e public comment um we are on Zoom yes okay I just want to make a comment um addressing some of the budget concerns that have been recently brought up I'd like to thank everyone that's here for that although we do have a lot in the audience from the our
Police Department for later in the meeting but it is great to see so many residents being engaged um because of these budget decisions that impact all of us excuse me as many of you may already know I wear multiple hats in this conversation as a parent with kids in
lunberg schools a taxpayer a formal Town employee and a select board member I've seen how these budget decisions affect both town and School staff as well as residents before serving on the select board I worked as a town employee and was actively involved in budgeting Union negotiations and capital planning I've
sat on both sides of the table in these discussions and understand how difficult it is to balance Fair compensation for staff essential services and long-term Financial stability we're entering a difficult budget year and every Department including the schools is feeling the strain I also want to take a
moment to acknowledge and welcome our new town manager Jen who has been here for um I believe one week exactly today one she's stepping into a complex situation and will it will take time to address assess all of the moving pieces I know she's committed to working with all the Departments to find the best
pass forward path forward I also want to recognize the hard work that the school committee and the school administration is doing on this budget balancing the needs of the Schools staff um excuse me students staff and financial realities is no easy task and I appreciate the time and effort that has gone into this process so far
as we work through this process we need to look Beyond this year's budget to a bigger picture of our Town's long-term infrastructure needs the municipal building design committee has been working for years to address critical space and facility needs including those that directly impact our schools such as district offices and the Ace Program as
well as the upcoming closure of the TCP building which is anticipated to happen sooner than expected due to failing systems this just isn't just about municipal offices this project has direct implications for our schools as well without a plan in place we are at risk of losing critical spaces that serve our
students and staff if the TCP building closes sooner than anticipated and we don't move forward with a solution our schools will be directly impacted I understand that both the school to budget discussions and the release of the building design plan happening at the same time have caused many residents to feel overwhelmed to be clear the
school operating budget and the building project are two different funding processes any potential building projects would not come from the operating budget but would instead require approval at town meeting and be funded separately through other means this is not to say that different funding sources wouldn't impact our taxes as residents but just to reiterate
that these types of projects are not directly impa impacting the potential Cuts in the town or the school budgets I encourage everyone to stay engaged not just in school funding discussions but in the entire budget Town budget process including Capital planning staff compensation and long-term Financial stability I believe that the select
board school committee and finance committee and other Town boards are committed to working together to make informed balanced decisions that serve the whole Community while there are challenge challenges ahead I believe that by working together we can find solutions that serve both our students and our town as a whole this process isn't easy but through thoughtful
planning and open discussions it'll put us in the best possible path to move forward thank you all right I was asked this evening to read a uh Farewell Address uh from a now retired uh Sergeant
tossi good evening uh I would like to take a brief moment to address the select board and the town in the spring of 2004 Jim Marino then a sergeant came to my home looking to recruit me into the lunberg police department I was young ambitious and looking forward to
the excitement of a police career I write this letter in reflection of the past 20 years of service to the community and it conveys some final thoughts that I bid farewell to the town as a police officer we're exposed to some of the most challenging events in people's lives the tragic and traumatic
the violence the life-changing mistakes people make the opportunities they lose the birth of a new life and the loss of other lives The Times They just need a helping hand or compassionate ear comfort in a time of grief advocacy for the unable and provide stability in
times of chaos what most people don't realize is is that not only are we present for those events but we are often times solely responsible for making decisions that can drastically change the trajectory of the lives of others and of Our Own It is crucial that
police officers who excuse me are not Outsiders looking in on others but are in fact invested members of the community who recognize the impact their work can have on others and are willing to put forth great effort every day to see to it that our community is cared for looked after and protected as I
reflect back on my time here is my sincere hope that I have contributed to the betterment of our town and the families that live and work here I used to tell new officers that quote you'll spend 20 or 30 years uh handling people in crisis seeing the worst that Humanity
has to offer dealing with the Perpetual frustrations and insurmountable challenges to your safety and well-being sacrificing your time away from your own family to do so and carrying the burdens and memories of it all but you will also get only a handful of moments over that
time where you'll be positioned to take an action that could drastically improve someone's life for the better all those burdens you carry are worth it for the few moments where somebody's life is better because you were there first I would like to thank the members of the lber police department past and present
for the hard work work and dedication they put forth every day these men and women exercise professionalism dedication and courage I can attest that these officers are producing quality consistent work their investigations reports and documentation are thorough
and effective they exercise sound judgment and display a sense of commitment to the community they are versatile enough to work as both a team and individually these officers come into work with a positive attitude and have established a positive rapport with their co-workers community members and
visitors they make a recognizable effort to spend time with the residents and visitors of the town they participate in events at the Boys and Girls Club the schools and the eagle house so they can meet and interact with their patrons unbeknownst to the town many of these
officers participate in these events on their own personal time and do so because they believe it is the right thing to do officers take a moment to stop and have a friendly conversation with the public and have the initiative to introduce themselves to business owners in town these new connections
Enlighten officers to the concerns of the community and provide residents with a sense of transparency and accountability from their officers there are countless previously untold stories about how our staff has exemplified professionalism heroism and good
character even when no one is looking stories like Jeff Tibido and Josh Matthew hiring a cleaning company and furnace repair technician for an elderly man in need and paying the bills out of their own pockets they did it because the man was in need and they felt it was
the right thing to do how John Brock used his training and skills at a chaotic scene to provide life-saving medical Aid to a man stabbed in the head actions that a surgical team later stated were directly responsible for saving the man's life Shan Zer and Josh
Matthew buying toys for young siblings who are mourning the loss of their younger siblings life Gage Russell escorting a grieving Widow to the hospital and staying there with her until family arrived he did this out of compassion and knowing that she would be
all alone if he left after a late night residential Breakin an officer returned to the victim's home with tools and supplies to board up her shattered bedroom window when she had no one else to help Amanda Moore's countless hours of her free time spent coordinating and working in the Department's public
Outreach events especially those geared towards kids and families Amanda was an anchor of the department kept us all grounded focused on positivity and cohesiveness as a team after taking a call about a break-in where a young boy was heartbroken that his game console
was stolen Nick Marino drove home retrieved his own game console and gave it to the young boy Jesse Reid and robbed aosta forcing entry into the home of a person in crisis and unflinchingly applying multiple tourniquets assuredly saved the victim's life this call was on
the heels of a motor vehicle accident where Jesse Reed had applied a tourniquet to the driver's leg an action that was confirmed to be the main cause for the victim's survival when a family's home burned down at Christmas time Brad Brad mamera and cam androe
rallied against rallied almost Eerie officers uh available to go out and buy presents with their own money so the kids could have a Christmas these are just a few times when officers without recognition exemplify the mission statement to the department which is to
strive to provide the highest quality of Police Service to our community Comm members and visitors alike we believe in community policing and all the benefits that are realized from this concept we will strive to maintain the strong Partnerships that have been developed with our community and continuously look
for ways to improve that relationship I would like to congratulate acting Chief uh acting chief of police Jeff Tibido and acting Lieutenant Shan zerit on attaining your new positions of leadership both of these men have provided no less than complete dedication to our mission they
have proven themselves to be present accessible knowledgeable and communicative they both Foster a working environment of respect dignity and professionalism they provide clear goals and Direction They believe in the notion that they should earn and maintain the
trust of others they Empower their officers to do their prescribed job functions without over management and express trust in their officers judgment they consistently evaluate their staff's performance take advantage of educable moments and hold them accountable for
their actions they find Value in providing highquality realistic and relevant training that manages risk and limits ability liability to the town uh and its officers and a police organization quality leadership is Paramount to the success of the
department as a whole development of a professional working culture and the morale of the individual members over the past few years we have felt the effects of both sides of this leadership coin it is my firm belief that Chief Tibido and Lieutenant Zer will develop a working environment of mutual respect
trusted in leadership and administration open-mindedness Clarity of mission and professional decency Chief TI Tibido and and Lieutenant Zer Express empathy embrace the diversity of their staff's personalities abilities and perspectives in short Chief Tibido and Lieutenant
zerit have proven their ability to inspire their team to learn more accomplish more and become the ve the best versions of themselves and have earned the respect of all members of the department so I say now to the town of lunenberg and the Lun and the lunenberg
police department thank you I hope that I have made a positive impact in your lives in some small way and to the team at lunberg police keep up the good work stay safe and remember to take care of one another in warm regards Joshua tossi
Sergeant retired thank you the board of assessors hosted their how can we help senior tax workshop last week if you weren't able to attend the recording was uploaded to YouTube so if you missed the workshop and you'd like to get the information they shared you can find the recording over there exemptions can be filed until
April 1st and if you have any questions you can reach out to the board of assessors are there any public comments from the public oh who's going to make it first Brian Leighton 88 Beach viw Road um also the school committee chair um as
school committee chair I the school committee welcomes uh feedback and comments recommendations uh either to the superintendent to the school committee um and also at our meetings as well
um I also encourage uh members of the public to reach out to the select board as well as to our legislators uh but tonight I am speaking as a citizen um tonight I saw the agenda had the budget task force recommendation and I want to
thank you for putting that in the agenda as well as creating that task force I think it was very important uh work to be done I was able to watch many meetings um on YouTube and uh I feel like this though it's
great to have on the agenda I feel like it's a little late um I think this was very eye openening when I was watching the YouTubes when the the fire department came on and talked about the concerns that they had and I didn't even know about those until I heard it in the
meeting and I was shocked how much uh needs there are in in all the different apart departments and we even heard it last year at the budget season um and this goes way back to at at an annual town meeting when the clerk needed to get a pay raise and again we
have these concerns with our employees and we see job postings where they're non-benefit positions because the town doesn't want to pay benefits to positions so we're not posting positions that have benefits or have the hours and
job postings go on and they stay posted for a long period of time and we don't get applicants we don't get those positions filled we're underst staffed I think there needs to be action and I I hope you seriously look at every recommendation um I know Healthcare is
has been an issue that I had spoke to this committee about before um I also think that the community preservation act can bring in a lot of resour sources as well but I think you need to put it in the hands of the citizens as well so that they have the opportunity to vote for this just like this committee also
voted to put the override on the on the ballot last year uh and if it's another override so be it I think the the biggest problem is the inaction we need to take action I want to read an excerpt from the budget task for Force
recommendation the recent rate of inflation and existing needs of the Town indicate that adequate funding of the town in the absence of a proposition 2 and a half override requires a reduction in costs and or an increase in non-t tax
revenue unfortunately opportunities to reduce costs or increase Revenue are very very limited and are unlikely to generate enough money to make up for the gap between current costs and revenues
raised by property taxes it's limited by proposition 2 and A2 this is the single largest problem in lunenberg it can't be stated more than enough lunenberg needs an override and this committee this Board needs to step forward and put it on the ballot for the
town to make the vote thank you thanks Brian hello um Mandy Gilman 186 Reservoir Road um welcome Jen to lunenberg great to have you um I guess I'm back um uh last year um me and some
other citizens in town helped lead the override effort which passed and I and I haven't had a public opportunity to thank every single person who voted for the override and saved a million dollars in school funding costs um and and uh school funding you know to support our
kids you know unfortunately um I think you know we never promised that was going to fix everything and so and I think you know there's been some discussion in other public forums that I think we all agree on that that was a stop Gap measure to sort of look at and I'm happy the work of the budget task force went on over
the last year um but you know again our schools are facing unprecedented cuts and crisis again we are looking for leadership in town and collabor collaboration across selectboard and school committee members to face the you know to face this problem headon um and
you know I know that other departments last year there was some discussion that other departments are suffering as well you know there was opportunity throughout that process for others to you know spearhead and join the override last year that didn't happen um and so
you know I'm hopeful that we are looking at what those what those costs are to fill those vacancies um you know I don't want to file for another override but if we don't find a solution together and the end results is that we as a community have to to accept cutting
dozens of teachers there's 36 full uh 36 positions that are currently on the chopping block um we will have no other choice there will be that will be our only option um and given the deadlines to file warrant articles I know some of it has to do with you know hiring a new
town manager all the the change that's going on the superintendent is you know we're have a new superintendent you know I worry that we're going to make irreversible decisions in a very chaotic year um where we haven't had the time to plan I'm disappointed we haven't planned
more but I do understand why there are some factors um you know the number that the previous Town manager gave the school committee is just not enough um 36 positions cannot be cut from our school district kindergarteners cannot have 30 kids in a class it's just I I
can't even imagine being a kindergarten teacher with 30 children in the classroom as for the proposal for the new town hall practically speaking I know it's two separate pots of money and you know I will not deny that a new town hall and some new facilities are needed
um but entertaining spending $20 million while counting cutting 36 positions from the school district is something that needs to be said in the same sentence because the town hall will cost this town money and we will have to vote for a debt exclusion override I know it's a different type of override in order to
fund the town hall project lastly if I was an employee and I am not an employee of this town but if I was an employee working in positions outside of the school who you know the school people did get money last year again not enough um but you know there's a lot of people
who work here I think who probably deserve raises who deserve more positions being filled it would be great if Town Hall was open more looking those people in the face and saying we'd rather have a new building doesn't sit well with me so that's where I'm coming from I want to thank all of you for all
your work and appreciate the time thank you Mandy hi I'm Julie long um I live at 569 West Townsen Road and I have lived there for the past 13 years um Amanda I really liked your opening statement so I apologize now for any
redundancy um police officers I really appreciate you guys I think you're amazing um to get started I want to explain that I have three children um my youngest is attending LPS the other is at Turkey Hill and my oldest is at
LMS um before I before I explain why I'm here I want to first thank all of you um for all that you do on behalf of Lunenburg I grew up in Townsen and my father was heavily involved with Town politics and worked on the zoning board for many years so I have a sense of how
taxing this work is on an individual and on your family um I know it's just not easy and I appreciate all of you that being said I would like to take this opportunity to voice my concern for the lunenberg public schools as far as I'm aware the
budget that was provided um is now presenting a $3.5 million shortfall what this means for the schools at large um for the schools is that a large number of crucial staff will be cut and along with much needed programming and
supplies I know that the schools are still in the midst of producing a drafted budget but with this extreme shortfall catastrophic changes will have to be made as adults we are all here hopefully having had a good education especially having not lived through
covid as a child age student our children have proven to be quite resilient but they are the Next Generation and their ability to impact this town and the world in the future really depends a lot on the education provided to them now I do not pretend to
know all the financial needs of this town all the causes of this town are important and I am sure everyone is working hard to make sure many needs are met I ask that while the town's budgeting process is underway that everyone here really focuses not just on
one's own cause but on the overall overall well-being of this community for me in all that I have done in my adulthood my energy and passion has been focused on the well-being of children even before having my own children I've
have seen firsthand the consequences of their needs such as education having not been met children in my opinion are the most important cause please do everything in your power to make sure that the school system does not sink even more I implore you to help find a
way to let the school system not only survive but to thrive are we okay living in a community with a sunken ship are we okay accepting lunenberg as a community where our schools are at the bottom of the totem poll as far as
quality just say just staying above water is not enough I hope that all members here regardless of the department you represent interact as a whole having an understanding of everyone's needs and that you will be able to then properly prioritize the
needs of the town we cannot be self-absorbed where tunnel vision continues to Thor our ability to see ourselves as a community and I know Amanda spoke to this but you were all speaking to the collaboration piece of all this and when I'm seeing all
departments I think I expect to be to see more people representing different departments in the town and you may very well be here but I'm not familiar with everybody um but that was basically my message is just hoping that we can all come together and not be trying to meet
our needs individually if that makes any sense so thank you again for all your time and thank everybody here thank you all right Miss Hart we're going to move on to zoom now miss harp hi everyone thank you so much um so you
know sorry to interrupt if you don't mind can you just State your full name and your address at the beginning of your public comment yes uh sandria harp uh 20 Pratt Street in lunenberg Massachusetts um so once again I'm here I spoke last year at one of the various
meetings about the school budget cuts and um I'm just going to keep it short and sweet because I think the people who went before me all said it more eloquently than I had that I have that I will um but I have two students in the school system and one is a special
education student and I'm worried about how these budget cuts will affect her um you know I'm worried about which teachers are going to go and and then if pars are going to go as well um I think we need them all and I'm just concerned
and just hope that we can really come to a resolution and that's it that's all I have to say all right thank you Miss Hart Mr Bowen good evening everybody John Bowen 162 Highland Street Lunenburg um I just wanted to make
mention that I had raised this uh over the course of the last year that we're looking at five years of two and a half overrides to address matters in this town in a peac mail manner um I support what the school is
planning to do I think that the school's Direction uh has been good I can say that from personal experience my son uh transferred between five schools while he was with his mother for a number of years and uh my son is now living with me and since he's been there the people
like Josh kosal definitely needed Stacy Canfield Tim santry uh and a number of other Professionals in that school including a number of teachers my son has came to this school system last year um he's been with me now for a year and
uh he came to the school system in the last year and in the last year the end of last year he failed coming from tubry high school he failed everything up until he came here he did not do summer school he made honor roll last year he
made uh honor roll the uh High honors the first half of this year and he's special honors second half of this term rather um I just wanted to make mention that like I said I said that we're going to be having five years of overrides why because after a conversation that I had
with Ezekiel with regard to the number of different things that are happening in this town with how these volunteers handle the management of the money on their boards how this town has failed to be able to take care of their infrastructure particularly their buildings and everything else and we
came up with a number actually I gave him the number that if every registered voter every property owner here and business every property owner and business pays $1,386
33 Okay in the next fiscal year for the year we will bring in 6,238 485 and this discussion about overrides will cease and we will have a surplus in addition to the 25 million that we
already have which will bring us up to about 8 half million worth of money to be able to address matters take Loans pay interest okay which will also assist us this CPA thing that you have going on
here which I think is a Democrat joke okay uh the reality is sell some property sell some property select board let's put some property out there let's sell some property if you owe money on taxes on your property you work for the city you shouldn't be working for the
city the town okay and there are people in this town who work for this town who owe 81 $15,000 on their property taxes and I don't see them paying their property taxes and I don't see the assessors taking action that being said I think
that the proper direction and I'd be willing to put it up I'd be willing to put up extra taxes for the amount of money that I had just mentioned 1,386 33 for the next fiscal year as an override payment taken quarterly to be
able to generate $ 6,238 485 plus the 2 and a half million that we have we will be set in motion to not do an override the following year to be able to address municiple building issues to be able to address School
issues not lay anybody off at school and take care of our business that's my recommendation you can take that how you want that's the conversation that I had but you know what I heard somebody at one point in time I think it was Evan Waters he said when he was on the
finance committee that oh well we're an affluent Town well then let's start acting like one put your money people where your mouth is and I also want to say that I think that if we do hold a vote for an override that this board
votes to close the door on town meeting that you come to town meeting when it starts you vote and you don't leave till we're done there is no more what this lady organized last year to bring people in only when the vote came up while they
all texted and people use their little clickers and share them with other people and that needs to stop because that is not democratic government okay that is one group of people taking advantage of the voting rights of the people of this home rule uh town and
that I suggest be done you come in you show up the doors are closed and you stay five 6 8 hours if you want what you want cuz that's what it looked like last year at Town Meeting thank you all right
thank you Mr Bowen Mrs Lockwood okay well thank you on the Lockwood 91 Main Street um uh I you know uh I heard a lot of comments tonight um I will not address last uh gentlemen and
I apologize um I'm not not in person because I have the flu um so you know we are that lunenberg is a good community and is a community that look watch out for each other
um and I think there's always many needs and as a community we always need to speak as a community um it's not about one thing it's not about the other I think it's about working together um I do have a lot of questions about
the school budget the process um uh that they got to it I mean we are February um almost mid-February and U and the budget presented in the last school committee meeting is one that could have been
presented a month or two before um and we could have be talking about the needs of an adjustments that needs to be have to that budget you know one or two months ago what I find interesting is that
presenting the raw budget from the the superintendent that it was presented last week the way it was presented has allowed no feedback from the school committee and what that leads to is you
know as Mr Peter Mort spoke last week said we need to do a lot of work we need to look into these things so I ask the members of the school um community and all citizens to actually go through this
process it is unfortunate that the school committee does not have a time a budget timeline like the town does because if you know and you know you can't quite be part of every committee
but you know when a superintendent is presenting a budget that is that is like 12% deficit from levels from the expected 2.66 service or 2.5 service in
February um when most of the expenses came in and could have been said could have been had predicted at this level in December there is nothing on that budget that I saw since all the negotiation with the teachers and all everything
else happened before the the new year that budget could have been presented much earlier which then would allow for the school committee to actually do their job which for example on their
budget meeting last week they said you know we have had High School classes running with five kids so like we are paying you know when you think of service level you're like you're servicing five kids at the same
level you're servicing 30 kids and I kind of understand that at as value and you know and I'm a fan personally speaking I'm a fan of classical education which is you teach kids the basic and you allow them to learn to take interest in what they would like to
learn and explore what they'd like to learn that is so much you can do on that but on the basic level like like even if that is not what you believe you know if we are PL paying the same service level to service five kids versus 32 kids that
is a big gap there that the school committee needs to do a job on that there is uh Sports uh that we're offering on that and and I'm just saying that maybe that 3 million 3 million plus
dollars that uh was presented as a deficit last week it's not really that 3 million I think we need to allow the school committee to do their job um and it's very unfortunate that the current School dministration uh the school
superintendent and her team only brought that into the school committee attention on in the beginning of February when there is nothing that I know of outside the insurance which you know Excel is a great tool I know we could do much we
can do so much better with a lot of tools but you know there is so much you can do with just like literally you can do the same work with lotus one 123 but you know I think there's a lot of work that we need to do I supported the last
um override uh my family supported the last override I know it passed with a little over 100 votes um I'll tell you four votes came from these from 91 Main Street and we're
strong believer in schools um but be present with this in in February it's like we can do better than this on the flip side I I urge everyone to think of you know the long-term cost the the
primary building we lost it was it it is heartbreaking as a historical brething building that was a a high school at some point it became the primary scho primary school and it was a beautiful architectural building that we lost
because we took no action and then we are going through the same thing with the TCP building and we are talking now and we are taking actions on the the activating most of that building and again these are all buildings that have
fed at some point historically speaking into the history of our town and now you know when there's actual of of you know doing a maintenance and an upgrade into two historical buildings
in town we get people saying this is not important like I dare anyone who thinks that we don't need to do this to actually ask Kath harck for tour of her
office and her as the official Record Keeper of the town to show for her to show you all how correct record keeping is happening it is insane so you would not allow that to happen in the building
if that was the school building so you know like before we throw stones we like kind should like make sure we know to do that so anyway so I think the town needs to you know take a deep breath before
Stu start throwing stones on each other and and that's not my goal but I am calling on a lot of people to actually do a more tral job and into their functions I know these are volunteers I'm a volunteer in tal as well but you
know you're volunteering but we have standards for you and and the school committee to be presented with the three plus million dollars deficit this late in the game it's kind of you know yes to
say the least so and I know Mr chair this has been more than 3 minutes but uh I appreciate you appreciate you know the time and sorry I'm not there to give you all my facial expressions um you know I'm just battling the flu so thank you
um have a good night all right thank you all for your public comments tonight we're going to jump down to appointments ratification and resignations and we have two appointments tonight we have the ratification of the Town manager's appointment of police officer Christopher berson effective February
24th 2025 and the ratification of the Town manager's appointment of police officer Jacob lechance to Sergeant effect of February 12th 2025 thank you members of the board Tom manager I am pleased to recom recommend candidate Christopher burgon for an
appointment to the position of full-time police officer Chris completed the Wista Police Academy in 2014 Chris has been a full-time police police officer with the hubberston police department since 2014 Chris has successfully completed all the pre-employment qualifications Chris is
also certified police officer by Massachusetts post commission Chris is a resident of lunenberg and has a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Anna Maria College and has also obtained a master's degree in criminal justice from Anam Maria college
graduated in 2016 through his background investigation it was found that Chris is a very dedicated honest and hardworking individual with a strong work ethic through the conversations I have had with Chris I found him to be professional honest and knowledgeable
about policing I've spoken with Chris and I believe he will be a good addition to the lunenberg police department and the community I'm pleased to present Christopher burgon as a candidate for full-time police officer and thank you for my consideration thank you you can do the other one too if you
want do them both I'm pleased to recommend officer jakeob L chance for the position of Sergeant uh Jake has been with the lunenberg police department since 2014 Jake was hired first as a Reserve officer and then
hired full-time and completed the Massachusetts State Police Academy in 2018 Jake has a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Fitchburg State University graduated in 2012 Jake has spent time in many roles in the lunenberg police department at as field
training Officer accident uh reconstruction officer taser instructor and recently in assigned as the uh traffic officer for the Department Jake has also been an instructor with the Boon police academy and served as an assistant football coach with lunberg
high school for 10 years I worked with Jake throughout his entire career with the lunberg police department and I have personally supervised him during his traffic officer assignments I found Jake to be a hardworking self-motivated and devoted employee of the department the
task that Jake has been given as traffic officer included writing grants securing uh radar and speed measurement equipment for the town Jake has also conducted complex accident reconstructions and coordinated traffic studies and data which are used to address traffic
related issues uh all with minimal supervision by me Jake took on all these ATT tasks and excelled at them Jake's consistency and dedication to the community and the department along with the knowledge and work experience have prepared them to be
a supervisor I would like to recommend Jake for the position of Sergeant for the lunenberg police department thank you all right any questions or comments from the board I if we can hear from uh oh sure if you two would like to speak man he already has the posture down
yeah good evening so I would just like to thank you guys for this opportunity I look forward to meeting everyone and getting to know them so thank you that was pretty good that was pretty good um howdy I'm Jacob L chance I just
want to thank my friends family co-workers that all came out to support me today I'm very grateful for this opportunity and I hope that all my brothers and sisters will continue to provide the best service for this community that deserve they
deserve thank you any questions for me I have to imagine your parents are here they are they are just right in the back row the thank you thank you um Chris I have do you go by Chris or Christopher I haven't had a chance to work with you obviously but looking forward to you know having you on the
team um if you don't know I was a previous employee of the department um so welcome thank you and Jake uh from riding the bus together and back in you know Elementary School I'm really proud of you um you know I was there when you got promoted full-time and you know I
think you're going to be a great addition to the Command Staff and looking forward to the different skills you bring to the department thank you very much I appreciate that um first I want to thank you and the rest of the officers and Department here for their service and congratulate
both of you um yeah I think that's all I have to say thank you I think I had the fortunate uh circumstance of waiting for election results one year with you for hours and uh you know I think we
struck up a conversation and and it was certainly really good I I know you have The Misfortune of um of being called Jake from All State or what is he from Scott and that's the other one you're called from time to time from uh right from the Bruins am I getting that
right y anyway um no I want to obviously it's been a pleasure working with you over these years certainly you're well qualified for the role uh I think it just it speaks to the high quality first of uh of student that comes out of our school system I think it speaks to the quality of
training uh that comes from the police department to observe officers grow uh and and certainly officer or Sergeant now the chance I think this is going to be to your credit and the credit of course of your family and all those who've supported you along the way thank
you very much and to Chris as our newest member usually when we have like younger appointees I have a lot more to say um but someone who's been on the force for over 10 years you know you certainly you know like I said you have the posture and that's usually a good sign is having
that presence in the room but you're joining a great team um you know working underneath chief chief tibo working underneath Lieutenant Zer um I think lunenberg is our shining all departments in lunenberg are great um but I think the lunberg police department certainly
uh stands out as our our I think the best example of what we can be uh as a community so welcome a board thank you congratulations to both of you welcome aboard Chris thank you for wanting to work for the town as as well um and since we have like half of the department here thank you for all that
you do you were much appreciated and also thank you for your patience today I know it took a while to get to this point so thank you for sitting through all of our public comments all right Jen is there anything you'd like to add yes so first of all Chris to you um thank you for joining I look forward to
working with you uh thank you to the town of hubberston for training you and letting us take you uh from them uh to your family thank you for your support I know um in this profession the support of family members cannot be
overstated um Jake I haven't met you yet but I think that the uh the remarks from Chief Tibido speak to your um contribution to the department so congratulations on the welld deserved promotion and congratulations to your
family as well and the fact that it is after hours and that many members of the department are here on their own time to support the strength of the department just shows what a true Community we have within the police force so I look forward to working with all of you but
especially this is your night tonight so congratulations to you both thank you very much thanks Jen I will move okay I will move to ratify the town manager's appointment of police officer Christopher berson effective February 24th 2025 and the town manager's
appointment of police officer Jacob lechance to Sergeant effective February 12th 2025 second any additional discussion those in favor say I I those oppose no the motion passes unanimously congratulations
[Applause] congratulations yep we'll take pictures okay all right thank you all right we're going to let the room clear out and I did skip over announcements and Communications from
other boards so we'll do that real quick before we get to the public hearing I don't have any announcements does I don't have any announcements no no all right and Communications from other boards I don't believe well we had one during public comment I think that's it
yeah to give my report yeah sure let's let's go down to the town manager [Applause] report okay so thank you Mr chairman um I have some project updates uh for the community the library team room
expansion is currently in phase one two new offices are constructed and are being painted now uh the trim and doors still need to be installed uh but phase two the team room expansion is expected to begin this week this project that part of the project will take about
about 3 weeks and the children's story craft room is scheduled for replacement this Friday um the team room is temporarily closed as we announced last meeting but teens are invited to hang out in the cafe area and in the seating area of the library's main hall and the young adult book collection is available
upon request um regarding this building and the uh roof repairs and chimney restoration the weather has continued to be difficult uh one chimney is almost complete and uh they're going to be beginning work on the second chimney and then moving over to the Ritter building
for the remainder of the work I have a couple of General updates um the past week I've been focusing largely on the budget in town meeting but we have been notified by the department of telecommunications and cable that our uh cable TV license with Comcast is set to
expire on February 29th 2028 and while that sounds like a lot of time um Federal Law requires that the community go through what's called the ascertainment process which is the formal renewal of the cable license that process typically takes about 3 years uh
to go through um so this was going to be coming to the board for a future agenda item to discuss how we want to proceed many communities stand up a community but a committee but that's certainly the pleasure of the board um in addition uh
for in Regional dispatch last week the administrative Board of the nooba Valley Regional dispatch District voted to allow the town of Hudson to join the district um both Chief Sullivan and interim Chief Tibido were in support of this addition um I did rely on their
opinion heavily and casting my vote um in the short term with the addition of Hudson uh this will decrease slightly our overall assessment um and and I think that there's going to be some continuing conversations about the future of the district um as we proceed
but right now Hudson um their call volume um they'll now take the number one spot for call volume and lunenberg will drop to number two so um it I think that this is a positive for for lunenberg our current vacancies uh the
assistant to the Sewer business manager 19 hours per week um that is in process so we do have some applicants um as we know the the permanent police chief uh position has been posted that has now closed applications are all in that have
been the deadline was yesterday so now the screening committee will start to review and we'll discuss the process going forward I don't even know how many applicants would received at this point um but we'll report on that in the future we have a seasonal lifeguard
position for up to 40 hours a week a seasonal Beach director for up to 40 hours a week um so those are our current recruitments I have a couple of Grant announcements which is always positive news um the DPW received a massot grant
in the amount of $219536 and the fire department received uh from the state the firefighter safety Grant in the amount of Maya our insurance agency's Wellness grant for another year of the healthy snack program which I know many
employees benefit from and enjoy greatly so thank you to Maya and thank you for uh all the work of the department heads in um working on obtaining those Grant funds and we continue to have vacancies on boards committees and commissions um
I'm not going to run through the whole list but if you're interested in talking to about service to the community we will fit you in somewhere so please complete an application and that concludes my manager's Report with any questions for the town manager I I have
one um can you remind me who's on the screening committee for the police chief do you know let me try off the top of my head so uh Chief Sullivan yeah uh the senior center director uh the superintendent um
there is a uh Chief from another Community there is a town manager from another Community myself and I think that's it I think so too is that it okay thank you yep all right any other questions all right thank you Jen all right we will
move on to our public hearing for a class 2 auto dealer license at 40 Summer Street and I'll will ask the clerk to read the public hearing notice if I can find it I will read it got it
the licensing Authority will hold a public hearing on Tuesday February 11th 2025 at 7:05 um at Town Hall 17 Main Street second floor lunberg at Massachusetts on the application submitted by I don't know how to pronounce your name I'm so sorry about
that um glassio Bueno de Olivera uh 3600 Mystic Valley Parkway apartment 811 medf for Massachusetts 02155 DBA web Motors Group Inc for a class 2 auto dealer license the license is to be
exercised at the premises located at 40 Summer Street the applicant seeks to store and display 50 used vehicle motor vehicles for sale proposed hours of operation are from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 [Music] p.m. Sunday 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. or
by appointment only all right thank you all right can you both state your names and your addresses please yeah uh my name is GL buenoa Brazil I meet 38 years old I live in Medford 36
3600 M MSY valy Park meder okay thank you and you're the applicant correct what is it you're the applicant yes okay and your name uh have question I I bring for my the the guys for helping me translation because Eng is a little bit
that's okay uh my name is William vien uh my address is 1184 Mary Street Elizabeth New Jersey okay and what is your relation to the applicant I'm just helping him with the translation of your questions were you hired do you know him or the business yeah I know I know him
yeah I'm not hire I know him he's my friend friend okay thank you welcome all right if you don't mind can you just speak a little bit about your background experience uh any businesses that you've operated and just walk us through your application
[Music] okay okay right do you mind if he speaks in Portuguese and I translate for you that's totally fine okay he's an entrepreneur and he has a degree a bachelor degree in uh business administration six year six years of
experience with the car dealership [Music] okay yeah he's been selling selling cars and dealing with cars for the past six years no and that'll be all yeah his experience M okay can you just talk about this application what you want to
do with this business just yeah I I Street okay he submitted a application to sell uh 40 cars and uh on the last meeting uh they agreed uh with the number of 30 cars and
yeah the the business hours you guys just said uh in the beginning uh so that's that's accurate that's what he's saying right now Monday to Friday 9 to 7 Saturday uh 10 to
5 Sunday closed and also working with appointments okay is there anything else you'd like to add about your application or your background before I open it up to questions from the board no no yeah he's good you guys can all right all right thank you I'll open it
up to the board for any questions sure I'll start um how many um how many dealerships or other um do you currently own how many uh he he owns yeah currently are does he are you currently in business somewhere else doing the
same dealership no he doesn't have any all right and um and that's the bigger question is and so he's also neither a Treasurer a principal no part ownership in any other dealership or any
other car license anyway no manager he was a general manager in another store and he worked like selling cars for another dealerships but never being a partner or being owner of any
other dealership all right and what about a manager was he a manager of any other dealerships manager yeah manager yeah he was okay thank you you're welcome R remand do you guys have questions
yet haven't we had a similar application in the past is this we did for the same address yeah yes I'm sorry I didn't get question name does same applicant no
PD going to be giving a presentation they will yep yep but for now we're just asking questions of the applicant himself I don't have any questions until we move further at this um you want to I'd go to the PD and then we okay we'll come back all right so
thank you we don't have any other questions right now we may have questions for you after after uh the public hearing okay good okay thank you so much all right Officer Hill I believe you want to come up good afternoon everybody officer Hill
lunenberg PD in relation to this application I just wanted to speak about an investigation I had uh once this application was submitted to the town sorry I have a lot of paperwork so we might have to go over anything there's a lot of stuff I'm going to go over I have copies of most of it about
half a dozen copies for um any relevant information I would actually recommend when I get to it that we that I do give you guys those copies uh to start though on January 6th of this year I was working a uniform 7 to3 shift I was advised by Chief tibo
that he had received an email from Ann Aubrey of the Town manager's office in relation to documents submitted to a for a class two dealers license for 40 Summer Street shortly after I arrived at Town Hall and spoke with an who showed me paperwork submitted by glassel Bueno de
olera on behalf of his LLC web Motors Inc which is registered out of 40 Summer Street in lunenberg while going over the paperwork with an she advised she was given two separate shy bonds each for $25,000 uh for those who don't know what
that is it is effectively malpractice insurance but for the car world and by Mass General law you do need a25 bond to make any victims of malpractice whole um an in her normal duties uh spoke to
both companies Travelers and Western charity uh Travelers was able to advise them that they were had an active bond to web Motors but while speaking with Western shity advised that the bond that she had
in her hand was not a legitimate Bond and was instead registered to a Dosa Motors LLC out of lemonster to a different dealership I was able to speak with Western shy uh through email and by phone I was able to advise them what I
had in my hand similar to what an had in her hand um explained to them what I was looking at I was told by them that they had an entirely different document in their system I sent them the document and it was advised by them that it was fraudulent and changed uh altered and
that they could send me the actual copy um and I think if I could give that to you guys I think that's important as well may I yes you may this one there's seven copies is the one submitted to the town and this is
the Western Shir T1 yes correct Yep this is the one that was actually in the western Char system okay not so this one was submitted to the town this one was actually an the assistant correct let's make good you said there's seven cofes
correct yeah all right you can keep going okay you're going to pass I am yep so if you look at the first page you'll notice that the copy submitted to the town is only two pages whereas the
actual document given by Western sh is three pages um but we'll start with the first page that was submitted to the town if you look at the first page you will see six fillable spots in the document Mr would you mind giving us a moment yeah sorry I'm going to out real
quick that's the same writeing them down all three pages is what and what je no Rene I have two pages Amanda do you have two I have a three page all right hold on I'm going to give her my three page both here's another three
page now you have one of both all right let's just reorient ourselves to this again there's one with two pages and there's one with three pages right correct two pages was the the actual document submitted there was about 50 pages of total documents submitted to
the town but when it comes to the Western shity Bond those two two page ones were the ones submitted to the town the three-page one was the one that was an actual Western charity document good yes continue so if you look at the first page on both bonds
both the once admitted to the town and the legitimate one you'll see there were six fillable spots in a PDF style document um that would be the bond number the effective date for the bond coverage name of the company secured by the bond location of business secured by
the bond date signed by the bond company in an additional spot again for the name of business secured by the bond once I was able to go over both I noticed a lot of discrepancies the first one the bond number uh 6716
6839 uh is the same on both documents that is how I was able to figure out Western sh's actual Bond number uh the second one the effective date if you look in the original document it is August 20th 2024 if you look at the effective date
on the altered document submitted to the town it would be October 1st 2024 uh going down slightly you'll see the name of this company actually secured by the bond Itself by Western charity in the original document to be Dosa Motors Inc out of lemonster and if you look at the name of company secured
by Bond on the document submitted to the town it would be web Motors Inc going a little bit down after that you'll see the location of business secured by the bond itself the original Bond had 728 Central Street lemonster the original location of Dosa Motors and
you will see in the document submitted to the town location of business secured by bond to be 40 Summer Street in lunberg similarly to the second one the effective date you'll see the date of signature by shy company to be August 19th originally and secondly submitted
October 1st again once again the additional spot for the name of business is again Dosa Motors Inc in the original and web Motors Group Inc um just as a quick summary of that out of the six possible spots where document uh documentation could have
been changed five of them were the only one not being Chang the actual Bond number if you go to the second page there's again two fillable spots in the document uh that will be name of location of employee for Western charity
that's the person actually granting the bond uh type of business being secured by Bond the bond number the company name dollar amount secured the date the corporate seal of Western shity was actually affixed and stamped to the document and the date the document was
completed in front of a notary public after I was able to look at all that you'll see that the first three are the same I'll briefly go over those um name and location of employee for Western charity for both uh our Larry
Casten of Falls South Dakota uh being the vice president of the company uh under that you'll see that in both bonds the type of business being secured by this bond is a secondhand Motor Vehicle Dealer and once again similar to the first page you'll see the
bond number staying the same after that you will see about halfway down the company name and dollar amount secured in the original document is dossa Motors Inc you'll see in the documents sub mid to the town it is web Motors Group Inc um the date the corporate seal of
Western shity was actually stamped on the document by Western shity you will see in the original document to be August 19th 24 whereas in the one submitt of the town again October 1st 24 lastly you will see the date that the document itself was completed in front
of a notary public again to be August 19th for the original date and October 1st for the actual date submitted to the town upon full review of the second page out of the six possible spots where documentation could have been changed
three were changed to different information uh briefly speaking on the third page if you scroll to the third page on that second packet the one that was uh legitimate Western shity Bond you'll see it's a very quick synopsis of um the company insuring it the company
being insured the bond number again and the amount of Premium being paid by this company every month $250 for the premium uh there was no page three submitted by uh by glassel so in out of the first two pages just to reiterate eight out of 12
sections that could have been changed were changed 2/3 I have one more thing to give you guys this one should be a little easier to pass out I apologize it's all right think again seven copies I label
them on the top left Page 1 through and this is the town of lunenberg business identity yes so out of the said about 48 to 50 pages I believe submitted to the town originally two of which were those two Bond documents we went over page one and two
these are other documents in the application itself that I think are also relevant so if we could skip page one I think um that might that is best for last if we could start on page two through 4 so page 2 3 and
four on the submitted document you were looking at titled business entity summary as well as a similar document under it for page 2 3 and four glossi appears as all four positions in the business that's president treasurer secretary and director leaving sole
power of the LLC to glossl and showing glossal should know all documents submitted and their validity to the town if you would go to the final page page five on the submitted form a license to buy sell exchange and assemble secondhand Motor Vehicles or
parts thereof glossal once again is noted as the president secretary and Treasurer all three possible uh spots on the page showing glassel should know again all documents submitted in their validity and if we can go back to page one which I believe is the most
important on the the document town of lunberg business identity certificate glossal appeared in front of Ellen Griffin notary public and verified through his Massachusetts driver's license made oath you'll be able to see that in the last major paragraph on the
bottom made oath that the forgoing statements are true that was also submitted in this document um as of right now this is a ongoing investigation um but as of right now that is what I have to present to the town all right thank you officer Hill
are there any questions for officer Hill I do um officer Hill are you aware of or can you speak to any relationship between the business owner that is listed I guess a few different entities the one that's listed on the Bond as
well as if there's any connection with the prior business owner of this property that you're aware of yes there is a few so if I could start with Dasa Motors um I can only some things are also still open investigations I could say that Dosa Motors um when speaking with
Western shity the actual owner of DSA motors which is where the original document came from to a Tatiana olera who is associated with the former business conglomerate uh Maxi Auto at 40 Summer Street I could also say that I
have seen um one of the other gentleman um Sydney Fernandez dusza who also is a part of the conglomerate of Maxi AO um to have been at 40 Summer Street with Mr Ola during my routine
patrols all right I have one more question um regarding the lemonster location do you have any knowledge whether that it business is operating or this Bond was to my knowledge it was um it was shut down by the city of lemonster and then just one question
real quick what what did you say you want the timeline say through you do you remember roughly when you saw Mr Fernandez at this location no ma'am I could I could ballpark it for two to three months ago okay um but I wouldn't be able to give an exact date
unfortunately sorry oh that's it those are all the questions I had for now and this is an ongoing investigation you said correct for 40 Summer Street yes and the lemonster Daw motor Association I'm I'm not sure on the lemonster one that' be a different right but I thought
you said there was so it to my knowledge Dosa Motors has already been shut down MH um or rather denied uh ability to even start by the city of lemonster um but I'm not sure if if it's an ongoing investigation or if
it's done Michael R no questions all right I don't have any questions for you either officer Hill thank you thank you all right before we go back to the applicant this is a public hearing so I want to ask there are any other members of the public who would like to comment at this
time all right seeing none the applicant if you'd like to come back up I'm sorry I can't tell if there was someone in the public who was raising their hand and there is I apologize someone in the public would like to speak so we'll come back to you you can stay there for a
second but just FYI all right Mr Bowen go ahead uh hello John Bowen 162 Highland Street so I've been watching this situation since I believe it was September uh sometime last year uh with
the other and previous owner and the reports that were made uh with regard to um that particular individual being stripped from having RMV uh plates and so on and so forth as a result of um failing to follow certain process um
what I'm looking at here and uh this is either no for or against whatever decision the board decides to make tonight but what I'm looking at here is is I'm looking at an individual who's trying to open a business and trying to separate himself from all the other
issues that the officer brought up uh the the company dasi Motors um the documentation which um I know he affixed his signature to it um that can be corrected in testimony uh um and and you know as well as you know the additional
documentation uh that's being presented so I'm neither for nor against what's happening here but I think that the board really needs to look at is ask the question does this man want to have nothing to do with the former Macky
Motors dosi Motors and all these other people and is he totally separated from them personally uh to having any kind of uh uh business to be done in lunenberg and if that's the case then I think that
the fair application for this board to look at would be is this man trying to operate a business maybe was Bamboozled because I know Mr Jeff you said something at one point in time to this gentleman uh at a hearing back uh back
last year that it looked like he fell into a situation where somebody else knew more than he was and was trying to take advantage of them and I think that this board really needs to have to remember that in doing that the police did not say there are any charges pending against Mr olera there are no
charges pending against dosi Motors there are no charges pending against macki Motors but there are the last I heard charges pending against the former owner of maias which is the Tatiana uh uh folks I I can't remember the last name off hand okay but I think
that this board really needs to look at that and whether or not this gentleman is trying to separate himself maybe H made some paper errors qualify whether or not the document that was presented and edited came from DOI Motors or came from the Tatiana people
and he just submitted it inadvertently trying to get this done and trying to follow the process he's here with no representation of an attorney and he should be given the benefit of the doubt as low he was a prosay litigant in court where there should be a little leeway and understanding trying to help find
out what the issues are to be able to assist the person and being able to form a direction for where they want to be in town uh because from the presentation from the police department it just sounds Wicked scathing and one-sided and the key Mr B I just want to remind you
that you've taken a lot of time if you want to just WRA up your comment but I thank you for your participation thank you yep was that it sorry I didn't hear the end of that no that's it yeah no no thank you very much I I didn't thank you very much for me that thank you Mr Bowen
all right so if you'd like to come back up I have a question go ahead so what we just heard from the lber police department uh was that uh we received that you in your application
packet um provided uh I'm going to hand it to uh this form do you recall doing that no I muted no no he doesn't recall you you don't recall doing that no okay
thank you I think that um what we will find in fact um is that the um Communications that our office received um was in fact this form um and uh you know we didn't just make this
up right and we had to get it from somewhere um and it's certainly favorable to your business but you don't recall ever seeing this form you don't recall it line Travelers inclusive plus security Bond direct what is this actually is the is the bond yes the
Western shy Bond so he's saying that he did uh the bond online and that's why he's telling me right now so he doesn't quite remember about this document but he said that he did everything online and he has the name name of the company which is
Travelers is the name of the company that he did the bond uh and everything's fine everything jump in with a question here were you the only one that worked on this application packet that was submitted see yeah he was the only only
one applying online okay for the the bond sure I'm talking about specifically all of that as well but also who specifically submitted the application packet to our office because we've received two
applications go ahead go ahead sorry good you can translate that first the application he said he he he sent himself okay so you sent both of the applications then yes okay yeah he he he said he did the
application by himself but he doesn't recall that specific document and he's saying that he appli for the bond which with with this company online that's what he's saying all right you can continue with your questions yep uh may I ask officer Hill a
question do you need to do it right now um for clarity it would be helpful which is the question is how did this if he's aware of how U this came into our possession okay if you don't mind I'm going to ask officer Hill to come back up and then we'll get back to you after
that question okay yes sir could you repeat the question y the question is uh for the initial bond that uh you indicated appears to be um manipulated uh do you are you aware of how it came into the possession of the town of lunenberg yes it was submitted
in the original Class 2 license application and submitted to um an Aubrey with the town hall do you know if that was emailed or hand delivered I'm not sure okay thank you all right you can come back up
now unfortunately for me this is really straightforward um you know the burden of proof in this case is um right preponderance of the evidence right I mean that's generally what I think our
goal is here is to give you reasonable um is to be reasonable and say you know more likely than not is kind of the standard and and you know and that's kind of what it is right I don't know if you if you're following me
on this um in this case what you have is you have a police officer who has met a much higher burden which is beyond a reasonable doubt uh there is no question in anyone's mind I'm sure here and maybe we can do it but there's no question
that this Western shity company bond that we're looking at um is a fraudulent document I mean that's beyond a reasonable doubt that that has been pretty clearly established tonight um given the test C that indicates that the
company provided um the correct bond with the correct same number it's pretty self-evident as you look at this the areas that have been changed comparing them to the original they're very clearly manipulated
um yep yeah if I'll stop there if you want to translate you can go ahead so I I don't know if there's much more to talk about here tonight I mean I I think that when you submit fraudulent documents to request a license uh the answer is no I
mean it's pretty straightforward but I think we have to still formally take a vote but that's where I'm at no way all right any other questions from the other members I don't have any other questions U my feelings are the same yep Renee no
questions okay all right all right I don't have any other questions so thank you can he ask something yes okay yeah he's trying to digest what you guys said because he's been waiting for like the five the past five months uh uh
paying all the bills and uh waiting you know to get approved but like you guys said you guys um uh have this document which as you said suggest that it's fraudulent so he he he just W to
understand uh why you know but yeah there's no more explan uh thank you guys I agree thank you thank you for your time all right it doesn't sound like it but I just want to confirm you can sit down now thanks just want to confirm is there any
more information that the board wants in this process all right is there a motion to close the evidentiary portion of the hearing so moved second any additional discussion those in favor say I I I those oppose no motion passes and we can
now discuss and make a decision would you like for me to make the motion it sounds like we have the decision already anything else that anyone wants to say at this point do you have any add uh just that any motion be in the positive positive I know I was going to say and then and then allow the
discussion to form from there all right yep is there a motion how do you positively move to approve for discussion purposes you move to approve I move to approve for I move to approve uh I I'll just word it that way um I moved to approve the let me get the um
Class 2 auto dealer license at 40 Stone Street to glosso buen day Ola doing business as web Motors Group Inc second any additional discussion yes um you know I I think that all
business owners first um people make mistakes when it comes to paperwork um that's normal and I think that in the course of um actions that people should be provided with a fair opportunity um to correct um errors in this case this
does not appear to be an error it appears to be a very deliberate um misrepresentation of a financial document um multiple times over um while in the submission to a government entity
uh to request a license I'm not sure of how many uh crimes were violated um but I think that what we heard tonight was that the applicant should have known uh that the information was false that they PR presented um you know in ter I
don't want to get too heavy into elements of crimes here but I think that the police department established that there should have been Awareness on the part of the applicant to take responsibility for the accuracy of all documentation that was provided um being
the sole owner Treasurer president everything for the company uh acknowledged that they provided uh the documentation so there was uh awareness of the ACT uh there was the act itself um and I think it's it's self-evident u
based on Communications and conversations in the course of the police investigation that the actual document was provided uh when comparing the two to each other I don't think we need to be experts to identify um what appears to be clear manipulation um
unfortunately uh if there our action here tonight is only on the license but I certainly hope that um we need to discourage other applicants from engaging in this kind of criminal activity um in the future all right any other
discussion those in favor say I those oppose no no no the motion fails 4 to Zer all right glad we got that correctly so Mr chairman through you to the applicant um the office will reduce the
decision to writing and mail that via regular and certified mail to the applicant so they will receive a formal decision and and now you can fully close the public hearing all right thank you Jen thank you very much for coming in tonight uh is there a motion to close the public hearing would you like to
summarize for the applicant that essentially this is a denial just to be clear yes this was a denial of your application sorry to convey that to you uh like the town manager just said they will will send you an official notice of that
denial I move to close a public hearing second any additional discussion those in favor say I I I those oppose no motion passes unanimously and the public hearing is now closed all right we're going to jump down to Old business we're going to go
to car Avenue so we did have an email from miline the treasurer who answered some of our questions from last week not foreclosed on yet but the uh tax title attorney said the can now file the motion for General default to the land Court in addition to that memo there was another one from Jen that I didn't have
a chance to read so would you uh be willing to give us that update so my apologies to the board for the lateness of documents coming into your packet but um so so the first there were a number of questions last week about the status of 56 car how much time do we have what
is the process going forward so first as Mr chairman stated um the the town has filed the foreclosure and and nothing will happen until a motion of for General default is filed which has not happened yet okay um the second question
was if the town decides to retain the property must the town retain the property into perpetuity or is there a certain amount of time that you can hold it and then later decide to sell the property um the statute uh does not require uh the town to retain the
property for any period of time however uh tax title Council suggests that the town does retain if if the choice is to retain the property that the town does hold the property for a minimum of 12 months um so that um if there is any dispute as to the Surplus that there is
that time to file that in the courts um in terms of cost to retain the property um the appraisal was estimated at $300 to $500 uh legal costs are $500 and then whatever um the insurance company would
add for adding this to our general policy and the final question was does the board have a deadline to make the decision whether to sell or retain the property and that question really turns on is there a timeline ticking under which Council needs to file that motion
for General defaults the answer is no um so there is no deadline however once they do proceed that's when the clock starts ticking um the Foreclosure will take a couple of of weeks and then once the Judgment finally issues then then
the process to sell or hold really kicks in so Council was suggesting that some of that work and that decision- making happened beforehand um so that you can get a run on that but certainly if you want to hear from other entities in town you have the opportunity to just
continue this matter any questions for Jen any discussion on this tonight all right y discussion on workplace climate survey policy so I think we should just hold
off until next week when we have the full board but we do have the redline version with all the changes tracked in here thank you Renee and Amanda I didn't do it thank you but you're welcome was it you Jen thank you Jen it was
word he's technically challenged he doesn't understand that I'm really not technically chall hey you always say that you are I'm Google challenged okay all right moving on discussion on select war and tell manager goal setting process not doing that review and discussion on budget task force
recommendations uh so Renee we discussed this we went through recommendation by recommendation last week I know you had a chance to watch it because you sent us that memo on the audit and some of the reasonings for why staff members wanted
that did you want to speak to that um what can I say the Memo's in here right well first was Switzerland good well Switzerland's good work is work
um yeah so so this initially came up in a budget task force meeting when um we were looking at you know revenues and expenses and pulling up a lot of data from DLS and we found um the
category called miscellaneous non-recurring expense revenue revenue and looking over the years it was about I think a million and then 2015 2016 it dropped by like 400,000 and
it stayed down and the question was what happened what was that can we get that money back is it just an accounting change couldn't answer it and that's how the audit started coming up um to do and and just with all the transition new
people um all the list of accounts it was just really challenging to get a a clear picture of everything um and actually Tony skolen brini the chair suggested a um coming from his his attorney background uh what did he call
it a forensic audit which um he's worked with people who have done it in he for different reasons in his line of work and it can be very expensive very very expensive um
pay hourly these people have very high hourly rates who do this type of work so we were saying we need to be really if we're going to do this we need to be really focused with clear questions toine scope so the cost doesn't get out of hand and so eie and Dr Gilson
proposed um they drafted a memo to to focus on what they thought were the the uh main points to be covered by this audit and there're 1 2 3 four five um specific areas and it is mostly
process Focus I would say um the five areas being Staffing um looking at the structure of wages um processing of of wages and
hours um technology so this was around munus and other Systems payment timelines uh process mapping um so look at at current processes for Revenue recognition expense tracking we've heard that
there's a quite a delay in seeing Mony hit or books um and then inter departmental communication um again around processes and efficiency gains so this that was the memo that
um Financial um folks were both you know school and towns side are are proposing um we didn't get as far as to find a
potential company I I don't even know um of any um or so we don't have I think in the recommendations eie may have put some kind of placeholder cost in there maybe but I'm not 100% sure I don't
remember so that's where the the audit came from um all right thank you Renee any questions before we continue for Renee on the audit all
right Renee was there anything else that you wanted to share with us after watching our discussion since you weren't there and you were on the trying to think back cuz I also caught the school committee 4our meeting um in
between things going on um I don't think there was something else that came up around the budget oh the CPA yeah um yeah I think it's worth taking a
deeper dive I mean I know the um the Baseline round one funding of this year was 18% and I look back and I think the lowest I saw for round one was 133% over the years um but of course if you do the 3% contribution the full
amount you have you're eligible for round two um so you can get much more um I think that's worth uh a lengthier discussion a more in- depth discussion um it's not something
that would help us this year for sure and even next year we wouldn't see money but um doesn't mean we shouldn't put it in place and if I remember Town manager probably knows better than I do if I remember right it does have to go to a a town meeting as
well as a ballot yep to so even if it went to fall town meeting we'd still have to come to I don't believe we can even do it at fall town meeting I think it has to be the annual town meeting it has to be annual um I can look into it but sometimes there is a time between the I the vote has to
happen the ballot vote has to happen a certain amount of time after the meeting so I don't think it's worth having a special election for it um but I think that is something we should look at and there's there's so much data and history on that that I
think we can get a really good feel the my only concern with that one is um so there's the three buckets that you have to contribute at 10% minimum to each and then the remaining 70% you can distribute how you want the housing assistance that's the one that's a
question for me but I do think it can be applied to rental assistance if if I may um communities use that bucket of money for all sorts of things um sometimes they use it for their affordable housing monitoring to
make sure that you're compliant um and that transactions aren't happening without the knowledge of the community um you can use it for Consulting to work on plans for construction so it's not it doesn't mean that it needs to be turned into
actual housing but it's work in the affordable housing sector and I know that the tools like the database online you can see the projects types of projects that have been approved um but again any any project that would be proposed would have to be proposed by
the CPA committee and then it has to be voted on it at a town meeting so the town has to vote for any spending of that money um so I mean we can talk about what the timing would look like is that something
we want to bring forward next annual town meeting I'm interested in pursuing it I think I want I I do too I think the question is a timing yeah exactly and something else and based on I spoke about this last week and having conversations with both Carter and Jen
um something that's really critical in getting this to pass as having that Grassroots energy to get it past and I tried to identify that I couldn't find it so that was one of the reasons why I didn't think it was going to move forward this year either so that's also really important to have so the last
time it came up and I forget the year it was historical commission woman who was chair um I know I have her name my notebook is at home um she presented on behalf of the historical commission and did a lot of research so I don't know if
she's still in town is still interested but um maybe that's an Avenue to pursue to to gain a Grassroots effort okay all right so I mostly wanted to give you an opportunity to um just add
any information based on your uh watching of our meeting last week but I think we should pick this up and start again next week when we have the full board here is there anything else you want to discuss tonight all right all right thank you
Renee moving on to carent business we have a review of the arpa press release so I drop that in the drive and I'll just pull it up town of lunenberg announces American Rescue plan act allocations the American Rescue plan Act arpa was signed into law
in 2021 and provided States and municipalities across the country with a historic opportunity to invest in their communities designed to address the economic and public health challenges caused by the covid-19 pandemic and allow communities to make long-term investments in local services and
infrastructure arpa funding enabled local governs to support essential Services both during and after the public health emergency strengthen infrastructure improve services and promote long-term recovery and resiliency the town of lunenberg received
3,57 97058 in total from our for lunenberg this funding represented an unprecedented investment in public safety education infrastructure and Community Services over the course of several years the select board solicited
proposals from town departments boards and Community organizations and carefully allocated These funds to address immediate needs caused by the covid-19 pandemic while also making strategic Investments that will benefit the town longterm from upgrading Public Safety Equipment to supporting local
nonprofits arpa allowed the town to take on projects that would have otherwise been financially challenging with the December 2024 deadline for allocation now passed the town of lunenberg is sharing a full breakdown of how these funds were distributed and I'm not going to read through line by line all
right um thank you for pulling this together um I think that this is very much so in line with uh what I hope we would uh issue my only comments and feedback um is in this intro um typically when we write Town town is
capitalize capitalized I know I saw I missed one um and then and the last paragraph uh where it says with the December deadline I would delete that entire paragraph uh and just say that the um the select board allocated arer
funds uh you know in the following ways or this is how we did it okay whever you want but I would just skip you know summarize that I would also increase the font size knowing that this will likely be printed in the newspaper um you know as is you know kind of bigger font if
possible so that way um you know it's just formatted with the paper to fit on a full page half a page even if that means putting columns in here so that way you know when it gets blown up it makes more sense um but it seems like a full page
ad yeah yeah all right thank you any other feedback I think it's it's great to communicate with the public where all the money went it's actually it's a nice list yep yeah I agree it's a good list and I'm supported
with the changes the vice chair okay so the only substantial one was changing that last sentence so we're okay with that right formatting however it fits all right so I can do that and then we can revisit it next week too and Tom's here as well or I don't feel strongly either way we can approve it now with
those changes something I I don't know if Tom's going to make a significant change to I and at the same time I don't know waiting a week really matters so yeah give him a week we'll have give him a chance okay yeah got to include him in this this is a good he does tend to have
edits I'm just saying he's yeah words linguistically opinionated all right all right thank you very much for reviewing all right moving on to discussion on FY 2025 budget FY 2026 budget Capital plan and annual town
meeting warrant articles all right so first I'll say that I know that there's a lot of attention on the budget process right now and there should be I'm glad that that attention is there given that the school budget is starting off with such a large deficit I know it concerns a lot
of people it concerns me too and I'm glad to see that people who were showing up last year are showing up this year as well I do want to point out though that it's still very early in the process the superintendent is still actively re revisiting what proposed Cuts would look
like the deficit of 3.5 million was a worse case scenario it didn't include any grant money from the federal government I know people are concerned about that they have a right to be but if we get those grants that'll shrink the Gap considerably at the same time our town
manager who has only been with us for one week now talk about baptism by fire is working diligently to understand the full Financial picture and balance the many needs of our town once we have a clear sense of what the proposed budget looks like we'll be in a better position
to evaluate how we want to move forward but I want people to understand just like last year the process has to play itself out it will be collaborative I hope respectful and we are just getting started so Jen I will pivot over to you now well thank you Mr chairman so um as
as the chairman stated you know I walked into this budget process with the process being fully underway and um I understand that some deadlines were already established prior to my arrival and the simple reality is is that at by
February 13th which is in on Thursday we are not going to have a preliminary budget presentation and so I want to talk a little bit about the process of where where things were before um I arrived and where things have gone and why there is going to be that time
needed so um the interim Town manager did solicit from all department heads their budget requests explaining the financial conditions of the community those requests came in in um throughout the month of January and there were many many meetings um with the various
stakeholders about those requests um during the transition not all of that was reduced to a spreadsheet so um but a lot of good work was done there were a lot of good conversations and so um what I am doing is trying to understand what
those conversations have been what has already been decided what's still in flex and it was just until um the end of last week that the accounting department got in um all of the departmental requests so um let me just kind of frame
for folks that this is going to be a marathon and a Sprint but that that there is not um going to be any final answers until we were much closer to town meeting so uh starting off with the revenue budget that the uh that Carter
had put together for the community um I'm just going to highlight uh and you have the revenue budget in your packet I will have this in a presentation form for the uh finance committee on Thursday um but all
told uh the total new revenues which I think is what most people care about right the total new revenues for fiscal year 2026 is 1,241 754 now there are assumptions that go into
building the revenue um estimate and this is why this is still going to be a moving Target I'd like to do some more analysis on the following local receipts I want to make sure that we're not being overly conservative but also cognizant of the difficult economic climate um
people may not be building as much over the next year or buying as many vehicles so I want to make sure that that that number is solid um the also the new growth figure year um was done by an average similarly I don't know if we are
going to realize that level of New Growth so I'd like to do some more analysis on that and the U overlay figure of $250,000 the board of assessors has not yet voted on so that they did not think um in it's unlikely to go up but it
could go down so this is the number though that we're using right now and we're basing things off of in I I know that there has been discussion of the amount of funds that were given out of this new money to to
the school department and that was done by taking the total um percentage breakdown so the town departments receive 42% of the budget the School receives 55% of the budget and tech school 3% and allocating that 1. I'm
just going to call it $1.2 million proportionally across those breakdowns So speaking to the town side that means on Revenue excess Revenue we have $520,000 to
spend we have um preliminary figures from our now there's there's major drivers for the um for the budget the largest of which is health insurance so we have preliminary figures um that we are looking at for Town actives and
retirees of a 16% increase that 16% does not get applied across the entire health insurance line there's some formulas behind that but were we to um apply it across the whole line which is we're not going to be that
far off from this number that's $489,000 right there 489 489,000 Wester County Retirement has an increase of 264,000 so
between those two alone without we have uh several bargaining units that will be bargaining with us um we have other costs that are increasing because that's that's we are in and and still in an inflationary time costs are
not going down um we we will far exceed the additional $520,000 that has been proportioned um there are ways that we can make this work I believe but I think it's premature to talk about those at this
time until we do some more analysis so the revenue picture um is not good all around so we'll we'll leave it at that for Reven expenditures we are compiling
I I do not think that we will have what I'm trying to get to is what the Delta is that we're trying to close and then look at how what can be cut um um to close that Gap but cuts are likely in some areas even if that means to the
capital program which I'm going to switch over to in a mo a moment right now so um the uh interum Town manager had been working on a capital plan um and has vetted most of that through the capital planning committee um I I did
have a conversation with the chair last week and there were a few changes but he understood them um so the total Capital plan as proposed is 1.2 uh 1.22 5 million
however that uses uh transfers from previous Capital articles free cash but it also uses about $225,000 in taxation and that is from the reduction that we're paying on debt
service um I understand the logic behind it um like and like um but I don't know if we're going to need to pull some of that into the operating to fund the operating so the capital plan itself um
remains a moving Target uh in addition to the regular Capital plan there are some one-time items uh that are living outside of the capital plan so there's some uh F that are being funded proposed to be funded um with free cas cash
um and that is uh decommissioning of TC pasos uh Cemetery Road Network repairs and uh a small amount of funds to for the assessors to meet some of those do requirements that they they have to meet
um additionally we have a snow and ice deficit um which we always do that's how snow and ice budgeting works you run it it's the only budget that you can run in deficit and you can never underspend the line or else you get yourself in trouble so it's healthy to be in a deficit position as a community but we're
looking at about $350,000 transfer to cover that from free cash um that's to date no that's projected okay no we just went into sorry me to cut you no no that's fair fair question um as we still have many months of winter left to go
that's an absolutely fair question we just went into deficit fund spending but that's 350 is based on an estimate again if we by may we going to know what our I would hope that we would know what our final snow in ice is and that it's not still snowing in May but um that number
could come down uh we have um as well a FEMA Grant uh that was overspent that we need to cover for 36,000 so this remains very much in Flex um the town has Financial policies in place that speak
to our contributions to our various stabilization accounts our opep contrib utions um I know that folks often want to look to free cash as an answer to operational budget problems um what free cash is one-time money and it should be
used on onetime things and there is a reason that we put money into these different account types um so with that um I am working the staff very diligently um on getting some better
products so that we can have a robust conversation and have a lot of Engagement with the community on this this the budget document is living and breathing and sometimes lives and breathes right up until town meeting when motions are changing and I very
much anticipate that based on the financial constraints that Lunenburg is in um and we're not special um municipalities across the Commonwealth are facing these same issues um that we are going to continue to adjust this
budget as we go I look forward to the collaboration I am glad to see that residents are engaged early um I want them to be asking us the difficult questions and and I think though until we get balanced on the town side we
can't really engage until we know where we're at and so um through you to the public I ask for some leeway um that allow us to do the the diligence that we need to do to get um some better figures prepared and so that we can start to make
informed decisions well I'm more than willing to give you that leeway as one person here uh but I'll open it up to any other questions I think I thank you for that report you've obviously done an immense amount of work already looking into you
know where we're at um and where these difficult conversations that we're going to have so I appreciate even the amount of detail that you've been able to prepare having been here for a week and picking up um in this challenging time so I I think you know we as a board in the school committee um and you know
Town manager and superintendent we know we've got some work to do but I think that you know collaboratively we're going to do our best to get there for sure so I thought last year was hard this year is looking not not because the numbers are
bigger not only because the numbers are bigger but the timing MH the warrant closes March 17th mhhm if we need to bring an over forward we don't have much
time um that was part of the problem last year from the town side of of not being able to get an override get you know an all-encompassing because we didn't I mean to throw a number out there is so irresponsible
[Music] um I don't I don't have any answers but can we get there when when do you think like what what's what's the timeline what what's
what's it look like well I think a couple of things so just because an warrant article lives on the warrant it doesn't mean that it it's not passed over at town meeting so
that's certainly an option but we would need to have a figure for that that's yeah um the figure is I'm speaking a little off the cuff so I I believe that this is correct I think that the figure needs to be Quantified
in the ballot question but does not need to be C Quantified in the warrant article it lives in the motion I believe um I can double check that but I think that that's really the only issue is the figure my my preference and and
this is me speaking very new to the community and not having a full history here is that although this year may be extremely difficult that we look at a comprehensive fiveyear Outlook and we
really take the time to build on the efforts of the budget task force the work that's already been done we have some real con conversations about where we can gain efficient agencies by consolidating potentially departments
and that we look for next year it in saying that I'm sitting on this side and I can I think I can close our budget I'm not sitting in the superintendent's chair with her difficulties that she's facing so let's I think I think uh like
the chairman indicated that was the worst case scenario budget just like my health insurance figure is the worst case scenario um the governor's budget is typically the worst case scenario not that we're going to get a whole a lot of additional state aid but
um items tend to become better as we get closer to town meeting that's the hope I mean I know that this you know superintendent school committee has worked to do on their budget um we obviously don't have a
budget so obviously have work to do um and you know to come I I think I think most people want to see a comprehensive Outlook um we learned last year that
it's not so easy to do um at least I think one great outcome of the budget task force was to get everyone talking to share share information to collect it um and maybe
that's just the foundation to to move on from there um I would like to see this board and the school committee work together during this budget season um whether that means having some joint meetings a
joint Workshop something um I'll just say if I can just jump in real quickly I'm in communication with the chair pretty frequently I do want us to work collaboratively if that means joint meetings and that's what we decide then that's what we'll do so yeah and
whether you know fincom to I know several communities do joint meetings it would be a benef my opinion is it would be beneficial to have us all talking together I think it's it's when how soon can we you know have something
more concrete to to really work on I but it's not just from it's it's also the school I'm thinking March would be sometime in March you still have you still have a lot of time before town meeting before town meeting sure but before the warrant closes is really the
yeah that if we need to do something that was the issue last year MH well go ahead I mean we have first thank you Jen for all the information that you provided uh I agree with Amanda um that it seems as if you have a pretty
good grasp of what kind of lays ahead you know speaking broadly you know it I I want to tag on to something that selectman imy said about uh responsibility here you know if we are facing a significant budget cut uh on
Municipal Services non um school education I think any business any organization looking at cuts the reasonable approach first is across the board um you know I think that you know for us to come out and say hey we have a
budget shortfall so we're not going to plow the roads and we're cutting the police department that is going to outrage everybody I think for the school department um superintendent office to say that we have a budget shortfall and we're cutting Elementary School teachers
um to me that's a little emotionally manipulative is how it looks to me um because I think that the bigger question is well what does across the board look like you know in order for us to have these conversations we have to come to the table reasonable um and that means
that look across at your admins and say you know they got to get hit too and I think what I heard coming out of the um school meeting last week was a dire situation but I think the phraseology of it uh how it was targeted um I think we
can if we're going to if we're going to work together it means let's be reasonable here as we try to work together and let's not enrage every parent out there by saying that the kids that are the most vulnerable are going to be the targeted the first in how we try to bridge this Gap I think we need
to keep everything on the table and having this conversation but again I offer that opinion I know someone's going to call me pissed off and upset because I we got to work together and how dare I but you know I just think it's it's it's just it's challenging to have these calls you know the hearing
the parents seeing the emails uh that we've already started receiving um you know it's we don't have built-in Advocates our role as members of the select board um and and the town manager yes we have big pitcher big town but we
advocate for the Departments that we have some oversight over collectively um you know we advocate for the police we advocate for the DPW we advocate for the library we advocate for conservation all those different functions those Municipal functions that are non-educational that the school does is
what our role is and and the best we can work together but I you know one thing that I said last year and I will say it and keep saying it and and again I'm just going to keep saying it which is every single Department with the exception of the school department is
dealing with increased customers a 20% increase in customers over the last 20 years the school department is dealing with a decrease in customers so there has to be a better explan exp ation of where all this cost is going um I think
it's nobody wants to be in a situation where 8-year-olds have 35 kids in a classroom that's unacceptable we all agree on that one no one wants to be in a situation where we got to cut 30 teachers we all agree on that one but if we're going to be cutting 30 teachers not saying we're going to if the
conversations that we're cutting teachers the conversation needs to be admins to it needs to be administrative Personnel it needs to be across the board let's figure out how we do this and then we can have again these better conversations so I think that as we move forward you know we've talked about for
years but I want to give a couple of areas that specifically I would like for there to be better conversation on um which is why does the health insurance live inside of every Department's individual budget that it seems that if we have Town employees if health
insurance was pulled out and we're investing in the health insurance of our employees that we can have a better conversation about what's left over is that 1% is that 1 and 1.2% is it half a percent but I think health insurance as a whole uh I don't I don't know why that
lives in Department budgets another area that came out of the budget task force but we've been saying it for years why does the school department have their own snow removal crew is it coste effective to consider DPW and I'm not saying that you don't have a designated
crew but what I'm saying is are there any cost savings and merging that into the DPW Department the budget task force recommended it I hope we can have a serious conversation about that similarly with facilities uh we know that our buildings are our most
expensive thing um can we get um Chris Ruth as the town facility director to do what other communities do and provide that higher level of support to the school department will there be some cost savings there uh and again on the HR and procurement side of the house you
know the Can there be some consolidations there now again we're not going to find millions of dollars here um but there will be a little bit of money found and then the the last area and I want to encourage any member of the school committee who's hearing me today I I I've said this several times
but I'm going to say it again we have to look at Revenue um every single parking lot uh for the schools has like minimal shade on them during the day they would be great for solar for solar panels the inflation reduction Act passed in 2022
provides 75% reimbursement to municipalities we talked about Revenue last year I'd like to know if there has been any effort at all uh to look into how to generate revenue from those parking lots because again every penny saved is a penny earned and if we can
decrease the electric bill by a couple $1,000 a year then we find a couple hundred, a year in new funding for for needed programming so again you know we can't keep being in this crisis every February March April where parents who
are doing everything that they can feel like the town is pulling the rug from underneath them and everyone else is saying what about me that we have to work together um but I I do think that we we need to really lean in a bit into revenue and we need to lean into some of
these efficiencies that were identified by the uh by the budget task force thank you we will definitely do our part on that Jen do you want to respond to any of that no okay just wanted to make sure any other members of the
board all right any other discussion on the budget tonight um so the agenda for Thursday for fin comp are you presenting any update or no I I've been in communication with the chair of the
finance committee to say essentially in private what was said publicly tonight about where we are um I think that I'm not going to T I will not be touching the expenditure side on Thursday that I I I think we can have some conversations about the revenue estimates why that's
still in flex and more in-depth conversations about the capital program um there are two departments that are presenting their requests that evening so that process will continue but it may it may come a little bit in pacem mail as we're putting it together I want to
have the information that I'm good with out and digestible as soon as possible so that people even if it means that it's coming peaceful peace mail so that people can really start to wrap their heads around it no and I I totally support that to to throw something out there even though you label it
preliminary people don't hear that correct um I'm just asking if maybe they should revise the agenda that's posted just to manage the Public's expectations I was I was hopeful that in that the chair would have picked up that
that was really my CR chis um but it I I think it's going to be pretty informal okay can be revised now past 48 hours right you can always be revised it's been posted you can always revise it what time is it they are all posted by the
way for the entire budget season yeah just so people cuz yeah so if if anybody is listening to this if they want to put out the word on their different forums and text groups that the town manager is not delivering a full budget
presentation on Thursday so you can you can stay at home for this Thursday come maybe next next week or the week thereafter um but you're not going to learn much more on Thursday other than if if um eie can perform some Miracles
and we might be able to by Thursday know what that Gap is that we're targeting well we know he can perform Miracles but I don't know about that one yeah I E he worked really hard in the task force and he's been working really really hard on the budget
so I I if I may as a final comment I think you know we all try to do the best work we can um but you know this situation with the school budget let I I can't State how serious this is um you
know we lose Faith trust confidence in the and everything we do as a government um if we cannot meet the needs of those who cannot advocate for themselves um you know putting children tomorrow's generation in a worse situation um than
the one that we are ourselves are in that that is an unacceptable situation to be in Period um so I I just want to stress that I think that the this bridge must be must be built um we must find a way to to bridge this divide but again
if I can also stress you know to to everyone who can hear me it doesn't matter how much great work we do if if we lose 30 teachers from the school department um what was the point of any of it cuz we've lost the community at
that point you when you lose the parents and you lose the trust that we can all engage reasonably you know this is what this is when people feel government in their lives a lot of people don't have don't interact with the building commission they don't interact unless they're building right they don't they
don't interact with the tax collector if they're paying their mortgage you know every month and it's being paid at of escrow they don't have that daily interaction but people interact with the school department uh that is just like we interact with our roads that you know that this is one of those areas where
it's just so critical um that we don't have our parents in a situation where again two years in a row now where they don't f as that the community is looking out for them yep I agree and we will do our part as a board to engage collaboratively in this process with the school committee
the finance committee and the public as well all right any other comments on the budget tonight all right moving on to the warrant there is a draft warrant do we want to take some time reviewing it on our own and then start going through it next week when we have the full board
yeah I haven't had a chance to review it yep yeah me I'm happy to I'll defer to whatever the board prefers I'm happy to just go very high level of what the different articles are um I wanting to make sure with that internal deadline that we had that i' I've reached out to
boards committees and commissions and department heads but I want to make sure that I've got everything that folks have submitted or we can wait till next week yeah I think I'm sorry go ahead um Mr chair I think it would be helpful for us to have a full board um but I also think
that um maybe a little bit further in the process because something that I think is helpful is to identify if there's anyone with an article that we'd like to meet with before the warrant closes preferably and in years past where we've done that it's been helpful to get some changes made before the
warrant closes well we're definitely doing that with the planning board so they can come here and explain their articles to us um but if there's anyone else that we want to ask in we can so having um just a highle skim through of what because a
lot of these are placeholders correct some are placeholders so the the ones that aren't placeholders maybe if the rest of the board doesn't mind to do you want to just do the high you want to run through it real quick yeah I'll just run through what the basic articles are so
um standard article of to accept and hear reports of committees I think we all know that one the next two articles um are articles that you don't have as standard articles uh in lunenberg they are standard articles that I've used previously and I did talk to Adam Costa today and he thought that they were good
additions one is that if for some unforeseen reason we got into a real cash flow problem um where maybe bills go out late and we're not getting that Revenue it allows us to enter into agreements with banks to borrow in advance of that Revenue very similarly
with chapter 90 funds the next article allows us to um expend those funds in anticipation of reimbursement these are both just fail safes unlikely that we'll have to activate either we have the standard article to uh set the spending limits on the revolving funds uh but we
do not have the establishment of any new revolving funds um prior year bills uh anything that pops up from a prior fiscal year uh we will take care of I just want to point out sorry to interrupt I love that you added this here outstanding invoices known at time
of print because last time we did not have that and it was a question we got and we had to wait and get it answered so thank you yes so so U I'm going to keep your the tradition that Carter had started of providing that summary the written summary in the warrant um I started to work on those in some of
these areas I think it's very helpful when the a lot of the way these warrant articles are written are not easily digestible by the public and just to have that Layman's kind of explanation I think thank you for continuing that um um authorization to transfer unexpended
funds from FY 25 this is this is just close out somebody was too high somebody was too low we're we're moving within the current fiscal year and then those three Closeouts that I talked about the FEMA uh sped and uh snow and ice then we
have our FY 26 Capital program uh there's a separate article for uh I think it's $100,000 for the lunenberg midddle high school track and Field Complex I'm unclear as to whether CPC has considered this one yet uh we have
two potential uh debt exclusions one for Marshall Park and one for the municipal building design um setting the salaries of our elected officials amending the salaries uh in the sap um as well as any
title changes or additions uh there um also an amendment to the sap is um a proposal to allow holiday pay for cire Fighters um and then we get into our standard Financial transfers um that I
spoke about earlier so free cash to the stabilization fund free cash to the special purpose stabilization fund and to OPB um our po our retiree benefits uh next we have a couple standard or
typical uh sewer articles uh sewer contributes to their own opep trust fund uh their their Enterprise fund they're going to transfer some funds into the stabilization fund for their Capital program um they have an inii or inflow
and infiltration fund they're going to transfer some funds into there and uh transfer some funds into their uh sewer capacity Reserve stabilization fund we have the standard of funding of the uh trash program the Enterprise fund for
solid waste as well as water Enterprise and and uh Public Access cable Enterprise the Peg Peg funds uh transfer of cemetery funds um and then there's these three special fund projects that
aren't living in the capital decommissioning of TC Paso Cemetery Road Network and for the assessors uh there's three articles coming from planning one is a requirement of federal law to update our flood plane maps and then two articles
um related to to the changes to accessory drilling units um there might be a little bit of difficulty I'm hearing in in them getting final language um so if there is um I guess the worst case scenario is although we
don't make the change the the law is still the law and it just makes it confusing for folks that are looking to develop and makes the building commissioner's job a little more difficult but um Adam Costa and I Town Council talked today about it and he's going to perhaps draft it on their
behalf um and see how they like his draft um then there are two um articles and I understand the language is going to be changing on these but two articles from the board of assessors where there was a change previously but inadvertently dropped out uh cost of
living increases so this is kind of a correction um from their previous exemptions and then there is an article um which I don't fully understand the background of but it's uh com combining the historic commission and
Architectural preservation district and so there is a very rough draft of that that Council has not seen so that is what I have thus far um if folks are aware of any other articles that are not living on this list please let me know
as soon as possible and the warrant officially closes on the 17th so I do want to ask because I did hear watching a committee meeting uh that submitted articles that they were a little a little frustrated with that internal deadline that we sent that was a little or actually seever several months
stricter than the general deadline have you received any communication from anyone who is unhappy with it would like it to be extended or justes everyone have at least a draft of the warrant articles and they can then be revised or I have not heard any direct
communication but I was in my office while the planning board was discussing their frustrations so I could hear the frustrations yeah um at at it was essentially a two week deadline yeah so couple of things I think the board
the this is your warrant so you can extend the deadline um at a future meeting if you want to formally open the internal deadline to a longer date um it could be as long as March 17th I understand the concern was about getting
the items to print um pretty much the planning articles are really just titles holding space for them to do their work um so I I know that the deadline may have felt constrained for folks I hope
that they realize that there is a whole lot of time to make substantive significant substantive changes prior to the board I think we've got it scheduled that you're going to have a first vote on March 11th and then a second vote on March 17th um yep we might start voting before
that we want to do it on a rolling basis that we're not try to get all the end I just wanted to bring that up CU I'm okay with getting rid of that artificial internal deadline uh so I want other members to think about it too if it gets to that point for us to
consider we it or did the town manager do that that was um it was car we reviewed it we discussed it he explained his reasoning behind it there was no discussion um but you know kind of looking back I can understand why people are a little frustrated with that I think the issue the planning board had
was around the access accessory dwellings estate at the end of last week yeah new guidelines it's still shifting so they have to adjust that shifting guideline after they had already submitted their draft article so if I can just add on to
that that frustration comment you know I had in reaching out to various boards I had reached out to the cemetery commission chair and said I have these four articles for you and she said well we haven't met to vote on them and I said well they're pretty standard articles so we're going to just put them
on here as a placeholder and you have plenty you know take your vote and circle back I can always delete something so you know I'm trying to impart to folks especially if it's a standard article or something like the flood P flood plane map you have time
all right thank you Jen all right any other discussion on the warrant tonight no all right thank you very much moving mov on minutes warrants action items we don't actually have minutes to review tonight warrants I don't think we have any right no warrants tonight any action
items all right hearing none committee reports Bud budget budget yeah well yes we're tracking that one I thought we had an action item tracker that was came up previously yeah yep I have not created it yet I was thinking about it earlier today I will make it tonight and we will
have that spreadsheet you don't need to make it tonight yeah well it got brought up so I will um I'll do that yeah any other action items all right thank you committee
reports I think the school committee was covered I think so too oh wait stor water no we didn't we haven't I covered that the last time sorry that's it I don't have one for e IC development committee they haven't
met yet um and not much on master plan other than we're waiting for you know some information about where we currently stand on the plan um the planning board discussed it at that their meeting and we're still working on meeting a quorum so more to come the um I attended the Council of
Aging meeting this morning which was good um I will say I had to leave several times while I was trying to print something um but you know it was wonderful to see um the new Counseling of Aging director uh de uh I think they go by the two Debs now
uh but it was really it was really good to be part of the team I know that they're looking for um more volunteers and they had some leads on uh other people looking to join the team which um if one of them comes true it's going to make me really excited um so um it was a
it was a really good meeting um I did also provide a presentation to them about the municipal building design uh plan uh and the generally they were quite supportive um the library meets on Thursday uh I am not sure if I will
attend because I am trying to Target the uh apdc uh meeting this week all right well thank you for sharing my Council on Aging meeting for me because I could not make it this morning I had a work meeting that I could not get out of so Michael Ray was there coincidentally but
um also on my behalf as well uh and the planning board met last night I was going to bring up the warrant articles the frustration with that but we already talked about it as well um and there is a caucus an mmpo caucus that I'm going to be attending Wednesday or Thursday
night to select the sub region representative whether or not it will be me I don't know but I will still tune in to those meetings um and that's pretty much it all right upcoming meetings we have one scheduled for next Tuesday the 18th public comment any public comment
from the town manager no any public comment from the public Glenn good evening Glenn McLoud 436 Reservoir Road one of the problems with doing public comment is when you go home you realize what you forgot to say and I forgot to welcome you last week I apologize welcome thank you thank you
for coming aboard um so it's interesting towards the end of your conversation you're expressing the uh frustration with the state and that's the point I want to bring up um it's something I I don't hear nearly enough about you know
the state you know those who we have elected to represent us on the state simply in my opinion are not representing us and I don't hear enough of that uh with the exception recently at the school committee two of their members one of which is here and thank
you for for your words they they were uh spot on and it and I I think with all of the talk about affordable housing and all the discussions and I won't go through them because everyone's very well aware of the the issues confronting this
town is everyone is in support of affordable housing yet the conversation pivots to making it unaffordable to live in lunberg and that would include people who actually own their own homes can't
afford to live and it's not unique to lunenberg and you see every town around us throughout the Commonwealth having the same exact problems and where is the state that's who I think the primary target should be for more funding is the
state the tax dollars that the residents have already paid to instantly just turned to an override and every other you know tool tool uh tool in your tool b as a government you know governments historically aren't great about solving
problems and this is a very serious problem and the state from my standpoint from a you know a citizen just watching they seem to have plenty of money they do not seem to work with the same fiscal restraint that lunenberg does and all
the other communities around us and it and everyone uses the term the state I think that's that's unfortunate we really should use phrases like those who we have elected to represent us they are not representing us they're causing us
to turn on each other those of us like myself who do no longer have children in the school but um we still are committed to the children I mean I I agree with everything that everyone says and that
is what makes this difficult is nobody is wrong with the exception of those who we have elected to represent us on the state level I believe they are wrong I have had those conversations with um Margaret Scarsdale who is extremely nice
uh woman very friendly and I like her very much but it's it's time and when when I was speaking with her I expressed that it's it's tough because I think the Commonwealth is you know is is neglecting us so having said that I'll stop before I I keep rambling but that I
would just like to hear more conversations like the the the school committee had because it is not limited to their Chapter 70 it's everything it's the Cherry sheets you know they're spending money like it's going out of style while we all struggle thank you
very much thank you Glenn thank you any other public comment from the public all right not seeing any in the room M what I don't oh I see him on Zoom Mr Bowen well that was very interesting so I agree with the last speaker on this um
I said this before and I'll say it again um that we have to find a way in town to move the state out okay we rely too much on uh can we get a grant where we pay the money and then you reimburse us uh
can you give us money to be able to do this and can you give us money to be able to do that how'd that work for the school last year for everybody in town didn't work out that well did it um our Representatives who are uh supposed to advocate for that money um should should
be actually advocating to remove that money and leave it up to us to run our town and not tell us that if we don't do this we won't get State money because that's what we have with our with our new affordable housing law if you don't
do this we're going to take your money so the extortion is a problem and again like I said earlier okay $1300 per taxpayer will put a $6 million surplus into our budget we can't all afford
$1,300 for the year I think that I think that's not a problem and you know am I going to put a warrant article forward for something like that not in this town not at all this town is too busy looking for handouts from the state so if you're
looking for handouts from the state then guess what your vote is what counts pero and Ain ball got voted out and you got stuck with the same people you had for more of the same so keep that in mind when you put your vote in another two
years to who's going to take care of our town thank you all right thank you Mr Bowen any public comment from let me just no one else on Zoom any public comment from the board yep I'll be really brief go ahead I'll try to be at least you know I
appreciate Glenn your comment I appreciate the comment from Mr Bowen uh I just want to strongly disagree um I think that one of the challenges of living in a town like Lunenburg uh is that many of us are homeowners uh many
of us have have land um and we can see the pressures on our budget but sometimes we get a little bit of tunnel vision um and not thinking about what is life like in other parts of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts um in my role in my profession I spent a lot of
time all over the state let me tell you a little bit about Greenfield um where the average household income is $65,000 a year um you know we have cities like Holio where the average household median income is about 50 something, a year
that when you're looking at our surrounding Community communities and I want to speak to you know some of them Senator Cronin for example has Fitchburg and lemonster Fitchberg uh had a significant amount of migrants come into the school system this year that added a lot of cost uh lunenberg didn't have the
same scenario um and and I don't want to diminish the fact that the things that we have that are facing are real but I want to just highlight the fact that there are needs in other communities that our legislators also serve in um representative Scarsdale has been
wonderful to work with um but she represents six or seven towns um representative kushmer represents Fitchburg and one District in Lunenburg which is dramatically different and again our Senator represents cities and the needs in those cities is is is hard
so I do not disagree that when we look at it from our own needs that that we can say hey why don't we getting a bigger piece of the pie uh I fully sympathize as an elected official in this town with that notion um but I think we have to educate ourselves a
little bit more on what's going on in other communities around the state what are their needs that also have to be addressed and how does that providing budgetary strain to the full picture and just as we say in our town like we're one town you know we're one state too
just like we're one nation um so you know we we should not the education of kids matters a lot but it matters everywhere just like police matter everywhere when you drive to work every day you're going through multiple police departments uh it's in your best interest to make sure that the whole
system is working um so I don't disagree that we should hold our leaders accountable I think that when they're passing unfunded mandates we need to call it out and hold them accountable for it um but generally speaking I've been very impressed working with Senator
Cronin uh representative kusher and representative Scarsdale all three of whom are Democrats and I am not a Democrat um and I have been very supportive of of their work back into the town of lunenberg so I just want to comment on that uh but I do appreciate
the other public comments as well thank you any other public comments all right I do have one I have to correct the record real quickly um I announced the vote for um the class 2 license incorrectly even though I was
trying to get the um Motion in the affirmative correct I was the one that messed it up and I said it passed or it failed 4 to zero I actually should have said it passed 0 to4 and failed to pass so I just want to make sure that that is
um correctly noted for the public and also that we capture it in the meeting minutes and that is it is there a motion to adjourn so move second any additional discussion those in favor say I I those oppose no the motion passes unanimously
it is 9:36 p.m. and the select board is adjourned and we will see you all next week have a good night