okay good evening um Hatfield welcome to the December 3rd 2024 meeting of the select board um as usual I'm going to call the meeting to order and open the meeting by reading our public participation policy the Hatfield select board welcomes everyone to its meetings and all other public meetings of the
town of Hatfield all regular and special meetings of the boards Andes 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 P 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 our first um item tonight is announcements I have a few things um uh first first first is um the this Saturday from 5:30 to 7:30 will be the holiday tree lighting um that's
taking place here um at the um are we do we still call that Smith Academy Park yeah Smith Academy Park um and I will say I came in and the um display the church the little oh the church out church is out and it looks really nice
under the new Pavilion um so this is um I think this is being held by the Council on Aging right yes the holiday and um it will have some music and a visit from Santa and some hot chocolate and cider and it's free um so
it sounds like that'll be a really nice evening um here in town and then um of course luminarium is coming up on December 21st that's a Saturday night um the event the evening starts um with a concert down at the Congregational
Church at 4:30 there's also a float competition this year and Andrew you mentioned that starts at 4:30 start Gathering start Gathering and then uh 5:30 is when people will be lighting their candles I would assume we're going to put something out on social media
about that happening because I know there was some talk about when we were having the drought conditions I mean we've certainly gotten plenty of rain and it would not quite be luminarium without lights but um the plan was to update folks after your a little closer
um right once we got the rain everything else so that that committee meets on Monday I assume the fire chief will be there as well and they'll the game plan so we get that out to everybody so people should probably keep an eye on social media and also our website just for any um particular directives about
that we do want to um celebrate as best we can but we want to be um safe and um mindful of how dry it's been and then the um so if candles are going to be lit they will be lit at 5:30 and then it um the festivities take place at Town Hall
at 6 um Mr genon will be um in charge of that and then at 6:30 the fire station will be open for some refreshments and usually Santa's over there and there's coffee and cocoa and cider um so thanks to the fire
department for doing that um do you have anything else no I'm good okay nothing else I guess this is our last planned meeting um for the year so uh I guess I would want to say a couple of things first obviously we hope everyone has happy and
safe holidays um happy New Year uh a big thanks to our town employees um for all their work through the year um you know every year is a big year and everybody stepped up as usual and we're very grateful um to our employees and how
hard they work um so happy holidays everybody the other thing I want to mention is that truly the budget the process for building our next budget which is the the budget that starts July 1st 2025 has already started because our department
heads are all busy putting together their um budgets and then we start with our financial team which includes the select board the finance committee Town Treasurer Town accountant um we start in January in Earnest really building that
budget and I guess what I would encourage people to do is is watch the meetings um and watch that process watch um there's a lot of information about maybe why a department is asking for an increase or needing an increase um it
it's months of work that we put in and I I think it's really helpful if people you know watch the process as it goes along um I know it's not the most exciting thing I am well aware right that we we're not Yellowstone or landman or anything exciting but it's important
um to educate yourself about that so that will start in January and I hope people will um you know watch and uh participate if they so choose anything else you're good okay all right so next
um on the agenda is public forum is anybody here for public forum I don't think so okay so we will move right into our consent agenda which is the approval of the November 19th 2024 minutes I make a motion we approve of November 19th 20
24 minute I'll I'll second that with one small correction on the first page under announcements line seven it says uh tree lighting is December 5th I believe that
should say December 7th wow that's a good catch Ed okay so with that correction um any further discussion no all those in favor I I Karen thank you very much okay our regular posted business
our first topic is supposed to happen at 5:45 um and that is a water and sewer rate hearing so we do need to make sure that we actually wait until 545 to do that um our next topic is um a
discussion with our accountant but I'm assuming that's going to take more than 7 minutes she's smiling yeah you wna you want us to take something else Elizabeth ahead of you um you know what I won't take as
long as you think okay up in Connecticut I talk fast well we'll try to listen fast so go ahead are we ready for me yes yes so we're joined online um by our accountant
Elizabeth brasia okay do I have oh we need to he needs to make an let me start the sled I think he's making an adjustment our um but I can still fear
though John do you need do you prefer we not do this now there are cords flying around here Elizabeth hang on one second to take this down for a second I don't know I don't know how to not share start I just shared Elizabeth
you should be set I don't know if everybody can see this now that it in front of my screen no we're not seeing anything I'm wondering I don't think I mean we have six minutes until the hearing starts so do you want do you w
to figure out get the tech right and then yeah well he'll work on the tech and then once the water and sewer hearing is over we'll be ready for you so sorry I jumped the gun a little bit ready oh he's ready okay so let's Dive Right
In so oh wait a minute I don't want to can everybody see my screen um I can okay that's better yes thank you excellent so I thought um at the end of last year folks had asked me for some
financials I I really wasn't prepared I had only started just started work with you so once we closed the books I thought it would be a good idea to just give you an overview on you know what went into that free cash calculation and your fund balance and stuff it's always good information to have in you go to
town meeting and somebody says why do we have a million in free cash and you can answer those questions because you'll have this document so I'm going to jump into the the things that slide move okay so the first thing um we look at is what did we
turn back from our budget so your town budget um turned back for $476,000 um and some of those big uh numbers that turned back departments that turned back a little bit more money was a treasurers budget at
35,000 police budget with a little over 28,000 school budget with um a little over 94,000 your town hall Fu line came in lower so that was 37,000 Debt Service um I believe this was budgeted in anticipation of a bond
payment but it was continued to be a short-term borrowing so that wasn't needed so that got turned back and then um a $63,000 um excess and health insurance also turned back that's not the entire 476 obviously those are just the bigger
numbers and then the aggregate came from smaller amounts from other departmental budgets and at any point feel free to ask me question unless you want to wait till the end and then ask me um I'll just go right through it yeah I I I'll have to stop you at 5:45 and we'll take
a little um we'll do our water and sewer hearing and then we'll get back to you okay that's fair enough just keep keep going next thing next thing is your um your local revenues um so you know what you turn back from your budget and what you um what you collect in excess of
what you estimated for your local receipts is a big part of the free cash calculation and for fiscal year 24 you estimated a million point1 um or 1.1 million I should say and collected 1.5 million so in excess
of $434,000 which is a nice amount of money to go towards your free cash calculation can you briefly explain to people are 43,000 motor vehicle excess of what we anticipated Ms was almost 6,000 the
pilot um came in at eight 8,000 um other departmental Revenue was about 24,000 investment income is a big part of this which is a 229 298 the interest rates as we all know stay high for the mortgage Market they also stay
high in investment so we've been um capitalizing on that with some good banking um kudos to the treasury Department and then your next one is your the non Mis the miscellaneous non-recurring which are um monies that come in that you were not anticipating
they don't happen every year the one-time infusions and I'm just going to give you a breakdown of what that miscellaneous was so you have an idea of where that came from the biggest one was um prior your adjustments of cash and a few other things of 89,000 when we did a big
reconciliation um to close the cash and reconcile the cash we realized that we had um understated the cash on the general leder by that amount so we made that adjustment talked to the Auditors about it everything it's on board they're on board with us um the other thing is sale of surplus equipment at
31,000 and then there were some grants that had been long um closed out and there was some money sitting in there we reviewed that some of them were School Grants we talked to the Town Administrator and the school department and got an agreement to close some of those out in the tune of
18,000 and then there was a bond premium from the short-term borrowing we received some money there um the balance left on that was3 ,000 and change and then some miscellaneous refunds that we got um from different um vendors and
such that was um 2,500 change and then some ramp fees at 1900 and just some miscellaneous fees at charged by departments that don't fall on any other bucket and then this is basically right here is the undesignated fund balance
and a little analysis of how we get to that number that the at the end of the year of what's left over at the end of the year of what we had to expend R we got and this was unexpended unused amount of money that the town has so I'm going to take you back to last year you
had um the undesignated fund balance at the end of the year was 653,000 and that's what started your calculation for free cash last year so what you do is you take last year you add back anything that you had reserved from the prior year into the next year so that your encumbrances and continued
Appropriations you add that back and you come to your your um updated fund balance it's the million 17 and then you start over and you say okay for now for 24 we're going to deduct our incumbrances which are you know departmental expenditures they didn't
get the invoices by the end of June so we bring the money into July to pay it uh the biggest part of that is the school um summer teacher pay and then your reserve for expenditures are in your free cash votes that are from your free cash to be used in the next year's
budget or expenditures and then you have your continued Appropriations which are your special articles that you vote annually and if they were not finished we bring them forward to be continued and um closed out in the following year and then there was this Elizabeth Eliz
service Elizabeth I I have to just ask you to pause right there because we do have to get to our hearing at 5:45 it it's a um particular time so um sorry to do that um no worries okay so because it
is 5:45 we will start our water and sewer rate hearing um with the intent of voting on the new um water and sewer rates um This was um there was a
presentation at the last meeting um about um these rates and and um you know why they're why they're going up sort of how it's working with the um first and second half this year
uh which is not great not happy about that but it's still the same rate increase over the course of the total year am I making sense okay um so any um any discussion on these proposed rates
Phil is there anything you wanted to pipe in I know youal spoke to it last time but um are are any of you here to mention anything or talk about the rates at all I know you're here for other things but no okay I'll take a motion then on unless
you either of you have anything you want to pipe in on no I just again I mean at the last meeting I think it was explained to everybody the reason behind this I mean you have you know electricity goes up chemical use goes up
there's a lot of different things that happen and as everybody knows everything gets a little bit more expensive and we're actually behind the eight ball on this because we should have raised the rates a few months ago and and we didn't
so I mean I think we have we have to pay our bills so I I don't see any option unless you take money from free cash and you don't want to do that because you don't want to use free cash for Capital expenses and stuff so that's the wrong
thing to do so I mean there is some money in water and sewer but that money is going to be targeted for the $1.4 million uh price tag that we add to the the loan because we have to get the extras for the plant so we are using
some of the money from water and sewer for that expense so I mean I just there's no way around that I think we don't have any option personally and I think it's also important to note that any any other
shift would mean that General this is this is for the users to pay so the people who are actually using the water in sewer systems so any additional if any shift to do anything other than that would mean that people the burden is Shifting
to taxpayers who don't even get to use the the systems um and I did have that discussion with a president uh this week um but so okay yeah got to do it so you're just
you here for the hearing I'm here for the hearings on the oh okay fine we're talking about water and sewer rates I just wanted to make sure you didn't want to say something that's all um so the board is
just voting the rate increase for the second half of FY 25 tonight right for both for both Water and Sewer yes all right I'll make a motion that we approve the rate increase for the sewer you want the
numbers on this when I do a motion or yes please so that' be the 1387 okay the uh the sewer rate will now will become 1387 per 100 cubic feet per 100 cubic feet and for the water will become
$77 for cubic feet second a motion made and second any further discussion no all those in favor I I okay great Elizabeth back to
you thank you thank you so much okay so explain to the deduction of the reserves and that essentially brings your fund balance down to the two 20000 $1,000 at that point and then to get to the rest of your fund balance you add all the revenues youed collected over the year
that's everything from taxes to departmental and so on and then Finance other financing sources are your transfers from um other funds like stabilization or um some of your other funds that you move over to cover the
town Department um on the budget um and then you subtract all your expenditures for the year including any EXP expenses transferred out to other funds and you come up with your new fund balance of $1.3 million and then I'll give you some highlights of the reserve for
incumbrances was the 459,000 the reserve for expenditures like I said was your free cash which was 137 281 reserve for continu appropriation and then a reserve for Debt Service so your total reserves for 81743 and then your Revenue closed to
the fund balance was 13,24 9 572 expenditures Clos to fund balance um is a decrease here fund balance is 12, um 20 12, 104 wouldn't it be nice if it was 12,000 12,
10433 with an overall increase of the fund balance of the 1, 14526 and in your free cash that was certified on November 7th was 1,108 434 how we got to that it's a good number this how you calculate your free cash
you start with that undesignated fund balance that we talked about the 1 million3 you deduct outstanding property taxes your personal property and your real estate taxes and in any deficit in any other fund whether it be the grants
variances and cash or withholdings um your state payments for FID if you got a deficit there any anything that's got a deficit and it hits your your free cash calculation so there was 104,000 in deficits for fiscal year 24
and I'll go over those in the next slides um and then you add back your deferred revenue to come up with your free cash calculation of 1 million one so the uncollected personal property is really low $692 it's one of the lowest ones I've seen in a long time
which is very nice um means your collecting collection department is doing a good job uncollected real estate is also very low at 14,1 163 and then um the deferred revenue was 7,608 and then like I said the
deductions of deficits to it could be grants donations withholdings chapter 90 trust funds anything that has a deficit variant is in cash reconciliation your receivable reconciliation or payroll payroll withholdings so our deficits
this past year were um for fed um a lot of these were submitted we just didn't get them before um June September 30th is the deadline that do gives us if it comes in after that you get hit for deficit so we're going to work a little you know a lot more closely with the
school coming this coming year to make sure that we clean up these deficits before we get to that September date um and then there was a little bit of artism with Holdings we're going to work on those we're working with the treasure to kind of figure out what those were and get them straightened out and a
really small variant in cash but the do wants to hit you for it anyway um and we we identified what it was we couldn't get it fixed before the year end so we're going to work on it this year and it's only $245 just for you know yeah what's that
no that's fine just keep that's fine just keep going okay that's basically your finances for fiscal year 24 and then for fun because that's what people who work with numbers like to do is I did some historical graphs of your tax rates and things like that fore cash I
thought it would be nice to see some pictures of how things are going um it took a 10y year look back your tax levy amount you know like as you can expect with any Town your Lev is going to go up annually as costs go up it's not anything we can really
control um your property valuations as we all know we had that big boom um postco it's starting to slow down so I suspect 26 27 Maybe this will tear off and not keep going straight up for property valuations and
then your tax rate um pretty much just up and down along with those what you have to raise and what your valuations are and then just a quick look at your state aid and where that's gone um it I guess in 20 there was a lot more money
coming in and we had a little bit of a drop and are starting to get back up there again for state aid your assessments still continue as with anything with cost that they seem to have a steady curve up um and then I did a quick comparison of your school state
aid versus assessments which is actually nice that your school aid is a lot higher than your school assessments so um that's a positive view of that and then um this last one just shows you what your fund balance compared to free cash and I think this is an important
picture it shows how well the finances have gotten and how you're we um managing that your departments are managing the grants the blue line is your undesignated fund balance and the orange line is your um free cash so in 15 you can see there was a big
discrepancy there which means you had a lot of um deficits that hit against that collections probably weren't as good um grants not collected on time so over the past 10 years attempts really tightened up their belts and you've got a much
closer line of where your fund balance is compared to where your free cash is so oh that's great information yeah take any questions that's terrific you want me to leave it up or you want me to stop sharing at this point um you could stop
sharing I think okay I actually have a question that's actually for Tammy um the uncollected real estate how is is any of that old enough to be tax title like how much do we have
in well I mean just yeah currently are are we are how many so she had you at 140 currently I'm at 96 Oh and about um probably two-thirds of that will jump over to tax title because most of them
are tax title accounts okay um there's about 10 accounts that we're working on right now coming payment in about 4,300 um and 14 other accounts about 16,000 tax title accounts we're looking to she's looking to um sell the land and
clear a tax title so that's looking at about a $60,000 gain to us that's a large portion of that 96 that's left yes okay so if all those things happen we'll be in actually extremely good shape 24 yes yeah okay
what about previous years previous tax title um we said at about 266 55,000 about of that is going to be taken care that that piece and um some of the other ones we're looking I'm working with a couple like four different people right now to try to get
them out of tax title so we're working with a couple right now and then going into the new year we'll jump into a couple more okay thank you that was my only question Ed Greg any questions no I I
really appreciate this before that you've presented to us it's nice to see everything on graphs and paper I mean I think this is the first time we've sort of had this type of presentation and I'm in quite a while I think it's great is
this something we can get up on the website and so people can look through it Town's people can look through it it's it is really really good um information presented in a way that's you know really easy to understand you know even for I think even people who
you know aren't doing this all the time because you finan is a little different um I think it would be really important for Town's people to see that so Elizabeth thank you all right thank you thank you for having me I hope everybody had a great holiday and I hope
you have a wonderful holiday season thank you too you too thanks Elizabeth thank you okay so moving right along topic three is a discussion and possible vote on a proposal to create a task force for use of opioid settlement funds and this
would be under the direction of the Board of Health so um Dr mens is here are are you the chair currently no no Bob osley I I thought it was Bob um well thanks for being here that's okay all
right so yeah so to start off um uh basically what you know has been discussed over the last several months um with some of um couple folks from the community who are um had had some interest in this was that basically Massachusetts reached uh you know
settlement uh agreements with several pharmaceutical companies um regarding their role in the opioid epidemic and so um Massachusetts allocated about 40% I think of the settlement funds to the communities throughout the Commonwealth
um from I think it was 2022 through 2038 um and there you know the the the funds have been kind of you know there hasn't been a specific allocation on you know how we're going to use them and um
part of the uh part of the reason one of the reasons why we uh were talking about uh task forces because we wanted to have more of a specific plan on what we can use these funds for um and they have it kind of detailed out um uh here in the
in the um and there's specific criteria so like I'm not going to go over all them but there's like six or seven I think CR uh specific areas um to use these funds and so uh the the way that
how the Board of Health got involved was that we met with couple of these uh folks in the community um about how do we get more Community engagement and involvement on how to use these funds so like what do we want to do as Hatfield to um where do we want these funds to go
and so um we talked about could there be like a task force of you know um community members and that can kind of spearhead this but also kind of represent the rest of the community um and I've met with you know Liz cougler
and Lynn harlo have been actively involved in this I met with them um for several hours discussing this um and we were talking about there's there's actually other towns and municipalities that actually
use uh a survey um and there's been a few uh examples um that we've looked at um and one is actually already in place in Hampshire I think Hampshire County um that we could either just use because uh
that's that's an option for us or look at all these surveys and kind of pick and choose what questions we want to ask about you know where do we think is um you know what what area is most important to you with regards to where these funds are spent and you know demographic information and things like
that and so um so you know really with with regards to this um task force it wouldn't be you know it be only maybe a handful no more than maybe five or 10 people um to kind of spearhead this and make sure it just kind of runs smoothly but but essentially some sort of survey
that kind of able to uh kind of tabulate results and where we can direct these funds so so survey residents right yeah yeah um I mean it's great to have this
resource coming to the town and certainly um trying to figure out where residents think we should um put our efforts um you know some of the things listed um here are supporting treatment and Recovery efforts addressing the
needs of criminally criminal justice involved persons and expanding opioid use prevention programs yeah um all worthwhile yeah I'd be really curious to see how Town's people respond to that and then these These funds I just have a
question about them so would it be I I don't know how it would work so for instance like supporting treatment and Recovery efforts would that be programs that do that or actually help available to Residents who may need
assistance with you know extra funds or something I don't know how it's a great question it's kind of nebulous but U more the the former that there would be some sort of program in place that we would kind of work with and and uh These funds would be allocated to that you know program to help these families so
like you said opioid use disorder treatment support for people in treatment and Recovery connections to care um harm reduction address the needs of Criminal Justice involved persons like you mentioned support pregnant or parenting women and their families and then I think the biggest uh what's most
important prevent reive and and Implement treatment prevention education we were talking about the last Board of Health meeting that you know dare was a great program back in the day about you know drug abuse resistance education so some sort of preventive uh program um so think about
getting someone from the school and someone from the police department I think the um the police chief was invol was interested and uh you a couple community members and just kind of putting our heads together and then I I I mean I've always been pushing for some type of program in the school system
especially at the high school yeah something whether they bring in a speaker or whatever for that deals with drug prevention but my question to you is on these funds like the first year I see there is a large amount if all that
money is not spent can it be spent the next year does it carry over or does the money targeted for that year have to all be spent that's a great question my understanding is that it does carry over but I have to I I would agree with that
funds it says there's no deadline on when to use right funds special and my my second question is presently we signed in with I think Sunderland or Deerfield I forget which one for a
professional mental health individual and it's a it's it's only a couple days a week and some of the crisises or drug or alcohol related situations that they respond to could any of that money be
used to uh increase the time of that professional or I'm just curious that's so I imagine so absolutely we could talk to the police chief about it because that is a shared agreement that we have Department Dearfield yeah I would yeah I
think um I haven't directly uh spoke to the police chief but I'm my understanding is that he's interested in being involved in this so oh I'm sure he is that's an excellent thought about I mean both the um you know prevention programs because that just makes sense
yeah but I was also thinking about this um individual we already have who does come to town sometimes um and works in conjunction with the police department on particular particularly sensitive mental health calls yeah that's great if we could increase the access or you so
just augment something that already exists that's a good idea too but I think it' be really interesting to survey um particularly if the surveys are built it's sounds like and we can just sort of plug in play and yeah with with with help of uh Lyn harlo she did a
lot of the the um groundwork on this but you know just looking at few of the surveys there's one that like literally just it's for Hampshire County it has Hatfield as a drop down option and then um and basically the the the town has access to all the data so I think it's Hampshire hope.org
um and I went through all the questions and it looked to be very um you know everything that we wanted to know so it's just kind of making sure that you know a few of us look at it together and say okay this this this looks you know appropriate and representative of
everyone's you know concerns and so I assume the survey would be something online and it's just making sure that all the residents are aware of it somehow so they can participate if they so desire that's a great question so um
I think what maybe you're suggesting is possibly is that maybe we should have a paper option for those who may not have access or just not as computer savvy I think that's a that's something we'll look into I think that should be it can any of the money that's presented be used help offset the cost of the paper
the printing and the mailings that's all I think most people would probably prefer to do it online but having an option for people if they wanted to stop and pick up a paper survey it doesn't sound like there's a lot of strict criteria like that I mean I'm not
sure you know there's I think there's been funds that's already been spent and it's you know it's not we're not quite clear if it was in line with these or not but it's it doesn't sound like there's Max you're going to have a a box in town hall and if they want to pick up
a paper question a survey and they could drop it into the box I yeah I feel like we could do something like just a QR code and just you know most folks have a cell phone or something and you just kind of take a picture and yeah a link on our website putting it I think
putting it out on social media would be a really good idea even um even on like theill parents page but also our town pages and just get it out where people are I know their superintendent newsletter reaches a lot of parents in
the school system that might be another way to advertise that would be even the Council on Aging newsletter put a you know there's everybody should be pulled and have a chance to weigh in on it yeah need sort of public you know
document that's going out to Residents I think would be would be helpful well I think once you're once you're ready and you you I would say just um reach out to marleene and Andrew or just Andrew depending on when it is yeah and um
they'll help you get it out and then perfect yeah we'll have more more data excellent well thanks for letting us know about all of this and spearheading you know sort of taking the lead on making sure that these funds are
used in the most beneficial way problem yeah so believe that that the select board still does have the authority over how these funds would be used okay from what we can tell so um the thought was tonight the select board could um
authorize some kind of task force ad hoc committee whatever the board likes and if you're ready you can appoint members to it or you can do that at your next meeting you might want to put out to the public if there's anyone interested in being on such a task force um there's some members who I think would make
sense based on their their roles in the town uh Dr men's has already uh said been designated by the the Board of Health as someone who can represent the Board of Health should he be a member that you'd be interested in including yeah that's some okay so we can we we
should probably I mean I think there should I would assume that this task force will make a recommendation and then we would ultimately um decide on how the monies are how the monies are spent so I don't necessarily think we need to have a representation on the
board because it will come to us for for discussion and and final approval but we could we could start a small task force for the surveys and stuff and then expand it once the surveys come back that's another option right that's definitely an option yeah so I mean
right now you have a few people involved with the Sur trying to figure out what for the surveys I mean we could actually if we wanted appoint them as the beginning of the task force and as they get the surveys they can say Well we'd like a couple
more members we want one from this department or that department to I mean that's in particular once people see this there may be some people that step forward um yeah that may have really great um you know experience or expertise in this field so so are you
looking for us to appoint at least some people tonight so that you can get the process started um not necessarily but I mean if it's something that what do you I would I would recommend um appointing the members who've kind of already gotten
involved I'd also be willing to be a member if that'd be helpful um uh and anyone else you think would be instrumental at this time and then I think uh it's like remember Jor it's a good one we can add people as okay that's case I'll make a motion
to appoint a task force that would be consisting of Our Town Administrator Andrew uh Dr Lance who else is on uh Lyn harlo Liz cougler and there was two others that we those are the definite ones what about did the chief want to be
on it that's I haven't confirmed with him specifically but I my understanding we could Point him he was he was willing to be involved yeah um I think and then I was hoping to get maybe like school counselor or something okay and then we can kind of play okay you can appoint a
school representative yeah they can decide who okay that is so well I'm including whom am I I'm including the other members that were mentioned here which is five right
now Andrew dr mens there'll be six if you're including School rep that would be six six is the police did you you want to include the police chief I included him yeah that sounds that's actually perfect yeah sounds
great so my motion is to include as our chair has mentioned the names and those are the names I'd like to appoint to the task force yeah those car do I have a second I'll second that okay a motion made and second any
further discussion no all those in favor I thanks for bringing this forward appreciate it thanks for um yeah I look forward to using those funds that's a lot of money okay so
um topic four is to approve our annual license renewals for 2025 this is um liquor licenses um class one two and three auto dealer licenses entertainment licenses
and automatic Amusement licenses and nobody on the list owes any back taxes that correct and all the fees have been paid yep that is um a lot of work it is I
used to do it for many years so I know how much work it is so thank you very much for that so did you make a motion I'll make a motion approve the uh liquor license as presented to us um do you want to do them all at once
or do the the licenses separately well I'll start with you start with liquor okay I'll start with the alcohol license that's the proper name okay so I'll make a motion to approve the alcohol licenses as presented to us on this sheet
second motion made in second any further discussion no all those in favor I I I'll make a motion to approve the auto Amusement device licenses as presented to us on this sheet a
second motion made in second any further discussion all those in favor I you guys going to vote I make a motion to approve class one two and class three licenses as are presented to us on this sheet
second motion made in second any further I do have a little discussion on the class one two and three um so I see we're still renewing as gns industrial yes but I mean Harrison diesel puts a lot of stuff up on social media that they're operating they are not they're
on I see stuff all the is they do not have clear title of of the business yet okay I see it all over the place so maybe we should they the two of them are working out
some Financial okay issues maybe we should encourage them to get that taken care of if they're going to be operating under the other name I had a a telephone discussion with Mr Savard about a week and a half ago
and told them that you and Harrison need to get that worked out okay so that's good I'm not the only one noticing it then yeah okay I'm sorry all those in favor I I I and I'll make a motion to approve the
entertainment licenses as presented to us on the sheet a second motion made in second any further discussion no all those in favor I so there's a lot of and then these the seasonal population increase estimation and the um renewal
certification we just sign those we don't they don't have to be specific votes okay um so I am may I suggest let's see [Music] um so you you said you're here oh the
community host do you want to take out of order since they're here to talk about their the host agreement do that I mean we are not going to make you sit through all this as exciting as it is um if you wanted to come up to the microphone we we'll take you out of order and I'm going to just sit here and
sign dozens of licenses so I'm please bear with me I I I will really be paying attention um so um we are joined tonight um River Valley Growers um this is about a community
host agreement marene I two host Community agreements um the first one is an amended host community agre agement between the town and River Valley Growers um and the reason for the amended is very similar to tree works
you know these host Community agreements need to meet the standard requirements by the Cannabis Control Commission so the agreement has been amended to meet those requirements so to be come into compliance with that that's right so requesting the board to approve the
amended host Community agreement okay I I have no questions about it I mean don't really have so that should be a separate vote right and this is what uh legal has presented to us our legal right the host
Community agreement has been reviewed by their attorney as well as the town's attorney all attorneys have talked to each other they all agreed on everything assure you of that yes and there's a bunch of agreements there
all are we just signing the same copy multiple times um there's two there so so there's River Valley oh so there's just there should be two for each one SE ones so you're signing River Valley
River Valley that's three oh three there shouldn't be three there should be so one is a so there's one amended host Community agreement and then there's a settl agreement between the town and River Valley Community host right now you're voting on The Host Community host
Community agreement okay in the signature folder I believe there's just me it looks like that signs these okay yes and did you make a motion Ed I didn't yet no oh you didn't yet okay I'm trying to figure out what the
motion should be yeah so we're signing for the r the motion is to um to to approve the amended host community agreement between the town of Hatfield and River Valley Growers okay then I'll make a motion to approve the amended poost agreement
between the town of Hatfield and the River Valley Growers Incorporated second motion made in second any further discussion all those in favor I so this is actually this only requires
my signature and there's two copies in here correct marene yes and then the next order of business would be the settlement agreement between the town of Hatfield and River Valley Growers correct and as as you know with the
first host Community agreement there was um an agreement that the um that River Valley Growers would uh compensate the Town based on their wholes sales you know from what was it a the
14th month from their business began and so this is a settlement agreement um for and you guys haven't started yet right this is North Hatfield River Valley Growers has started they're in operation
okay so I'm I'm River Valley Growers yes I'm the attorney you're attorney fleser yes oh thank you for coming thanks to meet you in person okay so I'll make a motion that we accept the settlement agreement
between the town of Hatfield and River Valley Growers Incorporated second motion made in second any further discussion no all those in favor I I the next agreement is a host Community agreement between the town of Hatfield
and Pharmacy um this is a new host Community agreement they are applying for license to the CCC and again this this agreement is based
on the required um this is a new operation Pharmacy yeah this is the one I'm thinking of North hatville yes this is the one for North hatville yes you guys are on Main Street yeah okay yeah yeah
River Valley grows is on Main Street Pharmacy on North Hatfield right okay you're actually called hat Hatfield Pharmacy oh Hatfield Pharmacy this is the one that's actually right by my house our lawyers are happy right on
this one too okay so all three documents have been reviewed I'll make a motion to uh approve the host agreement between the town of Hatfield and Hatfield Pharmacy LL see I'll second motion made in second any further discussion no all
those in favor I I then we have a new agreement thank you yes thank you that's that's it that is everything and these all signed as soon as I sign this everything comes back to us twice it
seems we yeah we do it once and then couple months later it comes back we got to do it a second time we go find some something we put do it a third time right everything is a process okay that's it thank you great thank you so much thank you for taking
us out of Border appreciate it of course yeah um for counter signing these we we'll copies be sent to the yes we'll we'll mail um two of them two for each okay and um and then if you can just
mail one back to us fantastic thank you so much have good evening thank you okay um so we're going to um go back to topic five which is the DPW report Phil if you want to come on up I'm just going to keep signing all these licenses Phil while
you fill us in so the first item is the discussion of Maintenance of school grounds and town-owned property which is something we touched on a little bit at the last meeting I have not had a conversation with Connor as of yet we've been working
on the capital projects for the schools uh I mean like I said before that the DPW anything that was related to around any of the dugouts or any of the storage units we did not weed whack we did not
trim that was always within the school or within the recck committee well who who's gonna do it yeah I mean it seems like a five minute conversation like let's have the conversation it's not really growing season anymore we don't really have to worry about weed whacking or anything
now let's have the conversation now so that we have a process in place to make sure that all of our town properties are looking okay and not overgrown and nasty and I mean it might be that Recreation has to be part of the ation
too because isn't that shed actually doesn't it and the equipment um that was in the photo sent to us isn't that actually Recreation correct yes so if you could just pull everybody together and have the conversation and just make sure that we
know who's going to take care of it when the spring starts do weed whackings like once a week or once every two weeks right basically depending on the weather and if it rains it grows and and usually
around here we were building the walking path that the weeds were higher than the Dugout so obviously no one was maintaining anything out there either so most of your landscaping companies come in and they M and they weed whack at the same time
so yeah you know we we spent many many hours in the town cemeteries doing that I mean you have to the cemeteries look terrific I mean we have to weed around every headstone and then mwing between everything and lot time maybe it comes down to a
need of another part-time uh summer help or something maybe that's what it comes down to I mean most of it was volunteer before but I don't see the volunteers doing it anymore maybe it'll come back that's exactly what happened that right the W
volunteers aren't volunteering any longer well that's why I think wreck needs to be part of the discussion especially if they're going to be leaving equipment around and then stuff is going to grow up around it I mean they have a a duty and a responsibility as well I mean we can't expect wreck people to be operating equipment in
Mowing and weed whacking but at least keeping the equipment orderly so that the people who do need to clean the spaces aren't trying to weed whack around soccer goals and Recreation purchased uh Recreation Commission purchased a shed to store equipment so
that's any equipment that's where the weeds are and that's where the weeds are around the shed plus there's a big pile of infield mix down there that is just growing weeds and there was like goals sitting there and getting all you know I mean I I you
know I kind of appreciate it when sometimes residents will let me know that no we're not we aren't driving around town all the time and seeing every you know so I I appreciate it when people point that
out s my phone's going crazy so that big hill also what's up with that yeah you know that's big mound of dirt it's a Qui it's a conversation it shouldn't take that long get everybody together and just this is the time of year to figure it
out everybody said on that one from Mass DOT um regarding the Hatfield Northampton bicycle and pedestrian improvements on route five and 10 including the bridge replacement on West Street so I believe that went to the
select board that notification y y a letter um you have a letter in your packet from Mass do uh the highway division has they have a project Review Committee that has approved a project along Route five um which includes the
bicycle and pedestrian improvements and uh a bridge replacement in Hatfield and um I don't know if anybody from Mass do Highway division will be in communication with you regarding as this
project moves forward just no I have not had any communication from M about it well you received this letter yes okay I just didn't know moving forward and during when when they actually begin the project if and when they begin the
project is they'll be having communication with you something we have to make sure we have utilities on also like the other Bridges or do we already have that I know the gas line already go anything else that's okay we kind of know where
that is yeah I mean there isn't anything the select Board needs to do is is just notification um particularly with the bridge though I was just you know thinking that there would be future
communication with the town okay you know when when they're going to actually start the work for West Street again y yeah looking for comments so I don't see it you know probably not next year but I'm sure it's a couple years out because
they got to take all the comments that were made the public comments and absorb what was request I know we had a copy of oh here it is got my stuff all out of order well there is a link in the letter to monitor the status of the project
um and so what is the where where is the bridge over gutter Brook says near waxwing yeah yeah so it's a pedestrian bridge is that the what does that say We'll close
pedestrian gaps by providing Ada accessible sidewalks and ramps from the district 2 office to the northern limits up to wax waxwing yeah which would mean that like there's that little Bridge just south of
waxwing so there would be sidewalks along that stretch that's what it seems like it's going to be okay and the running gutter Creek Culvert will be replaced so the project will provide a shared use path what is a shared use
path bicycle and ped bicycle lane and pedestrians I bicycle and pedestrian or it's going to be bicycle from the street yes yeah that would be from Big Y to Lind seed which will may require curb line
adjustments the project may require Culvert extensions at different locations in addition the intersection of Route 5 and Hatfield Street will be realigned wow a giant project yeah that's only been that was the Big H
about put a round about there I know but it that's not it just says it will be realigned well then they found what they find Indian artifacts or something up here like they did on Street yeah so um and the running gutter Creek
Culvert will be replaced and widened where's that what's running gutter thinking it might be the one by the ruier property okay so it's the same one as the same Crossing that they're talking about
okay okay so so basically sidewalks from Big Y to the waxwing yes that's what it seems like 20 so is my only question is remember when
uh public transportation wanted to put some bus stops in there I wonder if that's part of that project yeah there are some bus stops there but they're just kind of on the side of the road right yeah they say in here enhanced crosswalks will be added to provide access to Transit stocks is there
anything else where did I see that where did it's gota be that yeah Crossing it's a $20 million project we're not paying
for okay I mean that's I think it's just good for people to know that that's happening but I mean we should [Music] um make sure we stay in touch with Mast we'll just have to see you know I'm sure when they start getting closer there'll
be no more notifications they they do a decent job of of arranging for Community meetings and other things on on these so I'm sure they'll reach out to BPW to make sure we can get that out there to the
public it's a big change yeah I do see people walking on that stretch of road so um yeah I mean a lot of them are do people work in that building um those people tend to walk
they they have their own sidewalk so they walk I I'm aware of this they they have like a little walking path but I mean really on the road like up by Smithsonian even by um American in and Beyond RC I see I just see pedestrians
you know plus there's a lot of people on the other side of the line you know they walk to Whole Foods they walk to the Big Y right and they already did that intersection there by Damon Road and they included new sidewalks down there so that's going to be just a link to get there right so the sidewalks go too big
why from King Street and now they'll just keep going okay well I mean it's it's good information really we have no responsibility relative to the project including the cost so okay so um the next item is to sign the
um agreement between the town of Hatfield and and the teamsters lots of signings yeah the tenative agreement had been signed quite some time ago and then they added those changes to the
agreement we received this agreement a while ago and then I realized the board never signed it we should do that [Music] um okay I'll take a motion on this do we need a motion to sign it yes
I would okay we but we've already approved the contract the tenant of agreement the negotiating items but this is the entire agreement okay I'll make a motion that we accept and sign the agreement between the town of Hatfield and the team Union Local 40 War
404 Unit A labor for 7124 till 6:30 27 thank you midnight okay good night motion made in second any further
discussion no all those in favor I just want to um take a minute to thank Greg because um Greg was the board representative on those contract negotiations and I appreciate that thanks Greg welcome um okay last DPW item is a
vacation carryover request and clarification from Garrett Barry um uh there was some requests to carry over um vacation we sort of took them on individual basis um and Garrett is
looking to um carry over a week but he has a specific week in mind that he would take off um and and you know we we sort of looked at um Garrett's situation as unique because of the extreme um his extreme
very extreme medical circumstances last year so I'll just say um the board had approved um carryover through December 3 first this year ER will be using most of his time then those two weeks this last
week he's asked to take in February because that's when he plans to to take time off yeah go to Florida and that's it seems like he tried his best to to fit in with the board yeah I I have no problem with the carryover because of the extreme circumstances and because he's giving very specific time frame of
when he's going to use it because we want to put an end to this carryover stuff so I think this would put an end to that okay I mean I agree with you but again let's remind Department had to
start thinking uh in January about using your vacation because we we want to get away from carryover I mean there are extreme situations I agree that this is one of them so well and we found ourselves in the situation because of
covid and we allowed a lot of carryover and it just kind of kept carrying over and we've been pretty clear the last couple years no more um we want people to take vacations we want them to and there is a provision to carry some over so some can be carried over
but we are not entertaining any further requests to carry um unless there's again additional very extenuating circumstances like the situation Garrett had which was very extenuating so I'll make a motion to
allow this carry over because of the unique situation for Garrett to carry over but he will be using it by February if he doesn't use it by February then there that'll an isue I'll second there motion made in
second any further discussion no all those in favor I I there's nothing to sign that's just y can I make an ad that if anybody's unsure of their time they can reach out to our office yeah that's an excellent
point thanks Tam okay so we're moving right into our Town Administrator report the um first item is the senior Cent um flooring removal and replacement um and that's now the only item because the
second one has been taken care of order which is great so uh the last time we met we mentioned that the very next day we would be doing the bid opening for the uh downstairs basement COA flooring um renovation project um we had $100,000
that was uh earmarked for the project and we are happy to announce that the low bid came in in from Capital carpet and flooring uh of Wilmington Mass uh at $58,000 877 8,877 um their alternate number one was
at $6,279 and we have um uh gone in the direction of wanting to award them both the contract and the alternate that's our recommendation to this board uh to move ahead with that uh we have a uh draft contract for your review tonight
that has been Red by uh Town Council and we'll be going to the um to the company to to look at and review but we anticipate that that should be in good shape to move forward we've checked in with them and they will be able to deliver uh on the schedule which we had
asked for and there's no indication that there'd be any change from the price that they bid at so uh we did receive six bids uh in the bid opening um all but one were within the budget that we looked at and this was to clear low bid
uh we check their references they do a lot of work around the state uh and the references that we talk to uh we very enthusiastic about their good work so uh we don't have any reservations at this time um and recommend to the board moving forward this
contract excellent I I'll make a motion to award the contract to Capital carp but and fing specialist as presented by Andrew um sure I'm and I'm happy to sign this I
on this notice of award flooring is misspelled oh is that okay or oh it is oh um we'll just we can print you I I will I well we could you print it tonight or do I need to come back you can do that so let's let's get that
fixed and and and then um I will that one is just for me to sign and then the contract is for all of us to sign did we actually Vote or did you just I just made the motion a second motion made in second any further discussion no all those in favor I I and that's to both award the bid and
approve the contract yes great will there be any more need for like moving stuff they were talking about like moving their furniture around and such so so the that add alternate was for the moving okay uh so because
they came in so far under budget we decided that we'll recommend to you that that you also move for that at alterate and then we also have we'll talk about this later but we have um some funding set aside also for a storage unit uh for for a pod
that that we can put items into so we'd be responsible for for that pod irresponsible for the the boxing and moving actually we do most of the boxing built to the moving and the Pod is that oh that's included in here okay the Pod isn't included in the contract but no
but it's included in your arpa this in the in fundo that's um okay great uh I had and the Pod will that be parked out here on premises great so if we could just get
this printed and I'll sign tonight while we're here Tak care of oh under Town administrative report last meeting we had a a vote to award the contract for the Culver pending
paperwork did they submit the paperwork we wanted did so I I received the certificate of uh Certificate of Insurance for workers comp okay and I had already received the payment Bond just the workers comp certificate that
was outstanding I did receive that and I issued the notice to proceed so Phil any update on the covert now we've awarded it so did they get back to it all they were suppos to start but I guess I did they ever send in the
workman's comp certificate okay so the pipe is there notice to proceed was issued okay so now they have no to proceed I I'm sure that they will start because the pipe is there the pipe was deliver well with this with this cold weather can they actually grow yeah they
can still do it okay yeah okay great keep us posted thank you um do we want to just skip to topic eight and talk about arpa funds while we're talking about arpa funds it's on
our minds it's on our minds um so we're getting close to the deadline here on um having all of our arpa funds committed um and under contract right um
so the remaining amount in the um flooring um is now $3 34,38 correct that's correct and that allows for $500 for a storage pod you could also be conservative and leave aside $1,000 Dollar in case we think
it's it's two months of of storage but our current um plan is for only one so $500 should be fine and if we go over I think we'd be able to cover that cost from somewhere so the revised the remaining amount now is
3434 just from that $100,000 for the budget alone okay on the next page of the memo that we sent in there was previously $27,000 of previously unobligated funds so the total amount now that is unobligated is $
61,63 one55 that include fire it should include everything yes what I'm saying because that project is is I going and we still have funds that are left for those fire station yeah that's
what I'm saying that is not we're not calling that on obl yeah that's obligated and that was shown in the uh document that we had last week at the last meeting that showed the projects that were still under contract and that's one of them because we just need
to have funds under contract at this time so 61,000 not under contract we that's that's a lot more than we thought we'd have left and I don't know how you feel David but I think we should do both of the school because they switched their
projects yes um with 61,000 they switch it three times right from the original to a second to now a third yeah yeah they have because it was the it was going to be the originally it was going to be the the thing on the roof for the freezer right
y they went to something for the heating system or something yeah they took money from the freezer project and put it into the heating system right and now it's the uh Ste steam table steam table yeah no they moved money from the heating
system to the freezer actually they had increased the amount for the freezer unit on the roof that project that what the board did authorize moving money from the h um HB work at Smith Academy they didn't do some of the HVAC work I
don't know anything about that project wasn't there like 70 some thousand for the for the HVAC workup at Smith Academy that was authorized I believe money was authorized I don't know if they've done any work yet or even contracted for it
yes I don't know that but that's with arpa funds correct we have to know that because we'll lose that money if it's not contract should have that under contract by 12 have to have that on oh they know that they do know that but I just don't know if they have the contract in place yet so no Conor and I
talk about this just recently so we don't know what percentage how much of that 7 something thousand that was for the art for the HVAC work they used to do the freezer piece they move so there was 40,000 in
total that was appropriate or allocated for the freezer right and then they've decided they need to get the steamer for the kitchen okay and they would like to foro the freezer unit so now what we're saying is what I'm saying is let's do the freezer unit is the freezer unit
just not working and they're not using it well they said the condenser unit is still working at the elementary school but it's on its last leg right but it's not a priority project Connor was very clear to say it's it's a priority but wasn't urgent it wasn't urgent priority
but it's not urgent right but it was on the capital plan and we originally included it in our arpa um expenditures to close arpa out and then when the steamer what is that called steamer bin
or whatever that to steamer table when they said fine we'll change and do the steamer table so why would we not take if we've got 61,000 why would we not give them the money to fix that condenser unit agreed 40,000 if they can do it if they can get that under contract in a couple of weeked they can
get it under contract they can do that yes yes and then and then they're still confirm we're still leaving about 20,000 as we mentioned to go to some turnout gear which is what we had said we would do if there was a
little bit left over because that can be purchased quickly and it's an ongoing need so we also spoke to the town accountant who said that if we have say $5,000 or some funny amount left over they can find a way to allocate that
towards something else that maybe we already have funding for and then it would just reduce amount that you need from free cash or something else so we're not at risk of the money know evaporating we can use it towards something and then more money closes out towards free cash there's a way to use
that funding but it's probably better to be using it on this Capital uh that we've talked about start loose change at the end it doesn't disappear could be rolled into something that we won't and we won't lose that money that's right and
then you'll have that money come back to us in free cash at some point we should be able to do that but I mean if we're talking about $21,000 yeah no yeah I would use the $21,000 towards something if you have yeah I mean and that the decision that we made with the capital planning was
that it would go but with the with the arpo funding my understanding is as long as we target or designate something by the end of this month right we could spend it next month on something but I mean we have to
designate it so we say we designated to the school or to the fire department or whatever we've designated that money to be spent for those expenditures step further so not just designated but under contract under contct contract so actually an agreement
with a vendor yeah and you're saying the freezer they could have that because I mean they were they were poised to do that anyway yeah when when and and also will they have finished their back work that they it doesn't the work
doesn't have to be finished by December 31st do they have that under contract as well Phil do you know if they have that under contract I'm a little confused so the original funding for the
HB was what I think it was 70 something 75 top of my head thinking it was it was 75 and but then didn't they take some money from that and move it yes yes it was moved to the you Refrigerated unit on the roof at the elementary school so
that was the freezer correct correct so that left but that did but they didn't do that work correct they haven't done that okay so now when the steamer table came up where did that money come from it was the full amount that had been designated for the that is but that
isn't the full amount that that steamer that the steam, it's 39,000 39,000 yes yeah that's what they said 39,000 and I went online with the model number that he gave me and it was
actually higher online because I I looked up at steamer tables I saw a bunch at 105 18,000 completed well it went to the steamer but the project still needs the money
for the hbac system at the school was decreased because they said they could they were comfortable decreasing it then what did they ask for that much money for to start so they still have 30,000 designated is what you're saying sound
it would be I think what you have to get clarification from Connor is what's what of that original number that we gave them for the HVAC what's left after they've done the steamer table okay what wait a minute steamer
table has nothing to do with because that's no Freez he they took it to put it to the freezer project which they haven't done yet though but the which then then they took all the freezer money to do
the steamer table like follow the bouncing ball right originally yes it did there was 70 7 something, that 73,000 minus the 40,000 so essentially had 33,000 left only only 15 only 15,000 right it wasn't a total of 40 so if it
was 73 they took 15 so now it's 58 which we believe is under contract but we will double check okay so that's that's the first thing we need to find out make sure it's under contract whether that's set yeah and if that's the case and the
and is and what's so we have so they still think it's 40,000 to fix the freezer yes 39,000 39,000 to fix the freezer okay so then approve that from the 61 that you say you have left over correct yep that leaves us around 22 M
21 want and change and then Garrett should or uh Bob should get under contract you know obviously it's going to take time to get that stuff delivered but get under contract the turnout gear and things that he needs you know even even if he needed a couple of new
uh uh bottles for the you know we said turnout gear yeah turnout gear and I'd like to stick to turnout gear that's what the capital planning Comm said get that under contract and then see what's left over well what's what'll be left over is what Bob will purchase of turnout gear like
if we tell him spend 21,000 proba it seemed like his ceiling was around 17,500 for for turnout gear and if he had less he can probably make that work too and if he had more he can disorder yeah oh his ceiling was
175 that's the impression I got that the ceiling was around there I don't know what he'd do with with more sounds like there's four or five more left over still hanging out there he he said he would be comfortable with 17 but I'm sure he can spend 21 doable well yeah he
probably could but if there's four or five more left with that's sort of a reserve and then you can just say you said the accountant can figure out a place to put that money and then and so it doesn't go that is what the accountant said that they can put it towards something okay well it also gives us a
little cushion in case the freezer unit or you need the Pod for longer or something like that long under contract for something yeah okay I think we can make that work the other use we put out there please vote it down if you need to was the storm water Asset Management
plan which we did not have um free cash set aside for that last year there may be invoices coming in for that project soon we believe we can cover it using the state Grant uh that's there but we would need to come up with a a free cash ask for that at next town meeting so if
we want to get a jump on that with the remaining ARA funds we could do it it's just not on the capital plan that's a decision for the board we were pretty clear that everything was going to be on the capital plan yep sounds to me like Andrew and Marlene are on top of this and are paying
attention to this and are going to get this taken care of by December 31st yes with but the school superintendent is certain that he would have the HVAC upgrade under contract okay I just and we can confirm that with him we'll
contact him tomorrow I just don't know who who the contractor is yeah I don't care who the contractor is as long as it's all and I don't know if he has the contract signed it sounds like it sounds like it the money will be spent on
what we agreed on way back when when it first started yeah if we if we now take a vote in light of the fact that we now have about 61,000 left we could vote now to also go back and do the freezer unit because we had changed we had done a
vote to change it to the steamer table you know you know that's going to come up again this year on the capital plan it's going to come up on the capital plan it's it needs to be done so we so all we would need to do tonight is vote the freezer unit the HS freezer unit
because we've already voted the turnout gear was the turnout gear voted on I think it was all that was like sort of part of it was sort of done as the request was presented at the last select board meeting but I I my my memory serves me correctly the select board had
said let's hold off and take it all up I guess I'm thinking maybe the the capital planning committee that was our vote was that anything left over would just be turned out gear because it's an ongoing need and it's a quick purchase so maybe we need to vote the freezer unit and the
turnout gear yes please okay I will make a motion that we allocate 39,000 for the HS freezer yes and um 175 that's your decision it's either
the balance of the funds to turn out gear or 175 to turnout gear and the balance to a use that the town accountant beings allowable I would say that because that gives us a little cushion for some of the other projects y
so 175 yep for turnout gear um making sure we let the chief know his tight timeline on getting that ordered second that a motion made in second any further discussion all those in favor I wow we
will not have to talk about arper funds seems kind of money was not as fun as it seemed like it would be been doing that for years two years yeah yeah years but you know something we got a lot of really sound um capital projects taken care of with
that yeah okay thanks for your um diligent monitoring of that okay I have lost my agenda where did I oh here it is um okay so now back to topic seven review of town bylaws identify and
advisory committee so the last discussion believe or not was in March this year and um it was discussed at a select board meeting March 14 and the select board had opted to um
take have some more time to review this so I had requested to the board or recommended appointing a five member advisory committee um consisting of a select board representative the town clerk the moderator building zoning in
enforcement officer and the Town Administrator uh and an atlarge member uh I did have a conversation uh with with the moderator and he is not um
he does not feel comfortable that as the moderator he should be on that committee um so I was thinking that possibly instead of the moderator Maybe maybe Joe La Val who has experience prior experience of course
overseeing town meeting and um overseeing rules and policies but the that's the rules of town meeting well rules to meeting and bylaws are very different but Joe is willing
to to accept the appointment if the board should decide to and this is just to do a review of the law is just right joh make a good choice and I expect it will take at least a full year if not longer to review
this I'm fine with that so I just I wanted to move it forward we got very busy yeah back in the spring and that's been on my radar um yeah do you want to actually take a vote to form
the committee and so which of the three of us wants to take care of that I'll do it okay sounds good perfect perfect see look at him go um okay so I will make a motion that
we appoint that committee um to um start reviewing the town bylaws so excluding the moderator right excluding the well as per our discussion it would not be the moderator it would be Jola Valley okay and which would basically be an at
large member you're right I mean he's really just he's not that's true so there'd be two at large members yes I mean I think it's an important distinction because if if he were to resign then it would we
would fill it with just another at large okay second motion made in second any further discussion all those in favor I I actually think that'll be interesting work Greg I do too that would leave another atlarge member that
we need we would be looking for an atlarge member should post okay great yeah so certainly anyone um listening who's interested in um taking that deep dive into the town bylaws that' be this is your big
chance thank you for doing that veterans service agreement with the city of Northampton yeah yes so as you all know we entered an agreement last year with the city of Northampton uh for uh providing our Veterans Services this is
traditionally a position within the town uh we had a stied position to take care of this uh upon uh not having a person filling that position anymore uh we were in a bind and needed to have veteran services
provided for so we did enter in this agreement the agreement allows for us to uh remain a part of this this group of of shared services uh with the city of Northampton is the lead agent uh as long as we uh reup by January 1 of of each
calendar year so this is our planned last select board meeting before that time we want to um have a decision from the board about whether to continue with these services and but this goes through June 30th of 2025 we we attach for you
yes yes that that's the current agreement that we're on we don't have a new agreement city of Northampton just would like to receive notification no later than January 1st if the town intends to renew beyond June so we're talk June 30th of
next year so we're talking FY 26 so we there's nothing for us to actually sign in here okay that's I'll make a motion to accept the uh veteran service agreement with the city of North Hampton for fiscal year 26 second motion made in second any
further discussion no all those in favor I approve the PO Proclamation forming Hampshire Regional emergency planning committee and appoint an emergency response coordinator yes so this comes to us from the fire chief uh this is something that's been going on for a
while that the Hampshire Regional urgency planning uh committee this um Proclamation that we have allows basically these entities to different towns to come together and uh negotiate on what a actual um intermunicipal
agreement would look like so this is not the IMA itself this is a general understanding of the community that they're going to to form an IMA the advantage to having a more formal uh infrastructure for this organization is that it can accept grants it can pay out monies instead of all of these things
being done by the individual municipality every time they get say $2,000 from the state so uh it's a it's a good arrangement um the chief uh we would recommend as being that the person to to be the Emergency Management uh coordinator for this he's already
obviously our uh Emergency Management director um so the two votes that would be needed would be one to approve of this Proclamation that that we have for you tonight um and then the other would be to appoint Bob flarity as the emergency response coordinator for the
Hampshire Regional emergency planning committee the representative from atfield okay we'll be moving away I guess we'll be moving away from a Emergency Management director to this yes so we'd still have the local director this is really just for
regional efforts um and you know the state is interested in doing a lot of know Regional work but obviously you'd still need the local planning and the local management uh but this this uh can help for for the planning and for for some of the responses in a regional
situation all right this has been they've had this for a while oh yes I'll make a motion that we um sign the joint Proclamation for the Hampshire Regional emergency planning committee second motion made in second any further discussion all those in favor I okay
that document is just for me to sign um and then I will make a motion that we appoint Chief Bob flarity um as our emergency response coordinator um Hatfield's emergency response coordinator to the Hampshire Regional
emergency planning committee second motion made in second any further discussion no all those in favor I hi hi thanks to Chief for doing that do we still have a Hatfield emergency planning committee I don't believe so it's not
active the committee is not active I mean it used to be this huge committee met I know there was a lot of meetings and they did tabletops and all kinds of stuff I mean the problem is a lot of it's
changed I mean Hatfield found out that we no longer can House people that because of the new regulations that came in so it's like Smith School is if we ever have to uh we have an emergency in a place a shelter to go to for the
people in town they'll have to go to Northampton because in order to have people and a shelter for emergency situations there's a lot of requirements that are required and we don't have the
resources but the the scope of the EPC was far beyond that I mean it it really looked at a variety of different situations that could happen in town making sure that all the resources were like even how to
notify you know certain people in the certain emergency situations I it was really comprehensive they really went into the Weeds on a variety of you know whether it was weather related or fire Mass evacuations or I mean it was
actually kind of fascinating and it was really active that wasd Bob Donald Bob donon um and now you have western western Mass has a emergency response from other groups that'll come in right away and set things up for you and and
it's it's more Regional Regional we had exercises too yeah they they did actual exercises tabletops and and those things existed even back then but it was you know it was we had to have a plan to activate
there was a yeah exactly there was a whole plan and still available I'm sure it's still sitting on a shelf somewhere but I mean I don't know things happen we should be ready yes they do happen in fact that
that actually brings me I just noticed there's this evacuation route signs that went up around town yes the highway put those up right for the fire department I mean evacuation yeah I don't know what that means for what two where like they just
appear ever a need to evacuate that would be the route one of the things the comprehensive plan committee did was we looked at the evacuation routs based on where the flooding might be if it was down here and the bridges that you would be able to get over based on how much flooding
it is and all that kind of stuff and so those are those could be related to that I don't know yeah I mean it's just they're so vague it just says evacuation route I I was kind of surprised by that because if you think about like one of our our late our last emergencies was
the gas line um situation out on five and 10 so if you heard there was an emergency in town and you evacuated that way you'd be going right in towards where it was so I was kind of surprised that they were up there they it doesn't say like evacuation route in case of
river flooding it just says I mean it just seems so General and arbitrary we don't know what the emergency would be or where it will be so how can we identify an evacuation route that was my question about it so so the fire department had one had those put up fire department well we can ask them why we
just put yeah yeah yeah I think we need an explanation yeah yeah yeah okay um okay so the last item um actually so we have um an appointment of uh just
another perdum firefighter we just signed that not pum oh firefighter I'm sorry yeah firefighter you also have a um yeah but we just sign a request from the police chief yeah I'll get to that we just signed the yes okay okay so you can we can get on to uh
D's um request here yes so he is requesting the select board he has a letter that he has submitted to the select board um to promote officer
Michael Johnson to R would you like me to read the letter uh if you want to or yeah go ahead okay I was going say unless you'd like to do that I mean I can so this is a letter from Chief D
kosek to the select board it is my intent to promote officer Michael Johnson to the rank of Sergeant beginning 127 2024 officer Johnson has been with the town for approximately three years in those years he has demonstrated the knowledge needed to
perform um well in this role during his tenure at the haio police department officer Johnson has completed training in Crisis Intervention team team training crisis negotiation training school resource officer training and been granted his drone Pilots license
officer Johnson is part of our co-responder program and works very well with our clinician officer Johnson works with our veteran outreach program and displays a constant professional attitude towards his duties most importantly officer Johnson is well LED
within the community and I believe has earned their respect along with mine so I hope that you will join me in seeing that offer Johnson is a valued member of this department and deserving of this promotion I we need a motion on this yes yes I'll make a motion to uh appoint
officer Johnson as sergeant as presented by our police chief and I think it's an excellent excellent choice on his part and I will say um the chief called me today about this um and said that this the there is a a slight rate increase
and that that is available in his budget so there's no uh no extra um monies being requested at this I'll second the motion motion made in second any further discussion I mean I have the opportunity
to interact with um now Sergeant Johnson MJ frequently and he's always um very pleasant and professional V it H we gotta vote it oh yes all those in favor I I congratulations yeah that's great
Sergeant MJ yes he does deserve it he does yeah so that's it I just will wait for these to be reprinted we'll do I'm going to go do it right now okay have it in my hand well since this is our last meeting I just want to lose
sight of as we go to the next year I just I just want to review some of the stuff real quick I mean the culverts being worked on water treatment plant we still got five and 10 cleanup and stuff that has to happen there right upstairs
is still uh most of it's done except for the media center stuff which John is working on and uh and downstairs the FL has to be done and we actually have a report and
this December on finances and preash in December and and that's fantastic so departments are working on their budgets so I don't know uh moving forward for next year if the board has
anything that we we will be pursuing for Grants or anything that you might know of at this point the uh it um Community compact Grant uh round open opening if we haven't did we get any phones from
them last year I that'll be eligible if that's something interests us so we'll see what else there'll be plenty of things open up soon and the other notable item is that this is Marlene's last meeting it is unless there's a need to have another Well I yeah right just I
pretty much just guaranteed we'll have to have another meeting but um marleene that's a lot of years sitting at this table and I can't imagine what it feels like to sit here at your last meeting doesn't really feel any different just
yeah it will the first Tuesday first Tuesday January when you're home in your slippers and you're not sitting here for hours on in that'll I just like I said it's just look at it's just another meeting I thought annual town meeting was my last town meeting and then we
ended up having a special coming so that's why I say don't say never well you might be getting a call from Andrew or me well we're you know we're Ed to have Andrew here Andrew's obviously stepping in nicely but it's been a pleasure Marlene we're gonna miss having
you here same here yeah it's been an honor it's been an honor and good luck to you thank you very much from the bottom of our hearts oh thank you very much with that being said I'll make a motion to aour and I
will second that motion Maiden second any further discussion thank you Marlene for all you've done for the town of Hatfield and I want to wish everybody a Merry Christmas before I go oh that's right happy you have to say happy holidays ter Chas I did oh you did at
the beginning didn't okay yeah all right so all those in favor I hi all right that's a big deal