e e e e e e e e e e
e e e going to call our uh Tuesday February 25th uh 2025 Board of selectman meeting to order at 6: p.m. and we will begin with the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America and to the repblic for it stands Nation indivisible with all right we have one selectman out I think one selectman is on her way in
and we have uh Don albite uh remote so we're going to do um a roll call um Eric here Missy here Don Al here all righty um so I have a few announcements uh this meeting is being recorded by the local
scene anyone intending to make an audio or video recording of this meeting should notify the chair at this time seeing nobody uh financial assistance applications are available on the town's website or by calling the selectman's office for anyone interested in volunteering there are several
vacancies on various committees and board boards to see a complete list of the openings please visit our website at Kingston ma.gov um also please check the website for any additional events or notices um also it's um I
believe folks can still pull papers for um positions and we have a few positions and those those are also listed on uh the website various committees and boards that are elected um and our town election will be in May so if you're interested in running for a seat
um just reach out we'll take a look at the website and reach out to our uh town clerk um all right at this point uh we'll do open form is there anybody who wanted to speak tonight during open form nobody oh go ahead I'm quite sure
that oh if you just wanted to make any public statement um you can't ask questions because it's not something necessarily that's on our agenda but if you know if there was something coming up that we were and a vote on that you were interested in you could certainly go up there and give us your opinion um
or you know Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and other groups may come in and just make an announcement that they want uh folks to see online on the recordings and whatnot so anybody want to speak anybody online have their hands
up okay like a couple weeks ago when we were talking about school overrides we had a lot of parents and teachers who wanted to speak so that is an example of um uh what open forum is for just for folks to um make their voices heard and
hi sorry I would like to speak do uh Eric sorry I didn't get to raise my hand enough quickly enough it's Jackie janangelo FR Lane um we're part of myself and um other parents are part of you know an initiative to get parents
aware of the budget um conversations um for this upcoming year I wanted to confirm whether or not today there would be any budget discussions regarding the schools it wasn't totally clear in the agenda so we just wanted to confirm whether or not we needed today because
we thought our presence was not needed and no discussions would be occurring until the 6 that's correct um the Silver Lake school committee actually they had a joint meeting at 5:00 to go over their shared budget and then six o'clock uh Silver Lake is at meeting right now um
hopefully to vote a budget um for themselves and then the Kings school committee is meeting on Monday and they will hopefully vote a budget and then we'll be having our meeting on Thursday on the on that is our was our impression but I just want to verify because we did
not um advertise for people to come to this one because we thought it was delayed till later and I'm glad that is the case so thank you and we will all be around um for those next meetings for those discussions and I apologize we've changed that meeting so many times but
um you know we're just waiting for final information and hoping that more money was coming from the state and and and in fact um some did so it it will reduce the amount hopefully um V override so so it was all for good reason we weren't doing it to
try to throw people off the trail um Y no we definitely understand it's better to have more information and all the information and have the meeting then so I just want to we just got word last minute that maybe budget discussion was happening today and we just want to verify It Isn't So since it isn't
thank you and we'll talk next week all right thank you have a good meeting everyone byebye uh anybody else wanted to speak no okay um our appointments uh first off we have uh introduction of permanent intermittent Police Officer
William Glenn um Chief did you w to I hate to ask you to speak I know you don't like it that's a great question question of the ages good evening honorable members Mr hickey Miss Tucker um you should have
in your packet a um conditional offer of employment that was shared um I'm pleased to introduce to The Honorable board Mr William Glenn um he's here with his daughter Kennedy um she has a dad to be proud
of Mr Clint's 38 years old uh he's a resident of Handover um he's a former resident of suer Street Kingston um he's a 2004 graduate of uh Catholic Memorial High School and he might have played hockey there uh he's a' 09 graduate of
Salem State University and I'm pretty sure he played hockey there too um he holds a Bachelor of Science degree in criminal justice he's currently employed by the suffer County Sheriff's Department as a full-time uh deputy sheriff he's been there since 2001 prior to that employment um he served as a
reserve deputy sheriff of the Plymouth County Sheriff's Department he left that employment for um full-time commitment to the Plymouth I mean the suffa county sheriff um so the next steps of the process would be um pre-employment screening Physical Agility Test medical
examination uh and then from there we'd be swan in by the clerk honorable board have any questions for Mr Glenn any questions and it looks like uh did we have Kim join us okay Don do you have any questions or
comments no all right well welcome and congratulations thank you yeah thank you very much thank you uh that qualifies as a definition of brief that was brief be yeah thanks Chief all right uh
next up is a uh public hearing uh for Street acceptance for Jones River Estates Captain Jones Way Barrow Brook Circle um I'm going to read the notice uh the Kingston Board of Selectmen will hold a public hearing at the Kingston townhouse 26 Evergreen
Street Kingston Mass on Tuesday February 25th 2025 at 6m to discuss acceptance of Captain Jones way and Barrow Brook Circle part of Jones River Estates as shown on a plan entitled as-built Road
plan Jones River Estates Captain Jones way and barbrook Circle Kingston Mass prepared by McKenzie Engineering Group dated July 18th 2024 the plan may be viewed prior to the meeting at the board of selectman's office during regular business hours um do I have a motion to
open the public hearing I make a motion to open the public hearing do I have a second second all right all those in favor Eric I Missy I I all right we are open um Keith do
you want to did you want to start off sure so um the resident of um Captain Jones way and Barrow's Brook Circle uh reached out to the town more specifically primarily to to Val Mard Our Town planner looking for um the
process that would need to be used to have those roads considered at a town meeting for acceptance uh as a Town Road Valerie has and and Sean are interim Street streets and parks superintendent have worked with representatives from the
neighborhood um to to get them to this point um one of the requirements that um the policy has to have a road accepted is to have a public hearing that's what this that's that checks this box um there's still some work that needs to be
done that will assist with assist the property owners with moving forward uh in a perfect world uh if we can get everything squared away in a in a in a timely manner they've got until March 28th I think when the when the warrant closes to get a a warrant article uh
included in the uh annual um town meeting warrant um so this evening um Sean is here Val's here to answer any questions that anybody has there's I'm assuming a number of residents who are here this
evening to speak if they need to um the and I I maybe just ask Sean if he can so there's there's a number of things if if the board wants to allow this process to continue um one of the things that would have to would then occur is there would
be a inspection of the road and uh supporting infrastructure and um if there were uh improvements of any kind that would need to be that would need to be made um we would notify the property
owners what those improvements would need to be what what the estimated cost of those improvements would be um and then a determination about how that would be paid for by the residents of the roadway uh including an option of a betterment there's percentages that need to be percentage of property owners that
need to be that need to sign off on on um being willing to have a betterment assigned to the property um the one issue that I'm aware that that stands out very very candidly and it may not be the only one so I want to make sure I'm clear that is uh there's a obviously if
anybody lives out there there's a I'm not sure what you guys call it a speed bump a speed uh that would have to be addressed um so the the the speed bump that's out there now uh does not meet spec or or a town
code if if and that would need to be um re re reconfigured I guess I I should say and and Sean is here this evening he can probably give you a better sense of what that would entail that would need to be done before um you know the the either contingent upon town meeting
approval or something along those lines to um to have the road become a town road we again we would work with you to identify um what the proper uh repair SL Improvement would be uh and then try to
work with you on identifying a cost and how you guys want to pay for it um and work our way down through the checklist so to speak of of what has to occur to have your uh your road be considered by town meeting so um tonight if the board wants to proceed
uh after they close the hearing to to move to the next Next Step um The Next Step I believe would be and in Valor Sean can correct me if I'm wrong would be to um to review the road to and and it's like I said it's supporting infrastructure to determine if any
improvements need to be made to um have the road be be uh consistent with the requirements of a town a Town Road um I know Sean if you got anything else or or Val that you want to add to that
I've got the traditional flannel so that we recognize this is a highways uh Department um I just wanted uh Valerie Mard Town planner just just kind of adding some context there's a multiple step process that goes um into play when
we look at accepting a private way as a as a public way and the first step is filing a petition with the town which has been done um the next step is this public hearing where the Selectmen decide given the information that they're provided tonight whether or not
they want to proceed any further and that's what we're here to decide uh we have some recommendations uh to share um and and Sean specifically and then um then we would talk about the next steps
from there um as as Keith pointed out and uh with that I'm going to uh just add that the one of the criteria that we've listed in the policy for you in terms of Street acceptance is the uh connection of two major public streets
which this does provide it was requested by the police chief at that time and the fire chief because of the uh difficulty of proceeding through the Cumberland Farms uh intersection there um it's it saves a a tremendous amount of time in
terms of maneuvering and and responding to emergencies and so the subdivision was proposed to the town and the planning board as a culdesac and it was specifically requested that this road be designed as a connector road so it does
meet the criteria that are suggested to you although you have your own criteria that you can interject or amend I just wanted to point that out and I turn it over to Sean good evening I just want to talk about the uh the speed hump that's
currently up there yeah if you'd like to hand those out thank you I have more there's a couple more B somebody wants one in the back we have a couple of slides those
are yes please okay all right so currently you can see in the pictures that it's not up to code um a speed table needs to have a 6t approach about a 6ft flat table to 8T with a 6t approach on the other side
what's happening now is the plow plows are catching it and already destroying it also if you notice close this cars lower cars are hitting it and if we eventually take it over as it is it could become a liability to the town you
know a car hits it rips the exhaust off we could be held responsible for that so we're just looking to have it brought up to code excent so that basically just describes a what a true speed table should be
right and that's by U mutcd code that's what a speed table should be right now it's nowhere close to that so so I have a question U I probably have a few questions um
a how much would it cost to to replace this and then B how long do they last and what kind of ongoing maintenance is this going to cost the town the ongoing maintenance shouldn't be much as long as it's done properly we have some up in Tall Timbers Estates yeah those have
been up there for five or six years now really no maintenance if anything it's a little bit of repainting every few years but that's about it if they design properly the plows will ride over them and won't destroy them so OB it wouldn't really become an issue until you're
repaving yeah yeah it'll be fine yeah and it would stand up to the length of the road as it consists of just add to that this is a brand new road yeah it's a brand new road so the roadway itself won't need any work for quite a long time um that leads
me to another question how how how long should it how often should like that be repaved you know like in these neighborhoods is it about every 10 years 15 years something like that on that type of Road 20 okay you get about 15 20
years out of it okay so because it's not a high traffic road so it it would become eligible for chapter 90 funds yeah yeah it would I'm just concerned the way that speed bump is now okay clearly up to code yeah um you
mentioned the speed table or I think that's what we call it now speed table yep um does the road also have to have some type of striping like a lines or well is that part of the the road currently does what needs to be it does
need to okay but when they put the speed table in it does need certain striping okay and I attach that in the with you guys' folders what it needs thank you my apologies for my my apologies for my tardiness I was coming from Dana Farber
with my mom and unfortunately traffic is uncontrollable I tried to zoom but that was not successful back so I apologize we saved all the good stuff for you if we were to go back as slide there's uh the other thing that Sean is pointing
out is that there's signage that isn't there now that we would want to add in order to meet code Yeah by code you have to have signage right yeah so it wouldn't look like uh it wouldn't look like cardboard pasted over a sign the way this does that just trying to save
money good job uh it would it would be an actual you know sign but there'd be two of them on approach in each other direction so that hopefully that would help people slow down and it does have the same effect of slowing cars down this design
it's about 3 in higher than the existing payment with a very gradual approach allow those plows to go up up and over without damaging their vehicles or their plows or the speed table so um we think that it'll be less impactful on cars but
it has the same effect if you're going too fast you're going to get a little airborne and that's not you know that's not desirable the idea is that this is a a traffic caling me calming device yes it still is still falls under code for
that and I also talked to Chief Douglas today our department had meeting and it is a little excessive for his fire trucks and ambulances too the current the current one yes the ones up in tall timas the way those are set up with the tables aren't such an
issue okay so the so the cost that we put up on the third slide is Our rough estimate of what it would cost based on talking to an engineer today uh to do the signage the painting and the changing of the pavement and
there would be minimal cost for an engineer to design and oversee the installation of that and that's the cost that we're looking at um with the four signs the paint and the asphalt work we this could be even on the high side so
it's really relatively small cost in terms of the long term of it reduces everybody's liability and it also will um get the road accepted yeah have the road be in a condition for acceptance when when that's done
I'm counting 15 or 16 Lots there so it would be about a th000 per per property a little less than that because there's something like uh I'm not sure how many houses but yeah roughly 18 18
18 we went at you know our engineer gave us a number today and we oh yeah I see the other two we went well above that just to make sure we're we're giving you guys an idealistic estimate uh we think it might be less but we're trying to you know air on the high side so that we're
not surprising anyone yeah the next step what would happen if the Selectmen decide that they want to move forward is we would actually get an engineering spec um and tell you how much it would cost to hire that engineer to do a basically a short design spec of what we
just described and give us a cost estimate and come back to you and say can we better you for that amount or can your HOA pay us for that amount and then uh decide whether the town would do this work or whether we would oversee the work and work with your engineer to to
get this done uh and then the timing on that um is kind of all spelled out in the process and if you guys are o you the residents are okay with that then the next step would be to come back here and then that it would be able to be um
forwarded to the planning board for their recommendation and that's the final steps and stages to go towards the town meeting warrant yeah because I inspected the rest of the road it's fine okay drain instructions house everything's fine okay great any any
other questions from the board Don do you have anything uh no I mean I'm pretty sure this is the case but um assuming anything that we push forward to town meeting would just be contingent upon
this getting done though correct so yes yes okay yeah all right I it's a highly trafficked Road by the public I'm sure you guys already talked about this and it's I mean when they talked about it it was designed as the cut for through which again I'm sure you've already
talked about so it makes sense that it would be eventually accepted by the town think and I think the idea of the speed table we agree it needs something there it just needs to be code understood uh David Jos yeah 10 barrels Brook um I
just have a question on when this was put in by the Builder why wasn't something overseen by the town saying this is the way it should be I spoke to the previous superintendent today and he feel free
just raise your hand go ahead just state your name and address uh Kyle little for Captain Jones Way um just question while we're on this topic of of traffic calming and stuff like that um as a as a resident uh on the road and
we're right at the end right at the curve there um just natural observations of uh people driving through it's still a little excessive on the speed especially around 7:00 a.m. and 2 p.m. every Monday through Friday
um but uh you know it's it's concerning at that point because there is from the design of the road um there's that BM with the trees and I think it's five Captain Jones across the street there um it's a blind spot in that driveway
around that curve um so wondering like if we're in this process right now and there are recommendations in this same document of like spacing of speed tables um you know if it's if worth looking you know is it second one recommended while
we're in this process right now we were we were looking at one but if you'd like us to uh you know we we can add to the spec if there'd be a second and the cost would be double um but that that's a possibility the other possibility is
that once it becomes a public way uh we're able to do speed enforcement on the way which we're not able to do as a private way so um and a third option would be to um look at grant opportunities once it's a public way if
it's a public way to look at necking it down or other options that could be available to try to reduce speeds so um but we can definitely add that as as an item to explore okay yeah that' be that' be Ben to and it's a it's a catch point
right so that's it thank anybody else no all right um what do we think do we want to um does anybody want to make a motion contingent upon hav't we move to close
the public hearing we want yes okay does that work so move to close the public hearing do I have a second second all right all those in favor Eric I Kim I Missy I don I okay any thoughts about approving not approving um and it certainly can be
contingent on you know so the recommended motion before us is um approving the request to move to the next step yes the original warrant uh agenda incorrectly um stated that it would be
putting it on the warrant however there's a process in between where we do this actually getting the the actual costs and kind of agreeing to it before we take another um step to put it on the warrant and sorry I should have finished it says the next step to have the town
evaluate the proposed layout yeah then that's and we've already done that but it would be the um so we're kind of Speedy um but we would get a real cost back to them as soon as we can if the select want to do that um so we had made a change to the uh original agenda that
you received okay so we need to change this not say for the town to evaluate the proposed layout because we already did it yep so I guess I can't make that motion because I'm not exactly clear what we're being asked to do and I missed the
beginning so I just want you didn't miss that much but but hey I missed what whatever started um so what we as Kim said our our proposed motion right here is to uh move to approve or not approve the request from Jones River States HOH
to move to the next step and then this whole next part needs to be redone it says with the road acceptance policy and procedures number five to have the town evaluate the proposed layout so how what do we change the last part to I guess what do you need from us contingent uh
yes proceed or no don't proceed and and we know what to do next okay so we could probably strike everything after next step well we would say next step with the road acceptance policy and procedures and I would yep scratch that to have the town evaluate the proposed
layout makes sense that'll be fine okay does Keith have Keith does that work okay make sure no I think it's good as long as Val's happy I'm happy all right sounds good do you want to make that no pressure um sure I move the board of selectman approve the request from Jones
River Estates HOA to move to the next step within the road acceptance policy and procedures do I have a second second all right all those in favor Eric I Kim I Missy I don I all right we're good thank
you is it 6 so we'll be somebody somebody will be in cont from the town b or or Sean will be in contact with you guys to take the next step try to identify cost and that type of thing and we'll work with you from there okay all right thanks folks
uh we're we're talking about meeting you're welcome shellfish licenses always all right so the next next item is a appointment uh it's a public hearing um addition of names to the shellfish aquaculture license leases so
um do you want to give it like just yeah all right sounds like they're now you can probably start all right so we had already reviewed this and we had we had voted but um after uh Dan civan our shellfish consle um had spoken with the
the mass division of marine fisheries and we needed to have a public hearing um to be held to amend the license so um I'm just going to read the public hearing notice pursuant to the provisions of mgl chapter 130 section 60 the Kingston Board of Selectmen will hold a public hearing on Tuesday
February 25th 2025 at 6:15 at the townhouse room 200 26 Evergreen Street Kingston Mass to consider the application to add additional names to shellfish aquaculture lease kabot flat map number two um 3 acres and map number
three 3 acres the applicants are Thomas Taylor lease number two to add the name of Jamie mackenro to the lease agreement John webble lease number three to add Matthew webble to the lease agreement and uh the application to add additional names to the existing leases has been
filed with the board of selectmen's office so do I have a motion to open the public hearing I make a motion to open the public hearing do I have a second second second all right all those in favor Eric I Jim I Missy I don I all righty um Dan
you're here um is there anything you wanted to add Dan well I think we've satisfied all the requirements uh necessary to get this moving forward um we've we've gone through the public notice and um applications have been
filed I think we're all set to make it happen sounds good um Keith to add no This was um you know this was a step that we weren't aware of frankly two weeks ago so we're trying to just uh follow the the lead of this of the state um and if the board is willing to
confirm these then um The Next Step I think will be to get these squared away and then we'll have potentially a new applicant for uh lease number one coming forward to the board at some point in the feet near future all right after we talked about this last time I had a couple
members of the public ask about the um reporting structure of the shelfish conable so I just wanted to go over that just briefly one more time so um was that there were some questions about the reporting structure of the department the Harbor Master department and the shellfish constable and how that works
so I just wanted to be clear to everybody that the Harbor Master reports directly to the police chief as does the shellfish Constable they're two separate branches we broke them apart they used to be combined but now they're not so I just want to make sure people understand that that that um those are two
separated areas okay I just want to make that clear no that's good thank you it just it came up after the last one all right is is there anybody from the public that wanted to um make a comment nobody here anybody online that wanted to
speak it's a public hearing so you're welcome to speak anybody from the uh board any questions comments all right anyone want to make make a motion to close the the
hearing the CL public hearing ah I beat you faster than he is second all right all those in favor Eric I Kim I Missy I don I all right um this is essentially the same thing we voted on before it
correct okay yeah so would anybody like to make a motion do it I move that the board of SE selectman approve the request from the shellfish con able to add Jamie mackenro to lease agreement number two and
Matthew Weeble to lease agreement number three second did Don I think he said second yeah okay I did um all those in favor Eric I Kim I Missy I don I okay all
right next item related uh renewal of razor clam licenses so annually the board of selectman awards the allotted razor clam licenses similar to town Mo Moorings uh razor clam licenses have historically been awarded to the people who had one the previous year unless
they're no longer interested um the shellfish Constable Dan culvin is recommending R reducing the number of licenses this year from 11 to n um and the names of the folks um are listed here um additionally we need to establish the fees for the license and
again um the shellfish Constable initially recommended the rate um to remain at 300 but reest of the Town Administrator uh the I can't keep saying shellfish Constable um completed a survey of duck
spry which is 295 and Plymouth 300 to determine their fees the board also requested um the shellfish conable to review the bylaw to require a minimum shellfish harvested annually to retain their license uh Mr culan stated with regard to a minimum catch or use it or
lose it requirement he feels it would be a difficult thing to implement and would like a little more time to explore options um so any thoughts uh Dan did you have anything you wanted to add to what I just said no I I think that would
be pretty tough to to to nail down because uh you know where where do you where do you make the the requirement I mean it's you have good days you have bad days it's like you know I understand if somebody lets it sit for six months
and doesn't use it maybe that's something to think about but right so Dan this came up I don't remember how long ago um because there were several people that had licenses that they weren't using but they still had the license so we talked about putting some
sort of number requirement to so that they were actually using it it's something we can certainly revisit but Tyler I think had strong opinions about that he's away this week so maybe that's something that you can talk to Tyler about what he was thinking gives you a starting place I'm certainly open to
suggestion but this point it's kind of a a tough thing to just Implement right away all right uh Keith did you want to add anything or no I agree with with what select mberg just mentioned and if the board wants to move forward without a um a minimum at this point and then
you know bring it back in Bring It Back a year from now um you know that might make sense but I I just to Kim point this is an asset to the town we have a waiting list for these licenses um well no actually we don't we don't anymore okay we have one last year yeah we did
so well if do I can't find it and I I've talked to a number of people who disagree that we have one I can't find one so okay so I mean the reason I guess the reason for looking to put some sort of a minimum and I I think it could be exceptionally small amount is to not is
to not is to use these licenses that's why they're for and if we do get a if we do get a a waiting list in the future you know we might be able to pass that on to somebody who' be willing to utilize that license more than I would definitely agree so I agree with that that was the basis for it at this point
I mean last year we had 11 and two decided not to renew so brought the countdown to nine that's what it was okay and uh you know without a waiting list I can't I can't imagine why we Implement a minimum requirement because
there's nobody waiting in the wings and I agree with you Dan but I think a minimum should be at some point I think a minimum should be identified so we're prepared in the in case in a in the late winter early spring and we're renewing these every year if somebody
has not used it the the uh expectation has been identified and and that person the board I guess at that point with your recommendation can make a decision whether or not to renew that license for somebody who may not have met the minimum that's all okay so I have a question um it's about our suggested
motion and I'm I'm sure the dates are wrong it has July 1 24 through June 30th 25 so I'm assuming yeah I'm assuming it should be is it July 1 2025 to to June 30th yes
yeah okay yeah I didn't know if it was like March but I'm just wondering why we're voting so no okay you so I'm sorry Dan I don't mean to question you but so if it's July 1 these the the the license holders
can't fish sh you know until after July till July 1 is that what the intent is well they should be they're all current current license holders all right I apologize right so they're just essentially renewing like our liquor licenses and what so it'll go to 2026
but here's a different question if the licenses don't renew until July 1st should we wait on voting on it and talk about that minimum thing when Tyler gets back I know we were trying to do this because Dan was here and we had the we already had this but if we have time it just makes sense to me
to well we have until yeah I mean if it's they're not not going to start until July 1st and the existing licenses aren't going to change yeah can we push this off a month and then that way Tyler and Dan can connect and then they can come forward with that's recommendation fine plus that'll give me a chance to
dig in and see who was on the waiting list the last time we talked about it because I'm pretty sure we had if you if you can produce a waiting list I'd love to see it we see what we have in the notes from before and you reduced 11 to n because you didn't have any new interest that was its purpose right did I hear you correctly well I didn't
really reduce anything I mean there were 11 lenses the year before last and two of them didn't renew so that brought it down to nine there are 11 available licenses in Kingston well there should only be 10 I'm not sure how it no they upped it to 11 we had a long discussion about this I got I have to find that
meeting again so if residents wanted to come forward we still have room for two more if we don't have a wait list there was a story behind why it went from 10 to 11 I don't remember what it is right now I just wanted to make sure I understood there's the story do you remember the story I do you do remember
well I remember being discussed oh okay that's what I remember too all right so we're in a table that's for now I think so I would like to that's fine Don okay with that okay thumbs up all right so moving
on uh we have a request from Sandy har Haram to host the M uh Ms Cape Cod uh getaway event on June 28th um request was received to hold the bike event through Kingston the morning through afternoon of Saturday Saturday June 28th
2025 the request was sent to the police and fire chiefs along with the interim superintendent of streets uh streets trees and parks for review um their recommendations are in the meeting packet um are there any questions comments or anything you want to add Keith no the uh the conditions um for
the board to consider are in the in the motion and and other than that everybody was satisfied with the application okay any questions if not a motion y I move the board of selectman approve the request by Sandy Haram to hold the
MS Cape Cod Gateway bike event through Kingston the morning through afternoon of Saturday June 28th 2025 according to the traffic control plan presented with the following conditions the MS Cape Cod Gateway successfully acquires the proper
permits from Mass do Ms Cape sorry Cod Gateway contacts the Kingston Police Department for the scheduling of detail officers as outlined in events traffic planned do have a second second all those in favor Eric I Kim I Missy I don
I all right moving on to additional items all right um we're being asked to consider um the kte clerical Union request to establish a 4-day work week um at the townhouse um the kte has approached the town
requesting to modify the work week at the townhouse from a 4 and 1 half day to a 4day work week closing the building on Fridays um our current uh versus proposed hours are in the packet but basically uh right now Monday Wednesday and Thursday um
townhouse is open 8: to 4:30 um this will change it to 8: to 5:00 p.m. Tuesday currently is 8:00 to 6:00 p.m. and it would continue to be 8:00 to 6:00 p.m. Friday would be closed in the end total hours worked are 35
either way um so it would remain open like I said till 5:00 p.m. on Monday Wednesday Thursday um and the daily lunch break would be reduced from 1 hour to a half hour maintaining a total of 35 hours work per week um the Town Administrator consided
shifting to a 4-day work week as a recruiting tool attracting and retaining individuals for open positions um towns of Hall and hangam are two communities that have recently moved to a 4-day work week for the same reason um and speaking to the town Managers from both communities there have been very little
concerns raised by taxpayers um if the board does support the proposed hours the administrator recommends new hours begin on July 1st um and uh we discussed a tri a potential trial period you going from July 1st
through the end of December if it's approved to see how it works um so again you know Fridays are not very busy in town hall but it does remove some services that might be um currently used by folks I know uh one of
the issues it's been raised before is um uh Builders and whatnot coming in for permits and whatnot on a Friday morning um or people who Tork from home um who might be coming into town hall just to do take advantage of whatever services
are on a Friday morning um as Fridays and Mondays I think are the big Tork days um Keith anything to add here no the only thing I guess I'd add is um one of the things that we're trying to do now um is to have a a more significant
presence uh on online um payments and permitting and things of that nature we're working on um providing online transfer station decal issuances so you don't have to go to Street strees and Parks during the week or the few weekends that it's available um we're
also relaunching our building soft building permit software so ideally um you know people who would like to apply for a building permit or like to get a transfer station decal even those are even though those are at Street strees
and Parks they can do that online um and in my mind you know I I I believe anyways that um staff will be you know more incentivized to get these online permits um up and running
um knowing that the the the the less amount of impact it has to people who come into the town office building to to do transactions of some kind if they can do them in a more convenient setting online um the less push back the board of Select may get when they're
reconsidering um extending the the 4-day work we can you know later on in December so happy to try to answer any questions uh any body has any questions to be clear this is not a cost saving this is
a recruiting and retention initiative more than anything else from my point of view yes and the and the benefit I see for the town of Kingston is trying to attract uh qualified people and if we are able to offer a benefit that some other Town may
not that could provide us the reason why a candidate accepts a position with the town of Kingston it's I think it's an absolute benefit and nobody's I don't think anybody especially the people over there and me are going to suggest to uh
the board of Selectmen that this is not you know a significant benefit to them it is um but you know we're we like a lot of companies are are struggling to find Qualified employees to fill open spots
and if we if we have a leg up on somebody uh by offering this and the work product is is is as strong as it is now um it it gives us a it gives us a you know a benefit when a person is considering accepting a position here or some other
location thank you sure um quick question um does everybody in town work on on Tuesday 8 to 6 townhous in the town house yeah in the town house everybody in town every Department in
the town everybody does so the these hours are the current hours are what everybody works the proposed hours would be what every employee would work if it was to change all right any other questions Don do you have
anything Tim I mean I I struggled with going the doing the half day on Friday when we initially talked about it I don't remember at this point when that was um I struggle with it because it's a resident facing role like everything
in the townhouse is to serve the the folks within the community so I just I struggle with the Limited hours especially when you know we have people that do commute to places I know we can do a lot of things online which is great that does help with shortening hours and limiting days but um I don't know I
struggle with this one I did I struggle with the half day and I have trouble with being closed on Friday too I I think that the benefit to this obviously is the recruitment
process but also the fact for us that if we do make a motion to accept it there's a trial period so then we can check back in with residents and ask them if there was a benefit to it um or not and then
make that decision in December so I think that's an important piece for us to consider because I think it's worthwhile if we can attract people here to fill positions we need to and we have a six-month
I don't know trial period I guess is what we're calling it how many open positions do we have right now do you know in the townhouse it's okay sorry I should have asked before now it's fine um I mean I want to say just a small handful I mean
very honestly um yeah I didn't think there were two maybe three lot there isn't right now um it it it it does vary okay that's fair and retention too I suppose and this doesn't affect the council and aging does
not and police still work on Friday as do streets trees and parks and water and sewer and buyer that's just me being smart yeah but the 5:00 is closer to business hours for people that are
working too to be fair I'm more in in favor of doing this especially given um the trial period through the end of December to see how it works um the only thing that affects me is
signing the warrant which sometimes I don't do till Friday morning we're open till 5 now on Thursdays and if if you if you need to come in on Friday I'm happy to meet you here all right starting on you can't sign those online no we'll get there can I jump in for one
sec on this yeah uh John Cher did KT you president um I just you questioned the uh other members from um the Council on Aging Highway Etc this was put out to all of the union
members and the town hall members were the only ones that wanted to take advantage of it so it was put out to all of the groups to see if it was something that they'd be interested in participating in all right any other questions um would anybody like to make a motion
I will I move the board of Selman approve the 4-day work week for a six-month trial period from July 1st 2025 to December 31st 2025 as presented have a second all right all those in favor Eric
I Missy ey Don I you say opposed that's what you say you say opposed any opposed nay all right um so that passed all right so we'll start that in
July see how it works all right next item is um opening the annual town meeting warrant um includes uh we're supposed to open the town meeting warrant today oh well feels like we did that already I
know we didn't but it feels like we did that already all right um would someone like to make a motion sure I move the board of selectman open the 2025 annual town meeting warrant effective February 26 2025 at 8
AM you have a second all right all those in favor Eric gu what did I say I say the wrong thing oh okay Kim I Missy I do I all right that's unanimous uh next item uh create a task
force committee for age and dementia friendly study by the old colony planning Council uh the chair of the council and aging Advisory Board Katie Star had informing us that Kingston's been awarded a $35,000 Grant to um conduct the needs assessment for the age and dementia
friendly study by the old colony planning Council one of the next steps is to have a task force set up to begin the process of Designing the study questionnaire the task force committee will consist of 12 people members to be included are as follows um an Advisory
Board representative edtis of COA Advisory Board Kathy Studley uh selectman representative to be determined uh COA director Holly nelli um Town planner and or town clerk Valerie marder Paul Gallagher um the
emergency response representative police fire Etc um Heath Howell is the COA liaison uh Board of Health representative Janet Wade Bor of Board of Health consultant and former Board of Health member a representative from B
Plymouth uh Karen Peterson um Community member with knowledge of dementia friendly efforts Ellen mcweeny Kingston uh kba rep School rep uh clergy or faith group Tyler dasos business manager St Mary and Joseph
collaborative um Housing Authority neighborhood neighbor Works Housing Solutions we have um DD ren do if I pronounce that right and Julie Lane um yeah go ahead so I have not had a chance to watch your meeting at Katie
so I apologize behind the of meetings so sorry sorry Katie um I didn't get a chance to watch your meeting yet I'm behind on my recorded meeting so I promise I will watch it with this task force how are the members selected that
are on this list so are people nominated how is that how was this list sort of pulled together so as far as our board is concerned we brainstormed who we thought was going to be important uh voices to
be on the task force um through Holly's help we've tried to start identifying so that's you know some of the names that are on there are people that um you know Holly started reaching out to but you'll see there's a lot of excuse me a lot of
tbds on there too so we don't have a complete full list at the moment because we don't have approval of the task force yet um but you know we're in the process of
identifying Who We Believe would be important voices to have as part of this task force okay and is the intention that the task force serves like a working group where it's um not a committee that needs to do the
48 hour posting and the agenda publishing or are we thinking it I guess I'm curious how formal the task force is meant to be adhering to open meeting law versus sort of more brainstorming and working group does that make sense it's a good
question I'm actually my personal take is that it's more of a a working group um Joanne I know we have Joanne Zigman on the call she may be able to give us a better idea of how some of the other towns have that
she's worked with have have done this sure hello good evening everyone uh both ways actually so it really is up to you guys you can set it up as a working group um so that you don't have to go through that formal process and the report that's produced is sort of a
recommendation to the select board um or you can set it up as a committee um most towns decide to continue the committee after the plan is ready because the idea is that that group is the one that's responsible for monitoring progress and
continuing to develop you know additional things to do over the coming years so if it's a formalized committee that's the advantage is that it's already there sort of in perpetuity at least is the idea but you can start with a working group as um for example
Duxbury did they later shifted to a more formal committee um but there's no hard rule for it so whichever is preferred yeah so just just to introduce everybody to Joanne Joanne is a an employee of Old Colony planning who is
going to help Shepherd this um this group uh through the process to ultim have a recommendation for um consideration at the end of this study so I just wanted to make sure everybody understood what Joann's role was and who she
was all right any other questions I would just say 12 is an awfully large group to try to bring together for uh a committee um I'm not opposed to the idea of having a large group at least at the beginning as a working group try to figure out if it if it works functions
well can meet can figure out the scheduling and whatnot before we make something more formal um into a committee that said it looks like we have a great list of potential groups to
be represented on this initial brainstorm and that that could be modified as needed if we if we realize this is way too big or we realize it's just not the right group we can we can adjust that so that we have that flexibility
um yeah so we if you if you look at the suggested motion you'll notice that we don't we're not appointing any people by name yet right I would assume people would apply or make recommendations to us on who to appoint to these various positions okay can ick question yeah if
this grant that is awarded does it have criteria that include everyone that you've listed here is there a certain criteria for their grant that requires everyone that's on this list to be a part of the working group or committee does it matter she said I
think um Jo M Shak your had no okay no sorry I couldn't see okay okay thanks it's just it's a big group so it's just I struggle with the idea of scheduling that but I think it's optimistic War I warned Holly I will say that it's optimistic
if I may just on that point there I think um we found in our other communities that a lot of people don't it's it's a pretty intensive process their monthly meetings with lots of homework in between so sometimes we get people who might skip a month or two so it kind of helps having a bit of a bigger group to make sure that we still
get the work done okay all right if I could do does it make sense um to have anybody who's interested in applying apply to the the COA Advisory Board and they could make a
recommendation to appoint um the individuals to the board of selectman and the board of selectman ultimately appoints those those individuals that work are you okay with that M Miss chairman um it would probably be
something that would most likely be managed I think maybe more by Holly um you know so I think that the Council on Aging could do some of the he you're lifting here but it is intended to be an entire
town initiative which is why we have so many other departments that are on here no I I understand Katie I'm sorry I just um I was thinking if if an if an individual was interested in filling an open position they could apply to the Council on Aging hly could make a
recommendation to the COA Advisory Board who could then recommend a filling of each position by uh to the board of Selectmen if that if that process works uh you guys can vet who you're suggesting be appointed
to that committee or working group I'm fine with that process if all is so we are we still talking about are we calling this a task force committee I think we're gonna no I think we're going to call it a uh age and dementia friendly study working group it's long
but I think that's what we're going to call it at least to get started we can readdress this we can look at this again later um I don't have a problem with the idea of including potentially all these people especially if it's a working group because you have more flexibility you
don't have to worry about quorums and whatnot so yeah so I would change it to the creation of a working group for age and dementia friendly study in conjunction with blah but I like the process of vetting it through Holly or the advisory first and then to us I
think that's more efficient yeah hold on for the members being added on but are we leaving all these other things in the motion that y y okay but just not the names right all right so and who on the board of
Selectmen would like to volunteer to be on this working group is it is it Tyler since probably and he should reach out to the advisory to say he wants to be a part of it yeah right um he just did I'd be willing to try I just we'd have to
see time commitment wise how it goes but I'm actually willing as well so I mean I would I could be a backup for you okay you know yeah just all of us try to we we could split it we're just G to jump in jump out jump in jump out yep just I know we've all everybody's
signed up for a lot of different things so just try to spread them around a little bit Y and Tyler just got the um something yeah the what was it the planning Council yeah I can't remember what it was but it was old col
yeah would you like to make a motion sure I move the board of selectman approve the creation of a working group for age and demension friendly study in conjunction with Old Colony planning Council consisting of the following members I want to say
up to the following members uh advisory so that that the Council on Aging Advisory Board selectman representative the Council on in director the town planner and or the town clerk an emergency response
representative Board of Health representative wow this is a long list representative from B Plymouth a Community member with knowledge of dementia friendly efforts Kingston Business Association representative School representative
clergy Faith group representative and Housing Authority or neighborhood Works Housing Solutions repres representative to be appointed by the board of Selectmen and recommended by the Council on Aging Advisory Board second all right all those in favor
erai Jim I miss ey Don I okay a motion to appoint Kim sure we want do that tonight okay and I'm willing to be a backup if you want if you want to do it I'll just put you on it but you're also doing the DPW one so oh I don't care just give
everything to Eric it's fine if you want to do it I I'll I'll move to appoint Eric cron as the selectman representative second you raise your hand a bunch of times I'm G to sign you up all right uh all those in favor Eric I Kim I Missy I don I can't say I didn't
try it's all you buddy no now you have to be all right now I will say though that is a very long list and we may find that that's too long a list and that's okay with the task force because a working group we can be a little more flexible so if we decide need a committee at a later date we may need a
smaller list yep I think that was the idea that we start large knowing that some people may drop off for whatever reason and um in terms of a representative from any particular Department you all are welcome to take turns whoever is
available for whatever particular meeting that may be that it would be you or another representative from the board or from a particular dep department so okay no sounds good all right our next item is an update on the FY 26 budget
but I'm suggesting that maybe we hold off until next week the the um Joint School committees met at 5:00 to discuss a shared cost budget I don't know what the results are yet that's going to affect the budget and then Silver Lake um did get their excess and deficiency
fund certified by the state which is good news um and did rece up over two million 2.48 I think or somewhere around there um so it was a good good number that they were look at using to offset uh operational expenses which in the long run it's like us using free cash to
fund our operations not a good idea but at the same time just remember there are plenty of folks especially Jason Frasier working with um the feds and our state government to look at redoing um uh the funding formulas for
regular education as well as special education because there are towns all over our state that are looking at overrides just to stay funded um while at the same time colleges are now free they just announced today Bridgewater
State University is going to offer no tuition no fees no nothing um as long as you you earn under 125 so that's the millionaire tax funding free college but not funding our K through 12 education so there's a lot of push back against
the state um and we encourage you to contact your state representatives and have them take that education money the 2.4 billion and put it towards education well there were some things brought up at the Silver Lake meeting as well what
was that last no two weeks ago two weeks ago it's last week of school vacation um one of them was some questions about why the E and fund was over 2 million again so they're looking into that but also there were some increases allowed for
private schools and special education schools that were a lot higher than what we can actually Fund corre in our towns so there's no way to make up for that change so that that's another area that
I think Jason is working with the state on as well yep others too but yep for people unfamiliar with Jason he's very involved in the schools and he's on the silver L school committee and he's from Clon he's from climon yeah Jason Fraser he's he's a teacher but he's also the the
um president of mass Association of school committees you going to say something yeah just um to follow up on the uh with the budget discussion uh if there's anything anybody needs prior to next Thursday night um Kathleen would be happy to to try to put together any information that the
Board needs to help you make a decision uh next week so please feel free to reach out uh we'll we'll provide whatever you need to uh get to where you want to get to thank you thank you um next item acceptance of donation to the Kingston public library and
Council on Aging I move the board selectman accept the following donations $2,400 from the Kingston Public Library Foundation Incorporated to the Kingston Public Library to repair the library's electronic sign $25 donation from Robert and Melody Melody tasari to the COA
second second uh all those in favor Eric I Kim I Missy I on I I don't think you needed to read it and then have me read it h you started I was just cutting you off before you had to read the whole description
I didn't even start it it's fine um all right so uh we also have a reappointment to the Kingston education fund trustees uh we had William alberti's term expired on June 30th 24 uh he's requesting to be
reappointed I move the border of Selectmen accept William elberty to the Kingston education fund trustees immediately through June 30th of 2029 second all those in favor Eric I Tim I Missy ey Don I excellent 2029 is a
long term I know that yeah all right Town administrator's report thank you Mr chair uh just we've talked about this a little bit already but uh the Kingston school department will be receiving an additional 555,000 and Silver Lake and another two 200 almost
$261,000 as reimbursements for fiscal 2025 expenses incurred for the district's homeless and Foster Care uh they'll be received half of those funds will be received in April the second half will be received in August based on my conversation with the Department of
Education and and the funds can be used at the discretion of the school committees um our Ring Road flood mitigation project has been awarded that project should begin in the spring um I'm going to be out of the office on vacation the next couple of days I'll be back in on Monday uh if anybody's
looking for me feel free to reach out by text email phone call whatever ever whatever uh is convenient um nomination papers to the chairs point earli in the meeting they're available now for all the different town elected positions all a detailed list of those are on our
website nomination papers are due back by 5:00 Friday March 28th you happy to answer any questions anybody has any questions no comments all right any uh any selectman
comments before we adjourn um I had a question and we don't have to it can be on the next thoughts but thoughts about our meetings continuing in the pattern of the Tuesdays we have because of the music nights that we're trying to schedule for the rec department our summer events so I'm
trying to not schedule the summer events of the same so Tuesday Sue and I um talked about this two three weeks ago okay and I provided to her at the time the uh the dates that the board would be meeting um throughout the summer at
least we scheduled so I thought you can double check with her if you want but uh I thought that she unless the meetings had change well that's what that that's what I want to make sure we're not we're okay with what we have yeah I don't think we we haven't
changed anything on our side no I don't think Trish would would have checked but I don't think there's anything in the summer you know Fourth of July or things of that nature of any conflict so I think we're good that was it I just wanted to make sure before I went back to the wck the only thing is we can't always predict when the special needed
meeting is needed but we can try to doesn't have to be on Tuesday we could make make it a different different night perfect Friday 8:00 P.M just kidding Friday as long as it's not Tuesday about it any other selectman comments I don't I got nothing from my
end so uh I think we've been doing a good job done great posting social media when our meetings are stay off of them social media I think you had some good posts you know just inform try to share information
about how budgets are built and what prop two and a half is and some issues that every Community is facing with this stuff so it's just some there's a lot of folks that just don't they don't know so right it's helpful to just try to share as much information as we can exactly
and and so next Thursday our meeting is going to be you know discussing the potential override for schools that may or may not need an override also you know request U uh St Staffing requests for uh the police department to to bring their Staffing levels um up to more
modern requirements um so we have some things to discuss next week um about both of those items so and then obviously um longer term we're going to have to start planning and working towards uh a budget
for the following year because it's going to be just as much of a challenge a lot of that is going to hinge on on state aid and whether things change things things are changing there um right so uh We've we've got some work to do um and as I've mentioned before uh
the the local school committee had reached out and they wanted to have kind of a working group um not the whole committees meeting together but certainly we could look at doing that but but really just uh keeping Communications open between potentially just the chairs the the superintendent
uh maybe building principls Town Administrator and whatnot when we get to that point I don't know whether um you know we need to take a vote to have me represent or just me represent as the chairman of the the board of Selectmen I don't want to just assume um we're not
there yet we need to get through this year's budget um and it's certainly something we can we can discuss um later on not tonight it's not on the on the on the agenda um but with that uh with it our next meeting uh
we've got a meeting as I mentioned March 6th which is a week from Thursday so it's next Thursday to discuss the budget and then our next regularly scheduled uh meeting on March 11th uh at 6 pm here um would anyone like to make a motion to
adjourn I make a motion to adjourn do I have a second second all right all those in favor Eric I Kim I Missy I don I all right thank you everybody e for