##VIDEO ID:-yDjpx9WGT8## okay great um good evening everybody Welcome to the January 28th 2025 meeting of the Hatfield select board our colleague Ed um is not feeling completely up to Snuff so he is joining us by Zoom hi Ed he's waving um so I'm G to go ahead and call the meeting to order um as usual I'm going to open the meeting by reading our public participation policy the Hatfield select board welcomes every one to its meetings and all other public meetings of the town of Hatfield all regular and special meetings of the boards and Committees of the town of Hatfield shall be open to the public and shall conform to the open meeting law executive sessions are closed to the public and will be held only as prescribed by the statutes of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts it is important to recognize that the open meeting law affords the opportunity to listen to the proceedings but not necessarily participate during meetings of the select board an attempt will be made to find a balance between hearing from members of the community and conducting the required business of the Hatfield select board um so I'm I'm really happy to we'll we'll start with the um wonderful announcements yeah the good news um so we have we have quite um a group here tonight which is just so lovely to see um because they're all here in honor of um herma Donis um so I just want to read a little um something that's been prepared for me if you just bear with me so every few years the town clerk submits to the select board a candidate for the Boston Post golden cane award which is presented to the oldest resident living in the town of Hatfield it is my pleasure this year to pretend present the certificate of recognition to Irma W Donis Irma is celebrating her 100th birthday today that's really quite remarkable and how how beautiful that you're all all here to um show support for her so Irma Keaton was born in Kentucky on January 28th 1925 she moved to Ohio as a teen she worked during World War II at the Commerce building in Washington DC her job was tracking warships it's pretty cool her older sister CLA met Henry Donis during that time at the Marine Corps She Was Made of Honor um and met her future husband Bernard Donis Henry's brother when he was best man they married at the Baptist Church in Northampton in 1948 Bernard worked as a lumberman at Donis Lumber and they raised four children in Hatfield we all finally remember Donis Lumber of course um William Joon David and Paul are the four children um and you're all here right yeah ex except Joan Joan is decease I'm sorry um uh Irma was the epitome of a housewife you could often find her outside gardening she had the nicest yard in town and loved her neighbors is this the gray Ranch on Elm stre yes it was always Immaculate yes yes yes um now at the age of 100 she has three remaining children nine grandchildren nine great-grandchildren and the 10th expected in two months how beautiful nice um her name will be included on a plaque that hangs in town hall with the names of all previous Boston Post golden cane recipients um so we do have a certificate here that I do want to um sign hang on one second I'm G to have my colleague Greg sign it too so on behalf of the select board and the entire town of Hatfield you know we want to congratulate Irma wish her a happy birthday um present you you already have the cane which is really lovely um we have a certificate to present as well um and I I understand that the Gazette interviewed her so today and the one question we forgot to ask is what day it's going to be in the P oh pretty quick they're usually pretty quick so I would I would expect it would be within the next couple of days so we'll all have to watch for that what a what a lovely piece of news out of happfield so thank you very much yeah and how sweet that you we're all miked up here um so I can't move too far I'm sorry yes thank you it sounds like she was is a lovely person and that's that's a nice um and and I just want to um you know thank you so much Elena for recognizing that you know putting that all together because I'm sure you it it's really nice you know over the years over the years of being select for it i' on the select for it I think I've presented the cane twice and it's a really this is probably my third time it's really a nice nice Honor by the way have you seen the cane by any chance this one I believe I have yes yes it's quite well done that CL is quite impressive and I think it's quite an artifact Town keep in their possession MH yeah I think it passes from Resident to resident right normally it stays so what a lovely so thank you so much for coming thank you and yeah very nice Jerry suggested a picture do we want to try to they can stand behind the desk or something oh sure that would be really nice you want if you if you come behind us we don't have to just kind of smile and yeah it'll be great you want we could maybe if we even stay seated that'll make for a better picture all around be so nice Elena you're welcome if you want yeah you set the side I think that'd be great yeah Elena you should be over here too yeah we can go right maybe fill in with Greg here great you can head on head on down behind them is great maybe push the put the paper down yeah just hold there you go you go how's little Jer be nice all right smile take a c nice idea Jerry thank you so much thank you very much congratulations yes of course today that's so fun can we end it there that was great okay and so that was the that was the good news um for announcements um the it's not really bad news but um we have had some building closures um last week and and this week um because of our ongoing floor project so Andrew I'll let you speak to that because I know you've been really in the thick of it sure I'll speak to this quickly uh so we have a project going on right now to renovate the floors in town hall this is in the basement space um the contractor has been doing great work um they intend to finish by the end of this week May we next week but they're doing really well they actually expanded the size of their crew today and that was very helpful uh they were working with some Pro uh products last week um that did have some fumes that didn't smell very good um and the decision was made to close Town Hall uh last uh Friday um and also into today uh into a Monday yesterday when we knew there would be some uh products being used that um were were somewhat concerning for for everyone so uh that is complete those products but today they started with the adhesive that's being used for the floors and that's a pretty strong smelling glue as well so um the town hall will be closed tomorrow uh if you need to contact any individual um offices uh some of them have uh contact information listed online all of them have emails and we be happy to help uh I plan to be here as long as my my office is ventilated um pretty nicely but uh if anyone needs anything we we should have some coverage um so the will'll definitely be closed tomorrow potentially closed on Thursday as well if there's still applying back glue product um so we'll continue to post on the doors of town hall and online and on Facebook um if you have any questions please be in touch but this is just for the safety of uh of of uh residents and visitors and of town hall staff I really want to thank uh people of Hatfield and all our employees here for being so flexible during this project I think we've been able to meet most needs uh Jerry's done a fantastic job with still having a place for for seniors to to come we have a lot of vulnerable people who come here for for meals and for activity and we've been able to keep that for the most part but we do have to put safety first so we've had some some closures and I think we'll still be able to continue with COA activities tomorrow in a pretty well ventilated part of of town hall but uh otherwise um we we will just meet the needs as best we can no thanks that's a great um you know Des description of everything I mean it's really fairly brief Interruption you know I'm sure it's you know not very convenient for for everybody here and maybe for some residents but I appreciate you've been great about communicating everything um to us and and you know like I said before progress sometimes is a little uncomfortable but we're getting there right um so Jerry thanks for hanging in there and I just want to mention that um Chief flarity has been ventilating the building which I appreciate very much um I didn't smell too much when I came in um you know it's a little something but it's the glue is definitely worse just when they're putting it down uh even by the time the crew finished up it was a lot better but also huge thanks to the Chief and his team for coming in and getting some of the the fumes out of here so it worked out great yeah thank you thanks Chief okay so any one here for public forum no okay um so the first order of business is our consent agenda which is the approval of the minutes of J Ed I'm sorry did you wanna did you have anything Ed for announcements or anything no I I don't have anything I just want to give my congratulations is to the Donis family they've been in town for quite a long many generations and the lumber yard was there and they they have a great mom so congratulations to them very nice Ed okay um so we're going to I'll take a motion to approve the minutes of the January 14th I'll make a motion to approve the minutes the meeting minutes of January 14 2025 I'm not going to vote on that because I don't do not have them in front of me so okay do you want to hold off how about if we just hold off and I mean we could V we we've got a we could do you mind if we vote him in Ed you go right ahead and vote for him that's fine okay I'll second that motion made and second any further discussion no all those in favor I I okay the first order of posted business we're going to dive right into some budget presentations um the first one up is our Police Department come on up to the mic um hang on now is this let me let me find it there's nothing we didn't get any changes right been Chang on fleece hang on I just have to find it Mike oh I've got a copy I just have to because I'm trying to keep all of this organized hang on getting there my goodness okay no yeah oh this is wrong hang on H okay I've got it okay sorry I'll give you the floor so the the budget this year I level funded the entire thing um so you'll notice in the salaries there's uh no Cola for the um for the staff I didn't put any of that in um as that was going to be decided at some point time during this process the only uh increase in the salaries was a contractual increase um under my contract for fiscal 26 other than that everything else is uh fairly identical to fy2 okay so if I'm looking at this so yours doesn't have the breakdown from the actual for 2024 to this request uh fy2 24 to FY or FY 25's budget no fy2 24's actual to FY 25 there's no compare is there is it level funded or is it just going up by your contract just going up by my contract okay that's it see how that's not total you see what I mean okay let me just make a note for myself like can provide Andrew with the 25 and the 24 okay if you would like it for comparison that's easy enough to do yeah I just like to have it um okay I mean that's pretty straightforward and then then a decision will be made about colas across the board yes yeah that's the plan of the finance Comm yeah okay so this provides the same level of shifts and everything which is what are the shifts now so right now it's obviously Monday through Friday um and that covers uh from essentially six in the morning until midnight and then on the weekends it's uh two 12 hour shifts 10: a.m. to or no noon to midnight on Saturday and noon to midnight on Sunday so like we discussed several years ago due to the uh reform and everything and losing our part-timers it's without more full-time staff we really can't get back to that 16 hours of day seven days a week coverage at this point so not without adding people okay but what about during the day so there's two you and Clint are both on during the day there's no way to rotate Clint so that we could have it's hard to predict what a slow day will be and what a slow day is you know um today we needed both of us um all day long there's other days where you know two people aren't needed but how do you how do I judge I guess that I mean are the shifts always covered on the weekends yes and so there's one officer on one officer yeah yeah I mean eventually we I mean the discussion really should come down to I mean isn't is there more police activity at night again there's no way to judge that I mean there's there's busy there's busy Tuesdays you know um and quiet quiet Saturdays um quiet Friday nights and a busy Monday you know so there's just no way to judge you know what's going to happen in I mean I understand that we we all you know obviously talk to Bob about that same kind of stuff but I mean we just have two people on every day you know where it just seems I don't know if it could if it could rotate so that there's you know I I get that um I I and I understand that I I think it just comes down to I don't think people understand exactly what goes on like during the day that is when literally everything is happening when it comes to the night shift has very little responsibilities other than Patrol and answering calls they don't have any of reports that are being filed with the state or with the federal government they don't have the pistol permitting going on so if there was one person on we only do one person on during the week um if I'm out if I'm on vacation or something like that or Clint is on vacation we uh we stretch it to one but um it makes it so that I can do pistol permits when people come in so the police departments a revolving door during the day during the week time with people coming in and going out whether it be for whatever questions or um or pistol permits or this and that um um something would have to give at that point in time either I mean I have to go on calls right so pistol permits would have to give reports what something would have to give at that point in time um so if you look at it as productivity or whatever whatever you want to call it something is going to fall by the wayside there without having that second person which is why we went to that second person almost 15 years ago okay okay I mean I just wanted to ask about it I um I mean I guess I don't I honestly don't know much about what a typical day looks like for the Department honestly you're you're free to come hang out with us just bring your plugs don't get easily offended um okay I mean I that was my qu I I just had that question but um about do you have anything or it's nice and easy Ed no nothing I mean the only question with the police department over the years is a cruiser is that still on the capital planning I'm just curious it is for this year yes I've been asking for the past couple of years so yeah um we're at that we're at that point and we'll have to have a discussion about what's coming up if you're retiring something because I know last year there was a a lot of discussion around you wanted to keep one and we decided not to I would like to keep all of them yeah right yeah absolutely that then something becomes a true spare car right now the spare car is being used um probably 24 hours a week or more at at this point in time so um eventually we'll be at two Cruisers if that if that keeps up so and that's a discussion we'll have at Capital plan I think you're coming in to are you coming in to talk about that't sched yet okay so and with that being said I mean it it uh I don't know what the insurance is on it that's essentially what the expense to the town is on that spare car for you know for an emergency backup car okay okay I don't have any more questions thanks for submitting you know a a level funded with with the exception of the things you can't control right yep okay I I would like to just get that number plugged in there yeah we can provide that I work with the sheet to make sure you get that I will say just looking at my spreadsheet that that includes those things um Chief's pretty good about being on target with the spending across categories so nothing's really below say 30% use and nothing's really above 50% use from my numbers which end in December so it's a good thing to see so that so these are would be fairly accurate like there's not fairly accurate a good Target I mean I don't think we've ever had any surprises I never go over sometimes I have to transfer from one line to another line depending on if something drastic you know happens within expense or something like that but other than that I can yeah okay anything you have any questions or no okay I have no question what's that nope I'm good painless yes thank you you're welcome thank you okay next we're doing fire right we're going to do COA first I think COA first okay because then the chief has another agenda item after oh Mike does no sorry the fire chief the fire yeah right okay um I just want to make sure I've got some extra documents here so I just want to see what I'm okay Jerry come on up and Sean hi Sean how's it going good how's it thank you all very much yeah start take your time I'm trying to hey Andrew how you doing good yeah Greg thanks for stopping by I saw you at the event I know it crazy I didn't make it and I was so bummed I was so bummed because you know I'm a big supporter of what you're doing out there it was and I was really sorry to miss it i' never been and it was really really really exciting I really liked it a lot I'm it's a proud place for the town yeah and nice to see you getting such you know recognition really on a national level right there people from all over yeah 175 people from 26 States was pretty wow look at you go that's amazing okay so let's talk numbers yes so I'll I'll say a few things and then Jerry will jump in um as always the Council on Aging does a ton with very little um you know each year we do ask for uh modest increases usually in the amount of hundreds of dollars or at the most um a thousand dollars or two this year isn't much different this year we've got a modest budget increase of $1,775 I'd first uh note that we had uh 12,470 duplicated visits so that means people came to the center 12,470 times might have been you know a couple hundred individuals but uh came that number of times many of you know our excellent programming uh this year we've had everything from you know uh solar presentations from Smith college professors to meteorologist Jana Brown uh to winter birds and spring migration presentations uh to educational programming like nutrition meditation estate planning Foot Care uh so we do typically I think eight plus special events a month plus our daily lunch um and then provide the van service taking people to their grocery uh and doctor's appointments uh so we're doing a lot there this year we did our summer picnic we're over 80 people attended um what I was particularly impressed by was the beautiful job Jerry did with the Veterans Day um breakfast for anyone who was able to go to that I mean the room was beautiful and it was packed that's one thing I've noticed at all of the events they're often packed uh the tree lighting was something new that we added this year that was great a lot of young families and seniors interacting together so that was the beginning of a beautiful tradition uh so as you've seen over the last few years the Council on Aging continues to increase our programming improve things that we've already done like our newsletter SE a couple of years ago now we went to a color newsletter a larger newsletter more people are reading it um so we've had tremendous success asking very little how have we done that we've done that by going out with our friends through our friends and raising the money uh the reality is that the if Hatfield was covering the full cost of our events and services and whatnot that'd be around $21,000 um instead of the 9,000 so we're actually raising more than we get from the town town for our events uh any most of the money we get from the town goes towards um staff and largely that's van drivers a director and a part-time person who are coordinating all of these events two part-time people by by part-time very part-time um coordinating all of these events um so it's it's a lot this year we're asking for a slight increase and we outline why and that's largely more newsletter cost we continue to increase the program and the entertainment I mean gez if you think about just that tree lighting alone to get that and all we're asking for for the year is an extra $400 uh for those um our licensing software just went up but that's what helps us track the data that's required for grants that we get um and then we think it's important this year that our staff be able to attend the national or I'm sorry the state um Council on Aging conference uh just which is in the eastern part of the state because as we grow as we introduce new programs as we look for new res sources there's a lot we can uh learn and find out by being at these events and interacting with other people who are doing similar work in other communities uh so we think given the success that Jerry's had it would be great for her to be able to one share the great news of the work we're doing in Hatfield but also bring some new ideas and new resources back and if you want to share with us yeah so as you could tell I love what I'm doing I love working with the seniors in town and that's what it's all about it's not about the staff it's about the people and so getting as many programs and a variety of different programs into the center is what important is what's important to us I've been here now for five years uh the first year you know we had uh covid going on um so I just wanted to give you some of the numbers so in 2021 duplicated participants were 7,622 2022 went up to 10,584 2023 was 12,470 and 2024 was 14764 so we're increasing yearly um obviously um the funding that we received we're very grateful for but however we have to supplement that and that's being supplemented from one our friends of the COA and they contributed last year's $ 7,625 and then the senior center donation account um a lot of the residents in town uh continue to provide donations to us and we use $4,284 of that so it was a total of 11,99 that we received from outside from the friends and from our account yep and the counsil on Aging space I think has never looked better continues to look better and you know I think it's there were years where there was a lot of chatter we need this new counsel that's quieted down quite a bit people are quite happy with how that space presents itself so I think that's to Jerry's credit she's an artist too I think that plays a big part no and it's been great and I know we've made people a little uncomfortable with all the stuff going on downstairs and hopefully by the end of the week it'll it'll be over with I did go downstairs uh they're doing a fantastic job I said the half part of the floor is already down and you know the guys are are very nice they're very nice they've done a fantastic job and it looks wonderful down there so it'll be nice and it's done right this time I don't think you'll have a problem one thing that I liked is at the tree lighting I ran into several young families downstairs in the Council on Aging who had no idea that the Council on Aging was even there you know and they were Jo enjoying the space and saying how beautiful it was yeah you actually reached a lot of people with that event and and well you know when I came here I was like you know it's it's a nice small town and I thought where's your where's your Christmas tree or whatever you do every year but I kept looking at those trees that were out there I'm like they should be lit you know so that's when we tried you know this year and it it did I was I was a nervous wreck wondering how it was going to turn out and how many people I know Karen I ran into Karen was there and uh it was just heartening to see how many came out that night and it was a cold cold night yeah know I think you can expect that that number to 50% or more next year oh yeah for sure I mean I started I believe I believe my daughter and her friends went like there was a lot of of young people there too which is really nice and I'm hoping that departments will join in with me for next year to plan it and you know maybe grow it have some things out there for the kids and should get to school to if they have a course or a band or something like that to come and stuff like that you know yeah try to get that very nice well I mean I you know a budget wise I really don't have any questions I mean You' done a good job of you know keeping this um you know very reasonable request I guess I would just add you know I've personally had the chance to ex you know experience your services this year um with with my mother-in-law coming down and having lunch and um you know coming with her and actually riding the van with her and everything um your your staff has been really great um to her and me I ride on the bus like once a month then or the and um it's been really nice experience for us so just wanted to add that um to be able to offer that service just that van service alone know to me is worth that amount of money you know so congrats for all your hard work well you know when you when when I go down there dur you know when I've gone down there um there's people playing games my you know she's been able to take as many books as she wants and you bring them back when you can and it's been really nice so you're doing a great job thank you love thank you anything I agree they're doing a great job I I enjoyed the tree lighting that was really fun I hope you'll do it again I missed all the good events I missed the tree lighting I missed your Events first I missed the veterans breakfast you say party I'm there thank you Ed is there anything I don't want to forget that you're with us like a special thank you to Sean and Jerry and cookie and Al and all her staff directors they've really built up the program it's it's an outstanding program downstairs so and it's nice they can come front of the town and show off a little bit about all the good things they're doing for the residents and the seniors for the town of Hatfield so thank you very much Sean and Jerry and everybody else involved thank you that's true cookie should get a shout out and the friends yes the friends a really um yeah and they Vol they they spend a lot of hours volunteering meeting planning the events they work hard yeah they do the black Birch event that's so nice thank you and we usually have probably about 90 uh residents that come from other towns yep it's been great you know and then our residents get to go to their towns for their special events which has been great so so you can have a whole network of events and activities if you're a senior in town looking for something to do call Jerry she's got a lot of events I wear a lot of hats I wear a lot of hats well thank you very much any other questions El no I'm all right thank you okay chief Clarity I've lost my um agenda but I do know you're next yes yes he is okay so we're going to take up the um conference thing later right I think that's yeah right after the budget okay the floor is yours uh so if you look at it I once again this year I did not submit three budgets I did two budgets instead of the last couple years we had done three yep uh the top one essentially is an FY 26 that's level Service uh similar to Chief D kosek on the fire side uh essentially the only increase is a contractual obligation um and that is it for that uh on the ambulance side which will come from ambulance fund funding and ambulance Revenue uh it's a total of a 2% increase uh we lowered some salaries but some expenses came higher and part of that is to do with the the new software that we're just about ready to implement that's an all-encompassing so everything will be in one so that's really the the only change so that's on the the okay the EMS side so the ambulance yeah hang on I I want to look at that but I have a question about fire so okay wait a sec sorry yours are sideways yeah okay so um so let me go back to fire sure I just have a question because so I'm looking at the level service M and um so there are some lines that go up slightly yes okay so that's level service then there's others that'll that have dropped to so the level yep so the level service one goes up about $18,000 if I'm reading this right no the level service on the fire side the expenses stay the exact same and the salary goes up 3,000 that's a okay so that's the okay so it's really three I'm sorry y three y that's that's the only difference in level Services there are there are changes on the individual lines if you go line by line some couple of them go up but then a couple of them go down to make a difference so this expense stays the exact same okay and then Emergency Management is okay and then but the ambulance even on the level service there's the total budget goes up $2,463 total difference salaries went down 27 and then the expenses I'm sorry say that again unlevel service level service ambulance ambulance okay so it's essentially it's a 2% change salaries went down 27 42 and then some of the expenses went up a little just over $5,200 and most of that has to do with the new software that we're running okay and that would come from ambulance Revenue oh yeah I see this the licensing the software yes okay so that's level not huge changes across that level Services okay and emergency emergency management is the same it's been for six or seven years now di yeah quick question yes of course does that include does this include any to us for any of your employees besides yourself no okay so everybody gets paid the same right now correct got it okay and then the next one the next budget is the 24hour model correct and so that can I just ask was there any questions on the level service before we kind of move into the bigger picture I don't think so one pretty straightforward okay so want make sure that we don't have to go back and forth a couple times I I don't think I I was good Ed did you have any questions on his level Services did you do you have that in front of you no I'm I'm good good uh so then uh once again you know the it'll ultimately be the third year that we're at least bringing to the town or presenting to you folks uh the 247 model for Staffing for fire and ambulance many of the categories or or huge chunk of the categories on the fire budget are ultimately going to stay the same there are a couple couple here and there that have a few things that change uh uniforms PPE and so forth uh I think physicals go up again a little bit because hiring a few extra folks and then obviously the the largest increase would be the salary side and if any of these would have change the presumption is is that this would ultimately require an override due to the the big dollar amount that it entails so the um the salary line under this budget the salary line not not this is excluding you because the chief salary is is separate um but so this would be other full-time employees in this year's budget that was 73,4 and it would go up to actually 320 327,000 correct with an offset from ambulance revenue of 45,000 so you're you would be asking under this scenario for an extra um basically $200,000 210,000 yeah if you look at the overall for the oh wait a sec then there's part-time and dum that goes up by 100,000 correct and an extra 65,000 in Holiday overtime and training correct so do you I mean what's the math on this Bob to so on the last sheet you'll actually see yeah you'll see the totals of from one to the next of where we are so obviously it's a substantial from where we're at um Doubles Doubles your budget yeah more than at the bottom number uh essentially the the new the new money so close to the ask would end up being just shy of 400,000 for Allin and this this budget is essentially built out and it should last us in the vicinity of three to five years so it wouldn't be a new come back again and ask that was what the request was last year um so there's part of the salaries are including pay that will keep us in line for the next three to five years with it there would be pay uh steps within each rank so whether or not they're a paramedic or an EMT so I can kind of build it out so there's we don't have to come back again so in the if this ever if we ever put this to override and it passed theoretically in the first couple years you could turn money back because you've built those salaries in to project out years there might be some extra money there and then again some of this is predicated on there's money to offset it from ambulance receipts but we don't know that number until right we complete one one full year of that that option okay so it's what would you do with the nighttime people where would they go where would they stay so last year and this year submitted a basically a contingent Capital project of a temporary housing that would be out here in the parking lot um the capital project that was submitted was good was good for three years all encompassing it was 40 five 6,000 yeah so that would be the three years lease for that temporary housing to basically buy us the time if that was ultimately the case so essentially everything that has been submitted would would essentially get us covered for at least three years between capital and the overall budget and so the only way of fund this would be with an override I believe that in the short term yes I don't yes there's not this kind not the only way but yeah well well theoretically theoretically right we could close other departments and fund it okay thank you but the only responsible logical way would be an override yeah um so basically the bottom line is for you to go from what you have today your that B that budget is 475 642 combined yes that's that's what it is for fy2 correct that's what it would be to if it was that's what your budget is this year correct but you for 16 hour that's for the 16 hour but to go up to a 247 your total ask would be $871,000 correct so just shy of 900,000 departmentment the the total difference is 396,000 so that really is the that would be that would be the override would be just shy of 400,000 yep plus the trailer correct if it couldn't be funded out of whatever for Capital does that take into consideration benefits because that line would go up too nope because I I only have partial numbers and in the end it would be adding only two this this proposal is only adding two additional full-time staff in all of this but the benefits don't come out of your bet budget correct I believe it's so there' be an extra increase in the treasurers line to cover yeah I believe there would be benefits 60 it would be offered to everybody it would be offered right so I mean you have to have the percentage we pay is low so not everyone would take it you necessarily it's not like we're paying 70% no no I understand but it's still an expense it's it has to be discussed and taken into consideration I mean you can't just brush it off it's an expense I I think if we take what was originally figured in as having three full-time staff besides myself in the whole picture of this it was at it would be adding only one more full-time beyond what we're currently slated for and the rest would be perdm staff and so oh you but and you so it's difficult for you to project The increased ambulance Revenue uh I I I mean you've got a number in here yeah I mean I I could tell you that just based off of you know the the am Miss calls not SE not due to having simultaneous calls was $75,000 this year of loss Revenue because of not being staffed so that right off the top that is definitely a number and that you factored out simultaneous calls you said yep it was 10 times that we had simultaneous calls that we weren't able to cover which you wouldn't be regardless of your staff yeah correct but this has offset by 45,000 from ambulance Revenue correct so that that's taking into account some of the funds that we're already currently using it's just because it would be a change in the model of how the department operates it's m some of the money that is already currently allocated out of ambulance revenue and then when you look at the individual lines I just tried to break it down so you could see where those funds would actually be going okay why do you keep it separate the ambulance on the fire departments fire departments I was actually told by the accountant that they would prefer to see them left separate I was going to start joining them I reached out just to make sure that that was okay and Elizabeth told us DLS might be coming out and saying that they would prefer budgets to not be joined if you have this type of a scenario so I was ready to just put them all together I know last year Finance typ of scenario it's you're just one Department because of because of having some of the budget funded from ambulance revenue and it's not the entire budget from taxation easier to figure out apparently on their end that's what I was told by the accountant I was ready to just throw it all together and she's like no we prefer to actually the way that it is I can talk to the accountant and see if there's there's any interest in in doing that I I can see the argument for making them separate cost centers but since the the tasks are so merged by this point the Personnel are one of the same the time is spent pretty much the same way being a distinction without a differ I agree it's got to even more hard for you to follow it it's not the easiest budget when you have both sides of this I was ready ready to put it all together and I I asked Elizabeth she's like no they it's like how do you figure out like some salaries are ambulance and some are fire and they're they're the same person I mean I don't yep I mean currently essentially the full-timers are basically funded from ambulance revenue or part of their their salaries or ambulance revenue and some of it and then the pdms essentially are currently all pretty much under the fire budget yeah I'd be happy to join it all together certainly make life easy well obviously that's you know it's it's good to have those numbers and I appreciate that you gave them to them that's a big discussion we'll have as we're looking at the big picture stuff did either of you want to type in at all okay so we also have we don't have to vote but well we have you right here we have a new um full-time firefighter correct so full-time firefighter EMT uh Mr Jeremy rice from Lever he will be starting on Monday February 3rd okay so he Jeremy will be replacing Jacob sandbo who uh left the full-time position at the end of last February so we're finally getting somebody back so we don't have to vote this we just sign it correct Ed did you want to pipe in at all I don't want to forget you there no my only questions is right now uh for full-time folks that we have only a couple of paramedic level and the others are basic is or how does that work so the only full-time paramedic is me and then we'll have two full-time firefighter EMT Basics as of Monday well then on certain calls we still have to get Northampton for I believe it was like stroke or heart attack is that correct it would depend on if other perdm paramedics are also working so for instance right now tonight in the parking lot it's we are currently staffed at the medic level actually from now all the way through Sunday evening I think or Saturday evening every shift the 16 hours a day is all at the paramedic level with perdm staff or myself and how are we doing with the Miss sorry Ed I'm sorry go ahead how are we are how are we doing with missed calls and uh so 2024 we more than doubled the amount of Miss calls from 23 we had 151 total Miss calls and how what was the total call volume 490 so roughly a third of our calls correct are missed and some are simultaneous you said there's there was 10 out of 10 out of the 151 were simultaneous three were turned over to another service because our ambulance was either you know getting an inspection sticker the annual LIC whatever okay we had a couple of things that had to happen so the truck had to go out of service for a few hours here and there and a call happened to come during that time period it's just part of the business okay and of the I maybe you don't this maybe this is just two granular so the missed calls were were just unfilled shifts correct out of the 151 115 actually uh ended in a transport so now you have full two full-time basics and you have one spot left open and you want we're still hoping for that to be a paramedic I have there's three of our Basics are mere 60 days 90 days away from becoming paramedics so we'll end up having even a couple more paramedics that'll be working and we've added a couple of other new Basics that are working out pretty well they're picking up pretty regular shifts I think having the vacancy from the full-time firefighter EMT position has definitely hurt us over the last 11 months um it wasn't for a lack of trying we just could not get people to to take the job um or they weren't qualified enough to take the position I think this will fix that because this will give us six out of an eight day rotation of 16 hours with at least a firefighter basic on shift no matter what so you think that your difficulty filling positions will go away under the 247 plan yes two more than three qus of our current perdm staff would prefer to come and work one 24-hour shift a week as a paramedic most of most of the paramedics are all into that boat prum correct but if you're talking about 247 you're not going to be doing pums you're gonna nope those are pums it would only the basics would be the only full-time positions and the medic spots would end up being pum more than enough paramedics to go around to take to pick up one shift per week because within the next couple months I'll have uh 14 paramedics on the roster 15 sorry that are regularly taking shifts because I know the roster's been you know in the past long but not always um correct active yeah we've we've moved on from a couple of the folks that weren't picking up shifts they were giving notices and they did not comply so we had to move on well I mean we've got the information and now we'll have to have the discussions at some point okay that it on the budget um your next item here is um you're asking for permission to travel to Arizona is this the one you were going to get [Music] some wasn't there something you were going to get SED for something this the same conference that I put in a request for last year and it was the station design conference and by the time we were able to I was able to get in front of you to get permission and then I went to book the trip uh it went up about $285 for the cost of the trip so I was no longer able to to fund it through the budget as I saw it at that time oh so same exact thing same exact location I'm actually going to I was looking at this again the other day I'm probably actually going to go for one less day than I was originally planning um just because they've changed up a little bit of their itinerary and as it s right now I found some relatively inexpensive flights and the hotel prices and all that bad either so they would definitely all be covered within the budget um and so this is specifically um a firehouse station design conference correct it's a lot of Architects a lot of other folks about how you go about potentially starting a process or where do you even begin in a process as large as this because it's a it's a very big undertak what what have like other I mean you know there was a lot of Public Safety complexes built around here like Hadley went online not that long ago in North Hadley did they do this or did they I I honestly I don't know if they had gone out for one I know some of the Architects that are at this particular conference are from the East Coast I recognize a few of the names of ones that have built fire stations or Public Safety buildings specifically on the east coast and even in New England is any part of the conference dedicated to like resources and um maybe exploring Federal options or anything like that there there's about 12 different classes I don't remember the topics on all of them I know some of them were you know the building process where do you start uh I didn't see any on seeking grants but I can't swear by that that it wasn't there and then there was you know how do you build a building for sustainable energy and couple of those as well it's about six or seven different you know one or one and a half hour uh seminars per day what do you want to get out of this I think for me b basically it's just where where would we start and what is the answer you know what what goes into the process and then what potentially would be the best course of action if you know as the town's continuing to make changes where would we have to go from that you know is new or is renovating really the better option I I don't have that answer that's part of some of the stuff that they talk about there I mean I think we know renovating wouldn't be an option because we'd be in the floods correct it would certainly be the cheapest option but not necessarily the most done renovating over most ideal situation that place is over renovated I mean you know we we you know out of state travel we it's rare it's pretty rare um it's within your budget I mean I mean we're okay with it last year yeah we're okay with it last year so I mean I I we have to start thinking about it no matter what so and I guess that's kind of the hope is that I potentially be able to come back with some answers of if this comes up in the next couple of years we actually already have some of the answers instead of starting then knowing that most of these projects turn into you know seven to 10 years from start to finish I know you know Greg was part of the eastampton complex and I'm pretty sure that was about 12 years from start to finish forever yeah you you do have to start somewhere I I I would be you know much more excited about it if they also talked about funding sources you know obviously not state level because it's a nationwide but a you know there there's not really a lot out there right now and unfortunately I think we've looked into this a few years ago before we did the renovation out back and just because of our like median income in affield like we don't qualify for some of the low income right I know that at the state and the federal level they are still working on trying to get a bill across for public safety building yeah it's still in its infant stages and I spoke to about that when she was out here yeah yeah so it it's there it's and the problem is you do have to be ready when these things become available sorry go ahead Dave I may be able to network with some folks out there too about yeah how did you guys get it going and finding the money to pay for your well I'm assuming if they're there they're all looking to get it going but maybe yeah so I mean we did approve it last year it is within budget um I don't have a problem with it Ed do you have any questions or anything you want to add no I mean we approved it last year so and how can we say no this year and maybe maybe there's some information that the chief will come back with that'll be beneficial to the town because we we're probably years away from building but maybe there's a source for funding that he bumps into or grants or something that may help us wouldn't that be nice okay that would be the Hope okay I'll make a motion do we have to make a motion to allow for out ofate travel I know you did last year yeah if you did last year to vote it so you'll make a I'll make a motion to approve the fire chief to attend the station design conference in Arizona in May and uh I I will go ahead and second that motion made and second any further discussion all those in favor I Ed do you want to vote on that it looks like he may have stepped away for a second okay um okay safe travels okay so topic three is a conservation restriction [Music] um my goodness this looks complicated um there there's no action on the conservation restriction itself okay this is about an update thanks for sitting through all of this no problem [Music] um I'll give you the floor sure I just just before I start I just wanted to I I just found out that u a longtime chair of the open space committee Peter Cox passed away really yeah and uh you know Peter was the chair of the open space committee from about 2005 to 2018 yeah um so he's a longtime serving very dedicated and served and led during the time when you know uh we double we pretty much doubled our conservation land um uh we really got going and and and completed the Smith Academy Park and we uh started from scratch actually establishing Trail systems in Hatfield as well so Peter was just uh quite involved in all of that and uh just a very dedicated person and uh I hope he uh people remember him for for his dedication to the town and his giving back to the town oh I'm really sorry to hear that he was a very nice man so um condolences to Joan and the family and yes so it's too bad um I'm here for uh I think it's simpler than it looks with the handout or whatever really a lot of a lot of Hatfield um concern land especially around the reservoir um has what they call a conservation restriction which is a restriction on the deed for sale or development of the property and use of the property so um you probably got this map in your hand out this black and white map which kind of shows the outline of some of the parcels or all the parcels that are under conservation restriction uh through the Department of Environmental Management and they hold the conservation restriction um a conservation restriction has to be held by a third party and usually those third parties are either conservation commissions or other municipalities or land trusts uh in this case the Department of Environmental Management holds the conservation restrictions around the reservoir and many of the parcels so and every four years they do a monitoring they they just go and uh around the perimeter and through lots of parts of the property that is under conservation restriction to just make sure that the land is being properly taken care of and it's not being abused um so they're going to do that tomorrow actually somebody is going to be uh monitoring and going AC through all the land I probably gonna meet oh that's gonna be fun tomorrow is the weather supposed to be bad yes yeah okay well we're looking forward to it um one um proposal that they offer is to put um small little triangular signs on the boundary of the conservation restriction land and they'll put and I think you can see it on one of the pages there's a little photograph that shows um I don't know it's last P it yeah so if you give permission um I'll tell him to have that done sometime in the next few months uh someone will come and just put it something like every 150 yards around the perimeter of all the land Parcels that are under conservation restriction so if anyone is hiking or anyone is hunting or whatever they can see clearly where we're onto Hatfield protected property um so and that's as far as I know there's no charge for that and they'll just go ahead and do that so I don't know if you need to vote on that but I'd like to tell him one way or another that that he can go forward with that or not I problem I problem there's no opposition okay great can I just ask for this there's this little inset what for a point of reference what is this cluster of buildings let me just look at that map I think that's on route five well I'm sure it's on route five I'm just I can't yeah that's got to be near the camping PL yeah the little yeah the right hand side okay yeah yeah it points an arrow to that section yeah if I looked at all those vehicles I could have probably figured that out yeah okay I know some of the some of the parcels are kind of sporadic and they're separated from each other I mean it would be nice sometime in the future to be able to tie those all together and we would try to do that um and and have a connecting Trail through all of that okay so you you don't we we don't need to vote it Andrew no I don't believe so okay yeah another issue is that there are no trespassing signs I think some of them might be 30 years old um that are put in places that are specifically uh said to have Public Access so I think that those Tres no trespassing signs should come down because according to the conservation restriction that uh there are some areas and you can see on that little black and white map there's kind of a a key on the right hand side and one of those sections says n um non-motorized Public Access so basically most of the land is accessible to the public except for some of the land directly surrounding the reservoir which is off limits and some of the feeder streams for the reservoir um the rest of it is public access and there are multiple signs around the reservoir that just says no trespassing where there is actually Public Access allowed as per the conservation restriction so um how long have the signs been there as long as long as I can remember yeah some of them are date back to when the um Board of Selectmen when there was a Board of Water Commissioners oh other ones are newer right and some of them are not even on Hatfield property and some of them are not on conservation restriction property so maybe at some point when it's appropriate I could point out which signs are kind of in the are not proper and they could just be removed um because how would we know you would know uh I would know and it's on it's actually marked on here on that um photograph a photograph page the aerial photograph this is this it's called no trespassing signs that diamond M and there's even more but it shows the location of some of them most of them are oh oh I see yes this one most of them are outside of the conservation restrictions so most of them would come down um but at some point I could just walk with whomever from the um from the water department or whatever and just we could flag them and and they could be taken down I mean it's not urgent or anything but they've been there you know they do say no trespassing where uh Public Access is allowed so yeah I would definitely check it with Tony right right so it does need to be checked with Tony yeah yeah so should I uh I can I can work with Andrew whatever and Tony just work with Andrew and Tony and okay yeah I mean it looks like there's only five of them yeah could be five there could be seven um but yeah so um and one other issue I wanted to bring up was the conservation restriction that passed town meeting in 2016 for the Center school property and um I don't know if you remember it but there was a motion at town meeting to put a conservation restriction on twoth thirds of the property behind the center school and as far as I know that hasn't been done um I do have the motion with me and I can give a copy to you and Andrew um I'm sure you must have files on it Andrew because it was you yeah it was uh it pass to meeting it did yeah yeah so to update that yeah again I can touch base with Andrew and just see what it takes to get that process going because that is a process of uh of getting approval from uh state agencies like DCR um yeah great so do that yeah yeah thank you for sure bring that out I had a good first meeting with the uh open space committee and just thought that these things were worth taking to the select board just for so yeah and I appreciate that you've been doing that Andrew by the way well the open space folks reached out to me which I really appreciate yeah I appreciate your meeting with us and we are building more you know Trails up on Chestnut Mountain and trying to make a loop trail there there so um and we should be opening that in the spring um just uh just more trails open to the public yeah yeah great well I appreciate your work as always Mark yeah thanks thank you very much thank you stay in touch Ed were you all set with Mark I'm sorry okay he's saying okay topic five is the implementation um committee for the comprehensive plan um we want to do topic four or it's your prerogative skipped right over that topic four is um some discussion around the DPW director position vacancy do you want to come up or you're just sitting back there okay um so at this point um it looks like we've gathered quite a bit of information um about this some of which I just you know got so you would have just got and I'm happy to kind of do this as more of a presentation go over that um since there's a lot of paper that's just come your way yeah so um you have in your packet you were given a great memo that uh Karen put together looking into some comparable uh communities mostly just from their websites um maybe their budgets maybe some extra digging that Karen did um and if we need to look into any of it more if you see any on there like I don't think that seems right we can check into it where's milville milville that's a wher County one right that was is it yeah so interestingly it doesn't seem like a lot of them have dpws at all they're still operating with a highway department and a that's what we found from this this uh analysis and this was this was Karen uh looking into it I and it seemed right to me from checking out a few as well and this was um the way we went about this was a few of them are just close to us but otherwise I made a list using U the division of of local Services as a tool where you can uh filter basically all communities in the state by size by budget size by geography so I took I took communities from um Worcester Hampshire Hampton and uh Franklin counties I don't think I included birkshire um and at a certain size so basically um High 1000s to low 5000s and then budget size not too disimilar from ours and this was the list that that we found to to look into so most of them as as you said do not have a centralized DPW staff person uh they're mostly run by their individual either a highway department and then you know some of them just have commissions whatever else but Highway water Wastewater uh which doesn't mean you know what that was just one part of this analysis so the other things that we did um I know that that uh you were able to speak to some of our superintendant which great I had some conversations with uh superintendent and staff which was very helpful um also uh went right to the uh job description that we currently have and that's in your that's on your packet that's in the paper that we handed out to you before this meeting and again I will try to get all these things you know with uh to you sooner in the future but just thought it was important to get this done um there is the the job description dated January 2010 there's also a matrix that I put together just kind of breaking down some of those key responsibilities that came from yep that's a matrix there that comes from uh the job description as well as looking at just a couple other statutory things that were out there um and broke it into some larger categories so the way I looked at the DPW director position there's administrative work that that's a part of it um now I'm kind of getting into the content of the memo but Administration generally talking about recurring Legal Financial policy or compliance requirements strategy is kind of thinking about the bigger picture decisions to shape allocation of town resources and mitigating risks um management talking about direction of people or projects technical expertise that's where we're talking about specific content knowledge that a person in that position would be expected to have and would benefit the department by having that kind of knowledge um and that's what I kind of put these uh pieces about energy management sustainability that were in the um job description engineering knowledge um and then um this basic knowledge of facilities as well so if you look through this Matrix here um it breaks out I think some of the larger responsibilities and breaks it into these categories and helps you think about right now who's been doing this work uh in some cases we don't really have anyone assigned to it because it would be either by appointment or uh it's a function of the director that's kind of it in other cases um there's a natural person to either be doing it or it's just kind of lap uh to that person so in most cases it's really the the individual superintendents they've been picking up a lot uh some has been picked up by um the administrative assistant for DPW some's been picked up by Me A lot's been picked up by the highway superintendent he's been dealing with issues of facilities and um streets and really anything else so but this is a place to start and kind of thinking of what is the role that DPW director um what are the things that we need to make sure are filled by someone else in the interim or um can help guide the decision around um what a director would do in the long term as well if you want that position okay great well looking forward to having some time with these and um but it looks like a lot of work went into this so thank you very much um but I need to I need to have some time with it yeah digest it a little bit um that's great um and I'm you know know happy to have input from anybody who's here if they want to pipe in at this can oh Ed yes I mean I've been doing a lot of research on this I know I originally when the DPW was formed the DPW director had a lot of control over things and then over the years those responsibilities have gone onto the superintendence so at the last meeting when Andrew said you know we might need a interm to do some stuff I tried to find out what because now when I first came on a board I used to ask these guys their job description and what they did and they all said they work together so they they all got increased to be superintendent and we have three superintendents and one assistant superintendent now I one job that may fall through the cracks would be facilities management but I've been talking to Connor and and he said that right now the schools were giving the DPW a s bit of $112,000 if that was slightly increased they could probably have a point person because basically Phil would get information about what was wrong and calling the contractors I mean even the grants I mean Marlene did the most of the work on the Mass Grant and now Andrew's doing it the covert Andrew is doing it I mean so some of the paperwork that the DPW director used to do is now been moved to other people so my question is you know do we need a DPW director when we have let's if you think about it we have a fire chief and police chief we don't have a Emergency Management director oversee those departments we have a Treasures Office we don't have a finance director to oversee those offices I mean so I'm I'm not convinced that this time I I see that big chunk of money that if we could find out what exactly won't get done and we could supplement maybe a little bit more some money for more time in the office for office or staff support or maybe it's something for the schools a little bit of money for the lead person so I just I'm just thinking that way right now now my mind could change if I if I was given something else but even in Andrew's report which I I am impressed with Andrew thank you very much this is a very indepth report that you put together I mean he he even says that is not common by towns for our size to have a director in addition to superintendence so I mean just you have your superintendents they have their responsibilities I mean and and actually this year we're supposed to be moving to electronic payroll so that will even help everybody even more so if that finally gets which I've been hoping for for since I got on the board but those are just some of my thoughts so maybe we're at the point we should just have a small Committee of you just to review this but is there anything right now Andrew I I just got to ask Andrew a question is there anything right now that won't get done if we don't have a DPW director or a lead superintendent it's a good question um that won't get done it that's sometimes hard to identify the things that aren't being done because there's no one to ident to tell you that it's not happening part of the time so I don't want to answer that too conclusively the two things that jumped out from from my Matrix was um we had combined the role of the DPW director with the responsibilities of a tree warden so just by Statute I don't think we are required to have a tree Warden but we also don't necessarily have someone doing that um so that's one thing to to keep in mind um same with the Ada coordinator we we'd had uh the the um director of Public Works identified as the Ada coordinator so we don't really have someone filling that role right now that is required by the state so we need to identify that that could be as simple as the the select board appointing somebody um I believe that would be allowed um those two jumped out as as is Ada on this Matrix uh it is it's a number five under Administration sorry yeah and then tree board and usually Garrett's crew takes care of the trees I know that we had Luke Long Street volunteering his time but the legislation and the body laws I'm trying to remember what it was gave that power to the DPW so that's why we couldn't go out and have a tree Warden uh so right now tree the tree warden's role is is also getting them you know making those decisions getting it posted and all of that you're who's doing that now are you doing that yeah so I mean there's there's a big chunk of change for this salary and is it does it do what it's you know I mean if you have superintendents already doing most of the task does it make sense I mean or does it make sense to move some of that more money for secretarial support or a handyman for the buildings or you know I don't know I'm just talking out of the box here I'm but those are the ideas I I've been thinking about and I'm not saying I have anything concrete right now it's just I'm just trying to look at all the different angles on this and see if if if it's beneficial at this point with superintendent to have a director El I I just think it's such a good time to have this conversation um and I you know I feel like you had great you know input and suggestions said as always and I I guess I feel at this point everything's on the table um you know I just want to go through all of this um and I want to continue to have conversations with Garrett and Tony um and Kenny if he wants to and um you know to to really understand and then in terms of a committee I guess I would really like to just see us do it as the board um I don't think we need to form a separate committee on it I mean we I think we're all pretty up speed and have you know good relationship ship with the the folks in the department so that we can you know learn about this as quickly as possible I I don't think there's a ton of time to wait particularly it's budget season so there's going to definitely be a you know some some changes um and so that's that's my I'm not really saying a lot but that's my um that's where I'm at right now yeah I mean it might not be after you read through the stuff maybe it's not a bad idea to have a small committee to look at it and get bit more involved I mean Andrew gave us a lot of information right here which is pretty pretty nice he did a great job on this this stuff here yeah I don't know I'm just worried about forming a committee and people needing to come up I I just feel a sense of urgency um Dave had a um Finance met with the school department last week and went over their budget and I know one of the things that Connor brought up was the facilities piece of their budget that they're were contributing to the DPW directors and uh it seems like they have some interest in possibly having their own facilities person as part of somebody on their staff and trying to save a few bucks there and not have the DPW director as the facilities person um uh you know that's the indication I got Conor that deals with the school so that's that's another piece yeah we might save some money or the school department might save some money and not have having to put that $112,000 into the budget every single year so another consideration for as long as they're you know that that work is really being done and really being managed and they think they have a person that they can it's that was the indication I got they think they have chy mentioned that at the capital planning who's who they think they can fill that fulfill that role and it might be a little bit of a change of the role instead of say a facilities director it's more like a maintenance coordinator or something but that could be more might increase their salary a little bit as this extra um responsibility but certainly not probably the $112,000 that the that they were pay like I say in my the only thing I know right now is that everything's on the table that's how that's how I'm approaching this open to ideas should yeah I do just want to say and and this is not just because he's in the room but um i' I've been leaning on you know our superintendent um but the number I've called more often is Garretts and I just really do appreciate um how much he's been able to to step up in the absence of the DPW director um especially on the facilities front um here early this morning to get our elevator here in this building fixed and I appreciate that a lot so um we've got a great staff here and I do just want to um appreciate how much that the G's been able to do I mean yes I absolutely so Garrett I've stayed in touch with always um stayed in touch over the last couple of weeks regularly have no you know I know we're getting some some weather this week off and on several times I have you know absolute complete faith in in your ability to handle all of that so I do want to thank you for um you know for all you've done up until now but stepping up in the way that you have and and I I would recognize Tony too you know Tony reached out and talk to me about some of the things he's doing and so um very much appreciate that but Garrett yes um and I've appreciated the communication I think we're going the right direction and make definitely getting your input yeah on what to do here and people that's going to affect the yeah it it really matters and I'm glad that everybody's pretty cool about being willing to talk about it yeah work together it sounds like you're gonna have a busy week not that you never have an easy week but okay um so we're not making any motions I'm not prepared to do anything at this point I I don't want to wait too long um you know I get what you're saying Ed about having a committee but I just feel like we I I feel that we we can do this um you know with input from you know our superintendent the finance committee the school department on the facility stuff I really do think that um you know we can do this even I'd like to talk to Jenny you know I want to talk to everybody is there anything that would be useful for me to do before our next meeting um um I don't know exactly what's in here so I'll take a look at that and um I'll if I if I feel I need any more information I'll ask but this you know this looks great I can't wait to um have a little more time with it so anything else are we ready for topic five [Music] okay topic five is to discuss the implementation of the committee for the comprehensive plan um so we did talk about um creating that committee um and we we talked a little bit before about the composition so there's um some suggested members here um literally with names but then there's sort of Representatives of various committees and um departments in town so you're suggesting that we make the motion to create the committee and then make a motion to have it um comprised of these individuals listed here sure so at the last meeting we talked about uh different ways that this implementation work could take uh and we kept coming back to this idea of a potential committee um and you asked me to to think about who some members might be um i' turn out some names at the meeting but it made sense to talk with the planning board chair some other folks had' been involved with the writing of the plan so um I talked to some fol and put together uh this list of potential people um it's number there is a handout in your packet um that has a list of some potential folks um certainly just positions yes positions so that's that's up for this uh for this board to decide on on who you'd want um what I am suggesting as a Town Administrator um the assistant Town planner to be involved in some capacity she could help by Staffing the committee or she could be on it as a voting member that's really up to Fourth a representative from the select board I think would make a lot of sense uh a representative from uh the planning board representative from the school committee somebody from the DPW staff just because of the amount of work that's kind of landbased Project based be great to have that kind of help there uh somebody representing U finance and capital planning uh maybe even someone who served on both of those committees I'm not sure who that could be um an an at large represent multiple hats over there yeah an at large representative of some kind um and this is a tricky thing I I came up with saying another outlar person but specifically someone trying to represent either historic uh preservation open space or agriculture or maybe even all three so you know one at large it could be for anything and one at large to make sure that we have representation of those three pieces that that was my my thoughts you could even do two out large for those three things and and then you it could get even further if you don't have the assistant Town planner be uh be a voting member um I would think the assistant Town planner would not be a voting member yeah they'd be staing um and so then you could have because how many people do you have one two three four five six seven then you could have nine people if you did two at large to cover those the historic or agric agriculture for sure need a represent representative on here um so yeah I I think those nine folks with the with the town planner um just not being like a appointed member but a a you know Staffing member Staffing or exio however you want to look at it you could do the same with with Town Administrator too if you wanted they and I'm not sure how many votes a committee like this would be taking as well which is interesting I think this committee will do a lot of coordinating and a lot of uh right a lot of um communicating and yeah just getting updates from what's going on with these other bodies be a little less voting potentially by um you still don't want it to be too big Ed did you want to add anything to the discussion no I mean we we discussed this prior and to put this committee together a be fire I mean some of the stuff is long range planning some of the stuff might be short planning but it just how do we take that plan and try to see if we can get some of that stuff accomplished right basically so I think Greg had volunteered last time unless I'm wrong on not to be on the committee was that correct sure yes okay so I mean I say we move ahead and and get it done yeah some of the stuff's already being started get from the comprehensive plan [Music] too great so um I will make a motion to create Hatfield 2040 implementation committee second that a motion made in second any further discussion all those in favor I I um and then I will make a motion to appoint the following members um the town administ ministrator a planning board representative a select board representative which is Greg I don't know are we willing to do names tonight I think you would just create just cre so a select board representative school committee representative a DPW staff member a representative for finance and capital planning an atlarge member and two atlarge members that would specifically be focused on historic preservation open space Andor agriculture that's my motion and then the the I'm sorry we would um request that the assistant Town planner be a be a support person for this committee yes okay administrative support person I'll second that motion made in second any further discussion all those in favor I I think that's really great you know because the way that the comprehensive plan was set up one of the things I like the most is it very clearly identified tasks and it's specifically who's supposed to do it so we really have a road map and um a committee to make sure we're following it would be terrific okay so we may you'll reach out to all of them to see if maybe they could suggest me who they want to have and then we could start making appointments get it going right now if for the ones where you created a representative from the planning board do they uh can they just choose their person and they don't have to be then voted by this body again for I think they should they should be voted by us you so they would send a suggestion and then you would vote and we would vote yep that sounds great topic six it looks like we're ready to go on that that's the Town Administrator report excellent so I'm going to keep this pretty brief tonight since we had the budget meetings and everything else so um quick update on some of our projects I think you've already heard enough about downstairs and the COA flooring um good night thank you we but that is uh hopefully going to be finished by the end of this week um may come go into the next but we're in good shape there uh we continue to have uh um good progress reported on the culbert project the biggest issue is just spend the weather um and that's that's delayed us and final finishing I don't know if Garrett if you had anything else to say on the culbert project right now but it's I mean it's going along they'll be out this week it be done right oh really even with the weather yep I've seen them pumping the cement up there oh so they're filling in around the um yeah they were at our shop today cleaning hoses up and start oh great wow great thank you I don't think so good I think thank you very much uh five and 10 project I submitted our most recent a mass Works um report to the state uh that was approved and also submitted a request for reimbursement for work that was done in that quarter I'll have another one to submit for work that was done in January as well um get that reimbursement from State um I'm in contact with the team there just to make sure that they're aware of what our budget looks like for that and that that's it making sure that that's completed so hopefully we'll finish that off uh in the coming months so so there's there's no work happening there and I know we don't want to get into a whole update on that but the where the pumping station is there's all still equipment do you know what's I I don't know what they're up to now it looks like it's just sort of sitting there but I don't know if they're still waiting on the electrician or or what's going on Wow I'll find out about that okay thank you and then our project for the wastewater treatment plant we continue out of uh good work being done there um the contractor has performed very well so far just a lot of good communication that we get from them which we really appreciate and our monthly meetings there have have been productive um any you know small issues that we have have been dealt with pretty quickly um that will'll go segue nicely into our our grants update since that is a a grant funded project I just want to acknowledge that um there was some news today that came from the federal government that could be incredibly destabilizing for us if that is the path that they really do plan to take with pausing all grants uh the USDA has been excellent to work with in in this loan that we're receiving for this project and uh I don't see how we would fund it without that support so um Hope's not a strategy in this case we're just hoping that this is an actual issue for us we're going to have to stay on top of it we've heard uh from our state our uh Congressional Delegation on this Mary's team is has been in touch uh and we really appreciate that so we have ways to report to our legisl legislators if there's an issue here but we'll continue to to stay on top of that and see where things are going but there's always some changes in a new Administration and sometimes they can be very destabilizing this is not one of the things you want to see so I can't imagine that they can't move forward finding stuff so yeah you would think yeah rural sewer development is something that's not partisan but there you go uh so great into this grant update I just wanted to put together on on paper some of the grants that are out there some of which uh We've applied for already some of which we um are thinking of applying for planning on applying for and some that I can't find a project for and don't plan to apply for I just wanted to make this sport aware of sometimes I'll see an opportunity and think I just don't think we're a fit for that but then you might have a great idea of something we should do with it so I want to try to do these periodically um either every month or more often just to be sharing what's out there and getting your your thoughts and anyone out there watching thoughts on what else we could be doing with these the mass Trails Grant I was thinking of uh as potentially a fit for the the prospect courtbridge which was uh a project that some folks were interested in um CPA I think is saying that they're going to take a pass on it this year um for a variety of reasons one of which being that the engineering is uh is old by this point um if it was something that we felt was a large community priority we could consider you know submitting it for this Mass Trails Grant and potentially trying to get some engineering updating from that but um I'm just not sure it's as much of a fit of what they're looking for they're looking for chaired use paths that are that are built in high priority areas and well I think the the bridge is a really cool project doesn't necessarily connect to a lot of other trails in that area so it's something we could do but I'm not leaning on it right now um Rural and tribal Community grants this is a Federal grant uh pilot project that closes in April I can't find something that I think is a is a good fit for um a large Transportation infrastructure project in a rural community uh which we would qualify for um I also am concerned that maybe this project won't even happen this grant round might not happen uh if it's a federally funded one at the moment but and I mean you know the maximum W is $750,000 that's not even that muchy to do interesting for a large infrastructure project it's very little money it is yeah y it's a good point so I'm not planning on pursuing that one as long as the sports comfortable with that um the pvpc has a number of uh projects that that they're helping us with and and um they offer some good kind of ink kind services from from their you know Brain Trust there they have a program called local safety study candidates so if there is anything that we have where there's maybe a dangerous intersection or a place where you want to make it safer for for bikes pedestrians uh we can submit that on a list to them and they can only bikes and pedestrians not for just general traffic no all of those things dangerous intersections I mean for for traffic for for vehicular traffic and then if there's also places for bikes pedestrians that that's important to them too so but it would it's multimodal um I'm not sure if there's any places that come immediately to mind there I I would I would talk to Garrett yeah yeah G's goingon to look into it and see if was anywhere that mind great the onetop for Community growth is a huge catchall that the executive office of housing Economic Development launched a few years ago um to try to get most of their big grants into one application which works decently well um there's a number of projects in here number of in here including Mass Works Housing Works some of the bigger infrastructure Economic Development programs and then some smaller ones uh technical assistance site Wess some other things that uh we might be interested in so that's specifically useful if we have you know development that we think is coming in somewhere or if we have um large publicly owned asset that we're interested in doing something with um this just launched so I'm going to look through the different programs and see if there's anything that matches what we're looking for maybe something we can Implement from the Strategic plan from the uh comprehensive plan but um definitely wanted to know if if the board or anyone else has had thoughts on this one too I can definitely talk to planning board and other as well yeah great so that's a big one and I I always like trying to to take advantage of that program District local technical assistance we did submit an application for this um the state provides money to the regional planning authorities uh to do different projects um we are looking for some help from pbpc and following up on a few items in the comprehensive plan um we'd like to do a deeper dive into our zoning to try to look at some ordinances that may make sense to change there uh we'd like to have their help in putting together a housing production plan which would be a logical followup from the comprehensive plan it's something that we uh haven't done in about eight years and they are asked requireed by estate to do every five um and then uh we also would look for their help maybe in Staffing this uh committee that we were talking about uh just sending an extra person to help help us think through how to use that committee effectively so we're hoping to be granted that that that could be a great thing to work with but it's it's an in kind so essentially we'd get their services okay gotta I say in kind because it's hard to put a dollar value on it it's it's their hours they might say like up to $25,000 or something and that would be how they would build their time we don't have to pay for it could I I'm sorry could we backtrack to the onetop is is there work could be done in there for um like the sighting work for a potential Public Safety complex at some point that's tough because what they're really interested in isn't Municipal facilities unfortunately it's it's housing it's it's business yeah Economic Development if we really tried hard to make the case for why something would open up more housing or development in the future saying we need to upgrade say our infrastructure or our Public Safety Services we could try but they would probably not love that uh kind of application um it's a lot of interest in the state for housing and economic development and it's a continual concern that there's just not a lot out there for public buildings I should probably say I I attended the Massachusetts Municipal associations connect 351 conference uh Friday and Saturday in Boston um and that was something that came up multiple times from their policy committees was an interest in having a state funding uh for these municip facilities so that's something we'll continue to push for and I think would be a great thing for a lot of communities across the state okay so that's um One Stop and for more thoughts on that happy to talk it through um Community compact I'm excited about um this closes soon February 6th but um there's it grants up to $200,000 which could be very helpful for us um it our it consultant suer um mentioned some some grants that they've done in other communities specifically on uh security for um for buildings and sometimes that includes security cameras but mostly the biggest thing is access controls um and looking at our building security this came up in an audit of our election security and some other things we could be doing more to make sure that our our buildings are secure especially Town Hall um so we plan to apply for a grant uh that would help uh install access controls in our buildings which which means um either through a keypad or a key fob or a key card uh we would give access to certain people to enter the building at different times um So lately we've we've used Keys we've given keys to our boarding commission members um with a programmable digital system we could let the building be open at different times we know there's public meetings we could uh program it so that different people can can enter outside of work hours uh on weekends and others you know even if they their staff maybe couldn't if they didn't need 24hour access which a key is just always 24-hour access yeah I mean there's a lot of town hall keys there a lot of keys there's a lot of keys out there I've thought of that many times but so I think it's I love the the the open Town Hall that we have here I feel like we're in a community where there's a lot of trust and and things are really run very well at the same time um there's certain requirements that say our insurance providers or as I said the the uh security audit for the election they'd like to see little higher level of security um and I think it's usually a good thing to have um and it also makes it easier for us to make the building open when we want it to be if we had a digital system uh folks could leave the building but we know it could be open 6:30 to 7:30 for book club or whatever else so it makes it easier to have an open Town Hall while also having a secure one so um I'm excited to apply for that uh suar is going to help with it they were here today uh checking out our doors um and would that be just this building or could excellent question it could be anything because we talked to wreck about people coaches not being able to get into schools and things like that oh sure sure sure sure sure so um what it also gives us the ability to do is that other buildings that have you know security systems already um whatever keys and things we use here key cards we should have the ability to merge it with those other systems that they're using too we talked about doing that for um fire department and police department so we should have the ability to do that and then we're interested in trying to work with the schools as well so absolutely we'd want to look for opportunities to do that interesting okay thank you cool thank and then Community du February 6 yeah we're got to move a little quickly but um I've written this one before and then suar as long as they get a estimate for us it's pretty easy to do and then the town has never gotten a community compact it Grant before so they think we should be due for getting one applied before but this would be a great project to take on I think U could a lot of goals I mean I agree with you that it's it is kind of a nice feeling that we but there's some technical reasons and especially when you mention the elections um you know and that that they're suggesting our security be a little better than yeah it it probably makes sense um and I think we can do it in a way that still Honors that kind of open Community we want to have and then Community compact fiber Grant I really don't have much to say on because I'm not sure if it's something that that we need or um would be eligible for at this time but I'll talk with our that's another good one out there I think we're in pretty good shape we're pretty built out yeah so we're pretty good shape good so that's what I have for a report today and if that's helpful you know with the grant update I'll I'll plan to do that more often very helpful I like that a lot yeah that was really great good when are you sleeping my days start early um I know I talk to you early sometimes yeah my uh depends on the one-year-old sleeping schedule but well I guess we have to thank Francis then there you go she'll she'll appreciate the so then we have I'm sorry is so is that the end of your report have this secretary Augustus letter yes this is pretty straightforward this is a request from a planning board chair uh they were in touch with Habitat for Humanity folks um who had a an Ask of a couple of communities uh but they were looking for support from this board uh to have a letter go to secretary Augustus um to put a line item in the Massachusetts budget uh to try to get some some support to Piner Valley Habitat for Humanity um for um them looking to build a warehouse uh in the area that would allow them to help build more homes and everything else so it seemed like a low lift I think it's something that the mission that that we can support habitat um and it wouldn't really be an ask from us it's just a and they don't know where this would be cited it's just we do not at this time Ed any questions about that no I don't do we need to vote to sign it or can we just do we just sign it I think to to sign a letter of support probably would be a good idea to have a vote um okay I'll make a motion that we sign this letter of support um requesting an earmark um for from the eohc um for um pineer Valley Habitat for Humanity for the a construction of a warehouse somewhere in the Hampshire and Franklin area second motion made in second any further discussion all those in favor I I and as far as I can tell that's it we reached we've re our agenda I will say for um one other thing I wanted to add um which is allowed not on the agenda because it's a scheduling question we can handle it email too if we wanted to uh we had talked about having a joint meeting with the uh uh Housing Authority uh we would need to do that in order to um appoint another member to that Authority it's a it's a vote between the two boards um we looked at doing it tonight but we didn't have enough notice for the Housing Authority needed to do it seven days in advance uh based on Massachusetts law um so we had talked about potentially doing it the next meeting on the 11th but one of the the chair of that committee couldn't be uh be here that night so we're looking at doing it the February 25th that's too late long now no I mean I we we we have have no choice really when your next meeting is yeah so um February 25th yep right so make sure it's on the agenda we're also meeting with the finance committee that night I have I have a joint yeah so which is pretty much every meeting from now okay that's fine I mean I you know I'm I'm anxious to get that position filled but it is what it is we have to work with what we've got okay okay that's all I have Andrew great great job lot of uh lot of moving pieces the last couple weeks and you've been great doing great Town Hall staff have been wonderful to work with and just very adaptable to all everything going on and really I've been able to lean on Karen a lot so I really appreciate that well thank you Karen too phenomenal Karen he is a rock great to work that's what we do here at it is it is it is it is each other you do you got a Greatful great building here very and everybody in it so all right I'll make my motion to a journ again I'll second it motion made in second any further excellent bye good night bye Ed feel better can knock me down but I'll get back up of course you will you will