okay great um good evening welcome to the March 25th 2025 meeting of the Hatfield select board I'm going to go ahead and call the meeting to order and as usual I'm going to open the meeting by reading our public participation policy the Hatfield select board welcomes everyone to its meetings and
all other public meetings of the town of Hatfield all regular and special meetings of the boards and Committees of the town of Hatfield shall be open to the public and shall conform to the open meeting law executive sessions are closed to the public and will be held only as prescribed by the statutes of
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts it is important to recognize that the open meeting law affords the opportunity to listen to the proceedings but not necessarily participate during meetings of the select board an attempt will be made to find a balance between hearing from members of the community and
conducting the required business of the Hatfield select board so we usually um start this with announcements we do have um I just had one small did you think of something you looked at me like maybe a light bulb went off so um I just wanted to make
sure people know it's um open Burning Season so um of course a permit is required um and so you'd need to reach out to the um fire department um to get a permit and then you also have to get permission to burn find out if it's a burning day so just wanted to remind people of that so um this public survey
from the op opioid settlement funds task force Andrew did you want to yeah I'll touch on that quickly so we have an opioid settlement funds task force that's been meeting uh six members uh this is to decide how to use the funds that the town is receiving through the opioid settlement uh there's a number of
state approved uses for it um so a number of things we could do um and this group is charged with making recommendation to the select board and how to use those funds they have created a public survey that will launch this week uh most likely uh tomorrow it'll be found on the town's website we'll also
uh be sharing it however we can it'll be shared in in a flyer uh through schools and other plac we'll share the COA and some other folks uh to get some public uh Outreach and some public ideas on how to use these funds uh and get people's ideas on what they think would be useful and what what the best strategies might
be to uh to help use these funds so looking forward to to launching that is put together very carefully and thoughtfully by this uh task force and we're looking forward to this being the first action of the group and moving on from there excellent thank you very much any any nothing nothing okay I'll just
go to the website and do the survey yeah great weigh in it's important um is anyone here for public forum good evening uh this evening I wish to bring before you and the town's people three
items the first is I attended the Housing Authority meeting on March 18th and I am happy to report that it was by far the most productive and ambal meeting in the entire over four years I
have served on this board so I apologize to Diana sized off for stating at the March 11th hearing that I said I felt it was the I was the only commissioner on the authority who cared about the
residence of kalk now based on her actions I can say there are now two Commissioners that do and I'm optimistic optimistic that our newest commissioner Susan zau will hopefully
make it three here is a short list of some of the things we accomplished at this meeting the crossing signal between Kaa walk and town hall now works properly the ongoing sewage sewage backing up
into Apartments has been a tempor L addressed in one building however the plumbing design for kawok remains flawed yet I am hopeful it will be remedied in the near future we approved a grant to upgrade
all Camp Kaa walk lighting with LEDs and add kitchen ventilation replace aged out hot water heaters with modern heat pump assisted new much more efficient ones Diane Ina W wondered about looking at
solar electricity for kaan now perhaps this is something we can discuss in the future but the best announcement was saved for last when our executive director leaper announced she had secured grant funding of
$200,000 to upgrade all Kon buildings insulation and air ceiling which is another item I had long been an advocate for and we finally voted to approve the second item is that I will not be filing
nomination papers for either Housing Authority or select board in the May election as many of you know I didn't run for the Housing Authority in 2020 and that I was a right-in candidate by Town's people who thought perhaps I
could bring Improvement to Hatfield's only affordable elderly housing despite Relentless difficulties I was able to Prevail in getting approval for of a 100% grant for an emergency electrical
generator and add recycling to the waste removal service as a fellow Elder I was able to advocate for uh Kang residents and encourage them to start a local tenants
organization while time is short I would further encourage a cap walk resident to file nomination papers which requires only 20 signatures and so they could beond the town ballot for the Housing Authority or
consider a right in candidacy for the upcoming May election the third item is I received a notice from the select board that they plan to have a hearing on April 2nd to remove me from the Housing Authority this is less than two
months to the end of my term I ask that this hearing be held in Open Session and I submit this request in writing this evening March 25th one of my heroes is John Lewis who coined the wonderful description of his
activism as causing good trouble so I want to thank so many of our community in our community who have reached out to me along with many uh with grateful hugs and I urging and urging me to continue
in public office I ask that our public media record this hearing and broadcast it live I ask that you join me at this hearing on April 2nd at 7 pm to make more good trouble and together we can
improve the lives of our elderly residents at kapaan housing thank you and the request for the Open Session this year thank you the only the only correction I would make is there's everyone on the housing
authority over there including Alex malanowski and Judy shelf care very much about the residents okay thank you okay um is anyone else here for public forum oh John come on
up just like to uh recognize John be just like to recognize aori my fellow classmate for contacting Tom Taro at the American Legion Post 344 and I guess submitting the town to become a Purple Heart
Community am I correct that's a process and uh I was proud to attend Hadley's ceremony last year I think in early August it's a GU the anniversary date that but it's a moving ceremony and we should honor our veterans because uh you
know they provided a lot for us again thank you every thank you Ed for that and for everything you do for Hatfield veterans and making sure we're they're always top of mind for us it's not it's a group effort there's a lot of people that do a lot of work in town and there's been a lot of
people in the past that have done a lot of work in town so it's just not one person I it's it's always been there's no I in team right Mr K well we we thank all of them but we thank you especially because you're sitting here with us tonight so thank
you thank you Ed and thanks John for bringing that up okay that's it for public forum so um because we do have a number of residents here for topic two we're actually going to um skip over topic one just to be respectful of your time and um even though I know these are
thrilling meetings we're not going to make you sit through um other things so if any May perhaps our um representatives from giler and CI would like to come up to the microphone um so um you know the the purpose of
tonight's meeting really is to get an update from you um for our sake mostly for the resident sake um you know spring is coming so we all know that um things will be starting up out there um I'm sure they have a lot of questions I have
I have some questions of my own and I also have two that were emailed to me by um the long streets um that I want to make sure we do ask um but if you I'd like to just give you an opportunity to to speak if that's what you'd like to do because maybe what you're going to say
will answer some of our questions before we even have to ask um I'm gonna basically just touch on schedule so there's a DOT project that started last year that was not able to finish do the area we were working but
they are coming back to work in the section um I think between you it'll be Chestnut and Lind seed I think is the section they're work they need to finish or they're working on they're coming back April 14th so we are planning to
come back our permit allows us out on the road April 1st between the 2D and the 3 of April to do some initial work and then we will be doing full depth Paving uh on the main Lane the
southbound lane uh it's set up for and 10th of April so we're going to do the paving restoration and all that get out of the road to allow them to do their work the one thing I don't have is how long their
duration is I don't have the information that schedule but I'm going to guess it's probably three weeks for them to do that section um and we just I have to work with them and schedule and coordination as far as doing some looming seeding and restoration but I'm
going to do once they come in I might not there's a really good chance might be certain days that I can't work because of the traffic pattern with them so I might have to let them do their structures do their Paving do their striping and then I come in and do the
looming and and seeding and clean up and then lastly would be the uh the lay down area would follow suit after that and Michael and I spoke to to be safe we should be cleaned up and seated back to normal uh prior to Memorial Day that's
the the work area that's behind yeah behind 40 53 or 47 is it so um so the cleanup and restoration of you called it the lay down area yeah
correct that'll be the last thing so after one of other's gone we're looned and seated we're going to clean that area up and you you said May 15th yeah our our plan is to have it the loan back and have it seated for you know by
Memorial Day weekend which is the end of oh right okay so is there any piping that's still left that has to be done there is one piece that just recently came up uh so all of the mainline sewer and the
associated uh laterals for the individual properties were put in those are all complete uh uh Brock whith recently changed management or had a change in management and
previously we had the ability for them to sleeve a sewer Force M from their property on Chestnut over through the abandon water Ms and then if essentially
be able to discharge into the new sewer on West Street the previous uh management team had decided not to pursue that so we had not completed that uh it was decided to set that aside and not spend the money on a
connection that wasn't going to be used the uh new management team now wants to do that so this just came to light in the past couple weeks uh we're jumping on it uh it's going to get done as part
of this first initial remobilization at the beginning of April so that that cross trench right in that area which it will require is going to end up getting uh flowable fill which is a mass do
requirement is this on Chestnut Street or does it cross it it crosses diagonally from their property on Chestnut Street almost going du West the old there's the old barn the
numbers is where on the hous is the so the White House past USA heading south there's that old barn across the street yeah there's we installed the sewer manhole into the old water M so we had the location and that so in theory they
could sleeve to that but there's no last year when we installed we had asked because there was a drawing about doing a connection and I'm like are we doing this are we not and Michael had reached out with them and they said no we're not interested so we didn't put that in so
now we're going to go up after this and look in the field and see what's the best option to get their sewer across the street into the into the gravity because it's on the opposite lane so besides brockway's connection is there
any other connections at the pumping station at the pumping station then when will that uh the electrical and that be all completed because I know wires are still hanging from the pole I I don't know if it's been tested and the other question would be has any of the line
been tested and where we are at that was one of my questions too yes I'm happy to report that the entire gravity line was tested and is deemed acceptable at this point uh the contractor we also I think
back in the fall had identified issues with the electrical subcontractor and the permanent control panel and such for the pump station so we were pushing them to get the pump station just you got to get it online as soon as possible because some
of the delivery dates for equipment that they were talking about electrically were like now and later into the spring and we're like we just can't wait they several weeks ago got everything
set with the temporary essentially a temp temporary electrical service and temporary electrical controls we did test uh and start up the pump station equipment uh so that all
passed uh the one thing and it's just kind of overlapping schedules right now coincidentally the electrical subcontractor did receive the last piece of equipment that he was waiting for so he is in a position to install the
permanent electrical enclosure the permanent electrical service the uh local electrical inspector has checked it out and it is just waiting on
eversource to run the permanent underground uh electrical service to that panel so if everything goes well at this point that should be done and running by the end of
April to to the point where I'd be saying people could start contacting uh contractors for whatever work is required on their property and as part of that we can work
with the town to figure out how best to get the information to Residence to each of the property owners on where that connection point is for the for their property okay so and then that once that pump station is all actually functioning all
that fencing and everything can down because that looks fencing's gone oh it's gone now no I was going to say drive by it every day I thought it was still there no just because of the temp electric right leave yeah leave that up so we're it's basically in the hands of
ever source to get get the me Permanent meter in and but everything functions as it should and it's a plug-and-play item basically so Ed did sorry well so since you're just waiting on the Brockway piece people could still when you're
ready when you say end of April possibly tie in to the sewer and use the sewer at that time correct correct and the Brockway connection's going to be done because that is in the section that's going to be final paved through giler's contract and
through Mass do for the other so we don't want any disruption of the pay pavement that's done so Ed actually asked two of my questions so thanks for that but I was curious about the cross trenches but I'm
assuming that's all GNA because some of them are you know really it's not a pleasant ride out there that'll be part of the do they're temporary so everything that you feel is a temporary patch and some have been there for for a couple years because of the
fold up so those are all that's like the first thing that well the Brockway and the and those cross trenches heading north are getting addressed with first and then we're going to jump over to do the full full depth um and I mean so
right now you're anticipating uh completion by at least the end of May is that what I'm hearing and so the pile and stuff that's at the long streets
behind their property your uh site there uh when will and at that same time that will be brought back to its original condition correct uh by the end of May is that what we're saying correct okay so um
I'm so by the end of May the project should be completed the pipe should be in you should have the Brockway piece the Landscaping should be done and everything should be cleaned up it it's it's a timing originally the dot I think they were
going to go out in May so we were trying to go you know and this is all going on through the winter but their schedule the paving contractor's schedule moved so I got caught wind to this about a week ago that they pushed it up so what it's going to be is we do all the road
work do everything that we can we have to kind of get out of the road let them do what they have to do and then we have to go back instead of me being able to do my road work clean up the you know the lay down area because there again with them doing all the work getting in and out of the lay down area might be
and you're going to be starting to road work pretty soon so they can do the paving right yeah April 2 or April 3D because a permit allows me April 1 correct so one of I we did get an email from the long streets and I just want to make sure that so I understand you'll be
cleaning up back there but you know he mentions a lot in here about you know sort of the wind and the soils being blown around will that be seated it to avoid that okay so all the Lo we stripped the LOM off it's in the back in a pile that's one of the piles you see so we clean up we need to use that
staging area once we do the paving aspect and then once that's cleaned up the loan we're going to subgrade that the loan will get spread back down and we're going to reced it yeah okay and then um you know he he further asks when will the contractor restore front Lawns
to the condition they were prior to the beginning of the pro project I had decent enough top soil have a suitable Green Lawn right up to the road now there is various rocks construction debris Etc that I would hate to see them just cover over with soil will they be
removing this debris before they lay down the fresh top soil can can I I just want to second on that because a year ago whatever seed was thrown down on my the front of my lawn
but it wasn't red in it was wasn't like it needs to be raped it needs to be Hydro seeded and stuff because whatever was thrown down nothing has it's a mess no that'll be corrected yes that's going to happen like I said I don't know the
paving schedule but I would guess it's going to be you know in sometime the early miday so there's about a week's worth of restoration to to get that squired away so you're saying that they would that those those front lines that sort of yeah we need
when we paved and we cleaned up for the winter we just pulled some of the soil and the material that's there yeah so that needs to be removed and in LOM installed correct okay if I put if I put LOM on it would be too high and you'll be doing the whole rout again like the
seed that was thrown down on my lawn last year it's not like okay now you're done with 35 what what house are you at the green 35 West Street yeah your driveways to the left correct house yes yeah so yeah you're from starting at your driveway and your
neighbor's driveway we we got a restore and head head north yeah so that gets completely redone okay are there any are there any prop anybody here that's south of that that feels they're not properly restored I'm at 29 which is the first
residential house right across the waxwing and gred we moved in when all this was started so I don't have no idea what the front looked like before um there is a bunch of debris and there's signs down there too from a bunch of the construction so I don't know what will be done there how much of it was from
this project versus yeah I would I would just ask you to take a look at the length of the entire project and make sure that um things are done properly I just add yeah I I'm gonna just I'm sorry I'm just gonna I just
want to make sure that they're done sort of with you're done with your presentation did you other than just one clarification so people are of aware of how this Paving is being done so giler construction is responsible for
essentially restoring the full width of the southbound lane under their contract because that was the area that was Disturbed for putting in the sewer and the water the state Mass doot as part of their
normal Road restoration program is and already had plan to do the northbound lane giler her construction is using the same paving contractor just to make
everything easier all around so just so you're aware it's not all being done under this contract but it will all happen at the same time by the same paving contractor very reputable yes Paving Contractors okay I'm sorry I didn't want to interrupt you but I thank
you for me um ask a question at the end of this and that is that um last year at the end of the paving and I don't know what happened we don't have any idea someone came in and started digging up the road in front of our house and the driveway again and our front lawn and
there was no explanation and I would like to know what happened then and is there and then it was repaved like I think third or fourth time what was it why did you do it and are you is there any reason you do it again and I'll tell you because when you packed up it was
right near the end of the season you packed up and pulled away we had such an overrun of mice in our house that it was incredible and I'm not kidding you we had 13 in the first week and we had to completely yeah I mean it was terrible so I don't know what you were doing or
why you did it would you please inform us come up and knock on the door dial the phone justest tell us what you're doing and why you're doing it when you just show up on a and I don't know what you were doing and so I can't say but you were you out they UNS scabbing the road and in the front of our tree belt
again and onto our front lawn can you tell them what number and what house you are find out I'm sorry to say but yes I can speak to we so we run the mainline and then we fall back and we were connecting laterals but what we had done
is since we had gotten so far north running the mainline we had fallen back and started the laterals from the north and worked in the opposite direction so that's why we were gone and then had the to come back and I think we had an issue there's somewhere in that area I know we
had to we had an issue locating one of the one of where one of the laterals was so that might have been the reason why we were there for two days to dig that up but would there be a reason that mice Were Somehow I can't speak I have mice in my house and every machine on that
job oh vibration mice I don't know they weren't done and we had the mice over on and several other things I found six in one of the machines that ate some wires and we had to have them come out and we had wire it back to there's a lot of mice in that back field
wow lot okay so I'm assuming that there may be a number of other of you who have questions or concerns feel you know just I just have um a few I'm 54 West
Street I'm sorry 58 so sorry so close 58 I just the question the repaving will also include into the driveway that was done okay and then there's a white pipe sticking out and
that was included later and I don't know what the way it sticks right out of the lawn in the front and I'm just wondering if you could tell me if there was some kind of issue that required that or what it would have been from the dewatering system or one of the original monitoring Wells is what it would have been so if
it was a monitoring well that's why it would have got left there so it wasn't there while the water was being pumped out after all of the equipment was removed um about a week or two later uh someone came and um place that pipe out and first it was sticking up about four
or five feet and then someone cut it down to about a foot and it's been like that about a foot sticking out of the ground since you guys ended what house number are 548 58 I I'll have to look into that I can't
I can't give a definitive answer okay um I because I didn't know if there was something we needed to know about and then my only final question is we did receive notice about free hookup for the West Street and I was just wondering when we would expect maybe that to start taking place or how we would go about
making contact for that request well so I mean once you're able to hook up you would need to have your contractor take you know you have to pay the contractor to do do the work but it's the
the sort of going live actually hook actually using the sewer system is is what's free oh my [Music] glory somebody Maybe Just sh at the no what's the serial numbers on the
bills thank you so much thank you very much that's a new one we have this is not oh it's not yours we have we have two years from the date the project is done to right have that
initial that part right so that's correct that's what we voted for so we're waiting to get a completion the actual completion date and we'll go from there for two years to hook up so you don't have to pay the hookup fee to the town but you're still responsible from
your house to to do the hookup and that's the kind of thing there it's good if we all got together and went with the same contractor because we get a better deal if we presumably it's very possible but contractors I talked to said each
house might be a little bit different because of the code so some some Plumbing may have to be brought up the code so I'm not sure if they can give each you know person an exact the same cost it might be you know per foot
outside or something I'm not sure but I'm sure if you get the same contractor he might be able to negotiate uh some some lower pricing which is possible but but don't expect the same price for each residents because each one might have to
be reviewed and they have to look at the plumbing and they have to determine if that plumbing has to be brought up to code and so those might be some of the issues and that's why we wanted to give two years because you know depending on the situation at your house it could be costly so we understand people might
need a little bit of time to be able to afford to do that I just wondering what the warranty or guarantee is on this project that the system is going to operate without any issues because you
know having had a front row seat to this project for four years A lot of people are very skeptical myself included about tying into this project and then having some disaster happen and having sewage
flooding into my basement um so I really I mean what guarantees do we have that this system is going to work properly and if it doesn't what's
What's happen is so I can answer that the Construction contract has a very industry standard one-year contractor's warranty on the entire project from the
date of final acceptance so we are approaching that point uh and that covers everything already we're approaching that point so no no we're approaching the start of that one year yeah we haven't started it no no
problem uh and then just to allay some of those concerns this sewer pump station which is you don't see any of it because most of it's underground uh it has two separate pumps
in it and one of those is a dedicated standby pump so if there is a mechanical problem with one of the pumps it will automatically switch to the other pump uh there is also instrumentation in that
station uh based monitoring the sewage level in that wet well below grade and those levels control the pumps starting and stopping but they also will give alarms to the Wastewater
operators uh if it reaches a point which is way below where it's going to be a physical problem uh it will be an early indication of something's not working right because it should never hit that alarm uh and then if it goes beyond that
it there's a secondary alarm the the fallback if both pumps should fail is the waste water department would end up setting up a temporary pump above grade and essentially have to bypass that pump station right there at that
location that would all be well before any sewage is backing up into anybody's uh House are there backload preventors put in also so it can only go out the house there are not and those do
not typically get used because they they create can create their own problems uh those devices generally only get used where they're really you know the gravity sewer portion
is pretty shallow so it wouldn't take much for it to back up into say a basement uh this gravity sewer and part of the problem for the in you know the long process of getting it installed was because the
gravity portion is very deep it's 20 feet down so that is there is a substantial volume in that pipe the gravity sewer itself a substantial volume in that wet well itself
that it would have to be a very serious backup that somebody was ignoring um before anything happened into a into a basement could flooding flings or whatever yeah they would have
to submerge that pump station which I think there's going to be a lot of other concerns but if if something did happen to the system on the 385th day so the the homeowner is responsible even if it
was something that goes back to the well once it gets past the contractor's warranty period it then becomes no you're now in a situation that's no different than any other existing sewer customer in
town where if something happens what happened and why and who's responsible those are all very case specific things so basically though the homeowner is responsible for paying
whatever happen I mean they're not going to have if there was a sewage backup well if anything happened that was was due to a malfunction in the system beyond that first year well that system is still at that point the system
is the town's system so if I if something happened and it was because this there's I don't want to get into the legal issues because I'm I'm not a lawyer um but that's the realm it would be into
which is no different than any other existing sewer customer in doubt and I mean there's various things that can cause backups that also have nothing to do with the system you know Roots the wrong things going down you know yeah you won't have to worry about Roots ex
except possibly in the laterals which is shallow because the main line is ex it's 20t down um versus there are you know a lot of other sewers they'll be right at that 6 feet you know so that's the realm where it doesn't take much for roots to
plug it up over 10 years or whatever and it backs up into people's basements but that's not the case here with this m once it leaves your property it's a Town's problem to take care
ofen 47 West Street when they first started this project did they know Brock's going to tap to that at first there with the sewer there that's going to be a lot of more sew going into that pipe there oh the sewer main or and the
pump station did account for that because the original plans included Provisions for them to connect and it was only after we were under construction that Brockway Smith said n we don't want
to do that and this this whole project was Des designed to um you know increase capacity for some development on 5 and 10 so there's capacity in the pipes Beyond which just existing right correct I got another question when they do The
Lawns over in my house there rocks and everything black top chunks in there they're going to have to dig down at least six inches to get all that stuff out of the dist can't put the room on top that you got to go down at least 6 eight inches and dig everything out yeah we we were talking about that a few minutes ago and Mr giler assures us that
that that will be removed and it'll be um you know restored appropriately I'll out there watching seen enough stuff going on you you want know what going on um one up and this may not have
anything to do with this project but I've noticed all this work going on at the wastewater treatment plant does that have anything to do with this project okay that's a separate project the uh grades and improvements is it's separate contract separate contractors and it's
all separate got my answer anybody else so it feels like and is in sight and you know I just personally wanna no that's not true but I do I do want to just again sort of thank and
recognize all of you for the the patience that this has taken um to you know to live through this so I know it wasn't easy um and hopefully this will be a much more peaceful summer for you anything else no I I'm I'm happy
we're finally at the end and I know it's been it's been a long process and we did come across a problem with the water and fortunately we were able to go back to the state and get another get some more funding to to fix that without having to
go back to the taxpayers and so instead of the money going to Boston it came to us so I think that was a good thing so I mean we would have otherwise we would have had to ask the town to pay put the rest of that so we didn't so I
mean did you have anything Greg no no yeah I i' I've been out there many days I know it's really a lot out there I'm out there a lot so I know I know how you guys feel I don't know how you lived out there through it all but thank you and hopefully it's over and I I know I
haven't always been the nicest guy with you guys with my emails but I've always had concerns but I'm glad that we're finally getting near the end of this project and and I hope we can finally get completion and the end of May so it
would be nice if we got quick emails you know there's there's a few sort of junctures here of you know next week you're doing some things and just to make sure we're staying on track I mean obviously we could have weather this time of year that might delay things a little bit so just maybe keep us posted
if we sticking to the schedule roughly and I'll coordinate with with you we factored in a couple days in those dates with the paving due to that so in case we hopefully we don't but in case we do we can still get it done
within that like April 14th day you had one more question I just have a question about if um if we would be notified of timelines with the paving because like there was a couple times of Paving like I couldn't get onto my driveway because it was blocked because of the paving so I was just wondering if if somehow it
could be shared like if there's an a portion of the section on last straight like if they're doing um like North sou just like when we might not be able to access well typically on a project like that wouldn't Mast doot put out a message
board they do but the the issue we've got to go seven and a half inches deep in Mass do is typically two or two and a half so once we cut that out in front of the driveway you know we have to go in and do the preparation it's a timing
thing get that cut down and then get the paving contractor in behind us at 10 11 o'clock to get the four inches of black base and then the inch and a half of the next course in based off and with the temperature and then allow it to cool before we put traffic I mean we can get
cars in out of the driveway but putting traffic back on that lane so I'm working with the paving contractor exactly if we're starting in the South or the North or how this logistically is going to be done we're doing it and what chunks
we're doing it in which days so we can I can let the engineering firm know where we're going to start and these are you know you're going to be affected because until it's it's paid there's definitely going to be some people affected because once we cut that out seven and a half 8
inches you know to drive back out the other side so well as soon as you know what different the date maybe give it to Andrew so he can or Tex us so we can get the res get it up on the board we come in initially and do the cross trenches and all that that's isolated so that's
not really going to affect anyone but it's when we do the full depth I know we ran into that problem before we notify people and then we excavated it out to the full depth and 93 comes and they want to leave but but now that things are going to
pick up again in terms of actual on-site activities I can send a weekly update on Friday to Andrew that'd be great and then it can get posted and people know what's coming the next week
exactly ask one question the gentlemen well they're still here who is the point person on the DPW with you now who is is is the Hatfield wait first I have been interacting with Tony lowski um and part of it
was uh the staging area cleanup where all the materials have been stockpiled that's essentially uh one of the well sites is further back so he's always had his own concerns in terms of the restoration of that area so is is that
the acting DPW director or who we no we we don't have an acting DPW director right now he's our water water water superintendent oh okay yeah I was just wondering and then separately we'll be interacting with the Wastewater operators so that as we start up the
pump station that they get trained and exactly what's there all the communication set up for the alarms and they go to those individuals thank you yeah can we just confirm um I know we talked about this a little bit you had to just go back and
check numbers but we're looking good to stay within the budget for this project right now I'll have to coordinate with you separately on that but oh we better be yes yes okay I wouldn't be I start up
my bad emails again yeah I I don't even want to think about that yeah we don't have a source um okay does everybody feel like they had a chance to ask what they needed to ask or say what they needed to say
thank you thanks for coming down it's appreciated Park USA probably and their dri oh yeah sure thank you okay that was great very offici you know getting back to the agenda I skipped right over the consent agenda sorry I
was um so I I think we should take up the consent agenda I just want to add one thing no final payment until we know for sure everything has been completed to our side of action I agree
okay amen yes yeah okay so I do I would do want to take up the consent agenda I'll make a motion to approve the March 11th 2025 meeting minutes um sure no I'll call you it's sorry oh you have
my number right yeah it's kind of round about this but not exactly okay sure call me Tom call me tomorrow uh um consent agenda minutes did you make a motion yes I made
a motion to accept did you second it I'll you made a motion yes I'll second it a motion made in second any further discussion no all those in favor I okay thank you thank you Karen okay so we're g to backtrack now to top topic one
which was um the authorized weapons policy for the police department now you said the the police are not able to come tonight to discuss this yes I I thought they' be be coming but I guess something came up so if they're not here this evening I'll give you a little bit of context and then um if there's anything
that we need to follow up on we can certainly do that so the the context is that the police are um going over their policies and procedures right now they're updating all of them so they have a big book full of of policies procedures lots of different things they will all come before the select Bo but
this one piece of it the authorized weapons policy it's a part of their Pol uh policy procedure and they have new Weaponry that will be coming in shortly and they needed to to have this um authorized sooner before any changes are made uh in their um
their firearms uh they needed this policy approved so it's before you for your approval their plan is to make it effective on uh April 4th of this year this follows most of the the similar policies that have been done by by other uh police organizations across the state
very similar to what's happening in and other uh municipalities um but personalized for Hatfield the pieces that are the most personalized for the Hatfield Police Department are the appendices which describes which weapons they they actually have and what they're
using um so and that's required any of these policies to say you know what it is that that folks are using so um that's a broad outline um I've read through it the police put a good amount of work into this um and you know I asked them you know with the amount of
regul ation in here there's so many things that it requires are you actually doing all this and they can say yes we are this this is taken extremely seriously everything about um certification of of weapons of of uh staff who who need to be certified everything else all that is happening
and will continue to happen uh based on how these policies are written so that's that's what I'll say for context so basically these policies to update and become more standard with other departments in the area yeah and there's been changes in in you know police require ments through post through
through other things through the state uh this would comply with that and it also is updated for uh you know the actual Weaponry that they use I mean it seems like an important enough procedure that they would have been here is there a reason they didn't come uh we know anything about okay I do not I why
they're not here I guess I had some questions about you know it it refers to on or off duty use quite a bit through here so like what why would there be off-duty use of yeah my reading of it was um that it
provided for um a scenario in in which uh uh an off-duty officer could have a weapon on them um I I don't think it's requiring that by any means I think it's just a um you need to have a policy of
of what it looks like if if a officer is off duty and for whatever reason is carrying a weapon so that's that's how I interpret it but that's a it's a good question for the police yeah I mean I I guess I was just curious about well I mean we could approve this and then have them come to a meeting and
answer any questions you have on the existing bylaws or unless you feel it's more appropriate to wait and then ask the questions but these these policies are basically what you're going to see in other departments anyways so is that
true this is mostly just boilerplate stuff with our our speciic specific weapons listed in the back that's correct and vastly adapted from what other departments are doing okay I guess I just so we can have
off-duty officers that are carrying half field issued weapons I don't know if it said half field issued weapons let's see this is um this is authorized weapons and ammunition [Music]
um Personnel authorized to be armed with a firearm or other weapon on or off duty shall carry only those weapons and ammunition issued by this agency or authorized by the chief of police I'm looking to see in the policy what it says is authorized for off-duty
use I'm not sure I see anything firearms and ammunition authorized for both on and off duty use by members of this department are set forth in appendix a m and I don't see any weapons that are authorized for off-duty
use uh in the appendix so I think that that language is there if something were to change and they allowed for on duty for off-duty use it could be added I don't see anything in the appendix that would signal allowed for off duty use right so
it does say okay so just to be clear firearms and ammunition authorized for off-duty use only by me off-duty use only by members of this department are set forth an appendix B which is completely blank
blank okay okay so I see no Weaponry that's yes okay I just wanted to get some clarification on that um but if there's going to be further policies that they're updating I think they should be present to discuss
them okay I'm fine with that if you guys are fine with that did you have any questions no I I spoke to the chief about this and pretty much everything Andrew said was accurate there all the many police departments around here have the same exact one they just change the town name okay then I guess we need to
approve that I'll make a motion to approve the Hatfield Police Department authorized weapons policy effective April 4th 2025 second motion made in second any further discussion all those in favor I topic
three Mr peas did you want to come forward so John is joining us tonight um as a member of the Agricultural Advisory Board I assume um with concerns agriculture related water issues in West Hatfield well staging
area yes in conjunction with the a commission just like to bring up like a community service announcement uh our board is down one member and we just like to you know acquire another member but there's other
boards and commissions that are down we had a I'm on a community preservation committee and we had a couple members that were out because of work or child care and at the end of the meeting I brought up the question of if we have a
student uh seniors graduating that need uh credit to graduate with community service would be ideal time to provide babysitting for our committee members if they so you know choose to I know it's a touchy subject but it could be something
that could be brought up to get more members of our community to involve in committees and and and you know Community work if this babysitting or you know community service for our seniors he even brought the idea up to
uh our Council on Aging director about real seniors that could help pointing at me Mr at me yes but uh but the community across the street you know could be very helpful in mentoring you know young people and you
could get you know family members to do committee work and provide you know as their the ability to govern their Community you know it's a lot of it's in the I got you but that that wouldn't really be an issue for the select board
but um so I'm just curious you this says agricultur related water issues in West Hatfield well lot I think the contractors talked about returning the field back to what it was originally and that's what it should be you know for long streets and the other neighbors in
the area return it back so a farmer could use it right again yeah because I talked with a farmer that was maintaining the field for the town and he said it's a you know productive field it should be returned back to it you know well I'm I I feel like we got some Assurance tonight that that that will
happen I think it's important to realize yeah some people out there had their you know front Lawns involved and some had their front and their back L involved so and and the water issue that I think the board brought up to us uh to look at
a a situation that involved one of our committee members Betsy speeder I uh brought the attention to our director at that time DPW director um Phil at the DPW garage I told him
about a meeting that we're going to have I think was maybe in December and I says that you know come bring Tony uh the Water superintendent because we have some questions to ask no one showed up at the meeting so now that issue is like
at your table because we have some questions and only way you can answer the question is to maybe Tony being the water superintendent or whoever you know with the DPW to answer Betsy's questions and some of our questions on that
matter third one is um in similar construction that might be going on with the dayon Reconstruction and dredging and all that the staging area I think it's 69 Main Street the property the owner was saying that there's going to
be equipment being staged and d That's all been changed John uh we're going in through the school school okay and it's going to be on the school Side School side we've the committee has decided that there's just too
many uh issues with the existing owners so uh it's there's already proposal to go from the school stay on the school side and do the dredging that is a good reminder I do need to follow up the day Pon butter since we had a meeting with them and they were very helpful at
least the owner was concerned about returning the property back to to its original you know grass field I think somebody was mentioned throwing down some rice seed or something like that so that was a concern that owner was president at our last meeting so we're aware of it okay and we're aware the
other owners did come to the meeting and we've made changes in the plan so now it'll be the school school side and everything will be stored on the school side on property land sounds good and then we moved afterwards it's a worthy
project um the right to arm Community science are being worked on and uh hopefully they'll be up in a short time we have a local um a business that will probably be um providing them for us so
it's like a working progress on that so again thank you very much thanks John very much appreciate it okay topic four Julie come on up so not my money that there's a receipt there
though well we'll hang on to it in case anybody yeah that was nice that um so Julie is Julie um is here to talk about pickle ball courts again that's all I talk about so I'm Julie POA
I'm at 31 King Street uh I got a call from John P who said that uh he and John Wilks have been talking about the 11 acres that Hatfield has acquired in relationship to the bike path from Northampton and uh thought that that might be a feasible place for the tennis
pickle ball courts and I contact down Elm Court land yeah so I contacted Andrew and he said that I should start by checking in with you to see if that's worth exploring I thought it was worthwhile to at least you know start the convers
ation on just what are we doing with the rest of that El Court land I think there's there's plenty of options and certainly we're already on the way towards this this DPW um property that that's there that we're working on um but it's probably worth just checking in the fact that
this uh pickle ball courts they were uh approved for funding through the CPC uh in the past $400,000 that we don't know where that's going so thought was worth checking in on that and then thinking about more broadly um is it ELC or what else are we doing with that ELC piece so
this is at least worth checking in on with the sport because you know we were informed by mot that the bike path wouldn't be happening they had deemed it just not safe because of the proximity to the the tracks railroad tracks yeah um I you know I have to say like I don't
know much about the layout of that I was actually going to take a little field trip down there and then when the bike path got um you know I I I didn't go down there um do you know much about that I I've been down there I I went and took a look a while back I I think I'll
have to take another look I mean I mean that's open for discussion right now I I guess we can look at it and and see what the opinion is on on folks I mean it would be sort of hidden because you under the
underpass and it's it's near the town shed so I maybe we do two birds with one stone we need power to that shed we need power to the pickle ball courts if if it went that way it it would be an area
that's it did bothering anybody so I mean maybe that's it's how we want to use that space yeah I mean we'd have to think about Is it feasible is there room for it and then you know uh DPW uh Highway
superintendent estimated there's maybe around three acres in that area that you can actually do something with that DPW facility would take up good chunk of it I know the bike packs been the bike packs been put on hold that they're not
they have to do all kinds of redesigned I mean that's something we can look at and think about I guess would be a great job for a DPW director sure absolutely if you want me to to at least continue those conversations happy to keep that moving
yeah maybe I'll try to get down and take a look at that layout down there possible I'd love to go with you if it's possible to arrange that yeah I I have no idea when I'll when I'll get a chance to get down there I'm
retired but I could be playing pickle ball okay so I mean they are moving it with a new pickle ball facility on five and 10 so that looks like that'll be built before ours right so oh yeah I'm very excited about that
yeah I mean it's not like we can give you an answer tonight but it's an interesting idea that I think Warren's looking into I you know yeah so uh well this is the first we've heard of this so we we gotta do a little thinking about this I
didn't think it'd be like a let's go and build it but I'm I'm glad to hear that uh it's something that can be explored all right I mean Town approved it so we should everything else yeah and it's
been so difficult to find a site yeah yeah excellent it is a little out of the way I I I'll be honest I think it's a little out of the way I mean obviously people would have to drive there um and you know I'm it's pretty isol it could be pretty isolated right out of the way
might be better for exactly well it's certainly better for than too close right there's a so what was the reason I mean from a just a standpoint if someone was hurt down there and you know there there wouldd always be at least four people down there what were the reasons
that they didn't want it down by the Pavilion was there an issue down there um between the baseball field back stop and the and the beginning of the driveway at the Pavilion I think that's town uh the um fire department has their
annual their annual bonfire there oh yeah it's the right the bonfire and I mean there's other things that you know there's parking at bigger events at the Pavilion use that space and all right I'm just trying to remember what that what the issue was yeah yeah right okay
okay well here we go again with excellent thank you thanks Julie you get a chance to let me know about I'd love to take a look at it sounds good we'll be in touch just keep reaching out me it's fine thank you thanks Julie okay so we have just a couple of
well I'm wondering if we could skip since we have Capital planning here um I mean they look thrilled be here but we could skip maybe to topic eight and bring them forward do you does anyone have a problem with
that um is there anyone else here for any other agenda items this curious DPW director appointing an election worker letter of support MVP are you here for any other um oh great just I think going
to Capital Improvement makes a lot of sense okay my Capital Improvement colleagues come on up to the um microphone do you techically have what's that
fine I thinking do you technically have a quorum but it doesn't matter we're not it doesn't matter okay you're not deliberating on anything you're sharing the report you've already written correct yeah they have all the paperwork yes you
distribute it all to everybody so they have y the spreadsheet on all the sum summary things report and the and the um the one pager they don't have the full spreadsheet well no we do we have the the the the narrative the the more detailed
narrative spreadsheet not the spreadsheet with do they need that one for now or they don't need it tonight but they should get it to we should get it to them because has the has the the full scope of the six-year plan so and a lot of the things that are that are scheduled to come up
over the next five to six years I'll get that um first uh as chair of the committee I just want to thank all of my colleagues that are on the committee Christie Diana and kahill who joined us this year for the first time uh we did a lot of good
work took a lot of uh time effort energy to put this together we've changed a little bit about how we pres are presenting the uh projects to you guys uh with a lot more sort of expl explanatory uh narratives so that you can make that decision and when the
finance committee and the sare get together and really get down to Brass tax of putting things together for the budget whether we're using free cash or other kinds of things we have a pretty good plan here I think um so there's a it's been broken down sort of into a
couple of different things some of it's Town funded some of it's Department funded some of it's Grant funded some of it's Community preservation act funded but all these projects that are $10,000 or more are that were presented to us and we went through them all and put
them sort of into a into a uh a table that talks about and you'll see on the left hand side the first line next to each of these projects we broke them down into what we feel are must do projects should do projects would be
nice to do projects and then projects that either that we're deferring because we don't think it's a priority at this point and then some of the other ones that are that are decided by other committees like all the CPA Grant ones whether we're supporting those or
not supporting those as far as as whether we think those are worthy projects or not obviously that that the decision to fund those are by from this community preservation committee and not from the select board the fance committee or whatever so um there's a lot of there's a lot of needs that the
town has at this point uh and fortunately we have a decent amount of free cash this year to to use so we should be able to get a lot of these projects done um I think there are some large ticket items on here especially
the ones have to do with the new boilers at the school l halfeld Elementary School the new roof that needs to be put on the Hatfield Elementary School uh the parking lots for both of the schools um and those are projects that we've been sort
of deferring a little bit and I know that the school department has spent a lot of money and that's outlined for you on keeping the boilers alive and keeping them running fixing things on the roof uh to make sure that the that it's
doesn't leak as much as we as it should uh and they've been spending all that money out of their budget I don't think you've come to the town at all for for very much money to fix those things correct we have kept it within the budget right so um but it's a it's a decent amount of money that has Hab to
be you know we're talking about $85,000 that they've had to spend on fixing the boilers and another close to $50,000 on fixing the roof and those things are just have to happen I mean I know the school committee spent the whole winter worried that the boilers weren't going to make it and that we might have to
shut down school so uh we don't have enough free cash to cover all those projects so we're you're probably going to be looking at some questions on whether you're doing a debt exclusion or an override or something like that to to fund those projects and those are certainly conversations that we'll be
having I'm sure in the next couple of weeks between the parking lots aren't oh here I'm sorry yeah between the finance committee and the and the and the select board I think it's a worthy conversation that you guys have to start thinking about um as to how we want to do that I
those projects before the the roof and the the boilers are like no-brainers uh and you're talking 2.3 22.4 million uh take those to take care of
those things I don't want to interrupt you David but I'm just thinking um just for the we're we're kind of going all over the place and we we know this inside and out because we've been talking about it for months but maybe we should just sort of go just for the for
the for the sake of people watching so that they can sort of understand it maybe go through the town funded ones um and and go through these you know somewhat quickly but just to let so we have so so so we have some some needs
with the highway department for some new uh equipment uh one being a new dumb truck and another and the uh Frontline F4 4 50 pickup truck that they use on a daily basis um both are in need of replacement the dump truck's 25 years
old and the uh f450s 15 years old and the town mechanic says that both are very much in need of being replaced um we want to continue with some of our fire hydrant Replacements around town can I think we should mention the dollar amount and that we would be re you know
that the potential funding source would be that's going to be 300 almost 400 000 for those two pieces of equipment and uh the recommendation would be to put it on our vehicle lease program uh which we've been doing for uh many many years we do have capacity in our vehicle lease
program to do that and a couple of other pieces of equipment as well um Andrew has spent some time with our lease company and we know what we can what our capacity is at this point to stay within our budget that that we won't have to change that's a nice way of bringing
Capital expenses into the the operating budget so so you're instead of going out to getting debt or anything else on it it's a it's a fiveyear usually least to own program correct and it's created a much more um reasonable vehicle turnover
time than we used to have when we were keeping everything 30 years right um so and then having to go out and borrow the money and uh and and pay it back rather quickly this gives us a right capacity to do a lot more which would mean the FY 26 cost on that would be under 90,000
for both of those Vehicles right already built into the built into the DPW budget y like I said continuing with the fire hydrant replacement program uh Tony has has said that these are some we have some places around town where fire hydrants need to be fixed replaced
they're old they're broken we've got some from the 70s from what we understand that need to be taken care of um a late addition to this plan was our storm water let back up though because so it is is six the estimated cost is
$42,000 and the funding source could potentially be free cash free cash y I just want to be consistent with each of them sure cover six hydrons six hydrant um storm water Asset Management plan uh Andrew might want to speak to this a little bit more but there is some a a
town sort of contribution that has to be put to this grant that work this program or grant that we're getting clean water trust program they they have a significant amount of grant funding that they are putting toward Wards these Asset Management plans we have one ongoing for um for drinking water and
for Wastewater as well um the one that was approved for storm water at the last town meeting last year did not come with an appropriation um it allowed for potentially borrowing but the borrowing amount is so small that it's it's not really worth doing so this year we would uh ask uh town meeting for an
appropriation most likely from free cash of this 27,0 $837 uh that would allow ow this this program to take place that unlocks over 60 I think actually $80,000 in state grant money and it's also matched by in
kind services so staff time uh but it's absolutely worth doing to to then understand better uh what we might need to do in the future for our assets for storm water and it is part those three Asset Management plans were approved by town meeting all three were approved and
all three it said um you know have an appropriation for but we never actually move free cash or or operating budget funds to do this so we're still missing a match which we will complete this town meeting the next couple things are are the um Hatfield Elementary School boiler
Replacements and the school roof replacement um we're looking at about $600,000 to replace the the boilers at the elementary school and just shy of 1.7 million to replace the roof at the elementary school um both of which we're
either probably going to have to borrow or do a debt exclusion uh vote at town meeting and at The Ballot Box to to do a 10 10 or whatever however many years we decide uh payb on that kind of stuff uh
the um free cashes and going to cover that that kind of stuff so can I give one other update to the roof project we had hoped we would be able to qualify for a grant to do solar on the elementary roof that would also cover the cost of the roof and and as that
program finally rolled out the goalpost moved and Hatfield will not qualify for that um and so our opportunity just isn't there it's also too new for msba funds so we've been looking in fact one
of the reasons this is deferred um for many years now is we've been trying to find other funding sources and it's they're not there for this at this time so um I will also note that the roof estimates have tripled since the
Project's been on the capital plan um and I know for a lot of us that feels like a new school right so you you know you think how can we already need a roof on such a new school but it's it is
hit its life expectancy um you know we've L the manufacturer who made the probably defective roofing materials is out of business so there's there's no recourse on that front either and the school is 22 years old yeah it's not new
it's not new it feels new to us but it's not new right most most residents have to change their roofs between 20 and 25 years so we're right in that ball right in that ballpark so um next on the list are some are the the elementary and Smith Academy parking
lots which we again if you go back into our plan they've been on the on the plan for four or five years both of these projects started at around 200 $100,000 a piece and they're now both approaching $500,000 a piece um another thought too
is while we're doing that is to is to take care of Billings way and clean that whole area up down there redo Billings way all the way out to the where where our town property stops at the uh Pavilion do all the parking lots both behind the school and the front of
school get that all looking in a much better um you know much better for everybody and it's something that's you know it's it's a real mess back there that plowing is very difficult it makes a real mess back
there uh some potential for somebody to get hurt because they're tripping on something that's not right you got kids riding bikes kids riding bikes you know all that kind parents are driving in there all the time dropping their kids off and picking them up um it's again it's one of these things that we've been kicking the can down the road for so
many years and the project numbers just keep going up and it's time for us to it's really the cost of deferred maintenance yeah exactly so again this is going to be either a borrow or a debt exclusion if we decide to put it put it that way to be able to pay for those kinds of things
and just as a note um says here plus Billings that Billings way cost estim is now $142,000 142,000 142,000 on top of the 47 the 474 is for the parking lot buildings would be
142 okay another um piece of the puzzle here is to finish the replacement of the carpeting um at Smith Academy that uh Diana would have gone to school uh walking on U 35 or 40 years ago uh when
the school first opened uh with uh taking out some of the old carpet out replacing it all with plain regular tile uh a $76,000 project to finish taking care of all that again another one of these aesthetic things for the schools to make uh the building really look nice
and to get rid of some of the stuff that's 40 plus years old that needs to be replaced and we've we we made some progress on that project because of the host Community agreement funding that came from tree works right that um you know they dedicated 40,000 to that right
we did fund we did fund some of that right yeah that that was from the HCA this would finish the rest of the building it would finish all of it so the so the additional 76,000 would take care of the rest of the building and get it all taken care of get all the old carpeting out of there that was put in
in 1980 and uh and really clean the place up so um that fluorescent green yeah with with more appropriate colors is it orange or green there's some green right there's both yeah oh yeah yeah um the
police chief has asked for Cruiser replacement at cost of 85 $85,000 again this is would be about an8 almost $1,000 addition to our vehicle lease program and in 5 years we would we would own that
um that Cruiser we have a 2017 black and white with many many many hours and miles on it and again this is also a recommendation of the Town mechanic that that car be replaced and that but he would not be cycling out a
cruiser that's not I don't think this committee has made a okay is in a position to I think that would be a decision you'd have to make with with the police chief as to what to do with that Cruiser that's coming quote unquote coming offline whether you keep it as a backup or get rid of it as Surplus I I
you know we'll definitely talk about that with the financial team the uh the Elm Court building that's been that was started a couple of years ago down there for the for the DPW there's phase three which is $139,500 uh to that would finish that building
down there and then give the DPW the ability to move the town mechanic into that building which would free up space at the at the yard up in uh up on uh where we could park more and more of our vehicles indoors instead of having them
being parked outside sometimes because there's stuff in there being worked on um the that new building down on Elm Court would then be finished and uh be able to be used the way it should again this will be a either a free cash situation or a borrowing situation but
so I think we um at some point going through this list stopped saying the musts and the shoulds so the the musts were the dump truck the F450 pickup for the DPW the fire hydrant replacement that storm water assessment management plan the elementary school boiler the
ENT Elementary School roof replacement and then the rest have been should should we should do should do yes right okay again on the the should do it's well this is this one where we were kind of torn with the one of the things that's been on the list for a long time
is doing some work on the omasta well situation but um this was something I think that was created by our former DPW director and I'm not sure that this is a project right now that that we're looking forward to go forward with
because the water superintendent doesn't really know much about this project or what needs to happen and it's I think we need to do some more digging research or maybe Consulting with Tony as to what uh what we should be thinking about with this the water superintendent had a few
projects that were higher up on his yes exactly we did touch base on it again today um and he again just said he he had some concerns about the project sure and what was originally on the budget was for a very small start to the
project but we wanted to make sure everybody looked at the whole cost of the project so that we weren't biting off what was very affordable to start with but then got us invested in a project that had Deep Roots right very deep roots and talking about a million
and a half project by the time it's all done as was estimated really the discussion was around with this but generally speaking from a capital planning perspective making sure that we're thinking very
strategically about any project that is phased correct and not getting it started until right we could we could see a pathway to complete all phases right because then you could potentially just be one of the reasons why we have the spreadsheet right that we do because
it shows the phases as the years go down and if you're not really paying attention to that then you don't really see that there's more to come the design was $50,000 for this year but that's only a very very tiny small right but why spend 50,000 if you're not we're not
going to do the rest of the project and and then it also allows us to talk strategically about it as well as when larger parts of phased projects hit at the same time other capital projects are also coming on the horizon so that's a
that spreadsheet is a really great document and tool that yeah um another should is a the council agent would like to replace the the the van that that we received as a donation from the PBT ta it's a
2015 that does have a fair amount of um miles on it and and wear and tear uh that project would be about $110,000 um with almost a $25,000 addition to our lease program um we did look into some other
Alternatives uh to this uh there is a a handicap accessible van that the school department has uh that they're not really using but it's not really set up properly to to for our seniors to be able to use so it's not a viable option uh but one of the things we have talked
about is uh possibly a an agreement between the schools and the council aging that if the schools and maybe possibly getting rid of that school van uh and using the if if there was ever a child that needed transport in a
wheelchair that we could work with the Counsel on Aging to to be able to use it to take the child to school in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon and and make it a multi-functional uh piece of equipment and not just dedicated necessarily to one department and use it specifically
as a trade against the purchase or the lease of this so this might be a way to help the council and aging get their needs met sooner sooner yeah um and so long as the school has the opportunity to have access to it should the need arise it doesn't currently exist it does
it doesn't today but it could tomorrow absolutely yeah the next couple of projects here are what we've prioritized as being this would be nice to do if we have the money but it's not necessarily something that's at the top of the list and that would be the uh guard rail Replacements
on Main Street down uh closer to the sewage treatment plant where all the white the white posts are with the with the heavy cable that goes through it to put actual metal guard rails down there and uh clean that area up at a cost of about $250,000 again this would either be a
free cash or a borrow situation um the the the highway department had the last couple years has ask for a attachment to the payloader that they have which is a which would be a boom mower I'm sure people have seen in this
Springtime maybe in the summertime uh somebody on the DPW out with the thing with that mower that goes over the side of the and mows the sides of roads and things like that uh that's something that we've been renting or borrowing for a number of years um this
would be one that we could own and then maybe we could do more maintenance than we do in currently now because of limited money to spend and it's also a possibility that we could be the person who's lending it to others and maybe
getting some money in return uh for that kind of uh of a piece of equipment that's $138,000 again it could be put on the vehicle lease we did get a price from our company of about
$31,000 for the next five years or we could just possibly use free cash and and pay for it one time and be done with it uh so there's there's that possibility uh then there's a couple that requests that we're deferring or
they're contingent we we're deferring replacing the fire chiefs recommending deferring replacing the fire chief's vehicle we feel that that that's going to be okay for now and that in an emergency they do have the pickup truck that they could use uh that situation uh
I know there's some fear about whether or not that thing's going to make it for very much longer but uh right now we're we're okay and the uh the mechanic said it's not something he would necessarily feel has to be done right away and even the chief agreed that it could wait yeah
and then the living quarters building if we were to ever have to have overnight um workers um if we went with a bigger fire department plan than than current Services we need a uh some sort of
living quarters at a um a three-year lease of $445,000 um and I guess if that were ever to be needed it would be part of any override that the the town would have to uh decide on to fully fund the
our emergency services for 247 coverage so our uh two chapter 90 State Grant fund things would be one um we have we're having $41,000 this year and chapter 90 money to work on our roads
and so the the recommendation with that money is to um do the most critical needed areas on Elm Street from between the the bridge and the leion then let the uh the DPW people and the paving
people decide which are the most critical needs of there and then next year hopefully be able to finish that project and do the whole of Elm Street uh but $400,000 won't get us the whole length of uh of Elm Street and again that's chapter 90 money
that we get from the state it's the only place we can spend it is on roads so it doesn't cost the taxpayers anything um and then there's a there's a grant that's out there that we're waiting to hear from I don't think we've heard from this the sidewalk Grant yet
Andrew have we no y there's a grant out there to replace some of the sidewalks on Main Street uh the asphalt ones with some concrete ones that are uh in need from the corner of maple towards the town hall um and it's a $25,000 Grant so
we're just waiting on hearing from that we're hoping to hear in the next couple of weeks it should be soon hopefully before a town meeting we'll know for sure one way or the other whether that things come through um some some other things we have a couple
of of payments left on a few vehicles on our in our lease program uh we have um one payment due on our ambulance at $53,000 631 which is already in the budget and we have two payments left on
the current COA van of DPW pickup uh 50,500 which are again are also in the DPW operating budget so we'll be making one pro one p uh one payment this year one payment next year those are the only vehicles that we have on any
current lease program right now that's why we have capacity to start looking at the dump truck and the pickup trucks that people want and or the bo boom mower attachment or whatever we want to go however we want to go with that um we put the numbers together because we do
have the capacity to add uh that's already money that's in the in the DPW budget to to be used for that anded you look like you had a question well I have a couple questions I mean I I was first thinking if I mean
if we do ask the taxpayers for a override whether we look at the boilers and the school roof I first want to know do we know what our borrowing capacity is at this time for the town that's a
great question um I can I can calculate that for you but I mean ultimately taxpayers will be those that the side sure sure but it's how we want to approach this because I know the boilers are important and and the roof is important we've been kicking the can
down on those two yeah and and I guess but and and this is such a bad time to ask anybody because the climate right now is so uncertain we don't know if the USDA is going to cut off her funding for the wastewater treatment or not
we're I don't think we should yeah but I mean put that out there a you know because we actually had a conversation so good but I mean I still got to give you what I'm thinking in my head I'm sorry but uh so if we were to ask
whether we should put a couple of these things together see what our growing capacity is and then let the town decide if they want to do it or not or because also out of that million dollars that we
have in free cash I'm not sure how much should be put in the stabilization fund because we always put money some money away into stabilization for a rainy day so I guess these are open for discussion right now I I know the needs the needs
are always there that's just how much money we got or what the what the taxpayers are willing to spend but it's there there's no questions about what the taxpayers are willing to spend it's also how much longer can we keep kicking the can down the road without getting this
cost keep going up you know especially as you talk about you don't know if this is going to open that what's going to happen if the tariffs go up how much more money is it going to be to do these worked for many of years in a maintenance and that's the last thing people do is they they don't want they don't see the stuff behind the scenes
like they don't see what's under the engine so they don't tend to carry or worry about it I understand that point if you needed a roof on your house or you needed boilers for your house you'd be taken care of it no matter what the climate is right now that's why that's why I'm bringing up the idea of uh
probably put a couple of these things together and and let the taxpayers side that's that's why only that's the only way it's going to get done because there's not ever going to be enough free cash right to to pay for all these kinds of things so every single year I don't know how you guys feel but every single
year there should be something on the town meeting warrant or on the on the ballot we need to borrow money for this or we need to do a debt exclusion for that these are projects that need to get done if you look at this spreadsheet and you're looking at some of the projects down the road that need to be done
like uh Emergency Services building DPW building uh what do we you know does the Council on Aging need to to be in a bigger space than they are now does the library need to be replaced there's all these projects that you're talking 20 30 40 $50 million worth of projects that
the next 5 to 10 years that this town is going to have to be looking at really seriously as to whether or not we're we're going to be able we're going to do those kind of things and to keep up with the with giving the services to the residents that we that they deserve so I think you know historically we have at
all costs avoided putting anything on an override or a debt exclusion and that's partly why there's this and I've sort of had a change of heart that we should be as it should be a boat of residents yeah right so ask them if they want new parking lots ask them if they want these
things and then we know yeah it's a decision of Town's people um but we're getting a little outside the scope of what we're here that's definitely a discussion for when we have the full team together I don't want to get too derailed on that and not get through this list but there was a question in
the back uh Chris 34 Avenue um my concern would be if the roof did leak what it would cost to the town mold Milo you know um it be one you'd have to fix the roof at whatever cost and then you have the additional costs of
whatever damage from from water and closing the school we understand that I mean originally we were working on well the school was working on a grant they thought they might have gotten it they was going to replace the roof fix the roof put in solar and obviously that's
fallen through so maybe this is the year to ask the voters and say this is got to be done so you know and and you know Christy has I I I shouldn't speak for Christy but you know the boiler is really of a concern because you can't have school can't be open yeah without
heat both both the boiler and the roof have hit the point that if either if either failed in a more dramatic way we're looking at closing schools depending on the time of year and depending where the roof leak was um but mold remediation is a sleepless night
kind of issue for people who sit over schools right um and one that we worry about when the weather gets bad so appreciate the comment and it's not lost on us and one parents will be worried about whether they want to send their child to a building that has mold or
Milo in it as well and on the boiler the repair bills for the past four and a half years have topped 85,000 right yeah so there to keep moving we have um we have a couple more musts here on
on some the uh DPW the Water and Sewer Department each have asked for a new pickup truck uh that we have a a 2006 and a 2011 which are in really rough shape they do a lot of work they do a lot of plowing they do a lot of sanding uh they're the
everyday vehicles for those two departments um and the the thought right now at least is that we should be we again it would be part of a lease program but instead of being in the DPW necessarily operating budget it might be
coming out of it's possibil could come out of the water and sewer Enterprise f funds to make those payments on an annual basis for the next five years so so something that the finance team will have to look at to see if that's going to be feasible or maybe some of it comes out of those two Enterprise funds and
maybe some of it goes into the operating budget could be a little both sort of like we did with the ambulance uh $220,000 of the ambulance payment comes out of ambulance was it retained earnings or something like that whatever that one is called and then and then the
town pays it the rest of it so um certainly something and I know that one of the these are both of those are also recommended by the to mechanic and uh Tony I think sent a little note in with his request on the one for the water department that last year the uh the gas
tank actually rusted through and and fell out of the back of it while they were driving down the street one day so they had to fix it so that's pretty good indication that it needs to be replaced um the next group is all that
of six or seven projects here that the capital Improvement planning committee supports and they're all CPA Grant funded and from talking with Andrew it looks like the community preservation committee is going to fund
all of these projects uh for this coming year as long as they pass uh at town meeting one would be to re replace the roof at the Farm Museum with a metal roof at a cost of $440,000 um putting irrigation out here in the Smith Academy Park to keep that
looking really nice now that we've spent the money to put the the the structure out there um the the trees everything looks really nice we had a I don't know how many people were out there during the for the for Christmas time we had the Christmas carol thing out there that
the Council on Aging did it was great I know we have the music concerts out here in the spring and summer and fall and it's really being used and you know keeping that place irrigated so the grass is nice that people can enjoy it out there would be really a really uh
important thing so I know they're also the one of the things that they're looking to do is to put some kind of a well out here where uh they could draw the water from rather than using uh Town water so that's one of the things that they're looking at as well uh some
uh they're looking to do some upgrades to the Main Street cemetery and uh cremation Rehabilitation that which would add cremation plots to that Cemetery at a cost of about $20,000 uh the Main Street Cemetery would they would create a a walkway and
call it Oliver Smith Park which would uh not I haven't seen the drawings I don't know what what it looks like but it's uh it's an area that would be um that some sort of brick or paaver walkway would be put out there um for
people to be able to use um the Main Street Cemetery also the road needs some Paving so that they would do some of the paving down there to make it more usable and more an easier access for the folks need to go in there and then the same kind of thing would be done on the Brad
street Cemetery up in North Hatfield um which would make expanding that Cemetery a little bit easier and more usable for for folks a couple of the projects that are on the CPA that are being deferred right now are the uh Prospect Court bridge
over the Mill River doing the Rehab on that and also the the last phase of the The Walking path at Smith Academy they want to see that current phase how much it's Act is is going to be is done and see where they're at before they put any
more funding towards that but that's where we are um we did it like I said uh this I think chrisy put together this kind of uh sheet and I think it's it's much more usable for everybody to see and and gives you some more
information under each of the projects to make a a better more informed decision and uh again I thank my colleagues on the on the capital uh planning committee for all the work that we've done and department heads who put a lot of time and effort into submittals
correct because we don't generate the list and getting us the information we needed there's you know in some in some cases there some real you know nitty-gritty information and I just want to um also thank you know my colleagues on Capital planning but you know David
it's a a great chair keeps us really focused and organized but Chrissy did a lot of work on um on those new forms and it's I think it's just going to be so much easier you know because there were times over the many years of budget that you you're looking at the capital and then you try to why was this vehicle on
there you know it's hard to keep it all straight right so having that as a tool with that those details is going to be really helpful you know as we're really getting down to decision time right so anybody have questions great anything no
that's a lot of work you did wow nice lot of good good discussion a lot of good work and you're right about the you know we had help from sure you know department heads Town mechanic you know those are those are important pieces of information to have now it's
up to us to work with everybody and try to determine what we're going to present meeting and what we're going to ask for and how to go about it but I guess some other facts facts will need to know what we have for Burling capacity and and if
we were to go and get a couple million what might be the effects on the tax rate because the residents would want to know that so yep yeah most of the debt we have right now is excluded that's just helpful to know so because that roof now that that Grant didn't go
through I think that roof and the boilers that's that's important and those are both projects that really need to be done right this summer this fall while kids aren't there uh while kids aren't there while things aren't going on so I know the school you know we're
hoping that things will pass at town meeting and the and the ballot box and the school can get right on the the you know getting the final bids and getting that those projects going that be pretty tight schedule they know that they know it's a tight schedule so they they've
been lining up bids like and making sure that we get information in from at least three parties everything that we so my thought would be would that be a formal bid we'll have ready to go but just finding people
who have availability and knowledge and just starting that so that that process is easy now put together we have to wait yeah we could do it why wouldn't we I'm gonna meet with um Connor this week to talk about because then we'd even have more information at down meeting about
the actual bids yeah it's it's it's not great practice to do it before we a procurement before we have a uh funding source but I think if we're close enough we anticipate having one then it's absolutely fine to do it I mean I know we even had the fire department up there
spraying water on the roof to try to find out the exact location of where the penetration is in that roof and it's so hard you have a leak here and it doesn't come out to down there some place the number of leaks we have mitigated I
could not count you can look at the tiles in our ceiling but now that that grand didn't go through I think it's time to to do the ask yeah and you know there were people not really thrilled about the grant you remember the the solar doing
it as a solar project yeah and and doing the roof will allow us to have a roof that's stable enough to go do solar at the elementary school which would be like the next thing to do and if we get to do it on our own I would expect we would do better with our you know
Savings in electric needs so there's some upside in that small Silver Lining great well thanks again thank you you thanks thank you for all your work on this appreciate it had inquisitive look oh no I was just
I was just thinking about all this stuff it's like some something as simple as the roof is overwhelmingly expensive I think but not doing it is more expensive so next year next year it'll cost another2 or $300,000 you said it tripled since you've been thinking about that's
like oh my God the parking lots I think actually when I first started working on this Capital plan were projected around 150,000 yeah that's what and now we're 500,000 that's the cost of deferred maintenance that's right yeah plus the number of tires that have popped in time
oh real thing thank you thank you very much appreciate it okay so we have jumped around a little bit so let's get ourselves back on track here and circle back to topic number five was just which is appointments and resignation so we are
um being asked to appoint a new election worker Beverly Molton um and that request comes from our town clerk I'll make a motion to elect bevly Molton to as election worker second a motion made in second any further
discussion all those in favor I I thank you Beverly for stepping up and volunteering that needs to be signed Ed okay so next we have um discussion of the DPW director
position next steps um did you want me to talk about our meeting yeah I think it would be appropriate for you to fill in uh the board on the meetings that you had um last y we've I've had two meetings um
so I sat down with um with Andrew and with our three superintendent so uh Kenny Hull Hut Tony for sewer um Tony lowski for water and Garrett uh Barry for Highway and um just sort of gave them the floor and an opportunity to
talk about how they were feeling um about you know really what we should do about filling this position um and I was I was really surprised that um you know right right right away Kenny said we
absolutely need to fill this we need a DPW director um Tony was um sort of acknowledged that the water department works a little more independently from the DPW than the other two department so he was like it's really not going to
affect him maybe directly as much um and then Garrett um you know clearly said we he they we do need someone um you know talked about you know the engineering component of of you know being an engineer and understanding some of those
things and he you know he mentioned projects like the asset management you know so there are larger things that go on that aren't just day-to-day and Smith Academy Park is a great example of something that is a a larger more strategic project um so I really got the
impression that our superintendant support having a full-fledged DPW director is that your takeaway yeah I I think the takeaway I got was they definitely need some kind of additional
support just right um I think you captured the conversation well I think um you know even when Phil was here some of the work went to to Garrett and some of the day-to-day work that that the DPW director is responsible for just because there are a
lot of things that that position was responsible for I think everyone said there were things that we might not have known about that the director was doing or or could do if we had a different director so both Kenny and Garrett acknowledged you know really not necessarily understanding how much work
Phil was really doing and then now that it's been a couple of months saying okay there is there is a lot that um you know they were was getting done and then today Andrew and I met
with um Dave pricket Justin Skelly um and uh you know we talked with them about you know they they've been the engineers on you know the up at the water treatment plan they've done you know other things in town very very
familiar with Hatfield and the Hatfield DPW and I definitely came away um from the discussions with them that they also feel that we really need to you know have someone in that
um yeah I I think that they you know work with a lot of different towns and cities across Massachusetts and they see a lot of different structures and they think it's common to have you know somebody who can be a little more in- depth in interfacing with the superintendents and with the board and with the public the engineers it's
helpful to have uh someone filling that role especially thinking about some of the bigger picture projects and but I think the the upshot from them was if you don't have someone in that role you're asking more of everyone else which it might be something we're comfortable with there are other people who have to take on more whether it's
the superintendent the select board uh Town Administrator there's folks who who would be taking on more work without having that position and if you're comfortable with with everyone being suited to that then it can work but it is there is another layer there and I think that's kind of the the feeling
that that you've been getting chair that strategic thinking that you know sort of system you know I I get the impression sort of that systemwide like really looking at the water system and the sewer system and that larger um you know and then grants and you know I there's a
lot more to it than just the day-to-day operations so um you know and they were great about you know saying you know look at look at some other communities and maybe look at what they they've done for hiring and so I mean it was wasn't a very long
meeting but I it was productive and um so you know overwhelmingly um I think I'm the message and I've actually had plenty of people from town reach out and say you know we need a DPW director you know it's a large Department um so I've been
going back and forth trying I've been doing my research and and I I think I'm at the point now where well maybe we should see if there's somebody out there that meets the qualifications or either we get somebody under Garrett
to work and that department so either way I think we need somebody either somebody under with Garrett and the DPW to take on responsibilities or a DPW director but I think we have to ensure if we have a DPW
director that he's going to be involved with contracts he's going to be involved with planning he's going to be involved with over the sight and there's going to be making sure that the job that he's supposed to do is getting done so I mean
if if the board wants to take a look and see if there's somebody out there that might meet what we feel is is good then I guess I'm not going to object to that but I'm still like I'm still bouncing between the
two you know um Dave pricket did was clear about being careful about burn out of giving you know too much um responsibility and too many ities to to he mentioned even your position Garrett's position you know we have to
be reasonable in our expectations Greg's thoughts I've been going back and forth like you and and I talked to the various employees around here about it too and it's I I think I think both ways could work I
just don't know which way is better I'm certain both ways could work I I think our people could take it over with extra work with extra responsibilities but uh was that recent conversation because that I
mean okay well about a month ago yeah with a couple of them yes okay yeah so I mean I thought Garrett was pretty clear in saying he thought we needed somebody yeah I think he thinks we need support sure yeah yeah but how
much yeah I don't know well that's the other right gar sees there's a hole there some that there's there's some there's extra responsibilities that need to be done because he's been filling a lot of bills I since just that's how it's kind of
worked um it's been harder for him to do everything his I'm going to ask you Andrew I'm put you on the spot I mean since since you're new here and you've been able to uh deal with everybody you've been able to work with these guys and you've gotten an idea sort of what
they do and what's happening plus you have prior background and and running a city and all that stuff so uh do you think it's advisable that we move to maybe a DPW director or should we work
with somebody added to the DPW with with Garrett what I would recommend at this point is to post for either this position or you know go through it and I think we can even start that process tonight see if there's anything in here that doesn't
need to be in the position and see what we get from posting you might find somebody who is exactly what we need and and we can afford them and I think that the department would benefit the town would benefit from having a really good sharp director um I think
there's enough work to be done that that we can fill it um it's hard to hire for DPW directors we might not find the right person we and I think hiring the wrong person is worse than hiring nobody at all in this position that was something that was said by our Engineers
today they did say that I I I would agree with that wholeheartedly um you know I I floated a few different possibilities I think there's the the creating of a new position of just focusing on those Capital assets and projects that's one way you could take
it um that's kind of driven by by who's out there and and who could fill his position um so I would say overall it feels like there's consensus from this board that we should at least explore or having a director and I think um i' I'd
recommend posting a modified version of the current job description and seeing what happens um unless there's a real interest instead going with the kind of more specialized um projects Capital assets and projects uh director position really focus on facilities the way I see
it I'm seeing facilities as a major Focus because we and capital planning budgeting and kind of overall strategy those are the buckets that I think think you need to fill and that could be done by a director it could be done by this or hyper position I appreciate your
opinion because sometimes a a fresher set eyes uh because I've been in town all my life so I mean I have a difference of opinion but it's always good to listen to another opinion and what somebody else is thinking if you're undecided so I I do like that
recommendation you're making I sort of it sort of makes sense I I I just really want to look for a candidate um that has great communication skills um it was always something that I felt was um could be
done better yeah lacking I was going to take a positive spin on it um because I think towns people this is this is our second largest Department um and and I think that they kind of deserve to know a little bit more about what was going on in the department than they've been
informed of you know over the last handful of years even minor stuff right like you know I was telling Andrew Jim Rey used to come and sit at all the meetings and he' give a update and it might be small
stuff you know or whatever putting out snow sticks we flushing hydrants we you know but there was always an update and people sort of knew what was going on in the department um and I think we I'd like to really get back to um a place where residents
no more we know more and residents know more about what's going on so that somebody who's really um got good communication skills and is willing to come to meetings that might be a good exercise for each of you to do individually and
maybe we talk about it at some point but think about what your priorities are for that position because then when candidates come in then you'll be able to think does anyone check all our boxes or which boxes do they check and then you'll be ready to go with a with a hire mhm
so time's a wasting yeah yeah so are there any changes in this job description that you'd like to be made before we post and if you wanted to you could send them to me if if you need to and I can synthesize and do something or
to to me the biggest question is there there's a requirement in here to have a degree in engineering with a minimum five years responsible experience in in mp Public Works I mean some of the stuff was we do have a bylaw that was passed if we have
a DP director I thought we had to follow the bylaw regulation or are we or was that just an opinion from our legal how did our legal leave it as far as if we
have a DPW director does do they have to fit in what that wording is it's a it's a great question the legal opinion was that it's difficult to enforce something like that
okay um the the the Town Council said it doesn't oblige you to have to obligate you to hire somebody because it's always subject to appropriation and everything else that's a decision I can ask specifically if you do hire someone are
you required to make it somebody with an engineering degree but I I don't think you would be I I think you're allowed you'd have to be allowed to adjust the job description as you see fit and it's part of the prerogative of the the board so the other two Provisions in that
paragraph one is um having a CDL which makes sense but the waste and wastewater treatment operator licenses um that seems that seems like a lot that seems like a lot because if someone has that
license you know they're they're doing something else they're doing something else yeah running they're capable of doing so I'm not I I'm not sure that's really needed either I mean it's I don't know how you feel about that but I I I did look at that I did
read that and I was wondering about that I don't know if it's something difficult to get or something I believe it's pretty to get yeah I don't know yeah I mean they're in here as desirable so it wouldn't keep you from getting one now it does it lists um engineering degrees
a requirements that that could keep you from getting somebody that's why I would recommend either making that desirable or removing it I I I think putting out something that gives you the widest pool of candidates would be wise
right preferred well instead of desirable preferred on the engineering degree and then desirable maybe on the I don't know I I just don't know about those sewer licenses if that even needs to be mentioned but that's just me well he's got to have some knowledge of wastewater
treatment CHR because he's GNA have to deal with some issues so yeah um I don't know you never know never know what you find sometimes you find
that Ruby inside the box right the gy yeah John has a question yes Mr PE you hit on the subject good communication
skills you mentioned the past director previous one that we had um he did leave them well technically someone left the machine in a u how can you say
it John this this is this is water under the bridge many years ago I don't know where you're going with this but water over the bridge but just to you know way their environment is now changing that this person should be on top of things if it's taking care of school buildings
knowing roofs are leaking of for facilities management know that there's you know how can you say it plastic if it's in the library to put over the you know not that I didn't know to do that you know Jen there's there's some
there's duties like that clearly spelled out in here like the project that's out on West Street just you know meeting with the neighbors and telling the contract hey you're supposed to be doing this not you know the contract how can you say it you
know gotcha you know the town person you know chewing my ass out when it's supposed to be your your job to do it you know let you know kind of could just you know I don't know it's old school logic or or something but you know there are people mayy that are capable of
handling this now so thank you you're welcome okay anything else on that question oh I'm sorry Chris I didn't see you I'm assuming this is going to be going to take a few months for this position to be filled I would think so
spring seems to be one of the busiest times for our DPW does Garrett need you know a temporary helper position to get some of the spring projects done in while we're waiting to fill this position I think Garrett would communicate with that that with us if if
he felt that was necessary so he certainly should if he feels that you know he he needs the extra help Winter's busy too when you know there's really no non busy time for the DPW so um and Garrett's a great um
communicator and I you know he knows he's got an open line of communication with us and I think if he felt that way he would definitely communicate it to us yeah I'll at least the idea with him to see if he needs anything we can ask him but I think we've been U he's been
very communicative about what he means and I think he's got a pretty good crew um that that he's working with right now and it's a good question it is a good question um are we comfortable with me drafting something sending it perhaps to the chair for review and then getting it
posted as soon as possible or do like a post a job posting a job posting job yeah I don't have a problem with that now I mean I I've made a decision we'll go out and see what we get I mean I've been struggling with this back and forth
so why why not I have two and I I think where I really sort of landed is sort of remembering that this isn't a person it's a position right and so we need to get past um and thinking about we need to
get past the persons we got to think of the position the position and you know and really making sure we're doing what we can sorry part of my pen just fell to support our DPW our DPW superintendents and the other um
employees and make sure that we're looking after our buildings and our roads and projects and everything to the extent that our Town's people deserve do any of the three superintendant um have any review this
job description that they would have any input on suggestions that's a great idea because the posting can go out while this is still right we're still working on this ideally we'd have it ready yeah I like having the job description right
done um but I don't think we're far off yeah no okay I think this has been a good process for us to actually do some research and find out and see what's what's the best direction for us to go into so I agree and seeing how the
supervisors feel and talk to them and get their opinion you know how how they how they feel this is going to go because yeah things [Music] change indeed okay very good okay now we
can move past that we can move past that and remember we do you it could be we do have the April 2nd there's a hearing we could have an agenda item to finalize that because that's just next week you know especially if you had some changes
to this based on input from the superintendence right we would have the ability to have a quick agenda item yeah about that can plan to post after that if you want just to review any changes to the job description okay let's do [Applause]
that okay so I just want to move along here because we do have somebody waiting for some future agenda items here so topic seven administrative Town Administrator report and you have the letter of support for the MVP Grant yeah that's I I think I'll keep it to just
that tonight on the uh report so this was um placed in your um packet uh late but there's a draft letter here um the MVP Grant Municipal vulnerability preparedness program that's what funded
our um comprehensive plan and they love funding follow-up projects to to the projects that they fund this would be for an action Grant uh that would be a study uh with the town of Hadley as well and we would look into um mapping and
basically coming up with a plan for how to protect and and and uh preserve and better use our ditch Network which is floated as one of the priorities coming out of the uh uh comprehensive plan it's a great way to support farmers and it's also a great way to um it kind of
functions as storm water infrastructure and also can help us um better understand what could happen during floods and and mitigate future flooding events I think we saw what could happen during floods last year and the impact it has on you know our farmers and our
farm Fields so yeah so all around feels like something that checks a lot of boxes for us and could be a good thing to advance um so we're getting a scope put together by an engineer um and they've actually helped us a ton with the application uh so we would work with
them um we would go through PR if needed but uh work with them um should we be awarded the funding so the deadline is um in two weeks but having a letter from the from the board support would be fantastic if it's something you're comfortable with
supporting I am I am as well great so that letter there for your a motion to sign it or just sign it probably best to have a motion okay thank I'll make a motion that we support the letter of support
for MVP Grant second motion made in second any further discussion all those in favor I I thanks for your work on this Andrew oh and this was some great assistance we got on this from our assistant planner Bella put this together so looks very good
great okay um so next steps for the FY 26 budget and warrant yep so this is really just for me to say that I think our next meeting we're going to try to keep it clear of most other agenda items so we can really just dig in the budget
and the warrant we're there we've been having all these conversations I think we're close um I want to tee up for you now what I'm viewing as the big decisions that need to happen now on the budget okay I've been working through the large budget spreadsheet um I've shown it worked through it with the
finance committee as well I'm seeing about $100,000 right now um that uh we're above our um uh $100,000 in expenditures above our revenues right now is what I'm seeing essentially um I'm still working through
it to see if there's other sources that I haven't been considering uh from the workbook or if there's you know other funding that's other uh expenditures that are easy to cut but that's kind of where I'm at and that's before um the finance committee last night suggested
taking $100,000 in free cash and using that towards our uh health insurance increases since that was a significant large increase this year it's you know generally not the best practice to use uh free cash for non onetime expenditures but you could view it as
somewhat a one-time expenditure because that increase was so large while it's something we need to find a way to F in the fut it's still G to be there next year it'll still be there next year that's absolutely right um and you know maybe our new growth projections will come in higher maybe our Revenue everything else could could be better
able to meet it but I can't make that that promise so it's it's something we can potentially be comfortable with but if there's another way to to get there we might want to consider that I I guess I have to say and you know Ed Ed's been around longer than me but to only be
sort of a $100,000 out of balance if you will still in the month of March is way better than we've been in years past 600 yeah we we at you know we would be at this point thinking oh my gosh you know
so we we're we're pretty good at that um yeah you know making that work um and so to only be 100,000 out of balance is actually kind of remarkable Tammy you you know the last few years
we've been and we sometimes been much Bleaker sometimes there's onetime expend expenditures we can use free cash for that come up part of that budget maybe maybe not but I haven't seen what you guys have seen so yeah it's what we really start putting our heads together
that we're able to sometimes find those the plan is to do that on on the 8th just just spend the time in a joint meeting with the finance committee really going through everything I'll be ready then to do that um I've gone through line item by line item in the um
general fund and you know given plenty of departments haircut for some of the the items they've asked for or doesn't seem there been expenditures in the past years I don't think it's anything that they can't live with but I will be going through it with each of the department heads to make sure does that include
colas colas are already mapped out as a certain percentage right now at the guidance of the the finance committee and 100,000 is with the cola a cola of Two and a half% of the moment okay so that's and that has been planned thinking but that's where the school negotiation is going to land that
teachers will have a two and a half% increase it's possible that will be 2.7% if that's the case we could still add that into um into the colas for all all staff 2.7% 7 versus 0.5 would be about like a $7,000 difference was a contract
completed with the schools not yet not yet not yet that's so that's still another unknown factor right yeah very close so David did you have something yeah just I mean we've had a couple of meetings um finance committee ourselves
with Andrew and been looking at the spreadsheets and things and just a comment on the on the health insurance piece the way the way Sean brought this up the other night the way he looked at it is is trying to take that big chunk and move it over two years versus over paying it all at once that's why the
suggestion is to move that $100,000 from free cash since we do have a a fairly significant amount of free cash this year more than we normally would have which is a way to just sort of ease the burden just a little bit and not have that big huge hit for for the first year
yes it's going to be there next year but at least you know we're uh we get a little bit more time um and I think that just you know Andrew's done a great job of putting the work books together and and us being able to take a look and see all the different lines and
and uh a lot of our discussion is is same with discussion that we had with capital is what are we going to do with all these projects you know are we going to look at debt exclusions are we going to look at overrides are we going to look at both and and it's time to really think about how we're going to try to fund all those projects and that I just
want to say hopefully next two weeks from now when we have that meeting on the 8th that we're ready to think about what those uh what those options are going to be and make some decisions as to how we're going to go forward with um trying to fund some of that stuff um yeah because we're really there's not
much time you know in terms of April 15 deadline right for ballot questions for ballot questions so really the E is our opportunity because then you give you seven days to put the questions together um and then you got to sign the warrant what the 29th of April yes so you know we're a month away
from signing the I know it's it's always short okay so but you're right we're really close I don't think it's going to take a lot to to bridge that $100,000 Gap uh but I think the bigger questions are what we're GNA what we're going to do with some of the big Capital uh items
that we really need to oh it's the whole discussion yep absolutely the whole whole thing yeah so so if I were to frame it I'd say be ready on on April 8th and I whatever research or anything else you need for me whatever I can do to frame this best I'm happy to do we need to talk about potential debt
exclusion or other funding for the the must do projects that Capital presented tonight so it's the boilers uh parking lots um have the elementary school roof and any remaining capital projects we think are need to be front of mine we have this outstanding question about um
the request from the fire department to move to 247 services that would I believe require it would require an override we can talk about if we think it's it's it's something we'd want to recommend moving forward with um there's this question of of health insurance um
the schools have put forward a two and a half perc increase that'll be up to the finance committee to decide how to move forward with that it's question of colas will need to be ready to discuss and then there are some raises for specific employees that were asked for a couple of those are elected officials or accountable to other boards so it's a
finance committee discussion but um we will be talking about the treasurers contract and COA director had asked for larger rays and the one there so and then use of free cash potentially for snow and ice for last year which I think will be needed potentially to
balance the budget this year potentially for stabilization accounts and potentially for um removing some debt that we have it's a higher than average um free cash number this year so using it to pay down some debt would be something we thank ourselves for in the
future um and I'll be double-checking our or debt payments there's a significant amount of debt that's in there and most of it through debt exclusion so there's a funding source for it already but it is a lot of debt we need to pay this year so that's what I'll say on
budget besides that pie of cake okay it's the pathway listen I'll you know it's been a e easier year right than I mean we we had some you know I've had tougher years
much tougher years both might you know on before and you know honestly some of the times during Co you know we had all that arpa money there was you know we had a lot of uh leeway um but we'll get through it listen we will get through it speak the money I think
you're seeing a lot of places that are have these issues with school budgets and other kinds of things uh my impression is that use S A lot of our money to fund positions yep and now that that arpa money is not there anymore yeah they they now they got to come up with their own funding and one of the
things which you guys should be p on the back was you didn't spend it on positions you spend it on other stuff that that was a one- time deal versus something that's we did not use it to increase the budget spend increase benefit packages and all those kinds of things where you're looking at you know
some of those cities and towns that are having issues with their school budgets the difference between what the town wants to pay and what they they want and there's quite a few this year a whole lot of them there quite a few this year they funded a bunch of positions with money that with grant money now that
Grant money's dried up and now they don't have them the town money to pay for it so not only we didn't build arpa funds into our regular operating budget but we actually use the arpa funds to clean up all kinds of things that were
on our Capital plan so we we really made the best decisions possible to position ourselves right now to not be even worse off so you know there was so many little projects and you know that were just
great uses of that ARA fun capital capital thing so for many years in some cases in most cases yeah I mean most things that we take care of capital wise sit around for a little while before we get to them nothing really comes up and
gets funded you know so unless it's an emergency so so those were things we did that I'm glad we did during those years that we had our money okay um are you good with that so that's
budget that's budget warrant I plan to have a draft warrant for you in April 8th as well so we just be ready to go through that there most of them are proforma um sorts of of warn articles um there's a couple that are more policy related that we can just either do or
not do based on if we'll be uh be ready for this meeting do we have any anything submitted by the planning board the zoning board yet yep uh planning board has their uh Adu uh bylaw so the updated Adu bylaw is done ready to go looks good
um and it's been vetted by Town Council it complies with the state uh requirements um makes the necessary changes that need the state so that's the big one okay great yeah okay
well that's going to be a big meeting on the 8th that's all right we'll keep it clear of other yeah thanks great thanks Dave okay so topic 10 are we ready to move on to topic 10 which is authorized sewer and water
billing um fy2 commitment number two for collection yes I think we should move there did you want to speak to it or so Patty actually spear hooded most of the water sewer billing uh she's been working pretty diligently with Tony to
clear up a lot of issues that we're having um she's still working with him um we do have a lot of like zero reads and stuff so they are going forward to try to fix some of this stuff after this billing um but we did get the billing
out and it is ready to go um it is lower than expected even though rates did go up so we didn't have as much usage as last year um with the entire uh commitment for spring at 63,0
76138 for water and sewer wonder what's the I mean we did have like the drought and water bands um so maybe some of that I don't know
okay any questions head no I mean we also we've been discussing for years the fact that each year we might have to go on a small increase for water and sewer instead of waiting holding it up for three years
and then hitting people with a big increase so I mean we we really do have to put in planning within our budgets for the next 20 years that each year we're going to do a little bit increase
to uh help offset these costs and I I also as far as we're on water I think we do need to sit down with Tony and find out what issues he's having as a board and and make sure that our regulations
that are in the DPW regulations are being used so that he can get the stuff fixed they did discuss this is regarding water meters yes discuss over new regulations and all the and and to your
point about rates and everything so the rates have already been set this is nothing changing with the rates this is just the commitment that is correct it's just that people conserved a little bit more because their rates went up last time yeah and I mean and and really we weren't you know there was a drought
there were you weren't supposed to be weren't there water bands not you know so and I I think the town has to also understand there's there's things we have no control we we still have to run the pumps we still have to pay for increases in electricity we still have
to pay for increases and other costs and that just goes just right just one of those things so uh you need a motion on this is that what we need yes we do
I'll make a motion to approve the water and store billing FY 25 commitment number two for collection in a total of 63,000 76 761 and 38 second motion made in second any further discussion all those in favor I I and
you said those bills already went out no they're they're already printed but they'll be due to go out by the hopefully by the end of this week okay and they have a due date of um they go out yeah May 1 okay just so people know they're on their way they're on their
way well not yet almost almost okay so we do our last item is an executive session unless anyone has anything else so I will need a motion to go into executive
session I'll make a motion uh to go into executive session pursuant to Mass General laws chapter 38 section 21 A2 to conduct strategy sessions and preparation for negotiations with non-union Personnel or to conduct
collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations with nonunion personnel that's my motion a second and uh jorski i z i j i and we will not be coming back
into Open Session great thank you John thank you Karen Andrew