--------- go ahead okay good evening everybody Welcome to the March 11th 2025 meeting of the Hatfield select board um I'll go ahead and call the meeting to order um I'm going to begin 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 and Committees of the town of Hatfield shall be open to the public and shall conform to the open meeting meting 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 first we do have some announcements first some sad news news and that is um I learned today of the passing of Barbara petson Barbara um was
a longtime Hatfield resident and a longtime employee of the schools um I know she worked in the lunch program when I was there I think she helped in the office and just a lovely um sweet person to be around so our condolences to the pets and family and you wanted to
mention I wanted to mention uh sadly the passing of Richard Gilbert senior who was a former Constable at one time for the Hatfield Police Department along with driving a school bus for the
schools well um we're sorry to hear about both of those um passings we do have some good news um Jean hobby has been recognized as school nurse of the Year Gan has been the nurse up at both schools I think she goes between both
schools for many years um so that's very very nice recognition and I'm sure school committee will recognize her as well but we did want to mention something and then really really good news um we were notified by the um healing Administration um of our chapter
90 apportionment for fiscal year 20 26 which is $41,988 compared to last year's $242,000 so that's a significant rise we can always use the chapter 90 funds and
believe that part of this has to do with the c tax um the the the new um so-called millionaires tax um that will be now added into a portion of it goes to Transportation a portion of it goes to education and so this will be um
extra money to communities through the formula for chapter 90 so that's wonderful um any any other announcements Ed uh no I don't have anything else Greg nope Andrew anyway um okay public forum
anybody here for public forum come on up my name is chith I'm from I live on 17 Prospect Street I am the subject of a executive session that's coming up in topic nine and I would like to exercise my
right to have it as an open session great I put together a note I'll give this to Andrew and I'll see you guys later we may get to it sooner than that okay he sent me a letter that said 7:30 but if you want us
to wait till 7:30 we can wait well you know what do you is your agenda light or something um well it's so tough to say because we have the schools coming in and of course at 6:30 um but we could have time maybe
so why don't we just stick to 7:30 so that well you don't have to come back around s and that sounds great yeah yeah I'll take that thank you very much we appreciate
it stick around be good to you looking forward to it myself Chris thanks um okay so the first item is our consent agenda um which is the approval
of the February 25th 2025 minutes I'll make a motion to approve February 25th 5 2025 meeting minutes second motion maid in second any further discussion no all those in favor I I second agenda is the
ban signing for the wastewater treatment plant plant financing um and Tammy you're here for that did you want to speak to it or um you guys should have already received the email which had all the information
regarding the ban um it's the rest of the borrowing um from the 12 million that we had already approved um which will get us through till the fall and then that will then become our USDA
loan great so we just have to make a motion to um sign all these make a motion to approve ban documents for Waste Water treatment plan financing a second motion made second
any further discussion going to go through these quick some that just require Ed as the clerk correct I'll get this done as soon as I can here I'm just keeping them all together sorry
to hold this up um okay so can we move forward while they're signing so the second business is in agreement with the First Congregational Church for document storage yes so you have a draft of aou
in your um packets this evening so the background on this is we discussed last time that we had some documents that were being stored uh Diamondback storage um on behalf of the historical commission and these documents uh are
now ready to be moved upstairs uh for the most part so most of the work is being done to to get all the things that were in this storage uh into the upstairs um archives and that's going very well there is one pallet of materials that it's extremely heavy um
and it's not recommended to be in the upstairs area and we were trying to find another place to store it obviously keeping in Diamond Back long term isn't a very good idea um just because of the expense there and uh the uh historical
society and commission um were able to identify some space that would work well in the First Congregational Church they're comfortable with the space the church is willing to do it they are charging what I would say is fairly low fee in order to do so um and overall as
long as the historical Mission and Society can have access to these documents when they need to especially the the curator that's hired by the society we should be in good shape this document um this mou would be signed by the commission uh the historical commission but I wanted the select board
to see it in part because they really can only sign it if there is an appropriation to move forward with this um it fits in our current budget obviously will'll be able to trim the budget much more from what we had right now for the diamond back storage the fee will be $80 month which is nominal um
but still we need to be comfortable with that as a as a board and I wanted to bring this agreement to you to to look over and see if there are any concerns uh the historical commission is comfortable with it Historical Society um is comfortable and the First Congregational
Church will be discussing it tomorrow night their trustees who meet to discuss it so if we get any edits from them or review it and I'll be sure to let you know about them uh but the document would be signed by the commission um and and that's that's basically all there is to it Ed well it's $80 per month that's not
a large amount so it's not bad I'm just sort of disappointed because we were told that upstairs was going to be all the space they needed and they found out it's not but I guess it happens I mean Congregational Church what what type of
large items are we talking about that cannot be I mean I just have to understand the large items that cannot be stored like in the barn they need with some kind of temperature control or something is that what it is yeah these are it's a big pallet of of documents so
I'm not sure why the documents can't be stored in another way that would make it less heavy as a pallet but this is at the recommendation of of the curator that this is how they're they're stored I don't know if they still need to work towards um removing these these documents or or storing them another way
but large pallet very heavy and this is this to them right now would Rec would represent the best solution moving forward well I mean it does sound like the best solution if that's what they're saying and it's not it's $80 a month I guess it's where do we get the funding
source for this so right now uh we have a line item uh for building uh leases that's in the uh DPW budget that that that's what we've been using it probably should come directly from the historical commissions budget uh I think that would make the
most sense and I think there's a line item that could be used for that that would fit the $80 per month and it would only be through the end of the fiscal year because that would be a new budget we're all set for the end of this this fiscal year we we'd want to move it into oh it's into next
fiscal year that this would be in the the agreement's for two years I mean I think it's great that the church is stepping up although we don't have a final decision from them you know we want to keep the documents safe but we just we just keep finding Solutions
and then the problem changes so I you know we just have to get a handle on this collection and um I mean I guess it's just another temporary solution and it's now the collection's not all together and I don't I don't know
I I I have no problem with it I guess as an isolated um agreement it's just part of that Lar discussion that we can't ever seem to find a solution for or we find a solution and then it's not enough we're
told there's a solution we're told it's going to be fine and then all of a sudden they say oh no is that it are we done now after after they store that this is all I'm told that they need need a place for but well I mean it depends on what happens with the budget they
want money to keep buying things well that's what we were told before though that we're yeah that was all going to fit I would say um we have an agreement between the uh historical commission and Society uh and the select board that memorializes the agreement uh the the
relationship between those bodies and and how it works for the collection of materials and disposing of them and everything else we're out of the term of thatou it might be a good idea for us to renegotiate that and look at that agreement uh with with a fresh set of eyes age so that's something that uh I'm
happy to put on a future agenda yeah I mean I think we could even get to that like after town meeting and everything absolutely okay so we just need to do we need to vote that or are we going to wait to hear from the church well it's um I mean I really up
to you because the signatory on this would be the commission um select board doesn't need to to sign this at the recommendation of council um so it is up to you if you want to vote to approve it or not I don't think you necess neily
need to okay so you're signing commissions the ones that approve commission will sign it your your your agreement to it really just comes in the appropriation I would say recommending the town meeting vote on that appropriation
okay so we'll just keep that in our budget discussions yeah assuming that you want to move forward with that and you want to move forward with that I will update you if there's any significant changes I don't anticipate any that's Ed yep sorry Ed there's some
blue ones here where you have to sign oh that's right I'm you're the clerk that's right I forgot okay easements for day pond so this is more turning into a update on the day
Pond project uh we got some excellent news yesterday that I'll that I'll lead with maybe it was was it today anyway I remember I remember like it was yesterday we got excellent news that um there's a uh permit there's two permits that are active right now one of which
is the notice of intent that the Conservation Commission will review on Thursday evening the second is a state run process called the 401 q and this typically takes we budgeted for anywhere between six to 10 months for this to be completed um we found out yesterday that
uh one of the the staff members who handles this for the state um who's aware of this project and been working on this project is actually planning to retire soon and wants to try to finish this before he retires so we might actually have it finished within the next month which would just be incredible and put us ahead of schedule
uh so that could be really great news it helps potentially move up our construction timeline and everything else as long as the project is approved to town meeting uh for the next portion of of uh Community preservation act funds so that could potentially move the projects forward um sooner which would
be really great for a lot of things but one of those reasons why it's great is because it helps us with the big question of how do we access the pond and we really have um two main options that have been considered lately the reason we put these easements on was because one of the options was to go
through a private property there's three property owners who would be accessed from uh Day Avenue uh one of which is the the parking lot owned by Dr hka and then two private property owners um that basically abut the pond and we would set
up all of the construction equipment and everything else there by the pond we have since uh met with those property owners and considered you know what all this would look like and the engineers are leaning towards uh the idea that probably accessing through Smith Academy
Fields is going to be the better way to go while it's a little further as a route um it requires you know fewer easements there's more uh of an area to lay down construction equipment uh have a dewatering Zone set up um and everything else so that's the direction
we're planning to head at the moment we still may need some easements uh because of some of the work that's going to be on be going on there uh in which case those easement would come to town meeting we'll bring those back to you I'll pause there because there's a lot of information I just threw it you but and and Ed has been uh involved in this
as well in a actually we have a one this was one option that we had discussed uh off of Main Street to uh go through the parking lot that's behind the church and there's like three Property
Owners yeah so off of down but there's been some issues with where to store the stuff so the school is the other other option right now there is a third option that's in discussion but I since there's
nothing conclusive I don't want to even bring it up for possible discussion yet and our our Engineers are interested in trying to make a decision on this pretty quickly so that they can present that at concom on Thursday night and move forward with this uh the certification
for o and Q Plus if we go through the school then we may have to lay some stuff down for the trucks because of the soft ground depending which time of year and the is sorry yeah that's okay I'm sorry me
too the plan is to have this take place uh in the winter once the ground is harder uh they will still lay down some extra gravel and everything else and they're responsible for uh remediating anything that's uh been torn up or anything else so all of that will be done we had a good meeting with the um
superintendent yesterday as well just took a walk and looked at all the site and uh I think that was helpful that looks good I mean Andrew's been on top of it so I I give him a lot of credit so I want to thank you for that Andrew oh it's a great uh run
effort here too so Bri Brian Nicholas has been a very good tour yeah Brian's great and Brian Nichols has been on top of it too so he's been a great asset to this yeah so I think um I was expecting to to bring you you know uh preliminary
details on what these easement might look like uh at this time I don't think that's uh in the cards but we still may need some some easement because of the work that's happening there just not the same way we were expecting so um I'll be following up with those Property Owners I really appreciate them coming in and
and being present for a meeting and trying to figure out what the best path forward looks like and right now it's looking like it will be through the the schools the school yeah the property owners were great it was a great discussion they got to understand their their side of the their viewpoints and
what they felt about it so guess we'll see so you're just going to keep us posted at this point that's the plan but it's moving in a favorable Direction yes and we'll know more uh after Thursday night with the concom permitting I think there'll be a lot of questions then but I think it should be
a good discussion and then the next big step is that other state permit then the other next big step will eventually be um town meeting CPC right has shown that they're they're planning on approving um
that additional funding recommending approval for that funding so that will'll go through this body and then town meeting because the additional funding has been improved by CPA to bring that forward right they're they're actually meeting uh at 6m this evening to uh to make their final recommendations and that
will come here great okay CPC I should have said okay all set with that I'm all set so topic four is appointments um and resignations um so you're looking for us
to make appointments to the implementation committee for the comprehens ensive plan and that would be Rebecca bench Doug Finn and David Kier yes and they would be the representatives for school committee planning board and finance committee
respectively um this body had said uh that that you wanted to have recommendations from those groups that they would tell you who they were looking to appoint and then you would vote on the final appointments there so those are the three representatives from from those three bodies um they would
join believe it's great who's going to be from the select board um and John peas has been appointed so far so we'll be almost there for a full committee so I'll make a motion to appoint Rebecca bench Doug fan and David Kier to implementation committee for
comprehensive plan second motion made in second any further discussion no all those in favor I three great um appointments and then we have we do have one person for consideration for a at large member to the same um implementation committee and that is
Julia frisbee Julia was a member of the original committee uh she was an atlarge member then she would be an at large member now we have three at large positions one has been filled by John peas the other one we don't have someone yet remember we have two at larges who
we want to be um representing open space uh open space historic preservation Andor agriculture John peas is one of those Julia would be the um at large at Large not necessarily Julie would be
great nice to have volunteers it is nice to volunteers I'll make a motion to appoint Julia fris to 2040 implementation committee for comprehension plan at large member second motion made in second any further
discussion all those in favor I okay so I just have to sign those and then we have a pay adjustment um to sign here um for the fire
department ambulance department um but this is really great because um we have someone who was in firefighter EMT basic who is now a firefighter paramedic um and so they're that triggers a pay increase and that's great news for us so just think it's worth mentioning
excellent that's a lot of workless she went through to become a par yeah that's um that's like overtakes your life forco thoron yeah and it's she's she's just wonderful person so that's really yeah thank you Nicole I'm just going to sign these
um sorry I'm just reading okay um and we can go ahead if you want with the discussion for the um DPW director excellent so at the last meeting uh we discussed what next steps
might look like we had two um two action steps I think on the table one was to look at the current job descriptions for the superintendence and think about which functions of the DPW director were potentially not being
filled or uh maybe were being filled by some of these superintendents and the other step uh was to look at the functions of the DPW director uh that are in the job description and look at uh right now what isn't being taken care of
what what are the step what are the um the functions that are still remaining so I went back to the grid that I had put together originally uh when I went through what the different tasks are and had grouped them into a few categories into administration department strategy
management technical expertise and if you go back through those it feels like there still is a gap that exists and I think we've hit on that in in our conversations uh I'm just going to tee up this conversation then let you3 take it away because I'm really looking for
your guidance on on next steps here eventually um but I do have some recommendations and um if you look at what's missing there's one function which is the general oversight mostly of the of the three
superintendents um and some of that's paperwork based it's approving of absences it's approving of um time off or it's approving of payroll um having a second eye on on contracts and other things but there also is just a bit of an accountability question of you know
should it be uh the select board uh who's directly managing these or is it better to have an intermediary that that could be one of the superintendents themselves so that's one one item the other we've spoken about this briefly is just two functions that we had
incorporated into the DPW director's job description uh that would need to be reassigned so that's the tree Warden and that's the Ada coordinator and both of those things are are easy enough to to reassign um there are some things that you might like a tree Warden
to have as as as qualifications but they're not all necessarily mandatory um while some towns have one that's a an arborist you also just need somebody who has an understanding of what sorts of projects and things are going on and be able to to give an answer yes or no on
different things quickly um so that's that's the tree Warden and then same with the Ada coordinator there that's pretty much spelled out out by by the state of what that person needs to be doing and then the other item that we have come back to a number of times is
this overall oversight and kind of strategy development thinking about capital projects the direction of the department coordinating with with other agencies coordinating with uh other pieces of town uh government and and really having that overall
responsibility for the direction of the department so if you look at those three things there's not necessarily a full-time job in there there could be and I think you know we we benefit from having that but one thing that could be done is to appoint one of the three
superintendant as some kind of DPW superintendent who then would help with the management of those other two superintendents and and have uh approval over the payroll everything else just those kind of management pieces not necessarily the leadership and Direction
but some of the management there you reassign those duties of tre Warden and Ada coordinator you'd make a decision about who those would go to I'd recommend they be to a position that's appointed so that um you are making an appointment on a somewhat regular basis whether it's every three years or so
that would be helpful for um the statutes that exist and then you could potentially create and I've been noodling on this and we'll hand it over to you to think about further but a a part-time position of a town position director of capital assets and project
it could be charged with these responsibilities so there's overall responsibility for Town facilities so kind of that Maintenance and Facilities director position um project management for capital projects overseeing the capital plan overseeing all energy management
and sustainability programs um reviewing and improving of say engineering and design for projects a uh applying for and managing Capital related grants um providing you know any technical advice and assistance to
superintendents and uh on facilities and capital related projects helping with uh connecting day-to-day operations with the overall goals of the department at the direction of the select board and um potentially even representing the DPW on
the comprehensive plan implementation committee that came to mind that I had put this this item of overseeing continuous approv Improvement of the Department of Public Works just kind of overlight strategy uh SL strategy position that could be helpful so those are just some thoughts that I had about
what's missing and that's maybe a position that that could be helpful for the department and for the the board so I will stop there after teeing all that up and let you did you also look at possibly Town Administrator taking on
the oversight of those three positions that's and and and how that would affect your job if would it make it harder for you would it make it I me I'm just saying I'm just asking I mean yeah I don't think that they're
difficult to supervise but it still work it's you know right there I would say right now it's certainly something I've been doing is working a lot more closely with the superintendence um managing not necessarily but but working closely with
collaborating and being brought into all their projects probably in a way that the director would have been before uh I don't see it as being something that would necessarily overstretch the position uh in isolation and it's something that isn't that that's
consistent with the administrator's role as defined I think so far by the select board and but yeah I could see that as as something that okay my my next question would be is if we decided to go with a superintendent being the lead
superintendent with that and it's an appointment would that then become a salary position or would that positions with a which would be an increase but would that position be salary or would it maintain as a uh getting
overtime well I think if if we're keeping the same duties they should be entitled to overtime because that's currently a emergency and storm response position so there could be maybe a a stapen that gets added to to the salary
to cover the extra d duties but that person should still get call you know get paid compensated for when they're working all night on Storms and that so if if that person does take the lead and assumes more responsibility would that
person now need another person to be like a foreman under them would they would we now have to create a Foreman's position because now the superintendent some of his works now more in the office
and doing more paperwork and doing lot of other things would would he now need a foreman for the RO for whatever I'm just I'm just asking that's well and there is an assistant for paperwork as well there is yep and the water
department already has a foreman right water department has an assistant superintendent assistant superintendent yeah so I think all those things are options you know a foreman type position rather than a a new superintendent like a director and a superintendent that
could be helpful um certainly to have someone who would be in charge of daily operations if that other superintendent had less time to do it well then if we got a part-time person that has an engineering background what type of projects that I
know we have three grants to uh for asset management of drinking water sewer water and and U our rain run water right so um do do you for we don't know of any
things going to come out of that or whether it's just repairs or whether there's recommendations right I mean well we know that we need to be looking at more of our culverts part of our Culvert system so I guess I'm curious that was a pretty decent
list um of what when you say part-time what do you think it would require it's more than 50% more than 20 hours a week feels like 60% at least doesn't it yeah on
that list I I don't know that's and then another question is the tree Warden position could we go back to having a tree Warden we used to have a tree warden in town that was not you know I mean like Luke could probably be the tree warden so is there is there also an
you know another option is taking that bulk of that work to to somebody you know you can contract for the tree Warden definitely yeah that's something that can be done you contract out to a firm to do it or you you appoint or Y to a a qualified person in town we had
somebody that I thought was qualified that offered their services I thought luk did Tre Warden at yeah one time but with the DPW regulations it stated that the tree Warden would be under the DPW you had you had eliminated that position that's correct by special act it used to
be an elected position really really yeah yeah yeah I have a story about that actually for hear so um I mean there's so many options there a lot of options I mean as far as culverts if if our
concern as Croots we could actually possibly do a small contract with a a firm to look at Croots if that was an issue I mean that's one option then we can go to town meeting and see if they would fund I think there'd be somebody that would
need to just spearhead the initial like we're ready to you know have have a even an inventory of our culverts but I think it's I think us three just sitting here having this conversation is
not necessarily the most productive I think it's time to talk with our three superintendents and really see what they're thinking especially about the duties that we're suggesting be you know push onto one or more of them and really get
a sense for since that conversation mainil a lot of issues maybe just one of us sit with the three of them and come back with a report so I don't know if it that conversation should be open meeting at this time or whether it's better to
have it as a closed meeting we just one of us to find out where where they're coming from I'm just yeah I mean they might feel a little put on the spot if you know yeah they they may discuss betterly in a closed session than an open session
their feelings so I mean whoever I mean that's just a suggestion whether it be the chair or Gregor myself whoever once and hopefully with Andrew set up a yeah I was going to say whichever one of us I mean I'm certainly willing to do it um I
think that would be a great idea if we met with them because might have some really interesting Insight I don't know job yeah yeah right I don't know everything about their job we're just we're just shooting what's missing here right I'd even be curious about their
their opinions of the list of things you um you know your list of things that would still need to be fulfilled through another position and yeah I mean I'm I'm certainly willing to do it um but I I think it
would be good to have them all together I think three together and have a conversation great yeah and then we got a real a truer understanding of where they stand and where what they they feel about this and
what they they think the need should be so yeah we got a good crew I value their opinion yeah I agree um I agree okay nice good we talk about some potential dates yep that sounds
great okay uh topic six GPS options for Town Vehicles so this was something that came from uh select board member jorski um there was an interest in seeing you know what uh Technologies are out there for GPS could it help us with some of these accountability questions with some
of these uh maintenance improvements so um Ed and I had three demos with three do that yeah it was it was I think very useful to see what was out there very interesting they're all kind of the same at a certain point but they have they have their own flavor each of them and
i' say the three demos were all different in their own way um so one uh three three companies Ras Trak uh GPS insight and Verizon connect Verizon you've heard of it's Verizon um what they pitch as their advantage is that
they're on they own the networks as well so that's that's something interesting um but I made a list of of the different um different functions that all of them have so all of them basically have uh different platforms with live maps that show vehicle status they can give you
reports on vehicle usage including idling route selection if different uh Vehicles use the same route multiple times especially helpful for say snow clearing uh ability to find the closest vehicle to a certain place if you need someone to get out somewhere immediately
uh maintenance modules to track needed Services alerts when Vehicles leave a geofence or spe specified area emission system reports uh they have mobile apps and then configurable dashboards with reports that you can pull as well so all of them have monthly fees for their
service you pay a monthly fee per vehicle and depending on the company we were to choose uh you might also need to pay for the hardware itself so you also have the choice all of them try to pitch us as well on cameras uh that they they like that you can get a front-facing
dashboard camera as well and they say these are great for being a witness in a case of say a false claim uh improving driver safety potentially reducing claims with your insurance company which maybe that could potentially lower your premiums and then there's alerts that are triggered if there's driving
incidents or swerving or other things so um as far as benefits go this technology could provide us with some better accountability for vehicles the analytics could potentially help save some money on fuel maintenance uh and then as I said there's the the long-term dream of your insurance premiums
potentially come down because these helped make your your car so much safer which should be great um disadvantages is really just in the cost um and I I will go over just how much I think it would cost annually um and it you would
probably commit to a three-year deal and we don't quite know how would we use this is it definitely something that that would improve all of our work streams and everything else and you could argue that we already have ways that we're monitoring maintenance um there's other ways of getting
accountability besides installing GPS devices and we don't know who would manage or use that real-time data so some of that accountability is helpful we we still don't necessarily have the number We Believe of violations or claims that would definitely save us money per
se so those are all considerations as far as costs go let just find my document here so the amount is pretty much a little under $20 a month per vehicle so if you run the overall numbers uh
depends on which vehicles you wanted to use it'll be around a little less than $10,000 annually so about $99,500 on the the the ones I think we're the most interested in that would be for 42 Vehicles which would represent basically
all of our vehicles that are out there driving on on the streets um and we could decide you know do you want it to be emergency vehicles or not do you want it to be um pieces of equipment that get you know less use or not but but those are that's that's the
overall ballpark at the moment 42 is Allin all in so that would be fire trucks ambulances back hos everything yep that's correct COA Vans um uh um a trucks yeah I I do want to point
out that one one of them they would charge you per vehicle for installation and they would charge between 90 and $250 wow the other ones included the installation with their fees so that
gave the fees fairly comparable the fees were comparable on the two that did installation I think they had a lower rate at that that that one you just mentioned where they're charging for installation everything else they were a little more all aart you could probably game it so that you're paying less through them but
I wasn't as impressed by their their um their platform as well so right I wasn't too impressed either their website was a little less high-tech I had a feeling they'd be like a cheaper option the advantage on the Verizon side was the fact that not only though they install
they also support the software the other guy he in he had outside contractors install and they in and his outside contractors support the software but his Advantage was that he would lock you
into a three-year contract whereas veran was one year and the other thing I like to point out is cameras are separate on this and it was pointed out to us that sometimes Maya uh provides grants for cameras because the the other advantage
of the camera a front end camera not a camera facing the driver uh the front end camera for the insurance purposes sometimes lowers your insurance rates and it's it's also if say you get to call that snowstorm now so and so must
have knocked over my mailbox right you can you can look it up and you can see well it wasn't our driver or yes it was our driver and we'll correct it I mean there's some advantages to that plus it also has a warning if the vehicle gets too close along on with if the vehicles
goes outside the area there's an alert that's sent out if the vehicles somebody grabs it on the weekend to use it for for personal use the alert goes out I mean there's there's a lot of different advantages for the GPS so the camera is
a different price and that's another consideration if Maya is willing to possibly provide a grant for it so I don't know if Maya's gotten back to us yet on whether they still have grants for cameras or or not yeah happy to
address that so Maya runs an annual risk mitigation Grant application process they have a million dollars for their clients across the state everyone can get up to around $10,000 um and uh that will open in July
so they that does include funding for it looked like on the website GPS would be included and wouldn't necessarily need to have the cameras as well I think the GPS alone might be enough um the cameras start bringing um this to about 22 to
$25,000 annually if you have the cameras as well just just a little more expensive equipment um but those Maya grants are available um they have two different processes they have those annual safety grants and then they have the these U rewards that you can earn and put that towards grants as well um
so again that opens in July and can you get that funding in so you could apply every year try to get it's not a one time so if you have this three-year contract that's 10,000 a year you could you could apply for all
or part of it each year that's correct doesn't mean you're going to get it that's correct yeah and do you did did they have any statistics about how many communities are now doing this that's a good question um there were four around us that that are doing it I think they
listed uh chapi South Hadley and uh well UMass amst and uh one other I can't remember nearby that that's using it just from one company alone has clients there um I didn't get numbers on how many are doing it but I'll I'll find out
that's that's worth knowing yeah and I think the other company uh was across the United States yeah uh they they do um throughout the United States so okay so was pretty interesting I mean
and also if if the board sold Des buers they're willing to come in and do a presentation so you guys can actually see you know what we saw and and get an understanding if it makes sense to get it or not makes sense to get it but with
Maya grants and stuff and we are looking for some accountability I mean it might be a good option for us I think with that we'd probably have to have policies and that's what I was going to say when we're going to look at this we're going to need a
what happens if it is we we do detect some type of vehicle misuse and I know Verizon would be willing to come in I mean on one hand I was looking at the the last two we mentioned Verizon sort of does it all which is uh sort of
nice where the other one uses outside contracts for some of it but and their their prices are almost the same right I mean well those other towns that you mentioned must have policies already we could certainly see what they got and Y
instead of trying to invent something here well I appreciate all the work um I think it's you know something to to think about I think it was a fun fun to listen to the presentation and
and the technology that's out there I thought that was uh great just learning about that I mean they they even mentioned cases where they're tied into the engine and they get a warning that the engine's got a problem before the warning light comes on so I thought that
was pretty neat plus the their mechanics had a uh a warning that you know something's due for an oil change or something's due for tire rotation and I mean it's there's a lot of I don't know we we probably wouldn't use all of it I was going to say it sounds like there's
much more functionality than yes that's the big question is right what are what what exactly are we trying to accomplish and is is that is that really just too sophisticated yeah so if they do a presentation then the town gets to see
it you guys get to see it and then everybody sort of gets an understanding of what we're talking about yeah it might be beneficial for some departments to like know where the Vans are or something if if they need to use it or redirect it somewhere I suppose I
mean I feel like generally speaking sorry we generally know where the vehicles are yeah really yeah yeah I think it's it's up to this board to think about and maybe it's something you get feedback from uh superintendent on in anyway um you know
would it do they see a use case for it and that might be helpful yeah it is a lot of money yeah yeah not nothing I mean we'll get to the top of budget a lot more but right can I find $110,000 in our budget it's right good
question that's a nice Grant uh and that's because they know that it has been effective to help prevent accidents and right right okay I mean I'm good with that we could take a quick break before
we welcome in the finance committee did you want to do that uh okay I can do a real quick Town administrative report just too yep if we take that out of order uh I do not have much I just wanted to let you know a couple things real
quickly um mostly in Grant World um so last week uh Congressman govern's office had their their deadline for submitting any requests for um Federal earmarks I was not planning on submitting anything it didn't seem like there was going to be much of an Avenue
for increased federal spending from anywhere but I was encouraged to do so and did find that uh I talked to USDA who recommended actually putting in for the community facilities Grant project just to at least give them some interest
because that would potentially be a funding source for a new public safety building if we needed one um that is a program that's set up to help rural communities fund uh Community facilities and a public safety building would would absolutely be um a good fit for that so
very preliminary preliminary I can't imagine that they will choose that as one of their priorities but if they do it'll be great to start those conversations so that's something I wanted to share with this body um the state also has the municipal vulnerability plan grants that are going
on right now we're we're planning to partner with Hadley to try to um Implement one of the pieces from the comprehensive plan which is to get a a better assessment of our ditch networks uh that's something uh that the the comprehensive plan said would be
something very helpful both for our farmers and for storm water management in general um would could help and and be be a good fit for this MVP program so uh we're getting a scope put together for that and planning to submit for that Grant by the end of the month so that should be an interesting thing to be
able to to get some assistance for uh one other thing I just wanted to let this board know about um and I I don't think I'll be part of this process but just uh want to remind you that uh now is probably not a bad time to start on negotiations for the one open contract that we have that's for our town
Treasurer um so that's out contracts by the end of uh this fiscal year so just uh something to get started on yeah we should do that as we're moving through the budget process y so maybe um that's an executive session right it
absolutely can be y yeah so maybe the next meeting if we have time okay I can have that if she can be here great that's all I got excellent well we can take a quick break while we wait for
um the finance commit to show up perfect Part: 2
okay okay great um so we are back sorry um perfect back to the um next portion of the March 11th 2025 meeting as you can see we've been joined by our friends on the finance committee and our um friends from the school department um
and we're going to talk about the school budget tonight um did you want to start with anything else anything or we're just going to go right into the school no yeah let's go right you know before we we did acknowledge earlier um a woman named Barbara petson
who worked for the schools for many many years pasted barbert petson pass really I did not know that I found that out today but she worked um for the Hatfield schools back when I was there so not recently um but she was there for a very
long time so sorar that so we did we did acknowledge that earlier thank you for that um you might want to look for the obituary okay thank you for inviting us to share our um draft budget so that you're
seeing the schools Hatfield Public Schools budgeted draft for FY 26 this is prior to the school committee public hearing so we're looking forward to your input and uh hearing your thoughts and I
will turn it over to Dr Driscoll great thank you um as chrisy said thanks for having us tonight as we go through this this uh this information will not be new for um the the finance can be um so we're looking forward a little new little New
a little bit not not much though um and we're looking forward to sharing it with the with the select board so uh we'll start right off with it um so we're looking to maintain the currently current Services we offer uh which is is level level service funding uh which we
require an additional um two and a half% from from town funds uh so that maintains some of the Strategic Cuts we made last year while still allowing us to remain competitive um and to build build on the programs that we currently
currently offer uh for example at at Smith Academy it allows for two new innovation Pathways uh so that's the adventure leadership Innovation pathway as well as the mental health Innovation pathway uh those are designed to help uh you know kind of bridge that gap between
uh vocational and traditional uh schooling which helps students uh prepare students either to go into the workforce or to further their education in those fields um and allows us to develop a program that we are really excited about for next year um which is
uh concurrent enrollment with verant State University where we are able to offer college level courses for college credit inhouse at Smith Academy on our own schedule so it eliminates the um the travel factor for students that were uh looking for dual enrollment at either
Community College HC or Smith college um which we're very excited about it should be added that neither of those things add to our budget we're able to do that with our current resources uh both human and capital um it keep allows us to keep our Sports and expand our sports program
as we bring uh sixth grade into the Smith Academy for next year um and maintains two uh two classrooms per grade level at the elementary school plus the specials programs that we have there um uh it also allows us to maintain our
star classroom which is our um sort of substantially separate program for special ed at the elementary school which saves us um though though it's kind of expensive program it actually saves US money uh for out of District placements uh it includes uh Cola for
all staff we're in the process right now of negotiating um with the HTA for a new contract we are hoping with our fingers crossed that we may have a final agreement tomorrow um at our negotiations meeting um
and the last Point here is pretty important it includes 126,000 and change in addition additional out of District tuition and funding so as we look at our increase that we're asking for the town uh tuition alone I mean this is tuition out of District tuition for students who
we we we don't have the services to provide for in District including our star program um that alone accounts for 83% of our increase uh that we're asking for um and in total special ed is uh 75%
of our total budget increase which includes not just the the town increase but also um across all our lines does that out of District tuition also include Choice out no no it doesn't that's this is uh specifically for
Approved special ed programs for students on on I APS you can't service before we flip the page on this because I don't want it to get too lost sure the Innovation pathway yep so can you just like in a quick sentence or two describe the two Pathways you bet yeah so the first
pathway is the adventure leadership pathway and that's for students who have an interest in either outdoor education they have an interest in maybe um uh medicine that they're going into they could get certified to become um either uh First Responders they could get
certified to be uh become ski patrollers that kind of thing um and It prepares them to go uh you maybe get a a job with like a nolles course or or or other other groups like that um and the
adventure the The Innovation Pathways as a as a as a kind of idea uh were really from the state um they they were proposing this to to schools uh to better prepare students to enter the workforce or to enter higher education and so the the goal isn't to compete
with like a A Smith vocational um but the goal is to identify areas where there is a need for um for for workers quite frankly um and then to have them graduate high school with industry recognized credentials so certifications
that can allow them to go get a job right out of high school or prepare them if they are interested in furthering their education in that field um so the F first one as I mentioned is uh Adventure leadership which prepares uh prepar studes for those things as well as maybe careers in education and the
second is a mental health Innovation pathway for students who are interested in Psychology in going into the field of mental health maybe as counselors or Educators that that kind of thing um and again the goal is to to work with um our
courses in house higher education courses so dual enrollment either through one of our existing Partnerships or new partnership um and uh the third piece is um actual work experience so partnering with organizations and businesses um to give students that that
practical practical experience as well and one of the upsides of this is that we've been talking about finding things that make our district distinct because it's we need to continue to draw and these are programs that aren't they
aren't sitting anywhere around us so we have a good opportunity with kids who have these interests who can choose to come into Hatfield as well as I think they they pulled kids that are in our schools already and what their interests are and so this aligns with that as well
that was going to be my next question okay great thank you I'm sorry I didn't want to take too much of a detour I just um if we go to the next the next slide here it says swing factors um there's still a couple things as it's it's marked that we're we're done but
that this plan really already does account for um the first as I mentioned we are um in uh negotiations we are we're very close to the um the the final stage um but it's not yet voted on uh um so just just for reference Hatfield is a
place people like to work and they like to stay and they like to teach and stay here which is great it's a wonderful it's wonderful to have that that means that 60 63% of our staff um have have stayed in are at a place where they are um either currently maxed out or or
maxing out their step increases for next year um the we have also includes an anticipated Cola um and some other needs that are that are placed within the budget to um the the piece I mentioned about out of District Tu tuition that's
in flux because we are still currently trying to find some of those placements uh right now the estimate that we have is for next year total is about just over just north of 400,000 for out of District placements um Which is higher than than this current
year um those are special education those are special ed out of District placements correct and if you want to talk about the there are a few unbudgeted wild cards so all the stuff Connor just mentioned we've already accounted for it in the numbers you're seeing tonight the unbudgeted wild cards
are really about the changing landscape of the federal funding situation which none of us have a crystal ball um but you know we hear about some changes that are coming there um there is a little bit of federal funding that comes into Hatfield um Massachusetts on average
sees about 10% of their budgets will be through Federal funding ours is just just under 2% at Hatfield so there's 153,000 that is assuming that the aid we've been getting consistently will continue maybe it comes from a different
department we'll wait and see um and the budget also assumes that the state will be able to continue to fund the free lunch program for all and it's a commitment that the state has made but we just recognize that they get USDA funding for that program and if that were to go away we might need to see
some in that um historically even when we have students paying for lunch we we see about of somewhere between 15 to 35,000 it's really varied a lot over the years um in costs that we incur for a lunch program
when it's a paid lunch so these are the wild cards that are not sitting in the budget today but is there a wild card that could be a benefit we spoke earlier about our increase in chapter 90 funding so half of part of this the new C tax here in the
Commonwealth goes to Transportation part goes to education what are you hearing about additional money I'm hearing a lot about being funneled to higher education um I'm just curious what you're hearing truthfully we're not hearing
much of a um we're not hearing of of increases for us um from from those from those Revenue sources I I have I I mean I pay attention to it too for ref $100 per student
right something yeah it was it was increased last year it was uh into about to about 70 I believe um but it's we proposal the governor the new Cher sheet is $100 per student yeah so that would be that would be an increase of about $30 per
student of a couple billion dollars realized in it's it's I mean it would be insignificant there's there's a long list of education focused uh State legislation that we're tracking and writing and promoting uh
particularly things that would help change our um special education reimbursements because that would make a really dramatic difference um so we're working on that but you you know how that goes better than any of us I mean
at this time is federal funding guaranteed with all the turmoil that's happen well that's what she was just discussing here a wild the Wild Card part yeah most most of our federal funding that we get as a district goes into special ed cost so that comes through idea um the grants that support
that that support that so um right now um right now we have that in this budget at similar levels and and projected levels at similar percentages for next year um the the hope is and the sincere hope is that that that funding continues
as it's been allocated but again that's that is a wild card but while I wish it was a higher percentage because it'd be nice to have more funding here's the one particular chance that having a low Reliance on those dollars if they go away the Gap is much smaller to fill
yeah I mean we talk we talk frequently about how we are because of the nature of of Hatfield where we are uh and who we are it's we we we tend not to qualify for a lot of federal funding including grants um and as much as we have griped about that
it could position us in a place to be a little more insulated than other M municipalities from any any impacts okay thank you uh the next page here page four um it just talks about Staffing required for for level Services uh the the one
increase that I'll really talk about here is licensed uh teachers and licensed staff the increase reflects an additional uh one additional special ed teacher that we um are are hoping for to support uh additional needs at the elementary school and we're anticipating
those needs will will continue it also shows that we're adding headcounts to the esps as are our support professionals and the reason for that is that we currently have contracted out some of that work we just
couldn't fill it and so we did what we needed to do to serve kids and so we've been working all year to make sure that we will be able to fill those slots um so it changes the headcount but it will be a pretty significant cost savings for us just because the out of
out of District costs are high correct any questions that page you had a what the sixth grade class move up yep corre so you that's how that's reflected on that correct so you'll see a pretty when you look at the enrollment between the two schools there's a little dot
that tracks where the sixth grade goes just we don't lose track of uh you know we're not you know that's part of the reason for the increase at Smith Academy not all of it but part of it so um as we look at the next page I we just
want to give you a very short insight into we continue to work really hard to get better and better at budgeting um and I really have to just share my appreciation for the work that Dr Driscoll and Riley have
done to get us into working with past actuals and a lot of data because it just makes us more efficient at budgeting and a lot more accurate at budgeting um so as we've you know continued to do our homework we just want to make sure that we share some really key stuff that it that reflects
well on Hatfield um the ma rural schools study that they did last year shows that small and Rural districts like us cost 16.7% more than larger districts and regionalized districts cost an average
of 22.7% more um just if you're playing along at home there are 106 rural districts in the state and there are only nine that are municipal so we're one of the last few mun Municipal districts that are rural um but the
upside of that is those tend to be a little bit cheaper than Regional districts um and we continue to be on track for meeting the state average of being half of them of municip budgets so typically rural schools are more than half of the municipal budget and I this
hopefully tracks us to be right continuing on the state average um so as we you we just wanted to capture some of the ways that 26 compareed to 25 but also just to give you some reflection over how this year if we look well back
po sort of pre pandemic numbers where the shifts are coming from Administration is really flat the shift from fy19 is really about where special ed was categorized because our superintendent was also our special ed
director um instruction costs that are up are very driven by special ed other school Services we have a little increase this year for busing you know we talked about this a lot last year if we look back pre- pandemic Transportation costs are up 34% it's a
pretty big hike um facilities were getting better at at estimating for utilities we're finally starting to see a little bit of help from having solar at high school which is awesome but it's it's still you know facility costs are high compared to
where they were pre pandemic um we've cut costs in acquisition and Improvement and then the program with others that's that extra special ed need lot of District tuitions are up um and just a
since pre Cola level service was we're up 311,000 and 115% increase in stad costs relative to that so postca our special ed costs are 75% of our increase and as you I
mean as you all know those are legally obligated services that we're providing to those students and if you flip to the next page page six you can just sort of see um the the increases um specifically
uh specifically around special education year-over-year and so that that's that little the the yellow piece there that you see expanding um and and this is a story that is not unique to Hatfield uh this is a story that's that's playing out across the Commonwealth and really
across the country where we're seeing um pretty exorbitant increases in special ed costs those are both IND District cost but really A lot of the outter District costs um have just just gone through the roof uh that's Transportation that's out of District tuition um th those are things that
again that we are you know we need to need to do but those Co those costs are are increasing so the number of IEPs is dropping significantly but the cost correct right is going up and that some of that is probably Transportation depending on where the outof district
placement is correct so some's Transportation some is tuition for out of District placements um and and some of services that we we Pro we have to bring people in to provide as well um and as you as you said you can see that the the percentage of students who are
on I APS is going down um which is is good it should be going down towards that that 20% Mark uh which is kind of kind of the state average um but the cost of services associated with iaps is is increasing um and again that's that's
not a not a Hatfield specific problem that that is playing out everywhere uh and and one one of those things as Christie mentioned that is is sort of top um you know at the front of people's mind Minds The politicians Minds in in Boston about looking at the funding formula looking at legislation that can
support this because that's you know this isn't isn't a rural or Urban School issue this is just a a generalized Public School issue um and so that's one place where they're looking that they could they could support um support schools more if we if we SK uh head to the next
page page seven we're looking at um enrollment and so uh as as we mentioned before uh we're continuing to work towards uh growing our enrollment both at Smith Academy and as as well as at the elementary school um we have we're offering those Innovation Pathways we
talked about uh as far as I I can tell in my my admittedly kind of limited research I I believe we are we may be the the first um First District to be able to offer concurrent enrollment courses certainly in this area possibly in in the whole
state where we are offering uh our own staff to get certified to teach college level courses inhouse um which would be a real feather in our cap um We are continuing to expand on our after CARE program at the elementary school uh that's a robust program now we serve about 50 or 60 students on average uh
every every day um and we are expanding those those um kind of enrichment opportunities as well um we are we've partnered with a um an outside firm to to look at um marketing specifically for
schools to uh increase both retention as well as attract new students and we're starting to see uh some of those early results we had five uh five families reach out last week uh both at the elementary and secondary level to get more information um in addition uh
currently right now for next year we have 28 students who have applied for school choice uh and uh and have been accepted we are at a a weit list in class but right now we have 13 of those families who have already accepted and last week was really the first week um
where they that would have been formalized but 13 additional families uh have already accepted school choice for next year um so we really are poised um next year or to to be have the first year where we've seen our enrollment
increase from the previous year since uh 2001 have you told students or current families to ask about we students leaving we have uh we haven't haven't done a formal polling like you know are you staying are are you going um but
we've we've talked to them uh we've heard uh we have right now I think we have nine applicants for Smith vocational for next year um but we've heard anecdotally from a number of those students that they applied but they're planning to stay um so we're anticipating probably probably five students for Smith vocational for next
year which would be uh a decrease um and we've we've heard um we've heard from from some families that they're considering options at the uh Elementary School too but we've also heard from some of those that we we heard kind of through the grap Vine and conversation with them say no we're we're we're
staying so U we're we're hoping that we can um as well as attract new students retain those that we have for example one of the grades that's doing really well in terms of keeping is seventh grade so the sixth graders that are moving up along with the kids behind them is really good
retention which bodess well and and that's also one of the Great levels where we have a high number of school choice applicants as well those transition years one last here so where are these commercials and
stuff show showing it's online which is yeah a lot of it's targeted online um and there will also likely be some kind of commercials appearing on like streaming services as well so um still online but you know if you're watching
landman or something you may see a quick quick spot for us it's not targeted us no I know that nobody watchs watches TV or reads a newspaper anymore the the beauty of that though Daryl is that it can be really
efficient I mean add costs are low oh absolutely I I I I applaud it the other thing early enrollment has shown us is that we can support two preschool classes next year um we in fact I think we have a waiting list of one already
and that so we had one preschool class this year we're going to bump up to two next year and they're both full already um so that's great news and the numbers behind them from the Census Data show that the following years will be able to
continue so it's not a one-year flip which happens sometimes it does indeed but I think we're we'd like to hope that this was just sort of the covid blip was small and then we're getting back um and we we have found that we
historically have more kids than show up on the census in town so so the last page here page eight is um where we we look at the kind of the total piece um so we talked about the the town increase looking at 2 and a half% um total the increase uh next year
we're looking at 8 8.7% um and that includes the increase uh from um Choice as well as grants and other other uh funding streams that we have um and and really you know that
part part of that is some some really good planning and uh that that we did from last year to look at um you know look at those streams and make sure that we were uh being pretty conservative with where we were spending so we were able to you know able to maintain that number is also just to
smidge high in that it's we've started tracking some other Revenue sources that and putting them into the budget where they probably should have been and haven't um so things like our revolving accounts yeah are are accounted for in that increase where that's just there
it's not quite Apples to Apples things like athletic revolving after after care preschool those preschool doubled from last year so so that's where we are are there other questions that Connor Adam and I
could answer I mean was very thorough presentation I don't have any other questions and special thank you to Greg for coming and sitting in on negotiations which has been great we'll see you tomorrow Finance yeah that's no not much
has changed since the last time we talked about it we just got the cult like we just managed to get all the negotiation related expenses in that wasn't that's good no it's I I didn't wasn't hoping a lot would change honestly yeah you know I have to give credit to the teachers the Hatfield
Teachers Association for really being thoughtful in their asks and mindful of what Hatfield can afford to do yeah so it's been a really Pleasant negotiations period great to hear so so sorry oh go
ahead no we were just G um just for our next finance committee meeting we're going to talk about um capital yeah and what is going to need to be done I'll be back because we have some Capital issues at the schools
particularly that we're going to have to put on the table so that are not part of the capital plan no everything the school has for capitalism on the capital some have been on the capital plan for no I I'm well aware so we we have what I think is probably our last Capital
planning meeting tomorrow night indeed it's a two for night oh you have for me not for yeah so okay we're at 5:30 right and you're at what time uh contract stuff is
at 4 oh at four okay so before okay so if I come in real you'll know well I hope you get it resolved tomorrow yeah that'll be nice that'll be good it'd be great to get it you know out the way for this process you know so
we don't have to that was our goal be done before the bu it needed to be passed so that just wasn't a scramble later yep great I mean it's pretty straightforward thank you thank you guys we'll continue
putting a budget together and we'll let you know where where everything lands right great it's it's part of the overall picture we understand part of the process thank you are you guys staying or do we have anything else I thought it
was just the schools tonight it's all it is on our agenda all it is great thank you thanks it's almost light out almost sort of iird Ed just needed to um take a quick
break thank must be I'm back okay so the next order of business this evening was a scheduled executive session um and Mr Smith the subject of the executive session did appear earlier
and ask us ask us to hold this in Open Session um so this board was presented with a letter from the Hatfield Housing Authority um that was read publicly at the last meeting correct
um that basically outlines um Mr Smith's failure to carry out duties as a commissioner um breach of fiduciary duty violation of bylaws and policies as well as a qualification lapse um so the purpose of the executive session was to
discuss those matters um sure come on up well like to introduce uh attorney Steve Linsky he's a family mediator and a former select and from Brook line no
no no no better than that served on the uh what was then known as the board of Alman they changed their name the city council in Newton and for 12 years I've served on okay great welcome thank you yeah
um if I could start I'd like to read um a statement that I'll submit to Andrew afterwards okay uh let's see Hatfield Board of Selectmen um I am submitting the following matters and conditions at Kaa
won Elder housing prior to my term prior to my term as commissioner ending in May I believe they are important and should be addressed I have brought each of these four items to the attention of the housing
Authority and it is unfortunate these matters continue to be ongoing and unresolved and to have uh resulted in animus between uh HHA board members leading to these items being brought
before you one plumbing repair at capwalk sewage continues to back up from the second floor into the first floor apartments in the four years I've been on Housing Authority this has been a problem I brought this up to executive
directors and at the authority meetings and this seems to be a problem that needs to be addressed as it is a health issue repair of crosswalk signal light as a concession for not accepting a grant to increase safe onsite parking at
kwalk the HHA got an agreement with the town to move the crosswalk down on School Street near the Town Hall Parking entry and install a Crossing signal light that Haj got a grant to have
installed this Crossing signal has never worked properly as when it is turned on by a pedestrian the light flashes only on one side of the street when I brought this up to my fellow uh
ajj Commissioners they refused to bring this to the select board as they felt it was a town problem my own on my own over the last two years I have alerted the select board at select board meetings and to
this day this repair has not been made several kawok res uh residents have nearly been hurt or killed by cars not stopping especially those with Walkers and wheelchairs item three Recon consider
the heat pump Grant in the spring of 2023 the state offered a 100% Grant to install heat pumps Capa walk has uh has 42y old baseboard heating and no air
conditioning heat pumps would provide more than a 30% reduction in electric cost as well as cooling for residents the select board Appo the select board appointed HHA commissioner objected to
heat pumps for aesthetic reasons because the Plan called for 44 outside condenser units the state reworked the plan and presented a plan that used only 11 outside condensers and again in January
2024 the HHA voted to turn down a heat pump Grant of $487,000 by a vote of 3-2 the reason stated by the no voters was that the they felt the heat pumps don't
work yet next door at our town hall we have installed heat pumps throughout the building and have only and and not only have saved taxpayers thousands of dollars in energy costs they have been proven to work heat pump grants are
still available and now with a select board HHA com commissioner on on the authority heat pumps should be reconsidered four move Kaa walk to safer ground as a
member of our uh 2022 to 2024 master plan also known as a comprehensive plan over those two years we learned from the engineering environmental Consultants that should a
flood occur again similar to that of 1984 our Town Hall schools safety buildings and Kaa walk would be flooded halfway up their first floors the town and Haj emergency plan is to put kon's
48 residents on a bus and drop them off in the parking lot of the former bowling alley on routes 5 and 10 and drive away we need to have a better plan we need to be proactive and seek grants to move Kaa
won to Higher Ground while at the same time offer additional affordable housing to the more than 700 people on kaan's current waiting list copy to Andrew on this so by the
way before I go on I'd like to point out that the Housing Authority has a quum present and they are not posted they're not speaking won't be an issue as long as we don't have a majority who uh a quorum who would uh speak on the
matter as long as they don't deliberate we're fine so I would I would say we have two who are deliberating I have been on the on the Housing Authority since September you have not come to a single meeting so if those things are of that great a concern to you I don't know why you're
not coming to meetings I don't know why you haven't renewed your quality ifications you let your qualifications no I'm going to speak now okay so you've let your qualifications lapse you're not showing up at meetings we have plenty of documentation here
about your bullying toxic immature ignorant and angry behavior at meetings unprofessional um obsessive requests for information trying to paralyze basically the people running the
institution so it's not not been a healthy relationship you have not put forward your best foot in terms of being on this Authority you don't even show up at meetings so I'm not sure why you want to continue on why are you on our board I'm on the
board actually because you came to me and said that the board wasn't functioning right but I was smart enough to do some homework and I spoke to the other people on the board and the people who have left the board because of your toxic Behavior that's true it is true
it's not true this is here it is true okay one one if I might was that the position now you took the position of the governor Governor's appointee is that correct yes state appointee that is correct right was that
position posted publicly because the town clerk tells me it wasn't the the town clerk told me it was there was a vacancy that was posted for an uh Kyle Scott's position the governor's position was to be uh there
were two applicants that filed with the governor's office they did not act yes within 180 days that's right but that meant that was all cleared to Our Town Council Our Town Council let me finish it's our meeting it was cleared to Town
Council right Our Town Council reviewed everything so you didn't have to post position so I and and I got on that board to help make sure that that board started functioning and that people were not abused at meetings and insulted at
meetings and the meetings weren't taking two hours so that's why I got on the board and things are running very well which you would know if you ever showed up I did you didn't show up October and until you uh shoehorned yourself onto
this I didn't shoehorn myself onto it I got onto there just didn't you do do it legitimately I did do it legitimately it was all cleared through applicants that were already there I it was all cleared through Town Council obligation to have to consider those those applicants NOP
okay there you go there you go two applicants there would have been Mr Smith is saying there were applicants at the state we wouldn't have known that those were applicants they didn't apply locally the state chose not to appoint them and there was a vacancy we acted within our again I beg the question
why did you insert yourself because I knew that I could make a change there and make a positive change there that's why making it that's why okay this is why I did not uh show up
because after the October meeting you did this I did you inserted yourself on this board AB you and I have history yeah you and a lot of people have history your position you and a lot of people have a history I
have a file of your history so the board is functioning very peacefully now things are getting done and you you have not you have not um upgraded your or you know renewed your qualifications so there's a
qualification lapse that's I'm sorry there these people back here it it the current chair didn't didn't take the the uh uh training until last year you know
EXA okay so this is the hostility that's been created no the hostility has been taken care of Mr Smith there's no hostility on the board anymore the board is functioning quite
nicely actually it's been hostile since I was uh written in to serve on this board since 19 since 2020 well I wasn't involved at that point you weren't I was not involved at that point but the people who were involved have have
submitted some some um you know how come wait a minute if if you have all this why wasn't it presented to me as part of the packet that was s was dropped off at my house by Officer Clinton on Friday afternoon this is all
information you've seen before it is not I'm under the happy to share it with you there is no obligation to have to we're happy to share it with you is that right okay sure yeah Cara since the last time I was here uh
the Housing Authority had their annual PMR Performance Management review the only findings that we had were uh due to um uh where where we received corrective
action and it was because of uh Mr Smith's failure to do his uh certification um I have that document here I just got it if the select board would like to see
it I'm happy to provide it to Mr Smith and to the the you could get that to Andrew and do you want to see it now or do you want me to just email it yeah I think you can send it and would you love to see it Mr
Smith sure I I took the training 90 days after I uh you were required to take it every two years that's not true by the way it is true actually unless that changed Reon uh board member training corrective action um it's because you didn't take
it and you never shared that with me either well you signed that you would do it as a commissioner it's not my responsibility oh really okay now do you understand the hostility here I don't see it's not H it's not from me it's
not okay things I pointed out to you earlier have been ongoing are you okay with the sewage from the second floor backing up into the first floor Apartments you're okay with that I have no knowledge of
that Cara do you have knowledge of that no ma'am I have not had any inces where sewage is backed up since I've Mr melanowski knows they know they know the only incident that I had Plumbing wise is um where we had a faucet issue that we had to replace um and I'm sorry uh
just to go back and revisit um the comment that the the state said is uh to refer to uh public housing notice 201705 chapter 235 section 5B States
upon appointment and reappointment or election and reelection all members shall complete a training program as developed by the department within 90 days of assuming the member's position and complete the training program every two
years I did the train um so that's where we're at I've two yeah so on that so and it was emailed do what you want here okay the thing of it
is I came on this board I did not run for it I was written in for it there were Decades of corruption on that board I came in to try to resolve it I tried to deal with safety
issues I I I go to lunch with residents there and they tell me terrible and they're very frightened to speak up okay I I don't see that at at all they come to meetings they we we chat before we
chat after it seems very pleasant yeah but they don't talk about issues because they're concerned that they may be removed from living there they okay all right I I I do not believe that to be
true see yeah political retribution wow that's amazing for what what do you I don't even know what you're I worked for sabadosa this is what this is all this is what it's all about it is not what it's all about Lindsay was at my event the other day like this has nothing to
do with that Chris this has to do with believe it or not your behavior at these meetings consistently over and over that's I have attended all the meetings right up till October and you and here's where I ran into a
real problem okay the Northampton housing submitted three documents two of which were unreadable one was incomplete regarding the services they were going to provide at that board you weren't there
at that meeting I said to my other two colleagues we can't vote this and they went ahead and voted It Anyway is that fiscally responsible I ask you really because I don't think
so in in in May of 2023 Mr malanowski and Miss shelle proposed a motion that would not allow us to meet virtually because covid was decided to be
over okay the policy was voted and then come this July past July all of a sudden Mr malanowski is calling is doing virtual
meeting and then in August and then in September I didn't see him again until October in violation of that policy okay I'm not sure is is as Alex allowed
to speak I wouldn't Rec I think that would constitute a it's notos to so the fear of Retribution goes both ways because there's a letter here um you know from from Miss leopard that
she fears she'll become a Target after speaking out about some of this look there's been a complete breakdown Chris of your relationship with with the the former members of the board I don't care about your relationship ship with me that doesn't matter I'm here to make
sure that the Housing Authority can function it wasn't functioning okay so I'm there to make sure it's functioning we've now appointed Susan slish who will be coming to the next meeting um I believe I I know of someone who's taking out papers
to run as well so ask let me ask you about that why are you interrupting me because you mentioned Susan sliss yes why did you not consider the from last fall a Betty snow I know I
know Susan Susan works with a lot of elderly people in town and I felt she was the better candidate so it was your choice well no it was a decision of the entire board they had you considered the other applicant um I mean of course I
consider materals I have the materials the Noti I get wait a second whoa whoa settle down okay we considered the applicants and we picked the one we felt was best we it is
within our perview to do that so why is this the Housing Authority sending out a notice that says they're confirming not coming to a joint meeting they're confirming the appointment of Susan
slish prior to you doing that and that we are to confirm it at the February 13th meeting I mean this is ridiculous it's not ridiculous it is I don't know anything this has to do with your bul right exactly you're deflecting this is
all just deflecting how come back in the fall when she did this started the executive session when I fixed why didn't I receive a written notice like I did for this one that was
exactly what you're talking as you know that was an overs totally at a loss on this I have always totally at a loss on this B voice I have no with these people there's no there's no you know I like I
said when I came on this board it's always been hostile toward me I have made suggestions I made I brought up ideas I pointed out issues and I you know bullying it's the
other way around no it's that's I'm I'm sorry to say Mr Smith you don't know I do you can't speak I do know oh I can speak it's my meeting yeah yeah I know you yeah that's how you work okay I think you know what go ahead
do your do your next thing right Dad go for it are you going to remove me be I'm done in May right right there's could be no removal tonight if you did choose to remove Mr Smith um it would have to be with a
hearing with two weeks notice so we could cons you could consider if you'd like to do that as he mentioned his term does end in May um however if you think the conduct does rise to the level of needing removal that's an option available to you I mean I
do of course you would I believe that that was the sentiment of the Housing Authority as well from you yes well you're gonna get it from me too because the housing came and they know what's going on and everything I've heard from you you don't
like it when they don't agree with you on everything right that's that's that's been your argument about everything conversation yes we have listen to me not on that stop it I I I've listened to what you said and I didn't interrupt you and you were
talking about every time you felt that they were ganging up on you or whatever it was because they didn't share your opinion that's all and it's good to have different opinions on it is right but that doesn't mean that there should be retribution if
they don't agree with you the I mean the behavior was so so difficult that other good members of that committee left three of them three of them and so I just decided it was time to just stop the Hemorrhage right and make that
committee function and so that's what I came on and that's what I did let's let's fun let's get the facts Street one of those three was removed by the ethics State ethics commission how's that I don't have any documentation on
that all right the other two Mr wils left and I got along they're not here so we're not going to go into them specific well he had nothing I don't think he would have written anything bad about me Chris you haven't been to a meeting since October right okay your
qualifications have no well I mean I think I went in was at the October Mee you've never been at one where I was right um because you put yourself on later didn't you say for doesn't matter
anyway um and your qualifications have lapsed um you know the test is the same it doesn't you know but I for years if that was a rules AR remove these you would remove all the rest of them because they didn't take
the test until last year they but they're currently covered by I see the tests it's only now all right they're they're currently their qualifications are not laed correct car correct
right so I mean it would be it my preference to do a hearing or a removal that's my preference I mean obvious clearly there's just been a breakdown where this is not going to function well with you on there it it wasn't before the
behavior was horrendous you're using not I would be careful on your terms you're using horr really really how about showing some leadership I am showing some leadership I stepped in you're you're saying here
say things you're calling my behavor bullying and hearsay when I have been the minor voice in this whole thing whenever I Chris I to say it but you're not the victim okay and and I have stepped in I have showed leadership you
came to me and said oh you know this is so terrible I yes you did we were downstairs and I said you know what maybe it's time we step in and you said oh great and then I had some conversations with some other folks and now I'm on there and it I am showing leadership I'm on the committee the
committee is functioning the meetings are Pleasant the meetings are productive work is getting done that's leadership Chris yeah yeah and we got we we got up till October renewed our contract with Northampton okay I just pointed out you
don't sign a contract is a elegible and be incomplete okay we signed that contract correct I would not have part of that but I you aren't we're autonomous board you aren't in fact you really don't have authority here
okay my question really is this if things were so bad why the hold on why did the Housing Authority not do the executive session on their end weren't they unable to find a quorum
like weren't they trying to have a meeting but it was they were because you were never showing up at anything they had three they had three members they had three members at the time Chris I've said what I need to say and I do not
believe that you can be a member of this board and and and function and be professional and treat people with respect so I don't think you deserve to be on the board so it would be my opinion to yes have a hearing to remove you to protect the other members of the
board and to protect the residents of Kang to protect the yeah from your behavior oh my God are you stoop that low it's not stupid low your behavior has been terrible at previous meetings
really how do you know this were you there because I've spoken to people people that I know and trust I have you there I christop not there Christopher you can't speak this way oh I can I can I think you should recuse
yourself because of your animosity and your obvious Prejudice toward me Chris you should not vote on this matter came to me and said that the board wasn't working that's not true and so that's when I started doing myor have
a witness that I that's when I started doing my homework that's not true that Chris yeah I think you should it has nothing to do with you personally if you if you were doing this properly you would recuse yourself right
now we've gone this with Council I have we have why would I recuse myself anything to do with you because you are still angry that I would that I supported over you I could care less
who you supported okay I didn't really like you even before that you're not a particularly likable person yeah and I've known you since unal who lived across the street from you I did live across the street from you Chris a long time ago that's
right a long long time ago I think we're getting too personal on things at this point I would agree I think you see how Christopher behaves at meetings when he's pushed and he's challenged thank you
you well by a woman maybe no why you no I think it has to do with that so I I think we have a here the go through the required hearing do it all how we're supposed to do it and remove Mr Smith
from the board he doesn't show up anyway and his qualifications have lapsed it's my feeling this to be clear you're not voting tonight no we're not Vo tonight but we would have to make a decision if we're going to do that correct you would have to decide to have
a a hearing a hearing that would be my decision I don't see how this relationship would work your jurisdiction is so the select board does have the ability to remove a member so an electing member yes they have the that
Authority Under uh chapter uh 121b mgl chapter 121b section 6 so that's what they'll have an effect we'll draw up the a letter and you'll be receiving that did you want to
weigh in at all I do want to point out that we have over the months gone through legal to make sure that we're following all the correct procedures we did have a meeting a while back and I
believe the that you were contacted we were told you had been gotten a phone call but you didn't you didn't come to that meeting which when we met with the Housing Authority we ended up not being able to have a meeting because you
hadn't been given notice because we were told by the director at that time that you had been called or contacted via email or phone or some way anyway anyways I mean I've known you for quite
some time I've always gotten along with you I think you're very individual but what I've read so far you really haven't been a team player with all the other members I I've talked to a bunch of people and I mean sometimes you
can win sometimes you lose you got to be able to compromise and I'm I'm sorry to see that you haven't been able to compromise with your committee I know you you were passionate about the heat pumps and for some reason they didn't go
through with the heat pumps and I think that maybe true you upset you and got you really going on this I I don't know if that was it but you can't win every war I mean you can't you got to pick your battles and and right now it's like
you're ready to fight everybody so I mean and you're I I have no fight with you Ed yeah I mean it's it's like you fight with great yeah there well it's it's gotten personal and that's not it's not professional suggesting she recused herself when you I'm not recusing myself
this is not this has I'm sorry Greg Ed go ahead no it's it's when you start letting your emotions get involved you stop stop being professional on this and looking at things objectively I mean there's there's a lot of hostility in
this room right now and it we need to take it down a notch and relax and look at it from a perspective so just let me finish my ter you're not going to meetings your qualifications have laed the animosity is is it's now that we have a full board
I'll be at the next meeting we'll have a hearing I guess about it well right now with the hostility that you have towards all the members if you go to the next meeting you will you be professional or will you be still anger anger and hostile and man theyve
not been unprofessional at any of the Housing Authority meetings what I've read I believe there's been some cases to Pro I don't believe that to be true good based on what you said based on many conversations with many look at the
minutes look at how things go we at the Quorum we do votes we go through the agenda I've heard enough tonight okay so I would like to pursue a hearing in two weeks I don't I mean it's not up
to just me it's up to my colleagues too but I'll draw up a letter with uh Town Council we'll make sure to review the process with him and then we'll make sure that scheduled at the right time I just want to make sure they want to move forward with it like forward that I I don't know anybody here very well
so I'm just hearing what's going on and I don't think that the Housing Authority can function well you on it the way things are going well thanks great I think there's a lot of hostility and it's not it if you went back on it I
don't think it would function well I got to be honest with you I'm sorry I'm the only member that actually cares about the people that live there that's a ridiculous statement that is that right there shows exactly what I'm talking about that is a ridiculous statement but
I I can tell you up till October that was my sense of it I just I I don't I doubt I I did the best I could I tried to move the thing the the items I I presented in the beginning I tried
to get the sewage problem dealt with I tried to get the the lights out here to work I know the lights that we had filled took care of it I remember the contractor came back about um three weeks ago to work on those lights to fix
them and we were told at that time that the lights were fixed I've used them crossing the street they they seemed to work when I used them well that's great I hope that get done and we've never heard anything about a sewage backup over there that was a one instance or whether it's
ongoing or whether I've heard it from several tenants there yeah and I do have lunch with them every week so I have lunch with them sometimes too sometimes I do it every week when we have volunteer committees we need we
need committies to work together as one and and get along with one another and I mean right now I I do have all this information I have talked to people and I mean you had a couple people quit and they we're not happy
with good people are they unfortunately okay so I I don't yeah to be honest don't take this the wrong way but if you go back on a committee for two months it's it's not going to work because you'll be you you bring your hostility
towards them I just got to be honest with you on that yeah yeah sure thanks P okay do what you want oh I I'll move with a
hearing so you'll get a notice yeah it's more than I usually get thank you thank you for being here Mr Linsky okay see you later thank you so I believe that was our last order
of um business tonight so I will take a motion to adjourn make a motion to adjourn motion made and second any further discussion oh the only thing I wanted to bring up is we're having uh the five and 10 people come and and give
us an update this month is on the 24th yep okay are we going to notify all the residents that they'll be here and yeah we we definitely should okay with that being said then I will I'm done with my
discussion so motion was made all those in favor I I