##VIDEO ID:mHjLAn7GbdQ## public hearing is posted yeah okay thank you all right good evening and welcome to tonight's meeting of the lunenberg select board today is Tuesday November 19th please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all in accordance with requirements of the open meeting law please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and broadcast live over the lunenberg public access channel on Facebook live on the public access Facebook page and will be uploaded to the lunenberg access YouTube channel after the meeting the agenda lists all the topics which may be discussed at the meeting and are those reasonably anticipated by the chair votes may be taken as a result of these discussions not all items listed May in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by the open meeting law we're gonna begin with public comment are there any public comments from the board no no are there any public comments from the public just check on recording in progress seeing none we're going to move to announcements I don't have any tonight does anyone have any announcements no Communications from other boards I'm Duffy um84 flat of the chair for atom uh we just had a couple of uh things to share today so first is that we uh would like to encourage members of the a community in lunenberg if they're Farmers or whatever uh Association they may have to join us at our meetings just even if it's just for one time or just as they're available we love to get um ideas and input from the community um second thing I wanted to share is that we're looking to plan like an open Farm day type of thing so we'll be reaching out to uh the ad Community um to kind of see what the interest would be for that um maybe around the end of April the beginning of May to kind of like do uh see what different people are working on on their farms and what they're producing and what we're making here in lunenberg in town and the last thing I wanted to share um was that we're planning on a monthly farmers market for next year for 2025 on Friday evenings and um looking to make that kind of be more of a little bit more of an event to with maybe some food and some music cuz it seems like a nice Gathering From the town at the a fair at the end of last year so um and looking to have that uh at the same place as the a fair so uh on the green next to TC pass so that's all my updates thank you excellent thank you y all right so we have two more minutes before we can do the public hearing so why don't we just do the r ification of the Town manager's appointment for the DPW labor driver Autumn Buck Autumn has been a seasonal labor with us uh reports on her have been very good she has indicated an interest in progressing through the ranks by the earning of her CDL and perhaps hydraulic licenses and um the DPW director and I recommend her uh heartily to you for uh permanent well subject probation of course permanent appointment any questions for Carter all right is there a motion uh I move to appoint Autumn buck as DPW laborer and Driver second any additional discussion I think it's for the ratification just again to be clear we are not appointing we're just ratifying the appointment do you want yeah I'll reward that uh it's okay I'm just wanted I you don't have to reward it we have a minute so why not yeah I'll make that correctly I move to ratify the appointment of uh Autumn buck as DPW laburn driver second any additional discussion those in favor say I I those oppose no the motion passes unanimously all right so it's still 7:04 but uh Linda if you want I'll invite you up and you can get set up I'll get the presentation going um and it is a public hearing so I do have to ask the clerk to read the public hearing notice it's in the drive into the booth where getting a lot of feedback in the room not sure what's causing it we need to wait till 705 to read it or um you can read it now okay notice of fy2 tax classification hearing pursuant to chapter 40 section 56 M General law this lunber select board will be holding a public hearing on Tuesday evening November 19th 2024 at 7:05 in the bada hearing room at Town Hall 17 Main Street lunenberg Massachusetts the purpose of the hearing is to determine the percentage of the local tax level to be born by each class of real property the hearing will include a presentation of by the board of assessors outlining the options available under chapter 40 section 56 of Massachusetts General law the public is welcome to attend and it's posted to the town website as well all right thank you okay good evening my name is Linda McQuade I'm the principal assessor and I'm going to present the FY 2025 tax classification hearing this evening um I did get some of this data this afternoon so I do apologize um uh it is going to be estimated um some of the data we do feel pretty confident with that but I did want to note that and I guess when I had sent the email some of the text had actually wrapped it's not wrapped on my copy but on a couple Pages it did so I apologize for that if um it w if it did wrap on your copy um our first Slide the role of the assessors and who determines the tax rate the board of assesses does not set the tax rate and residents who attend the annual town meeting decide what services the town of ludenberg provides this determines how much the town will spend these decisions impact the tax rate and the tax rate is determined each year by The Levy and the rail and personal property total values the role of the board of assessors is to Value property for the purpose of Equitable taxation based on fair market value by what sales have taken place place for the prior calendar year and FY 2025 valuations were based on um calendar year 2023 sales and 2022 sales were utilized when classes of properties had limited sales this was done in accordance with the state guidelines and reviewed by the Massachusetts Department of Revenue the next slide is the fiscal year 2025 uh tax classification hearing and the purpose of this hearing this evening is to adopt a residential factor and decide on whether or not to adopt on three uh exemptions the first one being a residential exemp exemption an open space discount and a small commercial exemption there are five classes of property uh within the Department of Revenue um those are residential open space commercial industrial and personal property and um there is no open space classification of property in Lunenburg uh that is designated by the Department of Revenue the next slide is uh some commonly used terms that I provided just for reference that will be mentioned uh throughout the presentation and the next slide is page five it's a pie chart of our uh real and personal property values and and as you can see from the chart 92% of the valuation is residential we have 4% commercial 1% industrial and 3% personal property on slide number six um there's um six years of valuation percentages and the blue line is residential the maroon is commercial industrial personal property and as you can see the valuation has kind of been consistent with residential uh there was a a little bit of a dip in 2023 and commercial industrial personal property but it has been pretty consistent uh at 92% roughly and 8% uh CIP uh residential being most of the value uh FY 2025 valuation summaries on page seven um and it is a breakdown of the valuation and the percentages the total valuation uh was 2 b360 m767 180 from last year's total value of 2 b242 m686 580 it's been a 5% increase and our average single family value for FY 2025 is 54,9 37 in FY 2024 it was 48141 which was a 5% increase uh and our average commercial and Industrial uh property value for FY 2025 was 4 135,136 and that was a 7.7% increase the next slide might have been the slide where uh the valuation for residential had uh wrapped I don't know if it's on your copy I just wanted to mention that um but the residential value last year was uh 2 b57 m46 7,522 90% 92% of the valuation uh last year we uh had a single tax rate of 1410 per th000 there was no shift to commercial industrial personal property and this was voted on uh March 12th of this year by the select board slide number nine is our uh FY 2025 tax levy summary um and I have it estimated here um the levy limit uh for FY 2024 is 29 m375 36 we have our 25% increase um and then FY 2025 growth uh was 527,000 of amended growth our debt exclusions are 2,313 1898 and our override was 94813 so our total Levy for FY 2025 is 33,976 uh in comparison to to last year's Levy um there's been a increase of 4,540 970 uh 15.4% increase and on page number 10 our estimated FY 2025 single tax rate uh if we do not shift the tax rate um what we do is we take the the total Levy and we divide that by the total valuation for FY 2025 we multiply that by a th000 and that comes out to $14.37 cents per thousand um last year's tax rate was 1410 and it's a 1.9% increase in the tax rate um this tax rate based on the average single family tax bill of 54937 um would be $ 77255 18 um and that was just for reference uh slide lever number 11 is a chart with the FY 2025 estimated tax rates and how this split tax rate would impact lunberg if it was voted upon uh I have in the chart the CIP shift in the residential factor and the residential factor is what the select board will vote on tonight um and it has the the tax rate the CIP shift of one would be no shift and if you look across you can see it's consistent for three Residential Properties that are valued at 325,000 600,000 and um 1,250,000 the same three valuations for commercial properties are essentially the same tax bill based on the valuation of each one if we shift that down to a 1.55 or 15% um as you can see that the tax rate drops to 147 for residential it increases to $16.52 for commercial and we can actually go to our Max um of 1.50 which is the max that we can increase the shift in Lunenburg and the residential tax rate would um decline to $137 C per thousand but on the commercial end it would increase to $20.83 so um there are 112 communities out of 352 in Massachusetts that do have split tax rates and of these 112 only seven communities which represents 6.25% have split tax rates with a CIP of 10% or less and they're mostly wealthy communities um such as Lincoln Milton sedbury reading bler Melrose and Stockbridge um so um it just really wouldn't benefit lunenberg in my opinion um and at a 1.5 Max shift um a home valued at 325,000 would only save $195 per year but the same valued commercial property would actually pay $2,000. 199 uh higher so it's actually penalizing the commercial business and then the same scenario at a 1.15 shift um or an increase you know we shift at 15% the home valued at 600,000 um would save 120 per year in their tax bill but the same commercial property would pay an additional $1,290 so just want to ex exhibit that can I inter yes sure Linda before you go on leave this that slide oh oh I don't know who's driving um I just wanted to clarify one thing because we we talked about this a lot you and Brian presented at the budget task force split tax rate and single rate um and so you say seven communities have split tax rates that have a CIP of 10% or less and then you list seven that are are on the you know wealthy communities the one we talked about isn't here may mayor they were under weren't they also under 10% you know um I don't I got this from the Department of Revenue today and they did not have that on the list so I can check on that yeah cuz we spent a lot of time on May yes yeah okay yeah no I did I did note that I thought they were under 10 I can I I could yeah anyway this is what she Becky buet our rep had given me this afternoon so they might be now with the new development on yeah uh Route 27 there but anyway yeah it was a curiosity on my part and they have I think as we mentioned the digital equipment was there years long long long time ago yeah yeah so it doesn't matter their buildings are still used by businesses other businesses yeah it's not fully occupied but anyway okay um the next slide number 12 um is just a a five-year summary of what the tax rates have been and I have a star by um 202 5 for 1437 as being estimated so you kind of see what has happened over the past 5 years um the next slide is number 12 I'm going to um go through the three exemptions and the discount that can be also uh voted on tonight by the select board uh the first one being the the residential exemption and um there's been actually some discussion about this as as well that was in the uh um the budget meeting but the residential exemption it actually shifts the tax burden within the residential class from owners of moderately valued residential homes to homes of higher residential values and non-owner occupied residences including apartment and vacant lands the select board May adopt up to a 35% uh discount uh of the average residential valuation and adopting a residential exemption increases the residential tax rate this higher rate creates a shift that reduces the taxes paid by the homeowners with moderately valued properties and it shifts the taxes that would then be paid by owners of rental properties vacation homes and higher valued homes it's actually um utilized right now and adopted in um areas that larger cities and towns where there are many non-owner occupied properties that have apartment buildings such as bar Boston Cambridge Brooklyn and sumerville it's also um adopted in other communities uh that have seasonal homes uh such as bondon and Tucket Province Town and wle just to name a f few um lunenberg has not um adopted this residential exemption in the past I'm afraid that if it was adopted it would cause a split in the higher value properties and and I just don't think it would make sense for this town um it's really not ideal we don't really have a lot of uh seasonal um and apartment buildings we don't have a large number of apartment buildings uh the next one is the open space discount um and the select board may have um discount up to 25% of the open space percentage share of the tax levy uh this really doesn't qual ify for lunenberg because there's currently no designated open space so and on to the the next exemption uh the small commercial exemption the select board May adopt an exemption of up to 10% of the value of eligible Parcels this is actually designed to provide tax relief for small businesses that own real estate only um leased businesses do not receive the tax benefit and every small business that does not qualify would actually pay a higher tax the tax burden is shifted within the cni class commercial industrial and as far as the qualifying criteria eligible properties must be included on a list that is provided annually to the assessors by the Department of Labor and Workforce Development uh qualifying properties must also have a valuation of less than $1 million and average annual employment of 10 or few employees and lunenberg has not adopted this small commercial exemption to date so that um next slide is our recommendation by the board of assessors uh the board of assessors recommends a single tax rate and not a Splat I can't even talk sorry a split tax rate and does not recommend adopting a residential exemption an open space discount any small commercial exemption and this is the end of my presentation I'd like to welcome any questions uh that the board may have thank you Linda than you any questions yeah so the tax rate you presented is an estimate yeah when will we have the actual the intent is to print out and review uh the recap sheet tomorrow with the finance team then hit send at the endend of the day uh we're still fortunately towards the front end of the d review process I would expect us to have their approval uh shortly after Thanksgiving and the tax bills would then be printed and sent out um I I think I really think these numbers are spoton uh there might be a penny shift or something but I mean the fact is we still need them to go to do do get you know their approval before we can print bills and mail bills yes and you know where I'm going with the print bills and mail bills by December 31 you know I don't want to go there again well I can tell you uh today I actually got our files ready uh from Vision appraisal and RC which is the personal property and they're ready to go we have a consultant lined up to do a test and send those over into munus and hopefully everything will work I guess cuz I think I think the expectation was I think yours was too that you would have the final numbers by now and maybe even submitted to she can't until the board votes yeah we we cannot submit well we'll have the final number I mean I'm just is what's the obstacle is there something that needs to be well you vote tonight on uh you know whether the residential what the residential factor is if it's going to be a split tax rate right but then the actual rate if we say tonight single tax rate that rate is still estimate okay maybe it is what's stopping it from being an actual rate at this time that's what I'm trying to understand it's always estimated when we go to to the class tax classification hearing because numbers can change the accountant is still working and you know it it is always an estimate it doesn't really fluctuate that much but it all comes down to drr so let's say last year you had an estimate of $500,000 on a line item and this year it's $250 that's a drop of 50,000 they tend to question any change that's up or down by 10% I want to make sure like we're not going to run into any software glitches or you know stuff like let me just say that I did get a call from Wendy yesterday she was all nervous I think I told her hell no we were going forward tonight we'd have it done and I do want to say um that she and Izzy worked hard uh I also want to say I hired Linda 3 years ago in another community and saw her first tax classification hearing and I'm really pleased with the progress that's been made uh we're we're keenly aware of the concern that you have I don't know what we could do about it but I you know well I'm I got to tell you I'm nervous myself about it so today I got the files ready we have the consultant lined up um and hopefully it'll go into munus and he's supposed to assist us with it so I know munus has been I the hairs on the back of my neck stand up you know yeah yeah they do but we're doing our best uh we've been working really hard I've been oh I don't doubt I oh no I it and um believe me it shouldn't take a heroic effort the soft you know things should I agree but we're hoping that it goes well we at least yeah this will go into do tomorrow and I reviewed the tax recap reviewed the estimates I don't see any substantive issue I expect to have a rate within a week thank you all right thank you so much oh but I don't think you're done and you actually have to make your vote do you have any other questions oh I I have questions yes do okay so uh the tax levy change was 15% and then there's then there's a calculation of how you got the rate and then we have the history of the rate and of course I'd be the first to say that the history of the rate is hugely irrelevant and people just care about what their tax bill is but there's no slide in here that shows what the average tax bill is do you know what the average tax bill is as far as increase she did yeah I did mentioned what the bill is for this year but not the increase um I can actually well I just I want to know what the increase is from last year on the average tax bill okay um well um I can calculate that because um I can take if you want the average value last year and multiply by the 1410 or do you want yeah I know how to get to it I'm I'm just saying it's not in there I'm just asking you what it is yeah well there you can come up if you want to see so well I I don't have it calculated myself but she mentioned that the right glasses the uh fiscal year this was the average rate of the house right yep um last year the average house was 4814 17 this year it's 54937 and she said the average tax bill for fiscal year 25's housing value would be 7,255 18 I don't know exactly what it was the previous here but it was 481 417 so if we multiply that by the 1410 that was the amount last year $6 6,787 97 cents and 97 cents so so 7,255 would be this year's last year's was 6,787 and some change so the difference is about 467 $467 so $467 increase so can you just say the number again from last year yeah last year the average house um in lunenberg would have paid 6,000 $87.99 um this year they will pay $725 518 you said $467 increase an increase of $467 see what percent that is6 that's like 7% 7% Y and our Valu five 5% on values resid yeah it's about 6.8% y well there was an override right M actually the Deb exclusion the override is is what drives it up also so well there was no new debt exclusion no just carried over so that's nothing new there yeah so I'll ask my standard question is there any category of home that saw a larger increase than others in town um that would be something I'd have to get back to on uh but I do have do you have the recap you through this at the last meeting yeah let's see um yeah I want to say that the great majority was up 5% yeah um embarrassingly I cannot remember that exact number right now we have had quite a few homes though that are over a million um checking to see if you have the I don't have the I don't have that I didn't mean by individual homes I meant by class is is there any class or neighborhood no it was it was pretty consistent I remember going well wow that's mostly the same um I don't remember anything going up over 10% I remember most things being around 5% I think commercial was up 7% it was yeah yeah but I didn't see like a huge difference between indust uh between single families I didn't see a huge difference between Comm um uh blanking commcial commercial I didn't see a huge difference when we're looking at condos compared to residen it was just it seemed very consistent across the board our industrial we we did have nine new industrial condos um so that was really our only increase for industrial Goa well the commercial just isn't increasing industrial is increasing this well it's only 1% so yeah so that that's the thing um but I can get back to you on that if you'd like we've calculated it okay it's fine thank you all right any other questions I'm also I don't have any additional question I do uh it's kind of a followup to Mr Alonzo's question so when you know as I've learned that you know the goal is to get um every property within the 90th to 110th percentile and most of the time you land about 94 95% what was the starting uh and I think you're going to have to get back to us on this but i' like to know what the starting point was um for the diff the five different indexes as well as the variances within index one so in other words you know a couple years ago we were at a position where you know when the calculations were done index one was roughly you know 0.5 of assessment to sales ratio and so I'm wondering um what the lowest one was cuz you know that's obviously what triggered a huge correction and and recognition that you know a lot of data was was missing there whereas all the other indexes IND indices is that the right word uh during that time were all in like the 80th 85th percentile so their move up wasn't as much so that's I think kind of going to Mr lonzo's Question where was the largest shift um by index or home type and what was that you know what was the lowest ASR okay we I understand that that part of this is that you know you got how how you guys come to the valuations is completely removed from the impact on the homeowners and I do recognize that and that a lot of this is learned after the bills are printed but if you can get back to us on that that' be helpful sure can I know that we are are at 95% from assessment to sales ratio so that's exactly what we we started at 95 MH um and our sales were analyzed by Vision appraisal but I can get back to you on that on Deb and you want it within the five well I'm just yeah within with across the five I know index one really is like three parts it's a b and c essentially but yeah that's what I'm curious if there was anything that was an outlier something that was like you know 6 that's kind of what I I'm curious about yeah and that's what when we look at the sales we do look at the outliers and sometimes those sales might be disqualified yeah um and then if it's a second sale so those are analyzed yeah of your qualified sales the qualified sales correct yeah okay yeah we'll look into that and I'll get back to you thank you okay any other questions that I just have um one for information so we have two estimated bills already we got our fy2 q1 Q2 Bill the value the assess value on that bill is that's not that's the current assess value right that won't change with the Q3 and Q4 bills th those bills that already went out are estimated those are prelim bills the tax rate itself but the assessed value on that isn't there there's the assessed value is on that bill I'm not saying the bill itself but like on our on our GIS C our current card vision card whatever vision card y the cess value that's on there now that's not going to change corre no the we our values have already been approved so if I was to give you a property record card right now from our database that would be the current assessed value that would be applied to the tax rate so I'm saying people can go now and check their assessed value Y and they can hold on I want to clarify because now so what what I what R asked is that the q1 and Q2 estimated bills we got had valuations for properties that were not the updated ones that they are now because that was part of the process that your board went through correct exactly so they are updated and and that now that we have that and the levy now you can have a final Q3 and Q4 actual but that's correct if you go into and and look at your card what's it called if you go into if you go your Vision Property record card and I would recommend that they call our office to make sure because uh GIS or uh Cai only updates so often I just want to make sure that our values have been certified so if they call the office we will print out our property record card or we can give them their assessed value over the phone and that is the value that will be the basis for the bill going out on whatever the tax rate is so the ones online may not be up to date I've been checking on that um and CI is supposed to be updating them weekly but I tell people just to call and we're more than happy to give them a copy yeah it should be there are two cards online yes there's the CIA and they take a while to update Vision should be updated so we should look at the vision that's definitely the vision I think that I think that's good information for people to but anybody just to have another check in the system yeah but anybody that wants a property record card we can email them we'd be glad to review that with them so great thank you yep all right since this is a public hearing going to open it up to the public if they have any questions for you but I'll start with exactly I knew you wanted to speak I was going to start with any members of the board of assessors if Sarah or Jack if you want to come up first of all I want to be clear that hold on you got to get to the microphone right there uh John rabbit 314 towns har Road uh I am on the board of assessors but I am not speaking for the board of assessors we have not met to come to any kind of final speaking of the mic right right right speaking of the mic we haven't had a chance to really look at those numbers because Linda just got them and so I'm going to speak to you as a quality guy I have a little background in that and when you look at risk you look at three different things you look the probability of the occurrence the impact of the occurrence and the ability to detect a problem right with whether it's in process inspection final inspection or whatever a probability of incurrence well we've had one a few years it's not the same level but there is a distinct distinct possibility we have had you got to look at not just the Assessor's organization but the whole flow and we know we've had some some little fluctuations uh we know that they've been stressed to get these numbers together so we've sped them up is that will that will their processes handle the speeding up I don't know the impact well uh we know what the impact could be it's I'm I suspect it's significantly less the numbers that Linda presented to us last week in terms of the dispersion looks pretty darn good but just because they looked pretty good and the do approved them we can point to a couple years ago when the do did approve the numbers that we ran with the last thing and probably the most thing is our ability to detect I'm interested in seeing what kind of scrub went on throughout the entire process to make sure those numbers are correct what you do is you usually do a final inspection or you'll do an in process inspection if you have escapes or occurrences you try to understand what happened and what were the corrective actions because for every action there's an equal equal and opposite reaction so you're going to have some sort of a hiccup in fluctuation I as a quality person would say Okay marketing hold your horses for a week give us a chance to take a look at seeing what we can find and dig out in that particular period of time uh I do understand that we do have to get those tax bills but I don't want a recurrence of that and in fact I was elected on the promise that we would do everything we could to make sure it wouldn't happen so here we go uh in terms of probability of occurrence eh the impact eh the ability detect I don't I haven't seen anything yet and I haven't had a chance to I absolutely believe Linda's numbers Linda's numbers are really good as Carter as you would know but uh I I have questions and I think that our board has not had a chance to review this and that we need to have that opportunity so as a quality guy sounds like you're trying to make a recommendation for us my recommendation is that put it on hold for a week there you go thank you all right Sarah um I just want to state to our select board and people who are listening that our property values and our our um our assessment values were reviewed by Vision vision went forward and recommended the adjustments that we needed to make to put all of our properties in the appropriate range based on sales as Linda reported um the only thing that is new today that has not been fully reviewed by the board of assessors are the numbers that got plugged in to get our full tax levy because they had uh Linda had to meet with the finance director to make those final numbers and I think that was what slide 10 um yes and I actually did go through that with Brian Leon the chair of the board of assessors this afternoon even though I did not get to look at them until tonight cuz I was at work but Bri went through them we reviewed the presentation together this afternoon and I looked through them um this evening and those Mr chair look reasonable my understanding is that our board is only hearing the tax classification yes so to the previous speaker who's on the very board who is requiring the numbers all we're deciding is that we're going to have a split rate and are we going to accept the exemptions or not and that the numbers are going to be from their board am I correct in saying that yes and we we accepted uh the numbers uh from Vision at our last meeting so there is no in in in both of your minds there is no reason for us to delay our decision tonight no no okay no all right well I'll open it up to any other members of the public that wants to speak thank you Mr chairman not Dan Proctor 1529 massab obviously a business owner in town so I'm very happy with the presentation that uh Linda and Sarah made was very professional so I would like to keep the tax rate the way it is we pay enough in taxes as business owners we don't need to pay anymore thank you thank you anyone else in the room all right seeing none we will go to zoom uh Mr Fortune let me ask you to un unmute sure thank you John Fortune 50 HL Drive uh thank you for the presid presentation Linda uh it looked good I think as uh people were concerned as I am about the different site indexes uh what we were caught up with a couple of years ago was Waterfront versus non-waterfront do you have any further information on the average uh value of a home that's on Waterfront versus non-waterfront uh or the changes that were in that specific site index hello one second someone's going to come back up to answer that thank you I can actually if you'd like to send me an email I have that downstairs um I don't believe there was much of an increase to the Lakes but um if you want to send me an email I can indicate that to you I just don't want to quote anything that I don't have right now physically with me okay and do you have do you able to see my email on the presentation um no but I can find it that's problem okay yeah or call the office and I'd be glad to give you that information okay very good all right thank you I just want to say I'm embarrassed to say I didn't think to bring that sheet with me because I found them so unremarkably different like they're not that different from each other across all five site indexes so I didn't even think of it as something to bring with me all right thank you Sarah all right thanks John all right Mr Bowen hi how's everybody doing today great how are you uh John Bowen 162 Highland Street uh I'm actually um uh I'm concerned about a couple of things um I can appreciate Mr Pro's public comment as a business owner um I my myself I'm business owner but I run a business uh an internet business um that being said um I am for uh the split tax rate and I know there's a number of other folks are and I'd just like to highlight a couple of points uh the amount of money that's being spent right now by people in the water district is actually an increase in tax to be able to replace things that need to be done so we'd be paying additional money the override we're paying additional money uh wide uh and businesses have opportunities means and availability of resources to be able to increase their revenues to be able to offset an extra couple thousand dollar a year where a homeowner does not particularly I believe it's 1300 elderly residents that are in town um I'm looking at all these factors uh I'm also looking at smaller businesses with less than 10 employees uh on the exemption and I think that the exemption uh for small businesses is an important one now I grew up in Melrose uh which is an affluent Community was an affluent Community when I grew up there and I can tell you this that one thing that Melrose did uh is that it took care of its town because its businesses in town agreed to pay more in taxes to be able to help those in town who cannot and they do have apartment buildings and things like that in town and it did benefit that Community if you drive through that Community they have great roads to drive to that Community they have great businesses they have well pointed buildings uh they don't have dilapitated structures on their town properties like we do in this town um and I think that um uh to just do a single tax rate across the board it's just not healthy for this community um I don't Envision us taking in more business uh businesses but I think the majority of the businesses are under 10 employees um I know places like chapol Lane and some other uh business uh have less than 10 employees working for them and it'll benefit them to have that exemption uh no and I'm just mentioning them alone but I mean you know you have uh restaurants in town less than 10 you have uh other businesses uh small businesses like uh you know web development companies uh security companies and so on and so forth there's a lot of less than 10 businesses that'll benefit from that exemption so they won't be hurt uh businesses with larger than that well they're making more money they have more means and I know Mr brocker makes a fortune in town because he does all the septic work but in any case uh that's I say that in just Mr Brer um but overall you know um you know larger corporations and companies have means I have means as an internet business I spend a substantial amount of money monthly on Advertising just to be able to get internet business so I understand the cost of doing business the more I spend on Advertising the more hits that I get to my business business the more sales that I make and I can increase those sales based on increasing my advertising dollars and I think that is business's responsibility and it shouldn't be falling on the back of the taxpayers because what else are we going to do are we inviting more businesses into town no we're not do we have a plan for that no we don't then since we are stuck where we're at then we should basically stay where we're at and I think my recommendations uh will fit into the narrative and I think that the assessor statements that that's going to hurtt businesses is an inappropriate statement for her position thank you all right thank you Mr Bowen are there any other public comments all right seeing none we'll go ahead and close the public hearing is there a motion to close the public hearing I move that we close the public hearing second any additional discussion those in favor say I I those oppos no all right the public hearing is now closed so let's start discussing uh we'll start with the split versus single tax rate are we in favor of accepting the Assessor's recommendations to go with a single tax rate yes yes yes all right so yes for me too pretty straightforward all right and about the exemptions are we on board with the recommendations to not adopt the three exemptions that were presented to us yes yes yes yes all right same here pry straight forward you looking for a motion I am looking for a motion now um Mr chair I move for the select board to adopt a single uh tax classification make sure I got that wording right uh single rate uh tax classification and to not adopt uh any available exemptions second any additional discussion those in favor say I I those oppose no the motion passes unanimously thank you very much Linda for coming in and for your great presentation for answering all the questions and John and Sarah as well thank you for coming in thank you Jack I don't know why I called you John by the way this his name I know but I never call him John all right all right so moving on I don't see Anthony here so we'll skip to the request from Little League which I learned is not actually what you guys are you guys are not little league uh to use the old primary school property for t-ball in 2025 so it's pretty straightforward request but you can say whatever you'd like sure uh yeah TJ Laughlin 207 Rolling Acres Road um lunenberg youth baseball and softball uh Little League's the old name um just a high Lev request is to do the same agreement we had last year um for exactly the same reasons uh skate park didn't happen last year I think they plan on making that happen this year so all the same reasons all the same rules recommendations all that good stuff so I'm assuming this agreement is like last year's agreement right it is yes okay do you know what dates you actually were using the property for um we start kind of when the snow melts as soon as it gets not you know uh slick and muddy um so that that can be sometime in April um usually late April early May sorry sorry any other questions you have you have the insurance still yep same I have no objection to this being extended for the next season how did last year go any issues uh it was it was mixed um we had some really great comments it's a different experience than where the tball field used to be um the the old t-ball field is kind of fenced in and kind of a a grally you know we had some feedback back before that it's like parking lot feeli and this is kind of a big open field the the families can kind of sit in the outside with their um with their chairs and they can bring family and it's not crowded and it's actually not dangerous so the t-ball field at Marshall the parking lot is right there and so the kids and the family of the kids are running around in the parking lot and they have the playground but they're right there so that benefit of everything off to the side with the parking lot actually um was really useful um but you got a mixed review cuz it wasn't as dangerous no the mixed review was that the field isn't really well kept we we just made it work so we had a four-wheeler or a truck drive on it so we had to repair that and it's not the most flat which I think you you guys even called out last year um but the kids can't hit that far in t-ball so we made that work um and we had some poison ivy um so we had to remediate that and there's a hill in the back so we we put up a temporary fence to cuz kept throwing the balls down the hill and actually the fences became a Target so the kids would throw the ball over the fence down the hill so we tried we did our best uh but overall is good um and same thing as last year is we don't we not asking for a permanent allocation there um really just to accommodate to skate park and then as Marshall Park project moves on or whatnot we'll figure it out from there but one more year hopefully skate park gets built which I assume is he's here and then we'll figure it out from there all right cool any other questions no I just want to comment though that uh me oh sorry I guess I don't have many questions either other than I'm glad to hear that we're using the property um and I also played t-ball there back when the school was still built so it's funny to have the come back around when I was in kindergarten I will say there's an achievement today is Mr Jeff knows what t-ball is this year which that I did actually know I didn't learn that little league is like a separate it's a special organization yeah all right exactly cool all right so is there a motion two move that we approve Ray sorry Michael Ray has two things not open um first I wanted to commend you know the adults that kind of oversee this for the resourcefulness of all the parents I know it's been a uh you guys have all had it kind of dip into your own Pockets um to kind of make this work um and then you know the second thing is um you know the municipal building design committee as we talk about parking um for the design you know I think everyone envisions that it's going to eat into a portion of what was or what is now a green space and I think it would be helpful given that you've used the space um if you can attend um a upcoming uh Municipal Building design committee meeting and vocalize um you know the need to kind of replicate in in many ways what I'm getting at is there's a hill that kind of drops off and it seems that you know if we were to take a fourth of that green space or a third of it away that that may have an impact if Marshall Park takes a little bit longer uh that may have an impact on the usability of it and so it would be helpful if you can kind of provide some of those like minimum dimensions of how big a green space needs to be so that way um as we plan a parking lot maybe we plan a little fill um in in a back area there so that would be helpful awesome yeah I definitely consider that I've watched a few of the meetings now but uh happy to attend all right I will let you know when they're up coming um we do have public comments on both ends and then of course the public can speak at any time during the meeting so if you happen to drop in you can always just drop in say hey I miss public comment but I got something to say awesome all right thank you thanks and I fully support the request as well so is there a motion I move that we approved the request to use the old primary school property for t-ball with the lunenberg youth baseball and softball Inc as presented tonight second any additional discussion those in favor say I I those oppos no the motion passes unanimously thank you for coming in tonight TJ thank so much appreciate it all right so I was looking for Anthony but I guess should have been looking for someone else uh so we'll go to the meeting with the lunenberg skate park for the request for letter of support for Grants and Michael R did you have a I did not I was not able to complete the letter but I will make sure that we get that depending on how the board responds I know you guys have a date of December 31st so I'll make sure we have that for our next meeting okay so I'm I'm here to support my buddy Anthony kyoo my name is Greg Roy uh 105 Chestnut Street I'm not on the board anymore of the skate park um my son was a skate park kid I'm a consultant to the skate park and I have no no idea what we're asking you for this but I'm here to uh stand here and uh hopefully cover for my buddy I know we had something at school tonight so just L he's applying for a grant through T-Mobile um to close up the Gap got basically he just wants to submit a letter of support that's signed off on by the select board so obviously yep yeah we would appreciate your support uh you know we we're north of uh we're north of 200,000 I'm not sure the exact uh numbers I there's a there's a Del a small Delta that we need to close that Gap um we do intend to move um as quickly as we can um with the with the project so we're trying to close that Gap with haste uh we have received some other you know private donations they keep trickling in so um yeah wish I could share more with the folks that's really all we need yeah I think the only other thing is uh adding on to it uh the chair just said was that uh they had applied for this grant previously it's a $50,000 Grant and it comes through T-Mobile quarterly and they had and that you guys have applied for it previously and were denied and the reason for the declination was that they wanted to see more letters of support from the community um and so you know there's no stronger letter of support than from the you know Town executive for a project and So speaking with Anthony briefly I did you know he did send me the grant information so you know if the board is willing to uh go you know accept this request I have no problem drafting the letter I'm familiar with kind of I've done enough Grant review I'm familiar with what these things look like what they need to say that I can pair it and have the Board review it and he didn't mention that that so long as he has it by the deadline December 31st he's good to go great we we've committed just for anybody in the room that's listening we we have committed on in an ongoing fashion to do this with private dollars and this is you know part of that commitment it's not it's not any we're not asking standing here asking for funds from town meeting or anything like that so we certainly do appreciate support you can provide in this capacity in our um Endeavor to continue running continue raising private support and you know you've been a very a strong we've said this over and over again every time I come here I I we view this as a partnership you guys have always been um terrific and we appreciate that um throughout the process so so like you guys have it figured out more than I do well I fully support it and I would be willing to you know allow you to write it and really not even have to review it again because I trust that it's going to be fine for the purposes but it's up to what other board the board probably need to sign it so I think maybe what what we if I make the motion I'll I'll make it so that way we can I'll go ahead and make the motion um I move for the select board to provide a letter of support uh for the L skate Parts uh T-Mobile Grant second any additional discussion yeah and so what else reviewing this before it gets sent yeah what I can do is I can prepare this have it for our next meeting so that way we can word Smith and make changes again we have some time to provide this so will you keep Anthony in the loop on that I will he and I will um review it together and perfect all right great those in favor say I I was oppos no the motion passes unanimously seconded it was y oh okay yeah Amanda second okay thank you thanks for coming in Mr Roy all right so it looks like you guys have an agenda that isn't the most current it was revised on Thursday or Friday um to include an appointment to the agricultural commission it is on the agenda it's not on the paper agenda that's in front of you so we'll move on to the ratification of the appointment of agricultural commission Ryan stobber term to expire June 2027 I'll just ask you to introduce yourself and why you're interested in being on the agricultural commission I'm Ryan stobber uh I live on Pierce hav I know some of you here it's good to see you guys um yeah I grew up in the EG world my dad graduated Cornell with dairy science I spent a lot of time in Stockbridge in UVM and I like to farm I don't own a farm I work a real job like in a business but I don't I help out all my friends who farm and I find it rewarding and I'm trying to help the adcon bring more community events to the people I think there's a lot of small farms in town um just trying to get the word out see what lunenberg produces and and I think they're kind of fun the egg fair was great and that kind of put a little bit more life into me wanted to rejoin I joined in 2015 and I I resigned in 2019 I think so I'm coming back I think it's going to be fun I think we got we we have a good group of people and I think we're just going to do some fun events in town well it's good to know the event inspired you to volunteer again yes all right I'll open it up to any questions or comments from the board I'm glad to see him volunteer I mean it's good always a good sign when somebody was on something and comes back to it so and and I know Ryan so I know he'll be excellent in this role and I think he'll f it's actually nice having someone in the agcom who has an agcom background but actually isn't in agcom so brings a different perspective which is nice yeah thank you all right is there a motion then now this is an appointment by the board we're not ratifying this is actually our appointment correct so I move that we appoint Ryan stobber to the agricultural commission with a term to expire and I need somebody to fill in that date June 2027 June 202 7 True second it's a sorry full member position yes it's a full member position yes we had a question from the audience all right so it was motion was main seconded right M any additional discussion those in favor say I I I those oppos no the motion passes unanimously all right so congratulations thank you for wanting to volunteer again thank you all right so we'll move on to the interim Town manager report uh first I would would like to repeat the thank you uh to all who took time out of their evening last Tuesday to attend the special town meeting uh I think the debate which was Spirited showed us additional items of concern to work on over the coming months uh I'll be working with uh the chair of the budget fast Force to do a Talk of the Town as soon as we can lock his schedule in uh to try to generate a little more interest uh from the public uh in their work with respect to our projects the library exterior paint project was completed within time frame and on budget uh punch list is all done we are awaiting the delivery of the warranty to issue the certificate of completion the adult Activity Center generator was inspected uh and in doing so the uh electrical inspector uh pulled a a panel on some work that hadn't uh been part of that contract but they were just checking something found a little bit of corrosion so there was a small change order for that the fence change order uh with the funding that you approved at your meeting last week has been issued and there will be some minor regrading associated with that so of the $122,000 you approved it came to a total of $2,033 the adult Activity Center Roofing work commenced this week uh and if weather holds we hope it'll be closed out by the week's end so far uh in the first two days here no change orders have been needed we await submittal from the contractors for the be ppw roof uh and flooring and we expect those projects to start honor about December 1 the town hall roof and Library teen room projects are both expected to start by January 1 and the contracts are being circulated for final submissions and signature the municipal building design committee uh is meeting tomorrow evening with their preferred vendor uh and we're awaiting the results of that so we can proceed to get that contract uh signed up up as well I have asked the facilities director to push forward with the HVAC replacement bids at the adult Activity Center they're part of your uh fiscal 23 capital budget uh but given all the other projects and I'd rather he spend a little more time doing some clerking of the works keeping his eye on it it'll probably be January 1 before they go out to bid but by the time we get bids in contract awarded uh I think that will be you know probably on or about April 1 for actual installation get them tested for the the cooling season so that'll actually work out uh to date we have not received any formal questions on the Ritter projects so we've not had to issue an agenda and bids remain due on the 3rd of December the audio update for the bolat room is scheduled to begin on tues Tuesday November 26th and be completed at the end of the day on Wednesday November 27th uh there won't be able to be meetings uh in here uh due to the changes uh in the audio and the uh cable uh controls as I understand it uh we have notified all the Committees and the staff today and there weren't any meetings scheduled for those days anyways with respect to our recruitment efforts uh interviews for the the Council on Aging director took place today and a second round uh that is with additional candidates uh will happen next week and finish that up uh and at present it looks like we'll be able to have some minor overlap with Miss dority and the new hire and she's also miss dh's indicated a willingness to come back uh after January 1 for any training uh or questions um we uh had a little bit of disappointment in that we had completed interviews yet again for sewer business manager uh and made an offer but unfortunately the preferred candidate declined our offer so at this point the position remains posted along with a police officer um a videographer for pack and an assistant to the Sewer business manager so those are the four positions um Curr being posted uh and if it hasn't been done yet we will be posting we'll take another run at the network administrator uh trying to get that position filled uh and dealt with the following boards and committees have vacancies the agricultural commission one of them uh filled here tonight uh architectural preservation District commission Board of Health concom cultural Council finance committee green communities historical Commission Library Board of Trustees the master plan steering committee Public Access cable committee storm water task force and Zoning Board of Appeals um I want to Circle back to the Personnel committee each of that first group have sufficient members to meet and Quorum and conduct business the Personnel committee does not so I wanted to address that specifically uh because there was quite a bit of conversation about that at the special town meeting uh the APC and the historical commission have made a request to be combined into one uh I have developed an approach the Town Council believes will work uh subject to town meeting approval at the annual town meeting but we're going to bring it in front of you uh at your next meeting to get your formal indication as to whether or not you wish Council and I to work on this and I'll invite the chair of the apdc uh and the chair of the historical Commission uh to that meeting I believe it's uh December 3rd if member serves me correctly uh we did uh talk a little bit last night uh at the budget task force uh with the tax bills coming up possibly doing a stuffer uh into it 8 and 1/2 by 11 uh with the uh patterned along the the lines of the letter that the chair wrote for the special town meeting booklet uh trying to encourage volunteerism um I just need to look at the budget it's about 1,000 bucks but I want to make sure that the the budget can handle that um and I want to uh I actually was sort of a little bit of um I guess telepathic here because uh I had asked Annie to start slotting the chair of a committee onto each select board meeting to speak to the board and the public you know for a few short minutes of what they were doing and the achair appeared uh to talk to the community about the kinds of events they're going to be doing and so uh we're going to try to get a chair of a committee just just for a few minutes to try to explain to the community what that committee does what events they engage in the role that they are and hopefully someone will see those little uh you know Snippets uh and perhaps generate some interest within uh additional volunteers I didn't I just want to point out I didn't see that first before I when I read this but we do normally do that around this time of year right in December we get um updates from our appointed commissions and committees so it is right around the time that we do normally do that so that kind of works out actually um and I will add that as a note to the procedures manual that we really should be working on uh in terms of my personal activity as you know I attended the special town meeting the select board meeting the budget task force last night as well as the Marshall Park team meeting to firm up their turn back number uh working with the finance team on the tax recap uh today um with Linda and um and Izzy uh and I signed off on our property insurance renewal uh for 2 years uh we'll have a 0% increase for FY 26 according to the letter that we received and a 25% cap on any increases for FY 27 um if only our health insurance was as positive uh we did meet as I told you I believe with the Meer representative um we met again to look at our L ratio report uh we paid out or they paid out on our behalf about 102% of the premiums that we sent to them they try to be at around 9 % so that they have enough money for small reserve and their administrative expenses uh so um we were told that we may be at the higher Trend rate this is not a specific number they'll come in they'll tell us what it's looking like uh and uh the trend rate is at 12 to 15% is what we were told um we won't get our actual renewals as you know until mid January uh we'll try to have some follow-up conversations uh we're looking at the decrements the high service I have a meeting um High deductible plans uh we meet with Town Council tomorrow to talk about whether or not and how to put those forward uh we continue to try to catch up on our public records request in interestingly our last public records request for a list of our last 10 public records requests so we have public records request for public records requests what a great use of our time um well it's it's their right um uh but we'll keep trying to catch up on on those um sometimes I mean I started looking for a batch of about aund I don't know I don't want to exaggerate 25 plus or minus today and most of it was pretty innocuous but you do have to go through all of them because there's personal emails in some of them there's personal telephone numbers in some of them um and I don't want to be the guy that lets out somebody's personal information so uh in this one particular records request uh it was actually pretty easy to pull the records uh but now um we'll just have to work through them tomorrow um at the staff meeting tomorrow we will debrief on the STM the special town meeting as as you will shortly uh and lay out a work plan to undertake the special town meeting article relative to the Brooks house uh and that is all I have for you this week unless there are any questions with respect to any of that or any other matters any questions for Carter I have one is my memory correct this is the second time we have a sewer business manager candidate that rejected our offer uh I think it's actually the third okay can you speak to or is it it all for the same reason is it anything related to what we discussed at special town meeting um what's a takeaway message from these three strikes and we're out well I'm I'm not sure that the person that rejected our offer frankly merited uh the request that they were the monetary request they were making uh the other ch challenge uh that we have from time to time is sometimes we have excellent employees uh who leave us and perhaps they're at I I'm not going to use dollar figures but the next person coming in wants incrementally more and there is some resistance uh within the organization to paying that and I understand that you had a good employee they've left you you like them they were making X and now comes new unknown quantity that wants X+ unfortunately that is sometimes the marketplace you've hired somebody back here and they've gone up a little bit but the market has gone completely crazy um we are we did sit with Bill we asked him to look at per manners in which if at all the job could be reorganized I I don't want to get into you know great detail but it is there a way to send the billing file to prepare the billing file and send it out to a private printing company Bill trust others I I don't know that takes a lot of time right now um and you know we'll we'll have that conversation with them um I I I don't know what to say to you this has been one of the longer jobs it's been open since I've been with you although the they've all been open for a bit I have a followup question about that job specifically if it's okay for your turn um there's no there are no turns by no I know I just but we usually go down the line yeah which is which I'm against so you should just discuss when you come up um the sewer billing I am concerned about that um has there been any thought about maybe a temporary employee or you know looking at a staffing agency which I know we've done in the past to fill vacancies like this even just to move some of the things along I mean I know our previous employee who is my mom is helping when she can but yeah is there anything being done in the meantime to to try to move this along cuz that's going to be a problem and I'm not sure how or when the billing is going to go out so I don't know I'm sure you're having those conversations but we we are having those conversations we did authorize uh overtime for one of the current employees to at least process the accounts payable um to make sure the bills are getting moved through the system uh the fory has been terrific about coming in and giving us some additional time we are going to talk with the contractor uh and Bill um I suggested that he talk with the water district itself they generate the initial readings is it possible that they could generate a billing file and send that out what would that take them what would we need to pay them what would that look like uh in terms of finding a uh temporary I I just don't know that we could call up you know Savvy Staffing or somebody like that around here and find somebody skilled in this area uh but we are trying to think outside the box uh and look look at every possibility um not an easy spot to be in I get it just I think as a comment you know our our previous uh full-time sort of business manager um thought that the grade rating was uh too low for what the job entailed and it sounds like what you're saying is that most of the applicants are concurring is that accurate uh they're not saying that the grade itself is too low they're asking for a step um they're basically act asking for TOP Step okay so top how okay I fall so I mean top step in a grade is still usually more money than the bottom of the next step of the next grade M yeah so top step in that grade is over 100,000 I think it's over 100,000 for top step in that grade I believe I don't know off the top okay but it sounds like they're wanting more money than what I the I have to suggest that when you have vacancies you need to take a step back and always consider a couple of questions MH do you wish to continue to provide the service in this case yes you have to you have a sewer department is there any other way to provide all or some of the services possibly does the job description need to be reconsidered and is it appropriately rated and I think that all too often communities there's a vacancy and they just advertise the vacancy uh and so what I've asked Bill uh and Julie to work with me to go through that process um in the meantime we'll we'll continue to put it out there we'll try to figure out some workarounds but I'm not convinced that every time a job is vacant you just try to refill it exactly the same way any other questions all right thank you Carter all right we'll move on to Old business and up first is arpa so I compiled a list of all of their requests so we can go through line by line and start with getting status updates discussing all of them let me just pull it up real quick and share my screen in our dve can you just tell us which file it is um it should be the only Excel spreadsheet under arpa okay um it's like committed and uncommitted yep complete list all right so I'm sharing my screen now me just move this over we have Zoom blocking the way all right so the first one town manager consultant for arpa reporting which was reprogrammed into arpa Administration and IT staffing that was originally for $60,000 but it's listed as zero because you'll see the second request on this list payroll staff salaries of $72,400 that includes the $60,000 those those two were lump together so the first one is closed out the second one is total paid to date 33,000 just about so is there anything else you want to say on this one Carter may ask you to orient us to just the columns and can you just explain kind of How It's formatted here yeah so requester that's pretty straightforward that's the board department or organization that requested the money and received the money the project name is what it's for committed as of 1119 2024 so that takes into consideration some of the reallocations that we did so there's amount originally committed I think that's pretty straightforward so an example for this one it would be you know Municipal Building design committee that would be 225,000 right we reallocated 40,000 so what was actually committed is 185,000 how can I miss the line when it's total paid to date is the amount of money that has gone to that organization or department for the project and remaining balance is the amount that still remaining whether it needs to be realated or not so this one is one that Ezekiel put in it's um so that is so for some of the pricing or projects that came out to a different price amount obligated is the amount that was the actual total price of it all right so like as is there anything that you want to add on that column yeah no as example like for the ambulance hold on one second Tom has a question I I just because in order I saw that none of this was available until today before I came here today I printed this out cuz following it on a spreadsheet and now from the time I did that which was like quarter to 5 till now I can't even follow along because it's already been modified like it's it's so crazily frustrating that I cannot prepare for the meetings because we get stuff even though we asked for this last Wednesday we get stuff literally less than an hour or an hour and a half before we're going to go over with our meeting I mean how can anybody keep up with that I mean we just can't keep doing this well it was still being worked on as of 300 p.m. as EO went through and updated a lot of it and it was in the drive at that point it was updated after that so I yeah my print the time for us to go through all of it yeah but this is not the time yeah this is the time for us to discuss not to refine where where things were as you're going through cuz I'm looking at my list I'm like where are these things anyway it's just very frustrating so a as an example if I look at ambulance for select boore what I how I would read this is that we committed 506 but the actual amount of it is 461 uh 1,42 whatever and so there's a difference I guess when I'm that okay so if we can just follow the ambulance line just so I can try to make sense of it so we have 506 committed we get to the total paid amount we've only paid 44,000 the amount obligated is 461 I haven't done the math but if we do 44,000 it's 505 32344 Balan is the difference between the addition of the total paid to date and amount obligated compared to the original amount committed that's the remaining balance okay um there's actually a formula in the cell if you if you click on it I don't yeah but I don't understand the formula that's in there the amount obligated for the ambulance says the formula makes up that 461000 says 452 693 plus 83 4996 I have no where do those numbers come from all right so it might have been helpful to have Ezekiel here for this um some of it is a little in the weeds for the accounting purposes you know it's kind of at least my initial take on what we're looking at right now um but some of them are very specific like one of them for example I know I think it was the IV pumps right it required uh like an initial payment of 15% and that is the amount that's been sent out paid to date um and the remainder is the rest of the price so then there's a remaining balance which is helpful for Ezekiel right part of the spreadsheet is also for Ezekiel not just us I think it's more important to look at the number committed and whether or not any of that needs to be reallocated tonight or not and to ask for specific updates on each of these as we feel is appropriate but a lot of this is a little in the weeds that's Ezekiel specifically created for that I to me it looks like the remaining balance column sometimes indicates hey it came in less than we planned and that's what we have extra and sometimes it's because none of it's been spent yet yep and it I think it would be those should be separated out cuz the whole goal is to find out what do we have that's not committed we have that that's that's in here well I saw that number I guess I I don't know if I have confidence in column C column C is has been triple quadruple checked by me Carter Ezekiel and all of this is updated so if you go down for the total that's the current amount that is allocated I'm sorry I'm looking at the Google Drive is column C committed column yes okay uh less any reallocations that have occurred to date so does the committed column the amount in the committed column reflect if the if it's completed and it came in under the original if we know about a price change and we have adjusted for it then yes so I'll give you an example of that if you look at the library exterior envelope we originally committed 60,00 000 it came in at 33,000 there's 27,000 left over to reallocate 15 of which if you look at the comment we already reallocated last week and 12 of which is still remaining to be reallocated well you actually committed that to the generator no the 12 no that was potentially for the tree removal all right I understand it's frustrating look at this and not fully understanding where all these are at but I think if we just continue going it'll have an opportunity for us to ask questions and get them answered as needed are there any projects that you guys want an update on I'm not going to go through line by line why are there any we know of that are in danger of not so committed this is this is the um the arpa committed definition not just yet no so committed Is Us allocating the money okay so are any of these in the committed column in danger of actually not meeting the December 31 deadline yes which would mean we would okay which ones cuz I the library which part of it which 107 and why is that without a source of contingency right we can't or shouldn't execute the contract and how much do we need for contingency we were looking at 25 we were looking at 25,000 yeah so 25% contingen the the problem is the smaller the number it doesn't take much of an item to really blow it up okay and the contingency is the one that we were discussing last Wednesday about putting that money into tree removal so it would be available to go to that if it comes up after December 31st to Rene's question the rest of them um as a for instance you approved I think $74,000 for a stretcher it's not on the state bid list it can't be a sole procurement we don't have time to put a bid spec together so what we did was we sent the chief back to the drawing board to find out other Cooperative purchasing programs that may have put this type of stretcher out to bid uh whether it's Plymouth County Consortium uh Metropolitan Planning Commission uh there are a number of these kinds of consortiums jpt and others and he found one that in fact the fire chiefs Association belongs to and they bid that so now we're in the process of just making sure we have the backup material so we can go ahead and sign that contract they're not huge wrinkles but we do find them as we work our way through this so the only one that I'm really concerned about is the teen room did you get an answer about from Town Council about uh the tree service maneuver yes yes and I didn't get a chance to pull it off uh pull the email off the short answer is uh that we can do what we proposed if the money came to us straight from the treasury Department turns out for some reason yours didn't yours came through the state which means we need to go through the original arpa rules all these projects I believe meet that test now I sent back an email of yeah but so I don't see how that challenges the Baseline proposal you're saying if it's done under this set of rules yeah you can do that but now you got to look at this set of rules I've sent that email out uh when I got the follow-up response I don't have that but I do not believe that it is a problem that said I want to get the formal response from Council to satisfy concerns so something that the library trustees mentioned to me um was that if they need uh additional funds for the teen center that they can lean on to the Friends of the lunenberg public library for that difference so if if the issue is that we need a $20,000 $25,000 contingency um could it be that the friends of the lunenberg public library provides it still complying with prevailing wage requirements Etc you can it would just be a GI do you consider a pledge the equivalent of cash on hand sufficient to run the risk of signing the contract you did ask us to look at payroll I've included a memorandum on that this early in the year I'm not sure that there is payroll to generate an internal contingency uh but as long as the source of the contingency can be identified uh yes the the contract can be signed all right I can follow up with the because they they mentioned that to me previously I will follow up with them to see if they are still good on that offer because you know as as the chair expressed to me they want the product to move forward and if it's a matter of small not small but 20,000 30,000 he felt confident that they could bridge that divide it it may be nothing I don't know till we open walls all right I'll follow I'll follow up with them to see if what kind of commitment they can make that way that contract can get signed and if they can provide that contingency and I'll have him uh reach out as well Carter to you that way you guys have that direct I'll sign a contract in my official capacity not as an individual but sure all right thank you but that's that's the only project that really has me a little bit nervous we have $222,000 that hasn't even been allocated so we should be able to resolve that in one vote of this board I I think the issue is that we're not going to know the contingency need until after December 31st well that's why we have that contingency plan if we wanted to go with that that we reached out to Town Council for so it's up to us whether or not that's what we want to pursue we could allocate that and have that contingency plan from ARA funds if we wanted to just up to us to decide all right are there any other questions about projects that were're currently committed on we had questions last week about some of the quotes were out of date do you have clarification on that um the I'd have to go back and look but I believe the body warn cameras quote came back in spot on uh I think it was was the DPW excavator in the trailer I think that was I don't believe I have any other quotes um back in yet that I asked to have refreshed but I did get the body worn cameras back um and we have to resolve which Cooperative we can purchase the the lift stretcher through before I can get a final price mhm and there is also the fencing that came in today 33 over so if we wanted to allocate that with arpa that's an option as well instead of figuring out a different way to come up the change order on the generator the fencing and the related work that is in now uh the roofing so far nothing um everything seems fine so really the contingency that you need is for the teen center yeah I think everything else we can we can work out okay so do you want to still propose to the board that we move forward with your contingency plan since we heard back from Town Council well I want to firm that up but I still believe that's a viable plan okay if you have an alternative plan You' like us to pursue such as was just mentioned I'm happy to pursue that as well all right I think it it um if I may request uh it may be helpful if um you know I I don't know when The Correspondents came in from Town Council but it's always helpful when uh those are forwarded to the full board so that way you know we can have uh the most information available uh around 4:50 this afternoon thank you all right I've not seen it either FYI all right so I think that's the only things that are remaining right now it's deciding if we want to do that contingency plan deciding if we want to allocate $33 for the fencing other than that um everything is not needing to be reallocated at least I'll put it that way um and then there's a remainder of $222,450 that we do need to commit as well don't we need to formally reallocate the parks money did we do that Marshall yes I did have a question uh we can formally deallocate um that money or update the allocation from 1 million to what is 222 2 thou $20,250 um so we can do that I I think on that note I I my only question took um through you Mr chair to the uh interim Town manager is uh is the Parks Commission under contract I think the answer is yes are they under contract for the $2,250 they are not as of yet because when you decide if you're going to spend this $2,250 we have to effectively stop the contracts they're with now and issue a new task order with the current numbers so they have an umbrella contract but we've got to amend that if you will to issue a very specific task work order is that in process yes okay and we're confident that'll be done within the next month once you tell me you're continuing with this project yes I I have to say that I think the park turnback caught everyone by surprise we've known it less than I think 3 weeks but I do want to thank Julie and Chris Ruth and and and I know I've kind of been a bit of an ogre to them but we have really pushed out in the last 6 weeks some of these projects go back to fiscal 22 and fiscal 23 uh on the capital side and these arpa projects have been here for over a year so I am confident that we can get those task orders written and executed in time do we want to make a motion to change the allocation for the Marshall Park project from $1 million to $2,250 so moved second any additional discussion those in favor say I I I those oppos no the motion passes unanimously um this is kind of a minor question but the um The Village at fla Hill trustees I I thought that that work was done um are we just is there am I missing it says 0 has been paid the historical commission uh work has done we've actually paid those invoices out I'm sorry detention Basin that we I I'll have to double check we didn't send them any money we don't send money out ahead of time M but it is fully under contract right the work was done that's my record I thought it was finished yeah I thought it was complete like a month or so ago yeah yeah I'll I'll double check with bill tomorrow at the staff meeting so of the $222,450 um so in this uncommitted request it it looks like several kind of coming in the last um month or so and then uh the rest of it seems to be historical as of August of this year but yeah I didn't go back till last year to no add them in so we did receive new requests um during the past week so we got some from the lunenberg historical society and the boys and girls club as well so the boys and girlss Club put in requests for the remainder of the FY 25 after school program for their payroll uh they're asking for the full amount of 100,000 that's available or um that still needs to be paid out for that program um knowing very well that we might allocate less five computers so that they can have coding and digital literacy education classes in the amount of $564 195 3D print in the amount of $699.99 one passenger van in the in the amount of $ 48,6 and then the lunberg historical society is requesting HVAC upgrades for the attic $499 wire shelving units $1,400 seating for their display in meeting rooms for $4,000 computer upgrades $999.99 and a glass negative scanner in the amount of $1,000 $299 and pretty much all of those quotes are in the drive as well yeah I appreciate um you know I know that was mentioned at the last meeting um I think I brought up that you I was in favor of more money going to the historical society and the boys and girls club that money goes really far in their hands um you know but I know there's a lot of other requests but you know I fully support what they're asking for but what is our um what are the expectations of the board this evening in terms of committing well it's our decision how much of it do we want to commit and for what for that is a board decision um so I my advice and I'm sure Carters would be too is that we need to decide soon and not leave $222,000 unallocated going into December we finally determined that if we wanted to put all whatever remaining money we has on our last meeting if we want to put them into the vehicle purchases we can do that okay as long as we have it out because again we have three scheduled meetings between now and the end of the year that's it yep so I am expecting an invoice for those trucks on or about December 15 if I can get some of the the roof um at the DPW and the flooring underway so I have a better sense of where we are that provides me with a terrific uh flexibility um by knowing that we might use that as our final out so I don't see the increase the request from the munus moving munus to the cloud it's still showing up as you know the 108,000 for the committed request the the initial so we went through the numbers uh with Izzy this morning um and he sent off to munice what my questions were to try to get a bottom line number and they've not gotten back to him as of yet I can tell you uh that they are working with legal to commit to a 2-year contract with a 10% discount for each of the years as we were asked to follow up on last week so if I go back what was just to get a ballpark it was 126,000 roughly was what as he presented a couple weeks ago now that's that's correct and they've said uh that is for a fiscal year that was one yeah one year this fiscal year it's not for a yeah it's not for a calendar year yep and they will give us a discount of what we've paid what I asked Izzy to go back and check on if we deploy this in January are they giving us a discount for only the 6 months we don't use of the new system or is it all 12 months that was the first one the second one was that they're quote doesn't include training so we've got to get a training number uh from them and that training I learned will not be onsite so we would have to bring a local expert in to do some of the onsite training so those are some of the numbers I'm waiting so I can get to a bottom line number CU I mean speaking for myself I I want to address this however as he recommends doing it I want to have money to do whatever he recommends so I don't I don't know how much to to set aside other other than I know it's going to be north of 126 mhm yeah I think it would be wise of us to um not commit too much this evening and to preserve it I mean I I I would like to hit some of these uh minor requests and I minor in the sense of like lower dollar values that likely won't have significant impact you know like I know the boys and girls club doesn't have computers I know that the kids use the library you know $5,600 for computers and 700 for a 3D printer seems really straightforward to me and then I think on the historical requests that have come in they're under 10 grand uh for the glass negative scanner for the computer upgrades the seating and display and meeting rooms and wire shelving units HVAC and I think that's only what 8 Grand or something like that so I mean I'm interested in making that decision tonight but not too much more than that y so if I add up I just quickly did um so if you're looking at okay that sheet um I can do the math too so all of it that came in different with the boys and girls club and the historical society as it's currently listed is not the van and not the the van and not not payroll okay well I was just going to say it's 163,000 yeah but if we just do the smaller items take out the van and the payroll it's 14547 92 how much is that 14 54792 I'll make that motion hold on one second I just really want to verify this yeah 14547 92 that's what I get yeah and getting back to the m there's a already 108,000 that was committed so mhm yeah but there a $60,000 on I thought we were at 186 and I don't have my notbook I thought it was it's about $10,600 or uh something six year additional and then the onboarding cost yeah we both had a $66,000 setup no we had it separate we had 186 we both had the same number so y it's a 6000 we need not 60 we both had had 60 from 6,000 yeah talking to Ezekiel earlier today was 6000 Mak way more sense Grand yeah 60 no that would be absd I mean it's already absurd but I really want to be a little bit more comfortable me too with the end number yep yeah mhm I just want to make sure we leave enough yeah cuz I mean I think as I understood that Renee I mean roughly it's 240 Grand cuz we were talking about prepaying 2 years roughly and we have of it committed so that leaves 132 still have we still have a good um of the two so I'm comfortable with the small amount today I like the the contingency of of vehicles if if we need to get to that point uh and then you know I definitely need more time to digest this to come up with some um potential clarifying questions which I can send via email um but I'm only looking to a to do a small commitment today yeah I can understand that um um so we can definitely do that um I think we are still going to wait for the Town Council email to go to everyone I think maybe to discuss the contingency for tree removal for when I have a Town Council opinion that doesn't leave lots of questions I'll be happy to circulate it to you that's why it wasn't circulated because I hit reply and said yeah but what about Y and you know the only thing between now and December 3 um is if we can identif an alternative source of the contingency I can go ahead and sign the library contract if we can't I I shouldn't all right and I will follow up with them tonight um and then I'm sure that I'll get an answer tonight and I'll I'll have it emailed over tomorrow my Impressions when I sat down and went through line by line all this like two or three times this afternoon with Ezekiel and Carter is that the teen center and the munus are really the concerning ones at least for me so teen center teen room in library the teen yes the teen room the library and only because of contingency yes all right so I'll get yeah we have solid numbers on the rest of the contract Y and we are working to collect uh the performance bonds and everything else all right so do we want to make a motion on some of these smaller items yeah I I'll go ahead and make it um I move to commit $564 195 to the lunberg Boys and Girls Club for five computers for coding and digital literacy education uh $699.99 to the lunberg Boys and Girls Club for a 3D printer uh $499 to the lunberg Historical Society for HVAC upgrades in the Attic uh $1,400 to lunberg Historical Society for wire shelving units uh $4,000 to lunberg Historical Society for seating and display in meeting rooms $999.99 to the lunberg Historical Society for computer upgrades $1,299 to the lber Historical Society for glass negative scanner do we also want to include the $33 for the Council on agent and $33 for the Council of agent second any additional discussion those in favor say I I those oppose no the motion passes unanimously all right is there anything else we want to cover on arpa tonight yeah the other important thing is that we are sure we spent none of the interest right because there $215,000 of interest let me just say I don't know you may have but it really doesn't matter truthfully as long as we make sure we do not spend any more yes than the uh whatever it is 3507 okay um that's not to say we might not have to go back in and make a journal entry uh in the accounting um but as long as we stay locked on the actual cash you you got we're in good shape okay really to answer your question though cuz I went back and looked the answer is yes I I think we did allocate thinking that we could the interest that we had available but it's concern because we haven't overallocated so because I remember adding that interest to our balance available balance jumped up from 4,000 to like 300 in the imaginations of us doing the approvals yes but in the actual amounts I know I know I know but we're up to $215,000 that rolls over to the general fund yes that's excellent so in total we received for arpa about 3.5 million we have 3.28 five plus 14 so what's that 3.2 almost 3.3 million that we have allocated now so we're still under so we're not that close to it yet so we still have the wiggle room to deal with the contingencies and whatever else may arise in December so all right and I did not use that 250 Plus th000 in the tax recap that we worked on today okay anything else on Ara I just want to thank the historical commission and the boys and girls club for getting those requests in I do as well yeah Society Historical Society thank you um you know I know this money is a drop in the bucket it's $144,000 out of 3.5 million but it goes long way for um you know the groups and organizations that receive it so absolutely all right anything else that we want to cover on Ara tonight all right hearing none we can move on review and discussion for draft a proposed purchasing credit card policy we reviewed it and asked questions of Ezekiel two weeks ago are there any remaining questions or comments on this um I had one but let me get to it we decided on one card to start right because I know there was discussion okay um my only question is are we assigning this into the uh select board rules and regulations and if so what is the number that we're assigning this to we are assigning it we didn't have a number developed yet all right I can pull up and figure that out pretty quick we also did circulate at the staff um we got three questions about this and the reimbursement policy all of which were pretty easily answered any other questions or comments or is it looking good I have no comments on it it's fine with me all right all right it's fine with me as well you're pull up the number and the policy that this is going to go to yeah I think this would be considered um let's see probably go under Financial not operational right yeah it could go under Financial um yeah it could go under Financial so I think it would be uh section 3.11 y all right any other discussion or is there a motion uh I'll make the motion I move to a DOT uh the um procurement card policy as section 3.11 uh to be formatted consistent with the rest of the rules and regulations is there a second second any additional discussion I just want to see where that where that is if we have a moment where our are things online our bylaws yeah Tom you want me to hand you mine cuz I already have it pulled up the rules and regulations article 3 yeah I was saying 3.11 you can okay thank you all right any additional discussion those in favor say I I those oppos no the motion passes unanimously all right moving on discuss question on annual climate survey policy so I know I've had this on the agenda for a while so it was kicking around in the back of our heads I said that we would get to it after town meeting but if we still want another week or two to really think about this then we can kick it until December unless people are prepared to start discussing what we want in this all right I'm in favor of December okay as am I I have some notes but I'll will add to it all right same for the next one select B and tomandre goal setting process we'll wait until December on that discussion and possible action for CCC cannabis Control Commission host Community agreements so the Cannabis Control Commission the CCC updated their requirements for host agreements pretty recently and basically um there are new sections that need to be included in them uh one that stood out to me when I was comparing them is like a Dei uh basically like a Dei and local Municipal hiring initiative um that language needs to be included in pretty much all host agreements so basically what we need to do is we need to rewrite our host agreement with bliss um in the draft format that we have from the CCC um and as of right now because that they don't have that updated language they're actually not able to get their renewal so they received an extension till the end of February so we have until February to review this and to draft a new one based on the new draft language from the CCC um but that's pretty much the ask here we just have to um go based on the new draft from the CCC so that they can have the updated language in their um host agreement and get their uh renewal through uh the state I thought I had heard um that that these host agreements have been kind of weakened as well dramatically can you can you speak to that sure um so first we are meeting with our Council I believe Annie set it up for Thursday um in simplest terms you used to be able to require upfront payments donations to local charities and a flat percentage of their gross sales as the equivalent of the community impact fee this eliminates all kinds of fixed payments and moves to what they call claimed impact fees so you have to go through a process instead of saying you're going to pay us 3% of the gross because that's the impact on us you now have to go through a process of generating what are the true impacts upon the community documenting them um police response time um permitting time uh auditing time and you then send them a bill for those impact fees and the CCC can actually override Us in terms of what we claim that's that's sort of the biggest thing um creating a uniform document there's a lot of other small things uh but the biggest thing is the change and how you calculate the community impact fee and can you just draw attention to this Dei language stuff because I mean everyone has to section eight I believe hold on one second let me find it cuz everyone has to already comply with all the laws so what's this new you know regulation a question for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts I have no idea you said Section 8 Y which is equable relief option page 12 page nine it's on page nine um but like I said there was something about like Municipal hiring yeah like local opportunities as well um I don't know when Annie when I talked to Annie about this cuz she went through for the that we can impose upon the business it's it's not a requirement for us to do it it's a requirement as I understand it it's a requirement that we can impose upon the business right we can or must and I'm sorry oh I see it now okay so it's in the Model H HCA template M yes so one thing I did ask us is that understand that you have a single retailer yes all right and then so what suggesting in 8A if I can just read this companies shall consistent uh with applicable laws and regulations make good faith efforts to hire Municipal residents for employment supplier services and oror services all right B the company shall consistent with applicable laws and regulations uh have goals programs and metrics and make progress towards those goals to hire individual businesses for employment uh supplier Services Andor vendor services from areas defined as areas of disproportionate impact by the Mission and then C uh the company shall consistent with applicable laws and regulations have goals programs and metrics and make progress towards those goals to hire individuals SL businesses identifying as as people of color particularly black africanamerican Hispanic uh latinx and Indigenous people women veterans persons with disabilities and lgbtq plus people I don't agree with incl including that language in any requirement of ours and so is this obligated or is this an an option so this is what I was going to say I wanted to get really a review on whether or not that's included because when Annie and I first had our conversation it seemed like we did have to follow this template I want to refer to it as a template okay I will converse with the l e as to what they're looking for we will then crunch that in here and then we can review it with the licensing Authority as to what their thoughts are in any any areas of concern and we've now had one flagged would be identified we'd review it with councel as to the difference between a binding you must use this oh and here's a template you can use you know where are we uh and then we can go back to your license e we will need to move expeditiously which is I've tried to why I've tried to get the lawyer in here this week um but similarly if there are any other questions about that template please send them to me now uh so that I can begin to take them into consideration uh because time is of some import my target for getting this done is prior to uh the 15th of January because they have to have it to the Triple C all their paperwork by February 28th right and I I don't want to be crashing up against the deadline yep I need more time to really read through it I'm sure everyone else on here does too so and that's that's why we brought it to you this evening y we wanted to start the conversation sooner rather than later so I've made a note of the one concern uh but if you folks have additional concerns if I could get them within a week that would be terrific okay I think we can do that all right any other questions or comments on this tonight all right hearing none we'll move on debrief a special town meeting so obviously I think we're tracking the takeaways from that that the board has to do like the uh sickle Bank um policy and the Brooks house which is probably going to fall under the Wheelhouse of the municipal building design committee um but is there anything else that we want to discuss or uh any action items coming out of town meeting do you have any Carter well I only have a question um if article 10 or whichever it was the Brooks house um is to be delegated to the municipal building design committee I I would just want to know now because we had plann to kick it to the planning staff uh starting tomorrow if the board has a different sense of direction uh it would be good to know I think either option is fine um my opinion is that the uh the request that came from the apdc uh was it's a technical request um you know it's it's not just a policy it's it's a lot of um it's technical so um the municipal building design committee you know we're up and we're up and meeting you we met last week we're we're meeting tomorrow um I think that based on the schedule that we're going under uh I do expect that we would have capacity to uh take this on in about January um and get to a result um probably by the end of February March time period it seems pretty straightforward I think that uh we do have um you know two Engineers uh as well as uh myself on that committee and so I think that there is a specialty there and then we also um confer with uh Chris Ruth um and so I think we can do it in collaboration but it's really up to the majority of the I don't think the planning staff is going to arm wrestle over it so as long as we know the sense of direction of the board uh so that um if it's on the staff level we we'll get started if it's going to be led by the municipality design committee and you'll talk with Chris Ruth Chris Riley and others as you think they're needed I whatever Direction the board wishes to go in I just wish the board to be apprised regularly on whoever is doing it on the progress of it so we know and the public knows where we are the who does it is immaterial to me yep all right I agree with that I don't have a preference so should we just say that the municipal building design committee will take it on and provide regular updates I'm fine with that yeah I think we're going to have to because it is a task I think you know the updates are going to need to be at least monthly or more um so and I think there's going to be a lot of um back and forth I would imagine so um I'm I'm okay bringing that to the municipal building design committee all right thank you anything else we want to discuss coming out a special town meeting wasn't too long no it wasn't I thought it was great lot a robust conversation it was efficient perfect town meeting all right moving on to minutes we don't have any warrants we have two we have an accounts payable warrant in the amount of $41,988 46 sorry and I believe this is all actually the same warrant even though it wasn't let me just look got it for a second it was any action items yes um I going to pick up on uh uh something that I I think I heard uh from two of my two of my colleagues tonight um I think it's really important that as much information as possible makes it into the Google Drive at the time that the meeting agendas are posted I recognize that um there's going to be delays sometimes and some information sometimes things are going to come out on a Monday um but some of these heavy topics um I think it's really important that we have the information going into the weekend for the members to be able to come to these meetings with as much information as possible and I would much prefer to delay topics another week so that members can come uh fully informed all right any committee reports uh yeah budget task force met last night um we talked about uh CPA um Community preservation act um we also talked about some efficiencies one that got a fair amount of discussion was the number of accounts that we have in town and um the desire to reduce those and streamline our accounting um and then Carter already mentioned um going to try to work with Tony to have a a pack um Talk of the Town coming up oh and uh school committee meets tomorrow and storm water uh is posted for Thursday if I may what were you what was the discussion around the community preservation act um how it works and um um whether we thought it was something we should look into given the projects that are coming up and we're going to try to have um some people come to the next meeting December what is that 2nd um to talk about it in more detail so just to be aware if you if the committee didn't already know that we tried to pass it twice no we didn't know yeah we tried to pass it twice in the when was the last time out of curiosity like two years ago no really that no it was during the pmic no not during the pandemic it was yeah probably six six years ago 7 years ago and then before then so twice I was on it both times and so if you want information i' more than happy to know what what um what sege charge was proposed would be good three that's yeah that's the max it is right you don't have to go up that high no we didn't have to do that either oh okay Tom I think you're you absolutely we declined to put it on the warrant during the p doing but I think we didn't have that request Townsen just passed it in yeah I saw their yard signs I knew that they had it never actually looked at the results they passed it interesting it also matters how much it's being funded now that's that's the one thing I don't know anymore cuz it used to be 100% it's nowhere near that now right so now it's like okay you're just you know now it's like a Bank savings account like you put it in you get 10% or something it used to be you put it and you got 100% of matching so that's why we did it at 3 back then but it was a different demographic then well it aligns I think nicely with some of the big projects coming up Marshall Park Municipal Building did that to yeah it just was a different demographic yeah if you have anything on that yeah we can talk uh is there another warrant town no no no it was just one just wasn't rubber banded Town manager screening committee met last night we reviewed the applications and we are we have chosen uh six candidates to interview on December 11th and 12th and uh Capital planning I think meets in the first week in no uh December think think it's December 2nd is the Monday yep um Economic Development Committee was supposed to meet this Thursday but then there is no meeting posted so I'll have to follow up with them the master plan steering committee um we attempted to meet last week we were unable to make a quorum so we had um just an informal session where the um consultant from over under provided a quick update and reminded everyone that there is um a townwide meeting that is open to the public on December 4th and that's at the library from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. I'm encouraging people to attend that as well as the I think the third survey is available um I think it's on our town website it um is it not on our town website if not maybe we should look at that yep it is available on plan lg.org um that is I thought I saw on our Facebook page but maybe I'm misremembering and I just shut my computer but anyway um plan lunberg thatorganicmom have members attending from several of the different committees and commissions so we're working on getting Liaisons uh that are supposed to be sat and appointed to that as well all right uh Municipal Building design committee met last Thursday uh we were going over interview questions um for our um bidder we have an interview with them uh scheduled for tomorrow evening um and we're you know expecting to bring the if all goes well we are expecting to bring them under contract um you know by the end of the month we have a kickoff meeting scheduled for uh first Monday in December and uh again the plan is to have uh them before the select board on I believe it's February the 4th for the presentation and uh completion of all deliverables um also for the municipal bu design committee um I um will be at the school committee meeting uh next week um excuse me not next week tomorrow uh as well and to kind of give an update on the municipal building design committee we are looking to meet again um potentially next Monday before the kickoff with the designer um just to finalize some uh space needs information um but more to come on that um and then uh yeah um we had a soft meeting I I don't know if I mentioned this previously a soft meeting that I had with the chair of the um planning board we had a soft meeting uh with a developer that uh soft meetings are usually when someone's coming in to express ideas and wanting to know kind of community input for any out any initial concerns and it was a soft idea to build um senior housing and uh and and starter homes um you know so I'm expecting that more information going to come out of that obviously it's a planning board related issue it'll probably go that way um but it was really good to see that someone's looking to kind of get a development going in town that would really uh create starter home opportunities for people as well as senior homes so that's always a good thing planning board hasn't met since special town meeting Council on Aging met the day of special town meeting uh they spent a lot of time discussing their warrant articles that they had um the replacement for the director and other than that not too much that really needs to be reported here though all right so upcoming meetings will be meeting on December 3rd and then December 10th are there any public comments from the interim Town manager none Mr chairman any public comments from the the public an so patient very impressive uh Ann Nelson 435 Townsen Harbor Road I'm on the board at the lunberg Historical Society and the secretary so I thought I was going to come up and say um hold our request till the end surely there'll be $8,000 left over in arer funds at the end so hold on to our request till the end um but instead I wanted to express my gratitude and thank you so much for approving our request you have no idea what this means to us we run on a Sho string budget we discuss whether we're going to spend $150 and sometimes we decide not to um so it really is important to us we could not make these purchases and make the improvements that we've already done with the uh first round of funding that we got we just would defer those things um and that puts us at risk so we really do appreciate this money it makes a big difference to us um I listened to the request from the Boys and Girls Club about a vehicle um and we we discussed this one other time but just um amongst a few of us I'm also on the board of the food pantry the food pantry also needs a vehicle we go to the Worcester County Food Bank once a month and that's always an issue for us whose vehicle are we going to use who is available how are we going to accomplish this if there were an opportunity for us to share a vehicle with the boys and girls club that would certainly work for us I have not discussed this with the boys and girls club I have not discussed this with the full Board of the food pantry but if that makes the purchase of a vehicle any more palatable to you we need on a regular schedule once a week the use of a large vehicle um so we would be more than and happy to talk with the boys and girls club about that um and finally I would like to invite you all to come and visit us at the Historical Society and of we're only open Wednesday morning so stroll over on a nice day it's beautiful we have lots of things there that we can now protect better with um an air conditioner in the Attic which gets to 110 degrees in the summertime and we've got 300y old ledgers and books in that attic that should not be subject to that kind of humidity but come over and visit us and see what we have and more importantly become a member and again thank you so much I really appreciate it thank you so much thank you very much an all right any other public comment from the public let check Zoom not seeing any any public comments from the board just want to wish everyone a very safe and Happy Thanksgiving dto same here Happy Thanksgiving everyone all right is there a motion to adjourn so mooved second any additional discussion those in favor say I I those oppos no it is 9:21 and the select board is adjourned thank you all for tuning in tonight we'll see you in December