town over the years. I know I speak for many others when I say that we are truly grateful for all that you two have done for this town. So, we're doing something a little special tonight. I want to invite up Senator Cronin and Representative Scarsdale. They have citations from the general court that
I'd like them to present to you guys. Thank you. Um, you didn't say that we could make remarks, but I think we're both going to make some very brief remarks. Um, and I I know the um the comment that you made about your stepping off the board, but you might be
back. I thought I saw a gleam in both of your eyes. I just like everybody to know that uh there is no volume here uh on Zoom uh or anywhere. All right. I think we're working uh this is John Bowen.
All right. Go ahead. All right. So, um he just muted me. I go to many different kinds of events as a state representative and some are serious, some are really joyful, some are something in between, but this is
one I definitely consider bittersweet. Um, when I first was elected to state representative, you two were two of the first select board members that I met. um you were always so gracious and so thoughtful and
working with me and helping me understand the unique challenges of Lunenburgg and really just being an indie fatigueable partner and um it is sad to see you go. I know you are going on to great things and you will be very
happy but um I'm guessing that it's a little bittersweet for you as well and to making it your best. That doesn't just happen by accident. That sometimes makes this a
very heavy job, that kind of responsibility. And I have heard people say that it must be a thankless job, but I don't think that the two of you see it that way. And I think you've done it for all of these years because you
understand the importance of being there for the community, for showing up for them every day, even when you don't get thanks for it. And let's face it, Lunberg is almost 12,000 people. It's almost impossible to make 12,000 people
happy at any one time. And and so to persevere in the face of that and to just be true champions and and to lead with honor and and courage and grace, you will definitely be missed.
Uh Michael Ray and Tom, I I just want to say thank you. It's been such a pleasure to be able to work with you and be partners in service. Um, I kind of get the chills a little bit uh every time when I I come into this building. I I see Dave Rogers who's who's behind me
and I remember my first taste of elected office was when my dad was debating Dave here about 20 years ago. Dave, you might have won the race, but we won the debate. But um but I'm reminded of the personal toll it
takes on you and your families to do this job well uh and do it right. This is a different town than the one that I grew up in. It's a better town. Uh and it's in no small le uh measure due to your your leadership and and just so much hard work week in week out. Uh one
more kind of moment of levity. Uh I get asked a lot and I think Representative Scarsdale gets asked a lot, you know, how do you do this? How do you serve an elected office uh in today's environment? And I think what what I don't say, but what I think to myself is, well, sometimes I just turn on the
select board meetings in Lunberg and I realize it could be much much worse. So, I am very grateful for everything that you've given uh to the town. Um you're you are both gentlemen. Uh it is it has really been a pleasure to work on some difficult issues. It
doesn't mean everything was perfect. uh it it doesn't mean that um there's not a lot more work to do, but I'm very grateful for everything that you've given to the town. Uh and I'd ask that if you could both come forward and receive citations from the general court to honor your dedicated service to the
town of Lunenburgg. Do you want to All right. So, I'm going to read um the two kind of combining the House and the Senate. the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the House of Representatives, and the Senate, be it hereby known to all that, the
Massachusetts House of Representatives, and the Senate, offers its sincerest congratulations to Michael Ray Jeff and Tom Alonso in recognition of your unfl flagging dedication to and unmitigated support of the residents of Lunenburgg.
The entire membership extends its very best wishes and expresses the hope for future good fortune and continued success in all endeavors given this 13th day of May 2025 at the state house by Karen Stilka Senate President Senator
John J. Cronin, Ronald Mariano, Speaker of the House, State Representative Michael P. Kushik, and Margaret Scarsdale. John, we take a picture. Thank you. John had his one up. Somebody do it. Thank you so much. You're
welcome. Good to see you. Nice to see you. You guys want to stay down there? I just have uh Mr. Alonzo, Mr. Jeff, uh a certificate of appreciation from the Lunberg Police Department, uh its members and myself uh for your dedicated
years of service on the select board and to the community for the town of Lunberg. Um they're not as nice as those, but I did make them today and sign them today on May 13th. $2. Oh, stole the picture.
And of course, we have something for you as well. So, on behalf of the select board and town manager, I have uh some gifts for you. Of course, you cannot use them. Please just set them aside until after the election. Uh, but here
you appreciate it. All right. And we're not done yet. I believe Jen has something, too. Yeah. I just want to um both of you have been so instrumental in onboarding me to Lunberg, and I could not be sitting here um without either of you, and I fully um
expect that I can still rely on both of you. your institutional knowledge and the way in which you lead and serve is truly to be commended. And um I think both of you have always from what I've seen led by an example and showing that
you truly are looking out for what's in the best interest of the community and done so with grace and dignity and respect. And even though folks don't always agree, um the way in which you discuss those disagreements and get to a solution as leaders of this board is
truly commendable. Um not everybody can do that who sits on a board and your um your presence both of you will definitely be missed and um I look forward to seeing you on the other side of the of the table.
Thank you. Amanda, do you want to go now? Sure. So, I write things so I don't mess things up, but so as we say goodbye to two dedicated members of the select board, I wanted to take a moment to say thank you to both Tom and Michael Ray for your service and commitment to the town. Tom, I've known you for many, many years. Um,
and I feel truly privileged to have serve served alongside you just like my mom did before me. Uh, your steady presence and your deep knowledge of the town um has really made a a long lasting impact not just on the town but on me as a person and Michael Ray, I've always admired your passion um and the hard
work that you bring to every issue and your your drive to dig in to ask questions and advocate for what you believe in is something that I truly admire. So, thank you both for your time, your energy, and your heart. And Lunberg is better for your service. And I think that maybe my head won't get so
sore between the two of you. So, thank you both so, so much. Thank you. All right. And last, but not least, we have our old friend Lou Franco, who would like to come up and say some words as well. Thank you. Uh, Lou Franco, 250 Arbor Street. I want to thank Senator Cronin
and uh Margaret Scarsdale and Chief for the uh warm-up act. I joke of course as I did so frequently on the board. Uh I just wanted to appear here tonight in person. I um I had the honor of serving with
four of you, all but Amanda. Uh I served with Michael, Ray, and Tom for all three of the years that I was on this board. And um uh my relationship with you uh you know started off you were both mentors to me helped me get oriented to
the board. Uh then then we became colleagues on more even footing. We uh lived through some interesting times but when are there not interesting times? Uh you know and but we got some
good things done as well. Um and uh well most importantly I'm u you know honored to regard both of you as my friends um above all else. Uh so as one of only very uh few people maybe 18 or
two dozen in this town that know what it's like to sit in those chairs. Uh I thought it was important to appear here in person uh to thank you both uh and uh you have both given tremendous amount
of time has been stated and your energy and your knowledge. Both of you have a a very deep knowledge of how things work in this town and I learned a lot from both of you. Uh you're both tremendous public servants and I want to wish you
well and um uh you're going to enjoy coming off the board. I think I uh uh it it it does take a little getting used to. I mean it's it's like being there there's something literally for a few months that's something like a Stockholm syndrome.
uh and uh you know but after uh a few months of intensive therapy and uh you'll slowly reintegrate into society. All right. I have to admit though, I must confess there have been occasions when I looked at the agenda. I
watch most of the meetings. Darlene and I watch most of these meetings still. I've missed maybe one or two. Uh if I haven't caught them live, I've caught them um on replay. And I have to admit, you know, sometimes I look at the agenda
and I I pop the corn and pour the beer. All right. So, thank you very much to you both. Uh I look forward to seeing you on the other side. Thank you. Thank you, Lou. Thank you to those continuing to serve on the board and those who are coming on the board. I always respect
people that step up uh uh and serve. It's it's um it's easy to talk. It's a lot harder to get in the ring. Thank you. Thank you, Luke. Thank you, Tom and Michael Ray. Any parting words of wisdom you'd like to share?
Go first. Sure. Um, you know, I wrote something coming into tonight and I said, you know, I'm not going to read it. Um, I'll just kind of speak off the cuff. So, first, you know, it's always hard to hear um positive comments and feedback because, you know, even though
I think that uh you know, things affect you, you know, when you go home and you and you sit at night, you think about the things you should have done differently. Um you think about, you know, different ways to approach situations in the future. And, you know, that's how I always see
myself, I guess. I don't I don't I I I don't see what other people see. you know, I I I know Michael Ray as the kid who was the young man who, you know, is now uh in my 40s and and so I'm probably a little more critical of myself, but I I I want to thank the community
overwhelmingly. Um you know, I didn't run for office thinking that I would be a member of the select board, certainly sitting in the seat. Um I know I've made mistakes and I know that I've also um done a lot of good. I want to acknowledge and thank Tom uh first, you
know, working I worked with Tom for these full six years. Um you know, I haven't always been the easiest person to work with and and I want to be, you know, straight up about that. Um it's challenging working when we all have our passions to work so intently for so
long. Um so I want to thank Tom for his service. I want to quite publicly apologize uh for how I know that I have um been hurtful and uh and I want to acknowledge my colleagues as well on the board for
their service to our community um and their on you know ongoing commitment to the town. I'm confident in the good people of Lunenburgg. I'm confident that we're headed in the right direction overall. you know, as I look back on the on the many years that we've been here, there's a whole list of things that we
have accomplished. Um, so many so many, but the work continues. And so, I guess in my parting words, what I want to say is we all have ideas. We all think about what this world can be for us. Um, but
it's what we do that has the most impact uh on our own lives and the lives of other people. You know, being a selectman, it is a selfless job. you you donate a lot of your time, a lot of your energy, and I think most people know the compensation is zero, but the reward is
that you get to help your neighbors, you get to help businesses, you get to help your friends, uh, in so many different ways. So, I feel over the weekend, I felt the lift off my shoulders. Um, you know, my time here is short. I certainly felt it over the weekend. I'm quite uh
looking forward to what I call Fort Couch. um which you know but this really for me is is a turning point not just on the board it's a turning point in my own life um you know I've been a public servant I joined the army 10 days after my 17th birthday and this will be the
first time in my adult life that I will not be a public servant um and so it is a new chapter for me and I look forward to what comes next but again I sit and I feel grateful to my parents uh I feel grateful to my colleagues I feel
grateful for the community. Thank you. So, thank you. And as a my parting comments which are kind of an outline that I'll riff in between uh I wanted to answer treat it like a question and
answer period to answer questions that I have over the my course of my service gotten multiple multiple times. The very first question that they ask you when you run and then every year
after that until you don't run again is especially after seeing some of the moments that Mr. Franco alluded to that are popcorn moments and things like that or things when you have tough decisions is why do you do it like why would you do it? And I tell people when I used to
speak at many of the Eagle Scout courts of honor, I tell them that I have a my wife and I have a a magnet prominently put on our refrigerator and the magnet says shape your world or someone else will. And so I always took that to heart
that you know the town is run by volunteers uh and it's a shared responsibility and I had the time and I had the energy and uh those are all kind of past tense but but uh and and at the time I I believe I
had the skill set uh and this would probably be a course for long larger discussion amongst the audience but uh the skill set and the mindset as well to serve as a select board member. So that's why I did it and and the things
that kept me doing it h had to do with my approach to the job and as two of us are leaving and two more people will be coming on. It's kind of advice or suggestions as well as my approach and
take it or leave it as you need. But I always wanted to encourage participation. Participation is one of the most important things to me. Uh there's never a time when we talk about seats that are available for elected or appointed bodies that I don't say we need volunteers. We need people to come
run the town uh on a volunteer basis. So I encourage that promote communication. Uh most importantly do the work like these are not placeholders. Everybody on this board knows what you have to read and what you
have to know to prepare for these meetings, for public hearings, for town meetings, etc., etc. So, do the work. Listen to all sides before coming to any decision or vote. Uh, hugely important. Treat everybody fairly, equally, and
with respect. And be willing to explain your position. Do the best to convince others of your position, but ultimately have the strength of your own convictions even if they are unpopular. We've talked tonight, I think
uh Representative Scarsdale mentioned it about this not being told that it's a thankless job. I hear that all the time. Aside from why do you do it? That's the second most common. It's a thankless job. And I tell people many times, it's
not a thankless job. I mean, tonight aside, which is obviously why it's not a thankful job, a thankless job. But, you know, you get many rewards. You get rewards in in creating and tweaking policies that help the town go forward
in real, you know, in creating, promoting and realizing projects, whether they be building projects or, you know, uh, scout projects or volunteer projects, etc. Uh, and people recognize that and they
do come to you and they do say thank you. I mean, at at the the town fair this past weekend, lots of people came to me and said, "Thank you, not for the because they knew I was leaving, but just for things that have been done." And that has been true all through my
tenure. So, that's not to say that I liked every part of the job. Not every part is, you know, things that get thanked. Sometimes you're in really tough situations and you have to make really tough decisions. But as a whole, it's been a very
rewarding experience. Uh if you've ever made so the only way I can put this is the sense of accomplishment you feel when you do these things is if you are uh an artisan of some kind. If you're a if you're a crafts person, if you build things or you are a musician and you
play things or you act, I mean, if you do something, the sense of accomplishment you do, even if nobody's looking, is this is the equivalent of what you get in this job. And I it's a powerful motivator and one I think that
I would encourage anyone anyone else who's thinking about it to pursue. Because of tonight of thanks, I have a lot of people that I want to thank. First of all, it has been an honor and a privilege to serve the people of Lunberg. Uh, I want to thank all the voters whether you voted for me
or not. Your voices were are and will be the the the the future of the town and I can urge people to continue to do that. Uh, thanks to all the elected and appointed members of every board, committee or commission in town. I've worked with lots of people on this board
in other boards, all different bodies. I want to take this time to thank Mr. Jeff for his six years of service. Again, you know, when you hear people criticize what you do, there's a there's a big chasm between that microphone and this
stage. And to do that takes a lot of courage and I appreciate that and I appreciate the work you put into the town. Uh it's been important and we really need more people to do it. I want to thank our state delegation. Uh I don't know if they're still here. I
think they they left. But uh not only this state delegation, I've worked with several and they have been incredibly helpful for when it was ice storm legislation or helping with the schools more recently or everything in between. uh to all our town departments and
employees, the people of the the police force. Thank you for your uh citation tonight and all the the departments in town which I've worked closely whether it's DPW or the library or all of public safety and town hall and and things of
that nature. Believe me, uh the school department very honored to have worked with you to our all our town managers. I think I've worked under four three four town managers and two interims. Uh I want to give a
special thanks to the two town managers I worked with the longest who were the prior to um Kelly Laflur Krie Lafleur and Heather Lemieux. And I want to thank Jen for coming on now. Although I've
only worked with her for three months, uh because of the amount of work she's done, it's felt like lot longer than that and I know she's going to be a fantastic town manager. Uh any government is teamwork and I've
worked with some of the best in that regard. I've made so many friends from all different neighborhoods in this town covering a wide range of interests with a diversity of focuses. That has been the biggest pleasure knowing people. When I started and I first ran, nobody knew who I was. I remember taking my
lawn sign, strapping it onto my bicycle, and every weekend would ride to each neighborhood in town. And you wouldn't imagine the effect it had, but my wife and I were recently in a in a a ballroom dance class where at the end of the first meeting, someone came over to me
and said, you know, I remember you. he was in in town and he remembered me 20 years ago, 21 years ago driving by and speaking with him as he was raking his leaves in the spring. You know, that kind of effect. You have that kind of effect on people. I have many friends in
in town here uh that are in the audience that I I couldn't thank enough for being here and and uh all that they do and the dynamics that they bring to the town. Of course, most importantly, and I wouldn't be able to do
this job at all without her is my wife. Without her constant support, her encouragement, and her generous understanding, I could not have served this long. Of course, truth be told, she's the one who got me involved to
begin with. So, she everybody should know that. But there's no denying that this job entails long hours at meetings, at reading documents, preparing for meetings. If you're not at a meeting, you're preparing for a meeting. If you're prep not preparing for a meeting, you're probably at one or you're
discussing what just happened at one. So, uh that takes so much time away from family and home. and I'm not blind to the sacrifices and I thank her publicly for all of
it. It not would not have been possible without you. I love you very much. So then the last question, what now? So that is the question this Saturday I got all the time. So what are you going to do with all your free time? What are
you going to do? So, the first thing I said is like, first, let me see what it's like to have free time, and then I'll tell you. Uh, I hope the assimilation takes a little bit shorter than Mr. Franco alluded to. Uh, but the short answer is I don't know
yet, but I do know that civic engagement is and should be a lifelong engagement. It's a very big part of my life. So, I will stay engaged in one capacity or another. And as I've told members of this board and others, uh, while I'm not here, I will not be a stranger to being
there. So, I definitely intend on staying engaged. I know that Lunberg is a wonderful town. When we moved here in 1998, and I got involved a few years later, it is full of incredibly talented, spirited, and good-hearted people. Uh, and it is at a crossroads in
determining in what direction it should head. So determining that direction and getting there will need more dedicated and committed people to help guide it forward. It has been an incredible honor and privilege to be trusted with that responsibility for many years for the short term. And to conclude, I I figured
I would steal or borrow from the best and use the final sentence of Washington's farewell address of 1796. Not that I'm comparing myself or my position here to his, but just that the sentiment fully captures my own. And we
have again, Mr. Franco is our resident historian here, so he will appreciate this. I did not know you were going to be here, but he concluded his farewell address with the following. He says, "I anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat in which I promise myself to
realize the sweet enjoyment of partaking in the midst of my fellow citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a free government, the ever favorite object of my
heart, and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers. Thank you. Tom and Michael Ray, thank you both so much. I'm so grateful that I had the opportunity to work with both of you. We
have one more meeting to get through though, so we're going to carry on. So, up next, we're going to jump down to the ratification of the town manager's appointment of Brody Tapley as police officer. So, I'll invite the chief up to speak to his appointment.
Good evening again, dear Miss Warren. As you're aware, the department has an immediate opening due to retirement. We previously interviewed six candidate candidates from an opening earlier this year. From that interview process, we're able to identify an additional candidate candidate to fill the current vacancy. I
am pleased to recommend Brody Tapley for this position of student officer. Brody is a resident of Lunenburgg. Brody graduated from Lunenberg High School in 2021. Brody is currently graduated in the criminal justice program at Fitsburg
State University where he maintained a 3.01 01 GPA, which we found to be exceptional due to the fact that he was playing lacrosse, working part-time, and also had his commitments to the 4 in1 police program. Brody was an intern with the
Lunberg Police Department during his senior year at Fitchburg State. Uh we were able to get a good look at Brody's work, work ethic, and we're very pleased with what we had observed. During his internship, we actively recruited Brody to apply for the open position. Brody is
a hard worker, energetic, and a person that can be trusted. Brody was always willing to help with whatever task was presented to him during his internship, which a lot of times is cleaning, filing, everything under the sun, washing cars, you name it. But, uh, he
basically took that role and ran with it. He's a quick learner and always gives his best to compete complete a task. One story that speaks to Brody's character is during his physical abilities test, Brody had finished his mile and a half early and saw that one
of his classmates was struggling with their final lap. So, Brody ran over and completed the final lap, encouraging and helping that person to finish the lap while running alongside of them. Brody and his character are exactly the kind
of person that the Lunberg police are proud to have a part of their department. We feel very fortunate to add such a great addition to our department. Brody has completed and passed all the pre-employment requirements which includes a background
investigation, pre-employment physical, pre-employment psychological exam, and I am requesting that Brody Tapley be appointed to the position of student officer effective May 18th, 2025, the day prior to the start of his basic recruit police academy at Fitsburg State
University. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Chief. I'll open it up to any questions or comments from the board. Sure. I'll start. I was going to say, would the candidate like to introduce myself? Yeah, you can yourself. Uh, good evening everyone. My
name is Brody Tapley. I'd just like to thank the members of the select board as well as the town manager for giving me this opportunity. Uh, on another note, I'd like to extend my sincere gratitude to the Lunberg Police Department as well as my family for showing uh, continued guidance and support as I go through
this process, and I'm looking forward to serving my community. Great. Thank you. I I have no questions, but I know that this department has had an incredible uh great success in choosing candidates,
and I see from the bio that the chief just read, I I have the same hopes in you. Good luck. Thank you. Hi, Brody. Hi. Happy to hear that you're coming on board. you know being in the department previously I was in Kennedy's position
before um I left and came on this board so I am very familiar with what you might have had to do at during your internship so happy to see that that you know continuing bringing new people on board through that program you know knowing that you went through Lunberg High School you came through the internship program I think it's great so I also
want to just give that appreciation because I know it's not always easy and looking forward to you being on the team thank you Brody as uh I'm a graduate of Lunberg High School I have to say I think that Lunberg produces excellent young men and women. Uh and you
certainly are one of them. You know, I want to acknowledge a couple things. Uh you know, God certainly gave you certain gifts and talents. Um but your parents, your parents did a lot for you. Um they supported you through these years. They
guided you. I I'm I I know you cannot imagine the pride that they feel at this moment. Um seeing you getting ready to uh get sworn into being a police officer and getting appointed as one. It's quite the accomplishment. Uh keep that in mind. All those all the people who've
supported you along the way, the education that you've received. You know, something that I say to some of our new appointees, you're a young man. Uh a lot hasn't happened yet in life. You know, you haven't bought a car. I'm sure you've bought a car, but you haven't bought a house yet. You probably haven't gotten married yet. Um, a lot of
things are going to happen that are going to change you and sculpt you. In those moments, lean on your parents, lean on your friends, lean on all those people who help get you to the point you're at today, and trust that they will help you move to those next points you get to in your life. So,
congratulations. I want to welcome you aboard and uh certainly look forward to the good work you do. And by the way, my going speed limit down Lancaster Avenue is 60. So I hope not to get pulled over. I'm just kidding. No, congratulations though. Seriously, thank you. Thank you. That was a great recommendation from the
chief. And I can tell from your professional demeanor that you are going to do very well as a police officer. So I want to congratulate you and your family as well. I know you have a few family members here tonight. So congratulations. Thank you. So, I will move to ratify the town manager's appointment of student police officer
Brody Tapley effective May 18th, 2025. Second. Any additional discussion? Those in favor say I. I. I. Those opposed, no. The motion passes unanimously. Congratulations. Congratulations. Yeah, we can.
Do you want to get a picture? Yeah. All right, we'll get a picture. Do you want to take a picture with the board? Yeah. With the board. With the board. Yeah, usually. All right. Yeah. I'll um we'll go into a brief recess. We're going to take a picture and we're going to let the room clear out and then we'll resume
the meeting after that. Smile. What are we going to do without That was Yeah, I know, right? He just needs to, you know, get it all in for one last meeting.
All right, I believe we are back. I see us on the feed. So, we're going to jump down to public comment. Are there any public comments from the board? We may have gotten through all of it, but well, actually, I do have a public comment. I would like to thank uh Josie Gilchrist and the Lunberg Business Association, as
well as Angela Clement, our recreation director, and all the volunteers who made the vendor fair possible. It really was a great community event. Uh despite the rain, I would say probably around a thousand people ended up going. Uh there were a lot of great vendors, really good
entertainment, really good food trucks. Um and they had been working on that event for almost an entire year. They worked so hard to put that together. So I really want to thank them so much. It was a fantastic event. I I would second that, Mr. Chair. And I also want to the
day before you mentioned in your intro we had the Are You Smarter Than a Sixth Grader which had the best turnout ever. Uh, I want to thank the board. Uh, the Fincom, the DPW director who played on Fincom. Uh, we had the police had a had
a team, the library had a team. There were 16 teams as there as they're all aware. It was the biggest crowd. And I'm very happy to report that the the event raised over $31,000 for the for the teen center. So, I it was an incredible night. And then
to follow that with the town fair which was you know iffy because of the weather but turned out beautiful and it was another as the chair said a fabulous event. So thank you to all those people who made that possible too. Thank you. I'll echo those thanks. Unfortunately I had a funeral so I wasn't able to attend either of the events. Um but I've it's
great to hear the good turnout and I do know all the hard work that went into both of those events. All right. Any public comments from the public? Evening. Peter Beardmore, 282 Pleasant Street. Uh, here tonight speaking on my
own behalf. Um, two weeks in a row and also no gifts this week, Michael Ray or Tom, but congrat congratulations. Uh, it was uh a distinct honor and pleasure to serve with both of you over the years. And um I I appreciate all of your service and
your willingness to talk to somebody uh frequently who would call you uh with a different opinion uh from what you had communicated. Um as I am to a certain extent here tonight uh and I'm speaking on my own behalf.
Um when people refer to to Lunberg's town government, they don't refer to a mayor or a city council. They refer to a town meeting government. They don't refer to a select board or a school committee or
a finance committee or a capital planning committee. They refer to a town meeting government. Our government is enshrined in the people. And our charter is definitely revolving largely around powers that
are encapsulated and round and wound up around town meeting. and I was very concerned uh following my public comment last week. I went to a school committee meeting where we appointed a new superintendent of schools. Um but at the same
time there were both words and actions here last week that reflected what I consider to be at minimum concerning maybe even offensive if taken in their
totality relative to the role of town meeting in our government. I sat here a couple of months ago as a as a school committee member and together we decided as a school board and a select board of what
we continue considered to be the right course of action for Lunberg. But we're not the end all beall in Lunenburgg. We're elected officials. The process, the
charter enshrines certain powers to the people and things happened that I did not anticipate. The situation has changed and when the situation changes, leaders need to adapt to that
situation or they will fail. I didn't anticipate a citizen's petition. Walking into town meeting last Saturday morning, I did not anticipate that that citizens petition would pass. Looking at the people in the room, there was no concerted effort to pack the room that
day. It was not a special interest vote. The people determined that what we did last year with the special budget committee was not good enough. The people determined that we were not moving fast enough. And the people
determined that their top priority was to ensure quality education for our children. And they made an appropriation. It was not a non-binding referendum. It was an appropriation contingent upon revenue
that would next happen in an election. Now, I recognize your part, your powers as a select board, and ultimately it's your duty to determine if a special election should
occur. Reference was made tonight to Mr. Rogers in the long history that we have. I've known Mr. Alonzo since before he was on the select board the first time. In fact, I was up for appointment to the finance committee when he was
appointed to the finance committee. He was appointed over me. We go way back. Back in those days, Mr. Bulada used to say, "Let the people decide." And more often than not, he was right. There was a big issue around that time when Mr.
Bulada and Mr. Rogers opposed building a new fire station and police station, opposed a primary school, and opposed a library. They put all three on the ballot and when they passed they formed the
building committees to build those buildings having opposed them but they let the people decide. More recently Mr. Franco used to refer to himself as a radical
democratizer and I would encourage you to take a page from Mr. Franco's book. The situation has changed and the people deserve their say. Finally, the people at town meeting, present company
included, are the bench. They are the people that will run for office in the future or that you would like to to appoint to committees like the personnel board, for example, and other committees that have a long history of vacancies.
We had a town manager that served not too long ago and there was a prevailing opinion that the opinions of the people who served in a lot of appointed boards and the opinions of people at town meeting were secondary. We've done a lot over the last year plus to change that and I
credit the town manager and the previous interim town manager for changing that culture in Lunberg. But the bench has got to question, is it worth putting in the time and effort if their wishes are
going to be ignored and dismissed and referred to as non-binding and referred to as if nothing had changed because frankly it has. And I think that you as a board
need to pay more respect to that change. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Beardmore. Any other public comments from the public? Mr. Rogers, want us to give you a microphone so you can sit down? No, thank you. It's hell
to get old. Uh Karen and I wanted to come by and to extend our thanks and appreciation for all that you've done for the town and for our family um during your elected office. Uh the the
other thing that uh Michael Ray and and Tom uh wanted me to make sure uh that happened was uh we had a police officer here that was taking pictures and um they're going to be sold at
$25 each um uh and $50 if you want them autographed. And what you do is just get to me at at 82 Highlands Street in cash, please, and I will make sure that uh they're collected and and go to the
right people. So Dave Rogers, 82 Highland Street, 25 and 50. All right, that's all I have. Thank you so much for what you've done. And uh this is a a nice night.
I'm proud to say that you're my friends and I am proud the way you have worked as a team. So, thank you. Okay, 25 and thank you, Mr. Rogers. All right, any other public comments, Mr. Foil?
Mary Foil, 985 Flat Hill Road. Um, and I do appreciate outgoing people and people still on as someone in elected position. I know you can't make everyone happy. Um, and some days it feels like you don't make anyone happy, which some days I feel like then I'm doing my job. It's like being a parent. If both kids are
unhappy, then you've done your job. Um, I'm here mostly as a town's person and slightly as an employee. Um, kind of along the same thread as Mr. beard more maybe slightly different or definitely
uh a little different. I can appreciate the fiduciary responsibility that the select board has and the rules do lay out that it is up to the select board whether something goes on the ballot or not. And so I can completely appreciate that. Um, and you do have that fiduciary
responsibility. And if someone came up with a $30 million citizens petition, I'm sure people would have expected a different um, you know, they yes, you you shouldn't be putting that on the ballot. Um, where I am struggling, and again, mostly as a taxpayer, but
slightly as an employee, is that for a year, and I'll quote a famous politician right now, I'm not even sure we fully saw concepts of a plan. when we knew we were in this situation last year, we are probably in this situation next year as
well. And I I think some things are moving. And I I do know part of the reason could be we we had an interimm town manager, you know, we had that, but I'm also one who who sat through a lot of meetings last year, Vincome, some select board meetings, a lot of school committee meetings, and they did not
have their finance person at all. And I watch those people get grilled and even chastised for what they didn't have. So I think it falls a little short for me as a towns person to say well we were without when different expectations were held of different people as an employee
and and someone who has a lot of employee concerns come to you know last year I walked through who's getting cut who's not getting cut who's bumping here who's bumping there. We're walking through it again this year and for all purposes we're walking through it again
next year as well. That takes a toll on your employees. We are losing people because they don't want to go through that year in year out. We are also having people really having physical detriments to them because they're going through this turmoil. So, I cannot
stress enough how people really need to see what conversations are and what we're actually discussing about moving forward and how we have some sort of plan so they're not we're not in this time and time again. Thank you. Thank you, Mary. Any other public comments
from the public? All right, seeing none, I'm going to move on to announcements. So, as a reminder, the annual town election is this Saturday from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at TC Pacios. There are two more yard days
this Saturday, the 17th, and then Saturday the 31st. The landfill on Young's Road is open from 8:00 a.m. to 400 p.m. And the classic cruise night will be on May 21st from 4 to 8:00 p.m. on Memorial Drive down to TC Pacio.
It'll be a free event with music, food, games, and prizes. And it's hosted by the Lunberg Community Food Pantry, the Lions Club, the PTO, and the Club Teen Center. And the rain date for that is May 28th. Yeah.
Oh, okay. Thank you. All right. Communications from other boards. I'm not seeing any. So, we will jump down to a scheduled meeting and presentation that we have. We have a presentation by the Lunberg High School
cares on Lunberg trash cleanup. And this is a civics class project. So, I'll invite you guys up. We're going to get your presentation going here. Oh, sure. I have to let you in a Zoom. Hi. So, first I'm going to ask you guys
to introduce yourselves. I'm Grace. I'm Lola. I'm A. Just make sure you get closer to the microphone. Side. Yes, Grace. Okay. Sorry. Um, I'm Emma Brook.
Oh, I'm Madison Lman. I'm Ava Kelly. Lola Pavosski. Graces. All right. It's nice to meet you all. What grade are you guys in? 10th. 10th. You're sophomores. Okay. So, part of the civics class is that you guys have a project, right? You
have a final project for your class. So, what you're doing essentially is you're presenting this project that you guys have worked on. Um, I just want to say Michael Ray and I met with you guys last week and I really want to give you guys credit because you had already done pretty much all of the work before we
met with you guys. You had reached out to the police chief. You had reached out to the DPW director. You had a good idea of exactly where in town you guys were going to plan. You knew all the logistics that you had to handle. Even if you didn't have all the answers yet, you at least identified what those were.
Um, and you had, I believe, about 100 people sign up and express interest in participating in this event. Is that correct? Well, congratulations. I think that's all very exciting. So, go ahead. Don't be nervous. I know um we had a lot of people here. It was um an atypical
select board meeting. Um but we're going to pull up your presentation and then I'll uh let you guys run through your presentation real quick. Okay. So, there's a little delay on that screen, but it's up now. Um Okay. So, we are students at
Lunenburgg High School, and for our service project, our goal is to have hold a townwide cleanup on May 31st from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. We'll be going down the road surrounding the center of Lunberg and picking up trash on and on
the sides of those roads. Um, we wish to gain your support and approval to hold this event and hope that some of you would like to even attend. Um, we've decided to divide up some of the roads that we will be cleaning into six different sections.
And this will allow people to fill out a Google form to see which roads that they want to be on. We also need chaprons who are over 18 years old to supervise these sections. So, if you are interested, please reach out.
All right, great. Thank you guys so much. Um, so I did tell you guys that you might u be getting questions from the board. Um, do you want to tell us, you said you had six sections that you guys are planning? Do you want to just tell us what they are? Sure. Um, so
Turkey Hill Road, um, Chestnut Road um, until Marshall Park, um, Highland Street from Oakav intersection to the Chestnut intersection, um, the area like around the middle and high school section.
um Oakav from Highland intersection to the Northfield intersection and Northfield Road to Turkey Hill Road to where Northfield Road meets Massav. All right, great. So, just right around the center of town. Okay. And one other question I had real quick. Have you guys identified chaperones for all those six
groups yet? We haven't yet. Do you have any? We're planning to um ask around our school from teachers and stuff like that. Okay. All right. Sounds good. All right. Well, thank you guys so much. I'm going to open it up to other questions or comments from the board. Now, I have
no questions and I think it's a great program that you're putting together, a great project, and I certainly am in support of it. My only question, again, I echo uh Mr. Lonzo's points. I think it's great. Back when I was in high school, I was part of organizing a cleanup day as like part of
my NHS membership. So, um I'm glad to see it coming around again. It's always good to have the roads cleaned up. But my only question for you is if people do want to sign up or get involved, how do they do that? We have a Google form, okay, where they can sign up and pick which roads they would like to help
clean up. Okay. So, is that going to go out in like the superintendent's email blast or anything? How are you going to get that out to people? Would you like to send it to us to share? Um, sure. That'd be great. And we're also share. Yeah. Yeah. We're also planning on putting it on the Google classrooms of all the different grades in our school.
Great. Yeah. I'm sure we can we can share it as well. And I would recommend that you reach out to the superintendent to have it go out and you know the maybe the different principles newsletters that go out to the parents weekly could be a great way to get some signups as well. And good luck. I think it's a great thing. Thank you. Thank you. It was a wonderful meeting with you
guys. Uh it's good to see you in front of us today. Uh as you can see, you know, being in Lunenburgg is a good thing. You got members of the board here who graduated from Lunberg High. We appointed a police officer tonight who graduated from Lunberg High. Um we certainly uh want to support our own uh
you know the kids that come through the school system. But you know I want to acknowledge a couple good things as as the chair noted that you know you guys put a lot of leg work into this clearly a lot of thought. It's something that's important to you. You know it always so when we were meeting I was joking and commenting on how like you know young
people have good backs and I look at the trash in the side of the road but I'm like I don't know how long I can sit there and pick it up. So, it's really good, you know, in fairness that as young people that you see something in the community that you can do and that you're stepping up to try to do it. It's super exciting that you got a hundred
other students that are like excited and eager about this as well. So, you know, I want to acknowledge the work you guys have done, the fact that you've, you know, picked roads that are a little safer, they're in the middle of town, but it's also the welltraveled roads that people see all the time. And I'm hoping that as years go on that we can,
you know, with the parks commission that there can be a continued partnership with other student groups going forward. So, I fully support this. Thank you guys for working on this and being here in front of us this evening. Same, but you already know that. Um, Jen, let's let's
go through Oh, go ahead. Yeah. So, I think that this is great. I have two requests that I would like you to at least consider. The first would be if when you're done with this project, if you could kind of write uh what went
well, what didn't go great, and what you would like to know in the future, how it could be done differently because I could see other student groups kind of taking this project and running with it and growing it every year. So that kind of learning that you uh realized through
the process, I think would be helpful for additional groups. And the other request that I have is sometimes with townwide cleanup efforts, you see things on the side of the road that you don't always see when you're driving by in your car. And what I mean by that is
sometimes there's televisions or there's large tires. And so what I would respectfully request is that you make sure that your volunteers don't get a little too ambitious and start hauling things out of the woods. Don't pick up
television in bags. So, if you just want to flag if there's some large debris, but if we can keep the kids from pulling stuff out of the woods, that would be good. But congratulations. Um, and I I look forward to seeing a before and
after photo and the big pile of stuff that you guys collect. Yeah, definitely. And where are the bags going? How did how did we Yeah, I'm going to I'm going to go through all of that stuff. Um, but um you guys should be able to drop it off at the DPW building. um according to
the DPW director's email. So, uh we can make sure that all of that is coordinated. Um but before that, like I think safety is probably the most important thing, right? Um so, making sure that you guys have a chaperone for every group is absolutely critical. Um
do we need to sign liability forms at all? Is that anything? We need to sign liability forms, but if you don't have access to high visibility Oh, I was going to get the vest. Yeah. make sure that you we'll work with let us know and we'll we'll make sure that you have
those. That's the biggest roadside safety is the biggest concern here. Go ahead. And safety as well. I think it would be important that the group at least the group chaprons have a conversation about sharps and what to do. Yes. If there is a sharp on the road not to pick them up. Y right. And what's the time again? So the date
and the time one more time so that I'll let you guys go ahead. May 31st from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. All right. So, that's Saturday, May 31st from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. All right. And I will volunteer to drive around my truck and help pick up some of the trash and bring it to DPW. Fantastic. I'll be there,
too. Um, but yeah, I think the only thing um that we didn't decide on when we met was um yes, you guys will have to wear like high visibility vests. Uh we can get that from DPW. I can make sure. Um double check on that. And um we're going to want to put out probably like
some signs or like safety cones, especially in some areas uh like Northfield Road. Um I think we discussed that too. Yeah. Um other than that, I think that's pretty much it. Going to be a police detail at all or No, I don't think we need one. What do you think? Yeah, the police didn't say that they
didn't. No, as long as we have signage and that the chaperones. Maybe one maybe. I don't know. Maybe check with the chief one more time. Yeah, I know when I did it when I did it many moons ago. and the chapro. I mean, the groups need to stay pretty close as a group. So, you have a starting and end cone, I think, would be a great idea.
So, everybody works together. You don't get somebody who's like a hundred yards ahead of somebody else. I would love to see one just in case there are sharps or something that are found that need to be taken care of, you know, someone that's trained to be able to do it. Huh. A detail. Yes. I'm not saying it's mandatory. I just that's my personal
preference. Right. No, I understand. I think that's Yeah. Very reasonable. Um, okay. So, we can follow up on that. Um, any other questions, concerns? No. All right. So, I think what we're going going to do is sponsor this event. Is that how this is going to work? I think
based on their uh being students and not being able to complete our event form, then I think we do have to co-sponsor this. Co-sponsor. Okay. All right. Well, is there a motion to that effect? I would move that we co-sponsor the LHS
Cares Lunberg trash pickup on May 31st from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Second. All right. Any additional discussion? Just thought of one question and maybe I missed it, but rain. Oh, do you guys have a rain date? Um, rain or shine. Yeah, rain or shine.
Wear a jacket. That's all. Okay. All right. All those in favor say I. I. Those opposed, no. The motion passes unanimously. So, I want to thank you all again for working on this. I think it's a great idea. I look forward to attending with you guys. Thanks for attending this meeting and uh being
brave enough to present in front of us in the town. Um can you send me your sign up link? Yeah, of course. Okay. So, email that to me and then I don't know, we'll figure out all the other logistics uh heading into the event. So, thank you guys so much for coming tonight and I
hope you enjoy the rest of your night. Thank you. All right. Congratulations. Good luck with the project. Good luck and have a good night. And and the chair volunteered to write your teacher a letter to encourage that A++. Oh, sure. I'll do that. Okay. We're We've moved around so much
tonight. Where are we? Okay. So, we're down to the ratifications. Um Jen, you have so many. Do you want to do these as a slate? Yeah. Yeah, why not? All right. So, uh, we already took care of the appointment of Grody Tapley, but we have the appointment of Jared Bowser as seasonal
beach director, and I'll speak to these briefly. Uh, Logan Okonnell as executive assistant to the town manager and select board. Uh, Brian Gingris as land use manager, that's a temporary position. Casey Cory as seasonal lifeguard, and James Versoy as seasonal cemetery labor.
So, um, Jared's a returning, he's was a lifeguard for us in the past. He's obtaining his water safety instructor certificate. So, this appointment is conditioned upon his successful completion of that water safety instructor certificate that that's occurring in June. Uh Logan Okonnell is
currently serving as our uh administrative assistant to the planning um department and um so this appointment um is going to be delayed in nature to July 1st. So, I'm gonna run uh without
until July 1st so that we have the opportunity to hopefully get somebody in place over there in the meantime. Um which brings me to the next appointment, the temporary or position of land use uh
manager, not director. So this is um not the land use director functions of planning but just the uh supervisory functions over uh conservation uh building and planning as he has done
in the past during a vacancy. Uh Casey Corey is a new lifeguard and Mr. Vorsoy is a returning uh cemetery laborer. All right, any questions? I'll make the motion. All right, go ahead. Is there a motion? Yeah. I move to appoint uh to
ratify the appointment of Jared Bowser as seasonal uh beach director effective upon completion of his required training. Uh Logan Okonnell uh as executive assistant to the town manager and select board effective July the 1st. Uh Brian Gingris as land use manager. Uh
Casey Corey as seasonal lifeguard. And James Versoy as seasonal cemetery laborer. Second. Any additional discussion? Those in favor say I. I. I. Those opposed? No. The motion passes unanimously. All right. Thank you very much, Jen. And I believe Yep. Time
manager report. Okay. You have one. That's quick. Yeah. Um Okay. I just need to open it. Okay. So, the first update is that the long awaited um transition to the Munis cloud
system is happening next week. That's going to be on Thursday uh the 22nd and Friday the 23rd. What does this mean? So during this time uh residents will have access to any online um financial functions as they normally would from
home, but on Thursday the 22nd um there will be no in-person uh financial transactions in the town um due to that upgrade. So, we are going to message that information on the website and on social media starting tomorrow. Um, but
normal services will resume after the Memorial Day holiday on Tuesday, May 27th. Um, my second update is um, and I wish the PD was still here, but hopefully they'll watch this afterwards. There was
a recent arrest um for an assistant admissions director for Emanuel College in Boston who was uh charged for soliciting an underage college applicant to engage in commercial sex with him. Well, what does that have to do with the town of Lunenburgg? Uh officers Brad
McNamera and Jenna Morris played a critical role in this investigation. Um, as folks on this border are aware, but to those in the public, Officer McNamera is a highly skilled uh cyber crime investigator and he is training uh
officer Morse to do the same. And so their investigation uh was critical in bringing um the arrest of this individual. Um and so we are very fortunate to have uh folks that are trained in that skill set. It's a really niche area and a lot of cyber
crime um goes, you know, undeterred because of the length of time. So, thank you both to officer McNamera and for officer Morse. Um project updates. Uh work on that is ongoing on the town hall
town hall roof is related to T-Mobile servicing their tower. Um despite rumors to the contrary, the work is not related to the weather vein. Um, we do need to do some structural work up there that we'll need to obtain quotes for uh to see how big that is before the weather
vein goes up, but the work is on the T-Mobile tower. Unfortunately, um, the work on the kitchen at the adult activity center has been completed and the kitchen is back in use. Uh, the slate roof at the Ritter building has been completed. The chimney is currently
being rebuilt over there and they are starting to scrape um the paint on the trim. Uh we recently uh advertised a DPW support services contract. Uh bids were opened uh on May the 5th and we only received one bit, but it is our present
contractor. Um so that is good. Um and we'll be looking forward to executing a contract. Uh the crack ceiling and fog ceiling. Uh we also only received one bid. That bid was slightly higher than anticipated but within budget. Uh that
brings me to our current vacancies. So with the appointment of Mr. Okonnell, we have posted an administrative assistant for the planning department at 36 hours per week with an anticipated start date of July 1st. Uh we are scheduling interviews for
the conservation uh position uh at 10 hours per week and the various board and recording secretaries. Um we have a dietary aid at the adult activity center posted at 9 hours per week. Uh the land use director position is not yet posted
yet. Um I want to look at that a little bit more in its creation before posting that uh position. and we have several lifeguards that are in process which will be coming for appointment but they are we're no longer interviewing for that position. Uh my final announcement
because it is time is board and committee vacancies. So we have two more days um for applications to come in. uh they've been coming in, but I just want to go through and read what our vacancies and terms that are expiring
are if can bear with me. Uh folks, we have two days. We have vacancies to fill. You have heard how fulfilling service to the community is and lots of people show up and thank you when you leave. So, we have we have on the
agricultural commission one vacancy and two terms expiring. On the architectural preservation district commission, one vacancy and two terms expiring. Uh on the uh ADA, Americans with Disability Commission, uh we have
one term expiring. On conservation commission, it's a little unique because there's terms expiring, but folks are also not seeking reappointment. So, they're really vacancies. We have three terms expiring. Um and I think only one
of those is seeking reappoint. So, two vacancies really on conservation commission council on aging, we have four terms expiring. Cultural council, two vacancies and two terms expiring. Finance committee, uh we have two terms
expiring. Green communities committee, we have uh two associate member vacancies and one term expiring. Historical commission, uh two vacancies. Personnel committee, five vacancies. pack, one vacancy and one
term expiring. Uh stormwater task force, one vacancy and zoning board of appeals, we have one vacancy and three terms of expiring. So if this is a reminder that you have received an email from me and you haven't said that you're uh you're
interested in serving again, let that be your reminder. Uh otherwise, I hope that folks who are watching this might be inspired. Thank you, Jen. Any questions for the town manager? No. Thank you. All right, moving on. New
business and I'm going to throw it right back to you. Memorandum of agreement between the town of Lunenberg and the Lunberg Public Employee Committee or FY2026 Health Insurance. Yes. So, um, this is essentially a one-year extension of the current agreement, the PEC
agreement. Um, all of the member groups have met and voted as I understand. and um we'll be working with the PEC for FY27 and what that looks like, but this is just a one-year extension under the same terms and conditions. Okay, seems
pretty straightforward. Any questions? All right. Are you looking for a motion? I am to approve the memorandum agreement between the town of Lunberg and the Lunberg Public Employee Committee effective July 1st, 2025 through June
30, 2026. Okay. Is there a motion to Go ahead. Someone can just make a motion. Yeah. I I will ask is is there uh a plan to review this in its entirety deeper over the
next year? Yeah. When I when I met with uh PEC, I said that we're going to need to have conversations about what this looks like and and just with the uncontained costs right now, I I think that there's conversations expected. Okay. I don't want to speak for member
groups, but I think I think that it's expected. I don't know if that was seconded, but I I'll second it. Okay. Any additional discussion here here on uh Tom's comment? You know, I think, you know, one of the things that I think we all heard when we, you know, created the
health care system that we have in the Commonwealth was that it was going to control costs. Um, and then we have, you know, groups, uh, such as this that are trying to look at this. Then we're hearing 14% increases. And I I know that we heard the explanation that, you know, we have a aging population with
municipal employees, but it just seems that there must be a better way ahead that doesn't um give so much cost back on to the employees because it's effectively pay cuts um whenever this this kind of happens. So that's it. So, I just want to
acknowledge Tom's comment, agree with it, and just hope that there's some good energy put behind looking at alternatives. That's in the better interest of the employees. All right. Thank you. All those in favor say I. I. I. Those opposed, no. The motion passes
unanimously. All right. Moving on to discussion on bylaw review. So, it's time for periodic bylaw review according to our charter. Um, I'm just going to read through some of this. Um, the select board shall at five-year interviews and each year ending in five or in zero caused to be prepared by a special committee appointed for that
purpose a proposed revision or recotification of all bylaws of the town which shall be presented to the town meeting for reenactment at the annual town meeting in the following year, the year in which the committee is appointed. So, the bylaw review committee shall consist of the town
clerk who shall serve by virtue of office. Two persons appointed by the town moderator and two persons appointed by the select board. I'm just going to keep going just so we can talk through the whole process here. The committee in its final or in an interim report shall
include recommendations for such substantive change in town bylaws as it deems necessary or advisable. The review of town bylaws shall be in conjunction with the town council or by special counsel retained for that purpose. Subsequent to enactment by the town meeting, copies of the revised bylaws
shall be forwarded to the attorney general of the commonwealth for approval and they shall be otherwise published all as required by general laws. Copies of the revised bylaws shall be made available for distribution to the public at a charge not to exceed the actual cost per copy of reproduction. So, I
just wanted to discuss this to also get a better idea of how we've done this in the past. Um, but now that annual town meeting is over, I think we should probably kick this off. This So, the last um the last review was led by Miss Foil. I know I didn't
mention it, but and it happened to coincide with the charter process uh in which we had just completed the you did the charter review a little early if I remember correctly. Um, but this seemed to kick off in response to charterdriven changes and it incorporated a lot of
those charter driven changes. If I may, real quickly, when was the last time the charter was reviewed? Uh, that was I think we just upgraded it or modified it. I think it was accepted 2019. 2019. Yeah. Okay. 2019 or 2020. Okay.
Cuz um let's see. I started on that committee in 201 um 17 in the fall and that's was when it was created and it worked for believe two years um and it was 200 I want to say annual town meeting 2019 okay was
when those changes passed and that's when we became select board instead of board of selectmen and Mhm. So I believe it was 2019. It could have been 20. Okay, that's that's fine. Gives me a good So we are kind of in this cycle where we should just do another look. I
as I remember correctly, a couple boards weren't overly responsive um to the process. I think that uh this board had some updates that um you know, we probably could make. Um and then looking through the bylaws, uh I think I've I've
caught a couple of rather recently, a couple of gaps. Um, so it's definitely due. Okay, good to know. Um, process-wise, how do we normally handle these appointments? Do people just fill out volunteer forms and then we just appoint them that way and the town
moderator does his and Yeah, exactly. Okay, sounds pretty straightforward to me. Any other discussion on that? All right, so we can get that started. Uh, do we have to, Mr. Chair, do we need to formally move to uh create a bylaw
review committee? I think we do. Good point. Yeah, why not? Is there a motion to that effect? Uh I move for the select board to uh create a bylaw review committee consistent with the town charter. Second. Any additional discussion? Those in favor say I. I.
Those opposed, no. The motion passes unanimously. All right. Thank you very much. Old business discussion on sick leave bank policy. We're not going to discuss that tonight. Um, unless Tom or Michael Ray, you guys want to offer any uh last feedback on any of these items,
you can just interrupt me and let me know. Uh, discussion on acceptance of gift policy. We're not going to touch on that either. And then tax investigation report, I believe you have some updates on that. So, um, in light of, um, the comments that I think, uh, Mr. Lonzo made last week, I did incorporate some
of those, uh, not some of them, I think all of them, uh, into the, uh, report. So the first area um is on uh I think page let me just get to it
u page 13 um in which uh I think Mr. Lonzo asks for kind of a more expansive um statement about the mailings and what occurred with the mailings. Uh and then
the other um modification was made into the executive summary uh which pulled from the uh corrective actions that were identified by the department of revenue in terms of their directives uh to the town going forward and things that uh
they you know advised the town to correct. So those were really the substantive changes and then the other thing was the addition of uh what is uh titled here NH NBHD uh sales statistics and so this looks it's a spreadsheet
that looks at uh 2020 and 2021 sales. It breaks it down by in the tabs um by um index in terms of what was ultimately you know when we look at the LA3 LA4 reports it essentially looks uh this is
another way of looking at that data in terms of what were the sales that were used to calculate um um excuse me to calculate the uh the ratios for that year. And I think it just kind of
reinforces u I think the concept that um you know if more data was used the result um you know could have been different here. So because this is an Excel spreadsheet and it's lengthy uh it doesn't fit well into the report itself.
So I think in terms of the formatting but I think it's a vital part of the report uh and and should be part of it. Okay. Any questions, comments? I haven't had a chance to read it. Yeah, I haven't either. Yeah. Okay.
Uh just um does the report directly reference or link in some way the the sales data spreadsheet so that when if they live kind of in two different literal links they're not no there there's a reference at the very end see
the report but okay it's um separate it's a this is data so it's a set I didn't know if it was just named somehow like the data set had a name so it would be the blah blah blah like this data set so it was very clearly release pointing to it. I think the last page of it said
refer to NH. Oh, refer to the N. Okay. No, that's fine. See, attach MBHD. That's what I was Yeah, it's just my question. Thank you. And then Oh, yeah. The addition of the map that was used. Uh the only thing that I know that needs to be added to this is their
report that came from MLS um in terms of um you know what they finalized as well. Okay. I think that full report um should be added right after that map. Okay. Will we need to vote to accept this report? I'm assuming we will. You
will. Yeah. At some point. Okay. So, how do we go about Okay. I'm assuming um I if you want to do it and send it to us, I can compile it. If I can get that MLS report, I will add it in. Yeah, we have
it. I think we already have it on the town website. Yeah, I know it's somewhere. Okay. Well, we can do that and then accept it with the new board. All right. Any other discussion on this tonight? All right. Thank you for putting this
together. 56 car a seller hold. I guess I'll ask if there's any update. No. Okay. Discussion on budget task force charge. I'm not going to talk about that tonight. I will I I will want that's the only substantive comment I'm going to make now to the end of the meeting. as as I thought more and more about this
because this task force would be so charged and so heavily reliant on the data from the superintendent and the school's finance people, the town manager and our own finance people. I I'm not sure that we need a
that a task force I don't want to say we I don't not sure that a task force is needed. I I think that what we need is for this for this board to direct what data they're looking for from those two
departments and then along with the finance committee and the school committee and this board review them in joint sessions and say what you think needs to happen. That's my own opinion. overwhelmingly agree if I may. So, you
know, I was actually going to Tom, if you wouldn't have said it, you took the words out of my mouth that this is this is something I think the more I thought of this as well and even hearings from the comments tonight, this is what struck me strongly is I I think this is a select board function and I think uh
it's a school committee function and a task force to me it it removes that function maybe a little too much. I do think that it would be beneficial. I think one of the failures although it was a great effort I I don't want to say a failure I think but in a way it was I
think one of the failures was that we as a board the school committee as a board wasn't as engaged in the process and we made it a representative kind of um process and I think what we've heard back from the committee community is is well the select board said the school committee said and and it's something I
said is I never said that you know but essentially the board did and I I I think it would be the right course of action going forward for this not to be a task force and for as Tom said and I wholeheartedly agree that this is something the select board takes on in
joint session with the school committee cuz that's the only way we're getting through this. I mean, you know, we on this board our oversight is everything but education for the most part. Um, but we clearly need to work better with the school committee to figure out, you
know, they're on a 12% growth model and and they need to get off of a 12% growth model or we need to find more money for that model. And to me, it's a joint conversation that needs to be had. I think we all everyone needs to roll up their sleeves and figure this out. Go ahead. I I just want to echo I had a
conversation with me this morning um and she stated that I could share if if this topic came up. Um, so she's traveling for work. For those that don't know, um, she is of the same mind that this that the budget task force should not be recharged and that there are already
folks who are working in these different areas on their respective boards and as staff. And so that was her opinion as well. Okay. My only concern with it is that we do it that we do that we do the work right. I think I've been saying this since I
joined the board that you know a lot of communities do regular joint sessions a lot of communities have tribard sessions you know fincom school committee and select board and I think we really you know as a new board should discuss that because I think if we are going to try to do this collaboratively we have to meet regularly it's going to be
difficult I understand that but it I think I don't want to just you know disband the budget task force or not recharge it and then just continue on our our merry way the way we've been because I think then we'll be in the same position next year. Yeah, I'm confident that that's definitely not going to happen. Um I agree that
obviously, you know, staff are really going to be the driving force with putting together all these numbers. When I think of what the benefits of the budget task force are, I think it brings together people from different boards and committees and it gives them
dedicated space to talk through just the budget in, you know, a pretty lengthy amount of time, right? So if we have joint meetings, unless we separated it out from everything else that we have going on, we might not be able to pay as
much close attention to those if we had a budget task force. Um, now the cons, I also agree the select board wasn't providing any oversight, any guidance to what we expected from them. Uh, neither was the school committee. And you know, I think if we were to do it again,
that's something that we would definitely have to do is having regular updates from the budget task force. So, if we're going to do that and sort of have joint meetings with the budget task force, that's sort of bring them back into the select board anyway. I think it is beneficial maybe to just not have
that separate uh task force. So, well, it seems like everyone's sort of on the same page. We can discuss with the new board, but it seems like a standing meeting, Mr. Chair. You know, once a month may be the answer for a while. Mhm. Um that is a joint meeting, right? Yeah, that's what it is. Yeah. Yeah, I
agree. Y Okay. Well, food for thought for next week for the next board. Yes, that's next week now. All right. I don't think there's any other discussion on that. Minutes. We don't have any. Nope. Warrants. Looks like we have just one.
Yep. 8:30. That's exactly what I predicted, was it not? Yes. I must feel that. What is that? Oh, sure. Yes. Thank you. Okay. I do have a um I'm sorry. Go ahead. We haven't
gotten to it. I don't want to jump a All right. Fine. Uh so what do we have here? An accounts payable warrant in the amount of $328,59.72. And then I'm going to pass down the PC agreement as well. action items. What are you gonna say?
All right. Um I have an action item and it's um and it's to the town manager um to the town clerk. If we can um get online um the results of our elections that
happen in town and the results of what occurs at town meeting. M um you know when I was doing the um presentations for the municipal building design committee, what was really helpful was the select board Google drive in which we had the folder
of town meetings and I could go back and look at um all of the different articles that were made um and then of course my history with Lunberg Ledger that post it all. But going to the town website, it's just the information is just not there
in terms of what happens, you know. So in in total it's the booklet if the booklet that gets mailed to people's homes if that can find its way to the website and if the results which I think it's there it is there and I actually as well yeah I like that point results um
about elections there some of them are u but I think it starts like fairly recently just a couple years ago um so it's definitely not a complete history of election results aren't town meetings supposed to have minutes yes and there are no minutes okay yeah I was something I was looking for as well was minutes
and who takes the minutes. So, they're most likely all living in the annual town reports, but to have them pulled out as a standalone. Yeah, we can do that. And I want to correct what I just said. I don't want to offend anyone. There are no minutes online when you go to look underneath town meeting. I haven't looked, but I looked. Um, there
aren't there, so they probably live somewhere else. And I will just say, this is one thing actually that I was going to bring up with you at some point, Jen. Um, it's kind of buried. You can find all the booklets, and you can go pretty far back. I've I've done that. Um, but the page is like nested in a
couple different clicks. Um, and I think that unfortunately is just the format and structure of the web service that we use. I don't know if there's a way to restructure the nesting of those web pages or have like a link that's a little more direct that could say like,
you know, finance and town meeting um, documents or something like that. I'm sure there's a way to like link to I think Cara's done a pretty good job of like slowly going through the website and making some of it more accessible. I bet you she could do something to improve that point is where the document actually lives is not relevant and web
pages are just links. That's really what they are. So you can put a link to anything anywhere. Yeah, that's true. Um, no, I agree with you though. I mean, especially with like the select board, I think we we post a lot more and things are more updated now. Like we post our goals and stuff like that. Um, so I
agree. It's definitely better. Um, and my complaints kind of with like our web host server, honestly. But yeah, that's okay. All right. Committee reports. I have none. I have none. Okay. I do have one.
Um, you're going to have to bear with me as I parse through my notes. Normally, I sort of reformat these. Um, but I attended a Council on Aging meeting this morning. Uh, let's see. So, we talked about quite a few things. Um, I guess
I'll highlight a couple things. So, we discussed FY27 budget. Um, one thing that they're going to be looking to add is a program coordinator. Um, and they also want to do a change in job description. I know this has come up before. I think they decided not to and
now maybe they are again. I didn't ask, but um, they're looking to change the outreach outreach position because that position does a lot more than just outreach. So, they're looking to change that position's title and description to assistant director potentially of outreach. Um, they have, like the town
manager mentioned, a fully functional commercial kitchen now. I got a tour of it. I used to volunteer pretty regularly with the pancake breakfast. So, I have spent a lot of time in that kitchen and it is completely different now and it was just amazing to see. Um the Council
on Aging director uh discussed increases in programs that we are able to do now for a couple different reasons. Uh first of all, they had an increase in the program's budget line this year uh in the amount of $3,000. Um now that the uh meals manager
is full-time, they're able to add more programs. Um so one thing that they're doing, for example, is cooking for one classes. So for example um a man's wife may die and uh after passing away she you know was the one
that cooked and he may not know how to cook very well for himself and certainly not healthy meals. Um that was one issue that she ran into I believe at her current community and that she wants to start here which I think is a really good idea. Um and also healthy eating uh
classes so for people with diabetes and heart disease as well. Um, one thing that they also discussed was the possibility of adding a meal budget. So, seniors pay $5 right now for their lunches. Um, and they really rely on that $5 that they take in to offset
the cost of groceries. And sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. And they have to take that into consideration when they plan the types of meals that they're going to do. Uh, so if they had some money for meals, it can kind of offset that. so they wouldn't have to be too concerned about the types of meals that they want to prepare. Um they're
getting ready for a capital project for the elevator. Um so there's a lot of space upstairs, but it's not really used right now. So that would um go a long ways in making sure that all of the space in that building is actually utilized. They'd be able to bring back programs that they host right now in the
library back to the adult activity center. For example, the bereavement support group. Um Deb Lincoln and Jane Rabbit were nominated for chair and vice chair. Again, they did not vote on it, though. They were nominated and they're going to vote on those nominations at the next meeting.
and um they voted not to approve a proposal that came out of the um uh master plan uh steering committee process to convert Memorial Drive into a
town green. Um and their reasons for voting not to approve that proposal is due to the impact it would have on the access to and from the adult activity center. There are a lot of programs coming up. So, summer concerts are starting in
June. Kathy Clark has been doing uh floral arrangement classes. Um Karen Manard has been doing some sort of craft classes. I didn't get the details to that. Um they have a harbor cruise in Gloucester coming up in July. Um and they also discussed potentially moving
the band concerts to the gazebo that's um behind the adult activity center. Now, the pavilion. The pavilion. Sure. Yeah. Um because they think it would be a really good space for it. Um better than TC Pasios with the road and you know the columns there. So, we discussed
that a little bit as well. Um and they also want to look into um utilizing a web server service that they use called my senior center. Um, it has the functionality to, um, accept payments
for programs and I think that might need to be worked on with the town. Um, but it came up that it would be really helpful to be able to have that functionality. So, they're looking into that as well. I think I'm capturing most of the things that were discussed for the town band concerts. I would suggest
they reach out to Steve Arshambo, who's the band director for the band concerts. Okay. So, he can look over the space. Yep. Great. All right. Thank you. Upcoming meetings. So, this Saturday annual town
election and then we will be meeting next Tuesday with a new board. I have a question because it says event schedule. Is there a Memorial Day event? Yes. Okay. Um, it's pretty much all planned. Um, everything has fallen into place pretty much. Um, we are going to
advertise it on the website and we're going to start pushing things out. I was going to plan on starting announcements during meetings next week. Um, but yep, it's happening same time and place 10 a.m. on Memorial Day. I'm blanking on the date now. Um, what is it? Let me
look. 26th May 26th at 10:00 a.m. Um, yep. So, it's happening. If you can um once you Thank you very much, by the way, for kind of taking the lead in that. That's something that I um wanted to step back from. Uh what's helpful is um the schools when you whenever you
have whatever brochure or whatever for the schools to blast that out um and that does help with participation. Um and then of course uh the council of aging when they send their um emails out for them to or the adult activity center
rather uh for them to send a blast but the schools send that blast like everyone and and that really does help a lot. Okay, good to know. I wasn't tracking that. Thank you. Yeah, Liz can help you out with that. Yep. All right. Public comment from the public.
Any public comments on Zoom? All right. Seeing none, any public comments from the town manager? No. Any public comments from the board? Just one last final thank you both. I know we already we've already gone over it, but I miss both of you and your presence here. And hopefully I I know
Tom, you've stated you I'll see you on the other side, but hopefully Michael Ray, you don't disappear off the face of the earth either. You'll still be around. I You're welcome. And I wish you guys the best going forward, obviously. And to everybody at home, you know, I'd like to thank all of Lunberg and say, you know,
good night and good luck. Thank you. All right. I do see someone with their hand raised on Zoom, so we'll just go back to public comment from the public. John Bowen Jr., go right ahead. You're muted. I I can't hear you if you're talking.
Are you there? Can anyone hear me? Yep, we can hear you. Great. Thank you. Uh, my name John Bowen Jr. 162 Island Street. I want to begin by thanking Mr. Nozzo and Mr. Jeff for the military service to this country. I also want to
thank you all for the service you provide to this community, all of the members of the select board. Mr. Jeff and Mr. Alonzo, I know you're both leaving, but it was a pleasure to be able to speak before you. I would like to inform you that I am organizing helping the cemetery superintendent
stake flags on veterans graves for Memorial Day on Saturday the 24th at 8 a.m. at the North Cemetery. And I am looking for eight Lunberg High School students, scouts, Girl Scouts, or any other group whom are welcome, including
any adults and any um member of this board or any Oh. Oh. All right. Looks like we lost your audio, unfortunately. Well, hold on one second. Oh.
Here. Hello. Um. Go back. Take a second. You're okay. Uh, the Zoom is amazing. and you call somebody's name and they show up. I know. I was not expecting that. Um,
okay. This must be the paid edition, too. Thank you. Thank you. I would like to inform you that I am organizing helping the cemetery superintendent stake flags on veterans graves for Memorial Day on Saturday the 24th at 8:00 a.m. at the
North Cemetery. And I am looking for eight Lunberg High School students, scouts, Girl Scouts, uh, or any other group whom are welcome. including any adults and any member of this board or any other person of government who would like to help honor our veterans. I am organizing this to honor our veterans
and by organizing this event I am also participating in civic engagement which is one of the requirements for me to be able to uh attend the United States Naval Academy. This is a rubric of which the admissions office has shared with me which is only one of many rubrics.
Succeeding to uh the academy is not an easy task and I need uh the community support. I have a long road ahead of me but I am committed to this success. I recently recently spoke with Representative Scarsdale about helping me participate in state public activity
uh so that I can work towards receiving a congressional nomination for the US Naval Academy. Uh I am grateful for her support. I intend to also request the same help uh from Senator Cronin and Representative Kushik. Hopefully, this leads to my engagement with Senator
Warren, uh Senator Marky, Senator Lynch, Representative Clark, and Representative Trhan, and others. There are too many to mention, including our president of the United States, Donald Trump, our commander-in-chief of our military forces. I want to be the person that knows and understands how to reach
across the aisle. As a young Republican, I value our Constitution. I learned this from my father, John Bowen, that no matter the cost or suffering that may come with civic engagement, exercising the American dream only happens when you
participate in government. I think participation is lacking in Lunenburgg. I am a 16-year-old man who, as myself, has to make these statements to make it known to at my age. Uh uh to make a known at my age should clearly show the
uh constituency of this town that there is a problem with engagement. I am here to engage. I learned this at home. America was an idea that has manifested itself into the world's most powerful nation. We need to learn not to bicker amongst ourselves
but to open our minds to all people who have an idea or solution uh to issues affecting our local community. I love America. I am a proud American and I will uh and I promise that I will fight to protect the freedoms of all American citizens in my civic duty and in my
desire to serve the protection of our Constitution through the United States Marine Corps by way of the United States Naval Academy. I reiterate this is taught in my uh this is taught in my home and we need to teach it more in our community.
It is not about who the person is who is providing a service to our community, but whether the service provided uh makes sense to benefit our community. For even the devil has good ideas that God has chose to use. And may God bless America and may God bless Lunberg. Above
all, help me honor our soldiers with no direct political contention. My email is 2027 Johnbunenbergschools.net. and help me respect those who have fought and died for us to be free and participate in this great wonderful civic and community
activity. It has been posted in the weekly newsletter at Lunenberg High School by Principal Santry and has been posted on Facebook on a number of local groups. I would like for it to be posted on the town website with the permission of the select board and town manager
Warren. I thank you for your time. Well, thank you for organizing this and we can help you if you would like. Uh we can definitely post it on our Facebook page. Um maybe that'll help get some more volunteers. So yeah, we can do that. Appreciate that very much. I was actually going to email this information
to Mr. Warren after. Yeah, great. You actually have an email in your box when you get home. I sent you an email while you were talking. Oh, cool. All you have to do is respond. If I can I respond real quick? Yeah. I just want to say thank you for coming out and what you're organizing. I think it's great. Um, we
had some of your peers in here earlier for an event that they were um, they were working on. I think maybe taking their idea of having a Google signup that they're kind of doing. Maybe that might be helpful to you as you're blasting this information out for other students. What he knows? He knows that.
So, I just was thinking that there that idea they brought up maybe might be helpful for you too to have that sign up. You gave your email which is great, but just a just an idea. Yeah, I agree. So, in addition to posting and advertising, if you want to create like a Google form to sign up so you can track who's interested in volunteering,
um, then send that create it and then send it to us and we can post that, too. Yeah. And if you know some of the other members that maybe maybe that did it before, if you don't know how to do it, maybe they could help you. I haven't done it. Google sign up, but just Google how to make one. You can use chat GPT. Yeah. Or chat GPT. I'll say I fully
support what you're doing in honor of the placing of the flags in the cemeteries and I wish you the best in your application and your desire to get into the US Naval Academy. Thank you very much, Mr. Alonzo. Thank you, Miss Moore. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Have a good night. You too, Mr. Bowen. All right, I'm going to say this again. I don't write his speeches. Just telling you. Okay. He's top of his class at school. Um, his English teacher will tell you, "Uh, Miss
Flet, you're still here. People that know him know he's very top of his class." I just want to be saying, Name and address. I'm sorry. You should know this. John Bowen, 162 Highland Street. He's a difficult child to have. Do you understand that? when
they think on their own at 16 like that, it's extremely difficult because I'm like, he's like, I have to say something. He's like on his Zoom coming here going, "No, it's public comment. I have to make my comment now. I'm missing it." And I'm like, "Okay, well, get in." And he did it, you know, and then walked
in the door. So, I commend him for his dedication. Um, I want to begin by saying thank you, Mr. Jeff, Mr. Alonzo, for your service uh to this community. Um I know that sometimes there is points of contention uh with government and officials elected in such positions such
as yourselves. I just want to acknowledge that I believe that both of you have been very tempered very tempered and I say that kindly. I have raised a number of issues before this board and have given presentation to how best to financially
address issues, particularly the over $1 million issues that we have to honor the deceased in our community. When is it that we place cemeteries last on the list when we talk about all those people who have gone
before us that made our community what it is today? There are financial directions uh that need to be attended to uh when it comes to this uh and those that have come before us for what we presently have today. It behooves me to think that our
cemeteries are the last place when the people who lay in them are the first place. I have provided to this board a formidable plan which requires execution by a commission who wants to provide for those who have gone before and their families who deserve respect. I say this
to the town of Lunenburgg. Don't like the man, but like the plan. And what we have here in town is no plan with caring for our cemeteries and those who we so revere in this very room on these
plaques. What we have here in town is no plan for caring for these people who have gone before us. This is a sad state of affairs. No matter what we need, we cannot financially sustain or afford $1 million worth of work on cemeteries over
10 years at a roughly $100,000 a year into a capital plan to fix it. $14.36, a 2.5% increase every year with the schools and so on and so forth will not address the matters. the neglect that has occurred over the
last 40 years under the leadership of this town of the last 35 years that if you want to change it then you have to vote for change. Voting for change means changing in a direction they may be uncomfortable with. All I say is that if you want respect for your dad and for the people that have built this
community, then exercise your right and don't forget that the only way that that happens is when you vote for change for somebody who's willing to take I'm going to say it just like my president says it. No Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Bowen. All right. Any other public
comments from the public? All right. Well, I have to ask. Is there a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Second. Any additional discussion? Those in favor say I. I. Those opposed? No. It is 8:54 p.m. and the select board is
adjourned. Thank you all for joining us tonight. Tom Michael Ray, it's been a pleasure working with you. I wish you both all the best and I know I will see both of you around. So, I know this is not goodbye, but I'll see you later. Thank you. Good night, everyone.