--------- Uh it is uh 5:36 on Wednesday, September 24th. I'd like to call to order the meeting of the Silver Lake Regional School Regionalization Study Committee to order. Um, in attendance here is myself, Jonathan Celig, Michael Cowit, Megan
Cannon, John Williamson, uh, who else do I have here? Um, Gene Coleman. Coleman. Yeah. And then from the district, we have Russ, our council, Missy Baitman, too. Sorry. Oh, sorry. Yeah, we have Missy. We have, um, Russ, our council. We have our financial director, Sarah Hickey. We
have Superintendent Chap. Uh, we have Heather Mashad from the Collins Center. And I think that is everybody. Did I get everybody? If I didn't say your name, don't say anything. Perfect. There you go. Follow that. All
right. So, we'll just get right to the agenda here. Uh we have a presentation of a revised scope of work from the Collins Center uh with a possible vote on a contract between the town of Kingston and the Collins Center. So, Heather is here. Uh I did meet with Heather guys in between our meetings
just to try to give the the proposal a little bit of a tweak. uh uh taking what the committee uh was discussing beforehand um to try to make it a little bit of a better fit for what the the committee was looking for. Um Heather, I don't know if you're prepared to kind of
go over some of those changes, but uh you have the floor if you'd like it. Heather does have an out at six o'clock. Um so she's gracious enough to join us here, but has a commitment she's got to get to at 6. So um any questions for Heather? I'll let her have the floor now and uh we'll use that time wisely. So
Heather, you're all set. Okay, thanks so much Jonathan. Um, hi everyone. So, I'll be very brief because hopefully you all did get a copy of I think this is revision three or four, I'm not sure. Um, so taking back uh the
notes I had jotted down based on the last conversation, uh the takeaway from uh the Colin centers side of things was we removed all of the public engagement um side of things. We basically stripped down phase one into what we would
consider a base report. It did very very normal, you know, for certain engagements. This being the type of engagement that would have a base report um but no public engagement side of things. And then we um shifted our focus onto this financial conversation that
clearly was something of um value and interest to this committee sooner than later. So what we did is we put together an entire phase 2 strictly around uh a financial modeling concept which is something that we do um implement for
certain occasions. This being one possible occasion and we put together some guidelines that we typically put forward when we offer financial modeling. As everyone probably on this call understands financial modeling is somewhat more of an art than a science.
uh it is based on a series of assumptions. Those assumptions are defined then applied to the model. In this case, the model would be based on your current level of operations and then we would be applying certain assumptions based upon shared services, regionalization concepts and then we
would be applying other assumptions that may be already in place like for instance um what are your bargaining unit contracts look like? What is that possibly going to look like if you do pull together a regionalized model? Same thing with service contracts,
transportation, um those type of assumptions that we would essentially list out and then apply into an exploded estimation financial model. So in a nutshell, that's essentially what phase two boiled
down to was the financial modeling via um a you know an Excel workbook because that was valuable as well to this group and then there was a separate report that would have um spoken to how that model was built and some of the assumptions and some of our
recommendations. We're not going to use the word recommendation but you know basically what we came out to um using that modeling technique. Then finally, we did offer a single presentation to this committee. And of course, we would open that up to you could offer select
boards, school committees, whatever to join you should you wish to wrap together both of those phase one and phase two pieces in a summary manner. Okay, I think that's it. How did I do, Jonathan? Yeah, it was perfect. That was exactly what we were discussing. Yeah. No,
that's that's great. Um, yeah, I think I think this version I've read through it. do think it's closer to what the committee uh is looking for. Um but to your point, the amount of different directions that a financial study can go are are essentially infinite. You know,
um you can make some you don't want to assume, but you can make some uh direction as to where things go, but um the amount of variables in in a a financial, you know, study is hard to to nail down. So, I do appreciate that
you're going to go and look at different um possibilities, I guess, to try to to get us a clearer picture. Um, again, I do think what I do think this is closer to to what the committee is looking for, but we have the whole committee here, so um fire away, guys. Is there anybody
that has questions for Heather as to uh what they like, what they don't like? Just uh I guess initial reaction. Um, I read I read through it all and I think this is um this is what we were looking for. So, um, I appreciate how
that the work that you did to kind of hear us from the last meeting and be able to kind of restructure that. I think there's certainly be other things that we could do in the future should we decide to do that. But I think this is the baseline of what we need to do. Get a good grasp of where where we are, what everything is, and then how it could
look. And and yeah, John, Jonathan, I agree. any number of assumptions, but we have to make some, you know, because we have to kind of narrow it down and come to a consensus about what we think is reasonable and then sort of project that out and see what a couple different scenarios could look like and we'll go from there. So, I
I thought it was good. I have one minor nit, but we can get to that at the end. It's it's just a just a tweak, but nothing nothing substantive. John, as Genie, yeah, go ahead, Genie. I also um I like the proposal. I like that. Um, it's definitely more in line
with what we had been discussing. So, I appreciate that. Um, I also noticed that the cost has dropped a little bit and I like that it's only going to be a $15,000 proposal and there's a little bit of room there on the end in the event that we have anything unforeseen. Um, so there's a little bit of room um
left in the um grant um on the flip side. So, I appreciate that. And um I also just want to make sure that as we start the proposal um just because Heather just mentioned the regionalization not the regionalization but the transportation piece that currently that is one of the few items
that is already dealt with on a regionalization level in terms of contracts for the busing. Um so just just to make sure that the Colin Center is aware what how our structure is currently set up like where our contracts are. Um because another one is
like um the trash um that's already um done through um I believe it's one it's decided through the one provider. Yep. One provider um okay but um Yep. So, I just I just want to make sure that they're aware of
exactly what is already considered regionalized services, if you would, um that are voted by the union and then what is individually um taken care of through the committees. Okay. And I but other than that, I think it sounds great. I did look through and looking through the proposal, I do think that's
information that they're going to to collect. Um, so I I I think they would, you know, it's good to give them the heads up, Genie, just to save them some time, but I believe that's information that they are going to collect um at the at the collection portion of this study. So, great. Thank you.
Yeah, no worries. Anything else? Administration, uh, Jill, Sarah, uh, Russ, anything you guys want to add? I thought it looked good, too. I had looked through it. I think it's in line with what we all talked about.
Yeah, I agree. Then it the financial analysis is important. I think the only thing that Sarah and I were um concerned about is the um that transportation while we have a contract is not
reimburseable for all of the districts. It's only reimburseable for Silver Lake. And then trash, I believe, is more individualized by school. Gotcha. Okay. Yeah. Again, I think we'll get to that nitty-gritty in the collection
part. Um, but yeah, as far as the plan goes, I think it's um it's a much finer point now than it was in versions one and two. Sarah, you have your hand up. I haven't been able to figure out how to click the little hand up on That's all right. Just holl just wave me down. I'll let you go. Um I would be
remiss if I didn't mention at the bottom of page six there's a note timely provision of documents and data is essential and so that is I've been saying all along this is a concern for me that I have state reporting I have to do I have four budgets I have to do um
and this is additional work for an understaffed office so I Keith's not here but I believe we did come to the conclusion that if we needed to bring in extra help the grant would be eligible to to help us with that. Can you guys help me out on that assumption?
I do remember that conversation and I did double check that with Keith. And so Megan, you heard that that is that is the case. I recall that conversation in a prior meeting because somebody had looked I think it was Jim had looked out the cost of something that a company that could
do that something along those Okay. Does that sound familiar to anybody else? Like I don't Yeah. to to Jeanie's point where the where the cost was a little bit lower, I do think we have a little bit of a cushion there if we need to bring in some extra help just to make sure we can plow through this.
Um I do think that's that option is on the table if we need to go that route. So yeah, Jonathan, I did double check that with Keith as well and I I concur that that that was that was what he said and and he did double check it and he is
able to use that funding to help. Okay. And then Sarah, I guess if that's the case, would you feel comfortable putting together some sort of uh rough sketch proposal as to, you know, what you would need or hours or I guess my question to you guys, you're smarter than me. Where where do we go
from here with with the request for help? U to be to be clear the um the data mining is going to h so we use a financial software called school ERP pro
and so we would need somebody who has uh knowledge of school ERP pro to be able to get the data there is a company uh TMS solutions I'm not sure exactly what the their name is Jill um they've
they've done some consulting and they have um they have people that are familiar with the software in our financial system. So if we could contract with them for assistance that would be a great help. Do you foresee this Sarah as getting
those consultants giving them the proposal essentially and say here run with it you know see what you can find or or are you going to take a pass at it first and then say here's the stuff I can do and and you know how how do you see anything I put on my plate has to bump
something off. Okay. So, I'm I'm already up against some deadlines for things that Okay. um are are passed or looming? Okay. Jill, you have your hand up.
Yes. Is there something in particular? I mean, we can put to once we know exactly what um the Colin Center is is asking for, we can then um estimate the number of hours or uh even begin the conversation with TMS. Who would we send
that to? Would we send that to the town of Kingston to consider for grant use? What would the town of Kingston need? That's a good question. I wish I wish Keith was here to answer that question. That's a good question. I I mean we can
we can ask um what they would need. I'm happy to do that if you'd like me to. I know that Keith is um on vacation and we have an interm right now. So I I'm happy to ask that question if Yeah. If you don't mind if one of our
Kingston members could look into that, that'd be huge for us. Sure. Can I jump in on this just for a moment because I just want to make sure that I'm understanding of exactly what we're asking the call-in center to do. Aren't we essentially giving them permission to util not to utilize our software, but to
gather the information from within our systems? So to like not to I'm not saying to take over Sarah's job, but to essentially data collect through one of our systems or are is that not what we're asking them to do? Because I just want to make sure that we're not now
going to hire somebody even we're not we're not redundant. Right. Right. just just to provide this data for them, which someone's going to have to now train that person of our data to show it to the call-in center. So, I I just want to make sure that
we're not being um the proposal. Can you Oh, the proposal has a list of list a long list of detailed items that they need and they're just looking for copies of those items to fulfill each of the lines of uh and it's a rather extensive list in
in the proposal. So I, you know, to Sarah's point, and so I think it's it's simply that they need they need a copy of each of those items and they will then utilize those to start pulling together a state of the state. Um, and then that will base that will base be
the baseline for the second phase. Heather, I know and of course we get to go through all of that. That's why we'll have the first report and we'll go through the drafts and make sure we all agree this is the state of the state. So, we're starting at a at a at a the right starting line, starting at a point. Heather, I know you
have this isn't this is kind of you guys' first true regionalization study, but in any sort of similar studies you've done, how do you approach that data mining? Yeah. So, the Collins Center does not um
request or even delve hands in, we would call it, into any internal systems. you know, we we we're not that type of consultant um agency. We we we're not auditors um and we certainly cannot perform accounting work, though we do
have that expertise. So, in in this case, what I'm hearing is the district has I think formerly Infinite Visions. Um yes, and now they've just renamed it, which is not a big deal. Um I'm actually a super user of that system. So if
you needed guidance as to how to pull some of this information out of infinite visions, I'm assuming you also have individual databases for the each school in this case because of the way that you are structured, right? Um so it would be like for one single year it would
essentially be four pulls of of data. Am I sort of on on track here, Sarah? Is that how your database is set up? Right. So um for that it would essentially be someone has to have those credentials and pull that it's an Excel export right
from from the Infinite Visions database. Um and and the same thing goes for FTEES. It's also an Excel export um directly out of Infinite Visions if you're running payroll through IB. Um, so it it it shouldn't be that much of a
lift, but yes, TMS, we've we've certainly crossed paths with, you know, u in other places and we certainly could, you know, work with them to make sure they're pulling the right data and to, you know, cross reference if we do get something that doesn't meet what
we've asked for here. The rest of it that is on this list is not necessarily coming out of the financial database. It really has it it touches different offices. There's a whole different list of educational type data um that typically would come out of like a
teaching and learning or an individual school. Um there's another section that really speaks to the governance side of things. Uh and then of course we've got the operations side which is yes individual contracts but normally we do work with like a facilities department
for that sort of of data. So, I know I've sort of jumped around a bit, but in terms of the financial data itself, we won't pull it ourselves, so you won't be double dipping. We are aware of TMS and they are um a consulting agency that can
assist in this particular um task and we're happy to work with them to make sure that the the data is correct. Thank you, Heather. Yep. Yeah, that sounds terrific. All right. So,
and I could add something there. So, the h Sorry, this is Russ. I'm driving so I can't raise my hand. Um, but from my experience, I mean, the key drivers, a lot of it can come from personnel. So, like the collective bargaining agreements, the insurance
splits, the in insurance premium amounts, transportation costs potentially would be business office. But I mean those are the kind of the key drivers and then you apply the regional agreement formula to it. Oh, and you need the um number of
pupils per entity. And so you apply the regional agreement u assessment method to those amounts and that'll just the ones I just raised, you know, cover most of the cost and
that kind of gives you a rough ballpark. So there's a lot of other things you can look at which are in that list. But but those are the key drivers really. It's staffing cost is about 80% of your budget. And so when you take the pupil numbers, you take insurance and you add
all those factors together, that gives you kind of a rough estimate of what the new numbers would be with transportation reimbursement for K to 12 instead of just the high school. So TMS is familiar with that too. So if you use them um
they should be able to get that data pretty quickly too in addition to Liz Grenell. Okay. So it so it sounds like this is all feasible. This is all u doable here. So I guess my question to the committee here is if we've read over this
proposal, we think this is a a pretty good proposal and we'd like to take a vote on it. Is it something where we take a vote to uh go with this proposal and then um touch on I mean maybe have Sarah and the administration touch on what they think they would need from us
as far as help goes and present something to us um you know at our a following meeting something like that. Approach it like that. I think that makes sense. I think it would make sense for um the administration to take this list and go
through it and assign who the point person would be and which would uh which items would be items for TMS. Okay. All right. Sarah, you feel comfortable doing that? Jill and I would love to.
All right. I I can see the excitement on your face. And and I think also while you're doing that, you you also know which stuff is really we're going to have to point back to the towns for the elementary schools. You know, for instance, payroll. Silver Lake is out of the business office, but the towns are for the elementary.
We handle our payroll of our elementary schools. Yeah. Right. So, there's going to be some of those items too and then we'll have to take and we'll have to take those back ourselves or someone for each town will have to take those back. So I think it would be a good exercise to not only to see what we need for the consultant but
also for what we need to chase down ourselves. Okay. Well, I guess first step is first. Are we is this committee comfortable with voting on uh signing our agreement here with the Colin Center? I am. As I said, I have one minor nit. Let me just jump into that.
Go for it because I know I know Heather's got about three or four more minutes left. Yeah. On the on the second paragraph in the overview, we talk about the four school districts being members of superintendency union. Superintendency Union, I believe it's the three elementary school districts because I
think Silver Lake is not technically part of that, but the union and Silver Lake together govern. You're correct. We could just tweak that to say the three elementary school districts and that's the that's it. But um I would say and Silverlake Regional, but
I agree with with you, John. That's important for that distinction. Yeah. Just just for the just to be accurate. No, we want it as clean as possible. Good catch, John. And so with that, um I I'm happy to make a motion to move things along and uh
make to um uh to accept and ratify the contract with the Collins Center to um uh to conduct this regionalization uh study. Second. All right. So, I have a motion by John Williamson
and a second. I heard Michael Cowit first. Um, since this is an online meeting, I'll have to do a roll call vote. Uh, I do see I think that Lori Klein has joined too, so I'll just uh call it out. Jean Coleman, yes.
Uh, Lori Lori Klene, yes. Uh, Megan Cannon, yes. Uh, Michael Cowit, yes. Missy Baitman, yes. Myself, Jonathan Celig is a yes. Um, did
I get everybody? Uh, John Wilhamson is a yes as well. Oh, sorry, John. Yeah, I should ask the guy that made the motion. All right, so that passes. Um, I I guess unanimously for the folks that are here uh in presence. I know we're one short with Jim, but um that still is a good
motion here. So, Heather, thank you very much for your time and for being reasonable with us and doing the tweaking that we've been asking you to tweak. Uh, I'm excited for this. I'm excited that we're going to start to get the ball rolling because, as the committee knows, it's this isn't something that's going to happen
overnight. This is going to be um, you know, a lengthy process. So, I'm excited that we're at least starting here and can um, start to get the ball moving. Um, okay. As far as signing uh contracts, um I guess authorized signers, I don't
Anybody I have an idea as to who signs this contract? Would that be the town administrator of Kingston? Yes. Yes. All right. So, um we'll get that um either Missy or or Megan or Jeie, maybe
get that to the TA so we can get that signed and back over to the call-in center. Missy, do you want to take that on? Yeah, I can I can take care of that. Thank you. Just I haven't met the new um interim yet.
Yep. No, I can take care of that. Um Yep. On it. Okay. And we also um Any other questions more for Heather before she's got to go. Thank you. Now, forever hold your peace. Thank you, Heather. All right.
Thank you very much, thank you very much. I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you, Heather. Thank you. you have management draft the contract and get it right over to you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good night. Yep. And then the one thing guys that I think we have to tackle before uh adjourning is we did have a set of
minutes uh that Jill put together. Uh let me see if I can find it here for what the date was. Yeah. I will entertain a motion to accept the minutes of the August 13, 2025 meeting. So move Megan. Do we have a copy of
those? Um, I believe they were sent out. Did Did we not put those out? I read them. I just don't know if they went to everybody or was it just me? I don't believe they were attached to the agenda. Gotcha.
So, I can send them out to everyone at this point if you'd like me to. Yeah, that would be great. So, they can take a look at them. Yep, that would be great. Okay. Yeah. You guys mind holding for a couple minutes? Jonathan, while we do that, do we have a
sense of roughly now that we've kind of crossed this threshold how often we'd like to meet? Uh, it's a good question, Michael. What What is the flavor of the committee? We want to do um once a month. We want to continue with uh you know, what was it?
four weeks we kind of had in between meetings, something like that. I believe my um screen might have froze on me when I was about to ask this question. Um but it's just as well that Heather had bounced off. But I'm wondering if maybe the administration once they complete some of their tasks since they have the first kind of list
of things to do or complete if um maybe according to their schedule if they kind of want to pull the members instead of um us setting a date now just so that we're not setting it too prematurely or we're not setting it too late. That's a great point, Genie. Okay, with everybody. Didn't we have an October date set?
We already have one set for October. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and I'm trying to see what that date was. The 22nd. Yeah, it is in October. I don't know if it the 22nd. So, about a month away. So, I don't want to put Jill and and Sarah on
the spot, but um I don't know how much of that list you guys can go through before our meeting next month. Well, we're going to go through the me the list this week. Okay. It's the So, so there's always
questions. So, if TMS estimates that the amount of work is over $10,000, that means we actually need to go out to bid for this. And who does the bidding? The new town administrator in Kingston. That's their money.
Um, so there's some questions. Okay. Do you do you feel like you could take a pass through that that list, come up with a um a ballpark estimate? Um and then as you say, if it's if we have to go out to bid over 10,000, we'll we'll
cross that bridge when we come to it. Um and then and I think the 22nd is a good time to hold because um we'll have some sort of progress update at that point. Okay. All right.
And then from there, it's kind of hard to speculate how frequently we'll have to meet after that. Um, I don't want to say as an ads as needed basis. That can be dangerous because time can get away from you. But, um, I don't know. I mean, we'll be in data
collection at that point hopefully. I think realistically, right, given just the way the rhythm tends to work at the end of the year, probably one more meeting for 2025 after that with all the holidays and then can figure things out once we get into 2026.
Do we want to look at a Wednesday in November? Um, you know, Wednesdays seem to 5:30 seem to be working okay with folks. Do we want to look at Let me pull this calendar up here. Um John, while we're looking for that, I just want to remind
everyone at least from a school committee perspective to um be updating your committees um in I believe Karen Tangali is putting it on the agenda as a subcommittee just to make sure that um
this information to the full committees. Yeah, it's on it's on Plimpmpton's as a as a subcommittee update already. So standing committee. Thank you. And I can I can work with Lori here. Lori's on our school committee and um Lori uh will be
our liaison for Halifax here. Uh so November 19th, is that too close to Turkey Day or would that work? That's the the third Wednesday in in November. 5:30. Sure.
All right. For me. Okay, that works. So we'll put it in. There you are, Lori. So, yeah, that'll be the next. And then, did everyone get their copy of um Were you able to email that out to folks
there, Jill? I did. Hopefully, everyone received If anyone didn't, if you could please let me know. Okay. I don't have it, Jill. I haven't received it yet. Jonathan, also, could you just confirm I think my audio is glitching a little.
Could you just confirm the date one more time for that November meeting? Uh, yes, it was November. It's the the 19th. It's the third Wednesday in November. 19th. Thank you. Yep. Oh, and then your email Jill just did
come through here. Okay, good. Yeah. Okay. I've I guess let me know folks when you've when you feel comfortable if you've read through it. Please refresh if you haven't yet received it because everyone is showing
as having access. So I'll get the ball rolling. I'll make a motion to accept as submitted. All right. Now we got a second. So we'll wait till everyone's had a chance to take a look. Yep. So we have a motion on the floor. or we'll wait till everybody's done their reading.
All set. All right. I am all set as well. I'm good. All right. All right. Lori, all set. Um, just need Missy, Megan. I'm going to abstain. Was not there. So,
don't wait. Okay. Yeah, I actually am going to abstain as well. That's why I said I was all all set. I was not. Oh, I got so that kind of all set. I gotcha. Yeah. All right. All right. So, we have a motion and a second on the floor to accept uh the meeting minutes. Um what's
my date here? Sorry, guys. April August 13th. August 13th. Sorry. Um so, we have a motion and a second. Um we'll do a roll call vote. Uh John Williamson, yes. Lori Klein, you're abstaining.
Abstain. Yeah. Michael Cowit, yes. Megan Cannon, yes. Gina Coleman, yes. Um Missy, are you in abstain as well? Yes. Abstain. Abstain. And myself, Jonathan Selig is a yes. Minutes pass.
Okay. Um we're at the end of the agenda here. Is there anything else we need to discuss before we uh adjourn? I'll move that we adjourn at 6:09 p.m. Second. All right. We have a motion and a second to adjurnn. Again, roll call vote. Lorie
Klene, yes. Michael Cowit, yes. John Williamson, yes. Gina Coleman, yes. Missy Baitman, yes. Megan Cannon, yes. Myself, Jonathan Celig is yes. We are
adjourned. Part: 2
It's a good thing to tell people. Uh, can anyone hear us now? They can't hear us. I got a message from one of the committee members that they couldn't they couldn't hear us. I can hear you now. Now you can't. Oh, okay. Apparently,
this is on mute. Sorry about that. Oh. Well, I missed the whole thing. Then you're going to have to start over. Somebody else had called in at the beginning and we got a lot of static, so I don't know if that self muted it or what happened. Yeah, I got out of work late. I'm sorry. So, I just ran on to the Zoom. So,
so I was actually just just starting to talk about um you going to the meeting if you want to touch on the what you have for the old home date. Um so, basically, they approved both dates. Uh the the primary one being the first date. I don't have it in front of me cuz I like I said I
19th and the 26th. Okay. So the 19th is our primary day. The 26th would be like a rain out or a backup or whatever it may be. Um they have no problem with us doing it down at the field. We're okay with that. I actually already have the uh field
reservation for that. Um they have no problem with the fireworks provided. Conservation doesn't have a problem with the fireworks, but I believe uh John already um spoke with conservation and there's doesn't seem to be an issue with
that. Um, as far as the things and the functions that we do on the field, since it is town property, the only thing they ask is that when we come up with what we're going to be doing on there, that we run by certain things um to the insurance company, Maya, um because
they're the basically the uh deciding factor on whether or not we can or cannot have certain things because they brought up the dunk tank that that might be an issue. Uh but running it by certain people, it may or may not be an issue. So once we decide what we're going to do, we could run it by uh Maya
and um the safety board, which I think we know somebody around there for that. Um we could run it by the safety board and then they could approve they're going to basically approve most most of everything that's going to be down there provided it's
Maya approved. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. And then the fireworks issue, you know, the fireworks is fine, too. Um, and they do want a detail. Um, I think that was that was one of the other things they were
concerned about the parking as soon as I jumped in and said that, you know, my thought process on the the detail, having a detail at the top of the hill, detail on the complex when everybody's coming and then both of them funneling everybody out at the end of it. And they wanted to have a an approximate
amount of people, you know, that we're going to have down there. And I said that that's impossible to to let them know who's going to come, who's not going to come because it's not even advertised yet. So, nobody's really talking about it. Uh but now now that we have a date locked in, we can work on everything else going forward.
Okay, Mike, it's Paula here. Um when we were at the agricultural fair um Nish reached out to the cow pop lady and that was a big um that was a for the agriculture fair that was a big hit everybody you
know. Okay we have there and it was really simple. We just need the cows well I I I believe we can uh work and find somebody with one of those things around. So I I don't I think Kingston may have one or two. Yeah.
Um I think we'll uh we'll be able to um finagle that once we get it going. But I I when I throw what was that? They raised a lot of money for that. Yeah. $20 a a square and there must have been
100 squares, right? Wow. I had to change it to goat goat poop a lot more often. You could get yoga place in Kingston. Maybe the goat yoga place. I have goats, but they are not they're not they're not they would not cooperate. Yeah, I don't.
But I have something about a cow. Something about a cow. I don't know. But Mish has the lady's number for you. Yeah, somewhere. Awesome. All right. Thank you. Oh, yeah. I have it on.
So, uh, moving on to the parade. We've um I have was able to speak with some at the MBTA MBTA and they said that there is a possibility that we could go over the tracks. Um I needed to email people and with the state it goes in gets a ticket
and stuff. So I've gotten information back that they're working on it and they're going to contact me back. So as soon as I find out whether we can go over the tracks, then we can actually decide what our parade route is. There are three different parade routes that we've decided on. Um I know them anyway.
Uh one they're very similar to the Memorial Day parade. We'll start at the elementary school. Come down Main Street. Um go main street to tourist corner then come down here and we can either stop here. That's one parade route. Actually I do have the the mileage. So I will bring those up. So
for those of us not born in Kingston to corner is where is right around the corner here. Tour Corner. D U R A Street downtown. It's the the intersection here of 27106.
We have a come. Oh, to do that is 1.8 miles. Um we could actually continue it down, turn right, and end um in front of the old town hall. Uh that would be 2.4 miles. Um and then an abdification of that if we can
go across the tracks, we can go down main, come across here, and then end if one of the businesses up on top of the hill would allow us to disperse in their parking lot, um that would be 2.9 miles. Or if we decided to just stay on Main and Summer Street itself, it's 1.9
miles. So we do have um several options that are all under three miles because it is going to be in the middle of the summer. So, we don't want people walking too far. Um, but we do want to be able to get it out to in town. Yeah. I would say the first one, the
first one that ends here, right under two miles. We I did a a I did a parade this year for Memorial Day and it wasn't It was pretty warm. Probably high 70s and it was That's We were We were ready.
This will be in the middle of July. Yeah. And I'm sure that this was with a lot of kids. I'm sure our parade will have a lot of older people. Yeah. There'll be more floats and stuff like that, but there still will be people in groups marching. So, Right. Exactly. That's that would be my recommendation.
And also, uh just so you know, um the Kingston Police Department honor guard will be in attendance for it. We got the okay for that. Um and then we're looking to incorporate the possibly the fire department. Um they're trying to get an honor guard together as well. So, we'll
hopefully have both honor guards um available for the parade. Nice. Cool. That's great. All right. Um who would like to go next? Uh anybody else have a report for the works?
Um well, I can the gala. Um so, we now that we are finalizing the payments, I'm I'm going to work on getting the flyer done with all the information. Um, the ticket prices will probably be $75
per person. Okay, that's what the library gala did. So, I'm kind of keeping it in line. The maximum for the Jones River is 223. Um, so it' be great if we can, you know, fill that. I I um So,
yeah. So, once I uh figure out the payments, I can put that flyer together. Um Janice Gaboni, she did confirm that she she'll be our guest speaker. Um so right now we are just working on
you know getting the word out um getting donations and um yeah see what else we we need to do. Um, but I think u for the donations if I'm going to, you know,
when I ask people for the donations, um, could I give them the tax exempt form or I'll let them know that they're it's tax exempt? Okay. Double check with um accounting. Okay. So, but we should have that answer to
you. Yeah. So, I mean, it's coming along. I did um I did the save the date um and I gave it out at the agricultural fair um and it has a link to it just save the date has a link to and thank you Nish for helping out with that um has a link
to our Facebook Kingston 300 and the town of Kingston website 300. So okay. Um so whatever you have just even if it's um in draft form whatever is like the final stuff we can start doing like
Facebook posts and stuff like that. Yeah. Get it out there. Yeah. I think you know that's um that's key because a lot of people I feel like a lot of people know about the book. Yeah. A lot of people know about the book which is great. Well they've been working on it for Yeah. Exactly. And they've involved so
many people in the town I think too. They're all excited. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. So, we're uh we're looking to get lots and lots of I mean, we have, you know, probably six confirmed donations now. So, we're gonna, you know, um
rapper donations. Yep. Yep. Silent auction. I have a couple of paintings. I have uh uh massage. Um I have um Oh, the coin. Yeah, I have the coin. have um
um couple other things. I'm not going to give them all away, but yeah. No, it's it's we're getting there. You know, I'll um I'll send the once you do the flyer, I'll send it to you, John. You can look it over, see um and I'll send to everybody can look it
over and um any edits or updates or, you know, any any ads or or changes would be great. Yeah, that's it for that. Anybody else have anything? Uh, I can just mention we did go to
Bradford House and had a tour and on the agenda for last month, it mentioned about us cleaning the building, but um, Jean said she's got it handled. So, we don't have to worry about that. I did in talking with people um, of course there are some people who have lived here
forever who have ideas of who those what which historic houses should be included. Uh, and one of them was the alms house. And so we had a meeting that Mish wasn't there at, but we talked about the arms house. And the problem being it's on Landing Road and it sets down from the road. So parking is an
issue, accessibility is an issue. It really is an important building to include, but um, we decided that we'll probably just have it as part of the Adam Center presentation. Um, because again, liability comes into play when when there's um, a chance of
people falling and all that. So, it's a wonderful asset that we should make note of, but um we're not going to. So, I think we're still on board with the same. We'll have six different locations where people can visit. Yeah. So, we're good. All is good. Okay. And um I don't know if anyone has
noticed yet because they're only partway through, but the uh old burial ground um the trees are coming down. So, that's that has started. So, within the next two weeks, you'll see a significant difference there. at that point not looking next to the church next to first parish the oldest part of
evergreen it needs to happen but I'm so some of the trees are beautiful but they're um are um in danger of falling they're damaged and um diseased and they're their roots are destroying the the headstones right
so um and the shade is also destroying the the headstones so once that's done um historical Commission already has um some equipment. We're going to go through and clean all the headston. Oh, great. That's great. I mean, a lot of them need it.
Services will be much brighter. It's actually there's not that many near the church, but you want to know why I'm sad mostly and it's completely selfish. Every Sunday morning, so there's a little room behind the pulpit called the robing room, appropriately where I put my robe. And
there are windows there, one on this side and one looking out to the back like towards town hall. And I put my robe on and and this is probably more information than you care to know about. But I say a little prayer because I'm about to leave worship and I look out at this gravestones and these beautiful trees and I just, you know, yeah, say a little prayer that that I do write
by the church and the history and of the town, you know, and all that's part of my prayer. And now I'm going to look out on this like no more trees. So I'm just kind of sad about that. Beautiful view, but it's I'll be fine. and and one of those trees could very
easily fall in the church and do a lot of damage. And we just replaced our roof two years ago. So, the last thing I want is for them. That's what Tom said to me. He's like, you know, you could do serious damage to the church. I'm like, okay, you're right. You're right. Anyways, it's all good. Um, if I could back up a little bit on
that, what's the price for the house tour? We have a variety prices. Okay. All right. Um, is it dynamic pricing? Is it going to go up every week or individual individual tickets are 35 or 30?
I don't remember. Individual tickets are 30, couples are 50, and seniors are 25, I believe. I can confirm that. But yeah, we it's $30 a person, but then if you get a couple
um a couple tickets, it becomes 50. I just want to see. Yeah, it's in Michael, right? And then if you if it's a sing, it's 25. So when you're ready to get that stuff out and promote it, then we can
25 $30 a person, 50 a couple, and 20 for seniors. 20 two therap 30 a person 20 50 20 30 20 for a senior and 50 for a couple. Yeah. Okay.
I'm sorry. Are we good? Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. All right. I I just think it was important that we have a breakdown though rather than just say it for Oh yeah. needs to be delineated.
And that's why we want to do a family talk too. We talked about it but no. Okay. No, we talked about it. 75 for family, but we were discouraging. We were discouraging because we don't want a lot of children. Yeah.
Uh we even said we didn't want any children under 12 because I don't want little kids running around. Um, so we had said family 75, but I just don't want to encourage bringing I know I think that kids running the
houses, you know, we'll kind of do it if they ask. If they ask, we could give them a a right, but um, yeah, that's where we're at. We did talk about it. Sorry to sidetrack you. Not at all.
Anything else under any of the events? uh the 300th proclamation on June 16th. Is there someone assigned to that yet or is that just It's going to be a smaller scale event, I think. Yeah. I Is there anyone I think I was kind of We just kind of came up with it. I'm seeing it, but I don't know if we
want someone else that can actually read the proclamation or something. We haven't got much into that. It was It's also possibly going to be a dedication of the Revolutionary War memorial as well. Oh, okay. I'm actually I'm actually in a discussion right now with Jang Guavoni.
We're trying to determine what the actual date of incorporation is. Um, we thought it was June, June 16th, but there's she has some paperwork in the archives that state the 28th. So, there is I actually was looking at I'm like, wait
come up with this date because I was looking through our old like town meeting minutes. Yeah. And it's um well the 28th is when we might look at the record and maybe Nicholas can do the recent
he might yeah I don't think again go back to 1726 Um, but I would think it only be a weekday, right? Yeah. Wouldn't be on a weekend. Um, and I was thinking that that would be something that like the the selectman should I think it was on a Tuesday was like thinking that was something that the
selectman should um, you know, take on or sponsor, right? Um, but again, haven't gotten on their calendar yet. So, we'll we'll work with Trish. Okay. And we can put into the governor's proclamation too. Yes.
Like 30 days before June 16th was a Sunday. June 16th, 1726 was a Sunday. That was probably when they did their town meeting and voted on the Oh, yeah. Well, first parish.
No, I don't know that they would have had a town meeting on a Sunday because Sunday was church all day. Yeah. And they didn't do I would think they didn't do um then they didn't do business church. They didn't do town business on Sundays. Oh, they didn't. People I know this because I've read that people literally went to church for several hours.
Yeah. The minister preached, then they took a lunch break and they came back and the minister preached some more. So, um, God, it's felt like that for all of us. But, it could have been when the information go back to the 28th. Yeah. Let me see if I can find out what
day June 28, 1726 was. It's a Friday. Okay. So, we'll get that clarified means anything. But, you know, it's helped us get it to the 28th. I agree that having the selectman read the proclamation is a great idea or one of them or some of them or whatever. I just didn't know if there was, you know.
Yeah, we haven't gotten that far out yet. That's fine. So much else to do. All right. So, moving on. Uh review of bills. We don't have any right now. Um again, if anybody has any expenditures, please bring them forward to the meeting. Um we'll vote them in and then
um we can um get them signed. Uh we don't have to have everyone here sign them. We can get a couple members to sign it. We submit it. How's everyone doing for their working groups? Uh do we still need some recruitment for the working groups? We feel we're
we got a good amount of people. Well, I know I mean we haven't really started yet, but I mean it's me and Ken and Tenise already. Yeah. And he's already put some feelers out to people who might submit arts. I think we're probably rolling. Okay. But um if I need I'll come back to a future meeting and let people for so far
we're I think we're going to be okay. Okay. The gal is always looking anybody would like to. All right. Um I and then you're probably rolling into the next thing of new attendees. Um
possibly or so you don't by chance have all the paperwork that was missed in March, do you? No. Okay. In some of that paperwork there, I have two contacts for people that want to join this committee. Okay. So, and they'll probably I'll
If you have that information, you want to send it to me. I I'll It's literally on just on the back of a blank page and it's two names and emails. Okay. I can send them an email and give them the information they need to apply to the committee. Um,
and Paul, I'd like Yeah, the ga in January. That's before election start. I could I would love to help it out. Oh, wonderful. Thank you. Great. Um, so anybody have anything else on the old business? Hearing nothing. Um, anyone have
anything on the new business? No. Okay. Um, so we don't have anything. Does anyone have a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? I Thank you very much everyone.
Thank you. Not the 605.