[Music] Good evening and welcome to the select board and wage and personnel board as applicable meeting of Monday, October 6, 2025 at 5:47 p.m. at the Lakeville Police Station. Is
anyone else recording this meeting? Seeing no one, I would like to call this board to order. Hunt present. Plug here. Candido here. Caraboni here. All present. And now, pledge of allegiance to the corner of the room.
Sorry, Larry. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Thank you and welcome everyone. Uh we're going to start out with the select board announcements today. Uh we have the 4th annual grilling for dogs fundraiser. Saturday, October 11th from
11 to 3 at the uh Leville Ace Hardware. We have the trunk or treat from 3:30 to 4:00 for uh sensory uh sensitivity, 4 to 6 on the Sunday, October 19th at Ted
Williams at the MMA parking lot. On the 13th of December, we have both the Snow Person Jubilee and the Lakeville Country Christmas Stroll. Um, all of these items are on our
events page uh for the Lakeville website. Um, we have a ton of upcoming Lakeville COA events, uh, Thanksgiving, Veterans Day, uh, travel, flu clinics, uh, everything is up on the COA website.
And do we have those additionally on the news or is it just the COA? I think it's just the COA right now. Okay. Um, and then we have a special announcement from the Department of Conservation and Recreation. I'm going to read the announcement out loud and
Andrew will hold up the exhibit as we speak of it. Certificate of announcement pursuant to 301 CMR 51 uh.07 uh2 DCR number P0000776,
Town of Lakeville. I state your name. clerk of the select board of town of Lakeville, Massachusetts, do her hereby certify that on October 6th sixth sixth uh 2025. It was announced at a
public meeting of the select board that the Department of Conservation and Recreation may acquire an interest in a parcel of land located in the town of Lakeville as shown in the attached locust map marked exhibit A. It's in the red. um for conservation and/or
recreation purposes. It's a 120day waiver statement DCRP 0000776 Town of Lakeville pursuant to 301 CMR 51.081B 081B. I Moren Candido on behalf of Lake Bill
Select Board hereby agree to wave the 120day notice period as required by said section to a parcel of land approximately 12.5 acres of land in the town of Lakeville shown on exhibit A attached hereto with the department of
conservation and recreation is considering acquiring an interest. Should you have any questions regarding this matter, kindly contact Aaron Turrigy? Yeah. Um at Aaron Turrigymass.gov. Uh we can put that on the website for
anyone interested. Uh for your information, DCR is sending similar notice to Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District. Sen U Senator Michael Rodri and Norm Oral. Thank you for attention to this matter. Andrew, can you speak to this?
Yes. So, the DCR is hoping to acquire a uh parcel of land off Holland Road. Um, it's actually within um current DCR. That's what I was thinking. So, it's already in current DCR.
So, they're just switching it from one purpose in DCR to another purpose in DCR. Yep. And did they say exactly? Nope. just what was just what was here. Okay. And the only thing we're doing
right now is reading the announcement um into the record. Correct. That this is their intent. Um any of the members of the select board have any questions? No. Yeah. This parcel, I think it was 2018,
um, was sold to DCR back in 2018, and this is the first time I've heard of them exercising anything on, uh, this parcel. Yep. Any questions? Member Planka, member Carboni. I just had never seen this before and
um, it's just unusual. So, they're just deciding to take this 12.5 acres and just roll it into the Freetown Fall River State Forest and just because Yep. That's
Yeah, that's my understanding. They are hoping to acquire that parcel that's adjacent to it, the red spot there. They would like to get that parcel as well, but I don't know if they're working on it currently. You just mentioned it. No matter. Now, now I'm confused. This
red parcel is currently owned by who? The state owns it currently. Yeah, DCR owns it. So, I'm not sure. Yeah, but Colleen just said they're looking to acquire it. This the there's another parcel of land
that's white on that map that they're interested in. It's adjacent to it. But that red parcel there, I I would want to say that maybe they're changing over the deed, but I'm not really sure. Well, I think we should clarify what the intent is here. We don't So, it's supposed to be for DCR DCR. We
don't have we don't have have any authority to ask anything further than it DCR, but yes, I agree. Just nice to know where are they what's the intent behind this? Well, it doesn't tell me anything. I think some of this stuff is owned by different departments within the state, maybe. So, can we get clarification on
that? Yeah. I mean, I don't The use is what they're proposing on on the Freetown Forest. Yeah. But, but why can't they do that with what they have today? Uh, I would love to be able to give you an answer why, but yeah.
Yeah, we just ask. I mean, we can get some clarification, but the right now, um, we're starting the 120day notice period, and these are the type of questions that they would be expecting to answer in that 120day notice period.
Um, and making sure everyone is able to send that note out to Aaron Turigney at mass.gov um for further clarification or for concerns if anyone has any concerns on
them switching from DCR to DCR if if that means something you know you know what wherever that is. But yes, we're reading it into the record today and all questions should be answered by DCR within the 120 or after the 120day
notice. They keep saying they want to acquire an interest. DCR wants to acquire an interest. Sounds I mean they already own it. They already own it. Yes. So the language is on that please. Yep. Andrew, would you mind me reaching out
to Aaron and just making it clear why they have to have an interest in something they already have? Yeah, like I said, I think it's tied to some of this property is owned by different department of state and game, fishing game. They want to make it all DCR essentially.
Makes sense. But we like it spelled out for sure. Yeah. All right. We into the record. Next item is the town administrator's report. Andrew, take it away. Yep. Uh capital budget requests were due uh on Friday. Um we're going to have a
decent amount of projects this year. Um we're going to run through that and then schedule meetings with the uh capital expenditures committee for early November. Um have we appointed a new one yet? We I think everyone's commission expired
already in August. Yeah, I think we appointed the same four people. Okay. Can't remember. Yep. Um Okay. Town council RFP is going out this week. Um it's going to be due back in about 30 45 days. About
the beginning of December. Beginning of December. Um the library roof project went out last week. I saw it in the paper today. Um are we putting a list of all of our RFPs somewhere for interested parties um
on our website as well? Do we have that copy for everything? Yes, there's a open bid section on the website that people should be able to find purposes. Thank you. I appreciate that. New website is going to have a very uh more intuitive a lot nicer. It would have to be. I know it has to be
definitely. Um work is ongoing for the class and comp study. Um we've got back about half the towns. So we're just going through the data now. Um I don't expect anything to change that we wouldn't be able to hit the November deadline. Um the fire station
construction kickoff meeting was on Friday. So that's exciting. I think there's going to be some work on the site this week and next. Um and then the last one is I have a meeting with the Berkeley and Freetown town administrators tomorrow on quiet zones.
Okay. So I'll report back on that. I know that's going to be a popular one with a lot of people. Yeah, there's a lot that goes into it. We had the site visit about a month and a half ago. um complicated um and it has to be a regional approach it sounds
like. So definitely have to have the coordination of both all three towns. Okay. Um one thing I don't see on here but I know it was inches from completion were the bathrooms. Yeah, everything should be good to go.
Should be open and ready to go. Were they used for the they they were used the other day for us? Yeah, right. I stopped by really quick and I'm like, "Oh, I didn't check the bathroom." So, I'm like, "Yeah, that's just a weird thing to think about." But yes, that would be
wonderful. This is a a huge enhancement um for us for events um and for voting. Um we usually have that portaotty up there for a while when we're doing the voting. So, uh this makes us feel a little bit better about what we're able
to offer the people of Lakeville for, uh comfort. We're also getting some interest from committees that might want to meet there. So, it's exciting as well. It that is very exciting because the heating uh element has been in there since like 2019. Like it's time it's time. Let's let's use this for for
meeting space which is always at a premium here. Um that's all my questions on the administrator report. Does anyone else have questions on the TA report? hearing. None. Let's move on to the
meeting minutes of September 30, 2025. As always, if there's any ministerial uh things like a a capitalization or a missing letter, um please just circle it and give it to Colleen. But if there's anything that is uh an important change,
let's discuss it and put it in for the record. Okay. I will take a motion to approve the meeting minutes of September 30, 2025 as written. So second. So moved and second. Any further discussion?
Hearing none. Roll call. Hunt. I. Plug I. Candid. I carbon will abstain. Um, do we have a time on this? Wait. No. No. Okay. Um, we're moving on to the vote to adopt the order of taking for
alteration for the layouts of Mrick Street, Precinct Street, Harrison Avenue, Johnson Drive, Bedford Street, Rhode Island Road, and award damages to effective owners. Uh, Andrew, you want to introduce what you've been working on for the last few months?
Last uh, handful of years really. Um, the town's been going at this. Um, we're at the point where we're doing eminent domain uh easement takings, both permanent and temporary. Um, and can you explain permanent and temporary so everyone knows? Yeah, some are uh permanent. Um,
basically we're going to have need to have access to it long term. Some are temporary because of construction and various land clearances and then it goes back to as it was previous on the temporary. Yep. Um and so the first 10 of these are
from the roadway alterations. Um you probably remember this from the town meeting um at the annual town meeting and different votes we've taken. Um there's a listing of them. I also gave a history of the project and the public outreach. Um I also have on the
project engineer Matt Chute and the land uh easement takings specialist Melissa Ryan from AECOM. So, um, these are the first 10. There's going to be, I think, additional 70, Melissa, unless I'm incorrect on that
number. That'll probably be a vote of the board in November. That's correct. Yep. Um, also Melissa or Matt, if I missed anything, feel free to add anything, but these are the first 10. These are uh easements. So, as Andrew
said, permanent easements um and temporary easements. The temporary easement period is for 5 years. So it would be 5 years from today. Um it allows the contractor to schedule the work and complete the work and in the amount of time uh necessary for the
project. Thank you for the clarification. Sure. All right. Uh any board members that have questions uh for the panel or for Andrew on this? I know we've talked about this for six years now, so there's
probably not a lot to say for the board. Uh, if not, I'm going to open it up to the public and I'll please raise your hand and I will be happy to hear anything. All right.
Um, well, this was uh easier than I was anticipating. Um, so we have the order of taking the layout alterations plan and the compensation sheet for the properties. Andrew, is there anything else that you you want to say before we
move forward on this? Do do we need to call out the exhibit A? Um I don't believe exhibit A has to be okay um exactly called out just the vote how it happens. Um other than that just the bids have been um received and
constructions on pace for spring of 2026. It's exciting. Someone like to read the recommended vote. Sure. Can I do that from here? You can. Yep. All right. Actually,
I should probably let the one of the other You should, but you won't. No. I'll make a motion to adopt an order of taking in the form presented for the purpose of acquiring by emminent domain interests and land to complete the alteration of the layouts of Mrick
Street, Precinct Street, Harrison Avenue, Johnson Drive, Bedford Street, and Rhode Island Road as ordered by the select board and accepted by the town and to provide for the immediate recording of said order and plans
referenced therein and further to award Dam damages to those persons affected in their property by said taking in the amounts set forth on documents prepared for and on file with the select board. Excellent. Do I have a second? Second motion and a second. Uh any further
discussion other than hi Matt? Six years of Matt. Um right. Uh so uh if everyone remembers back in 2019 we also did a uh we had a
vote at the ballots um to fund this. So this is coming out of that funding source. So we will drill down and and probably at least 3/4 of the the funding source we will be using up for these takings. But it has already been
allocated uh years ago uh at a very good rate too if I remember. It's coming up too. Yeah. The next agenda item. Yep. Very good rate. All right. Uh roll call I plug eye. Candid. I carbon I. Excellent.
[Applause] uh discuss and possible vote to adopt the the vote prepared by bond uh excuse me bond council in connection with the sale of the town's October 2025 bond anticipation notes and award the town
town's 13,825,000 ban to the winning bidder at the competitive sale held on October 2, 2025 and sign the related documents. Andrew, do you want to go through it or do we want to have
our finance team? Turn it over to the finance team. I knew you would. So, um, prior to my arrival, we had two outstanding bond anticipated notes. Um, 1.9 million related to the Asarmset
windows and doors project and $900,000 for the Route 79 project. They mature in 4 days. So, we are going to renew the $2.8 8 million in bands. We're also going to add $25,000 of new money to the aswit windows and doors. It's a tiny amount not covered under the MSBA um
portion and we're going to add a million dollars to Route 79 since we are moving along and we have signed contracts. And then of course the big addition is 10 million for the fire station. Um, so we uh had a S&P bond rating call because
anything greater than 7 million requires S&P bond rating. That took place on September 10th. Myself, Erica, and Andrew all, you know, grouped together and sold the financial status of the town and how good we're doing and putting money into stabilization and
OPED and we were uh able to secure S&P plus one rating, which is a strong and favorable rating. and we maintained our double A+ bond rating. Um, from there they put out our 13,825,000
in bands and we got four biders sheet. Sorry. We got four biders. Uh, Fidelity Capital, Jeff LLC, Oenheimimer and Co. and Truest Securities. Oppenheimer, Jeff, and Fidelity all came in at 4% and
the winning bidder was truest securities at 3.5%. And these are going to be for one year. They mature October 10th, 2026. Is there anything else we need to know about this vote? I would just like to add, so last year
when we went out to bid, um, the bids came back at four and 4.75. So this is much much better than last year. Members report is just as simple as we you award to the lowest I mean the the lowest interest
rate. There's not a lot of science pretty boiler plate. Yeah. It's a real bank. Yeah. And it's got the lowest rate. All right. I'll take a motion then, Madam Chair. Um, before I read the motion, oh, I'm
sorry. Um, do I need to include true securities in that motion as the you you can that would be great. Okay, I'm going to interrupt you, Lorraine. Yeah, I I'll read the motion.
Oh, Paul is going to read the motion. You're out, Lorraine. to adopt the vote prepared by bond count council in connection with the sale of the town's October 2025 bond anticipation notes
and we award it to what's it called truest truest and it's awarded to truest securities that seems good do I have a second second you got beat out again Lorraine Just not
your night. I got a motion in a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. Roll call. I bloody eye. Candid. I Thank you. Motion passes. All right. Thank you.
Thank you very much. And thank you for your hard work getting those sure rates back even lower. I'd like to see 2% again. Um, Andrew, agenda item number three.
Yeah. So, um, continuation of last week. Um, we're looking to accept special town meeting warrant articles. I went back and made a few revisions. Um, it sounds like some of these might be delayed a little bit. And so I guess I would
propose we could probably bring this up next week at our joint meeting to finalize, but I can kind of go through each one as where they stand right now. Thank you. So the first one will be um unpaid bills article. We just have the one $351. It's
a veterans reimbursement that we would fund out of free cash. Article two is the community preservation committee just making that tiny edit to make it so that the community community preservation committee essentially makes the recommendations of the select board
who would then act on that recommendation. Article three, I revised a little bit to make it more broad. Um, and that's for the town hall building reuse committee to use potentially 25,000
for a study and design. I attached a quote at the end of this for who the quote's from. It's Apollo project management and it goes through how much money it is and then what the subcategories are.
It's a good weather. Um, article four is the citizens petition to remove health insurance for elected boards and officials. Um, article five is the school recall.
Um, the town of Freetown is kind of had some questions on this article. So, this one is in a little bit of a limbo at the moment. Okay. So, if they end up if if we put it on our warrant Mhm. and we have different language than
they do than it fails. So, either we'll pull it at the last minute or on town meeting floor if the language doesn't match or um this is because this is a petition to general court, we cannot do anything on town meeting floor because
of bylaws 74-8 from 2023. Yep. Um, I guess another option that could happen is we we approve it on November 12th. Freetown meets in January. They have a different wording or don't take it up, we could always
come back at the annual and make revisions or changes. Yep. Okay. So, this one will be in flex. Yep. And then the only other one that might come back to the board's attention is the previous um one I mentioned about revolving funds for the conservation
commission. like we had kind of spoke, there was no a formal vote of the conservation commission. Um, they have since scheduled a meeting for this Thursday to take a formal vote. So, I plan on attending that just to give a lowdown of what a revolving fund is.
Okay. So, that might be something that comes back to the board's attention. All right. Yeah, we need a vote to to get on here. All right. Thank you for walking us through. Long story short, we don't have to take a vote tonight. So, yeah, let's hold off
until next week until it's clearer um what it is we're going to be voting on and if we're going to remove anything from the list. All right. Uh four is discuss and possible vote to set the final warrants of this fall town meeting and sign the
document. Yeah, that would only be if we were going to do that tonight. Yep, we're going to hold off on that as well. Uh item number five, we're going to have some guest speakers come up. It's discuss and possible vote on snowplow contractor rate changes. Town
of Lakeville utilizes plow contractors for snow and ice removal during the winter months. Uh the attached request from DPW Director Frank Benise includes an updated hourly rate scheduled for drivers. Mass DOT rates were used as a template for the proposed changes in an
effort to keep the town hiring competitive during the 2025 2026 season. Uh I think that's all I need to do and then I'm going to turn it over. Welcome Frank. Yes. So this is just our yearly update
to our snowplow contractor rates. um doing the same thing we've been doing now for I believe about four years which is aligning with the state um yeah just to help fill our roots. We've um historically now for the last
basically since I've been here seven or eight years now we've not been able to fill our contractor roots and we've kind of lucked out cuz the weather hasn't been horrible either. So, um, well, hopefully that'll change for this year. I know a lot of people got
out of it because of the fact that it hasn't been snowing, so it makes it's like a a double whammy. Um, I'm going to open it up to the board for questions. It looks like a general roughly 10%
increase, give or take. member Carboni, anything? Just always nice to see um I know Franklin this time of year. He loves to come out. He loves to come out and hang with us for like one day a year. Um all right, then I'll take a vote to
recommend. All right. I'll make a motion that the select board adopts the proposed change of rates for the snowplow contractors uh for the upcoming 2025 2026 season as presented. Second motion and a second. Any further
discussion? Hearing none. Roll call. I candy ION I. Thank you. Is that it for you Frank? Anything else? Yeah, we have a couple other things I think are on there to talk about if you wanted to jump for those would be great.
If not movement in front of where um I think it's 10 and 11. Thank you. Well, that's 11 and 12. Yeah. So, um I'm going to move up 11 and 12 and I'm also going to invite the
chief up for 11 and 12. So, I added these both on to the agenda. Um I don't know if you have the pictures, Andrew, that I had I didn't forward them, but
um I think everyone if they've driven down Can drive, you see a lot of cars on the shoulder. Okay. Um I I also forwarded on some old memos from the planning board um from back about three years ago when they had discussed it and tried to uh mitigate
the sit situation with uh with asking the people at 310 Kenneth Welch uh to park offsite. Um and I know some of that is being done. However, I had occasion to view some pictures and then take a ride. Um it is an absolute danger and a
mess on Kenneth Welch Drive. Um people are parking not only on the side of the road, but they're parking into like the fields and into the woods on the road. So I wanted to have a conversation with both of you gentlemen on what we have
done, what we should do, and you know, how can we make it so we're not creating a hazard on that road. I'll open up to whatever might speak. Sure. So, I saw uh some of the pictures of the parking. I've taken a a drive
down there. Um the issue is that the the cars are parking off the street. So, when it comes to enforcing like parking violations, there's not a lot of parking violations that we can enforce on the cars parked on someone else's property
or I don't know if that property and this would be something is how much does the town own cuz they're parking in the cranberry bogs down there. They're parking in the woods and they've kind of made their own little parking area, but they're actually off the pavement. Um, so there's not there was like out of
those pictures there was maybe one car out of 40 that I that we could have given a parking ticket to, you know, a $10 a $10 citation. Um, so I I I think we're limited in what I can do for enforcement um, as far as
writing parking tickets as it stands right now. As it stands right now. And then Frank, anything to add to that? Um I know this came up when it we ended up putting up like some kind of wooden guardrail there and my recommendation then was the same as now would be um we
know all these people are parking for their business for their work in their business. So I mean I would recommend starting with the owners or managers of those businesses and try to get them to figure out where they can park other than on the public road. If I'm not wrong, they're all under special permit
um for those businesses as well. And part of their special permit has to do with parking if I'm remembering it correctly. I'm not sure. But uh but is there anything we can do on that road to have a parking ban on that road um townwide? So where the cars are parking, I think
the you first have to establish are whose property are they parking on? If it's private property, can we reach out to the owners of that property and are they allowing it? if they're allowing it, then you're getting into a zoning issue where uh you know, they need a a
they need handicap parking. They need, you know, parking spaces if if it's for a business. Um so I think we first need to find out who who owns the property if they have permission. And I know some of it is like you said where it's town owned like there's there's some small
parts that is town owned but and that was the issue that we we did you know a couple years ago with the fence and the wooden fence that was town owned property. Andrew did you research this anymore or are we just kicking this off at this point? Kicking off at this point. I can
certainly start contacting business owners seeing who owns what. Okay. because obviously it's a hazard when people back up onto the road. Um the tractor trailers are coming by there and having to swing wide. Um
is there any signs of any kind on this on this street? I know Frank's probably going to cringe, but like would as far as parking any like park like no parking would that even be effective? No. Do you think? Yeah, the problems that we have is they also go out on breaks. So you have a lot of
pedestrian traffic now. you have people crossing the street to get to their um to their car and they're sitting in the car and they're kind of close to the road. Um so I mean it is it is problematic. Yeah.
Member Carboni. Um I know you were kicking around when we put um the special permits together for parking. Um, do you remember any of the language that we used on special permits about, you know, how many spaces that they were allowed for employees and anything
specific in that nature? Not particularly. I just I know that they had gone over it and it was identified and um and I think a second entity had gone in that building. Um, so I'm not sure, you know, where that that
stands now, but I know that the ownership was was trying to accommodate by having a shuttle service uh for their employees. So, I'm not sure where that stands either. Yeah, I know they are using that currently. I've watched it um happen. Um, but at the same time, I I can
imagine being an employee and having to shuttle places probably, you know, it's an extra 10 15 minutes each way on your day. you're probably not going to want to do it if you can just park over on the grass somewhere. So, um we have to make sure that we have all our ducks in a row. So, if you could look at each of
their special permits as well um to say how many spots they have and how much they're using. I know this will take a while to untangle, but I think it's a a safety hazard and um that's why I brought it before the board. Any thoughts on it?
Maybe I will I I'm here for Madam Chair. Um, I I know that historically that Cranberry Bog area was owned by the Pink family. I don't know if they still own that and for many years tractor trailer drivers would park
on there and I don't know that there were any complaints from them um as far as parking on their property to the chief's point that we can't enforce um that type of stuff. I have as recently as this Saturday seen the overabundance of parking going on
through there uh including the blocking of fire hydrants while people are parking. And to that point, I know historically the town has had very little uh monetary assessment on their parking violations.
It and chief, is there any way that that can be addressed as well? Because I know that when we were writing $30 tickets for things, other communities were writing 75 and $100. Right. Right. So, our tickets, who's the parking I think that you're the parking
commissioner. So, our our tickets right now for for instance, uh blocking a hydrant 10 bucks. So, that's uh other towns um and I do have some samples um where it would be like a $50 citation. Um
I think the average and I have sample like this is a sample MBTA. They write a lot of tickets. Yeah, that's the only one. Um block and the hydrant is $100 for the MBTA. So we're only 10% of that. Um there was I did have middle borrows in here and there they kind of fall in line
like if ours is 10, theirs is 15. So it's it's just a matter of the board to determine if we're going to you know change our parking fee structure. We don't write a lot of parking tickets in town. Um, you know, we're we're not the
lowest paid in Plymouth County. We're not the, you know, the highest amount of parking tickets. We're like right in the middle. Um, and we usually address um writing parking tickets. When we have a complaint about parking, that's when we'll usually go out and and address it.
Um, our handicap parking is probably in line with everybody else. That's a That's a $50 fine for pocket in a handicap. And uh the second offense is $100. So procedurally um would it be you creating a parking structure fee
structure and then bringing it to the board or it would be the the board you know kind of going in line? They would they would you know have to agree on okay what is what is the structure and it's just and that's something that you could probably get from Plymouth County. Um, Plymouth
County parking. Okay. That uh will have everybody's sample citations. So, shoot myself in the foot. So, if you want to research that a little bit and bring something back to the board, um, I will put it on an agenda. Uh,
it'll give a little more teeth to some of the stuff. um make it a little bit more prohibitive instead of you know 10 bucks which most people don't show up for the right they just they just pay it pay it. Yeah. All right.
Anything further discussed on this issue? All right. So this brings us right to the next issue and that is discuss on possible vote for townwide speed limit signage 2020 2019. Um we we uh put together
something for the transportation bond bill. Um it didn't get accepted. Um and we came up with um also a possible grant to try to write something to do townwide um speed limits. I don't know when the
last time it was done, if ever. Um and we should probably be looking at now that we're more thickly settled on the roads. Um, now that we've just got just a a different community than it was 30 years ago when they based up those poles in the ground, we should probably be
looking at those type of signs. Um, and I just wanted to get a discussion started um with the two of you on uh it thoughts on, you know, speed limits. Is that something that you guys have like
discussed in areas? um how we want to go about it and you know working with Mass DOT. So that so the the conversation we had back in 2020 um was uh whether or not the town
would want to go to it's called 917C where we put signs um at the entrance of pretty any road that comes into Lakeville where it would be a sign that says uh speed limit 25 unless otherwise posted. So to do that, we we have the
majority of our roads and the main roads in town are uh properly uh mass DOT regulated. They're speed regulated. Uh they they determine where the speed sign is going to be, where the speed zones change. Um other streets in town aren't
necessarily DOT regulated, meaning they're either the primapacia. Okay, it's a thickly settled 30 mph speed zone. We can enforce it just just based on that. um for us to do the 9017C
where we have all then some streets that are um that don't have the regulation now automatically would drop down to a 25 mph speed zone which is probably inappropriate for some of the streets that that would have to do it. So we looked at it what streets weren't
regulated and how much it would cost to have them regulated. So it would be a two-step process. It would be a capital project to have them regulated, which back in 2020, we did get a quote. Um, and then after that project, it would be to see
if the town would adopt 917C um to do that. So, it was it would be a kind of a long project and expensive. And we looked for grant money back then and I think that's what you were referring to. We couldn't get any. Yeah. Yeah. We couldn't get it. Ari and his team also tried it
tried to get grants for that also and weren't successful. Transportation bond bill um Senator Rodri's um would be our best bet to try to get that floated in there as well. Yeah, I saw a few um
mass DOT programs lately that might qualify. I'll check into those. Yeah, cuz last time it was 75,000. That was kind of like the bare bones like the starter starter fee. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um open to the board. Thoughts on this?
No thoughts. So next step is what? Well, we have to uh probably reach out to do what companies do this? Who did we get the quote from? Beta. Yeah. So I'd have to I can reach out to
them and get a full scope cost 75 years ago. Go from there. So we we can get a a co a scope and a cost and then I can reach out to uh mass dot as well as night rick see if there's any money kicking around.
Okay. Um and then we'll be bringing it back, you know, for the possibility of voting on it. So if we move forward with this, the law, regulation, bylaw, whatever you want to call it, says that if it's not
posted, it's 25. That would be the 917 C. So, right now, all streets that are posted are whatever that posted speed limit is. Um, and then any other street that isn't regulated or isn't posted, you go by whatever the primacure is, it
divided highway, a highway. So, it'll go 50, 40, 30, or a school zone, which is 20. Those are the actual limits. Um, so when you have it regulated, that's like Rhode Island Road for instance, that's a there's a 35 in some of those areas.
That means it was regulated where it doesn't really fit in a 40 and it doesn't fit in a 30, it's 35. So you could have, you know, the studies done and they take accident data, they take uh the average speed of the normal flow flow of traffic and uh it can change. So
it could it could take a thickly settled area and which would be a 30 and then they could even make it higher and make it a 35 or 40. They being DOT mass DOT. Y I assume they do that for all the D state roads.
Yes. So it's all state roads and municipal roads have to have to go through the the study as well. We can't just throw up a sign and say okay this is a 30. Um that's whatever the if it's a thickly settled area then it would be a third.
Did the number include signage? Probably not, right? No. Yeah. So I'm still not quite sure what this gets us because it's possible that by default if it's not posted it's 25 and it's new. Yeah. So that would be the benefit of
going to a to the 917C. Whereas any new roads that came in or any roads that you didn't have regulated, they're automatically a 25 and you they don't have to be posted. It's automatically a 25. So that would be commercial drive. That would be, you
know, you know, those roads and stuff. So a new road comes in, it would save us money because we wouldn't have to put up a sign. Correct. it would automatically be a 25 and then we enforce it as a 25 as opposed to a 30
might have some value to it. Um and like Vaughn Street and some of those other streets. What is Von Street off the top of your head? Is it 40 or is that just It's a Yeah. So that would be a third. Von Street's a 30.
Never seen anyone go 30 on Von Street. 35 is Von Street. It's 35. Yep. Yeah. Posted. Would that in your estimation go down to a 30 because it's it's possible it's possible that it could go down to a 30. But the when you
do this, it could also go up. And that's when you do the the the study. That's the the gamble that you have. It could go it could go higher or lower than what it currently is. That that was the information we drew from last time speaking with
baiters. The the majority of the time the speed limit will either stay the same or go up. It very rarely drops down. That's the opposite of what I was hoping for. Um it it just might be worth exploring just
to give you guys some more teeth in some of your stops. Do you think it's worth it or like you know is this something you guys would advocate for? Um it I guess it's something that you know should have been done you know
years ago. It seems like they have you know you know you found all the the proper regulations where this is where the speed limit zone changes. This is where the sign goes and they were different times. So it was the town had done let's do this street, let's do that
street and you can you can do that. Hey, this year we could do, you know, one street at a time that was paving and do it over 10 years. It was when they they were paving, they would put a new sign in. Um it it's it's just a matter of, you know, appetite for it. Um we're still out
there enforcing whatever you whatever the speed limit is. Yeah, it it's something that if we could get grant or or bond money for that, I would like to explore, but if we would have to out of pocket it, I probably wouldn't support it. Um, it's just procedurally something
that should have been done. And to to your point, everywhere else has it done correctly. I I'd like to see us stick to kind of the correct way to do these things, but um not if we have to pay for it. Any comments? Anything? No.
Member Carboni? Nothing. No sir. All right. Do we have anything else for you guys? No. See anything? Thank you both very much attending. I appreciate your time. Thank you.
Uh number six, discussion and possible vote to send letter regarding zoning to Rocky Woods developer. Back last week, we met with some residents um and they
wanted us to further some additional discussions um about the current plan for the property known as Rocky Woods. Some of the neighbors of the property would like to see it reszoned, either business or ind industrial. Um, and then we have
some other neighbors that would not like to see it uh reszoned u business or industrial and they're happy with the current proposal or they would prefer it as compared to a warehouse. Um, it's important to note that this is unofficially known as phase one with
other parcels making up what is unofficially known as phase 2. Phase one is closer to Freetown Street whereas in phase two is closer to County Street in 140. A reszoning effort could be directed by the planning board, select board or citizens petition. There is no guarantee that resoning would affect
phase 1 and and the developer has chose 40B and is not tied to local zoning. So because they've already submitted all of their paperwork already, um this is truly up to them to choose, you know, how they want to proceed in this.
Andrew, I'm gonna let you take over the conversation at this juncture. Yeah. So, there's a lot of moving parts. Um, it's not just one parcel. Um, many think when they think Rocky Woods, it's just one big piece of land. I think it's like maybe six or seven different ones.
Um, the main one that we're talking about is the is the first I call it the first phase. That's the 40B residential 176 unit single family 40B style with I think two entrances on Freetown Street.
Um and then there's a mixture of properties that kind of make up the rest of it. My understanding is the reasonzoning that was potentially planned for a handful of years ago was for the rest of them. Um the ones on county and kind of the back end of this property. Um it's important to note
you've kind of already mentioned it. we could ask him to reszone and he is not tied to that. He had filed a 40B. He can kind of pretty much do what he wants. Um that said, he could basically get the the
comprehensive permit for a 40B. If it's reszoned, he could say, you know what, it makes more financial sense to make a warehouse, a business, whatever it is. Um, so when we when we talk about reszoning, yes, for this parcel, but also there's
five or six or seven other ones that are also kind of in this conversation as well. Um, like you also mentioned, I've received calls pro and con. Yep. Um, that's it's like any issue in town. People want it, people don't. Um, I
think it's my recommendation is to explore with the developer and see what he says. So would you recommend having like an openhouse format maybe with the developer and invite residents to come um and just do it in an open format? I
mean I I know there's a lot of people that were discussing there's was it 400 uh I I received an email there some people say there's between four and 800 directors but of course it's right on the way of the school campus really affects it affect
everyone in town. Yep. It affects everything. Um obviously um we don't want to advocate for anything um you know that the majority isn't for. Um but there is no we don't have a knowing on on that. We
only have the knowing of the people that actually responded which um believe it or not that's sometimes not indicative of what you know come what happens on voting day. Um, so I I would love to, you know, just have an open house and have him be able to discuss it with the
people and invite him uh to a select board meeting along uh with residents. We can have it at the library. Um, and we just facilitate a discussion. Um, as opposed to pushing one idea or another, just facilitate that discussion. Um,
he's he's not he doesn't have to attend. He doesn't have to do anything. But um I I would like the residents to be able to have that discussion because I know um this is far more impactful than residents were thinking it would be back
when the warehouse was being proposed. Um and it was a very successful um campaign not to get it reszoned um for a warehouse. Um and that had a lot of moving parts to it that wasn't just about that. So um I just want to get everyone on the same page. Is everyone
going to feel happy about it? No, but is everyone going to be heard? I hope so. Um, you know, and and that's all you can really ask in in government. It's not always going to work your way, but um trying to get everyone heard uh is a maybe a lofty goal, but I I would really
love to see if he would like to join us, have a conversation, um and hopefully have some polite and constructive discourse. I can certainly invite him for sure. Yeah. Yep. And would that be better than a letter an invitation?
You make a valid point. I I agree with what you're saying. Okay. All right. Does the original petitioner like to speak on that? Um um madam chair, you have to come up and identify. I'm sorry, Larry.
It's okay. Larry, 45 free town street. Um thank you for taking this up again. Um I I guess to clarify cuz I I read that letter that came from the one uh citizen that is at the opposite end of
the town. But um we no one's saying hey build a warehouse. Nope. And I had used the examples that he wanted to do that and he pulled the petition at town meeting. Uh my point is I wanted to talk to him
about anything other than this 40B project. Mhm. At the end of the day, if you do the math, the the project scope of where he wanted to be at the end of this project, we're talking about 300 houses somewhere in that ballpark. So mathematically
speaking, just say because some of it's 40B, some of it's not. You're looking at we'll say $4,800 in property tax per household when you average it out. Talking about $1.4 $4 million, but with that $1.4 million, you got to have more police, more fire,
bigger schools, and so forth. So, you've lost money. We're already getting killed in with the potential, well, with some of the debt exclusions we have coming, plus a potential override request. You're going to increase property taxes
too. I can't disagree with anything you're saying. and and I can't understand the mentality of the bedroom community thought anymore. We can't be a bedroom community. So, forget the warehouse. Forget whatever may be just commercial
shopping plaza like uh Cranberry Crossing type thing. If you throw a warehouse in, who cares? That's revenue that comes in. You get three 4 million in revenue with no stress on the community. So, no one said warehouse. He originally asked for a warehouse. I used
as an example that we can get a large revenue income to the to this to the town without stressing our infrastructure. Selfishly speaking, it gets the entrance and exits to this property off of
Freetown Street. Freetown Street, they can have all the studies they want. We live there. You cannot withstand another two 300 cars on that street. It can't be done. It's it's insane, you know. I don't I I know we had a traffic study done. I know it was peer-reviewed. We
live there. I defy anybody to come out of there, come down Freetown Street to County Street at 2:5 in the afternoon when school lets out and tell me that it's less than 5 minutes at that stop sign. It's 15 all day long. So, not to
mention these access roads are right next to our houses. these easements that they put in. I don't know who was thinking about this when they cut up this property over there, but that road is going to be about 60 ft from my bedroom window. That's a lot to ask of
the the citizens and the people on the other side of me. The same thing. Go down to the cell tower road. Same thing. There's two houses right there. There's houses directly across the street from there. Just going to get buried with, you know, lights all night long. It's It's not It's just not practical. It's
not it's not feasible for the citizens. So if someone lives over by Betty's neck and has an issue with that, then you know come live here. Let us drive 100 cars by your house every day and see you know how much you love it. It's it's just not practical. So that's the reason
we you know we asked for this. We we sent out we printed 500 letters. I got about 60 left. So we went to every single house that is on Freetown off that end of
county Howland Street from can't think of the name of the streets but all through the school all the way down behind the school all the way down to the to the Freetown line. So we covered everybody. The fact they didn't want to come just tells me they either
don't care or just didn't care enough. So, I'm sure there's people from the opposite end of town that are going to have issues with it, but they don't live there. So, you know, and they have a say. I'm not saying they don't, but I think talking with U Muhammad and his
people is the right way to go. We're getting him one way or another. So, why can't we try to cut a good deal for for our town? And I think, you know, even if just I'm using a number 34 million in revenue with taxes and so forth, um is way better than 1.4 million with a
stress on the community. So that's Thank you very much. So I appreciate your time and if I can do anything to help, let me know. I do have contact with them if I need to. Okay. Thank you. Would anyone else like to speak? Anyone else like to speak? Please come up.
My name is Donna Gay. I live at 126 Holland Road and um I've been there since 1991 and I've seen uh immeasurable growth in the community of Lakeville uh particularly in our area specifically um
Baker Lane Extension and um yes I do understand and um acknowledge and appreciate the increased traffic um that this kind of a development may bring to
roads in the area. Uh 7:15 outside my front window. I can see the line of traffic going uh to the high school. Uh it ends 8:00. It's cleared up. May pick up again in the afternoon.
It might get busy at 2:00. Um, I guess I'm I guess I'm just really pleased to hear that the select board is willing to engage in an open forum so that people in the town uh whether they be in close
proximity to a development um that's near Holland Road uh and on Freetown Street can voice their opinions. I know that I I've been attending regular meetings and listened to a lot of the
developments proposals that um Mr. Ratani has come forward with and he's on a third rendition now which we're probably about 10 days away from looking at an engineering drawing which he was
kind of given the go-ahad to prepare at a May 12th meeting. um or June 16th meeting. So, I'm interested in seeing the third proposal for the development uh Simmons Hill.
Um this is the single family portion of it, formerly Rocky Woods, uh single family homes. uh he's he's made a lot of adjustments to his first conceptual plan and it feels like it's
closer to something that um is more desirable. I am concerned about a lastm minute shift in requesting the developer to consider reszoning and putting something
commercial there because no idea what that would look like. we can look at a crystal ball and see what we think it might look like, but we really don't know for sure. So, I'm I'm glad to hear that there's talk about an open forum
where um it's publicized and people can come and um Mr. Ratani would be welcome to be there as well, but I don't want to jeopardize what what we have currently um with him almost ready to present that
engineering plan because we have 180 days to approve and we also don't want him to convert back to an original 40B plan that he presented months ago. So, I'm not I'm not really sure. I I don't think a
letter would be appropriate. I think an open forum would be more appropriate. Okay. Um so, I appreciate the board's willingness to entertain that. I appreciate you giving a a different perspective as well um on the whole pro the project as a whole and how it
impacts you. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Anyone else like to speak? Okay. Um would we like to instead of vote to have a letter, we just vote to invite um for an open forum um and then
coordinate that with the library. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. And then do a lot of uh with the communications committee do a lot of outreach as well to make sure we reach as many people as we can. Yeah,
I don't think we need a vote. No. All right, we'll add that to the next agenda. Well, wait, what date? We're going to be a free town. Next meeting is October 14th. Then not the next agenda, the one after that. Okay. Yeah, 21st.
That's a little tight. I'm like, wait, we're we're meeting again in a week. Okay, perfect. uh seven hours of operation in town hall. It's come up a few times. Thank you
everyone. Um so prior to CO we had um specific hours of operation in town hall. During CO we went to uh appointment only and it changed kind of the different buildings. We've
moved some buildings around. We've moved departments around. Um, we would really like to make sure the people of Lakeville know what time our departments are open. Um, and we get a solid understanding on what that looks like.
And that's how this came about to be on the agenda. Um, Andrew, I I asked um member Carboni to send the last study she had done. Is this it? It
uh it's it's that but then we updated it to what we currently have. Got it. Okay. I'll let you walk us through it. Lacy, if you want to join us at the table. Be shy. Hiding in the corner. No one puts baby in the corner.
So, we can go by each uh kind of building. So, right now um town hall is kind of split in different kind of sections and the hours are kind of split between that way. Like for example, the select board, the town administrator's office, HR, accounting
are all on the lefth hand side of the building and we're all open 8 to 5 Monday through Thursday and then 8 to 12 on Friday. The rest of the building, the downstairs, let's call it, um the treasur collector,
um planning, town clerk, um and assessor are all 8 to 4:30 on Monday through Thursday. Then Friday is 8 to 12. So just just those um direct comparison, one side of the building is 40 hours,
the other side is 38. Um which makes a difference. And then those same hours that that left or right hand side has that is the same hours of the old library which is the building department, conservation and board of health. Um
then obviously public works, transfer station, libraries, um and senior center. Those are different kind of operations. So those are kind of different hours. Um I don't know if we want to talk about all those or we want to go into just the town hall at this point.
I think I rather focus like one bite at a time. Yeah. But um I'd rather get a few right first and then continue on if we need to. Um, but the one I hear the most about is from residents is uh town hall and not
knowing when we're open and not being able to get there after work ever um because we don't have the late days anymore. Um, and then just uh continuity um just in general. So that was the idea. So I'll let you
take it away Lacy. Yeah. So I do also hear that in the most of what I see is it's a little bit confusing because people will show up at 4:30 and they come to the building and
part of the building technically is open but it's not the part of the building that's really serving the public as much. Um and so you know you get the question of well the building is open why isn't everybody open? So I am working through
also the class and comp study. Uh it is showing some communities do go straight 40 hours where they do 8 to 5 um or I'm sorry 8 to 4. Other communities do you know um a 40hour and they do an hour
break for lunch. Some of them are doing one really long day. one one of the towns that's in the class and com study actually has a 12-h hour day and I would not recommend that people burn that's that's a complete burnout. Well, I guess it would depend on how many people you have in your department.
If you have like a a fourperson department, you can stagger it a little bit. Yeah. But two person department well to make up their 40 hours a week though they do like a a shorter other days during the week. So their people are there for that 12-hour period. So, I
don't think that that would be a recommendation for it. Um, but just kind of looking at as a as a whole like do we want to do 40 hours open total to the public or I mean I don't know what the
dynamic was if if the reason for the half hour was, you know, they they close and then it's still open till 5 and they're doing, you know, the paperwork or however that works. But just right now I'm just kind of looking for the continuity of it and then so I can build
for the class and comp study. So before um it was it was really focused on how best to serve the residents and the the focus was on hours of operation to serve the residents. Um
granted we've got more uh much more uh savvy with our permitting and online payments and that's changed slightly but having availability for the residents was the guiding principle um that we had gone for before when we had voted it and
that was 40 hours and the reason it was half days on Friday is because they had a late day during the week. Okay. So there was prior to that it was it was the same across the whole week. Um but then 2017ish or somewhere around then um
they had talked to a lot of stakeholders and and um in town they wanted a late night and the the workers said you know we'd love a half day on Friday. So they made that kind of tradeoff between you know what's going on um with our
employees and what's going on there. And we had at least two people in every department as well that were working like full-time so they could stagger. Someone came in a little early, some came late. And we had a floater as well. So that floater would cover, you know,
the gaps um wherever they would be if we had um So are you looking to have the town hall open more than 40 hours and doing the staggering? I I think 48 should be the minimum. I agree. I I the 38 is kind of a head scratcher to me.
Yeah. um 40. I think we should start congregation starts there. Okay. To be consistent at the very least. I mean, if there's appetite to make it 35, then whatever. I not for me, but consistency number one. And it's it's
fixed that problem. I wasn't even aware that we were two hour. Yeah. Yeah. No, I I didn't find that out till last week. Um Paul thoughts. Paul has thoughts. Paul has thoughts.
Uh I I would almost think it, you know, in the discussions about some late hours, the all the departments that are 38 add 2 hours on every Thursday and give you late hours uh for
your access. I have no objection to those type of but to your your point last at our last meeting and I have not given that consideration um what what a shorter work week would give as far as energy savings and so
forth for the town. you know, I I don't I don't know that we've ever discussed what the cost is for opening or what the thought is for opening uh per day. You know, if we were to if we wanted to switch it down, if we wanted to switch it and and close
on Fridays, although I I as I said, I know a lot of people that try and get there on a Friday because they know people are there from 8 to 12 and last ditch effort of the week. I if I screwed in there on a Friday morning, I
can get some things done. But can we all agree that 40 hours is probably the minimum starting point for each department and then we can decide on how we want to structure that? Yeah, I I I think it's odd that
yeah, the number of people are at 38 and then another group is at 40 across the board. All right. So, if we uh member Carboni, I almost forgot you. I know this is
actually member Carboni was driving this about two years ago when she realized um that there was an ongoing discrepancy. So, actually, I'm just going to open the floor to you, Member Carboni. Yeah. No, I'm I'm glad that it's you
know, it didn't really go anywhere. Um but I do want to just make um comment that there was some concern about you know having evening hours where it's either the whole kitten kaboodleoodle does it um because I guess there was just one or two departments that did it
and then it was just you know uncomfortable having two people in the building you know over late nights. So that was a concern um especially if they were the only department that was there.
um to later hours. So, it's either, you know, everybody does it or nobody does it. So, would it be Can I get a clarifying point on that? Is it everyone that does it that's a service department or is it everyone that you're saying? No,
I would say service like Okay. that would be providing a service to um to the public. Okay. cuz as a general rule um accounting doesn't have a lot of interactions with the public wherever um
and uh HR as well. So, I didn't know if we wanted to include them in whatever we're saying for like a late night, but um that's it's helpful context. And I know there was some concerns for
being there at night, but it's not like 9:00 at night. It's like 6:00 at night, which is not night. It's a normal business day. Madam Car. So let let's go back in time many many years ago.
Everybody was everybody 40 hours, right? Yeah. Eight nine 8 to 4 whatever 5 days a week. Forget about the half. Right. There there was a time where there was no half day Fridays. Yep. Okay. And they have and then somewhere along the way they're like, "Hey, it
would be nice if one day a week town hall the service departments were open till six or whatever." Yep. And then so you had that long day and then the compensation was we'll just take those extra hours, those evening
hours away from your Friday. Yep. Okay. But it still equaled out to you know 40 40 because it wasn't right. It I believe they were doing like 8 to 7. Was it seven or Okay. It was I think it was like 8 to 7. It
was something right around there. Or 8 to 8. It was whatever those four hours you lost on Friday distributed during the week for that long day and then somewhere along the way they lost the evening hours but they kept the half day Friday. Okay.
Yeah. It just uh I'm I'm not sure when that happened but member Carboni had called it out um and then it just kind of didn't go anywhere. So it's important that we wrap our arms around it a little bit. Um, is there a reason um, Andrew
uh, to to not do 8 to5 as a regular work for the like the treasurer, the board of health, the clerk?
If we're going to get back to 40, yeah, we would start at uh Well, it would be Yeah. 8 to 5 and then you get that half hour and then you do a late night, right? And then you'd add that in.
But we over are we over 40 at that point though? So we if we go back we go back to 8 to 5, it would be 8 to 5 Monday to Thursday, 8 to 12 Friday. Those are your 40, right?
We at a minimum. I think we should be there. But now we got to figure out if we do that late night. But that's 8 to 5 with no break is what? Yeah. Oh, no. That's the service house. You're right. You Yeah, you get your 30 minute. We did the meal break. Yep. It's the 30 minute.
I also have towns that technically their town halls open for it's like 44 hours a week but they shut them down like New Buffett works 8 to 5 every single day but they shut them down for
an hour for a mandated hour break. Um I have seen that as well. So, there's a few there's a few towns that if you look at their hours, it'll the town hall looks like it's open for like 44 hours, but it's technically only 40 because they mandate an hour for their employees to eat.
Mhm. What is our mandate? So, we don't we allow for a half an hour uh meal break. If they stay within the office and are still available, then it's a paid meal break. If they were to leave the premises and be unavailable,
it would be unpaid. Andrew, what are your recommendations? I would say we Lacy and I develop a plan based off the feedback and then come back and give what we kind of think would be the ideal situation. Okay. Can you make sure within that plan
you have a scenario that has a late night as well? Yeah, we can um maybe develop a couple scenarios. Yeah, because again like most people don't work in in town. They're coming, they're commuting in, they're not here by 4:30 or 5.
Yeah. When we say late night, are we saying just so I can have a general idea? Are we saying six, seven, eight? Like what do we consider in the late season? Yeah, I think six. Six. Okay. Yeah, seven's pushing it.
Seven. Yeah, seven. I feel like especially as it gets darker darker quicker. Yeah. Yeah. I I feel six is still work day. Okay. Member Carboni, any thoughts there?
No, I just like to see what the uh administration can present um you know just based on everybody's um input. Yeah, I think this could be much cleaner and nicer for the
people to understand um instead of be taken off guard and just like you said, come in expecting to go do something and that's not the part of the building that's open. I can imagine that would be pretty frustrating. Anyone else have any more comments?
Okay. So, thank you for this first kind of look over to make sure we are back to where we need to be and and not just let you know let the COVID slouch
stay as part of the the process. Um hours of operation. Um agenda item number eight, discussion on economic development strategy and the community onetop for
growth grant program. Um Lakeville was awarded 94,000 from the rural development fund. Uh was it last week, week before? Last week. Um um and that's something which one of you shining stars wrote that
Stephanie Hall the grant writer we hired. Thank you, Stephanie. Um, uh, for the community onetop grant for development of an economic development strategy. As we've talked about many meetings, we are in a position where,
uh, most of our buildings and our tax uh, revenue comes from homes. uh we need desperately to develop some type of economic development strategy in town in order to further uh our goals of less
being less dependent on homeowners for tax revenue. Uh the economic development committee has initiated the creation and of resident and business owner surveys in anticipation of the work to be completed under this grant and a formal procurement process to hire a consultant
will be required before any project or work may proceed. I am going to attach his a letter of award um with a congratulations um from the director of rural affairs. Andrew, please add in
context and uh give us a little chat on the project kickoff and the townwide economic development um assessment. Um, so when I, uh, select board hired me, this was one of my main goals that I wanted to do was an economic development kind of overhaul
across the entire town. Um, just from growing up around here, I know Main Street isn't what it could be in my opinion. Um, and so I wanted to find resources that could match maybe to try to help that that goal. And so
the agency that does this community onetop grant program, they give out money to small rural um towns such as us to basically apply for technical assistance. Um so we did an economic development strategy. Um me, the prior
town planner, and Stephanie Hall, and then also Nate Darling contributed to the grant for this. Um, my long-term vision of it was to have the economic development committee kind of run the process. Um,
and that process involves the project kickoff, a townwide kind of existing conditions. Um, and then it looks at commercial and industrial development across the town, not only on Main Street, and then look at different development opportunities.
Um and then they would give us an overall plan that we could look at and say what can we use to attack uh revenue opportunities to kind of offset the residential tax rate like you mentioned. Um and so from here um Emily
Surret um will have the duty of putting an RFP out. Um a lot of uh the thing that's good for us is that a lot of um different communities have done this in the past. So we can kind of plug and play with other communities.
So we have to have a dedicated person to administer this. Well, we have a consultant that would do this for us. Okay. Yep. And then that consultant would meet with obviously administration but also with the economic development committee. Okay. So um the first part of that is the RFP.
Um and I think from there we get we get someone on board. I would probably like them to meet the select board, but also the EDC. Okay. So, it's good to have an EDC going. Um, it's very exciting. It's been a very long time. Yeah, exactly. It's good to give them
teeth. So, this is good to have them money, not just uh conversations. It'll be action and they can have some oversight over this. Yep. Members, any comments, questions, concerns? Nope. Good stuff.
No, just um if I can, Madam Chair, the EDC I know is looking forward to um you know having this type of support help guide us through um in some actionable items with deliverables. Um so in the meantime,
you know, we were just trying to to work to prepare some of the questions that were important um to get out to those business owners and and residents. Um, so that's, you know, just kind of happening in parallel to this. So I was
tickled pink to hear that we got this. Um, just yeah, very exciting. So, thank you to all involved um, putting this together because I think this is going to really help us um, move to the next phase of what we're looking to
accomplish. Fantastic. Fantastic. All right, think we're good there. Um, hometown heroes banners. Uh, back in 2023, this was, uh, up for discussion
for CPC for hometown heroes banners. Um, several surrounding communities, I'm thinking Bridgewwater in my head, um, have great banners um, saluting their uh, their veterans. Um, and I I know it's something that we've talked about
before. The problem is not uh getting the one-time funds or or trying to get um CPA one-time funds. It's how all of these things get managed year-over-year and how uh they are in good con they are
kept in good condition and uh added to and all of those things. Clona, did you ask for this? item if I'm remembering correctly. Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. So, it's an idea that I've been thinking about for a few years and now I'm in a position to
help advocate for it. Um, uh, Sue Spieler has also done some research on this. Uh, she's she is, uh, participating in the program in Bridgewater for a relative. Uh, so she's done a lot of the research for us and
some of the options. Um she's we Andrew and I have that information. Um my recommendation is well first let me give us some additional time to review it and put together a proposal. There's many different ways we could run this. I won't go into all the details in terms
of the funding sources and so forth. I won't go into details now, but I'll put together a proposal. I've also been discussing it with our VSO Christine Boone. She's aware of this. So um I think this is a program that will work. Um,
and like I said, so just give me some additional time for Andrew and I to review the information that Sue has graciously provided us, and we'll come back with a proposal at a later date. Fantastic. I had one question. Um, just because it helps me visualize it. Um,
when I'm picturing the Bridgewater ones, they have them really in the center of town and going out. Are you envisioning this being from like the location of the new fire department to town hall? Yes. Um and then possibly like as a wamps it to the library to create Yes.
what we almost have as like a town center. Exactly. Okay. Exactly. That makes sense. Exactly my thoughts. Exactly. That makes sense. All right. Any comments from other board members? Great idea.
Yeah. Yeah. I think this is um a time, you know, to get these things done. It's It's been It's been tough. And I heard it was like you noted it was discussed a few years ago. It was It was And the sticking point was not getting it done the first time. It
was who was going to handle the maintenance after. And there wasn't good answers for that. So solving for that is going to be key. I'll come up with Yeah. Is going to be key. Um because we can get all great new things, but if we can't keep them nice. Yes. Agreed. So anything?
No, it's a good effort. I think we'll have a couple other bedrooms initiatives coming up. Um, parking spaces potentially. Um, so exciting time. It is. All right. Um, minutes on agendas. I actually asked
for this one to be on. Um, we're getting a little bit better every day with our u making sure our minutes are in order. Um, I don't see 2020 on here, but um, I
know there's a lot that we need to do to have our executive sessions up uh, per the law to uh, I forgot what the the correct term is to release them, but not to release them to
public. Um, but to release them and make sure that they go into the record. Um, and we're supposed to be doing that yearly. Um, what I would like to propose is what was already proposed back in 2020, but it didn't take. Um, and that
is that yearly in January, we do a dust up and go soup to nuts and make sure all of our meeting minutes are in order, you know, at the beginning of the year as like a housekeeping thing. So, that's just my my proposal to the board.
We can do that. So, Madam Chair, am I reading this correctly? If we just look at 2021, looks like we're fully compliant except for maybe two agendas that are missing. Everything else? Yeah, it looks make sure I've read this correctly. I see.
So, also um so we've approved a lot of them, but we haven't released them with redactions. So, yeah. So, that all has to be done for the redactions. Everything in that final column. Oh, so town council review is required for all the just for the executive session. Right.
Right. Right. Just for the executive session. We're not fully compliant. We're not fully compliant. But the fact that we actually have the That's the hard part. So our plan our plan right now is so KP Law has three three and a half years.
So I'm expecting maybe October 21st. Wow. To come back with that. Um and then 24 and 25 aren't too much work. They'll have that. Yeah. Definitely by January and so yeah by January, you know, and then we can work backwards and make sure we have everything for
2020. Yeah, we were good until January of 2020, but we didn't I didn't make the the circuit in December and January. So I wasn't I'm sure there's a sheet for 2020. I'll I'll take a look at that. Yeah. And I did keep notebooks as well. Good.
So if there's something that I was there for, I probably have a notebook with it. And I know there there's still two members of the select board um that are still local in town and I'm sure they would chip in or also um reach out to KP
Law because most of those executive sessions included a member of KP Law. That's good to know. So they might, you know, they might have something. So, um, all this in an effort to say we're trying to do what we're supposed to do, but knowing that both
ourselves and other boards have a lot of work to do to make sure we are in compliance with all the open meeting statutes regarding meetings uh, meeting minutes. Um, it's something we talk about, I think, every year. I've never gone through a year where one of us
hasn't said we need to do better. We need to do better. Um, I'm I'm hoping and maybe this is a false hope, but uh with our better technology um that technology getting better and better every every year and processes getting better year for tracking it um you know
being able to see a document like this and just have it lay out and say oh yeah that's missing um instead of going like what are we missing like did we get everything? So um I'm I'm hopeful this will move forward in a much more orderly fashion. Does anyone have any comments or questions?
What about all the other boards and committees? Well, technically the other boards and committees, even though the the select board um holds the role, um it's it's my understanding that it's really kind of the town clerk um
and her role to make sure that those are in. Um but there's no reason we can't all work together to get everything done. So, the the goal would be obviously to work in conjunction with the town clerk's office. They they hunt them down. Um some of the subcommittees
we have for the select board, they they ask constantly for them. Um I just can't say how if they're I'm assuming they're reaching out to all boards. That's good. And and we just came up with another thing. Um now, um we didn't close out the town administrator search
committee and then we decided, oh, we'll do those meeting minute notes while we're there. Um, and that way, you know, it doesn't it's not like that vicious circle where every meeting you're like, "This is the last meeting." But then you have to meet again to do the notes. So, you know, we're we're trying to get
around it and be a little bit smarter about the way that we're doing things. Okay. Um, going down that's removed. Um, updates Colony Regional Vote Building Committee.
Oh, still. Um, no. No meetings. No meetings. Yeah. Still waiting for the MSBA to come back and uh uh comments or approve the um the proposal and the I think it's this later this week is their deadline. Okay.
And then they'll get you know then that building committee will reconvene. Perfect. Fire station building committee. Anything new? Uh we're meeting Wednesday. Um Andrew alluded um earlier in the evening with his town administrator report that
there'll be some activity happening. Um we have to get the turtle netting uh set up because there's a a infinite you know time frame in which we have to uh prod actually produce and see um you know the
situation with regards to the turtles cuz it's trust me it's important but I just you know didn't realize that the the window was like oh my gosh it's here. So, um, we were planning on getting some publication out to, uh, the residents just to say if you see anybody
over there, um, this is kind of what's happening. So, going forward, you know, we'll be sending, um, information out to, uh, you know, the residents and and, you know, town boards, committees, and commissions that this is kind of what's going on. Thank you. So, that doing it with us.
I appreciate it. a lot of things we do sometimes we don't include other boards committees and commissions and we really should so I appreciate that perspective technology advisory subcommittee um there the meeting for this month was
cancelled right and um well it was Veterans Day and I was told I can't that's right no holidays you can't force people in meetings at all working to reschedule the November meeting okay um communication and community outreach subcommittee.
Um so again, we're we're down we're still waiting for another member. Um but I'm pushing forward. I've had great support with uh the uh select boards, you know, office. Um Emily and Colleen and Andrew have been fantastic.
Of course they are. They're great. Yep. So I am scheduled to attend the um the department head meeting briefly just to um talk a little bit about the strategy
and getting information um you know coming in from the departments that are you know that's kind of happening and you know how that's going to funnel through. So um that'll just be a you know just a brief little pop in and say hey. All right. Thank you.
um town hall building reuse subcommittee meets next week. So we will discuss that after the EDC. Um we have a meeting coming up um and again we're going to be just kind of working out to flush out some of the
questions with regards to the survey. will announce the fact that we um have been you know granted this award and kind of what the next steps will be and energy advisory committee. So I have an update for that as well. Um
the energy advisory committee met um last week um and just some highlights they reorganized. Uh Phil Olivea is um the was voted the chair unanimously. Uh John Gregory uh was voted vice chair
unanimously. Uh there was a green community update provided by Nate Darling. Um discussion you know took place regarding the project for the animal shelter um that's moving forward. um John Gregory will
also um take action um just to you know conduct a level three and it's called ASER um but it stands for the American Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers um to parallel what's kind of what's going on there
just to provide more value as to um you know it's not going to hold up the project in any way. it's just going to provide some more value to what um you know this particular uh group is doing. Um the other thing is the fire station
um project uh was discussing the possibility of what it would look like and I don't know really too much about this particular um tax credit but the IRS has um something called the 179D
um credit and Phil is very wellversed in this and he has reached out to uh Taylor McDonald who's our OPM they're going to connect with the architects and they're going to just take a look and have a discussion to see if there's a potential
opportunity there. Um, you know, to take advantage of that. Um, and pretty much that's it. The next meeting um is scheduled for November 3rd at 6 p.m. Thank you very much. U member Carboni, would you mind sending the board just
the the 179D information if it is available to you? Um, as well as the Asher information. Yep. And there, oh, there's one last thing. Um, the Mass Energy Insight, they they provide a an online data um center
for information. It's a portal. Um, and they put information in there and in order for us to make sure that it it's real time that we're going to work with the town administrator's office um to see if there's ways that we can help to
update um that information. So, it's not chasing it. it's kind of been a little bit more proactive. So, but the group is very excited about um coming together um exploring different opportunities and options and advising the select board on
recommendations. Much appreciated. All right. Is there any new business to come before the board? Um, I have one item on old business. Uh,
couple months ago, we voted to, uh, redo the assessor position. Um, and we're actually going to make another change to the role uh based on
some needs that are not being met in the role currently uh as written. Andrew, do you want to speak to it briefly? Yeah. So, uh, I think the board's well aware that we have an interimm assessor, um, and we will be putting out the
assessor position very soon, um, either this week or next. And part of that, we're trying to do a wide net for a search and that includes lowering on the low end and then higher on the higher end. Um, so we put 75 to 95 for an
annual s uh, salary. And what was it before? Before we had 83 to 90 but we award uh not awarded we were compensating the former assessor 100,000. So
um I would like this board to the two other things on this job desri description I would like to discuss is the reporting structure of this role um and
the posting of the role. So before we get into it I'll just briefly go over those two topics. So when we met Oh, and and she's she's gone. When we met um when we posted this role last time, we
were told that the roles are being posted concurrently um when it's inhouse and externally that you know for 7 days. Um, I would like us to go back to posting
roles 7 days internally and then going out. I would like to see if we have internal candidates. We have a lot of really great talented people that have worked for this town that I want to make sure that they get first
crack at things and um and I think having it 7 days is really a good way to do that. And I know time is of the essence and I know it's inconvenient, but at the same time um as someone that's gone out for jobs before, uh it's
very odd when you come across uh if you're external and you're competing against an internal candidate. It's you you always feel like you don't even want to do it unless you they've already identified that there is no internal candidate for it. it feels like, you know, you're
you're up against it and I think it dissuades people from going for the position in general. Yeah. So, I think two things happen when we do that. We we discourage our own people um that could be qualified for the role and we
discourage uh people that are applying for the fact that they might think the fix is in or something um and that they don't have a shot and why bother. Um and then the other part of this is we
recently promoted um our town accountant to a director role. Um I see this role does not say director of assessing and that is absolutely within that hierarchy I
believe that we've been creating. But where's the reporting structure on here? Um let's see uh second page supervision received under the board of assessors.
Yeah. So this role always has to report statutoily to the board of assessors but in other towns they also have this as part of the finance department. So, it's
one of those things they work so closely together um that I know that we talked about this briefly like 6 months ago about aligning. Would this now be a good time to just make that alignment in this job description and say reports to the
assessors and the director of finance? because technically they really are like it it's it's kind of an unwritten most places especially where I've worked the assessor reports to a finance director. Yeah. Um I think that I'll have to ask town
council on this. There might be maybe we have to do like a special act. All right. To do this. But that was that was my thought because not everything especially seeing as they're not a department head it becomes a little murky. like if they had them and they were a department head then the
the the lines are pretty clear but if it's just assessor then it should be pointing to a director of some point so I just want to get clarification you're looking like a dotted line type yeah yeah because they still have to you know statutoily reports the assessors
but they take direction as well from from the finance director and that's pretty much why he was elevated in the first place in order do those higher level. The best comparison I would have is Nate Darling is the director of inspectional services and he oversees
the health agent who is a board of health I guess person that they report to. So it's kind of the same Yep. board of assessors and so they would kind of they would have to be on board with this I think. Yep. But I don't think that'd be an issue. I don't think so either. Um but I'd love
you to explore it just to just to kind of firm it up. Um, but those are my two call outs. And then the other call out is I think 95 is too high. I think I would do 75 to It's a big range.
Yeah, I think I'd do 75 to 90. And the reason I can see 75 is in there is because we've left room to have someone that's a lesser experienced and then have that delta be for more consulting services. But I I don't want to go above
the 90. But that's just me. I would agree with that. It seems to be a range. That's a big range. We'll be fine with 90. Okay. Any thoughts for the other members? I'm good with the 90 as well.
Carboni, any chitchat? 8590 was fine with me. 95 a little too high. 7590. We We moved it down a little. Okay. So, you just took it off just the five grand. So, it says 75 to 95. So,
you're just making it 75 to 90. Yes, ma'am. All right. So, I think we're all in agreement. 75 for 90 for the range. Um, we don't have to vote on the seven days. That's just a a
recommendation from me personally. Um if anyone wants to chair, are we talking seven calendar days, seven business days? It's usually seven calendar days. And is that any position in town? I mean, if we if we have a part-time
patrol officer, we always did it. This is new that it changed to be concurrent. It it had always up until probably a year or two been seven days posted for internal candidates. Okay. Yeah. And this is kind of a return to that. I don't It wasn't a vote um to
change it to concurrent, right? It's just the language was interpretable. Um this is just pushing it back and it was every every position in town was posted. Uh Lorine, you remember it probably better than me. Seven days on the board. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, it's seven days, but even if it was like five business days, you know, even just for like during the week, so you had one week, you know, seven days, 5 days, anything. Yeah. Yeah. I'm fine with anything. I just think the
the idea behind having your internal candidates vetted out, you know, before it goes out is probably a a smarter strategy. Um, but that's not on here to vote. We're just voting the description.
So, my amendment would be uh 75 to 90 and um pending um acceptance by the board of assessors and any legal definition to make this role report to
the director of uh finance. I have a motion. Uh so moved. Moved. I got a motion in a second. Um, any further discussion? Hearing none. Roll call.
I I do I bony. I thank you everyone. Um, and the last bit is um I didn't even read this one. Um, it's the free town automatic aid agreement.
So, uh I I know this has existed for a very long time and it's the agreement in which we have with Freetown for the schools specifically is uh um and then for coverage with the town. I don't think I've seen this in writing before
to tell you the truth. Is there anything you'd like to add to this Andrew? No. Um it's almost exactly what you said. basically depending on where you live in town. Um obviously you're closer probably to Freetown Fire Department or Lakeville Fire Department. So both
departments have agreed to um provide aid to cover both. And then it also um has a big play on the homeowners insurance if Chris uh member Blanca wants to make any additions. I know I know you know about this more than
probably. I I I I've been I'm been talk I've had a couple discussions with Cuba Brian on this. Um and it directly impacts me because I live behind the high school. So about as far as way far away from the fire station as you can get, but I'm pretty close to East Freetown's fire station.
Um and Andrew is correct. Um this basically codifies the agreement and is something that the residents should be aware that they can share with their insurance companies for a potential reduction in their homeowners insurance. I think that is a really good point and one that we should put out on
the website. Yes. For our residents um that um they should be sharing this if they are located um in any of the impacted areas that they should be sharing this uh with their insurance company um in the off chance that
insurance company will do the right thing. Let's have a discussion. I do want to express my gratitude. It's a left-handed compliment insurance companies. Um, I do want to express my gratifying and chief Ashley from Freetown for they both worked together on this to get this.
It looks really simple and that's the best, right? But yeah, we needed obviously Freetown's concur on it and we graciously got that. So, appreciation for both fire department chiefs for accomplishing that. Yep. Um, is there anything else we need
to do as this is technically an intermunicipal agreement at this juncture? Nope, I don't believe so. Okay. Nope. All right. Um, next select board meeting. You get to
see us next week, too. October 14, 2025 at the COA. And it's a joint meeting with the planning board. Do we have executive session tonight? You're done. Oh, I was like, wait, it's blank. Wonderful. Okay. Hello.
Wonderful. Well, seeing as we have uh nothing else, Madam K. So, damn it, Chris. No, this is easy. Following week on the 21st. Yes, we have the 21st. And that would be the one that I would say would be the the
good candidate to have at the library for um the conversation with the with the Baker Lane. The joint meeting with Freetown is coming up. I the 23rd of November. I thought it was November 3rd. Oh, I could be off on that date, though.
I thought it was the You're correct. Yeah, it's November 3rd. It's a joint meeting if we can. Okay. Okay. Thank you. If we're all good, I'll take a motion. Make a motion tonight's meeting. Second. Motion in a second. Roll call.
Okay, I thank you everybody. Thank you. Happy birthday, Lorraine.