing that to say storm water control measure which is a little bit more clear since
um BMP can be used in like other contexts for other projects. So this just specifically highlights that this is a storm water control measure and this is something that will treat storm water as it's leaving the MS4 system. Um and so starting in year two um it is
asking um every permittee to install one of these SCMs or have a retrofit project on town property and that would be a requirement annually. Um and uh each town would be required to track the nutrient removal
and do the recordeping for that. Okay, one quick question only in the area or in so we have noticeable properties inside that western area. We have basically we have what the senior center, the police station and
the school and that would be it you know so could be done in 3 years right? Yeah. And um I know that some other towns have also started um when they are doing um any kind of like street improvements. Um
they've been including things like uh little like um like boxed detention basins or little rain gardens like um like at intersections or at the sides of roads. And if you would like any um examples of communities that have done those sorts of projects, we can give
those to you as well. Um, so those would probably be your options and the idea would be to try to target some of those catchments from your nutrient source ID report um where there is high loading. So it would probably be um that one area
of town with the seven um outfalls that had higher results um and or um at some of your municipal properties. Um, so in addition to that, they would increase street sweeping to twice per
year. Um, which you are already doing, so you're already ahead of that requirement. Um, and so, uh, they would also ask for winter road maintenance training and requiring salt reduction methods, um, because currently they're
just encouraging it as a best management practice. Um, and then you would also want to consider addressing water quality impacts when implementing any new flood management projects. And Mark, that is our presentation. Just
a question on the salt reduction. When this all started, they wanted they wanted to see a reduction in sand use and you know, so we implemented that the BMP now
you're saying they want to reduce salt no use are they offering alternatives um I because the alternatives I can think of are number one very expensive
and number two uh just as detrimental to the environment or to these water sheds or water waves or more so than than salt I mean, salt with the ability to dissipate and and disappear through time
and space. I mean, I'm I'm actually beside myself with all this. It's It's It always frustrates me when they talk about the salt is that their preferred thing is
that, oh, put a catch basin and pipe it to the river. And that's what they tell you to do. You know, we had a issue at the highway garage years ago with salt going through cracks in the pavement down to groundwater. No, put a catch basin in.
Put that cover directly into the river instead. Like, oh, that's a great solution. I mean, how does that comport with your whole Well, let's just seems at odd sometimes. Yeah. And I I mean I think that it's part of a much bigger
picture where I think their idea is that if you start diverting all of that to the catch basins and then we start implementing those BMPPS or the SCMs um so like the rain gardens and detention basins. The idea is that those things
would end up treating the storm water before it goes out to the environment. So instead of it being piped directly in, you would have something to um intercept that and then treat that water and like keep salt um keep other
pollutants of concern. Um but of course that that is a much longer term big picture goal. Sure. And you know, let's not use salt on the road. We use more sand. Let's you know, let's keep treating that sand as a product that
needs Mark. What are we at now? $120 a ton to get rid of road sand or whatever. We haven't used it in I know because it was so much such a cost to dispose used it. Yeah. But let's not use
salt. What should we use? Um I mean I I can go back and ask some of the uh some of our supervisors and see what they're recommending to other towns on the hill communities. Heat our roadways.
Heat the roadway. Yeah, heat the roadway. Radiant driveways. Radiant radiant. Radiant street. There we go. Think we're on to something, dog. You're batting that right now. We're out of here.
We got a thing to do. Solar panels above every road and focus it down into the road. Yeah. All right. Great. All right. All right. Thank you very much. So, we're going to see you next year. This time, you will. Yes. Great. Great job. Thank you so much. Great job. Appreciate
it. All right. Good. All right. Well, thank you so much. We got you a cookie, but Don and I pretty much finished. Nah, that's all right. It'll spoil my dinner. You're getting dinner. We're still here for another 3 hours.
Mr. Mark, I'm sorry I didn't smash it. next. Thank you all and we'll keep you updated, continue to develop. And of course, if you have any questions for us um over the course of uh what is about to be
present at year 8, please like reach out to us, call us, email us. You have our contact information. You do. Thank you both. Thank you. Thank you. What's your issue? Thanks for coming in, Mark. I'm sure
that was informative of you. [Laughter] Very enthusiastic. And it's not like it's very exciting stuff either. No, you know. No. So, I am happy that we have time on doing it. I just think the burden upon you to do the whole thing
would be incredible, you know. Yeah. All right. What are we paving? I had sent last Friday I had sent out a a paving list um for this year. Um there was there was one road. It's a main road. It's it's the the remainder
of Wilberham Road from Raymond Drive to First off. So you're projecting for next year this this fiscal year it's coming up. Mhm. You're projecting um 860 861,392.
Okay. How's that? How's that compared to the year before higher? Well, some of this is luck. It's it's a couple hundred thousand more. Um reason being is chapter 90. Uh it appears um it
hasn't been signed yet. Um, but it appears that they're going to be loading those accounts with um I forgot the percentage, but it would raise it would raise our aotment a little over $200,000. So what would normally
be 250,000 that we get annually from chapter 90 um our town uh this year I believe the number was oh yeah 428 923 so almost 429,000 is that part of the in the fair share is that so
that's just chapter 90 fair share is on top then you add in the fair share and the uh rural roadways on top of that. And you're going to use the rural roadways for the shortfall on the South Row Bridge. So, yes. Okay.
Yes. Um it almost matches exactly to what they're project. It could be less. Um but they're projecting about 115,000 over that 500 for the small bridge program. You say there was also a possibility that you can go back and ask
them to increase that. Oh, that's right, too. Yes. Well, not so. Yes. Um, towards the end of their, and Brian, correct me if I'm wrong because I remember I think you remember this too, but uh they had mentioned that they can go back and ask the state, hey, if you have any left
over, can you know, can we kick it Hamden Hamen's way or whatever for for a little extra, right? So, that's always that's an option. Yep. We uh we haven't heard any So, this will be your worst case number then, basically, I think. So, yeah.
which is pretty significant. But I mean, like I said, I go back to and Donald's here as well. I just don't recall that there was going to be an impact to Hampton. I kind of almost thought that that Ballard Brook was going to be, hey, small bridge program
and covered the whole thing. Well, of course, price everything's gone up. I mean, you know, but it's always been since they started that grant program, it's always been kind of like a cap at five at 500,000 which may have been the budget back then. This is what happened
3 years ago, right? So, with that being said, um I had had some choices to make and and I just wanted to explain Wilberham Wilraham Road. That was a main road that I had picked out. Now, it's not it's it was
resurfaced um in either 20 uh 2012 or 2013. Um but it is one of our main thoroughfairs. Um it is starting to crack up. Aside from that, um my strategy with some of these main roads
is to stay on top of them. Um, and this may sound um I don't know how this is going to sound, but stay on top of them so that we can keep the gas company off our main
roads. Um, unless it's an emergency. If you're if you're taking the southbound lane on Wilberham Road, it's like every single lot is a gas ditch. And with our 5-year moratorum, you know, if we can keep our main thorough affairs
in in great shape, you know. Mhm. And that keeps them again, unless of an emergency, that keep keeps them off rolling. Yeah. Yeah. So, that's, you know, it's not my only reason, but it is a uh something that I consider when when
putting these lists together. I like to to hit some some main roads um one or two um and and then some some various side streets. How's that affected? I remember the conversation before when you did obviously road before Mhm. about the drainage issue and of course that
was the biggest one was Raymond Drive back because of the height when some of the drainage was 20 30 ft down the ground from the uh how it shouldn't affect it. Is this touching any of that? Is this just This is just a surface treatment
mill. Have we gone done a camera? So we did we did half of that um half of that line from the Raymond from the manhole at Raymond Drive to um there's like a concrete structure about 25 ft deep in and I forget the
name of I forget the the house number, but the name is the Sinus Scouchies that live on on Wilberham Road there. Uh there was no there was no obstructions, no um there was a few pinhole leaks, you know, but nothing really to be concerned about. Um at the
time that we were going to send it then from that structure to um I don't know what you want to call that. Uh south west towards the golf course. There was a log that we had to
get out of the um that we had to get out of the inlet. I mean, it wasn't obstructing it would have the camera couldn't couldn't make it in. So, we've since got that out and just we haven't rescheduled with Fletcher. We were using Fletcher and then the other way you're
talking here now Raymond back towards Kelly Lane. Basically, you're This is looks like the north run. Yes. So, and have you came that at all or is that?
No. No. Okay. Not much. Well, it only there's a couple of spots where where there's like these these two brooks that come off the mountain there. And only because of that hump um in the Raymond Drive area is why those structures have to be so deep to to go south.
Yeah. South west and that's where they empty. The other ones go go back the go back the other way and they have their own outfall various outfalls. Okay. Because I'm thinking you have that I'm aware, you know, the hump going up obviously past the Kennedy farm, you know, and then going back down again
towards uh Echo Valley like that, you know, is there a pipe there that we're concerned that a depth or is that just pretty much starts there and runs down? starts there and runs down and then there are there are a few more out outfalls in that stretch in the low in
the lowlying areas. I mean when you come down pond pon view stuff like that emerge into that that it does. Yep. And then some of those systems there's a brook that another brook that crosses uh and then some of those uh systems go
down Echo Valley and exit down on the left of Echo Valley rightways down there for that. Yeah. Yeah. Are those in good shape? We talked about that before that those rightaways or those easements are they
recorded? Something Dana was concerned way back in the day that some of these are ones that were I want to say casually done by Homer or whatever. Right. Right. But didn't have the formality that we really want to protect the town if we have to do work on them. Right.
Um I know I I I worked with Kelly a little bit on it, but I don't believe they all are. Yeah. Yeah. I don't believe they all are. You know, there's a lot. This goes back to Mr. Davenport owned the property, never had a problem with it, but he sells to Mr. Brown and now Mr. Brown's
got a problem because he's not happy with that pipe going through where he wants to split the pool. Yeah. Right. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So, in lie of what we're probably your clerk could work on. Yeah.
Um, I don't say that every time. You know, it'll never happen. Someday it it's getting it's getting close. All right. Uh, an alternate proposal. So, if if the board decided or if we we all decided that, you know, Wolverham Road, we could let we could
let go another year or two. Then I did offer some some proposals, some alternate proposals for that. Um, I will say there are some there are some streets on the on the list that are seriously overdue. And so that's why I
had mentioned in the email that, you know, I want to take some of this extra money that we're getting this year and and catch up on some of those overdue roads. Um, there's some over off of uh Mill Road. I mean, you're talking 17 to 19 years. I can't remember
doing Brian Court since it was built, right? Yeah. So, and then um and then of course if you looked at I did send out today this uh road inventory and uh um there's a few on there that are overdue, but those are going to be addressed next
week. Um that was um part of the FY25 schedule. So, so if you put these other ones in place of you still would have the page two ones which is the green leaf evergreen. Correct. Fox. Those
alternates only replace Wilberham Road. Period. Yeah. Who was that? Amy Dutil put those in down there. I think Don, what the was that? Dutil put all those. And as a matter of reference, um, on that Glendale Road alternative, that
would go up as far as like the old Garish House. Okay. Um, and then, uh, on the opposite side on Ames Road, that would go up as far as, um, I know I put a house number down, but, that would go up as far as like right around Mrs. Harris or where
Ray Balser used to live. Yeah. Okay. Um, in that area, and that's what the money would allow for. And then I had a couple small jobs like uh, to redo Ridge Road and then Brian Court. I got to tell you, they're all worthy. They are. They are. Um, but I just didn't know how the
Wilberham Road thing would go over. You know, it's just it's something with these main roads I I'd like to stay on top of. Um, but I like the idea of getting more roads done. That's the thing. Your honest assessment of Wolver Road, it it um the
gas company out of it will Oh, it could go a few It could go a couple more years. I It could Okay. It could. The road area. Does that include some of the coverts there too that are right in the bend? Is that is that where 129 is? 129.
You said from from Glendale to Ames from from Glendale to 129. As soon as you start heading up Ames there, isn't there that giant covert on the side of the road? Gez Greg, I might be drawing a blank. Giant covert on. So if you turn right onto Ames from Glendale. Yeah. Mhm. That
whole next to that farm there with the horses, there's a giant covert that comes down. Oh, no. That's still on Glendale after you turned up as you mean. No, no, no. That's a That's like a roadside drainage to a Yes. It's not a
huge It's not a big cover. Um it does handle the water, but um in that area, we would be I did plan on on doing some berm work to control that water a little bit better. The other thing I want to ask you and this relates to you've had the over the years the cover up the ditch type thing. Is there any of that
in this one? So that's I think that's what we're talking about there. Well, I mean you like you did on Burley Road. Hopefully you're going to do more on um North Road, you know, stuff like that where uh this did not include any of any of that. No, I know how expensive that
pipe is, but um you're already up there and and quite honestly, there's not many spots in those air in those areas. Um there's one spot by the by the old Garish house on on Glendale that that we could do, but that's taking
the water and shooting it under the road and into the autobond property up there. Um no, it's more of a safety thing and you get rid of those, you know, people slide off. In fact, we lost a highway truck one time on Scanic Road. Yeah, unfortunately. I mean, yeah, I know.
Um, but the maintenance going forward now you got that ditch or sorry that pipe you always have to worry about the way jet pump. Yeah. Well, so I guess Don, are we looking for a recommendation to the every superintendent to go with the
list, the alternate list in place of uh I'd say we go with the alternate list. I would too. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I had a couple questions as long as you're here. Um just to update the board then on transfer station. Mark, I asked
Mark to reach out to a local guy to look at upgrading the platform, the transfer station, and I don't know if you got a number back from him yet. I haven't. I I called him last week after we spoke and and um he hadn't put together a number
yet. So, but he does think it's less it doesn't need fully replacing. It's under well under the $10,000 limit, too. You know, I think we're looking at plate steel, the diamond stuff again on the top welded on. In my opinion, the
structure below looks pretty solid. Some of it does. And and and I, you know, and and I don't know that it would be well well under the 10, but it would be pricing at work today. Oh, okay. Oh, it has. Good. Yeah. Okay.
Um but he's definitely interested. um you know um so I'll check with him I'll check with him again this week. I mean he told me he was going to get some numbers together and get back to me but I mean everybody's work like that would come out of uh hopefully transfer station retained earnings.
Yeah. Assuming there are some Yeah. Right. And you already answered the question about the brook. What's the time frame on that? You know I'm sorry John the Ballard Brook South Brook. Where are we on that process? We're We're very close. I think uh so Brian
and I had a meeting with uh VHB a while back. I actually think I put out I may have put out an email. Uh anyways, um I think they want to bid that job this fall or this spring. We're so close. Anyways, we
are close. I don't know if you remember either. I'm just saying Don and I were hoping to be at the ribbon cutting. We're just not sure. No, it's uh I think I mean we're talking less than a year. They want to put that out to bid and get it done and uh Yeah, I understand. But I mean this gets back and we also talked
before about road control during it and when they're going to do it and how they're controlling that traffic coming up and down. Yeah. They're they're well aware of we cannot close that down, right? Yeah. Absolutely. Um and we're not doing this in February for crying out loud. No, that's slow. Let me let me
double check my notes on that because um I I do remember it's it's they wanted to bid it relatively soon. It's something like 2026 project and if not sooner. Yeah. Well, if they're bidding this fall, you know, they can't do the work. Yeah.
And of course, rocket donation. I I don't have any another meeting with another 50 engineers be great. I don't I don't have any information on that. That's you can't you need a 26 inch monitor to see everybody on the screen at the same time. And then Yeah. Right.
Two screens, right? And that's going nowhere, which is fine. Which is fine. I mean, we did the rightway thing. Mhm. Right. Correct. Yes. That's all taken care of. So, I did I did as it relates to the paving. Um I'm I'm currently checking
prices with other companies. um if if they if they are comparative to last year um and to the company that we've been using. I was thinking about just
um re-upping our contract with them. Uh precise paving if you know if every if it makes if it makes sense rather than to put it out to bid. I mean, we know what we're going to get for prices. Um, the quality you work with before you
I've been I mean, I've been very they're I've been very happy with them. They've been a pleasure to work with. Um, they're they're fast. Um, they they're a small a small group, so they're they're easy to work with. Um, like as far as change orders or on the
spot kind of changes, they work with us great. Um, so, um, that's something I can report back to the board on too if you know on the pricing I found. I think I I think I put that in the in the cover letter. Actually, while you're talking
about that, the work that Balthazar is doing, does any of that impact your I mean, is there any impact to the roadway that you would be concerned about in an upcoming project? Uh, no, not yet because I have been
going and and looking to see what they're what they're doing and they they're doing a good job as far as keeping off off the road. There's some ditches that they may have to tend to I think they may end up I have to check the contract, but I think they own them for a year. I'm not sure. Right. But they do I mean obviously on occasion not
everything's on the same side as the pipe. They have to cut across Exactly. Yes. And so that was something I was going to let play out and then maybe include uh those in a paving schedule for next year like that section of Glendale uh Scanic and talking at that
point it's just the mill and pave that's all that's all those would be. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I know there was something on one of these projects. Let me let the rest of it play out and I'm going to do call it Glendale since I know I'm going to have a little more Glendale to do type thing.
But you're talking Glendale far away from it anyhow. So for this year, right? Um and then you know for next year we can maybe maybe even pick up where we left off on on Main Street at the intersection and and head east. You
would also I think you had mentioned it on here completing some 2025 projects or was that the uh Oh, so that's uh there was a delay because of the weather. Yes. Um and so we've um they got pushed back a couple
weeks. So the new start date for for those roads is um May 27th, Tuesday to um mill and pave those roads. And that's Fernwood, Oaknull, and Riverside. Yeah. With some BM work on Riverside. Yeah.
Really? Yes. a 400t road. It can't be much to burn. No, just for some water management to help Will down at the corner. Yeah. Y All right. All right. Thank you very much. You think you beat the road to
death? Okay. Don't don't go. Yeah. We got Dan here, too, to talk about the uh Okay. All right. Who's going to mow the lawn? Hey, we're going to roll along. Well, Mark, can I talk? I don't want to get involved
in this. I figure the two department heads could figure it out. Well, that's why we were like trying to be proactive and, you know, together and trying to formulate a plan to be proactive. Only question I have is, can you buy the two lawnmowers together and save some money? You already put your order in, right,
Mark? I did, but I can certainly call and ask. I mean, it's certainly a a good question. million bucks, you know. Sure. Absolutely. I did talk to Mark about, you know, do we have the right equipment going forward, you know, with a large expanse like that. Uh they do make a six
or eight footer that goes in the back of that new tractor we bought. I mean, if we have a guy out there with a zero turn, he could be shoot all day on mowing that property. I mean, have to think, and Dan's probably done the math, we probably doubled, if not more, the
size of property that we're mowing now, you know, from all the parcels we had before. It's all of that, I'm sure. So, and when I say the highway department mowing and then if you add, you know, shoot, the highway department mowing probably equal what Dan's doing
up at Memorial just by itself. So, it's about an addition of 6 acres for the park to mow and two if if we go by what Mark and I talked about, um it's like six acres for the parks department and two a little over two for highway. Yeah.
So, but I go back to uh I'm not sure if it's, you know, we should be pushing it on the parks department to do the mowing for property, especially when they're not, you know, it's not utilized 100% of the time for all parks projects. I mean,
baseball season certain time, soccer season certain time. Um, obviously Mark's mowing the front, take it around the back, do that, and then Dan's going to need some finish work. I know it's it's happened in the past. I've been out there myself where the school department
mowed in on Monday and we had a soccer game on Friday and the grass was back up to here again. and Jim Morris and I would go over with our mowers and knock it down because kids can't run in that heavy grass like that or the ball field every other than on the baseball field everything's a ground ball stopping 5T
from the pitcher. So, and it's a lot of work for his department as well. He's doing that where we've got the tools for it. I mean, I do have a concern also with storage for the mower and I've shared that with Dan that, you know, I don't think uh putting it inside the building is the right way to go. So,
that's going to be a concern going forward. I know I did talk to Herb. I talked to Herb and they don't they don't they have a space inside the building, don't they? That's where they were keeping their current one, wasn't it? Herb was saying they don't allow it. What? Her was saying they don't allow it. They stored that mower in there the whole time. Yeah, that's what I thought
we were doing. I don't know. Baseball the thing. So I just think going forward I think you know the possibility that maybe we uh look at a way to fund an increase to market as well for
additional mowing equipment for additional mowing equipment basically to get the attach we bought that new tractor because the thing was it was going to be like for all right what are you talk what are you talking about here you know different attachments to go on it we got the flail we got the So what do you got for attachments don't should
we iron figure out who's doing what first and then you can kind of decide on what attachments need to be made or what decisions need to be made. Are we buying capital items right now? I think it's Tom property. I think the highway department should be in charge of mowing it. I think Dan's been very generous in offering to subsist that as well by
adding doing some mowing as well in the back. But I don't think we should be putting it on the parks department to mow town property. You know, this isn't memorial park. I'll just say from a parks perspective that's like really inefficient. So we got all the things with weather that come in marked gets
pushed back. Then you know we got games are coming up that weekend. Um it for parks it'd be really nice to be able to mow it on our schedule. We know what the schedules are for the games and what's happening there, what events are taking place. So just that's
just what I'm saying. So, do we want to draw a line then and say I mean, do you use the side next to the golf course? There's soccer over there, the front of the building. No, if you're going down the driveway, the straight end used it used to be the T-ball area back in the day in between the school and the golf
course. Yes, we use that. You used to have a small soccer field on the small soccer field there. Yeah. Three on three or something like that. So, we say that's parks area for mowing and Mark's responsible for everything on the front with the gazebo and all that. Yeah, just the side in the back is I
mean it's all going to be used by parks and wreck anyway. Okay. Side in the back is what we were planning on. That's the six six acres that I'm talking about. Yeah. Mhm. You got the side in the back, you got the front, the gazebo. So, you got like 25% of it and Dan's got
75% of it. You do garish too. Yeah. Yes. The little area there and the in the town common in the townhouse, right? Yes. Senior center, but not but not the police station. Sorry. The flag pole. Yes. The police station
currently. They have a hire, right? Yeah. Well, we're getting a new police chief. We'll just put it this contract. Yeah, that's something was in the budget at $5,000 for something. You don't do anything at Mill, right? Mil pond. You know what? We can put a rain garden in
there that we have to mow it at So, uh, Mil Pond we hit with the, uh, we hit with the roadside. It's loaded with poison ivy. Yeah. So, we hit, uh, mil pond. Oh, really? That bad? So, we hit that with the roadside. Okay. So, the question is, if if you're not going to
mow the back, does he need the extra equipment? I would say no. Okay. No. Okay. Although, it would be much easier for Dan if that equipment was there. He could grab that more if he's saying, "Look, I'll do the mowing there." But if he had an 8ft deck on the back though,
yeah, but if he had one with an eight foot deck instead of a zero turn, he'd be done in an hour instead of seeing him down the road. I can talk to Steve about how long he thinks it's He says two or three hours to mow the whole thing. Yeah, I talked to her. He says between the whole property, it's a four four plus hour. If you're So if you're
including the front, that's probably about right. But yeah, you know, so I know she had a new person mowing today up at the park. We do. We have a new um groundskeeper. So that's going to be perfect to have them now to assist with mowing TWWB. Okay. Right in back front. See you
later. Thank you. Bye-bye. Thank you. Thanks. What now? What do you have to say about the about the Thornton Burges Middle School? No, no, we're still No, we got No more Thorn B. No, we got Next steps. Oh, next steps.
can the most immediate thing is to coordinate the hand over the building on June 30th. Um we'll want to continue some of the services that are currently offered to the building. I assume we want to continue fire protection. Um yes, we'll have to talk about um any uh
security stuff that I'd rather not talk about in open session, right? Um custodial, we'll have to figure out what we're going to do for custodial. I did walk through, but I did do a room by room assessment of the building last week. I'm going to finalize those into a report about what I think the immediate
needs are in terms of occupying the building. [Music] Um, those are the the immediate things. I know if we're going to use the funding that's available, the $15,000 that's available, uh, we'll need to use that,
expend that by June 30th. Um, so we'll have to figure out how to spend that. There's certainly needs that we can spend it on, but Well, you got that masonary repairs. Yep. That's 13,000. So, get maybe we get that done, right? Yeah. Yeah. But the the I guess the
immediate is to do that and then coordinate the the handover of the building to make sure that we have the continuation of services we need there. Spend some money on new keys. All right. So, you're all set with this? Yeah.
weekly reports probably. So, we'll keep them moving. Okay. And again, I'll I'll just throw it out there for the public that I think the switches and the routers or town assets I do, too. So, they should be leaving those for us to use. Yeah, we'll have to talk about the
wireless access points. They're fine. They're okay to leave the switch uh switches cuz I don't think they can use them anywhere else. But, Right. Right. They're upgrading everywhere else. these the wireless the wireless access points webs. Yeah, it could be a different discussion. How many are
there? Yeah, I don't know. They have one per per building or one per wing. Uh I think one per uh sorry room or one per wing, do you think? Um I don't know if it was one per room, but it was pretty close to
that. Um round disc things. Yeah, the white things. Uh there's a couple in the the cafeterium, but some of them I believe they've already they've already removed, so we'd have to track those down. They they kept the internet active uh at least through town meeting so that we could use the we could use it during
town meeting. Well, I think I think the lease says that they have to leave it that kind of stuff. Yeah. So I got it. Yeah. Still got a conversation working.
Okay. Doaban Society. If they're still here society still here. I think I saw Tom logging. Evening everybody. Hi. Sorry to keep you. We've been busy tonight. It's interesting conversation.
It's okay. Your pitch plane forest habitat restoration. Yeah. Yeah. Give us your pitch. Give us your pitch. Yeah. So, I appreciate your time um this evening. Jonah Keen um expressed his regrets at not being able to make it um
but he'll be I'm sure he will attend future meetings. Um anyway, we are progressing on um developing our um permits and plans for our pitch pine
um oak woodland restoration project. And that includes a substantial area of invasive plant management including around the parking lot um broke in the trail head area which
you may recognize is a pretty terrible thicket of um of invasive plants. And uh so in the process there we were um negotiating a memorandum of agreement with the town and
um some comments came back from the town with a 500 foot offset for herbicide use from the town well. And I'm here because I'm wondering
if you have any flexibility in that. uh cuz that's far greater than the radius determined by the state's uh zone one wellhead protection areas. What is the protection number for it's a
class one or class is that public water supply? I'm not sure what the class is, but the radius around the wells uh one is 240.4 48 ft and the other is
275.36 ft. So 500. So it's got 500 diameter but not radius. All right. 500 radius. Right. So it's quite a bit
wider as in the agreement and I'm fine with um staying out staying more than 200 feet away but more than or whatever the zone one is, but going out to 500 feet covers that entire swath of the
uh including the parking lot area. Um, and we're we are a little concerned that we're not going to be able to achieve really any meaningful reduction in invasive plants without the use of herbicide around the pond and and
uh and parking. Uh currently the main I think the two potential chemicals would be glyphosate based herbicide or tricopir based
herbicide. Uh but what we're planning to do is to limit any herbicide treatment outside of the zone ones. Well, first of all, there'd be no no herbicide treatment at all on town property
um and no herbicide treatment within the zone ones. But then beyond that, we would propose to use cut stem applications only. So direct application following the cutting of a shrub or
vine. Um so no folar treatment within that radius, whatever it is. say 200 feet or more um in that interim well protection area.
So you're proposing to limit the radius from our 500 foot to the D approved like 240ish 270ish. Right. So if we interpreted maybe the 500 ft was actually more of a diameter circle
around it or actually called the number as Craig said to the public water supply number, you'd be good with that. I still don't know if I'm in favor. I still don't know if I'm in favor of that though of treating the red reducing the size. Well, we're not reducing it. I mean, a
public wash place says you can't do anything inside of it anyhow. Right. Right. Right. But you know, this was ours and then they want to just do what the DP says. I think we went with 500. I think we had an interpretation before. We thought they asked for that one time. We were going along with their suggestion. I
don't if we misheard it at one time, Tom, or um No, I and I don't I I think the the zone one the zone one is sacrosanked. So, we're not you know, we're we're
nothing's happened there. Yeah. No, there's there's no treatment in that zone. no chemical treatment in that zone one. We do propose to be, you know, physically removing invasive plants from within the zone ones.
Uh but yeah, so the question is about the interim wellhead protection zones which do extend beyond the zone ones. Um and when we were preparing our plan uh our understanding
uh was that the town had no particular D has no particular um interim wellhead protection standard. But so the question was whether the town did and our understanding was that the town didn't. Um,
I I believe I wanted to protect the the water district's water supply area because I was concerned of that's being currently, you know, good plottable water for the water district which we're currently expanding and I didn't want to compromise that in any which way.
Absolutely. Now, and in the future, that's well understood. Um, and I, you know, I certainly respect that. I think there's there's okay really no way that a cut stem herbicide treatment greater
than 270 feet away from a well would have any any effect at all on water quality. Yeah, I think we just uh we looked at an old conversation and last year uh 500 ft was mentioned in the proposed CR at that
point. I think that's where it came from. So, and that was an email generated from Ottabon. So, not sure where the I think our five if there is a 500 foot. Yeah, I don't No, I'm saying it was 500T in diameter.
Came from me from you a 500 foot radius was in not from you per se, but another source in Ottabon. So, however, you're making the argument now that, you know, that would be incredibly superruous at this point. You know, we
already have protection based on what the Welllet, you know, act provides. Uh, so obviously Craig having a pretty good affinity for the water commission has really wants to protect those wells
there that we get a lot of people. And we got the school well back there too, right? So that that was understood. So, as I'm saying, I I'm hoping that we can just use touch stem
applications within whatever zone you feel comfortable with beyond the the the zone the zone one that might be within closer than 500 ft but farther than 275 ft or 240.
about Is there a distance you're comfortable with other than I,000 ft? Yeah. I mean, I'm not an expert. What is the cut stem herbicide?
A cut stem application means that, you know, say you've got a a shrub or small tree growing. All you do is get on the That's it. You dab it. It's essentially like a
um if you play bingo, a bingo daughter. That's what I'm saying. You cut the thing and you dab the Yep. You just dab it with a little sponge tip applicator and essentially there's zero herbicide applied anywhere but where
that dot hits the hits the stem and it just goes just a little ring around the cambial tissue and that's it. You're done. Um that's inside the circle
all the way up to the well at that point it could be. No, no, no. Nothing at all within the zone one. No, it says only physical removal. No, it says use cut stem within the areas. So, you could be doing it all the way up
to the well. No, there's no no chemical application in a zone one. Not even cut stem application. I don't know how not to use chemical treatments within zone one. and to only use cut stem
within the district the WP that is beyond the zone one but in the interim wellhead protection in the red but not in the blue correct there's a zone one and then outside of that CIWPA
that's right there's no there no chemicals at all state law prohibits the use of herbicides and pesticides within a zone one so we're not we're not requesting that even be considered. So there be
nothing used in the 275 radius, right? This is your thing, correct? And then beyond that between 275 and 592, you would use the dabber just as example. This is a one. Yeah. Not including this.
Does this go on the school property back here? Mhm. And the top well. I get it. Mhm. That top well in the school property. Yeah. Yeah. That's our well, right? And is that does that mean they'll be doing the cut stem application within the town within school property on school land?
Well, that's what they had asked before. I mean, Right. But I thought we were staying on the I thought the only thing we had allowed we stay on the other side of the brook as well was the Right. We're not proposing to do any chemical application on town
property whatsoever. Okay. Okay. Okay. I think his question is are we enforcing a you know the big circle around our well that cuts what they could be doing here because now the circle extends onto there. Right. to prohibit to prohibit
any chemical use within 500 feet of the well is greater than the state's zone one protection and would prove a challenge to this project because we're hoping to
treat the invasives that are in our trail head, you know, parking lot area. Hm. Which would be within 500 ft of the well, but is greater than 275 ft from
the well. So, if I get this right, we're basically looking at this crossover here between the two that's on the bottom property right here in the red. About that. Yeah. Yeah. So, just just the circle's just there as a as a radius. What kind of invasives are you seeing right now, Tom? Oh my goodness. at the
Robues gallery. Um it includes burning bush is probably one of the big players. The next other big player is autumn olive which is the dominant shrub um right in our trail head area. Uh round
bittersweet is the vine that's kind of competing with the autumn olive and and burning bush. um Japanese barberry, uh multifllora rose,
um privet, you name it, it's there. Uh but it but autumn olive, burning bush, and bittersweet and barberry are the the top four. We had quite a bit of problem up on the farm, you know, by the fences. I mean, it was like my dad and I were just, you
know, all the time knocking them down. They're growing, especially at the rose. So just for clarification, nothing on town property and within the zone one for chemical application, right? Correct. And and limiting ourselves to
cut stem application within the IWPA. Okay. All right. And in fact, our our practice as as we've um as we've described it within our
uh NRCS, our approved NRCS plan um only has chemical treatment within that outer zone every other year. So, so it's a a year of treatment, then a year
off, then a year treatment, and a year off. So, it that again just you know spreads out any potentially lingering effects. But the advantage of using those particular proposed chemicals is that
they do not linger in the environment. They're broken down by soil bacteria and other processes um usually within months. Really broken down. Glyosphate is Yes.
Really? I thought that isn't that what's in Roundup? Yeah, I thought that was like one of those forever things. No, no. Glyphosate is actually really um it's actually an interesting chemical in that it it tends to bind to soil. So, it
doesn't it's quite um you know, I'm not going to say it's safe, but it's lower risk to use in the environment. It's lower risk because it binds to soil and as it's bound to the soil it is exposed to bacterial action
that that breaks it down into regular you know harmless constituents um over time. So that's it's actually one of the safer I was just at the hardware store the other day looking at
herbicides and they're all like lingering residual action for up to a year and it's like I don't want anything you know nothing like that you know once the glyphosate is absorbed into the plant it's like that's where it is it's going
to stay there and um and again those cut stem applications basically ically there's no there's no um offtarget exposure all right so do we want to endorse
basically Brian's recommendation to the amendment to these were your suggestions back then right Brian suggest Jonah as well okay yeah one was from Jonah yeah well it says recommendation
the language language here. Okay. Yeah. Give me a chance to review that language, Brian. You okay with it? How many feet is it? [Music] Page seven. You want me to read it? Yeah. So
this is the language that they have proposed in response to the 500. It says Mass Ottabbon agrees to not use chemical treatment on the town parcel, to not use chemical treatments within zone one of the town's wells, and to only use cut stem herbicide application, no folure
spray within the intram wellhead protection areas. See exhibit B for zone one and IWPA map. So no spray. Okay. Yep. Okay. The rest of the uh agreement seems pretty boilerplate.
So, what's the difference between zone one and the well have protection area? Zone one is the the blue. Right. Right. And then the IWPA is uh the area between the blue and the the
outer the first big line. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, there's different ones cuz there's multiple circles for Yeah. So, so nothing inside the blue. Correct. And then past the blue, it would be just the cut stem. Cut stem. Cut stem on Ottabbon
property. Nothing on the town property. Well, so okay. I I I have a difficulty with this, but only because it's the Ottabon Society and I figure you guys are protective of the environment, right? You know, well,
water and Hampton is sacred to us and uh and to me. Yes. So, I I I would trust you. Anyone else I wouldn't. And I Well, I appreciate that, but I I will say
again that the cut stem applications are directly targeted um you know to the within minutes of the plant being cut, herbicide is applied, and that's and that's the
treatment. You know, you've got people who are going to do this, who have done this before, and they're going to minimize. I mean, just going to put one little dab, not three. You know, if one is good, three is better. Well, the the usually you include a little marker dye in your
in your mix and you you just go around until it's all colored in just like with bingo. Just And then you're done. You don't go outside the lines. Nope. And it just just on the cambial tissue, you know, right around right
around inside the bark. Okay. So, it's it's a very minimal uh amount of herbicide. I did. Okay. Make a motion to uh endorse the memorandum of agreement as amended with the Ottabon Society. Second. Any further discussion? All in
favor? I. All right. Do we have a non app or no? I'll get that together. Thank you and uh appreciate your time with this. Look forward to getting underway. Okay.
We've got a u we got a notice of intent coming up for the conservation commission to consider. Um and uh yeah, we're we're continuing plugging away with our stewardship planning.
Okay. Right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good night. All right. Have a good evening. You'll never get it through conservation. Okay. All right. What do we got next? Regional agreement. Oh, the regional agreement. The status should be pretty
quick. Time meeting recap. You want to skip? Town meeting recap. You want to skip? Oh, town meeting recap. Oh, sorry. Okay. That'll be longer. It happens. It did. It did. It wouldn't win well. I thought there was during it though. Some people said some of the audio went off.
Oh, I noticed Doug wasn't turning his on. I think that was part of Oh, maybe maybe that's he I don't think was hitting the button. He was he was far back and it looked like those particular microphones. So, they may not close. Um does bring up one thing. I know in in clip's recap it showed that thing we
need to prepare a request to advisory for a reserve fund transfer. Okay. To fund the shortfall in town meeting sorry expenses expenses which I don't know if that included this
bill yet. Right. We're over now because of the fall bill and his shortfall doesn't show. Have you gotten the bill for a town meeting yet? I just got it today. So, it's processed. There is a there's an overage there. There's a one
misapplied invoice and they found today. So, it's going to reduce that by about 3500. Yeah, but I think we're 6,000 over on something about 3,000. We should prepare now that it's May. Yeah, we got to get that. We need to do I don't think we have a line to line available for that kind of money. No, at this point.
So, I might as reserve. Other than that, I mean my take was that I thought town meeting went very well. I think uh people made their points. Everybody was heard uh orderly. Thank the uh registar desk for the candy. I think that helped. They couldn't talk.
Chewing the chocolate was good. Um I think the um I think the order every where everybody was worked very well. Yeah. you know, after going through the town meeting again and it was pretty smooth, started thinking more about the
the electronic voting system and I'm starting to think maybe we actually really don't need it, you know, for how smooth it was. And then somebody made a motion for a secret ballot and people said, "No, no, we're okay with, you know, letting people know our vote." So, yeah, I think I have two thoughts on
that. First, you know, I thought, like I said, the the way it went through was pretty well. I think sometimes that secret ballot thing has to do with where it occurs in the in the agenda. Yeah. Warrant, you know, you get to, you know, 8:30 quarter or 9 people like, you know,
when you said you're going to have to file out, file it back in again. Oh, hey. Oh, hey. Now, this is the consent agenda I thought went very well. And that part was do that again. Yeah. And even that didn't really cut the time down much. I wish more people had taken advantage.
That was a nice presentation beforehand, the video they did. Yeah. Um, so is that something that's on the town website? You know, it's separate from the town meeting video. No, it's part of it's part of I know, but I mean, I hate to say it. I mean, it was nice. And if they
could separate that out, we could post it on there. That's the MVP thing. Yeah. At the next meeting, they're going to do that half hour presentation prior to the select board meeting. So, uh, those will be finalized this week. There'll be there'll be the trailer and then there'll be uh there's individual
videos. That was just a teaser. That was a teaser. That was a teaser. Okay, great. So, yes, those will be available. Click here for bed. Okay. All right. So, the regional agreement
discussion uh or lack thereof. So, we're meeting on on uh we're meeting this Wednesday at 6:15. Planning committee or the planning committee. So, I want to assume that our position is still the same, right? Yep.
Yep. and and just I just want to clarify a few things and um that I think are important that first of all the regional agreement the the current regional agreement says that it's a regional
school district kindergarten through grade 12. So it's already a regional a regional system. The only difference in it is that says that the children are to be educated certain grades are supposed to be educated their
own town. They've closed the school in our town and all our students are over in the Wilberham middle school. The building is owned by Wilberham and is leased to the town by Wilberham.
Uh if the amendment if the amendment passes to say that you know it's the kids are go six through 6 through 8 go there uh it's still owned by Wilberham and
uh it had the building has a number the issue here is that the building has a number of deficiencies it had a number of deficiencies in 2015 and those deficiencies continue mostly surrounding the ventil ation in the in the in the in the uh heating in and air conditioning
system. Uh the there was comments in the newspaper which stated that the uh that there was no clear message that not replacing the vents would lead to no mole at the school. That's not accurate.
The state didn't say the state inspectors didn't sign off on the condition of building. What they said was that you have that the heating that the ventilation system needs to be replaced or repaired. And they said in
their their their comments that without proper exhaust ventilation, excess moisture cannot be removed from the building which can lead to mold growth conditions over the summer. That was the assessment in 2025.
That was the assessment in 2015. that condition still exists. So I I think we need to clear that up. And just for clarification, that did happen last year. That did happen last year. It did happen last year. The in fair in fairness, the and also the state
inspector issued 31 recommendations about what they needed to do to make sure the ventilation system was there. Mhm. Over 50% of the classrooms they tested the carbon dioxide was above the state the state minimum level
concentration uh concentration. So that's an issue that needs to be dealt with. They don't like the idea of carveouts. The idea of carveouts is simply pre-existing conditions. These are things that that
in the 2015 report whether that was could become a middle a consolidated middle school or not said need to be done. It says specifically in there if you want to keep it only for Wilberham then you need to do these things. If
it's a middle school consolidated you really need to do it because there's a lot more kids in there. It's not much different than, you know, say we had a cohort of students, both towns, and in town C, we found a building that was suitable for both. You would go to the landlord. I'm going to give you a
reduced rate. And we would both say, "Okay, we're going to fix the building up for us." Because it was a third party building. You have a landlord with a deficiency. I expect you to bring the building up to code. I'm still a tenant
in the building. And even if you change this, I say we're still tenants in the building because the landlord hasn't kept it up. Don, I think you stated well. I mean, the rhetoric needs to be dialed on a little bit. We have a practical problem here that just needs
to be solved. Looking at it without emotional words, if you will. You know, we have a responsibility to our residents here. We're honoring that. I'm sure they feel the same, too. But we just need to come and think about the fact we have a huge group of students
that need to be protected. Craig, you know, you've got some of them. And I think your advocacy on this can't be overstated. You've done a great job on it. And that's why you should change your mind and stay on. How do you roll that in? We'll even
give you the right name plate. It'll say Craig instead of Greg. So, I just think I think Don goes back to that meeting on Wednesday and said, "No, the board is fairly firm. We said what we need to say. We want to work for a solution, but we're now going to be
browbeating into here's where we are." And I think it's important to point out, too, that the Hampton Wilberham Regional School District went to the Wilberham Capital Planning Committee and said, "We need $700,000 to fix this ventilation
problem." and they said no because they they thought they could get a better cost price which is you know they might have g to bid and find out something different but they also said well there's the possibility to be regionalized and ham will pay a share well I'm not interested in paying the share of something that's been an issue
for 10 years and we know it's an issue because he just spent $400,000 uh reading more and I would also like to point out that the regional school district paid for that mall re remediation out of their END funds.
Correct. The lease does not say that. The lease says that if there's any damage to a building or its property, it's the responsibility of the landlord, right? Even if it's an act of God, it says so they're responsible for that. And that
$400,000 to be a pain in the neck is 80,000 of the desires and it could have gone towards education or something else for the kids. So you can hold us and the other interesting thing is that they brought up the last meeting was that they're concerned that the reg if if
it's becomes a regional school they're concerned is if if it's a regional school the uh region can go just go to the town meeting directly and say we need this money. They don't want that. They want that to go to the their capital planning committee which already
rejected the $700,000. So you can't have it both ways. you're either going to be a regional school or not. So that's that's where we are. So the meeting is Wednesday night, so I'm going to just hold our position. Good. Right. I agree, Don. Thank you. Take the cookie with you. All right.
What else we got here? What's next? Oh, well, you put on an up schedule. Schedule. Uh we meet twice a week now that we get we can I don't care. Well, the only the only I'll have fun with that. H I just
thinking about the schedule. The 27th, I guess we should beat the 27th. That's the day after Memorial Day, right? The 26th is Memorial Day. Yeah. We just want We usually don't start the half thing until July, August, though. So, and then we've got then we've got uh but we've got certain things now. We have the
chief of police is retiring. So, that's going to we're going to figure out a plan for that. And we got we have appointment of a sergeant. It's got bunch of things as well. Now, we're into closing the books. Now, we're into closing books. We have our usual June. In June, we usually appoint people back to the committees, the police officers,
the fire department, and that type of thing. We have a special election on the 23rd. So, I'm not sure where your point is. I mean, you know, I'm good for every week. So, don't Oh, no. But my point is I guess my point is we got we got to start scheduling it out, you know, and then and then we we
have an election the 23rd. So we probably have our should have our reorganization meeting the 24th ra you know rather than meet so don't meet the 23rd meet the 24th yeah meet the 24th you know next day and then we can set our summer schedule from there but we've got
uh Chief Trombly has resigned not resigned but he'll be retiring in July and so we need to set process for finding a new chief of police right well why don't we I think uh you've got a good summary there why don't we line out those things like to say we chief is
going to be bringing in what date you think maybe next week for the uh he's bringing forth a candidate he would like us to appoint a sergeant next week. I think we already next week. Yeah. Okay. All right. And then we're going to recap like we anticipate there's going to be
another open and we'll have Yeah, we might have another sheriff sergeant. Uh change. What else we got? What else we got? Was that reprimage rolled right into the 7:30 with that
upcoming schedule thing? The pending retirement was part of the Yeah. planning thing right at that point. Yeah. Um I do have a quick thing from the board of health. Uh I have another request for an approval of a uh disposal permit for 131 Summers Road. You
remember the one with the big tree in the front yard? Yeah. That's a sentimental value. No, I know. I like how you responded back when I mentioned about the pipe mandolini. You were like exactly what I knew about next to the double pole. What is it? What is it? Right. Yeah. What I like what I like
about the meeting, it's it's it's never an address. You know, so and so's house. Oh, yeah. Right. Exactly. Yeah. I'm sitting here looking up on Google Maps. You know, there you know where so and so used to live. Oh, yeah. Before they Yeah. Yeah. Anyhow, your mother lived
there before. That's right. Jeez. Uh so anyhow, we have uh this approved by uh Lori Mcool has been looking to motion to we're still rehabbing. Uh though I did ask him he does have the new uh person to bring in
and introduce to the board place Anthony. Yeah. Okay. So looking for endorsement of the board. Uh Finn's approve sorry lawyers approval for 131 Summers Road. So any discussion? All in favor? All right. Thank you.
And what's the for this is a disposal permit for 131 board of health. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Second one. Collect board members reports. Um I went
to the town meeting last week. Had quite a good time. I think I saw you there. That was you. Yes. Lovely. Good jacket. Don too late the report. I have nothing to report. I have nothing to do other than I'm going to have the meeting uh uh Wednesday night. Really administrative
planning committee. No. Yeah. I won't even get into the Let's not talk about the school committee meeting. No. No. I put a cuff on you now. See what
we've we've caused the crisis. All right, Brian, what do you have to report? Um, I've got the counter proposal back from charter for the cable license agreement. I got that received that this afternoon. So, we'll take a look at that and share that with the
board in terms of the financial terms of that license. Uh, special election June 23rd. There will be two items on the ballot. One will be uh to fill a select board vacancy and the second one will be the uh debt exclusion question for the debt exclusion question is a simple
majority vote. Yeah, correct. 2/3 for the borrowing majority vote to exclude the amount from prop 2 and a half. Um water district expansion project is ongoing. If people drive around, they'll see it in those areas of
town. Um I believe they've heard back from everybody. Um and there was 28. There was 29, but then we connected somewhat uh quickly because of the the test results. Uh so there's 28. I
believe there are four nos and 24 yeses at this point. So right now the water commission the water commissioners are collecting the right of the signed right of entries um to get uh permission to go on the private property for service connections. question about the one of
the nos as I saw the note and it sound like it wasn't just a no I don't want to connect you can go ahead and keep filtering it sound like it was a no I don't want anything period like you can't collect water I don't want so you have different levels of no
no right of access we'll have we'll have to we'll check that again at the heart of it it the town's requirement is to test those who are willing right so if somebody becomes not willing to allow I'll access them. We can't test. I mean, we need that from D and so yeah. Yeah.
Um that's it. All right. Uh one thing I forgot to mention obviously uh next we're on Don. Next Monday is Memorial Day. We have the parade. I assume everything's in place for it. All harmless for same areas, the whole
thing, which I saw a little back and forth on that. Um, I wanted to extend an invitation to Craig to march in the pray with us if you're available. I will look at the calendar. Okay. But I think it'd be, you know, I appreciate that. You know, recognition. Actually, if we could
all ride on the top of that antique you have, that would be nice, too. It's got four doors. Yeah. You should be able to take a top practice for I got to practice my wave over the week. Yeah. Yeah. I was surprised you weren't out in front with the big competition today.
You weren't like waving at the cards. I was I was going to bring you a coffee, but you weren't there. Exactly. There's that cutout cardboard cutout. No, I I I just want to say you you're going to be missed, my friend. You you are a great asset to the board and and I I value your your your opinion and in your in
your perspective on a lot of things and and I really appreciate what you've done here. I appreciate that. That's what I said at the town meeting. I think you brought that perspective to town. you know, people who were born before before the after the 1800s like Don and I, you know, we weren't relating to them as
much. And in all honesty, I think that's what we needed on the board was, you know, you providing just like I said the the, you know, perspective on the middle school, things like that. You know, you see parents that we don't see. So, thank you for your time. I I appreciate you
both for being accepting and willing to take me under your wings, per se, in some aspects of the learning the job and uh No, we learned I definitely definitely learned a lot and I appreciate everything that was offered here and uh yeah, I have no regrets and you'll be back. I'm still around. Okay,
I'm still around. A lot of committee assignments. The 150. Is there still a member on the historical in the 150? 150. Isn't the Mrs. Stone the historical? She is. Yeah. So, there you go. I think you said 150 cons. It's
something else. That's what he said. I used to Well, there's still the EMD and stuff. And that's the next Did you want to bring that up? So, EMD, you mentioned about uh access. Well, that was my question. If you know the board's willing, you know, I'd like to stay on
as the EMD. You know, I find that information and part of the job fascinating. So I would like to still pursue that. Um if that's the case during the SEM plan we were writing that we were using the townhouse as a you know the the staging spot for the e
management director. So um I didn't know if they would allow me access to this room if there was an emergency for planning and prepping and stuff like that. We do that we have to like formalize this is a position and appoint him to right next to make it official. Yeah. And that's that's in your court
now. Okay. All right. Very good. Anything else to come before the board before you start crying? I would like uh Greg to make the last motion. Motion to adjurnn. Is there any second? Second. All in
favor? I I All right. Abstain. All right. We got there's there's 171 votes. 71 cast volume. Now, what do you think your number is? 180. Hey, what went on there?
180. I wanted to get 200. Okay, go back up there. I'm Shazor.