##VIDEO ID:ENBmClqrHsI## what a pointless pointless stupid yeah they still paying Bobby Bon you're good all right good evening and welcome to tonight's meeting of the lunenberg select board today is Tuesday December 10th please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pled algi to the flag of the United States of America the repu for it stands one nation under God indivisible withy and justice for all just as a note Michael Ray is running a little late but he will be here in a couple minutes in accordance with the requirements of the open meeting law please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and broadcast live over the lunenberg public access channel on Facebook live on the public access Facebook page and will be uploaded to the lunenberg access YouTube channel after the meeting the agenda lists all the topics which may be discussed at the meeting and are those reasonably anticipated by the chair votes may be taken as a result of these discussions not all items listed May in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by the open meeting law we begin with public comment are there any public comments from the board I have a comment SL announcement um the Salvation Army is having two boot drives on Saturday um from 10 to 2 at two locations in town one in town center and one at the um CVS intersection and they are looking for uh volunteers so it's 10 to 2 so if you can volun volunteer for an hour 2 hours a whole 4 hours no matter what um if you're interested please uh contact Lynette Valentine at the Salvation Army in Fitchburg and the number there is 978 34 2 330 thanks uh along the same lines I have been told by our state representatives kushmer and Scarsdale that they will be ringing the Salvation Army bell this Saturday from 10: to 11: at Walmart lunenberg Walmart and I would love to see people come out say hi give them a chat about what's going on in the district Etc and so they can wish everybody a happy holiday all right any public comments from the public I don't see a public tonight in person or on Zoom hasn't happened in a while all right moving on to announcements I have two if you or anyone you know would like to send a letter to Santa this year you can do so by using Santa's mailbox located in the center of town Santa's mail sends your letters directly to the North Pole with sponsorship by The lunenberg Ledger letters must be in the mailbox by Monday December 16th in order to ensure response from the elves mail from the North Pole takes a while and make sure to include a return address also the pancake breakfast is back and there's a pancake breakfast tomorrow morning from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. at the lunenberg adult Activity Center they are now offering uh to go boxes so if you want you can go there and you can get a takeout box any other announcements all right Communications from other boards I don't have any I don't see anyone here none all right moving on to scheduled meetings and hearings so we did have the finance director's presentation on the fiscal year 24 yearend financial report Ezekiel is unavailable tonight so that's being postponed until next week we have no appointments tonight so we'll move right into the interim Town manager report I taped a Talk of the Town today with Chris Riley our land use administrator uh where we covered a variety of topics including the status of the master plan uh the statute on the MBTA zoning that you recently approved the Grant application for uh accessory dwelling units uh and other General topics um as of today we still await do to sign up off on the free cash but we were able to get a final tax rate set at 1436 uh we anticipate the tax bills will be mailed out mid next week we'll update uh you on that as soon as we have a a better Target date uh I met recently this past week as a result of your actions uh with the food pantry representative to work out uh their contract uh and um I did get their Redline comments when I came in this morning uh I'll hopefully be able to get that finished tomorrow uh I met with the village at flat hill representative to identify the final documents they needed to submit for processing their payment um and they did deliver those today uh electronically yesterday some physically today uh and I received uh Mr Bernard's inspection report on the project so we can get that processed with our next warrant uh I also met with the owners of the property where what I've come to call the found uh cemetery is located there on West Terrace uh to hear what their concerns were and their questions they gave me a a list of them um I'll get those pushed out to the historic commission uh and other relevant parties uh in the next day or so once we have that uh and you know some other information that they were seeking we can have the next step of the discussion they had several Alternatives they'd like to ask if we had explored or would explored I I thought it was a good conversation and uh it may need to be expanded to a neighborhood meeting um because there's some concerns from the neighbors as well but I I think it sets us on a path forward and they seem to appreciate that that we took some time to to chat with them uh hopefully uh We've set a tenative meeting with Town Council tomorrow to review the potential apdc and historic commission merger that was before you I'm trying to see if I can get the the those two chairs there uh tomorrow to have that discussion uh the library teen room contract has been executed you'll see when we get to the arpa spreadsheet little minor changes in money I think was like you know when we finally get everything assembled sometimes it's a couple thousand more couple hundred less um Town Hall roof replacement and chimney restoration contract has been issued uh we met with that contractor this morning uh he fully understands that we want the chimney does first uh we did have an interesting uh request by one commission member to actually V view the chimneys commission historical commission yes okay yeah so as long as we can get them in a boom truck that has two people fully safety harnessed with a signed release we'll we'll go ahead and let it done but if we can't do it in that very controlled manner I'm going to have to say no um but certainly if we can accommodate that we we'd like to be able to accommodate that uh the Ritter building roof contractor we met with him this morning um he is very comfortable with the scope of work that he understood the scope of the work he felt very comfortable with his estimate uh but he did um uh want to go through it one last time uh and will'll give us his final answer uh tomorrow morning um we're certainly hoping that uh the answer comes back yes given the spread on the bids that we shared with you uh the DPW for project started today uh and we expect the roof project um weather permitting of course to start next week uh our orders most all of them um have been placed at this point um there's some minor variations in pricing that you may may see as things uh move forward um little up little down uh I think we're down to about a $100,000 um contingency if you will at this point um I'm going to have to pull the capital programs for 22 and 23 because I thought like two trucks were in the same Capital year they're not so I've just got to get things lined up uh and Izzy printed out all those reports for me today so I should be able to have that done tomorrow and have have a final number for you uh next Tuesday night so you'll well as final as I can make it um we don't see any challenges with getting everything uh fully committed by the the deadline uh on the recruitment side of the house um the sewer commission's meeting tonight and uh subject to their action we have a a sewer business manager starting January 6th um and um I'm not sure if Julie pushed it out to you but I think uh we were going to push out the competencies to you all so you could see where that was was headed uh we do still have the packed videographer assistant to the Sewer business manager uh police officers though we have uh six folks set for interviews next week um and we have posted for a permanent uh Sergeant as well which will come in um mid January um hopefully be in front of you around the 21st 20th 21st of January for an effective date of uh February 1 to line up with the other resignation that we've we've told you about um we uh have a flyer that I mentioned to you uh seeking volunteers for uh various boards and commissions going into the tax bills um and and that's I didn't have an honor about when I typed that earlier today but that is mid next week at that point and I tried to make a Shameless plug during um our interview with Chris uh for volunteers for planning board master plan implementation um steering you all of the various Conservation Commission EBA uh so we try to get that public service announcement in the middle of that public service announcement of T of the town uh agricultural commission uh architectural preservation District commission uh Board of Health Conservation Commission cultural Council uh we said 208 taking the oath that may take them you know a few days to get in here to get that done combined with other uh other uh chores uh finance committee has a vacancy green communities the historical commission uh the library Board of Trustees and they're doing a lot of uh good things with the teen room and other things that they're taking uh master plan steering committee uh Personnel committee unfortunately does not have enough members to meet for a quorum so if anyone has any questions on that I know that's been topic of a lot of conversation do please uh give me a call or stop by the office or send me uh an email a pack storm water Task Force and zba and that is uh unless there's any questions what I've been up to the last couple of days thank you Carter and thank you for all the work that you've done on getting all these arpa projects moved forward I know that's spent a tremendous amount of work are there any questions for Carter um does fincom have two vacancies or no there was um there was two appointments as right but we lost three people right I'll go back and double check we lost um there was three but then you guys appointed two people recently so there should be one vacc we we we had one one woman I think might I think there might still two vacancies but I thought you guys met twice in like the past yeah to point the same person yeah one wasn't posted oh I see one meeting wasn't post my mistake sorry no that's that's fine we'll we'll I'll double check that okay any other questions yes um you mentioned about the tax bills going out yes and I know that when we had the uh report from the assessors I just want to confirm uh that to your knowledge and uh that it's been verified that we don't have any IND sees any of the indexes that we have any home types uh that are seeing a significant increase in value excuse me sign sign yes that's what I'm asking significant increase in value that would then trigger a notable increase I I'll have to get a report for you on that okay it would be helpful if we can um just have some awareness um of kind of what those outliers are I I think they can export that into an Excel spreadsheet with this year's values and next year's values uh and then should be able to run a percentage deviation for you yeah um but I I need to check on that tomorrow morning thank you I believe they provided that to us that night because they came back and ran it back up that there were no site indexes had any increases yeah but I I think that was their anecdotal report but what I'm hearing is a a request for a a paper a full paper analysis yeah it would be helpful and just it's a little Beyond what they had anecdotic said it was just it would be helpful I know that they've exported it in the past it would be helpful okay I I'll check with them tomorrow morning and see what they can do okay all right thank you Carter all right moving on to Old business up first we have annual license renewals so all fees have been paid uh lunenberg Liquors was the one that was um I guess outstanding on property bills but that was actually uh an error so they didn't owe any money at all so they're all set of as well so it looks like we are good to move forward on renewals if we are ready so what we can do is we can go through them by license type and then I'll read out each of the applicants and if any members want to hold or invite one in for an interview then you guys can say so and then we can vote to renew them in batches how does that sound sounds good all right so let's start with alcohol license renewals so I'm not going to read the whole thing I'm just going to do the doing business as and the type of license so Lake View Club General on premises all alcohol Hilltop Farms Package Store wine and malt American Graffiti restaurant all alcohol Central Mass Gardens Package Store wine and malt Embers pizzeria restaurant all alcohol Jack country variety package store all alcohol Honey Farms number 3829 Package Store wine and malt Il Forno restaurant all alcohol Asian Imperial restaurant all alcohol Bedrock Bar and Grill Restaurant all alcohol on the Rocks restaurant all alcohol Lenny Orchards Package Store wine and malt bad Larry's Restaurant all alcohol Bakers whm variety Package Store wine and malt xapa Cantina restaurant all alcohol lunenberg Liquors package store all alcohol settlers Pub General on premises all alcohol Smoke Stack roters restaurant wine and malt hord supermarket and pharmacy number 8388 package store all alcohol and Liquor Mart package store all alcohol so any issues here that anyone wants to flag all right is there a motion then move to approve all the 20125 alcohol license renewals as R second any additional discussion those in favor say I I I those oppos no the motion passes unanimously all right up next we'll do auto dealer licenses so for class one we have Colonial Imports doing business as North End Subaru North End Mazda Central Mass Powersports and deu North for class two we have Bakers Towing KB cars LLC massav Motors Inc JG service Northend Subaru RC motors KC sales and services LLC chapalain Truck Center j& Auto Sales and for class three we have chap Delane Auto Salvage any issues with any of those all right is there a motion to renew move that we renew the 2025 auto dealer renewals as red second any additional discussion those in favor say I I I those oppos no the motion passes unanimously all right common Vic we have Lake View Club Hilltop Farms American GFF graffiti white Thai Cuisine Embers Pizzeria Jack's Country variety Honey Farms number 3829 Il Forno Asian Imperial Dippin Donuts on the Rocks Lenny Orchards bad Larry's bers whum variety Presto Pizza xaba Cantina settlers Pub Smoke Stack roters and AER supermarket and pharmacy number 8388 Cherry Hill ice cream lunenberg Gulf Bedrock Bar and Grill and Liquor Mart any issues with any of those is there a motion to renew move that we renew the 2025 common vitler license renewals as red second any additional discussion those in favor say I I I I those oppose no the motion passes unanimously all right limousine license so we have First Choice limousine and Lloyd's limousine service any issue with either of those is there a motion to renew I want to comment sure I made this comment last year um about excuse me about Lloyd's I mean I'm still going to approve it this year based on how the conversation went um but I don't know um I think based on our policy you have to be licensed in our town to provide the service in our town even if you don't actually live in our town or have your business in our town so with that understanding I don't have an objection to Lloyd's limousine service okay all right is there a motion move we approve the 2025 limousine license renewals as read second any additional discussion those in favor say I I I oppose no the motion passes unanimously all right I think that's all them right M that is correct it is all right so we'll have to stay after the meeting to sign them all we won't do them now all right moving on to ARA so it sounds like we're in a pretty good spot Carter is there anything that you want to add uh we had 105,000 roughly last the end of last week with the um contracts that have come through and the final quotes uh we're at about 100,500 that'll be impacted uh by what we hear tomorrow from the uh roof contract I say roof but the roof is actually the smallest part of the job uh from the Ritter building contract uh and then making sure um that I've correctly accounted for all of the capital amounts that we're doing so I'm leaving I'm not using too much arpa money but I'm leaving enough Capital money behind for contingency I just I just want to make sure and feel comfortable that I've got all those squares lined up correctly uh and then we'll have what um what I hope will be the final report for you next Tuesday cool and I did get some statuses on some of these more recent purchases um so I updated the spreadsheet too so a lot of them Carter authorized the purchase of so some of these uh DPW equipment requests same with the fire department requests um some of them were already made like I know the Council on Aging they received their fencing that's been put up and then some of them uh Carter is going to check on in the morning just to get like a full status and we can like actually maintain this as we close this out um so like the historical society and the boys and girls club those purchases as well anything I'm missing at this point no the food pantry was um very enthusiastic and asked me to convey their deep appreciation uh for this I would say I was at a Boys and Girls Club event last night and they said the same thing so cool uh what was I just going to say I was just going to say something oh um is it possible Carter like as these are purchased and closed out can you send us updates just so we can like track this live um I'll actually have to have Izzy probably do that if you want to track them live because uh they're paid down through there so unless I get it would be duplicative but yeah we we can do something for you yeah cuz my idea is just putting this spreadsheet in next week's meeting folder like tonight and then just keeping it updated pretty much every day as as I truthfully don't anticipate many invoices through the system um by next week okay well it sounds like it's all moving along pretty well so well hopefully yeah and you want to hold off on voting on the remainder for any contingency until next week uh exactly uh because I really want to feel com comfortable with the numbers and I haven't heard from this gentleman that we met with today um everything sounded positive uh but I don't believe anything till I have ink or or DocuSign on paper yeah all right any discussion on Ara tonight yes um you know I think it's a rare occasion for I mean you know arpa funding in general the idea of the select board being able to commit $3.5 million toward anything so uh I think it would be helpful if we turned this into a newspaper ad um to um publish to the public uh where these funds have gone so that way there is awareness amongst the community um of You Know How These funds were expended uh or committed by this board and I think that uh in many ways you know not everyone watches our meetings but I know many people read The Ledger so I I think if there's a way to convert this into an ad that can somehow get out before the holiday season um that would be good cuz I think it's a lot of good stuff in here was a lot of work on a lot of people's part you know the existing members of this board prior members of this board you know our our interim Town manager the previous Town manager you know Finance director so I mean just so many hands um have been involved all of our department heads I mean so many people have touched this um and so I think that you know this is a rare occasion of such good public Goodwill um that I think it would be helpful if we published it yeah I was actually thinking something along those lines too and I wanted us to have a discussion after all was said and done about what we wanted to do um so yeah I think that's definitely a good idea because there is so much that we've done with it too and people ask me all the time where's the money gone and I try to just list off as many of them as I can think of in the moment uh so it would be nice to like have it all typed up maybe put on the website put in the paper on Facebook yeah yeah I think it' be helpy it's a great idea I'm not sure if doing it before the holidays makes sense I think i' I'd feel more comfortable waiting until everything was finalized and voted on before we we we can do a report to the community that would become part of your annual Town report and then use that for um PR purposes at the board's pleasure but I don't I I don't think I can get it done yeah maybe it's a January task but I mean I think it's a i it's a lot of things so it's probably a full page ad but yeah oh for sure yeah there's no urgency to it so you don't have to but I have to place the purchase order with The Ledger before December 31 don't worry we'll get there all right anything else we want to talk about on arpa tonight all right cool thanks again Carter review and potential vote on lunenberg Skate Park letter of support Michael Ray since you wrote this do you want to read it sure so I did uh draft it out and then I had some modifications made by um uh colleague of mine who does a lot of these grants I had mentioned previously that I I sit on a grant review board so I apologize to the board for not getting this to you sooner if there are modifications that we need to make um I can make those and then I think ideally if uh we're available to sign it uh to approve it with modifications tonight and if if there are modifications then I can print it out or uh Annie can and if we can come in and sign it this week so that way we can put it in their hands uh sooner than later that would be good but I'll go ahead and it uh so this is a letter of support for the lunberg skate park uh and it's addressed to the T-Mobile Hometown Grant Review Committee uh the lunberg select board the executive body for the town of Lunenburg is proud to support the grand application for the lunenberg skate park the concept for a skate park was born nearly 10 years ago when five students in our Middle School wanted a safe location to socialize and perfect uh their skateboarding skills due to the rural and Suburban nature of our community uh they sought to have a location near the center of our community and the school campus so that youth could participate in skateboarding activities after school hours and on weekends as Community leaders we have supported numerous fundraisers on Municipal property and Roads coordinated by these students and our community has come together to contribute over 8,454 towards this $360,000 project the lunberg skate park has a shovel ready project they have coordinated with Parks Commissioners and our facility director to plan the layout of the skate park and work through construction details with other construction professionals to modify and perfect their cost estimates although the students who initiated this project have graduated from high school and are now attending college they continue to work on this community project to ensure that future students for generations to come will have a safe location to gather with friends engage in physical activity and Advance their skateboarding skills lunberg is a town with approximately 12,000 residents where we pride ourselves in being a farming community in north central Massachusetts this skate park has become an anchor project to revitalize Marshall Park our largest community fields and this grant will provide much needed funds to bring this project into reality on behalf of the town of lunenberg we are grateful to T-Mobile for providing this Hometown Grant opportunity that supports communities such as ours with financial assistance for projects that enhance the strength of smaller communities I probably should have put towns in there uh this project has the full support of our town and then signed by the members of the board great anyone want to recommend any changes I think it's good how it is my last name is spelled incorrectly say again oh it last name is spelled incorrectly oh okay wait you're the signature line is e ends with a y not an e Oh Renee I've had your name two e this entire no first name's two EAS last yep all right so like we can make that modification all all right it's also in the top of it too yes it is yeah okay anything else no I think it it's great all right well it sounds like we're going to have to fix that anyway before we sign it so thank you how much was this grant forign so it's the T-Mobile Grant is up to $50,000 for communities and in total it's a 5-year um project um that T-Mobile's doing um again up to 50,000 per community and I think the the key thing that we were trying to hit was you know what this grant is for so we got a lot of that language replicated in this letter um if we're going to make the change to your name I I also want to make another change um which is in the end of the first paragraph um see middle of the second paragraph exes me what starts with the concept for skate park I think uh reading it alloud uh that sentence where it starts third sentence or whatever uh sought to have a location near the center of our I want to replace the community with Town yeah so I'll make that modification as well where where yep second paragraph uh it is the second sentence due to the rural and Suburban nature and just replace that uh community that says sought to have a location near the center of our community replace that with town if we're making changes anyway can you put a space after the T-Mobile Hometown Grant Review Committee yeah I was actually going to yeah that kind of bother well since we're doing that then wait wait hold on where do you right underneath the yep got here just a space Tommy had one I can't think of word I think in the beginning of the third paragraph I think first of all facility I think it's facili director yeah and I it's both capital Y and is is it the Parks Commission or the park commission it's Parks is it Parks yeah okay all right soone make those modification all right are we uh available to Ink sign this this week yes all right I can be available uh Thursday I think I can M okay Thursday is the only day I can get here within Town hours okay all right so I'll make the modification send it to Annie and then uh Annie will print it out in all right cool all right and I can relate to Anthony that it' be available any Annie's been sick the last couple days so I would suggest you send it to me please okay oh yeah I can make send it to both of us either way I want to make sure it gets printed out yeah I can do that all right cool thank you um I'm assuming you don't actually have to votee on it uh I don't as you say votes I do say that right well is there a motion I would move that we approve the lunenberg skate park letter of support with the modifications noted during our discussion second any additional discussion those in favor say I I those oppose no the motion passes unanimously thank you for writing that it's a very good letter all right review draft of cannabis Control Commission host Community agreement for Bliss cannabis this isn't available tonight um uh we had our meeting they've sent us some documents I'll be going over those with Adam tomorrow uh subject to comments that he has to make uh then we'll meet with bliss again but I do think we're still going to be our first meeting in January before we get this done I think I think we can hold to that timetable yeah because the deadline's what like February right it yeah but I'd rather be yeah earlier MH all right cool discussion on annual climate survey policy so you guys can still send me any notes or feedback that you want on this and I will compile it and put together a draft that ideally I would like to review maybe next week if possible or sometime in January um but if you guys want to if anyone wants to speak to this things that they want to see in it um we can discuss it tonight as well I think the the first uh question I have is have we hadn't me Headway and I could have missed an email on this have we had any Headway on uh s Moore's request related to the previous engagement survey I thought we had kind of wait said we were going to do this in January but am I misremembering that was ARA thought we were going to kind of put this on hold until January but maybe I was Maybe I'm Wrong yeah but tonight is going pretty quickly so people want to discuss know if they Carter or team has had time to even I I got your email with a number of documents I haven't had a chance to really look through them yet yeah CU it would be good to have that as we think about it so yeah I think the you know um I think having the outline especially if there's me if there are members who are not uh familiar uh with you know a climate or engagement survey it's always helpful to look at the existing because I think that you know one thing that I'd like to see in this policy is you know not just the schedule of when do we want this to come out you know um you know but also kind of the details of what is it that we're looking for um in in terms of uh you know so and a lot of that's answered by the questions that go out into the survey that look at a variety of different areas so you know it is helpful if we have um something to base it off of um and maybe even still if we have the communication that came from the company initially that had their list of questions because I know that in the process of doing the last engagement survey that you know they give you kind of sample questions and and they allow you know uh organizations to modify some word choices to make some changes so it might be helpful just to look at it before all those changes were made on the town side is kind of what that template looked like well my idea too in thinking of it you know what we're looking for might change year-to year so ideally it's something that like maybe the town manager drafts and then we review and maybe say hey like these are some questions that we might want to add or remove so I was thinking that the select board would also be a part of at least finalizing the survey that gets sent out to so I don't know it's just something I was thinking of yeah that might delve a little into the day-to-day side but I I I do think that you know part of the tie-in for me on this is that you know we modify and I don't think it's going to be me but it's probably be the future um future member of this board so I won't be here but um you know I think that it should be tied into um Town manager evaluation in terms of you know some of this because you know I think there's a level of inappropriateness if we go out directly and engage with department heads and ask for um meet with them and say hey what do you think about your boss um you know but I think that having a neutral survey that captures the information uh and then if we kind of pair it into somewhat of a another bulletin or or somewhat of a 360 approach to the town manager evaluation and looking at the Town manager as the head of the organization uh I think that there's potential there to have some kind of tie in but you know we have to be careful because we also don't want to create a situation in which you know the head of you know essentially our our um Town manager is run by the staff rather than the other way around so it's a little bit of a delicate balance but well there is such thing as managing up too so but yeah no I get that all right any other discussion on that tonight I would say that most of this should we have an HR person and it should go to them uh me obviously under the direction of the Town manager but that's where it should be and that's where most of the decision should be made if anything we should be able to review what they're going to do but I don't know about how much input we should have on the same note I did ask for a report from the HR Director and I realized that the time in town hall has been spent with a lot of ARA running around so with that acknowledgement I still am looking for that report come the new year uh about from somebody who deals with HR things dayto day what are the issues that are facing it not only from the employees but from the person sitting in that chair's perspective which I would imagine is part of the job description all right cool anything else you want to talk about on that tonight all right discussion on select board and to manager goal setting process any discussion on that tonight one thing that I wanted to include on this is something that I've seen other communities do which is pretty much like orderly check-ins um so one town that I kind of follow um pretty much posts them in like an Excel spreadsheet on their website and every quarter they'll have like status updates on each of their goals and I think that's like a good way to like track prog press on goals throughout the year uh so it's something that I wanted to bring up for discussion putting I'm sorry maybe I I feel like I heard you but maybe I just didn't absorb it you're saying putting this on the uh website no I'm just saying that that's what one Community does but I would at least like to have like maybe more frequent check-ins on goals throughout the year because we don't really we don't really have any of those progress reviews on goals yeah what during my um ten years's chair um one of the things that I had coordinated with our previous Town manager was bonly every other month getting an update on the capital plan it didn't always happen but uh getting an update on the capital plan and if we recall um you know I added in update on where we were at with our goals every other month I don't know if it really helped us Push It Forward um at least it was on the agenda um I mean in you know in the military which you and I can um I don't want to have a sidebar but in the military I think one of the things that I think works well in the in the officer evaluation process is that you know generally you know a senior officer you know and a brigade will say since we're using the town structure it would be like the town manager would set her goals uh first and then that would be published so that way the department heads can then set their goals um that are aligned with the top of the organization so to speak and then they also have their own and then any of their subordinates would then have goals that would support their Department had and in theory be somewhat tied into the goals of the organization that type of goal setting process though you know once you have multiple entities you know Town manager how long does it take to get goals out of us and the town manager how long is it it take department heads to do it how long is it to take you know subordinate leaders to do it that you know I think we just have to be careful that we don't create a you know four month process and uh that no one has really any time to implement you to set goals correct yeah yeah definitely but I do think an alignment of goals would be uh something that I think would be helpful because that helps you know things actually happen right and that's something that we talked about when we had our goals Workshop that was I think like one of the key reasons why we really wanted to have this policy as I did you know I did some research into this before we started this process and there are several communities that do do what you just said um in some places the individual people's goals it ties to a merit pay program so it Cascades all the way down to the employee level but starting with select board and town manager goal setting and then employees work with their managers or the department heads to set goals and it's actually tied to a tied to their pay right yeah I think that's a much longer process than what we're talking about right here I think that would be something that we'd have to really look at if we would even want to move into that kind of a Direction but that is something that some communities do which means maybe longer than 12 month goals I mean I found on this board that many of our none of I mean it's rare that our goals get accomplished a year was the M that was like three years yeah uh and so sometimes setting you know if we're going to engage in that kind of linky process then kind of lends itself to being a you know for multi-year goals yeah makes sense I think most Department I mean whether it's municipal or private sector I mean most people working in departments at whatever role should have a running list of things they need to do so the goals should be kind of self-d determinating throughout the year not like oh on this calendar time I got to come with goals like if you if you sit down and you have to think about what goals I had then you weren't doing your job the rest of the year which is pretty clear so I think we should you know make sure that people recognize that that that they should have a list of things that they're going to bring to their manager and their managers you know work cascading their way up reverse cascading their way up to the town manager uh and that's how the goals should be formulated really I mean and town manager working in the other direction should be working with the department heads all year round about what things should be on you know on the horizon that we need to be looking at so I think doing it as a point in time is one of our big biggest Challen obstacles is that we put our own obstacle in the way all right any other discussion on that tonight um to Tom's point there it is really hard when we have uh two seats on this board up and you know in the occasion where we have you know two members that join the board it it is very hard to come onto the select board and immediately jump into a goal yeah cuz like you do have to kind of it took me a little bit of time to kind of there were some things I had in my head already from day one don't get me wrong this was not the goal setting but the climate survey was one of them um you know note taking on minute taking was another but I think other than some of those like smaller things in in terms of organizational goals it is hard to see them in the first year and you know so I think it's worth having the conversation of you know does it make does it make sense to push the timeline up a little bit um and and kind of create these goals you know if they're going to be multi-year you know before an election uh so that way they carry through but then again you know it's also beneficial when people get on new boards to be able to have a voice in what the board is doing so I'm very interested in how that shakes out in conversation but I did I would like to have that discussion at some point yeah and I thought about that too um moving it forward but at the same time like you never know because a new board come in and decide actually they want something completely different and just throw out the goals anyway so yeah well to the same point I made we should have a running list of things that people can choose from if if new people want to bring up something new fine but at least there'll be something that exists already that they can look at a living document of goals are not static it's not a oneone thing no they evolve it's it's a living document I mean we generally will check in midyear not just on progress but sometimes the goals just don't make sense because something else came up that's higher priority what happened was last year so but I I I just mean outs I mean just in general in the in you know the workplace um so I think you have to have that flexibility but but it it is a good thing I think to have like a midyear checkin to evaluate that right these goals that were set to beginning of the year still make sense if they do What's the progress are there new goals or ones that need to be replaced yeah and that's sort of what I was thinking to go back to the first thing I said really I don't really think we should do it quarterly I know some communities do but just having like a midyear check-in and potential realignment of goals too could be something that's worthwhile all right I'm just writing these down so I have some notes all right cool anything else you want to talk about on that tonight um next steps on these so you mentioned that you're looking to kind of draft out the climate survey policy um are you looking for someone are you looking for a workshop to go over the goal setting process or are you looking to for that to be a draft for like how how do you what's we can keep talking about it and having discussions to talk about it more before we get to the point of a draft it's up to you guys really I mean I do agree with Mr Alonzo that I think HR needs to be involved this is really their their area of expertise this is this is this is their job MH so do we want want to maybe invite the HR Director in to discuss this when we talk about this when we set aside some time I would think that would be appropriate okay and I think it would be appropriate after we receive the report that Tom's requested provide some insight here yeah I agree with that we're talking about the climate survey one yeah we could switched back yeah I know these have been sort of together all right so I'm writing that down yeah I think that's a good idea we can invite her in and it definitely makes sense to do so after we get a report on that so cool all right thank you very much and I think that's it yep so moving on to current business first thing we have is vacating final judgment um for that land court case so we discussed this last week and we just need an updated motion which we have so is there any discussion on this or are we ready to just make the updated motion I'm fine with it okay everyone else M yeah Amanda okay I'll just make the motion then because I have it up as provided under Mass general laws chapter 60 section 69 I Caesar newo hereby move to vacate the final judgment entered on August 18th 2023 in Massachusetts land Court tax lean foreclosure case number 17 tl001 765 town of lunenberg V Joseph Edwin bronia and Kevin M bronia covering the property located at 14 Sunset Avenue L lunenberg Massachusetts assessors parcel all charges and fees associated with the Foreclosure case all taxes and interest in lie of an assessment as a result of the town's ownership all water and sewer charges incurred prior to and subsequent to the entry of the Foreclosure judgment and any costs incurred by the town while in the care custody and control of the property after the entry of the Foreclosure judgment the town must receive payment in full within 14 days starting from the day after the select board vote upon payment to the town of the full Redemption the town will take the necessary action to vacate the Foreclosure judgment and withdraw the Foreclosure case in the Massachusetts land court and issue and record an instrument of redemption second any additional discussion those in favor say I I I those oppos no the motion passes unanimously all right moving on action regarding seller hold 531 Reservoir Road and 56 car Avenue so these are properties that are entering into the foreclosure process and as I understand it there was a change in state law so the select board is now involved earlier in the process so basically we have to just decide if as the town we want to withhold these properties or if we want to sell them so hold on one second let me just switch over in the drive There's a summary to uh with both cases based on the change in law I just want to go over so under the new law on chapter 140 of the acts of 2024 which follows so if we decide munic municipality must decide either to retain possession of the property and dedicate to municipal use or sell the property one thing that's new is that the decision within 14 days after the entry of Judgment of foreclosing All rights of redemption has become final and once a decision is made foral owners must be notified that decision by certified mail and be informed of the process process for them to claim any resulting excess Equity so when a municipal municipality elects to retain the property use reasonable efforts to have an appraisal of the property to be conducted within 120 days of the Judgment becoming final unless otherwise agreed upon by the taxpayer appraisal for the highest and best use of the property as of the date of the final Judgment of foreclosure and conducted by an independent appraiser licensed in Massachusetts resulting value from this process will be used to determine whether any access Equity exists that can be claimed by the taxpayer Carter is there anything else that I should add about this just want to say that this is a fairly recent law it's still evolving in terms of our understanding of it this is our first uh dealing with this new statute uh that came out of the Supreme Court case uh Tyler versus hanapin County um which spoke to the rights of community ities to keep uh value in excess of the taxes that were owed it before you would simply decide to retain the property and that would be it um so now we need a decision earlier in the process as to whether you do want to retain the properties or you wish to sell them I saw you nodding your head is there anything that you wanted to add on that oh I you know I I as I think I've said before I follow Supreme Court I read many of their cases and I completely agreed with them on this one yeah um because it's really born from you know other other situations in which the government's able to take property from people and then hold on to the just about the full value of it and then that person you know who who maybe committed a crime and now they have their $50,000 vehicle stolen but you know at the end of the day you know or or they maybe owe $3,000 in taxes and then they get you know $400,000 in property taken and they're not owed the difference between what they owed so I I do support the effort um that's it my my only thoughts are I um if we're looking to make a decision sooner than later um if if the members have not gone out and looked at this property 56 carav has a lot of value um because it is in the uh whum area uh if we look at where uh this property is located at between electric and Hollis and near West Street so this is a wooded area of of of of property I think there's a lot of value to the community um in in holding uh these 11 acres whereas I I personally don't see the value uh in the municipality holding 531 Reservoir which is very much so settled in a residental neighborhood and and only about 1.3 Acres of property much of which is a driveway um right so all right other members what do you guys think well my first question is with the that we have to make a decis decision 14 days after the entry of judgment for closing All rights of redemption has become final has that happened already with this that's my understanding from Meen so when is our deadline that we have to make this decision uh within the next week we had this in front of you last week yeah because I don't really I mean one one of these Maps no this wasn't in front of you last apologies one of the maps that I mean the one for 531 Reservoir Road the map that's in our thing it doesn't even show the property it shows the it doesn't show you the Hammerhead part it just shows you the handle part yeah so I don't even know how much it is uh I'm also interested if we sell it especially the car Avenue one because I I can't tell its size again 11 acres 11 acres yeah okay so I I believe this was part of a potential 40b a long time ago and I'm wondering if we can if we do sell it can we put deed restrictions on you know things of that nature I don't know the answer to that question under the new law okay uh Izzy will be with us next week on several matters I believe we can table this until then okay and just as a note 531 Reservoir Road is just one acre okay but when we make I I I bring I brought this up forever that if we're going to make decisions on land I don't care whether it's a you know Verizon coming in with a new pole placement we're going to make decisions about disposition of property like I'd like to know about the property and not just have a yellow Mark diagram that has no information about it at all uh to make the decision especially something that has 14 days and you know we have seven days left I know yeah I think to Tom's point I think property cards would be helpful um and and if you know the staff uh have the ability to take any photos uh that's also helpful cuz I think you know what we want to avoid is is saying yeah from today looking at this then you get on site and realize there's you know contaminated soil and a bunch of what looks like oil barrels sitting around you know stuff like that you're probably like well I'm not touching that um so it is additional information and if we can get some clarity as well on this new law uh I I I I wasn't aware that Massachusetts responded through legislative act um so it would be helpful to understand because I mean calling a meeting takes a bit of time uh but I would presume that the expectation is that since the foreclosure process is a lengthy process that not super lengthy but it's more than 14 days that we should initiate this going forward sooner Y and to editorialize I mean I I I don't agree with my colleague I I you know it takes us a lot of time to we wait a long time to foreclose on things and to now come up with the idea that you know that all the effort I mean just the gas station was one example but other people that are in tax you know that are in tax trouble or you know owed back taxes it's generally for many years right the town this town at least I can't speak for other towns but this town is not willing to just jump in oh you missed it you missed it you owe $5 so we're going to grab your old property that's not the way it works and it takes us many years not to see that oh so after you you know basically stiff the town for all these years of taxes then if we if we foreclose a tax it now we have to pay it back so we're working as the real Turf now for the for the the delinquent taxpayers that's makes no logical sense to me now are there going to be outliers that have specific circumstances yeah so you hear those but I I don't agree with the way this has gone as far as the new law it sounds way overboard about otherwise people won't do it at all so then they'll be land that nobody does anything with and nobody gets taxes on yeah and 14 days is a really short time us to make a decision um I saw that you were looking in your computer Carter were you able to were you checking the date on that or no no okay I guess I I I was looking to see how poorly I drafted the map on um no 14 days fine for the 14 days I I don't have a problem with the 14 days because we know we're bringing something to tax title with to Tax Court land court so it doesn't come come as a surprise us we should this law would just make sure that we know what we're going to do before any decision is even made so we wouldn't even need the 14 days the fact that it's 14 days now and it's a new law there should be a grace period to say listen we would have done this months ago and you're you know now this is coming out of Christmas and it takes us you know a week we have to post in in three days and 14 days is just not going to cut it right especially for boards to meet right space you know it's it's challenging when the body that doesn't have to adhere to open meeting law re exactly don't get me started on that I'm talking about that a lot recently actually um so I'm agreeing Michael R with what you said the Reservoir Road parcel it doesn't make any sense to hold on to that we should sell that one um potentially there's value in the other one since that's a pretty big parcel um so is there any way that we can at least confirm that we're okay to hold off until next week or is that something your comment on that I'm at the Cas land Court moves I'm very comfortable all right uh this may be the one time when they move with lightning speed but yeah I'm I'm very comfortable that you have some time on this okay um and it sounded like we also wanted to just like better understand this law when when did it come down it was in the last few months right uh chapter 140 the acts of 2024 so probably June yeah okay is all right okay all right so it sounds like we're going to hold off until next week on this anything else we want to talk about on this tonight all right cool thank you all right moving on minutes warrants and action items so we do have minutes for December 19th 2023 have we all had a chance to review them yes any revisions anyone wants to make uh just one that it's again minor but in the board comments I congratulated Mario not a but Mario p and we probably should put in his last name but we can just put P okay yeah but aside from that everything was fine is from my perspective okay all right I made a note of that and I can just make sure that Annie knows about that anything else or do we want to approve them with that change I'm good I'm going to approve them all right is there a motion I move that we approve the meeting minutes of December 19 2023 second any additional discussion those just as a note again yeah I don't know what's going on with the page numbers but the page numbers go one of two and then two of two and then three of two four of two so can we like these are simple matters and they just dve me czy yep mine says one of seven all right I made a note of that too the motion was made and seconded right yes yes all right those in favor say I I I those oppos no the motion passes unanimously warrants I believe we have two we have an accounts payable warrant in the amount of 514 , 3539 Carter do you know if the invoice from my mom went in on this warrant I do not know that okay I'm not going to sign it because I believe it might have that's fine those are all the same and we have another accounts payable warrant in the amount of $1 15,480 any action items I have one um potential I said sent you an email um but there are several towns um that I know are currently looking into potentially getting a um agenda or minute software um in the municipality I work in we just did a demo today on clear gobs module for this program I don't know cost wise um but it's a really comprehensive program that can be implemented um townwide there's an unlimited amount of users that can use it you know obviously registered users for boards and committees it assists with minute and agenda creation um with our issues that we've been having um I was wondering if maybe we should look into not us as a board but maybe through the town manager whether it would be it um or through the general government budget but as we're looking at budgeting maybe potentially getting some pricing and looking at a software to help streamline that process yeah I didn't have a chance to actually look at it but like our town website I think is great but the thing that it does worse is is managing minutes and agendas it's very difficult to look through it all so it's the same company um but it's a whole different module so it takes out the agenda Center which is what is in their website now and it's a whole different module that gets embedded into the website but it's a much easier program to work in as well as um it creates all of the minutes are searchable so if someone was wanted to search for like the word truck to see when trucks were purchased um it pulls them all up it it really is a a pretty great process there's an approval process that can go through again could be totally cost prohibitive I'm not sure but might be something work worth looking at as we enter the budget season yeah I think we can at least explore it and see how much it would cost any other action items committee reports uh school committee met last week but I haven't had a chance to watch the recording yet Town manager screening committee meets tomorrow and Thursday for three interviews each day and then on Thursday I think we're supposed to stay late to discuss all of them and potentially at that meeting if we'll have a list to provide to the this board the economic development committee is still tentatively meeting next week on the 19th um a few updates on the master plan steering committee there was um some challenges last week surrounding the public meeting number five and the way that it was um not posted for the open meeting law so some of the committee members were not able to attend or were advised not to attend so they to not violate open meeting law um there was some back and forth conversation and a member resigned um because of that um I did review the recording after the meeting it looks like it was the attendance appeared low um but that is online for people to review um the master plan steering committee itself has experienced some challenges with a quorum so I know that the planning board chair is planning to review the committee structure to see what we can do to potentially maybe change that um restructuring the committee possibly to try to meet because it has been very challenging with the the makeup of the board as it is did I hear you correctly that somebody resigned because yep be because you had the meeting or because they weren't allowed to go to the meeting like um there was some people wanted the meeting because it wasn't posted as a public it wasn't posted per open meeting law but it was still because it was an information session allowed to go ahead right but there was concern that residents weren't made aware of it that it wasn't necessarily a transparent process and people asked for it to be postponed and it still went forward and there was some contentious discussion about it okay um pack so in the municipal building design committee um uh what came about and I I may have touched upon some of this last week but what came about recently and I did attend um the end of the pack meeting last week and they called a special meeting on Monday that I attended with them to go over this this was on behalf of the municipal building design committee so one of the um in in the plans for pack and the municipal building design committee um proposed for pack to be located at the TC pasal building as well as you know the voting and etc etc um and so one of the things that came about last week was that the facilities director um attended our meeting uh Municipal design committee meeting last week and vocalized concerns about the boiler system specifically at the um at the TC pass's building and whether or not it was going to get through the winter without you know significant need for repair uh you know um since then I think there's a clearer picture of what can happen but regardless that what that initiated was um pack studio is located in in the TC pel building um in the programming that the municipal building design worked on um pack was not programmed to be part of the Town Hall um meeting house renovation or Ritter or the New Town Hall um administrative offices and so there was a conversation with uh had with Pac uh about kind of what their minimum space needs um requirements are uh as well as you know we have their full space needs requirements and so one of the things that um I need to bring to the municipal building design committee and we I've already discussed with the architect we've hired is if we can pivot and integrate them into these plans uh in the scope that we provided to the architect we did provide the full assessment of space needs um and so we did capture in our RFP all the things we wanted to program and it was you know well above and beyond what we uh the finalized list that we then subsequently gave them which was just uh these three buildings uh right here in the center of town so the point being that that there's the conversations will need to be had about whether or not Pac can be accommodated um some of the challenges with Pac with their Studio space requirements are that um they really need to be they have no interest in being in this building because of the sounds that this building makes um and then they also have concerns about being collocated with you know phones ringing people talking break rooms um you know Cofe machines running so they have different sound requirements you know isolating requirements that really make them kind of a standalone um building and and not necessarily stand alone but more of an Annex on an Annex so more conversations to be had um but I just wanted to um state that you know we did have a meeting with them to go over this and and we do have that we'll we'll do our best on the municipal building design committee to try to accommodate them 300th anniversary committee met last night uh there was a lot of discussion about events and merchandise that we could do for that um it's was still technically an unofficial meeting because we were so far out uh from the actual anniversary so the first official meeting of that committee is going to be on April 28th um but the one thing that I think really should be reported is that there was a lot of discussion the committee doesn't want to be the authority over events and celebrations that happen and they really want to encourage other committees boards groups of people to plan things so they see themselves more as the committee that's going to be in charge of uh pretty much uh that's what I'm looking for uh organizing all of it uh pretty much there's another word that I'm just totally blanking on now facilitating facilitating yeah whatever um that um so other boards and committees in town should be aware that especially like the school committee and the school department we had um a history teacher teacher that was there who um is really interested in finding ways to get uh the schools involved in the celebration as well uh so they just really wanted other boards and committees and groups in town to know that they are more than welcome to but actually encouraged to plan events and celebrations too um and then I have a question on this sure but unless you were go ahead so I mean looking I think their charge um charges them to be a little bit more than um a facilitator um I understand I I think I hear what you're saying which is that they do want people to kind of take ownership of some of these activities and take priority and making sure that they happen but I mean wouldn't they be the group that then goes and does that Outreach to look for that I mean yeah they're definitely going to do a lot of Outreach and by the way the word I was looking for was coordinate somehow I blanked on that um they're definitely planning a lot of events so I think there's going to be you know no lack of events planned by that committee but I think they just also want people to know that it doesn't have to be them so if other people have ideas and they want to organize it that they're free to do so um and the one that they really talked about we also talked about Parks as well um but it's really just like the schools if the schools want to have celebrations you know they're more than welcome to do things too and it doesn't have to be the 300th committee planning everything for the schools for example inord with though course with dates and everything else yeah CU like I said there was a history teacher there last night so they definitely have that interest and they're definitely going to work with the committee but yeah it's just something that they wanted to communicate and then the Council on Aging met this morning it was a very brief meeting it was mostly a celebration party for the outgoing Council on Aging director Sue uh it went very well and I also had a chance to meet the new Council on Aging meeting Deb uh who seems to be terrific so I'm looking forward to working with her and that's pretty much it the planning board met last night I didn't have a chance to watch the meeting uh and I'm also going to be attending a Martin meeting tomorrow upcoming meeting so we're meeting next week December 17th and that will be the last meeting of 2024 the next meeting after that is going to be on January 7th public comment are there any public comments from the interim Town manager uh there are um depending upon the good work uh Wednesday night Thursday night of the Town manager screening committee uh John patran is tentatively scheduled to come before you next week um to uh provide you the information on on where all that is headed but also to ask you how you might want to proceed with your final interview uh process there are different ways to do it different communities do you know tours or department head briefings you know just the interview uh so I would would ask you to start to think about that uh so that you could provide some uh input to John and as I say it's tentatively scheduled depending upon the results of the committee's report thank you would would you like me to have the moderator here also as the chair when uh next Tuesday night with John uh I'm sure he'll be asked to do that but I will relay that to him yeah let's I just I think John probably would but if we could relay that to them I appreciate it I will do that thank you all right any public comments from the public Mr McDonald yeah good evening guys first of all I just want to say thank you uh for what you guys have been doing I know the Christmas season's getting kind of busy but I've been to a few meetings there and I have to thank pack TV for the new sound system I hope you can hear me pretty well uh it sounded pretty good the other night when I was there first thing I want to say is that I'm proud to live in a town that I have two of the most respected men that I know both have been veterans and serve this country honorably and that's uh Fred uh uh Cy and uh Mario pedicur they both turned 101 years old this week so on behalf of us we just want to wish them a happy and very happy birthday second thing is I just want to mention that Caesar Mr chair you did a great job MC in the Christmas tree lighting the other night uh there was a lot of kids were with uh uh letters and they brought them to the mailbox and I just want to find out or let you guys know that because it was such a great turnout that Santa will be at the Town Center this Saturday from 10: to noon to take photos with the children but he wants to check on that mailbox and see how it's going so we urge you to come down and see Santa at the town center from 10: to 12 the other thing is I know I want to thank some of the board members who mentioned some things as you know I'm very involved with Sav Army this year uh the need has been great we're working with a lot of organizations and I just want to thank both Chief Sully uh and the police chief tibo for they're going to be ringing the bell next Saturday at Walmart from 10 to from ex me from 9: to 11 so if you get a chance please stop over and see both Chiefs and thank them for us so other than that everything's been going good in uh uh with the donations and we just want to thank everybody in lunberg and hope everybody has a great holiday thank you guys thank you Dave and I didn't mention this earlier when I was talking about Santa's mailbox but uh a couple days ago when I was driving by I saw someone using it and then tonight when I was coming into town hall I saw someone using it again so it's there's definitely a lot of Santa um letters going to Santa this year you know Caesar I saw you pop your letter in too just to let you know so I hope you get what you want I didn't I didn't hear you he said he saw that you popped your letter in oh got my letter in how are we going to get presents from Santa if you don't get your letter I know I definitely wrote a letter to Santa too I think the deadline's coming but put you a return it's on Monday yeah so get you'll get a letter back from Santa and again thank you for all the little elves who've been doing that so together I think we're going to make lunberg a good Christmas this year so again guys thank you and God bless thank you Dave thanks Dave all right any public comment from the board just as a a followup because I was there on the tree lighting too so thank you for the job you did and thanks to the you know the the people in the band and uh Who provided the music and the and the fire department to Bringing Sanda there I would say one thing while we have $100,000 left because I have brought this up every time I've been there whether I was a chair giving the the you know thing we're just attending can we spend like $500 and get an amplified speaker system so that I didn't even know Caesar was speaking except I heard some muffled voices in the back and I was literally like 20t Away really I felt like I was like screaming I it's just it's the amplifier it's not you I mean we've all done the same thing so that wouldn't be a bad purchase I think we can find that on state bid list please you know and I say that I say that not for me but everybody around me was saying the same thing all the kids like I can't hear what he's saying it's every year and I bring it up every year so maybe before we spend that 100,000 that $100,000 maybe we spend $572 we can at least set I think Best Buy and all these things have like these karaoke machine things that have amplification that we can do yeah right works for the memorial day cuz we have the same thing where it cuts out some in the Memorial Day program be nice to have a good had audio issues all right cool who's the current owner of the system you use uh we borrow it from the school's facilities Oh I thought we got an adult Activity Center no it's from the athletic dep Department not athletic department yep all right and it's probably going to be more than if if probably if you been if you've been to New York it's probably probably Mt MTA equipment from the old Subways that's how good the sound system is so any other public comments all right is there a motion to adjourn so move second any additional discussion those in favor say I I those oppos no it is 8:17 p.m. in the select word is adjourned thank you all for tuning in tonight we'll see you next Tuesday have a good night recording stop