You guys are going to go it being 6:30 according to my iPad my phone meeting of Manchester by the sea select board of supporters. John >> yes >> here Kathy here Brian
>> here >> and Jeff >> here. >> Great. Um the next item first I should announce that the meeting is being recorded. Um, the next item on the agenda are public comments on
non-aggenda items. See anybody in the online? Hi. So, so okay. Um very short chairman's report that um on
November 11th at 11:00 a.m. there will be a Veterans Day service at the Legion um indoors um and a collation to follow. Um this is their salute to the troops.
Um that was my chairman's report. There any >> Well done. [laughter] Hey. Um, >> excuse me. >> Are there any items to adjust or add the
um action items? >> Um, just on the there's one there listed as harbor audit, me and Jeff. And I don't know, I thought the last conversation we had on the harbor there was going to be a different approach on that. I I I don't believe I have an
action item. So maybe Tony could get that one updated. Um >> yeah, I think we could probably adjust that. Um it kind of ties into what the next steps are for the harbor and the harbor master, right? So >> yeah, I I know I remember you know Jeff
and and um Brian were going to do some sort of independent audit. I >> Right. It should say Jeff there. Oh, >> because his phone is so close. >> Yeah. >> Get confused. >> You sit next to each other.
>> Not by choice. [laughter] >> It was the only bacon seat at the time. [clears throat] >> I'm on my way out the door here. >> Um >> I don't know who you are. Yeah. >> So, we will adjust and however
>> Yeah. I I'll I'll catch up with uh Jeff and Brian and figure out what's the best way to update this list [snorts] and and how we're moving forward. >> Okay. Um so, we move on to our agenda with the
first item of which is Jennifer Jurnney who has applied for the downtown improvement committee or whatever they're calling themselves. >> That looks right. Yeah. Would you like we we've got your application which is more complete than many.
>> Okay. >> Um would you like to say a couple of words about what you would bring to that committee? >> Sure. That's pretty >> Yeah. Well, I'll just quickly just say, you know, I I interviewed uh Jenn or Paige. >> I go by my middle name
>> and uh she is originally from Manchester Valley. um has recently moved back to Manchester by the Sea. Uh is eager to get involved in the community. Very interested in the downtown improvement
uh committee. Um we talked a lot about the, you know, the things that the downtown improvement committee are working on. And I'll let you speak a little bit to some of the specific interests, but I liked some of the things that Paige kind of brought up was that she complimented how a lot of the good things that Manchester by already
does and provides opportunity for residents of all different ages. Um and but talked about like this other this other kind of layer of a place to congregate especially young families that make you know we already have a lot of the programs we have the parks we
have the playgrounds we have those things but there isn't like that next kind of common area >> exactly exactly um so um she understands the commitment
requirement uh very very eager and I thought her enthusiasm, you know, really just came came right out as soon as we started talking about what was in front of us. So, >> great. Thank you, Tony. Um, good evening, Madam Chair and members of the
Slack board. Um, as Tony mentioned and mentioned, my name is Paige Journey and I live at 7 Tanglewood Road. Um, as I shared with Tony, I grew up here in town and know many of you and families and my husband and I and our three young children recently moved back to town and I've been really eager to get back and
involved in the community. Uh, my professional experience has been in the corporate human resources space and I currently serve on the board at the Manchester Memorial PTO at the elementary school and for the Manchester Mother's Club. And when I learned of the opening on the downtown improvement committee, I was eager to apply when I
learned about its mission and the work that they're doing. Um, I'm looking forward to learning from and partnering with the existing members, businesses, and other community members in this role. And I particularly hope, and what I spoke um at length with Tony about was that I hope I can represent the
perspective of some younger families with children as we continue to preserve and improve upon all the special things that make Manchester so wonderful. Um, I understand the commitment and I'm willing to serve and I sincerely appreciate the support and um your
consideration in joining the committee. Thank you. >> Questions? >> Um, I had a nice conversation with Paige today as the liaison to the to the committee. I think she would be a fantastic addition to the committee and she brings a different perspective, one
that is sorely needed on the committee. So, I would really love to see her join with three kids. I don't know how you do it, but [laughter] and they're young kids, fairly young kids. I saw what the story is. But that's great.
>> Yes. Great perspective you'll have. >> I just Excuse me. >> I want to thank Thank you. Okay. Uh bringing a whole perspective of next generation who grew up here. >> Yeah. >> You Tai Pinstein. Ty Pinstein was very uh instrumental in bringing the carnival
back. >> Yes. Absolutely. >> Okay. And so this it's about time you guys started. >> I know you got stuff on [laughter] but not for much longer. So no. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. I appreciate it. It means a lot.
>> Yeah. I mean you got a great resume. Yeah. I don't really have anything but thank you for uh stuffing to deal. >> Oh, thank you for the consideration. Well, >> thank you. Uh is is there >> a motion? >> Yes. >> Yes, there is. I move that the board appoint says Jennifer Paige
>> journey to the downtown improvement committee for a term to expire on June 30th 2028. >> Yes. >> Further discussion. >> No. And yes >> says yes Brian and Jeff. >> Yes.
>> Thank you very much. [laughter] It is really nice to see people who are very busy with their lives getting involved in in keeping the downtown going and busy and and all I can suggest
is that you get involved slightly with the u right house the the community now come on >> the chamber >> chamber of Oh yes. Yes. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Great. Excellent. >> Thank you all very much.
>> So let you go back to your family for a >> while. We now move on to the um discussion items. in the first one. Um would anyone object if we took um the White Beach parking earlier because I
think we have somebody here who's interested in >> I think we have some people online who are interested too. Yeah. >> My property is right beside White Beach and it is concerning that there's so much going on there.
You know people there a lot of cars that are not ticketed. the uh campus there uh that stay overnight. >> Um it's it's really affecting by real estate's value. >> Excuse me. Introduce herself. >> Yes. I'm sorry. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I'm not used to this.
>> Yes. >> It's Pamela Nelson, 23 Ocean Street. Yeah. So, um my actually um I've just moved to Magnolia, but I'm keeping my home at 23 Ocean Street. So, um, I'm I'm I'm
consider, you know, I'm I'm a very good friend of Brenda Films. I'm surprised she's not here tonight because he's going to be supporting her. >> Um, it's it's just a very concerning thing because it's really affecting my I feel it really is affecting our real estate
value. >> Okay. >> And um, you know, I just would like some more local restrictions on it and vision of what's going on. >> Okay. Is are you are is your concern prim primarily parking or
>> uh parking and and people uh spending nights there. You know, it's not as bad as it used to be. It used to be very very bad, but um it's it's a lot better since there's been some parking attendants going around, but that that's
finished at 5:00 at night. And um anyway, so that's that's just basically what I was just really supporting Brenda's position. >> Um because I it affects me though it affects her.
>> Is there anybody online who would like to comment on this? >> Sorry, I'm out of here. >> I'm sorry. Um I'm I'm asking generally if if there is anybody online who would like to comment on the pricing situation at White Beach.
>> I didn't know. >> Okay. Well, no, I'm that question really was not addressed to you. It was sort of Tony and anybody else who is looking at the >> looking over your shoulder. >> Yeah. Right. >> I know there there are definitely some people online who are usually interested
in this topic. >> Okay. But they're not uh >> Nobody has >> They're not unmuting themselves. >> Okay. And there are no hands up. >> No. >> Okay. Well, thank you. I really have Thank you for your thoughts, but let's
be great, but we could just have some more help from the town. >> Okay. Let's let's let the board talk for a few minutes. Okay. Thank you, John. Um, John, >> yes, the overnight parking thing I has that I don't know that that's ever been
addressed in the past, but I think I recall in the years here maybe that has come up as a topic, >> and that's a valid comment. >> Um, and that's not something that could not be addressed uh by the police department in evenings. I mean, they're
cruising around town and there's no reason they couldn't include ocean. And I assume they do include ocean. They just that there isn't any any any rule against that right now. And obviously your position is I guess at this point it would solve I guess your biggest
problem if we said no overnight parking. Is that correct? >> Okay. All right. So I'd have to consider that. I don't know what the pluses and the minuses are. I can see what the pluses are from your perspective and in general it makes it a quieter place to
live overall, but I don't know how frequent overnight parking is there, but it's it's a fair comment. >> Tony, have you talked at all with the police chief about >> Yeah, I spoke with the police chief. I
went down, took a look. We we definitely added signage this year and added enforcement with the uh parking um attendance. >> Um this there's a lot of signage down there, but it's it says resident parking
only May 1st to October >> Yeah. >> first maybe. Uh so it doesn't clearly state whether if overnight parking is not allowed currently. I don't, you know, according to the signage, it would be allowed.
>> Um, and then of course, you know, as of today, there's no restrictions whatsoever, right? >> It's only that that part of the calendar year. >> Um, in speaking with the police office, uh, with the police department, there's definitely cases where there's
people who are not residents parked, uh, either overnight or during that time period. Uh there hasn't really been an issue of the entire area being filled with cars. Like that'll happen once or twice a season, really hot weekends,
things like that. And in that case, they're usually coming going down there and dealing with it. But on a typical basis, you know, if somebody's parked there who isn't a resident, but there's plenty of spaces and they're just stopped to kind of look at the
ocean and, you know, whatever, read the paper or something like that. our our officers aren't really giving them a hard time in that scenario. >> Um, so I do think that uh overnight parking is not allowed at Singing Beach
in that parking lot. Now, obviously that's kind of a different setup than what we have at White Beach, but I don't see what the issue would be to propose an overnight parking restriction at that property. And if you wanted to
expand the resident parking beyond just that that season, that's something we could consider as well. >> Um, I would I could I would really I think that overnight parking we could I I don't see a problem with
that at all. I think that we should uh look at that very uh closely. as far as expanding the season or as far as non-residents, I wouldn't touch that. I would just um I would just look at the overnight packing because that seems to be the biggest uh problem that we have.
And then during the season, just talk to the chief about increased uh patrol down Ocean. That's all. >> Yeah, I mean I I agree with that. I mean, >> yeah, the overnight parking thing I can see, but limiting it further just to
residents. I don't I've never been through there when there wasn't a place to park for a resident. I mean, like you said, maybe it's here or there couple times a year for a couple hours, but >> I don't think it's really an issue. >> And I'm I'm going to guess that most of the people that are there are residents
anyway who just don't want to sing beach anyway. There were um >> 40 >> 40 citations issued. So between this is this is January 1st to September
26. But obviously that wouldn't start being those tickets wouldn't start being issued until May. So it's really May to September 26. There were 40 tickets issued for non resident parking there. So there is some enforcement occur. you
know, it's not like it's not h happening something that we're ignoring at this time. >> Yeah. >> That area, which we're not. >> But [clears throat] I do think that because we had an issue over the summer, I think. Was there a >> Yeah, there was some website that was advertising singing and and White Beach
as places to camp out overnight. And it it was I believe the singing beach issue was addressed. It was not clear whether or not anybody did anything about the white beach. And what I heard from residents were they weren't overnight.
People weren't just parking there. There were fishermen off the coast who were walking on private property, so trespassing. And so there were emails to the police or calls to the police. And so I I think there's a general
um discomfort with strangers walking around the area in the middle of the night and I can certainly understand that. Um I'm glad you looked at the signage because I I always believe we have to be the signage should be clear on what's allowed and what's not
allowed. So if there's no signage saying that overnight parking is not allowed and people park there, the police can't do anything about it. Right. >> Well, right. Unless it's in the period when it's residents only, >> but even the enforcement for residents
only is only till like six o'clock or whatever. There's there's really no resident parking enforced after the um parking enforcement, you know, um attendants leave for the day. So, I think I I would ask for two things. You
know, if we all are in general agreement that we don't want overnight parking at our beaches, let's just put up the signs and say no overnight parking. To me, that's a simple just go to what is overnight? >> That's a really good question. What is So, what is the rule at singing beach? I
I guess. And can we be consistent and apply it to white beach is what? So, I thought there was a prohib uh it was prohibited to park overnight at singing and they actually block it off. Maybe they don't block it off, but I thought there was some signage prohibiting and I
think the residents were asking for, >> you know, similar care at White Beach. Why treat it differently or if we are treating it differently, then what's the rationale? >> Anyway, we have some some residents who could probably answer those questions.
>> Let me apologize. Um Pam was here and we took up the Ocean Street early which probably you were counting on our being a little later. So yes, um
this um >> I I I would like to hear from the residents. >> Okay. Yes. Mrs. Burma, um you need to give us your name and address for the record and then
Brenda Ferong, 19 Ocean Street. Um maybe you could help us a little bit by telling us what you've discussed about Ocean Street just immediately. >> Uh yes, Mr. Uh we we started off by talking about um well Pam offer actually
initiated or helped us get uh kickstart the conversation. uh and overnight parking was an issue that was brought up. Um that the effects of some of the parking issues down there uh may have a negative impact on the real estate
value. Um that parking enforcement is good, but it stops at 5:00 pm. Um and there could be more enforcement. Then we just talked a little bit about how, you know, what type of signage is there right now and that it's really just restrictive to resident parking
[clears throat] from May to October. That's what the signage says. Uh so we were just starting to kind of go down the road of uh how could we explore changing the parking rules at White Beach that would
prohibit overnight parking. Well, I guess our observation is that Ciney Beach has a prohibition of overnight parking. Parking seasons at 10:00 at night. Um, it has a sign saying that you will be towed if in fact um you
are parked later than than 10:00. Um, and I think White Beach deserves the same kind of um protection. We have an issue because we have a lot of trespassers on our property and it occurs at night many times at
1:00 in the morning and we have fishermen that come into our backyards and fish from 1:00 in the morning till 3:30, 4:00 or thereabouts. We can hear their voices from our bedroom.
we can um see their headlamps flashing into our bedroom. Um and I think having overnight parking eliminated would resolve some of that problem. Uh the other issue is I think we we would like
to have more enforcement of the parking regulations during the daytime as well. Um, many times I drive by the beach. I probably go by it three or four times a day. And I have a tendency I'm a I'm a financial person. I have a tendency to
kind of count how many resident stickers there are and how many non-resident stickers there are. Generally, in my observations during the height of the summer, um, we'll see maybe 50%, sometimes even a little bit more don't
have Manchester parking stickers. So, I think a combination of eliminating overnight parking and stronger enforcement would be a real benefit to the neighborhood. >> Thank you,
Mr. Furlong. Do you have >> Chuck Furlow 19 Ocean? Um, I think Brenda summarized the salient issues quite well. I'd add a little history.
We [clears throat] lived there I think for 29 years. So we know the turf. Um been in town for over 50. The um enforcement used to be there was a beach attendant and there was a parking
attendant. And um for those of you who recall that oft quoted, Mr. Barleta's predecessor often said, "This town rarely surreners services
that it's providing." >> But somehow [clears throat] they made an exception for White Beach and those services disappeared. So instead of having somebody leasing the beach and and ticketing um
appropriately cars that shouldn't be parked there, we lost that service. So I guess in in some respects we're simply asking that you restore what used to be which seemed reasonable
and that um I confess on a personal level um I find it really irritating at 2 o'clock in the morning to have people out in my backyard with their headlamps and their car parked over a white beach. So if you
if you could see your way to implementing the same parking regulations at White Beach as at Singing Beach, I think we go a long way toward solving. >> So the the parking at Singing Beach stops
at 10:00. When does it start again? >> They have to have a starting time like 10 to 6 or something or is it >> you know, John, I don't know. Um I I don't know when it starts. Parks and wreck could tell you that. But >> the
you know, let's face it, after dark is when all the mischief happens, right? You know, and and you know, I do have some empathy for people that are trying to catch a bass. I just don't like them on on the coming tide at that hour of the evening on my property.
>> Well, that's why you got to put a hour on the other end because fishermen know no clock. >> Yeah. run by the tide. >> I leave it to the town's best judgment. Whatever it is for Singing Beach, >> we we'd welcome for White Beach. >> Yeah.
>> So, so we were talking as as you guys walked in and and I I think that was something we were deliberating here as a board. It seems like a just go do if we're all agre agreeing that we shouldn't have overnight parking at White Beach. Can we put up a sign? Can we agree to that? Can we put up a sign
and just have the rules be the same? >> Is that okay? Does anybody object to that? >> Sounds like an easy fix to me. But >> that makes and actually sensible still. >> Is that sensible? Oh, there been some discussion that from the board members
that there's rarely a case when there's no parking available and and that was offered as a reason not to take out of towners. And I think if we've got signs up all over saying no, this is resident parking only. we ought to enforce what we do or we should put up signs that say
resident parking only if it's crappy. [laughter] >> I don't think we said that. I think what we said was that there was no reason to expand the season. >> Okay. Yes. >> All right. Is that you weren't uh
>> well and I kind of the reason I brought it up is in relation to as Mr. Furlong was talking about how there used to be an an attendant there. >> That goes way back though. >> That I think if that if we were dealing
with, you know, every spot being filled and constantly dealing with non-resident stickers filling those spots, i.e. residents aren't having spots available to them when they show up, then I'd be a little bit more open to, you know,
hiring staff to be stationed there. that not being the case doesn't seem like that's the consistent case. I think you know our parking attendants and enforcement can be stepped up on off you know hours off the parking attendance um
should be able to handle it in that in that sense. I'm sure that the beach attendant was part of parks and rack >> and I can understand the ocean street residents looking at the extent of the parking of
the beach attendants, not not the not the lifeguards, but there are a lot of people at Singing Beach and u there used to be somebody at Fox and there used to be somebody at White Beach and it appears that everybody
congregated at singing and perhaps that's something that >> it it would be good to understand the staffing changes because obviously something changed, right? And there may have been a good reason for that. Like you said, if if you drive by Ocean Street and there's always parking available, maybe that was the reason why
Parks and Wreck consolidated, you know, the resources. Um, >> but I mean, we're talking this is this is probably 30 plus years ago. I don't >> It's not resound. >> I don't remember what they call it. >> Look at me. I don't know. [laughter]
>> They used to have an attendant at Tux that disappeared 15 years ago. >> Well, they they've had him as two years ago. >> Yeah. >> I haven't seen seen him in quite a few years. >> No, they had a gentleman that that passed away. >> Yeah. >> And there was a girl there, too. And then Mike Cronin uh I don't know if he
did it this year but yeah there was there was been a a presence >> but maybe had his mother got uh yelled out two years ago. We should you should check with parks and
wreck and see if there's some way that >> you know a change was made right it >> likely I'm guessing because I wasn't here likely was due to budget pressures right um but the question is what's been the effect of that and has anybody
looked to see you know when the effect >> well yeah could also the you know ability to st you know to get people uh to stay there all day it's even jawact was a retired job
>> oh there were kids there were there were kids who did it >> the last five or six years >> there's been some kids there too >> but my the input I've gotten from the police department is is not it doesn't seem like having someone stationed there
>> consistently is is really necessary at the moment. I think we we've done a lot of ticketing so far. We could step up more >> uh outside of those hours. >> I think and Tony, if I may, if I could
interject, we're not asking for a full-time parking attendant. Okay. asking for some supervision over the over the existing parking regulations and to have
have the evening parking regulations mirror what's at our major other public beach. Okay. >> It's it would be unrealistic given the um staffing of of the police department to expect that they would be able to
fulltime have a full-time thing. So >> please, we're not that unreasonable. That that that's not the request. >> They they did say, you know, right around Fourth of July is where like it kind of like really tightens up. And would you agree with that? Is there usually >> gets warm and a lot of it has to do
that's a very tidal beach. Okay. So at high tide there's almost no beach. At low tide if it's a nice low tide at noon time, >> okay? >> You know, the beach is crowded. But if if it's if there's a high tide at the wrong time for a from a beachgoers's
standpoint, quite frankly, the beach won't be that crowded. Um so that it it's a combination of things. But so I think we could factor that into our approach on enforcement. You know, on the middle of the summer, hottest days >> and where are the tides?
>> Mid midday, low tides, you know, we can send be a little bit more consistent on the >> Yes. You know, going by. Another way to look at it is it's a revenue source, >> right? >> Yeah. >> So, so to Ann's earlier point, I think when the furlongs came in, we were
having the discussion about um you know, have you ever had a problem finding a space at at White Beach, right? And the police may not want to hassle people, you know, non-residents if there's plenty of parking available
for residents. So I think then Ann you were talking about well if the sign says resident only we should enforce resident only. So we were starting to have that discussion. I don't think we finish that discussion. >> I think the other issue is um you know
I'm a big believer the sign needs to match what you're going to enforce. So if we don't want to enforce um you know resident only parking when there's five parking spaces available, there's got to be a way to communicate that. We we've got to be clear on what we're doing because it does confuse people.
>> I I think >> I don't know what to do about that. >> Respectfully, I think the police department should be provided some discretion and they can make decisions that they feel are necessary. If it's a Tuesday morning and it's one non-resident sitting there reading the
paper, I don't think we need to issue a citation. Uh if it's a Saturday and even though there's five spots, you know, and it's midday, maybe we are. I think I think they have the ability to make the right decision. >> I'm okay with some discretion.
I'm not okay with the residents not understanding what we're doing. So, I think I'm not sure if this is the first time they're hearing that. The other thing, >> if I may, Kathy, as long as discretion doesn't just >> become well, I don't have to do that,
right? >> You know, which is a very easy path. Okay. Um, so there has to wherever the new chief is at next summer, you know, we we can yeah get a fresh start. I've had this discussion with Todd. Todd I've
known Todd for four plus decades. He used to plow our driveway. Now his son plows our driveway. You know, I mean, so there's always been a good, robust, honest dialogue. And frankly, there's never been any real disagreement about um what should happen there. It's
generally been overstaffing. Okay. Um so what I would like to see and I would make the point that parks and wreck is 100% enterprise funds. It's not tax revenue. So
>> the parking fees, however, the parking enforcement parking tickets are revenue. Yes, >> I agree with that. And they're definitely bifurcated in who's going to do what, right? I mean, >> parks and wreck is going to be on the
beach and and the police are going to be issuing tickets if they those that's who does what. Uh, I'm simply saying that it would be it would be nice and I don't know if any of you have
visited White Beach on a nice summer day in August on a weekend, it's pretty busy. And um I'd venture to say based on Brenda's count of the vehicles that have or don't have stickers, we also missing an opportunity
because we don't enforce the badge requirement and it costs money to go to singing beach, but you can be dropped off at White Beach and go park at the school and you can drop five people off there and come back. So it's you can
gain the system a lot of ways. All we're asking for is some common sense and um a degree of improved parking enforcement, but most importantly
to mirror the parking restrictions after after 10:00 at night is that's there's no reason anybody has to park at White Beach after 10 o'clock at night. Are there are there uh
regulations, you know, is under Sing Beach or under police bylaws that speak specifically to what that parking rule is at Singing Beach? >> There's actually a lot of signage at Singing Beach and every year it seems to change. So, [laughter]
honestly, um I would drive down there tomorrow when it's daylight, take a picture and see what's there. Um but um >> well I'm just I could draft something for you guys to vote on next meeting or you guys could vote tonight to say >> I I would I would like to just motion to
have >> consistent >> overnight parking regulations between singing beach and white beach. So >> um you know whatever that restriction is let's do it to white beach now. Is there any issue at tux at all while we're
talking beaches? Is there any issue there? Or because that not specifically on the agenda, we can't talk about it because we're going to do something about overnight parking. I just like to be consistent. >> Problem with that overnight parking uh
at tax for people who are Yes. They got the boating plants of course >> don't need a park. So I I think Tux is is a different >> Yeah, they are because of the boats. >> Yeah, but that's okay. We're talking
something different here. >> So I I would like to know I don't know if there is a a uh starting time on the overnight parking, but we should have that at both beaches. If it just says 10 p.m., I think that's a little >> Yeah. >> soft.
>> It should be, you know, 10 to 5 or 10 to 6 a.m. or something. So, do you want to clarify what the rule is at singing >> at our next meeting? We can take a vote on specific times. >> Go ahead. Police chief to >> Yeah. Have Todd here. And then also if
there's some improvement needed to singing because there's no start time as John is alluding to, we can just fix everything all at once. >> Is that okay? Mhm. >> This was just a discussion and with >> Yeah.
>> no requirement that we come up with >> a final answer. I think >> next week. Next. >> Two weeks from two weeks. >> No, two weeks. >> Oh, right. Two weeks. >> Two weeks from tonight, we'd have a motion to fix.
Um, just to give you another another example, we talked about the fisherman, but we had an incident this summer um where there was a motor vehicle um parked. It was a it was a large recreational vehicle um that had an
awning out and a dining area and everything was parked for two and a half days just below Mrs. Nelson's house. Um and no one came by and ticketed for anything. Ultimately, the um vehicle left after two and a half days. I don't
know if it was because the police finally asked them to move or whether it was um simply they were they were done staying there. But you have somebody camping at the beach um using the portaotti um dining all their meals there etc. And it's really um it's
really hard for the neighborhood to deal with that. >> So I think that speaks to the discretion part goes both ways, right? So, if the police are going to have the discretion to not take it a non-resident, there's got to be
some understanding about what the what the boundaries of that discretion are, right? Camping out for two and a half days. I'm not a big fan of that. If we're going to decide not to allow anybody to be there at all after, >> right? >> Yeah. I can't believe they were
residents. It's possible. No, they had a bar and license plate >> actually the vehicle with um with Canadian plates >> I don't think there was once once we uh were made aware of it. I believe our police department went and talked to the
folks who were in that vehicle. >> This I think happened sometime around uh Festival by the Sea. I think early August. I remember this composition coming up. >> Yeah, I think you'll apply this composition, too. >> But yeah, that that wouldn't be that
would overnight parking if that's what's going to be on the on the sign that there's going to be no discretion involved in that. >> This is no overnight parking year round. >> Yeah. Yes. >> Yeah. So, what I'll do is I'll figure out I'll clarify what the rule is for overnight parking at Singing Beach
>> and if it's written down anywhere if it has a start time and then uh draft something for us to talk about or potentially vote on at the next meeting. >> Sounds good. >> And I'll invite the chief and I can invite Cheryl too if you want. >> Yeah, that might be help.
>> I think that would be good. >> Yeah. should get updated. >> Okay. >> Sounds good. >> Thank you very much. Thank you. >> Thank you for your consideration and putting it on the agenda. >> We'll try to put it on.
>> It'll be on next time. >> We'll try to put it early next time. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um, the next is the town administrator's goals. >> I saw you write them. I think it's
really good. >> Simple. >> They're your goals. There are talking points. [laughter] So, I appreciate that outline in terms of what we have to keep up, but I think it's um it it touched all the bases from my perspective. I hope that you can get to
most of them. I don't think you'd probably get to all of them because that's a full plate, but um I don't know if we need to discuss prioritization. Um I hadn't really thought about that. we could, but um at this point uh this
really reflects what you know what you really got to keep your eye on each Monday morning and kind of take a look and say, "All right, what am I going to work on this week?" >> That's good. Uh I'm just looking at this one communication.
>> Oh, by the way, must have done formatted. >> Yeah, >> AI is a wonderful >> if it wasn't AI. I can tell >> somewhere >> can we do uh I think the the people have
come grown accustomed to uh the town administrator's article every week. So, and I I think twice a month is great if we can talk maybe about getting department heads to uh backfill those other two two weeks. You know, having a
rotating kind of thing, be it Chuck one day, you know, Cheryl, Council on aging, something like that. Just uh it keeps the lines of communication that the people are used to looking towards uh in the cricket and >> it helps build their skill set. Good >> idea.
>> It helps build their skill set um as well. Other than that, everything's fine. Basically, you just truncated everything we talked about last time. I'm done. Let's move on. [laughter]
>> Yes. >> Good. It looks good. And thank you. Everything looks fine. So, >> Yep. No, I thought the rewrite was excellent. Um, and I think to John's point, if you need us to help with prioritization, let us know. Otherwise,
I'm sure you can um deal effectively with that, but we're here if you need to talk to us about that. >> Good shortterm rental by >> Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah.
>> Well, so this this was added to your action item list before I started. >> So, not really. I guess it would be helpful for me to understand what uh how this got on the action item list, what
you guys were envisioning. Um there is a short-term >> uh rental bylaw in our general bylaws now, and they're defined in the zoning bylaws as well. Um >> but we use six days where I think our
our initial concern was to expand it from six six days to 28 or 30 whichever I I believe. >> Yeah. So, uh, I would say what one of the things that precipitated it was when, um, the state created a new ADU
bylaw, um, ADU regulations, and we're like, okay, if there's going to be more ADUs, are there going to be more short-term rentals? How we want real housing stock, not vacation spots, right? So, it was about not letting the ADU law change the, you know, makeup of
the town. We want that for housing. So, that was priority one. already. Um the uh reason for number two um or the second reason I should say was because John and I went with Greg to that um annual MMA
>> MMA conference and we went to the booth that the people who had the software that said told us how many short-term rentals we really have >> and it was more than the two or three that we approve each year. So, we don't have control over our short-term rentals
and in big part to Ann's points because we define them as six days. So, that was those were the two I would say impetuses for us to get um something on the books that's different than what we have. We talked about um Greg um I think and I
talked about um look also looking at Province Town. They seem to have a [clears throat] real big to-do over there um because they're also a seaside community and they spent a lot of time thinking through their short-term bylaws
and um seemed to have a good model. But we didn't get very far on that because we were focused on getting the ADU um you know updates in place for Manchester. But I would say the ADU was kind of the >> Yes, >> I think I think the ADU bylaws that were
voted on >> prohibited short-term rentals. So it's >> Yes. But if our short-term rentals are defined as six days, >> right? >> Two weeks >> a month. >> Yeah. I don't know if God made the world
in seven days. [clears throat] >> There were seven long days because the sun wasn't up yet. >> If it's good enough for him, good enough for us. I think the other thing I was questioning and I don't recall um what the answer was but we have this
less than six consecutive nights shortterm definition then somewhere else in our bylaws or regulations um rentals must be a minimum of six months or something there's something somewhere about the six months six months I think
was was that lodging >> it's lodging or something >> lodging Okay. So, I don't understand what happens between, you know, for rental agreements between the six days and the six months. What what that seems like a dead zone
>> completely lacking control. And I just personally felt we ought to tighten it, >> have [clears throat] something even if it's we don't want to worry about it, but we should clearly outline what the right thing to do is in each stage. >> Yep. How does that impact what we have
seasonal rentals versus winter rentals? >> You know, >> that's what I'm saying. None of it's regulated. >> That's a cottage industry here. >> Sure. >> Okay. >> Right. >> And uh I think six six months is a little awkward if you're renting for the winter. >> Right. Right. Most times it's like 8 to
10 months. I've seen you know starting uh >> you know October 1 right through May 1st or something like that. >> And that's fine. But it's it's the it's the three months, you know, for those people who are renting out their homes for three months. >> They're it's completely unregulated. It
just seems Yeah. >> odd. You know, we regulate things that are less than a week, more than six months, and everything in between is a >> nothing. [laughter] >> Did your did your conference have any suggestions as to how you identify
people who are doing short-term rental? Yeah, they just they the software doesn't >> actually they're they're required to be licensed with the state. So what we did in the hot was we reached out to the state and
they provided us a list of all the short-term rental license in the hot. So we could start we started with that and then we um use that list once we got went through our process and everything got
voted and everything was in place. We use that list to then send letters out to those property owners telling them you're now required to be if you're if you're in this category, you're required to be licensed. Uh if you're in this
other category, you're required to get a special permit and a license. >> Um and that's how we communicated with those >> those uh do they require any assurance requirements or no? >> Well, you're require
if to be on Airbnb or VBO like they require you to car insurance. Yeah. >> I would think the homeowners if they were to if they told their insurance company was going on they probably have to have insurance too. >> I would hope so.
>> That's between them and their insurance. Yeah. So, we we went through a probably a almost a three-year process which started with adopting the hotel the local hotels tax and then creating a uh
bylaw committee who then did a multi- two-year process of public meetings looking at other towns, you know, thinking about how they wanted to propose bylaws. Um, through that
process, we found that there was so many elements of of it that if you put forward a bylaw that listed every single detail of all these different issues that people were very like polarized on one way or the other,
it would never pass. Uh so we put forward a general bylaw and a zoning bylaw and the general bylaw authorized the select board to promagate regulations. Once that was done then we went through the process of the select board promagating the regulations. We
did bring on a new software company that was specifically for permits for short-term rentals that is called cloud permit. Um, [clears throat] and then we had to create, you know, the website. We had to
create the process, the application, um, create a fee schedule. >> There's a lot of lot of uh, a lot of layers to it. You on the zoning side, it was really about what type of
short-term rental and where are they going to be allowed. Uh so you had owner occupied, non-owner occupied and owner adjacent. Um does >> okay
>> you you have owner occupied in your definition today. >> Um owner occupied doesn't mean that you are actually occupying the property while renting. It just means that you that's your primary residence. So you live
there for six months of a day and there's really really hard for a municipality to track that as whether that's legitimate or not. >> Um so if if we want to
uh improve our current regulations or current bylaw um we have kind of a model that we can follow. Uh I would say that
you know the key elements one knowing that larger properties are usually the more uh problematic short-term rental properties uh and unfortunately they kind of uh paint the reputation of all short-term
rentals. There's a lot of like, you know, two-bedroom, one-bedroom type short-term rentals happens that people who moved out of town maybe rent, they come back for the summer, you know, for a couple weeks in the summer and they're not, it's not a problem at all. Um, but
those larger ones tend to be where, you know, parties, large gatherings. Um, sometimes they'll even do like events where someone rents a large property and then they'll host like a reunion or a wedding in the backyard and they'll get
a tent and they'll get a caterer. That is really once you get into inviting people who aren't staying at the Airbnb onto the property for an event, you're now in violation typically of your zoning rules because it's a change of use. It's no
more a residential pro uh primary use residential. It's now getting into like a business >> problem with shocks. >> I was thinking >> um but we focused a lot. We looked a lot at
uh the safety which which yours actually yours isn't bad. There's a lot in there already. talks, sorry, hours, I should say, hours really does have a lot in there about the safety of the user. So, um, sometimes, you know, people who show
up late at night for a weekend rental, they're not familiar with the property yet. They don't know whether the smoke detectors have batteries in them. They don't even know what, you know, sometimes they don't even know the address. they're they're a guest of
someone else who's the main you know uh renter >> and um you know so we focused a lot about the safety of the people who are staying in the house making sure that there's a packet that talks you know that gives
them all that information that there's a something on the wall right you know when you walk in that shows where the exits are what the local phone numbers are for um safe. Yeah. Uh we also wanted this them to be licensed with the town
so that our police and fire department knew where these were. Uh so they were familiar with the location of them. >> Um >> did you did in the hunt did you restrict where I mean the hunt's tiny even tinier than Manchester. Did you restrict at all
where a short-term rental could be >> the type? So, uh, the what we proposed for the zoning bylaw, uh, was that you would have to get a special permit for non-owner occupied in a residential district.
>> Um, and then we went to town meeting and a large group of people uh, showed up and actually amended it to not allow nonowner occupied in the residential district completely. Uh the problem with that is
again it's really hard for us to enforce whether someone really is or isn't living there 6 months in a day. So, I thought I felt like the special permit was a better way to go because then if the uh property is being a nuisance in
any way or it's unsafe, uh the ability for the town to pull that special permit is has more teeth to it. >> Y make sense. >> Um so >> this this is beginning to sound like a bigger problem. Um, and I think it's
perhaps something that the select board shouldn't take on on its own, but instead we need to get involved with the planning board >> and perhaps the planning board. >> I I hesitate to bring this up, but what the heck? What about board health
inspections? Okay. >> Yeah. So, they would we to get a license, you'd have to you'd have to get a sign off. the building inspector would have to sign off on your property. [clears throat] >> Um, actually public health, same thing.
So, if you were to rent an apartment out long-term, you really should have a certificate of fitness from the board of health. So, we would require that as well. >> But what about if it's if it's shortterm? Say it's we set up it's two weeks or something like that. Every time
a new tenant every time it's rented out should be just for the >> No, you your license was annual. Okay. And then some of those some of those inspections were annual, some of them were every two years. Um, we also, you know, required that you you
you'd have to get a not only would the inspector come and take a look at your property to make sure there's no code violations, but they'd also sign off that you don't have any open permits with the town. Our treasure collector would sign off that all bills, you know, any any bills or anything like that was
paid off. the fire department would inspect for smoke detectors and COS. Um, so there was it it is a there's a lot of layers to it. A lot of people get involved in that inspection process, >> but that you would pay for that as part
of the permit process. So, which would be selfunding, >> right? Yeah. So, some of that is in our current application. >> In fact, a lot. >> Yeah. Except your current applica, it's only a hundred bucks. >> Yeah. >> It doesn't cover the cost. It doesn't cover the It doesn't cover the cost and it doesn't require as much as
>> No, it's not. But the bulk of it is there, but um you're right. It doesn't have all of the stuff that you do. >> And the new building code, this is this is it does again, not to make it even more confusing, the new building code for um properties of fivebedroom or
more, >> it uh requires chapter 34 review and could require the need for a sprinkler system. >> Yeah. So, and that's building code. That's not even by law or regulation. That is the
building code. So, for just a new property though, >> is it? >> Or if you if you converting the properties are grandfailed in, are they? >> Not if they've never had a if they're coming in for a license to do short-term rental. That's when
>> Right. But I'm saying existing properties, I think, are already. >> Yeah. an existing single family >> five-bedroom house. That's not Frank, >> right? But you're changing you're changing the use which is triggering >> which would be triggering that that
chapter 34 review. So even even an existing property you could be require if you want to short-term rent >> and you have six or more bedrooms, you may need to bring your building up to code and
install sprinklers. >> So these nuisance properties that come up, who is the main person on that? Like who polices that >> usually? So that's the way that we proposed setting that up was that if uh
we put it in the regulations basically that if you uh if neighbors call uh if there's parking issues, if there's um property issues, if there's noise issues, nuisance type stuff like that, we would kind of like
put it under uh suspension for your first infraction and then if it continued uh you could go into like like taking away their license for the rest of the year. If it continued, if you gave it back the next year and it happened
again, not allow them to license in the >> Who's that point person though? Who would that be? >> Was Debbie and like in Manchester? >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> Like who's who's the determining whether someone there's been a violation? So, you'd have to have somebody on staff to
do that. Right now, Debbie had been going out on Airbnb and searching for properties that might be in violation. >> In in Manchester by the Sea, it says that that's the select board in Niha. It was it went through the inspectional services department, but it was the town
administrator that it got elevated to me. We just started it though. We never ran into any type of major issue. >> Is there any type of parking requirement? Uh we did include yeah we required off
streetet parking >> and we required that uh the guest agreement that they had to provide us when they applied for the license. So the guest agreement they would give their potential renters had to state the amount of off- streetet parking that was
allowed and basically tell their renters they couldn't bring more than those cars. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Or they'd have to find some other lot to park in and car poolool or something. But >> right, I'm just thinking >> that was a big issue, >> right? >> Parking was a big issue.
>> Was that triggered because I mean the hunt was kind of small? I mean I'm just trying to picture. Are we describing problems that don't exist? >> Well, but I think not yet. I mean even in Lynfield they had one house that was being Airbnbed and there was a nasty party there and you know that was a few
years back I remember. But I think you know there's two issues. There's the nuisance homes as as you describe it, Tony. But again, the other thing that triggered this was wanting to protect the new ADUs for housing stock, >> you know, which I think is a different
problem. I >> was that part I don't remember what was struck down in our 80. >> Oh yeah, that's right. What what something the state didn't approve? >> I don't think that was in there. I don't think that was part of it. I okay that I
believe that the ADU bylaw that planning board did prohibit um yeah short-term rentals um >> in the ADU I think >> in the ADU. So we may have solved that problem.
>> Yeah. Well, >> assuming that the >> assuming it wasn't struck down, but was it struck down by the state >> and and there's if if you're not it >> yeah, >> you're not only not allowing in the ADU.
So, you can build an AD ADU on your property, stay in the ADU, and short-term rent your main house, >> right? >> Lots to put ideas out there. >> Not novel.
Okay. So, uh >> well, I agree with you, Ann, that this project is a little larger >> and for us to bite off and somebody kind of has to look at all of this stuff and say, "Oh, I what makes sense here?" NAD had a lot of stuff.
>> I thought it was a little too much stuff. Yeah. >> But we don't have any regulation here that's lists things like uh you know, policies while you're here. this is the emergency numbers. This is where the trash is. This all of that sort of
stuff. And that was kind of codified in your thing so that you leave instructions to people and they just don't show up, open the door and say, "Well, I'm making this up as I go along." And you know, some somebody has to kind of look at this, spend a little time and
say, "What makes sense here?" And consolidate things as a first pass. I don't know who that person is or group. Uh the the other big one that I believe is in ours as well is uh someone local
that can respond to an issue within a given amount of time. >> Yeah. >> Because there is we learned about a lot of short-term rentals out there in other towns that are bought up by companies out of state. >> Correct. >> You know, and so who's going to respond?
Who's going to who's going to manage the property on a day-to-day? >> Right. Well, I mean, I I' I've rented seven I write I rent a seven-bedroom house every summer. And I know kind of what the drill is. It's my extended family, my kids, and everything. And yeah, there are a lot of
instructions in the house. This is in New Hampshire that tells you this is what everything is. And nothing is is in this. >> Might suggest that you maybe lift that next time you're there. >> I can arrange. [laughter] One question is while we're thinking
over the major implications, do we want to put make a change from 20 from >> six days >> six days to 28 >> 28 >> which we could do in the spring? >> Yeah, I think that's a good idea. Yeah, I have [clears throat] a problem that
>> I there was some reason and Susan Beckman may remember because she was instrumental in putting this thing in short-term rental together. There was some reason why she thought six days was appropriate, but if
she wanders by your office, you might ask her what what what that was. And if we can extend it to whatever the state considers a short-term rental, that will get us started. Yes. Yeah. >> Okay.
>> Great. >> Um leazison updates. Uh plan board still going over their downtown zoning. They were naming districts, possible changes of uses,
uh looking at an affordable aspect to it, and uh tomorrow night they're meeting for a planning session planning session for their uh walking tour on Saturday.
Um and the only other thing, uh Essex Tech's working on its open house, which will be November 22nd for anybody interested in looking into that and our advisory meets next week.
Um [clears throat] the uh oxen wreck I think uh nothing's really changed other than we got past the wild goblin without a problem. Uh, no goblins escaped.
They're just really start to crank up now for winter activities. uh and they discussed uh CPA projects that they'll be looking to uh to address
and uh they should be coming to us with a couple of names for uh the Pine Street Field recommendations for us to review >> and that'll probably be uh next well a couple of weeks and then probably December I think they they've narrowed
it down to two not going to discuss them at this point and then we can just uh narrow it down from there. That's the parks and rack and zoning board. Uh nothing out of the ordinary, but uh cargo will be up on their agenda
>> this month in change of use and heights and packing from behind the uh so those are things that require special permits and concom laying down the letter of the law. Reserve anything else from that? I'm done.
Um let's see. Um we're waiting to hear back from DPW on um getting some feedback from them on updates to the tree policy. So the friends of trees have submitted some changes. We want to not bring anything to the select board until DPW has some input. So um we're
for them to um help us with that. uh facilities committee tiffany is outlining outlining a nice community engagement plan um so we can get feedback from the community on location. Location is what we're focused on right now for for DPW and for the um uh public
safety buildings. Um, so Tetrate Tech is the consulting firm that DPW has hired to work on these proposals and um, I should say some options for the the public to consider and we're hoping
to meet with them around the November 20th time frame. So they, you know, Chuck has given them all some marching orders and and they're off working some options and the committee is hoping to meet with them around the 20th. Um,
let's see. Nothing on downtown improvement. Um, and Bike and Ped. So, some of the residents, at least one resident from the Mill Street area has reached out to Bike and Ped to get their advice and suggestions on anything that could be
done to um, uh, you know, prevent speeding or improve safety on Mil Street. So, um, you know, they've expressed concerns since it was repaved and, um, so they're going to consult with Pike and Ped to see if they have any thoughts and suggestions.
I >> think that's it. >> And they should communicate with DPW. We've been working with residents on Mil Street. >> She's saying people [laughter] >> short list. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. I just saw an email. I don't
>> just so that we're staying consistent the communication. Yeah. Yeah. >> Um the challenge the challenge there uh or a few of the challenges there is um it's a scenic roadway and while the
residents there really want to limit speeding and improve safety, they don't want to compromise the scenic nature of the road, which tends to be our way, you know, our way
to come back signage and markings and those types of things. So, trying to find um >> happy medium. >> A happy medium. We we talked about we're going to test uh some
one lane width rumble strips uh right before the as you're taking a right um turning away from 128 there to see if that helps slow people down in some of those more narrow spots. But we're going to do it slowly because
they're uh they can be loud. We don't want to have the other impact of Hebrews complaining about them. >> Release turkeys. >> Yeah, >> that's a really good idea. Talk about slowing down things out of the way.
>> That's a really excellent idea actually. >> Scenic criteria and it will slow things down >> 100%. >> I think the main the main issue with speed is from the bridge to 128. It's the other side kind of from there to Forest Street
>> kind of works itself out because it's so narrow. But >> okay, >> but so from if you're heading from >> to Yeah. >> Yeah. >> That's where it gets and especially coming down the other side of that hill before you hit Utah.
[clears throat] >> I was hearing more from residents on the other part, but Okay. Well, it's >> it's more >> they probably think you're going fast, but if if you're going 15 through that part, it seems fast. You know what I mean? >> Because it's so tight.
>> Yeah. >> And um we also got a lot of comment or requests for, you know, a sidewalk or, you know, how do you improve? >> Yeah. >> There's really no room for a sidewalk. So we tal we we are trying to look at a
pathway on the golf course side but we'd have to work with the golf course on that. I talked to the concom about or the concom chair about it. It didn't seem like it was you know depending on the details. It didn't seem like impossible. So we could maybe find
something find a way to help with that. It's going to take time though. >> How far off the edge of the road do we hunt? anything. >> Well, from the when you turn when that turn at 128 and you start to go away
from 128. >> Yeah. >> We own a decent amount going in. Um about halfway down Mil Street, then it's golf course land and I don't know I don't know >> when you get on to Forest.
>> No, still on Mill that corner. So the so if you're parallel to 128 and then the road takes a right on Mil from that corner about halfway down before you get to Forest Street on the right side. We own a lot of uh property into the woods.
It's probably >> almost up to the >> it's it's almost like a a >> to the edge of the golf course. >> Yeah. I mean the golf course is back there but it's a ways in I guess. >> Yeah. That's a ways in. After about halfway to Forest from there to Forest
Street, it our our property is much more narrow. So, that's where we would have to work with the golf course to see if we can uh Yeah, [clears throat] it's kind of wet down on that corner there. >> Yeah, there's a couple brooks we have to find crossing. And obviously, the golf course doesn't want people to be walking
right behind a green. Uh so, you'd want to stay in the woods. So, there's some things to look at there. See? >> Yeah. >> But there's a bus stop at the mill. >> There used to be a bus stop for a
school, I think. >> So, uh, we're working on it anyways. >> Uh, yeah. Um, public works are going to start to do some work in Newport Park. That has been a project that has kind of bumbled along, I guess, for four or five
years with regard to parking for dog walkers at the end of the parking area there. But they're actually going to start to move around some dirt and make sure that they can put some parking spots in a in a place that was originally looked at three or four years ago and then it moved over by the circle and now it's back there and it's been
kind of tough uh to see how things fit together, but I'm hopeful that we'll make some progress with that. Um the meters are now getting installed in high gear. We've got about 100 meters that are in, but they have 130. They're scheduled over the next two weeks, and
it will be 130 to 150 every two weeks now for the foreseeable future. The contractor who is um going to be installing those uh starts Monday. At this point, it's all been our DPW folks, and they've largely installed meters in
the houses that were involved with the pilot study, of which there were three manufacturers that we looked at. So, they've all got meters, and there are a few other people, including myself, that do, but now they're getting uh they're going full boore with that. Um, and finally, of course, Beach Street is
done, and I think everybody thinks it's great. I would like to read into the record a comment from a satisfied constituent. I have to say in my 43 years of living in Manchester, paving the sidewalk to the beach is the most significant act that the town has taken
that positively affects my life. >> Oh, that's awesome. It's kind of sad. >> Now, take from down there, but I did get a complaint as to why we only paid part of the street.
>> Uh, yes. I I agreed. It's up like one tire is going to be on the old asphalt and the other tire is on the new. >> Got back in town last night first thing this morning. >> But the sidewalk's great. >> So
>> and um >> and that that was that's plain and simple budget. >> That's what I said. It probably was. >> I said, you know something, we you only have so much money. >> Yeah. And that's always I mean for the most part that's always a good answer. >> If anything it'll slow people down, you
know, because they'll say, "Oh, it's a little aggravating to drive on this and I'll go a little slower." And that's that's positive. >> So then the comment was, "Well, it wouldn't have been cheaper to do it now than do it, you know, in a couple of years." Well, you don't have the money. You don't have the money. >> Yeah.
>> I will leave comments Council on Aging to Tony because he's kind of on top of the couple of issues that are associated with that. Um, no news on the library or the historic district commission meetings. >> Um,
the board of health decided that the two Desmond Avenue is a construction project and therefore um does not need to be have an ability just sufficient to protect the people
who are working there. >> Um, >> sounds vague and familiar. Okay. Maybe reporting something. >> No, no, that was something we brought up three months ago. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It just took a while to get that.
>> So, um they have they were required to repair the wall um by the sidewalk and as a public safety issue. Um the clutter um as a safety people working in the building.
And there's one other thing that they have to have being funded fire and CO2 expenses so that people working there. So that seems like a much better solution than requiring them to meet
full sanitary code uh between now and the end of the month. >> So some of that goes away because it's fully a construction >> because they're not living there. >> Yeah. It's not no seal >> and they don't um >> good. >> And that also answers the question that
they had because they want to move a bathroom and if they had to meet the code, they would have to make holes in the roof for the current bathroom and then take that down and put something else. So, this is a good resolution. I
think um the uh BINCOM hasn't met um the school committee um has described a um se uh
see what's um their their u schedule for the budget and I have some way else. Yes, they have to
one um I can get that to people. It essentially by February we will have their final budget and then they will get their health insurance bill and the final budget will be >> is it uh December 2nd? Yeah.
>> Typically >> the first week of December will be the tenative budget. Yeah. >> And then January they refine it and then they close by the second week of February. >> And then they get surprises. >> Yeah.
And I there was a meeting of a group which probably should be called the collaboration group and is currently called number crunching which is um the two chairman of select board, the two
town administrators and the chairman of the um finance committees of the two towns. Started by talking about um um our budget first we got a report from um the uh meeting about chapter 70
apparently every town and city in the country in the state has a problem because school costs rise at fast faster than two and a half and they just fall behind further and further. Um
the state has a a metric of the ability to pay um school costs which includes equal valuation and income. Um and their conclusion for Essex was that Essex has
capacity to pay $9 million and is currently paying 9.8 8 million which is a problem and Manchester has a capacity to pay 30 million and is currently paying about 16.3 million. So >> what analysis is this? This is an
analysis from the chapter 70 committee um that that they do u based on property values and and >> yeah it goes by your dynamics of your
town. What I did hear though was that they're going to look into regional school districts and there might be some more >> Yep. Well, who knows what's going to end up happening there, but they're they're going to take a serious look into the cost of regionalization and transportation and stuff like that. So,
>> and they move at a glacial pace, >> right? So, but at least at least the discussions are being had now, you know, >> um because of the budget outlook and um everybody agreed that that health
insurance was a serious problem and special ed is a serious problem. Um and looking for ways to change the health insurance profile. um trying to include more high
deductible plans with backup. Um and uh but of course for the school that's that's something that has to be negotiated and the negotiating team are senior teachers who therefore have more
desire to have fewer deductibles. So it's it's this it's [clears throat] our you were there. So, if you would like to correct anything. >> Oh, you you nailed it. That was pretty
much it. Yeah. >> Okay. Um the finance committee has doesn't meet. >> Okay. The consent agenda. Um, >> I I had requested a change to
>> Yes, did get in. >> Get in. Got in and got back out and >> for a motion. >> I move the select vote approve this consent agenda. >> Second. >> Further discussion. >> Jeff, >> yes.
>> Brian, >> yes. >> Kathy, >> yes. An says, yes. John. >> Yes. >> Okay. That administrator's report. >> Okay. So, uh starting with the council on aging. Um
right now, uh the open enrollment begins uh for the health connector and we need some assistance uh in the COA uh in the council on aging to help with some residents. We have about eight or nine
residents already on the like reaching out looking for assistance to do go through the enrollment process. So we reached out to Essex. Uh they have part-time council on aging uh
staff who are licensed or or or certified to assist with that. So uh we spoke with Tess sheep from Essex. she's going to actually provide. We're going to pay her to come over and help us out. Uh so she's going to be here uh
on this Friday the 7th and then Friday the 21st. Um four appointments each day. Eva's working with uh the eight residents that have already reached out looking for assistance to schedule time to meet with
tests. But we uh are actively trying to um kind of fill that void with some outside help uh during this time. And as far as the COA director goes, we had about 13
applications. Uh four uh candidates uh were interviewed by uh our health and human services team leader and our human resources director. three of the four candidates are moved forward for a final interview with me which will occur uh
this and or next week. Um so hopefully I don't know if uh if it's possible but we might at the next select board meeting may be voting you know you might be voting to confirm an offer uh if not the
first week of December. Um, as far as the senior center goes, uh, we had a meeting with the Masons, uh, last week. Um, it went really well as far as talking about the different elements of the condo docks and getting
on the same page. Uh, now both council for us and the Masons are going back to draft the language according to our conversation and they're supposed to be getting those getting it back to us in three weeks time. So, two weeks from now,
um, [laughter] >> it was a glimmer of progress. Uh, they're also initiating the process of deregistering the land. >> Um, both attorneys felt like it was important to get that done. I wish we
had started the process >> two years ago. >> Yeah. A long time ago, but um, they're getting it going. So, uh, we are we're on the same page. We're it's really just kind of getting council both councils to
get the pencils sharpened and move forward. >> How is that affecting the fundraising? >> Well, fundraising really hasn't started formally. Um, >> just in a holding pattern. >> It's kind of, but it not just because of the condo docks. Yes, conducts are a
piece of that, but also we we've been having um meetings with the friends and the board on the design of the of the center. >> Part of that uh needs or or that is a part of the process of fundraising too is being able
to go out there and talk about what the senior center uh how it's going to be designed and um kind of generate that positive response from that process, too. So, uh, I think fundraising is informally
starting, but really formally isn't going to get kickarted in probably for another month or so. >> You think you're going to get things closed, Mike? Well, I don't think I think that we could get agreement
between the two parties. The process of closing with the registry and this whole registered land element may take longer, but if we're in agreement and it's just legal process, that shouldn't hold up
the kickstart of the fundraising. >> Um, miss capital and operational budget process. All departments have submitted their capital requests to us. Uh and they're now uh submitting operational requests as well. Uh the goal is to
[clears throat] go to the finance committee meeting on the 20th with an overview of what the capital what the approach to our capital needs are this year. There's some really big dollars involved in those requests. So
at our next meeting, I'd like to do that overview with the board first. Uh and then so that would be the 17th and then move to the finance committee on the that week on the 20th. Uh so I may reach out to you to sit with you individually
prior to our next select board meeting just to kind of go over all those all those aspects because PAS dredging you know the COA the senior center if we have to frontload um the ratunda you know there's there's
a lot on the plate and we have to all be on the same page of >> and the culvert um she's not on the list anymore. Uh and then last week I attended and
testified at the joint committee on municipalities in support of the governor's municipal empowerment uh uh legislation which seeks to ease fiscal pressures on municipalities referring some of the uh reforming some of the procurement rules. Uh we talked a lot
about hybrid meetings and and the open meeting law. Uh the legislation uh makes what we do today permanent. Basically the uh the rules around open meeting law today are still temporary
and born out of the pandemic. Um this legislation would make them permanent instead of having to revisit the legislature every so so often. Uh there's some property tax exemptions included in there for seniors that are
new. Um and uh some regionalization options too like board of regional board of assessors. Um >> so it's it's a good bill. Uh it's all sourced from a process that the MMA held with many municipalities and listening
to what are the kind of the pain points of some of the things that we do. So, >> can you comment on any of the procurement improvements or >> I got Yeah, you know, the people next to me really spoke to that. I I spoke more
about um the open meeting law and uh the local tax options. Uh so, some of the local tax options that they have in there would allow us to increase some of the rates on some of
the local tax options. I tried to explain to them how as a municipality we really are we struggle to find revenue sources that don't aren't completely sourced by our residents. >> Those local tax options are some of the
few opportunities for that. So we were in support, you know, we're in support of towns having the ability to consider an increase if they felt it was appropriate. Um, and then I got really asked a lot of questions about the open meeting law
piece. So, we didn't really get my testimony didn't get >> too far down the road on procurement. Um, the federal government shutdown and impacts to SNAP uh has been a really hot topic
uh across all municipalities and across the state. Um, in Manchester, we have 184 residents that are enrolled in SNAP. Uh, so we're working with the COA and um, Cheryl and I and uh, B and and Wendy
on what type of information we can help spread or put on our website or post on social media as to what resources could be out there for folks. Um, and then next week, uh, or actually I'm
sorry, Thursday, uh, I am attending the Resilient Coast announcement in Chelsea in the morning. And then after that, going into Boston to testify at the House Committee on Federal Funding, Policy, and Accountability hearing, uh
they asked us to they asked for me to come and testify related to the Culver Project. And as a reminder on that, we are we're we're meeting with uh this week we're meeting with our neighbors about a alternative
grant proposal through MVP in a regional approach as a backup funding source uh for the Culver project >> and the fact the failure to cut off electricity to the whole KN. Yes.
>> Yes. Exactly. Uh, so I think, you know, I think that uh I have plenty of I have plenty of other things that are on the plate that I could be doing uh on Thursday, but I think it is important uh to go to the state house, talk about how this is
impacting our town um and let them know that we're applying for other opportunities. So that's all I have. Is there a motion? >> I move to. >> All in favor?
>> I give up the motion.