[Music] Good evening and welcome to the select board and wage and personnel board meeting of Tuesday, September 30th, 2025 at 5:47 p.m. at the Lakeville Police Station.
Uh Lakeam is recording this meeting. Is anyone else recording this meeting? Seeing no one, let's move on to the call to order. Hunt present. Candido here and pledge of allegiance in
the corner of the room. 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 for everyone joining us today. appreciate everyone's time. Um, Andrew, do you want to I'm going to skip over the announcements and put those last. I'm going to have you do yours and then I'm going to take it out of order
for the Rocky Woods if you would not mind. Sure. Is that okay with the board? Okay. Yes. Thumbs up from Larry. Two thumbs up. Um, so outreach has begun on the old colony building project. Um, we started
to post stuff to social media and the town website. Um, hope to keep doing that every few weeks until the election on November 18th from 12:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Lon Pond Lodge. Um, the Clear Pond Park master plan has been
uh released to the uh social media and uh town website. We're still reviewing it. Um, we just want everyone in the public to see it. Um, there's no plans at this time to necessarily implement it, but that those talks are ongoing and I think it's going
to be a future discussion in front of the select board in the next maybe few weeks to a month. Yeah. And then we can talk about funding sources, which is always on top of mind. But now that we are in compliance with the um the open space plan, we are
eligible to try to go for grants to do some of these projects and funding. Yep. Um, a lot of, uh, behind the scene work has been done by Emily Surret and on procurements. Um, I put a list inside the TA report of, uh, future ones. Um,
in a small town like Lakeville, it's kind of sometimes you don't realize how much we buy and how much we like have to legally procure stuff and Emily's done a great job the last few weeks of doing that. Um similarly the finance department did a lot of significant work
on the fiscal 24 audit finalization as well as borrowing um preparation for uh the three big projects that we're going to have to borrow soon which are the fire station route 79 and asawset doors and windows project. So Mike Ellis and
Erica Ka have been instrumental in doing that. Um, and the last one I met briefly with Thorn Dikeke Development on the Lakeville Country Club proposal that they will be presenting and that'll be a joint meeting with the planning board
and select board on October 14th. Um, it's everything I have. I have two question or three rather. Um, where are we with the bathrooms in historic town hall? I know that there was something holding up um the completion of the bathrooms. How
How close are we at this point? It should be completed. Um few weeks ago someone said that they needed a final inspection, but otherwise it was done. Okay, that would be a wonderful thing and this is just a huge asset for that building to be able to be usable at this
point. Mhm. Um Pick and Street Bridge, uh I know you responded to me. Would you like to tell the people at home the timeline? I'm going to leave you with the unpopular. Yeah, task of telling the timeline.
It's on the spot here, but I know it's like 18 months. Let's see. Yeah. Yeah. Um I think it's 2026 for that side, the one side, and then 2027 for the other side. So, what are they actually doing?
Um well, they're restoring all the underneath as well, um to make sure it's stable. Not I I have I have no issue with them doing it. It just does take a very a very long time. Winter 27 is when it'll be completed.
Yeah. So, I'm sorry for everyone, but I'm happy for everyone to have a safe bridge to cross and go under. Um, and then the trash survey should be going out this week. Okay. And how did we decide to push it
out? Um, we're looking because we're going to do a multiple surveys for different things, for different committees. It's probably going to be a Survey Monkey. Um, we're gonna probably get a subscription, which is very cheap to do it that way. We're also going to print it out, put at all the big locations. Okay.
Um, might not be a bad idea to have it at fall meeting. Yep. So, people can partake, right? Right. Fantastic. Does anyone have any questions for Andrew on any of the TA report items or anything that wasn't on there?
No. Oh, man. One question. Yes. I know I saw the the clear pond um report there would I there were no um estimated costs included in the report correctly. No, there is it should be
3.4 on the last pages 3.4 million. Okay. Maybe it's going to have to probably be phased depending on what it is what we do first and what we decide right going for grants. Okay. I missed that. Thank you. Yep. All right.
taking out of order and moving to Rocky Woods discussion. Uh we had a resident reach out to us um reach out to member Planka um so we could have a discussion on what's happening at Rocky
Woods. Member Planka, I will give this to you to do the introductions. Thank you, Madam Chair. So, um I was invited to a neighborhood meeting hosted by the Coast Dance two or three weeks ago. 3 weeks ago roughly get exact date.
Uh that was attended by about 15 to 20 um yeah um residents uh and it was to discuss um what's going on at at Rock Simmons Hill Rocky Woods uh specifically phase one
uh and the residents uh are in support of maybe a change in some of the proposed development. So the they requested through me and I requested to add it to the agenda to give them an opportunity to discuss um what some of
the residents would like to see for the development for that phase one. And with that u we'll turn it over if we want to have some of the residents speak. Whoever would like to speak three minutes is yours. Good evening Larry Costan 45town Street.
Um, as as Chris said, we we had sent out a letter to all the residents in that general area. Uh, Holland Street, County, all the I mean up to County Street, all the side streets. We got about 20 people that show up. Um,
as you're all aware, our our biggest concerns are the two access points from, in Freetown Street. One selfishly is directly in my property and Matter of fact, I lose part of my backyard that I
didn't even know wasn't my backyard. Um, and then the cell tower road also is the second form. Um, going to create a big mess. So in conversations of this going back from its very origin,
um we know that um Muhammad had originally requested for a resoning to the commercial zoning and per the historical reaction in Lakeville, everybody lost their mind. Um and uh now
talking about this to other people, you know, it's always been my opinion and that's the reason I serve on the U economic development committee is that we can't remain a veteran community. We can't sustain this. So this is a good opportunity for us to get some business
into town and go back to Mohamad and say, "Hey, listen. Let's revisit this." Um, you know, originally I guess he was going to petition the state to have a ramp put in from 140 use county coming in for for commercial because you're never going to get commercial vehicles
in and out of Freetown Street. Let's go back and talk to him about this. That was his original plan. And he was scared off because of the hospital project. I I I honestly don't know what scared him off, but he could scared off. I was I was sitting at town meeting when he
pulled his warrant at town meeting. I mean, it was that quick. So, we spoke to it and a lot of the uh well, everybody showed up. We were all in agreement that the right way to go here is to go back to him and say, "Listen, what can we do here? Let's come up with a development
plan for this property that doesn't bring 300 plus houses, which is more like most likely going to decimate our school system. Uh crucify us on traffic on our street." Now, I know they did road studies and they had the peer
review. We live on that street. I defy anybody to go there at 2:05 any weekday and try to get from Freetown Street onto County Street. They say it was an average of 3 minutes. It's 15 minutes. So, I don't know who did this
study. I know who did the study and I don't know who reviewed it, but they don't live there. So, the a residential development is a bad idea for that spot. Not to mention you one second. Have you you didn't have any chance to speak with the developer?
We have not because Chris and I discussed it. Chris came to the meeting um because he he found out because we put it in his mailbox as well. Um and um Chris and I discussed it. We said, you know, maybe before we go to him, I I have all his Muhammad's contacts. Muhammad originally talked
because we reached out to him when you guys came to us because you always if it's about a project, you always I get it and I I have his direct information. I spoke to him day one when he talked about this cuz I have a mutual acquaintance through him. Um he's been to my property. Um and and
so we didn't reach out to him cuz Chris felt let's talk to select board first and I agreed. um and see if we can come up with a plan that we can present to Muhammad uh and see if there's maybe something we could do to change this from a residential to a commercial
industrial project warehouse accommodation stores. You know, I I don't understand why we don't have something like that. We have a grocery store in this town, right? And I know we're a small town, but if you have access from 140, something like a maybe
not as big, but like a Mansfield crossing or or a Wham crossing or cranberry crossing, something like that would be great for this town. Business, restaurant, shopping, you know, that type of thing with access from county and 140 will be great and it's a great
source of revenue for the town without burdening our infrastructure. I think he'd be, you know, be willing to hear it out anyhow. Um, from what I've heard about him, he's willing to talk about anything. Whether he's willing to jump off it, you know, on it, I don't know.
Understanding the development end of things, commercial is way more profitable than residential. So, I don't see why he wouldn't is my was was my point. Okay. And it was originalist thought. So, that's who we are. Uh, 20 people showed up. All 20 of us agreed that this was a
good proposal to bring to him. And um so we're here to talk to you. All right. I'd like to hear from any other residents that would like to speak on this as well. Anyone else here to speak on it? Oh my residents. I think it's a good idea.
Thank you. There you are. All right. Well, anything you have to come to the mic and identify yourself. My name is Jonah County Road. Um I don't know where the mic is. Have a seat. I don't have that much to say. Yeah, I
just really wanted to agree with you can agree on the microphone. Yeah. No, on the record um I agree that um any approach is better than the approach that we're taking. And can I do a little tangent here for a second? How how deep is this tangent? This tangent just is about the concept
of 40 beats in general. Nope. We have no control over that. So well except we do we can say no. So we are in a position now where we could possibly say no but not really. Yeah. Okay. So then I'll stay on topic. This is not the highest what's currently
on the table is not the highest and best use of of that piece of property. This is a fascinating proposal at whatever scale it comes in at because um there are I'm sure you guys know enormous costs involved with residential housing. We used to a long time ago I
sat in your chair long time ago and um one of the things we always had running current was what does each housing start cost? because it was once upon a time there was confusion that more houses meant more taxes, but those costs are out outweigh whatever taxes do come in as you know.
And so at some level um you get to 350 that's probably unsustainable. Honestly, that's probably not even equivalent to the amount of money the state would hold. Like that's the big that's the that's the the stick. No, it's the it's all stick. There's no
carrot. Yeah. Well, yeah, but that is the stick. And um it would be interesting to know what that took. If the state withheld every single penny, what would that be? And I don't think they're allowed to, by the way. Um relative to what it's going to cost us
for an average um for an aggregate 350. Say that's 20 grand a house. Who knows? It might not be that high yet. It used to be 10, but that was a long time ago, like I said. So I think anything um infrastructure- wise to include roads and that impacts me as well. I'm right
at the intersection of Freetown Street. Um, but also the schools and also our bottom line, the town's bottom line. We cannot afford a project of that size. I don't think so. I think it's a great idea. 100% in support room. Thank you. Anyone else like to speak to it before I
turn this over to our town administrator? So, our town administrator did have a chance to speak to Muhammad a little bit about this briefly. Okay. Briefly. I'll let you. Um, I mean, so obviously he's it's been a few years since he started this project. Um, he's put a
significant amount of money into it. Um, I think my understanding is he's probably going to go and try to get the comprehensive permit. Um, and then he's probably going to entertain this. Whether it makes fiscal sense at that point to do that, it's up to him.
Okay. Um, another important note, I think this is phase one in his plans. Phase two would be out Conair County and so I don't know what he plans to do there. I think that's a good chance to do business maybe reszone to business otherwise
that's probably going to be housing as well and that's something we'll have to keep in mind that we really have um currently two corridors of business in this town and that's 18 and 105. um um we haven't
really utilized it in the way that one would really use these type of economic corridors um with the correct amount of infrastructure being water and and sewer um and anything that would be done in the future would have to have those type
of considerations too. So those type of properties are few and far between that are not on 18. Um well I think Rocky Woods could qualify for water coming in from is that a new Bedford line or is that a there's a lot of could a shoulda could?
There's a possibility for for a large line to come through. Andrew and I have both researched it and there's a possibility but that would require a a new IMA with new bed because I was expired and also the waterline is maintained by free talent. So we also
need free talent's approval. So it it is a possibility not certainty but it is a possibility. There would be a lot of moving parts. Right. And you also and a significant expense for him as well. Expense on him but also you and I discussed that once you run that in you open up that whole area for future.
That's right. So I get that. I'm just saying is I think and you know maybe at this point we need to really talk to Muhammad and more importantly even if he's going to stay with this pro this development try to get him back off these Freetown
Street. It just it can't withstand this. You're going to decimate at least you know six seven residents you know quality of life not to mention their property values. Um and then we need to you know see you know what can we do to get you to go out to county. You know, I
don't care. You want to use my road as a fire access road with a break gate? I'm happy. Maybe we ought to compromise and come in with one way from Freetown, a one-way street, but we got to try to have a conversation with them. Not just well, not just leave it be. I'm not
going to get into other committees. Uh but yeah, it's time to have serious conversation because the clock's running out. And what are we left on the 180 days now? November. Uh something like that. Yeah, I don't know. So, we're close and this is the time to do it. I'm not saying he hasn't spent money. He has. I'm sure he's done
development and but only the money he spent so far for surveying. He had to do it anyhow. He's already had equipment back there clearing it roads and stuff. It's difficult to tell someone what to do with their propert. It is. But he wanted this originally. That's my point is that I don't understand why he wouldn't want to go
back to it if he saw it was profitable and commercial is profitable and and you know and there's all varying different degrees on what he wants to do and what he wants to invest that'll that'll be taken you know the primary consideration. So member Hunt did you have anything? I
thought I saw you for a minute have like that. Yeah, that was the brief moment of clarity. Um I I have spent a considerable amount of time out on that property in fall and winter endeavors uh for a number of years and um you know it
surprised me when they were talking about putting this number of houses out there because of the ledge because of the ledge uh because of the vernal pools because of the amount of water out there and so forth. Um, and I have always felt that this property lended itself to a potential off-ramp
from Route 140, uh, similar to like what Independence Way does in a Sona. Um, and although I have never been asked, I would certainly support heading towards the industrial or commercial
uh, development out there far more than anything residential. So, any more comments? So, no additional comments for me, Madam Chair. So, I think the what I'd like to propose or make a motion uh that we if
when we vote on it that the select board draft a letter of support for a residential a commercial development um supporting the residents um I don't know on the language of that. I think the language might need to be a little more neutral that we'd like to
craft a conversation about the possibility of a change of use. Um, yeah, I don't know. As our board, I want to make sure I'm not stepping on other boards to um for that, but we just want
to represent the the people of that area and the whole town. Um, Madam Chair, to to Larry's point, um, previously as discussed by the developer, um, that he would have liked to have headed that direction, um, maybe
a letter from the board asking if that would still be something in within consideration. That would be appropriate language. So, I think we can leave the exact language up to Andrew, but the the general idea
would be that the board sends a letter of support to have additional conversations and um about the possibility of uh using this for industrial use as as opposed to residential use. Exactly. That does that cover Yeah. residents
or a a representative of a number of residents appeared at the board. Yep. And and brought this back to our attention and we're wondering if that is still something that may be on the table moving forward. And then obviously other residents, if you're not being heard, please reach out
and uh and let us know if you have any further comments on it. But I I would be in support. So uh you want to make that motion? Oh boy. All right, I'll let you when I need it. No, where's Lorraine?
Madam Chair, I think you had one more person that want Oh, I'm sorry. I have a question. I couldn't answer her questions. No. Uh, Sher Costan, 45 Freetown Street. Um, you said industrial and are industrial and commercial interchangeable in terms of use?
It's the same zoning. Is the zoning different here? I think it's the same. Yeah, industrial. I know I know some some zoning it is and some it is. industrial commercial is the same. You know what? Now I'm going to question it. Well, like what what do we mean by
warehouses? I my my opinion is industrial, but it's commercial in nature. Yep. So, it's kind of the same thing. Yeah. Um so u but I think the way it breaks it down in our um in our taxes it says commercial
industrial and in our zoning it says commercial. Is is the thought to do a business district or is the thought to do an industrial district? Well, Larry, you had said when you were talking about other opportunities. Well, let's face it, he has a lot of property there.
It's uh how many acres is that? Does I don't know 200 that part of it, right? So, but what So, there's a lot of land cuz you were talking if he wants to throw a couple warehouses in and then do you know further up towards county to do a shopping development.
Mhm. I don't, you know, I I can't see why that's a bad idea for this community. So, are we saying mixed use at all? I would say it's mixed use, but or are we saying mixed use minus residential? I just want to be Yes.
We need to we need to get in my opinion, we need to get off of the off of the development of of residential. So it would be cond commercial commercial industrial commercial industrial and and then we come up with a building plan that that specifies. Now I know he can't
necessarily say we're going to have an on-ramp from 140 that he has no saying that that's the state. He could petition the state but he's pretty well connected. I'm sure he can make that happen. Yeah. But if I say mixed use it includes that includes residential which is scary. Yeah. Yeah. See I just I didn't mean to split hairs but when you were when you
were discussing about to say industrial I just thought well our ind That's why I wasn't sure if industrial and commercial were the same. So, I just want to make sure as we're wording it that we're wording it appropriately. Makes us use I mean there is business and there is industrial zones. So, yeah,
Madam Chair through you maybe and he'll yell at me for doing this, but maybe maybe we loop Mr. Darling in one more time and throw one more thing on. Did he send me a message already? Sometimes when I'm waiting now that I'm floundering, he's like, "Yeah, that's wrong." you know, but maybe maybe loop
him in and get his opinion on something before we and we can put that in the motion just to firm up the language um to represent what we talked about today. So, um so moved. Sure. Yeah, that's
so moved. Okay. So, moved. Okay. Excellent for coming. Yeah. And then we can come back and make sure we have all the language right for the next meeting. will be back again next week. So, won't be a quick turnaround in case there's something
else we should discuss. So, Andrew could put that on next week's meeting as well. Yep. And then we can make sure we have everything kind of buttoned up. Definitely for the language. Perfect. And we'll hold off once you send the letter, then we can we'll wait and then we can reach out as a as a
group and see what happens. Thank you for your time. Appreciate. Thank you. Okay. You need to vote. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Put eye. Plug eye. Candy to eye. Perfect. See, thank you for keeping us honest. Um,
we're going to move to the hearing and that is number five. I made it big. Thank you for They gave me big font. I appreciate it. Real nice.
Yeah, it really is. Uh, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Town of Lakeville, public hearing on Verizon New England, Inc. cable television franchise renewal. September 30th, 2025. Good evening. Welcome to Town of Lakeville's public hearing on Verizon's cable license
renewal. Notice of this hearing was in the local newspaper two successive weeks. Copies of the legal notices are entered into the record as hearing exhibits. By way of the beef brief background of for the public, Verizon's cable television license expires on May
4, 2028. The federal cable act provides for towns holding public hearing to allow the public an opportunity to comment on the public and town cable related needs. The process of ascertaining community cable needs will continue after the close of this hearing, so there will be further
opportunity for comments to be submitted to the town. Members of the public may comment about all cable related matters including but not limited to customer service, Comcast use of care of the town's public ways, the important area of the town's renewal needs for the
local studio, local government programming, uh local channels for public educational and government access. Members of the select board may also have questions and comments. We are ready to accept comments from the public and interested participants to submit comments. Please stand, state your name
and address before commenting and come to a microphone. We welcome your comments if any. And now open the record for public comments. Oh, public comment. Jose. Jose, sorry I missed you.
You're on mute. You're on mute, Jose. Still on mute. You're still muted. Someone can teach you how to use boss a wrench in the works over there for you. He's muted. It's still muted. Jose still
muted. Okay, Jose. Jose, I'm gonna move on to Noel first and then give you a moment. Noel, who if you would like. Hi, my name is Noel Rillo. I'm a resident of Lakeville and I was told that this is my opportunity to tell you
how much I that we need Lake Cam. Um, it's the only way, and I mean the only way, that the residents and people who live here can keep on top of what's happening at the many meetings. I think we have seven different boards going on.
And there's just this is the only Lake Cam is the only coverage we have. So, if you pull Lake Cam, it's basically a news blackout in my opinion. Um, it's the only way that that we have a very small weekly newspaper. doesn't begin to cover
what happens in these meetings. So, please keep our late cam coming. You're here. Thank you, Jose. Yes, we can hear you. Okay. Um, I'm not I'm not on the cable
advisory committee. I just assist in giving advice uh about Lake Cam to the cable advisory committee. I I I think you should turn this over to Bill uh August in case he needs to have any say
uh to the chair. Should I make at this time a few uh brief comments? You can. I don't see anyone else coming up to the mic, so please do. Well, I mean, my role um is as the municipal uh special cable
council uh to the uh select board as the cable license issuing authority. Um and I represented the town in the two uh previous um renewals, one with Comcast a couple
of years ago and the prior one with Verizon and then my law partner before me represented Lakeville. So we go way back having worked very closely um with uh the select boards and the
town officials and with Lake Ham. Uh but my uh perspective is just as legal counsel so I cannot really speak um as a a resident or person living in the town. Uh but le from a attorney's perspective
this hearing and the phase that we are in now is very simple um it's to in the cable act it's called ascertainment of needs. So we're just identifying town needs. It's that's conceptually that's
all it is. Usually the renewal focuses on the amount of financial support for the local facilities because the other parts of the cable system are more standardized and regional and uniform.
But every town very interestingly under the cable act does have a unique mix of uh townspecific public educational and governmental channels and they've all negotiated
varying degrees of public support for their local facilities. So since that consumes most of the negotiation energy, um I just think it's useful as a council to emphasize to the select board that's
what we're doing now. And for phase one of renewal, it's quite early in the process. So and there's no heavy lifting at this hearing. We don't have to decide anything. We're basically starting a process to listen to community comments
and input about needs. And the cable act says you have to do that at a hearing, but you can also keep the record open uh after a hearing uh for an ascertainment of needs record. So I'm just happy to have the opportunity to explain that uh
to you the license issuing authority. Um and it is early because the federal cable act provides for doing that in the third year prior to the expiration. So once we have this under our belt in terms of uh meeting the federal
requirement to have an early ascertainment hearing uh we can slow down a little. There's not a lot of heavy lifting in the rest of the first year or the second year. It's really not until the third year that Verizon takes seriously exchanging license drafts and
getting into the nitty-gritty of negotiations. The one thing we really should do though in year one of this three-year federal window, and I've worked on this in the past with Jose and cable committee, is develop their um
accurate and credible uh operating and capital budgets um so that when we do get into that negotiation stage, we can stand out as having a strong case for Verizon to continue um and potentially adjust
upward somewhat to meet growing needs uh the operating and capital budgets which are the two buckets of money operating budget and equipment budget capital budget under a renewal license. So that's my overview. I'll also say just
as an observation that through the two prior renewals I did uh there was an abundance of information about uh the large quantity of municipal meeting coverage and other community
event events that um Lakeam did provide. And as the last speaker said it is unique. You won't find any townsp specific uh media coverage on your network affiliates and a lot of work goes into those local
productions. It's original programming. Um and I would turn it back to Jose who's more of an expert on the actual benefits of local programming in Lakeville. We we already produce annual budgets and we produce five-year capital plans. So
those will be submitted. I'm also going to be advising the cable TV advisory committee that um we should request a an inflation adjusted capital monies um for when it will start and it's going to be approximately
uh going from 15,000 15,000 to pro probably 18 to 20,000 for the next contract to just keep up with inflation. I want to make sure everyone understands who's listening and watching these funds
come from cable TV subscribers, not from the companies themselves. So, uh, your interest is very much in this and we take it seriously and we do our best to provide an excellent product
for for what you pay. Does anyone have any questions for me or Bill? Not at this time, it looks like. Well, thank you both very much for speaking up. Right. I I I always have one question
for the Lakeville Select Board. Is when is there going to be a Ted Williams Museum? All right, Andrew. Is that part of the parks plan? No, at this point. Okay. Well, thank you both. One of the Okay. Thank you. Thank you
both. Um, as um, thank you. As attorney August mentioned and as I mentioned in the opening, we are keeping this hearing open to allow for comments. Do we have a date to close? I I didn't see that as part of our um, it's a question maybe for Bill one that could close.
Right. You you can have a date certain like two weeks hence or you know the date of your next select board meeting. But I do want to clarify that under the cable act, I mean you have to close the hearing because you know hearings must close by
a date certain but even after the close of this hearing under the cable act there's this ongoing thing called ascertainment where the towns keep gathering information and keep it in a record which is separate from the hearing record technically because the
hearing is closed but it serves the same function. It it assembles uh exhibits um anything written documents uh anything that is relevant to uh our uh
negotiating uh to prove needs during uh renewal. Mr. August, should I make a close date for two weeks from that would be fine. Yeah. Yes. Okay. All right.
any comments, anything from the board? Um, madam chair and it may be way early because I understand it's a three-year process, but I know a prior resident in noted um the number of I don't begin to be an expert on the complexities of
this. Um, but regarding the um the fees collected, we all know 2.5%. Jose, what what's our subscriber fee percentage? Currently, it's currently 4 4.75%
for every subscriber. Yep. Right. And we know that both the cable companies are losing customers, they're providing internet service. So it I think the prior comment was are we going
try to capture the the streaming if right if they come back and they say well yeah our cable subscribers is drastically going down you're going to get reduction exactly um is that going to be a discussion point coming down personally that will be a big comment
and I know we probably won't get any traction on it but I would like to see whatever language that we have um in our contract state that if the opportunity does come up within the next 10 years or however long we decide the contract is
that it does not preclude us from taking any funds from any streaming um services that become available legally. So I want to make sure we open the door to that. Um we might not be able to push it but if it becomes available we should jump
on it as soon as possible. I'm sure all communities have got the same thought in mind. They all know that the way it's the future's going with the streaming and Okay. Yep. People are tuning out of cable and on to you know allocart right
services. Okay. Okay. If I don't have any more comments, I'll take a motion to close the hearing um on the 14th of October. Are you?
Yeah, why not? All right, get on. I guess I got to learn eventually, right? All right. I will make the motion to close the hearing for the the public hearing for Verizon cable television cable television franchise renewal on October 14th, 2025.
And do I have a second? Second. Motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. Roll call. I plug I candy to I. Excellent. Thank you everyone. I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. Good night. Take care. Night.
Good night. All right. Um, moving right along. Discuss possible vote to approve select board minutes of September 9, 2025 and September 16, 2025.
Um, member Carboni forwarded on. Yep. So, as amended for that. Okay. Um she had a couple small um ministerial dates. Yeah. Yep. Is any Were there any other comments?
Yes. Um I believe it was the the second meeting minutes 16th. Yes. Can I find them now? I'm still getting used to the front to back copies. Sometimes this hates me, doesn't it?
No. No. Yep. Not September 9. September 16. I can't find my copy. Thank you. Oh yes, it was the page seven.
We talked about okay bottom of page six. Yeah, it's the old colony building committee. So if you drop jump come jump to page seven confirmed that superintendent team are working on additional literature to mail to make sure the older population that is not on social media is made aware was
happening with school. Um I I didn't I did not confirm that. I was going to confirm if that was okay a possibility. Y that's what it was. Yes. Sure. So as amended ased then and madam chair I did update the board
that they confirmed that they are not they do not have they're limited on what they can do uh and so there will not be any mailing all strictly will be uh online. Excellent. Thank you very much. Um that
makes it incumbent on us to put more product out there for people. Um, I will take a motion for the meeting minutes of September 9, 2025 and the meeting minutes of September 16, 2025 to approve
as amended. To move a second motion and a second. Uh, any further discussion hearing? None. Roll call. I bloody eye. Candy. Discuss and possible vote to approve the
town election warrant and proposed debt exclusion vote language for Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School for November 18, 2025. I don't care what agenda item I am lost. I'm so under lost here. two.
Oh, all right. Um, Andrew, would you like to walk us through these agenda? I mean, these uh special town meeting. Special town meeting articles. Um, are we doing the articles or the uh old colony?
Yeah, we started out on old colony. It says first approve election warrant, right? Oh, election warrant. Sorry. Yeah, sorry. Um, the warrant word threw me off. Yeah, go ahead. So, at the prior select board meeting, the select board decided to have a debt
exclusion vote on the same day as the ballot vote. So, I went back and got the wording from bond council for the district and this is what it should look like and then the town clerk um basically printed out on the election
warrant what it would look like. So, we're looking to approve the warrant but also the debt exclusion language itself. So, I'm going to read that out loud so everyone can know. Yep. What it is. Um, the the vote itself,
actually, let me just read the synopsis. The select board voted. You didn't read that out, right? The overview. No, I just kind of uh select board voted to hold debt exclusion neglection on the same time date as Old Colony Regional Votech High School District vote for
their new high school building. Um the bond council recommended these this language. Shall the town of Lakeville be allowed to be exempt from the provisions of Proposition 2 and 1/2 so-called its allocable share of the bonds of Old
Colony Regional VOTE VOC vocational technical high school district in order to pay costs of designing construction constructing originally equipping and furnishing a new district high school and related athletic facilities located
at 476 North Avenue, Rochester, Massachusetts, including the payment of all costs incidental and related there too. So that would be the motion.
Would someone like to second it for discussion? Second. All right. So, I get so many questions um on this. I'm gonna let let Andrew answer it because I think he's even got more than me um on
the way our uh agreement works with O Colony um and how what our choices are on uh on this vote and appropriating funds. So, if you wouldn't mind telling the people at home and I know we've said it a bunch of times and put it in our
literature about why this vote matters. it matters to vote this as a override instead of um letting it fail and what happens if we let it fail because those are the questions I'm getting the most of. Yep. So um we've started to post this to
social media. This is what it looks like. Um so the total project cost is 288 million. MSBA, which is the Massachusetts School Building Authority, will give a grant. They decided to give us a grant for the amount of 159 million which leaves Lakeville's share because
we're 25% of the population of Old Colony Regional School District. It's about 40 million um 39 and change. Now that has to be funded. And I'm just going to interrupt right there. 30 million is the highest
possible estimate um that they're going. Um they put in all the contingencies in that as well. Not that it makes it any better, but just to throw that out there. So the school district can call an election um which essentially it substitutes for our town meeting. So
that is our equivalent of our town meeting vote. So they call the election. So when you get to the polls, you'll see two ballots. The first one will be whether you approve the project. Um that ballot question that I've seen has the
number in it. Um, but that's just to approve the project, not to fund it. So, if that project passes with that first vote, first ballot vote, we have to fund it somehow some way as the school gets constructed.
And it's not just our vote, it's all the member towns. Yep. It's all It's all five member towns. So, if we vote it down, but all the other member towns vote for it, or enough uh enough of the member towns vote for it, we still have to pay for it. Yep. And so for a small town, all five
towns are small, they can't possibly do this in the operating budget. The only thing that makes sense is debt exclusion. Um if the debt exclusion fails, I think I'm probably going to recommend going back and doing it again. Um otherwise, we have to pay the debt payment, which I I kind of estimate
probably 1.2 to 1.5 million per year, which is pretty much the budget of our fire department completely. Exactly. Yeah. Then we'll have to do it all again the year after that. So probably not saying anything about the fire department, it just was an equivalency there.
But but for 30 years, we'll have to fork over 1.5. That's why it it makes sense to do a debt exclusion. Yes. Um and for the average assessment, the average home in town is it's 572,000. That's about $452
per year. So it's not insignificant and we do realize this. Um and the members of of uh the committee had lots of robust conversation uh with uh Oak Colony and their representatives uh in two weeks ago. Three weeks ago.
Yep. Yeah. Three weeks ago. At the library. Um and uh we do know the ask. Um but it's not really an ask. It's just how it's funded that's really um at stake for this vote. Um we don't we don't have a say to say no unless all
the towns say no. All right. And it it's probably a future discussion, but this this will bring 200 more seats to the school district, which about 50 seats for us. Um, obviously, it's going to be three more shops. The operating assessment is most likely going to be pretty high for us
when it comes online. Yep. It's stacked. So, yes. Um, so it's going to be a case of us having to pay more now and more later. Exactly. And so part of that process very popular at parties right now
um just given the facts really um but for us we have to approve our our our part of the election which is the debt exclusion piece. Yep. That old colony takes care of their section. Yeah. So I just want to make sure that's clear for everyone. Please come up and have a seat and introduce yourself.
My name is Kristen Howard and um I live on Old Main Street. My question is around debt exclusion. I don't if it's appropriate, can you give a brief definition of what that means? I can give one, but I know who can give
the best one of our director of finance here. So, I'm Mike Ellis, the finance director. I can't pull out a chair. Um, a a debt exclusion is a temporary increase to the tax base. So unlike an override, which is a permanent increase
forever, this is a temporary increase to the tax base for the life of the note. So using Andrew's example, 30 years is a form when you set the tax rate and you put in that upcoming year's principal and interest payments and it raises it above the 2 and a half% until the notes paid off.
Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you for your question. And it'll be a lot at first and then it comes down as Yeah. as time goes by. There's still a lot. Yeah, still a lot. Does anyone else have any questions?
Okay, we have a motion and a second on the wording of the warrant. Roll call. I log I Yep. All right.
Um section 53. Now the special town meeting warrant articles. Andrew, can you walk us through them and which ones are valid and which ones are no longer going to be part of
discussion? Yeah, some of the background I think when I started my first town meeting was really the annual the the pro the process has been to accept articles. Um so this is just to accept an article to put on the town meeting warrant. We'll come back at a
later time to approve the warrantage and then we'll come back again to do a warrant review. So this is just the first part of that. Um, so I'll take it it since since since since I sent this out on Friday, some articles have come off and I'll go through each of them one
by one. So the first one um is an unpaid invoices um article which essentially any invoices that were missed for payment in the prior fiscal year. This has to go to town meaning it's a 9/10 vote. Um we
just have one and it's about 300 bucks or so. So that's what the first one will be. Um article two is a CP um community preservation committee sponsored
article. Um it's just to um recommend that the community preservation um well essentially they get the uh potential appointments. the the applicants for the board and then they would recommend to the select board to
then basically appoint that person much like other boards do currently. I wasn't aware that that's not so it's it's not so um I I can't speak for why it wasn't done but the letters
had come directly to the select board for the last two appointments and they didn't end up going through the CPC. um they didn't end up making their recommendations. It kind of got skipped over is the way it just it not on any intent. It just happened that way. Um so
it was the CPC's desire to um codify it even though we don't have it codified for any other board. Yeah. So I don't know you know how we want to set a precedent of making a change but we have done it for you know you know we we're acknowledging it now
and we know that that will be the process going forward whether this changes you whether the language here changes or not. Um but the CPC thought it was important enough to bring it forward. Okay. And they had a discussion at their last meeting. I don't think they necessarily care whether it's a it's a change in the
bylaw. It's a policy. It's anou between both boards. maybe an informal policy where we just that's the process we do. Yeah, that's how we do it for all the other boards. I would be fine having it in a policy document and then cutting down time at town meeting um just in general. But um
if the CPC feels strongly enough about it, I don't you know I wouldn't stand in the way personally. So what I can do is I'll have a discussion with the CPC chair uh uh person about this and then we can come back on October 6th. Yeah, they should be afforded the same
Yeah. um as any other board. It's just it was a new board and things just didn't y click the way they were supposed to. Um so article three um is the town hall reuse building committee took a vote to
uh basically do a first kind of initial phase um background work for a town hall reuse plan that was voted to be 25,000. I've since reached out to an OPM who could get us that number. Um, so this is just to fund that out of free cash
25,000. Um, do we want to make it that specific like the language is my only question or do we just want to make it around town hall building reuse? Because if we make the language so specific, if we have
leftover funds that we could use for something else for town hall reuse, then we wouldn't be able to. So that's my only call out there is if the language is too specific, then we end up having to bring it back to vote and then another vote and another vote.
Yeah, we can take a look at um the next week and then bring it back next week. That's totally fine. Any comments? Article 4, um it has it's in process. It's a dilapitated buildings bylaw. Um we've kind of had discussions
internally. It's a very I guess difficult one to write. And then it's more difficult than it appeared to be on the surface. Yeah. It's just to get it turned around by the fall timing is tough. Okay. Um we're thinking there probably even if we passed it, it's it's going to be a nightmare to enforce if we don't write
it carefully. Um but we're still working on that. That'll come back next week as well. And I'll I'll forward that as soon as I can. Article five is to set up department revolving funds. might be a might be able to explain the in ingenuities of
that. Essentially, it's it's common practice in most towns to have these. Um, essentially, money comes into an account and then it's authorized to spend out of that account. Lakeville has, to my knowledge, has never set that up in its history. Um, and so when we
sent this to town council, um, initially it was to set one up specifically for the conservation commission. they came back with just a a general bylaw to uh set it up for the townwide. So, it's much easier to come back and then
add revolving funds as they are desired to be set up. So, back when it was the conservation commission, I looked at the agenda and meeting notes. Um, actually just the agendas. I didn't look at the meeting notes. All um, I never saw a vote
for this to come as a warrant article. Was there a vote for this to come as a warrant article? To my knowledge, no. Nancy, you can uh, maybe correct that, but to my knowledge, it was more of an informal discussion. So, I I think you know my my stance on
like trying to I like a checklist. I like a checklist like anything. um to make sure that we've got all the steps. So, the original idea was for a wetland and bylaw. We've needed a well and bylaw for a long time. For 20 years, we've had
a policy of a 25- ft no touch. Um we just had to deny a project and it probably or I don't know if it will get upheld by D or not, but um they don't recognize policies at D. So, our
original vote was to work on a wetland bylaw. I did see that we don't have any money. We don't have any money we can use. We can't use the state money to work on a local wetland bylaw. So, then when I started thinking, how are we going to
get the money? It came to me, we have fees. The wetland fees come in one side and the fee that to put in an application comes in the other side. And so in 2024 I think it was about $8,000.
In 20 23 it would spend $8,000 and it was $6,000 and now we're into the next fiscal year. But it always goes back to the general fund. But I thought that that money if we did a revolving fund I can't remember who I talked to maybe
somebody at MACC. If we did a revolving fund, then we can hire somebody. None of us are equipped to write a good wetland bylaw for Lakeville. And I've seen other bylaws before that have been proposed where we take something from one town
and we take something from another town that looks good and put it together to make a bylaw. We need a well and bylaw for Lakeville. We have too many natural resources everywhere of wetlands or water and we really have needed that for a long time. So when I kind of changed
the plan at the last meeting, we had two members out. Um Bob's daughter Michelle and John Leank was on vacation. So Mark Knox, our newest member, didn't want to take the vote with the two people being out. So, it's on our
agenda for our next meeting to I tried to talk them into taking the vote anyway because we could always pull it, but I really can't see how it's would get voted down. So, it probably wouldn't come from from conservation if
it's just a revolving fund for the town at this point. And that's how I would view it. I would be happy if the selectman would put it. No, but I'm just saying I'm saying that would be it would be a fiscal policy type of thing as opposed to conservation.
That's just something we really need. Yeah. Two parts. One because it wasn't voted and then two because if you're making a a revolving, you wouldn't want to do a vote for every board committee and commission to do revolving. It would be
tedious. So, we would make a policy on it. But Andrew taking um what uh Nancy had said, there would be budgets and like not to exceed amounts or you
know ho how would those be structured and then I would let our our um yeah Mike if you want to come up and explain anything I miss. Um essentially you would set this up and then every year at annual town meeting you would have a spending limit. Now I put 15,000.
that's not necessarily what they have in their account. Um I think they had 8,000 last year. So 8,000 would come in to the revolving account and they could only spend what they bring in. Um but then the state I'm not sure why they do this. They cap it to a certain degree. If you want to
explain that kind of um just as you adopt the the master 53 and a half revolving funds, there is a cap required like a not to exceed essentially for that fiscal year just so you don't end up upside down in the fund and not have a funding source for it. Um, typically as Andrew just explained,
it's kind of like a uh, you know, one and a half times. So, like we took in 7,500 8,000, you typically kind of go higher. So, you know, you're not going to exceed, but um, very rarely have I ever seen it in my experience, ever go above. So, we would set budgets for each each one year. Yeah. And um, it would be a
freestanding article at every spring town meeting. Um, my previous town, we had 15 of them. So, it was a like an omnibus and it had what the revolving fund was and what the not to exceed or the budget would be for that fiscal year. Yeah, pretty standard. Uh, and this bylaw actually outlines the
revenue source and the allowed expenses. So, it couldn't be used theoretically. This goes into effect. They can't use it for anything outside of this. Mhm. Or else it's illegal obviously. So, um, plus every every purchase would go through accounting. Mhm.
So, there's there's checks and balances. Okay. behind like any other purchasing zone. It's a, you know, it's probably a concept that's time has come for Yeah, it's a very common practice in a lot of municip. I just don't want it to be so impactful that we become
less budget stable than we already are. Yeah, I think this is a very smaller one. Yeah, it's a very small one that you are correct. That money will come out of the general fund. It will go to this. Yep. Um, and then another important thing, this won't go into effect until July 1st of 26. Yes.
And one other thing, Madam Chair, I think that um the well and bylaw that we want to work on would include fines. I think we've all seen in this last year that I don't think anybody in town has the ability to fine. I don't think any
of the boards have the ability to fine. I think our our bylaws have not been crafted very well in like years past as far as that's why we want to hire a professional to help us write it and it will include fines so that we won't be running into like we have already 160
Bedford Street. I'm going to let the rest of the board weigh in on any conversations they want to have. I certainly agree with the need for it to protect the major resources here in the town. Um but again something you
don't want a board themselves crafting where their where their fee structure is that goes into the account that the board then decides they want to spend that that leads to difficult times moving forward. If you get a board that decides they're going to increase their
fee structure to build their account. So definitely needs to be set forward by another entity whether it's the board of selectman based on a a TA's recommendation but absolutely needs to be funded and needs to be done right to
protect our resources. Um okay so and Mike if I'm understanding this correctly today we don't have revolving fund accounts. We have quote unquote revolving fund accounts, but they're not mass general law 53 and a
half revolving accounts. That's a specific voted. Yes, I'm not familiar with that top. Sorry. So, as I said, this would require a vote. Um, there's a grid I can send you all. It shows allowable cost, unallowable cost. Um, and as we mentioned, it's it's going
to be a standing article every spring to vote the cap. Whether we had one or we had 100, we would have that article to vote the spending limit. So, very common practice. So does this make does this kind of and I'll use conservation commission as an example here. Um so
would that would allow her to you know application or fees are coming in right there permitting fees and stuff like that when you put in a like a notice of intent or whatever you have to pay the state fee and we get some of that money but we can't use that only for very specific purposes.
So this um the allowed expenses on this one would be um for professional technical consultant which the main part is to get somebody to help us write a really good well and bylaw
um maintenance of conservation land. We don't have any money. The vigorous property has sat there for years. We don't have any money that conservation we're responsible for properties. We don't have any money. So, that's another thing we could use that for that we I'm going to hold you right there. Yeah.
If say if the conservation commission was to write grants, would that grant money go in the fund or would that how would that uh No, I would put that on a It would be under the special revenue umbrella, but it would be under the state or federal or county grant. It wouldn't be a 53 53.
Yeah. Question. Yeah, it's really specific. Um, and also I had asked to put in there enforcement actions for violations of the wetland protection act or any future local wetland bylaw because if we pass that bylaw, we're
going to need to do enforcement and we can't use the state money to do if we need to like hire a what do you call a guy that goes and says stop. Uh, constable can't. Yeah, constable. Thank you.
Shout out to Kim. Um, so we it's it's very specific what we can use it what we're asking to be able to use it for. I mean, we could also purchase conservation land, but at 6 and $8,000, I don't think we'll be buying anything, but who's to say we
couldn't chip in a little bit if CPA was going to try to It would be sometimes you need that other little like in Middleboro, you you don't get CPA funds unless you have partners. So, it would just it just seems like some really good stuff. And I had no
idea that we didn't have the the setup for this when I first started asking about it. Well, let me just bring it. Okay, that that's helpful. Thank you. Let's just bring it up one level higher. Y um we don't have revolving funds today per this mass general law.
That's correct. that that we're aware of that we've ever adopted. Yeah, the conservation commission Nancy needs funding there. They're they're they're getting some revenue from fees and stuff like that today. It's part of the general budgeting process and you know she
allocates I mean she advocates and so forth. The revolving funds what does that give us? Does that put more guardrails in place saying that these funds are coming in and they're tighter? they're more allocated to her and we can't they get to spend they get to spend them
as opposed to being um a capital item or a budget transfer or Yeah. Direct. Yeah, I was just going to add that it gives you flexibility throughout the year too. So if we take in money on July 1st in conservation and it goes to the general fund, it sits for the next 365
days until it's closed to free cash. This actually gives Okay, that's the key. Yeah. This gives Nancy the flexibility. She takes in a receipt and another receipt and then she has a expense. She can charge that expense versus having to wait until it goes. Oh, that was that where you were going with
that is you know how much money does this take out of the general general fund if if more departments are doing it and you know people are doing it because we are at the end of the day it may not may not make it may be the same. It's how the money's allocated versus well if they're not spending now and
they're going to spend then I see you know deficit Oh, well, sure. But they But if they do go and get fees and more fees for things, obviously there could be a a trade-off. Well, you have to be careful how you earmark those fees and how you structure
them because you don't want to have uh it alleged that you're you've increased the fees so much that you can be a powerful entity levying fines against folks. I personally have always been against that. Yeah. Right. But I I I 100% I 100% get
your balance there and and how it has to be structured. That's why it has a limit that that's why you have to put a limit on every year. So if it wouldn't help us to raise the fees if we can't if there's a limit on what we can spend. So I just
think at this point in the town with everything the state's cramming down our throat and all the building and everything we really need and not like I haven't always wanted to protect our natural resources but the times come that we have to have it
in as a bylaw. Any questions about the article? One more question. I assume that as these revolving funds are identified, the select board will have authority to
approve those. Are they they created with with a town meeting approval? Yeah. Oh, tell me. Well, well, they would get a spending limit. Okay. But this back even before that, so they want to create a conservation
commission revolving fund. Forget about limits and budgets. Mhm. That will come before the select board and we will determine whether or not that should be a revolving fund. Is it? So my understanding is by creating the revolving fund that's how we are
determining it. And then the second part of that is our role would be helping to set the spending limits as opposed to approving things after the fact. We would be setting the spending limits. That's fine. Not the individual approvals for the items that are No. No. Oh no. I'm not talking about
that. Um even before that you have to you gota designate a revolving fund one for conservation commission you need one for I don't know so we just do an overall revolving fund and then set individual
so there's multiple types you know you can have a recreation you can have a tax you can have a conservation right on aging and you would you would you kind of set them in the rears so we're setting this effective July 1 so we're going to take a look back at what we collected in 26 and that's how we're going to you know, like 15,000 is a good
spending cap for this cuz we only took in X amount. So, you're kind of building it. You're looking at the prior year's, you know, revenue and expense, your budget to actual. And then that's kind of where you determine your But we have multiple, right? So, you know, so you're spending what you already closed going into that next fiscal year. So, you're kind of uh
limiting yourself so you don't run a deficit. Yeah. And I'm okay with that. But again, let's let's back up one more step. We have to identify who's going to get the revolving fund, conservation commission, animal control, I don't know, whatever. The grid I mentioned, it lists like all the applicable deposits
and maybe some for whatever reason we don't want to have revolving funds. You can resend, you can uh vote on it. You can even resend one that's already been existing. Like if five years from now you wanted to resend this one. Okay. So would we do a chart for town meeting and and lay out which ones that we're
doing and what the spend threshold would be if we had multiple just right now it's just conservation. We have I haven't identified any others. We could still theoretically identify them before the annual and it would still be effective the same date which
would be July 1st 26. So, wouldn't we want to just identify doing revolving funds and then we just don't know which ones they're going to be yet. Um, this is just the only one that it's coming to our attention. Generally, there's a recreation one.
Yeah, I'm very used to that one as well. Would they have to be approved through you, Madam Chair? When they have to be approved at town meeting, they would have to go in. Yeah. Everyone that came through would have somebody else would have to do what I just did. Okay. That's that's that's the answer. single one, right?
Town meeting will conservation commission wants one. Recreation wants one. Okay. Yep. Okay. So, it's town meeting approve. Okay. Mhm. Any other questions? All right. Thank you. Let's move on to Thank you. Six.
Article six is a citizens petition. Um I'll just read it out. Uh to see if the town will vote notwithstanding chapter 32B of the general laws or any other general or special law to the contrary. Part-time elected officials in the town of Lakeville who receive a salary or
stipens shall not be eligible for for participation in the town's contri contributo health and life insurance benefit plan effective March 1st 2026. So this is a citizens petition and that
means we cannot change it or edit it in any way. Um and I don't I don't Oh wait I do. Yeah, I do. You were hiding. You had glasses. Um, as the petitioner, would you like to
speak about this petition? Um, sorry. Um, so my mouth is a little weird. Uh, basically this is just um I'm really sorry.
This is just about um I have to take this off. This is just to make aware um the citizens of Lakeville of how this started, when it started, the cost involved, um
how how it came about that the select board decided that they should be town employees, be considered town employees because this this insurance that you were all receiving comes from the the town insurance fund.
And so I've done about three months research and I've come up with a lot of information. But when I did the petition, I did show them what we wanted to do. But the main reason for the petition was to finally
show the um or educate the citizens of what this costs because it's never brought up in the budget each year. It's never been approved by them. this insurance, its cost, anything. It was brought up in 2018 and they said they
would do a further study, but it never got done. And as insurance costs rise and rise and rise, it's costing this town a lot of money. So my my goal is to do the presentation,
inform the citizens, okay, the history, how much it cost, and what my proposal is. And if they decide that you should get insurance, great. If they decide not, then I think now we've turned it
over to the the town to decide any compensation that you may get besides your stipend because the town only votes on your stipen on the budget. It does not vote on the
insurance or the buyout you receive. So, it's more of an education. let them know. Of course, the that there the the uh proposal could be amended. Actually, it can't be amended. So, if someone said that
floor a bylaw that was passed in 2023 and hold on, section 74-8, I can remember this, but I can't remember where my keys are. That's fine. 74-8 um that was passed in 2023
that states that any citizen petition bylaw on town meeting floor cannot be amended on town meeting floor. Well, that's fine. Okay. Just just make sure you I just wanted to see if if someone said, "Well, not now, maybe April, May." It's fine. I
mean, I think the uh the gist of the of the warrant is going to do what I want it to do and just bring attention to it. Just bring attention to it. And what I whatever happens, what I really want is
to have everything presented to the town in the budget that they are voting on. So that now this isn't pointing at this present board, okay? This has been going on for years. this insurance and how it was done. So, I really want to start
fresh and say we need to do this going forward and I think it's important that the town votes on it and not to be continued to be ignored every year because it's not brought up. Well, I do and I think you are right. I think it was 2018 that it was brought up
and Yep. It failed at town meeting, right? Yeah. Once it dropped, it failed, right? Yeah. So, I just think it's time to restart it. Whatever happens happens. But I I you know, I I just looking at the budget and what's going on and you
know, we're we're budgeted to spend present course 2 and a half to $3 million on your benefits for 11 people over the next 10 years. So, you're saying if everyone took the max of everything. Is that what you're saying? from from the three people who
take it now to the 11 people who get it. That's going to range at a even at an increase of 8 to 10% in insurance, which could be more, you're talking about two to$3 million over 10 years. I've done the math. I've gotten all my things. So,
those are my concerns. So, and if the town wants to do that, God bless them. But I don't think they know what's happening because any of the petitions I know did not know that because it hasn't been brought up in so
many years. So once again, I wanted I just want it out in the open. The town decides, sure, you should get it, I'm all for it. If not, then we need to go further. Sure. So this is in the meantime thing. I just want to I'm just concerned about what's going on now because we don't have our
our cookie jar only has one Oreo cookie in it. So, well, thank you for letting me speak. You're very welcome. And I'm sorry for my No, good luck with your tooth. Thank you. My wife's gonna yell at me. All right. Uh, any questions or comments
on article six or any clarifications? Hearing none, we'll move on to seven. And the last one is um I think it's long been discussed since I've started at least. Uh this will make it so that the school district uh elections will have a recall provision.
So on the recall provision and the exact language of the recall provision, I saw it's different than our town recall provision. Yeah, I I didn't quite make it clear. There's one point where they we free town and us have to agree on it whether it's going to be like ours. Um which is
I think they go back on the ballot or Yeah. They can go back after two years. Is it? Yeah, it's b basically whether they want to mirror it to the what the towns have now or something separate. Yeah. So, okay. This is it does have to be exact for both towns. Uh otherwise it fails.
Yep. So, um sounds like pretty much all these articles except article six um just have small little work to do. We can come back next week and finally accept them and put them on the warrant. Okay. Any questions about article 7? And
I know we had a nice robust conversation with Freetown before. Um, and then was that it? That can't be it. Yeah. I mean, I small. It's not 27 items.
I took off a couple. Yes. Um, one was to supplement the budget, which we don't have to do, and another one was CPA, not CPA, as board of assessors. We're looking about potentially increasing the exemption amount for personal property and
they're going to bring that back probably in the annual. Okay. Yep. All right. Fantastic. Um I don't think we need to take a vote at this time. We just went over them and then what this will do will give Andrew the power to continue on with KP law crafting the
language um and making sure all the boxes are checked um and all the due diligence has been done. And on to the next. We already did that. Uh water allocation for 13 Harding Street.
Uh there's a letter from Riverhoff here explaining the request for water and a map showing the existing and proposed water line. Did anyone have any questions or comments on the request for connection to the public water supply at 13 Harding
Street? Hearing none, I'll make a motion. I move the select board appoint the water connection application as presented at 13 Harding Street and reserves the right to modify and/or resin should actual water use data change
should actual water use data comma change of building use or any other qualifying events require such action a motion in a second any further discussion madam K there's also a note in here from uh our board of health oh board of health agent and building
commissioner have reviewed the request test and have determined that the water allocation would be sufficient for the project. Uh motion in a second. What's the letter I have? Who's the health agent is questioning the No, do I have
the volume and is requesting clarification? There we go. Hold on. System is oversized, so they could add more. That's usually not the the issue.
Less than 20 650 seems excessive. Andrew, do you have a letter? I do. So, I I reached So, Ed's letter was well, the application came in. Ed's letter um was next and then I reached out to Riverhawk Environmental, which is the uh
Monkeyy's or actually it's 10 Harding Streets Engineer. um basically said it was conservative number, just a number they thought they could if anything happened they could use. Um more or less the reason for this
request is that 10 Harding Streets being built. The water line goes through uh Route 44. Um and Monkeyy's not on Town Water right now and they would like to be. So 10 Harden Street is going to, I guess, do
that for them. So Riverhawk was really just looking at a conservative number they could ask for. Um, if you want to just go with what Ed Cullen put, that's totally fine, I think, which would be 465
gallons as it goes to 650. 465. I'm looking at 44. Yeah. Plus the 20. Plus the 20. Okay. Yep. Um, I will look to the board to see your thoughts. Um, I've never heard of anyone like
holding space for other people's water. Um, a little bit essentially I would rather they come back. Personally, I rather taking uh that note into consideration,
which again I need to look at the back of all the pages. Um taking that note into consideration, I would be comfortable amending uh my motion to uh 461 gallons per day. Um and
then we could modify or um resend after. So um I move the select board approve the water connection in the amount of 461 gallons per day for 13 Harding Street and reserves the right
to modify or resin should actual water use data change, change your building or any other qualifying event require such action. Chris, you got the face on. You know me. Uh, no, you came up with
461. So, 444 + 20, isn't it? 444 + 20. Oh, should it be 444? So, 464, right? Just so we have some logic number. Right. Thank you. Second. Motion a second. Any further discussion?
Hearing none. Roll call. Hunt. I. Plunk. I do. Thanks for the teamwork. Um, appointments and licenses. None. None. None.
Well, someone must have been happy with our our last three attempts. I'm getting it right. Um, let's see. Subcommittee updates. Start with O Colony. We have not had a meeting as we're still
waiting for the uh MSBA to provide comments on the uh on the proposal. Uh so no meeting is scheduled. They're due to come back. I believe it's this week. Perfect. And member Carboni is off
tonight. Technology advisory subcommittee that was going to be scheduled for OC. We did not have a meeting last month uh because we had another select board meeting I think if I recall correctly. So I the next one would have been
October 14th but we have another we have our joint select board and planning board meeting that night. So I'm we don't have anything pressing so I'm going to cancel that one. Uh and our next one will be November uh November 11.
Thank you. Uh, Veterans Day. Yes. I Yes. Have it on holidays. Really? Yeah. So, the 12th. I don't mind. Well, I've been a veteran and I've decided, you know.
There's my gabble. Is that a law? It is. It is. Yeah. We We No holidays. Oh, you thought you had it all but Yeah. I will TBD for the next video. All right. We'll see you Christmas technology advisory.
I'll let you know. Yeah. Oh my go goodness. Okay. Communication community member carbon town hall building reuse subcommittee is on October 16th. Correct. Correct. It's my birthday.
That's help. Wouldn't that be a holiday as well? Yes. I'll declare. Chair so declares. Uh economic development committee. member Carboni and Energy Advisory Committee. Is there another member on
there besides Carp? She's on a lot. We just cut down half of our agenda. Um I'm going to go back to announcements that I skipped over to get to the the good people of uh Bicker Lane.
Um go select board announcements. Um as many of you might have noticed, we had a scam uh alert for for people in the town. It did not come from the town of Lakeville, but they were uh uh purporting to be from the town of
Lakeville over um permit fees. So uh if you get something, how did they get this? Uh was it by email, by text? How did people got the email? If you get something that looks funky, never reply to the email. Always go back to the source and, you know, just reach out to
the town. Um, don't ever reply to the email. Um, that's that's that's a good way to get all your information uh taken. Um, arts and music festival. Uh, let's see. The Lakeville Arts and Music Festival take place on Saturday, October
4th between 10:00 a.m. and 400 p.m. Exciting entertainment, Elastic Five Band, Old Colony, Highlander Bagpipe, Big Ryan Tall Tales, Aonoquit High Jazz Band, and Toe Jam Puppet Band to name a few. Silent Auction. Um, and all sorts
of awesome stuff as usual. It's always a very well attended event. Um, and it's this Saturday, so please come out. It's at the historic town hall. Does it spread out anywhere else besides historic town hall? Yeah, it's in the surrounding parking
lot. The church. Yeah, the church across the street. Yeah. So, surrounding parking lot, too. Um, we have the upcoming Snowperson Jubilee last year. Oh, actually, Lakeville Ace Hardware 4th annual
grilling for dogs fundraiser. um benefiting our uh animal shelter. Uh Saturday, October 11th, 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Hot dog, chips, and soda for $5. A grill giveaway. It's a Weber uh
Weber Spirit E210 and prizes. It's a really great event to benefit our dog shelter. Second annual snow person Jubilee starting October 1st. Um it's uh they're purchasing snow persons for $25.
You create your design. Um and add a holiday message and return it back by November 30th. And then they have the display on the old town hall month for the month of December. And then you have a snow person village event on Saturday,
December 13th at 2 p.m. with hot cocoa, carolling, and having fun with family and friends. There'll also be awards for first, second, and third place. Uh, become a co corporate sponsor to to defay material costs. A frosty sponsor is 100. A Jack Frost sponsor is 200 and
abominal snow snowman sponsor is 300. Uh, for more info and to purchase a snow person is lakeville snow peoplegmail.com and I'd give the phone number, but I couldn't read it if you paid me. It's in a It's in a snowflake. It's in a
snowflake. Um is more information. Is it on our website under news? Yeah. Yes. More information news. Yes. Page. Oh, Lake Christmas Stroll. Was that tied to the snowman jubilee? I thought that was part of the snowman
jubilee. No, I don't think so. I think this is this is what takes place at Ted Williams camp. Got it. Lakeville Christmas country stroll. Is it the same date with the snowman Jubilee? Yeah. Yep. Okay. Um, enjoy a unique twist on a
traditional parade. You walk, the parade stays. Decorate your car, truck, or trailer for this themed non-moving parade. Um, free admission, family, and friends all welcome. Costume and holiday tire encouraged. Uh, dress warm and bring your holiday cheer. Um, and then
the snow person jubilee immediately falling at 2 p.m. at Town Hall. Um there's a registration as well. One thing I don't see on here um that is an announcement is the trunk or treat at the parks that's coming up. What date is
that? Anyone have off the top of their head? Get that information. 19th. So um please remember uh how excellent it was if you came last year and they'd be excited to see you again. It was well attended. Um, any other
select board announcements? Uh, Madam Chair, yes. Is speaking. I think he's coming in now. The Lake Fire open house. Is everybody aware of that? The Lake What? Lake Fire Department open house. Oh, when is this year's open house?
October 11th. All right. Chief, do we have the announcement on the Lakeville the fire department open house? October 11. That sounds about right. 11 to
I have to look at it real quick. Okay. Sorry. All right. Make sure it is on the It's on the news and events if it's should be on the website. I don't have a copy. 11 to two. Very good. Thank you. Write any correspondence. There's um
some love letters from Verizon changing and up updating rates. Um, it will be in our agenda portfolio if anyone wants to be see specifically what those rate changes are. There are way too many to list.
Any new business to come before the board? Any old business to come before the board? Uh the next select board meeting date is October 6, 2025 at the police station.
Uh now we're going to enter into executive session. Oh, actually need a motion to uh adjourn after. Wait, losing my order of operations here. I do I will. All right. Motion uh for executive
session pursuant to MGL chapter 30A section 21A1 to discuss the reputation, character, physical condition, mental health rather than professional competence of an individual or to discuss the discipline or dismissal or complaints or charges against a public officer, employee, staff member or
individual. And reason number two, possible exe executive session pursuant to MGL chapter 38 section 21A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating
position of the body, police, fire, DPW, laborers, dispatchers. And reason number three, possible executive session pursuant to MGL chapter 38 section 21A7 to review and approve executive session minutes not to be released uh September
16, 2025 not to return to open session. Second deep breath motion to second. Roll call. Hunt I plug I All right. Um, with that
in executive session