I pledge alleg to the flag of the the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you
everyone um tonight we may have a a little bit um of a longer meeting because we have uh a joint meeting with the finance committee um before I ask the finance committee to open their meeting I am going to um take public
comment in so public comment for the select board is to receive oral Communications for members of the public members of the public May address the select board for up to 3 minutes longer with the permission of the chair the select board shall not engage in discussion on topics raised during public comment but may choose to add the
topic to a future agenda this agenda segment will be limited to 15 minutes unless extended at the discretion of the chair do we have any public comment tonight hi Steve come on up thank you state your name and your address
please I'm Steve 14 Street and this morning I or maybe was early afternoon I sent a message to the select board and Erica shair of the fincom voicing what some may think was a little bit premature complaint if you will about
tonight's meeting given that a draft warrant was going to be on the agenda I thought it would been useful if paperwork and been posted on the website so that other people that are interested me and others perhaps could read it and perhaps give some public
comment tonight like I'm doing right now that' be on point some of the articles that we being upward discussion um I understand there may be some ins and outs and timings about what can be posted on the agenda and without knowing I'm sympathetic to that but I
think it would be very useful for the future uh the draft warrant could be available to the public ahead of time I think U thank you when things get delayed and you know once you take control of the warrant and
come up with some ideas it can be late for the public to weigh in so that effectively what happens to the federal level one body one body The House of the Senate comes up and say take this or leave it we're going to jam it down your throat and I don't it sounds extreme for
when I'm talking about select board I think more time for Meaningful public input would be useful and by meaningful I mean more time key so that thank you okay thank you Steve um I am going to respond to that um it is the agenda is
on the reviewing the town meeting War warrant is on our agenda um the town of Newbury we don't post draft documents um the agenda is dra the um not the agenda the warrant is a draft warrant um and
honestly it was continuously being updated up until I believe today it was still worked on today it was being finalized um that's why um the select board even though we received um this in our packet the one we have tonight before us that
was given to us tonight is different than the one that we received um and uh it'll be updated tonight after we vote the warrant we're going to have discussion tonight right will we vote the warrant
or will we uh continue discussion because it came out a little bit later than you know most people it didn't come out later this has been a process historically this is always a process uh The Joint we have always had a joint meeting between the select board and the
finance committee and um I'm going to actually ask Erica has a timeline of how we've done this in the past um with the finance committee um I I want to I I'm a little confused when you say public
comment um or public input for the warrant the role of the select board thank you is to to pull together a warrant for annual town meeting we work with the
um the town Administration and we pull together a warrant we have a joint meeting it's a draft warrant we have a joint meeting with the finance committee um if there are any bylaw changes which there are those have come up from the P
the the planning board which has a public hearing for any changes so there already has been time for the public to comment on um any bylaw changes the finance committee takes the
warrant goes back at a later meeting and in a couple of weeks Erica will have a time a timeline and they go through the financial pieces of it line by line and they vote to recommend or not recommend
to town meeting annual town meeting and I believe uh the finance committee the chair of the finance committee puts adequate time for public comment on her on their agenda they have separate um and I'll let her speak to that in a second then
we go to when we do attend town meeting annual town meeting on uh April 29th town meeting as a town meeting member if you're a registered voter in the town of Newbury you are a town meeting member and that's our legislative body and it's at that time
that we have um conversations with the whole of the town meeting members over the warrant um and then the town votes on that so that's been our process it's always been our process that hasn't changed um there is no provision I don't
believe there's a provision in the law to allow for a public hearing on the warrant I don't believe that's that's appropriate I don't believe it's appropriate based on the role of the select board but actually I'm going to pass it over to the to the chair of the finance committee that will speak to
their process yes um thank you st for sending the note earlier today and for coming to exess this tonight after doing so I did send back a communication to you BCC and the members of my committee the finance committee and this is the
meeting where we share the draft we get it in a hard copy here we hear about it from Town Administrator and we listen there the finance committee will not make any votes tonight um we do not vote to accept a warrant we do not that's not
our job we do make recommendations on whether or not to recommend not recommend or members of our committee can abstain from any of the financial articles on the warrant as we both host that meeting um will happen for the for the
prep for FY 26 that meeting will be held um next Tuesday night um we will do do a detailed uh ATM warrant review with extended public comment what we did same exact processes we did last year uh what we do is we then group the warrant
articles by like either funding source or topic area and allow the public comment on each of those so not just one session at the beginning I will note when we held that similar meeting last year on that was on
um I was on April 2nd last year no members of the public were present and no public comments were made so we did that also again we will also have after that vote to recommend not recommend we will have a meeting where we will go through the drafting of the um Financial
finance committee's appropriation booklet which is what everybody receives a town meeting and is posted on the website well in advance of town meeting where we have a cover letter as well as rationals for every Financial article and talk about our recommendations that last year happened
on the 16 of April and again no members of the public again we did extended comment opportunities that was in the agenda no members of the public were in attendance for that we will do that again this year that will probably be on April
8th and then um we will probably hold one more meeting um because we will also at that time also talk about what we want to present at town meeting um last year we did an information session about free cash we will take public comment up until then on what people want to learn about
at town meeting and what would help them be prepared voters um we will have a prep session for that probably on April 22nd about a week before actual town meeting so that follows exactly the same as we did last
year and in that case we believe that we have opened up especially on the finance committee size we have made room and space for ample um public com on the financial articles as well as anything received via email is discussed during the following me
meeting May I say something briefly yeah come on up no I agree that there's a very good process in place for subsequent input from the public should they choose or have the time to make the comment but I was thinking of
how what's a steam rle that's going downhill it's difficult to change it and I was thinking of let's say there was something that's on the draft um warrant right now I'm saying GE I'm thinking to myself now gee you don't talk about this and I think you should i' have liked to
have made that comment for the whole both committees to hear as opposed to doing it next week with a fincon uh or for that matter if there's something that's there that I think shouldn't be there I'm speaking myself again to say d consider taking this out and here's why
um with budgets tight as they usually are let's say I had a $10,000 item in my mind i' like to see you have addressed well if the money isn't there in the totality of the budget it doesn't get a chance to get in because we blow past
our U the money that we have available so I thought the opportunity for that 15 minutes of public comment at a meeting like this would be an opportunity for people to raise specific on point comments to Aid you in your deliberations now I get I'll I'll follow
up next week I guess and look for what there is to do and I appreciate your Indulgence letting me speak a second time no I I thank you Steve and I you know you have a valid question and there's a lot of confusion out there in the public and I'm more than happy to clarify the process because I think
there's a question on the process um and also remember this is a warrant the actual articles that get voted at town meeting are what is said at town meeting they can change the dollar amounts can change between now and town meeting and if you remember uh one of the bylaws at
least actually got moved no action it was on the warrant but it never went to a vote so this is the warning to the residents of what will be before them at town meeting but it's town meeting where the back and forth typically happens
and what you're saying is just for clarification for the for the voting public these are all suggestions um with uh educated um no they are they are we can't talk
about anything at town meeting that isn't in the draft warrant nobody can add anything you all as the select board as as members of the select board for multiple years we'll give get up and give our recommendations no no no no no you all
tonight you review this it's your body that votes the warrant you're not saying you recommend or not recommend anything you're saying you want these articles to articles to be posted to warn the inhabitants of the town that these items
will be be before them at town meeting this is the business of town meeting this right this is setting the agenda of town meeting that's so that's this is the vehicle by which it is done this is not a decisionmaking process that we're
going through at this moment time we're just going to make a presentation at town meeting Leslie Leslie this this is this is something that we've done like for the past four year you know since you guys
have been on the on the board this is how our government works the select board meets we set the warrant the warrant gets posted so the public can be warned about this is the business coming before town meeting the town the
Articles um as written have motions to them and the administration gets information as time goes by that may change dollar amounts like School budgets or an estimate might might come
in or something like that and then when we when we move uh the select board moves at town meeting that number may actually be different than what's posted in the warrant because of it's a fluid
document it's constantly changing um so I don't I hope that answers your question this helps okay any other questions on the bo from the board the finance committee any questions from the finance committee no
okay thank you thank you thanks Steve okay so we have a question oh uh public comment okay so 3 minutes Mor I agree and principal which just said what I don't understand is the
school every year and not November December January and February Prince after their meetings where they on their budget with the understanding it's SC because it continues to change as this one will and it could right up to the floor of the meeting and then they vote
on whatever number you I think what's struggling with is why isn't this informational draft basis made public today to anybody that's maybe one the reason many people don't show up to the meeting because there's nothing to sit in their hand to talk about the $12
million Town budget is there something when will that budget be available on a draft basis so the budget that we're going to vote on is not 12 million it's 24 million that's this year's operating budget I believe and that is going to be whatever but when ever the the numbers
as the numbers come in the number we vote on town meeting floor will be the number that the town uses for our budget that's town meeting votes the budget they're a legislative body the question being when will the copy of the draft tonight's discussion be made public the
draft document would be the draft warrant can be made public after our meeting but it's not going to be what you'll see at town meeting understand clearly so we don't the town's policy is not to releasee draft documents because
they can be confusing to the public a good example is what the school does and they're two and three months ahead of the town the town could follow their lead and their 50 million School total
budget is is there in great detail a good example to follow just a suggestion hope improve in the future thank you okay any other public comment
no okay um so tonight uh everybody have the warrant that you were received um oh that's right sorry Erica I would entertain a motion to open the finance committee meeting
second uh let's start in roll call vote Jeff yes Patrick yes Eric Jacobson yes yes Jean PA yes Jo yes Frank yes all right so we've got six of six here opening the
meeting all right thank you um actually I'm going to hand this over to the Town Administrator now so that she can walk us through the warrant please make sure the select board uses the one that was provided to you
tonight Madam chair yes did you want to start yes so I'm gonna um move over to if you look here on article in your packet page is
uh yeah page five article 16 is the bylaw changes the planning board is here um they have a presentation for us um Jeff can you see the presentation can you see the I'm gonna share it with them in one minute okay
um the finance committee doesn't um opine on on bylaw changes but I think it's important that they hear it anyways page ninew article start article 21 okay article 21 starts on page nine okay yeah
thank you hello everyone hi Woody hi Woody say who you are my name is Woody Knight and chair the plan boardy um everyone here has been working
hard Martha Kristen and Daniel for what we have for you tonight um primary responsibility of the planning vot is to continuously review the new zoning bylaw for improvements and amendments to town
meeting to meet the needs of town um this process been going on for a while everybody like I said everyone's been working hard um sorry
you how do you want us to you that's thank you that's a that's a who's on the planning board today planning steps at the bottom
wonderful pictures of us all um so with the support of regional Planning Commission and other consultants and with legal guidance planning staff support the planning
board to respond to requirements due to changes in the laws track needs over time research best zoning practices and as needed take a deep dive into updates and edits just kind of the timeline it's the next slide now then we're on to Jo
thank you and that's our timeline where we've been at here um it started with planning uh public meetings planning board public meetings to review and discuss proposed amendments 124 24
1218 24 1825 and 12225 the pl board vote to refer zoning amendments to the select board was on 12 225 select Board review and vote to refer zoning amendments back to the
planning board public hearing happen 128 public hearing and planning board vote to submit final amendments to the select board was 21925 and 22625 and tonight here we are select Bo
in prom review and approve articles for inclusion of the time meeting warrant for for March 2025 um reasons for this year's proposed
amendments to the Nu zoning bylaw is uh revisions uh revisions are required to comply with new or updated state and federal laws and recent case law a uh examples are FEMA EPA marijuana
regulations Mass affordable homes act and uh Wall Street decisions revisions are proposed as part of an overall and ongoing zoning bylaw Review called Z called a zoning recodification
the proposed recodification will update outdated or inconsistent terms and definitions and provide housekeeping changes such as formatting Etc and also to clarify sections of the bylaw to support and improve process for both
applicants and per Bo so that that that thank you Woody thank you thank you you need a it's pretty isn't it yes hi everybody
um nice to see you for my first town meeting in this position um planning director CHR grips um and just want to Echo Woody's comments that this is for sure been a team process you'll see tonight and you'll
see at town meeting there's a lot of content in here and it takes a real dedicated Focus to really dive into this stuff it's an ongoing effort it's an annual effort but some of what we're presenting this year has been um
developed specifically thanks to our former plan director Martha Taylor who has supported the planning board through these processes for you know more than 16 years so having that expertise has really highlighted and experience has
highlighted um places where things are confusing or places where legal cases have changed and so the bylaw language needs to change so we're kind of categorizing that as this recodification but it's really a result of really leave
living and breathing this bylaw stuff for a long time I know some of the selectboard members are are previous planning board members um so I just want to give a shout out to past planning board members whove worked on the zoning B current planning board members who
worked on the zoning B it's really a lot of work for our community um and we'll try to go through we're going to go through each of these articles there actually eight different articles tonight some of them have multiple
sections so I have one slide for each article I'll present it and then answer any questions if there's you know any detail we want to dive into I might turn around and say hey Martha come on up
here with me um but we've we've really as Woody just outlined in that calendar we've had a lot of meetings working on this stuff in addition to all the other work that the planning board does so again kudos to the volunteers in this town who who run this stuff it's a lot
of work thank you okay next slide so um uh there it is it's a lot I'm not even going to read those those will be on a warrant those are in your packet um next slide please um some of the article numbers on
this slide may not be correct because we've been moving the order around a little bit um up to the end of today but the important thing is to um emphasize that three of the eight articles are
required uh that the town and Newbery address for reasons outside of our local control so the first one is a change to the flood Hazard section of the baa that's required because EMA
has um we'll dive into that but FEA has updated the flood maps for marac Valley wed so due to changes in the flood maps we have to adopt the new flood maps and update sections of our byw so that's required by FEMA the second one listed
there is site plan review that's a very customary permitting process for the planning board a lot of projects come through a review by the planning board when sites are being developed there are just a couple minor changes there that
are being required by EPA um to address a pre-construction conference related to storm water management so that's a federal storm water um requirement to update uh one section of site plan review the third um may be one that is
on everyone's radar the affordable homes Act was new legislation passed by the state of Massachusetts in August and it requires towns to update the section of their bylaw that looks at accessory Apartments unlike some towns um we've
had an accessory apartment bylaw on the books for a number of years which is fantastic so we're ahead of the curve from what the state's asking but there are some modifications to our bylaw that need to happen in order to be compliant
with the new state law so again three of the eight are sort of driven by these external forces the other five next slide please um are sort of what I was starting to talk about earlier which are
their changes to different um sections language definitions um changes that have needed clarification that we've learned the planning board has learned about through the processes so we'll go through each
of those those are the ones that um have a lot more words and sections related to them so they're um a little more complicated um but again the purpose is to clarify clean up make things consistent um and just general
sort of give it a review and an update next slide and I just want to say that word recodification is um you know the reason it's called that is because our zoning byla is also
called the code of the town of so that's something I was telling my husband last night is he listening oh yeah yeah hopefully he's not watching um okay article 21 um is a
really basic administrative um update and it's changing things like the current byw spells the word bylaw b y hyen l a w it's just inconsistent throughout the bylaw we're just going to go through the
whole thing and update that uh in many places it still says Board of Selectmen we're going to update that SEL word um and then the creation of a table of contents is again intended to be a tool
so that if anyone's looking at this you know massive bylaw doc you can find things more easily that's article 21 any questions about that okay article
22 um all right this is um the first section so the little s means section the um zoning by is Chap is section 97 so that's what you'll see on each slide um
the section number of each um component of the bylaw so 97-1 sets forth the general provisions of the byw what is this byla what is the purpose of it what is the authority
based on um and um how is it intended to be a tool for the town to uh use as we review development and growth in the community so um there are several sections that are being updated there's
some new language um that's been proposed this my understanding is really comes through a recognition that um that some sections of our ba are are just out of date so we're sort of trying
to bring in the new Provisions this has been reviewed and provided by Town Council um working with many communities she's able to see what other bylaws uh what other kinds of language bylaws have
so if there are any specific questions about any of the changes I'm happy to try to do my best okay um I'm GNA just drop you there for one second um the select board if you do you does anybody
have any questions so far okay continue okay thank you y um next slide article 23 in the packet tonight um is the update to the blood Hazard
section of the Bop so again just to reiterate the revised maps have um theme has taken several years to update the marac Watershed rised map so any community that includes land area um in
that geography is being required to update their Maps it's I think important to uh State these mapping changes did not look at coastal flooding flood areas it's just the what's called rivering so just
the the freshwater river areas of the community those are the only places where there are updates I have a question quick just um how many communities are involved into
the Watershed that you know basically we sharing uh that all these maps are being uh formulated from um I don't know the answer to that I it's you know the marac Watershed comes through most of the
marac valley so I'm pretty sure every town but I can't tell you the exact so these are Fe these are FEMA Maps right these are FEMA so they're coming from the federal government correct right okay does that answer your question so they contracted to look at each local
community um yeah but they will all be combined into one another to to make these Maps correct or no um I mean you can zoom in to any parcel level in the
FEMA Maps like you and and there are maps that exist this this is just an update so I don't know if that's answering your question but it's any community in any town you can go and put in your address and see if your property is in the F plane so that's you know
that's how it exists now I think FEMA just updates segments you know they hire a contractor to look at this this geography or this geography and they do it on a watershed basis so I don't know when you know when did The Mystic River
Watershed get updated I can't tell that but it's been I think since thanks to my slide they were last mapped in 2014 this this part of Newbery so it's been a while so maybe every 10 or so years they try to to take a look on the
ground up yeah by the decade or so yeah I think so thank you y so there's a lot of this is a long um bylaw there's a lot of detail it's been very thoroughly
reviewed both by Our Town Council as well as um the department of conservation and Recreation the state has a whole flood plane Administration program intended at the state level to help local communities their flood plane
um project manager has reviewed the bylaw a number of times to make sure that the changes are consistent with what FEMA is requiring um the important thing about this well two things one is the maps become effective in July there is a
viewer on um linked on the planning board's page right now they the um DCR is also working with team that up hold some open houses and I'll make sure those dates get put on the website and
news blast and that kind of thing if people have specific questions about a specific change there'll be opportunities for public input and to ask those questions so I'm happy to help provide information if anyone does have specific questions there will also be
public meetings to allow that to happen um the second bullet is significant to Newberry which is in order for Newbery res residents to be a eligible and able to remain in the National flood
insurance program we have to make these updates so again that's something really important to our community um I guess that's all that said there we know flooding and insurance are
important the flood insurance is managed by the federal government so the federal government's coming in and going to tell us how they want their flood planes to go okay before we can even ask the question well if you want to ask a question D DCR is having open mic
night um there have been drafts of the maps for about 18 months by the way and they have been presented to the town um so there have been occasions you know there has been a lot of communication about this effort but this is we're kind
of it's important to bring it to this town meeting because they go into effect July 8th and we don't want anyone to lose their ability to continue to be enrolled in that insurance for Kristen does any of this have to do with the
with I know it's FEMA but I mean is it uh considered into the realm of climate control is that's that uh the they're updating the the flooding Maps um
throughout I think it's it's been a regular process for the federal government forever forever I don't know how long the flood insurance program has been a long
time I don't there isn't anything new about this particular date and time it's it's an iterative updating process helps um before we move on can you ask Jeff Jeff do you have any questions about the flood the
flood okay thank you okay where is he he's participating REM moment over here I could I have Jean over here but it's usually Jeff
so I'm a little bit confused so okay I have a quick question yeah on this portion that we're on right now if if we didn't do anything the flood plan maps and the flood insurance
program would remain the same through the federal government correct no no well they would have to because we need to abide by by those laws so the federal approved math would
remain the same but the eligibility of Newberry residents to apply for the flood insurance program would be eliminated why because private insurance companies
can go their own route always always always but this is Fe Federal this is a federal flood insurance program and it's it's right so so why do we need to include it in our bylaws if it's a federal it's a federal FL program are
already I mean honestly I don't my answer is they're telling us we have to adopt these at a local level in Massachusetts you know if we had County Government government it would be different if we didn't have municipal government at the town meeting level it
might be different but in this case they're telling every community so okay you I think you answered my question so so if we don't change our bylaws to conform to the federal law then seriously we're not eligible for flood
insurance anymore that is correct yeah for this particular program okay which I mean there California is like right now the primary um they they
that the they that that state has lost a lot of insurance because they didn't comply with uh how fima was doing it yeah the
Carolinas might be next to line so well not Newbury newb is going to adop the B at town meeting yes we are okay cuz we've learned our lesson yep the next one um is uh about section 97 D5 of the
bylaw which um relates to special permits so a special permit I think this like board certainly knows most people know is a permit that is discretionary there's a review process um related to
uh approving a special permit or denying a special permit so the B um has multiple sections that relate to special permits um and this first one um which I
think is article 24 still in your packet um is intended to provide some guidance to the per boards and to the applicant about um procedure and the authority
that a s board or planning board or zoning board has to act as What's called the special permit graning Authority um and it gives this criteria which is a chunk of the section is sort of naming
the categories of um issues or topics that the permitting Authority the special permit granting Authority can use to Grant the special permit so this is like a general overview of the entire special permit section again
this I'm sure other board members or Martha can tell stories but without this in the bylaw there's been some cases where special permits have been a challenge so this is intended again both for the applicant who's applying and
requesting a permit and the pering authorities to guide them in the categories of things that can be ConEd so it's it provides Clarity to that to that zoning I see
mentioned here in in um number four under special permits General that there's a table of use has that been updated so on page 21 number four sure oh okay it says special permits for
uh the board appeal shall act as a special permit granting Authority here and after for all special permits unless otherwise designated herein or in the table of use do you want to I mean I think I can I cannot believe I just heard that
word come out of your mouth no um the table at the beginning of the whole bylaw there's a table of use regulations and it identifies what kinds of uses are uh to be considered by which board so in
many cases it'll say the select board you got this one planing board you got this one zba this is a sort of catch all if there are places in the bylaw that it's not specified then the zoning board is a special forment granting Authority
and the special permit has to be applied for and approved before it can go uh in front of any of the boards right not approved it has to be applied for applied for yeah yeah a request for a
special permit is and and it has and it has to be vot voted on to for the boards to take action on it I guess you so has the table of use been updated or is it the same so if I can address
that question um as Kristen noted earlier we've got we're going through the recodification process and we decided to move forward with certain changes to the zoning by law this year that that were um needed to address certain things that we've
been having issues with the next step we will continue going through the recodification process and one of the next things we will be doing is going through the table of use regulations to make sure that it really you know makes sense and at the um so that's not updated now but
will be in the next round okay thank you is any other questions from the board does Jeff have any questions thank you okay I
can Okay um letter C of this 975 section um yes y the open space yep so this is a a way
of um someone who's uh applying for a sub an permit to subdivide a property can use this section of the bylaw it's called an open space residential development it's different than a a regular development or a standard
subdivision um there's some different categories of ways you can propose to develop your property um there is a change that's been required by a case law decision that said um
communities cannot require an applicant to use this bylaw so we previously had the word shall if you were submitting a subdivision of um four or
more Lots or units you were required to present a plan using this open space residential subvision that was and this Wall Street development versus West planning board
um was determined to not be um appropriate for a town to require that that so you may make it available to an applicant there are a lot of benefits you can incentivize open space residential developments but you can't
require that the applicant so this is um a change from shall to May so you may choose to submit a subdivision using the osrd but it's not required with that change um we realized
that the rest of the sentence was you may use the osrd to submit this only for four Lots or more and that was deemed like we could have an open space subdivision of three lots so the other
change here is a response to the first change um saying that any subdivision of Lander development that will create three or more units may use this section of the byock an open space subdivision
is a cluster subdivision where you put your Lots or units on a smaller lot and you protect more open space so it is something that in many cases is a great uh a great way to you know do a subdivision we want to make sure that we
allow it to be used if the applicant would like to use it so previously the town of Newber only allowed this for four or more parcels and would changing it to three or more I think it's actually more than four okay more than four now it's moving to three three or
more or more okay what else do you need a drink of water okay um next please sorry just if I may this is all on under article 24 we're still on article 24
corre correct yes absolutely that's a long one are you going to have to get up at the uh ATM and I don't chitchat about all of this probably this is my trial run um okay uh
common drag waves is another uh section of the bot within this special permit section so if you want to use a common driveway instead of single driveways you have to get a special permit that is
intended for there to be a review process to make sure that what you're doing is um you know safe uh for Public Safety there are often comments that the board receives from um the police chief or fire chief to make sure the
construction of a common driveway one driveway for more than one properties is um safe so if I could uh ask a question on this because it it falls into my own um where I live but the beginning of my
driveway is a common driveway it's been for 25 years or more does it is it are those grandfathered in that um in the bylaws that it will uh they'll they'll
maintain the same status that they did originally yes no one will need to come in to get any permission for one that already exists this is if a new common driveway is proposed within a new
application yeah changing correct if someone uh so the project that actually um is uh came through the plan board recently was there was a driveway for two lots and
they were adding a third lot and the plane board had to review that um the driveway already existed but the addition of the new lot triggered a special permit um the reason we're adding this um so
the language that's being added I think it's page 29 of the packet you all have is the planning board May wave compliance with components of this section of the common driveway if it deems the waiver is consistent with the
purpose of tent of the driveway and it's in the public interest and does not impact Public Safety and if written record is kept of such waiver so what happened with this recent project was the driveway already existed the
current requirements uh require certain width um there were some really big trees there was it was deemed like it's been being used for two properties the fire department reviewed it in order for
the applicant to not increase the width just a little bit more which would have required some changes to the site uh they had had to actually go to the zoning board of appeals to make a to request that waiver the zba had to
request the waiver then it had to come back to the planning board it was an exceedingly honorous process for this applicant they did it um we all helped them with that process but it seemed appropriate in this case where the planning board is the permit granting
authority to give the planning board the authority to consider that waiver of request rather than having to go back to the other board yeah and thank you very much for the explanation on how that's all going to work because it um you know
throughout the community there are shared driveways since people will have a question about you know where they stand as far as like even their deeded property is concerned yeah Kristen you the planning
board had two public hearings correct yes did anyone ask one hearing that was continued for two nights right for two nights ample opportunity for the public to weigh in and ask questions like Leslie's asking did common driveway come up at all it
did not the fling meeting that I attended the hearing was attended by three people I couldn't get in it I was one of the three people Dave Powell was the other the third person did not speak did not
ask questions did not speak covers covers correctly okay I'm all in favor of public hearings and communicating with the public and you know we can talk about the warrant and the draft and people looking at them between now and annual
town meeting but the track record for people getting involved with public hearing ings is not too robust thank you okay let's move on to marijuana why are you jumping on board
for that one all the because we got we got to move it's it's 8:00 Finance Comm is getting a nice education okay this is um a lot of pages and sorry Tracy we couldn't figure out any way to
make it shorter what is happening here is one section is being deleted and combined with the next that's basically what's happening here it's housekeeping in order to have our bylaws catch up with state regulations okay so that's what this
whole thing is about it's a clean up what's the give me can you give me the high level what's being removed and what's it looks to me from reading it it looks to me like um marijuana or establishment that just changing that language they're removing
the dispensaries medical and and they're going to call it one thing now so basically back in 2016 when the town adopted the marijuana establishments bylaw yeah we already had the medical marijuana establishing spir
in place we didn't do anything with that one at the time but because we have the marijuana establishments bylaw in place it's really redundant so there are some Provisions in the registered marijuana dispensaries that are being carried over so just the references to marijuana
treatment centers um being carried over to the marijuana establish establishments bylaw but no nothing substantive is going to change with this right nothing substantive okay because we don't have any viable
locations I me there there there are locations there are buffer zones that are established and that kind of thing but there's nothing that somebody from you know coming in thank you but we
haven't the interesting thing that's going on right now are some of the um original establishments that opened up and we're doing you know unbelievable business and bringing prosperity to
their Community are closing down because there there's too much competition okay okay look at this you can have it it's so pretty this is another um
sort of uh similar to the common driveway article this uh is cleaning up to address a discrepancy that was found through a project that was being permitted um it's updating this section
about customary home occupations to say that no use that requires a special permit under that table of use regulations that weing out earlier can be permitted as a customary home occupation
this is a new article correct this is 25 um this is 25 would you just tell us when you go from one article to the next what the number is yep oh it's at the top I didn't even see that sorry I didn't see you okay no
worries yeah I'll read it out I'm sure there other people who can't see that um yeah article 25 um this is a section that already exists it's just making an edit to it as that number
two that's gold so again it's adding a new subsection which says that no use which requires a special permit under the table of use regulations shall be permitted as a customary home occupation okay so essentially customary
home occupations for the most part don't require special permit but if they do require special permit for the particular use doesn't it depend on what the home occupation is yes
so so if it's an occupation if you couldn't do let's say you would have to fall into the realm of agricultural or um within the the building itself but you would have to stay out of like a
without special permit like a retail establishment yeah there are distinctions between what kind of use it is yes and all this is saying is that if the use requires a special permit it cannot be permitted as a customary home
occupation you have to go through that okay thank you okay um article 26 um is the the accessory apartment
update so again the state passed a a large affordable homes act um last August passed in August it had a variety of components one of the components is this provision that went
it actually went into effect on February 2nd um So currently what the affordable homes act says is that any um um uh any location where a single family
home is allowed in your zoning now is allowed to also construct an accessory dwelling unit on the property so Newbery is nearly entirely single family homes are allowed near you know not
everywhere but a majority of the community allows single family dwellings now those property are allowed by R to construct an accessory dwelling unit which is a small uh dwelling unit there there's
parameters around what it is it's 900 sare F feet or less um and it has to be attached to the original building it does not not anymore correct okay that's one of that was originally how it was set up no we we allowed detached sorry
we allowed detached as well so yeah does okay so there doesn't have to be like a common area anymore both attached and detached are allowed okay yes without a special
permit if it meets certain criteria so as you all know important things in Newber include septic has to me your septic utilities water every there are certain you know
to actually bu bu an Adu there are a lot of things a homeowner would have to look into but again this is intended to address the housing crisis in the in the state and certainly something that was pointed out by the housing production
plan that this town just approved um that we need a diversity of housing types smaller units are good they can be in-law units they can be your 20s something um trying to encourage the growth of that kind of housing is what
this is doing I think I have a second slide um so is this is this all new a new bylaw there's no change to this we're replacing the town's current bylaw with a whole new one correct so do we have to
vote to repeal the original because I don't want conflicting bylaws we have a big problem with that um the way the uh the start of the article is written allow is uh getting permission for both so um to
see the town will vote to amend article 10 section 9710 D accessory apartments by omitting it in its entirety and replacing it as follows okay great thank you I with the old in with a new updated
um I do think this is catching us up to what went into you know became law February 2nd I think our Building Commissioner has received several inquiries about this I think that's great I think this is a real tool for the community I think
we're probably going to kind of see how it goes for a year and there may be something coming back next town meeting to address like you know is this working are there there's some um there's regulations that the state has provided but there is some flexibility in terms
of what can be an accessory dwelling unit by special permit on top of what's Allowed by right so I think this will be a housing conversation that I welcome everyone to and I think that uh it's encouraging
for the community to understand the fact that we don't have to build new developments that we can use what what we already have and and be a
little bit more diverse in that area to keep people in the community correct abely question what what was the on February 2nd what was that called that was passed um the affordable homes act
affordable homes act that was the legislation that was approved by the state last August it had funding in it it had bylaw stuff in it um in this component of it for accessory dwelling
units went into effect February 2nd does this mimic that precisely that what the affordable homes act or have we modified what the affordable homes act says to create this yeah this what we're
proposing is pretty straight with what's required as I was sort of alluding to there are some things that we thought might require more discussion that are options um and we wanted more time for
that so this has been reviewed by um you know marac Valley Planning Commission staff by Town Council to make sure that it's exactly what's required there's some interesting things that come up like if you have a two
family house on one lot how many adus do you so when you start actually diving into this and it's certainly something the planning board the zoning board has been the spe the permit granting Authority so they're really important to have conversations with as this gets you
know again it'll I think it'll be interesting to see how many we construct and the state is requiring annual reporting because they also want to know if this is working if this is helping address some of our housing concerns
will the people that have say uh an existing um out building on their property that originally wasn't allowed to uh occupied be occupied um so that they
conversions they can convert it be allow as well again you have to make sure net I'm just looking into the future for for a lot of people saying you know what I I can I'll be able to afford to live
here and Mom and Dad can you know be on the property as well absolutely I mean conversion and you know reconstruction our big you know garage units I think that's why we put this graphic in because it really identifies their
LS you know you could put one on top of your garage you could convert your garage you could have one in your basement there are different ways that an accessor but can you have a free standing building and convert it
into um a you know a a living space for something some people versus just using it for uh work space or something of that nature or a barn there you go yes
it there's still a review process um The Building Commissioner is the entity that reviews that will open a lot of doors for people though yep all right does this board people into the town have any further questions
about adus right now one more yeah quick one does this if if we if someone builds one of these would it would it fulfill any of our requirements for like and and I I don't know what the terms are but
like 40b or MBTA or any of like the zoning overlay that we have already if if if something like this was built within one of those zones required zones would it give us credit for that as a town um
no I well let me answer your question too ways yeah it's I appreciate the question because it's there's a lot of things kind of overlapping um with housing these stat but um we're already compliant so new R doesn't have to worry
about like if this would help us or not the MBTA portion right is that what that's what talking about yes for that multi family housing that was approved at last year's town meeting right um these accessory drawing units are not
required to be affordable like they're not required to have a deed restriction that requires that you you know you can rent it by the way there's no prohibit prohibition on that um but it doesn't require you to to rent it at any
affordable rate could be a really expensive lovely 900t um apartment so it doesn't it won't count on what's called our subsidized housing inventory necessarily a property owner could
choose to put a deed restriction on it that means that for perpetuity it would be rented at an affordable rate and then they could apply to have it counted so there it it could but there's no requirement if that that yeah that that
answers my question thank thank you okay article 27 yeah I actually have a back sheet I'll just pass around because this there are some details around this is this the the adus this is just for ad okay thank
you okay so article 27 that's site plan review right review um page so 42 thank you in addition to projects that require special permit there are some projects that require what's called a site plan
review that's a process in front of a board where the applicant comes in and says this is what I want to do it's allowed the use is allowed by right but the um town has identified certain uh
ways that the special permit gring Authority can condition the project to assure that um essentially that that the projects that's being built um meets Public Safety it meets
concerns of abutters again it's an approval sort of by right but there there are ways to condition the approval so the changes here are two one is the one I mentioned briefly earlier the um
EPA was called the ms4 the Massachusetts Municipal Sear storm water system permit which is an EPA permit um that we already comply with there's just a very small provision that we didn't have in our bylaw that says you have to have a
pre- construction meeting to review um the project so that's a very minor addition but it has been identified in our um by the town's storm water consultant as required the other change um comes
through again sort of the experience of the planning board over the years in um reviewing site plan projects there are a couple additions to the criteria that the board can use in reviewing them um
one is relates to light pollution as you can see in our little graphic there there's been a lot of changes to lighting over the years and there are really good ways where the you can just make sure that the the lighting provides
enough safety for the project but it goes down instead of up into the sky um so that's one new provision and then the other is again just something we all know but our water supply in town is
limited we're interested in being energy efficient and helping um you know projects be as resource efficient as possible so we're adding a a phrase to to the again these are the site plan review criteria so I have a question on this
this one on um article uh B utilizing energy water and resource efficient design to the greatest degree possible including appropriate building orientation
landscape design use of solar or other energy collection apparatuses electric vehicle charging station LED light fixtures and use of resource efficient materials in energy water efficient systems does this require the
applicant to use all of these things like are they required to put in an EG electric vehicle charging station because that's extremely cost prohibitive right I think um no so the answer is no these are sort of a category of um site design that the
board can have have a conversation with the applicant about um and similar to lighting or um landscape planting the applicant proposes what they want knowing that this is something the
town's interested in but then there's a dialogue to sort of negotiate essentially and what is appropriate for that site there's certainly not going to be every site plan that can access solar on their roof sh
you know or that's you know that's a cost I can't do right now those kinds of discussions right my concern is it's going to increase the cost of construction significantly they're not requirements okay yes they're not requirements so only I will say there
are some requirements currently in the building code you have to um there's EV ready uh you're going to have to call him Peter Banette for that one but I think that um for instance like your garage has to be um the
electricity utility setup in your garage has to be a appropriate to charging station if the owner wanted to do that so there are some already a lot of Energy Efficiency stuff in the building code is the point I'm trying to
make okay but this isn't required this isn't required the applicant to do okay thank you any other questions from the board no that was a good question by the way thank you and I just want to it it seems pretty ambiguous actually when it comes to the actual request from the
person that wants to build this thing when it says design to the greatest degree possible it's like how how do you measure that you know how do you how do you measure that you're doing it to the greatest degree possible and who has that discretion when when it comes to me
coming to you and asking this is what I want to do here's my package and you look back at me and you go well Dana you're not doing that to the max degree possible I those kinds of I agree it's not straight forward those kind of
discussions happen currently with I I know I know so maybe no as long as it's not not as long as it's a dialogue and it's not a you must do this correct Jeff do do you have any
questions okay thank you thank you yeah there are requirements that you know as far as land landscaping and excuse me um you know building
materials and things like that that go on through the planning board that have to be recognized and applied for in past yeah in site plan review they they conditions that a board can uh
include in the permit that have requirements really I have to tell you I I I missed the planning board because it was so there was so much to learn so is that the only changes to site plan review is
this is just these two things here correct okay yep so what's Article 28 okay the last one the longest one um best for last section 11 is is sort
of at the tail end of the zoning bylaw it's the place the code kind of wraps everything up so there are a lot of definitions in this section um that are being updated there is language around
um the authority to enforce this bylaw um there's language around the granting building permits this has been a also a highly reviewed section um
and reviewed by Town Council reviewed by Martha's support to bring some of the places where things have been confusing in past projects ambiguous again to your point Dana some
of us that we're really trying to clarify things to the extent possible um some of the definitions the planning board did a lot of work on this we also invited the some of the zoning board members because some of this stuff really comes up more regularly with
zoning board permits um architectural uh definitions we look to our resident architect but there's been a lot of review but there are a lot of changes so happy to answer any just go through the
public hearing process too all these these changes thank you um any questions from the board can you give me the just the very high level what does it change it
just um is it a lot of definitions the definitions I saw that in the back yeah and then that's just the beginning section which identifies the authority to enforce The Building Commissioner correct
okay okay is there any substantive changes to it from the from the other one the way that it was before no from the public hearing version is that me no the the changes
that are proposed that have gone through the public hearing process as compared to the what is currently on our books are there substantive changes to that one thing you'll say that there's a whole section on special permit that was crossed out and that language was moved
to the special permit section the article the special permit thing because it made much more sense to have it there in that language samplified and we'll be adding article was outdated okay so otherwise the definitions like there are several definitions for multif family housing
that were added or moved and rewarded to make it consistent with our MBTA communities by law and things like that um this also is part of the recodification process yeah and the next step will be to review do a second
review of the definitions against the table of use regulations to make sure they're all consistent and some of the definitions in the bylaw currently are with the sections that they pertain to um and some of them are back in the
definition so we're going to make all of that consistent we move a lot of the up and that will be next when you tackled the table of used too okay it's like a dissertation it is it's a bylaw you can you know you can
make updates forever I know communities that have special Town meetings with zoning amendments year after year after year after year there's a reason it's important to keep it a living document to address needs to clarify or update um
but it's it's it's a lot any questions from the board Jeff okay thank you so much welcome I know that's only excellent job thank you for the time and thank you
the planning board for sitting through that I mean not the planning board the finance committee for sitting through that thank you Woody thank you planning board planning staff um you're more than happy to sit through the finance part of it since the finance committee sat through the the planning part of
it um okay intermission is over Tracy do you want to um does anybody do you want to take a break here does anybody want to have a reason to sure go to the bathroom or excuse yourself okay let's
take five five minutes thank okay we're GNA come back in session Congress is back in hey look there he is
Je okay so um Tracy I'm gonna ask Tracy to go through the general government matters the water the warrant before the select board and the finance committee so as she goes through it if you have any questions just raise your
hand okay uh thank you madam chair just just briefly I wanted to talk a little bit about our process so everyone's aware of it I know most of you on the certainly are but um our process is not the school committee's process we're not the school committee we have a different
um we have different timelines that we follow they're an integral part of of our process but we're we're not back so November 1st we begin and we begin with capital planning um some members of the
finance committee have sat on that team before that's when all of the department managers are required to submit to me any Capital requests that they have the next uh budget cycle that goes on it starts in November and that's ongoing
usually through March um in December we um conduct or I conduct budget hearings with the department managers so I require that they submit to me what they need for their budgets each and every year um I I
meet with some of them some of them don't submit anything any changes so I I don't need to meet with them but that that happens throughout the month of December and into January um January I start putting
together this warrant it doesn't just happen with what we're talking about in the budget cycle there are things appearing on there that we've been talking about for years you know the board will will say hey this is something we have to update the planning board will look at their zoning bylaws
so that's the culmination of a lot of meetings and a lot of conversations that are occurring over a myriad of time um February oh concurrently in December the schools the regional school districts
are all starting their budget process they're working um preliminary numbers are being issued understanding that I probably won't get the school committee's final amounts well I think they're voting tomorrow night I'm not mistaken but um
they have through March through mid-march to provide us with their final amounts understanding that their budget um the educational component of our operating budget is more than 50 % usually or around
50% um for me to put out preliminary budget data it just wouldn't be useful to anyone without having those numbers in there so until we get that we we prepare all the different pieces but until that those numbers go in you
really don't have a budget so generally speaking at the end of around the end of March you get that big um budget document that has all of the um specific information relative to all the department heads our Capital plan all
that information um that kind of comes the end of the end of March beginning of April and then we have the whole month of April up until town meeting to deliberate on those issues so that's that's what's happening now Good times
yes yes so jumping right into the warrant um article one most of these you're going to be very familiar with we see them each year that's a listing of what you're going to see at pools the positions that are open and this year um
you'll also see um a proposal for a general override at this point in time consideration will be given for approximately $500,000 again we don't have any of the final number so it it will likely be
changing or could likely possibly be changing depending on what happened with uh Triton te and so once we get those numbers we'll have a clearer picture there article two is the um the reports
the boards and committies no action needs to be and article three uh lists the salaries of our elected officials in the community article four is our operating
budget and that's you know that's our annual operating budget that we seek approval for um there are numbers in there again those are representative of those the numbers that you see in there are based on requests
not all requests were funded this year not because they didn't lack Merit but we just have fining resources and we don't have the ability to support all of them Tracy one question on this so the total budget here and the number in here right now is
25,43 35,990 does that include the if we if the $500,000 is is passes at the full or is that in you're going to see that as a special article a special article okay
so this is this is what our budget would look like yep without okay without that without that okay good thank you yep um let's see Article Five is you know we we see this every year
it's requesting an appropriation to be deposited into our stabilization fund as you know our stabilization fund fund is the majority of our Capital planning um initiatives along with free cash and any other available funds that we have this
year we we try to make a commitment we try to put a couple hundred grand into that fund every year um it's questionable whether we'll have um it's certainly won't have 200,000 as questionable whether we'll have any money to put into that fund that's
something you know we we try to make a commitment to do but again this year um is not a good year in terms of excess Levy capacity putting uh monies into a
fund are we uh hopeful that we will we will have uh some kind of dollars to put into the municipality I'll I'll the fund instead of calling it the the um
Town Hall fund oh no I don't expect you putting there's no article put any that so um Article Five is that $200,000
right now is is a placeholder number if at town meeting if there's if the way the budget works out after the school after Tron Whittier Essex the education components and everything else come back I know you're probably still waiting on some insurance numbers and all those
other things that don't come in um if we are not going to have this that we would either this amount that is said and voted on at town meeting may be 50,000 it may be 100,000 it may be move no action on this article correct okay
correct okay y Tracy what this money comes out free cash is that where it comes from no it would come from raise an appropriate so it would come from the tax it come from the tax tax thank you and right now we have a balance um in the
fund uh before any action is taken of approximately $330,000 um maybe a little more or less for interest earnings but we The Proposal that you have in front of you with the articles that are being presented in this warrant
um we expect to spend some of that so that we would again if Tomy approved it we'd end up with a a balance of only about $80,000 left in our St what's the percentage on the interest earnings right now um I don't know what the treasurer
is getting currently but I can find that out for you um yes what's reable to draw down for the recreation revolving fund sorry that's okay um so the recreation
revolving fund um those fees come from the uh field rentals yeah so the the independent agencies that that use our Fields pay us and the money is drawn
down for field maintenance oh okay y y That's and DB still does all the DPW does it um but it's um we have madens programs too that are outside of the DPW they do the mowing um they have uh a
company that does the um what you call watering system sprink system irrigation system and things like that yep yep um of course you can bring in a lot of uh civic duty from the like
Triton and stuff like that that they can help out with a lot of that kind of that they have to earn credits for to do what we have not to maintain fields and and uh you know keep the the
the uh the the building clean and things of that nature I'm sure if Triton students wanted to volunteer for their community service credits we could absolutely put them to work yeah I think as far as curriculum is concerned that
um they're required to earn a certain amount I don't think they are National Honor Society is but not it's not a graduation requirement it's not a course requirement it's not it's and you can get scouting and but we we don't think we've lost our scouting here no but that's not a that's I just wanted to
sell that and honestly that they they can't do what we hire no I'm not talk I'm not talking I'm just talking about they can't even moan they have to be on a decking system they have to well they yeah they have to be at least 18 years of age the same as the
requirements there probably an Insurance liability to kids doing work like that with automated equipment I mean mechanized equipment rather what's article six what's the balance in op so right now um the OPB account has
currently we have an unfunded liability of about 6.7 million uh the trust fund balance right now is one um 51 15,740 so we're not quite there yet um are they
going to change that is there still pending legislation to change that there's always pending legislation to change it but I wouldn't hold my breath on that yeah only one or two towns that have right right do you know how we compare ter our deficit of compared to
other towns um I I believe there are only a handful of towns that have met their requirements I think there's three or four um and this is we're roughly what 25% Rue is that a going rate for uh I don't
think there is a going rate I think um we've committed to putting it on here every year and and trying to fund it as much as we can because we want it we want it in front of the voters we want the residents to understand that there is this unfunded liability out there and
we don't want it to be forgotten um it's always reported in our financial statements when we have our our annual Audits and things like that but it's it's it's there and um you know we're we're trying to consciously address it a
little bit at a time but uh we also have Triton's yeah outstanding liability as well which is we know you know as it sneaks up on it it does because you have soon as you start having retirements
significant highly paid aging Community the retirements the retirement has increased dramatically highay I me there's more people that are just stepping out blows up because they
re they they're aging out so article seven um is familiar again we we do this every year that's how we fund our um Peg programming um what's a little bit
different this year you're going to see is um there there's two later on in the warrant there's a proposal that was on the warrant last year as well asking to repeal Peg so should the peg get repe
should should the accounting for Peg be repealed so we no longer hold it in a special Revenue fund only for that purpose which is an accumulating balance which right now has a little over $1.1 million sitting in that fund it would
become a line item of our operating budget the fund the money that's available in this fund now I I know we've talked about it the fincom and um in the past we would hopefully want to
commit that to use to defay the increasing Education costs it's not going to go far uh but it would be um a funding source for a couple of years to help us out so but you're always going
to get pushed back on the peg fund because there are too many people out there that are um committed to the idea that it's for Peg purposes only and and it comes out of our
our Comcast bill correct it it's our own personal money so that I think a lot of people look at look at it and say but you know that's not what I committed to so actually it's not the residents that commit to it the Department of Revenue
there's two legal avenues that you can account for this and I will tell you I was responsible for putting it in you know proposing the special Revenue fund because at the time we were just starting our our Peg programming and we thought we were going to have a new town
hall and we were going to build a a whole um studio studio in there and and those costs were going to go directly to fund that so it made sense that we would hold this money in a separate special
Revenue fund that hasn't happened it doesn't look like it's going to happen so you can either put it in a special Revenue fund and we had to get Town meetings approval to allow us to put it there or you it can become a General Revenue which can be used for any legal
Municipal purpose Peg won't go away the same programming that you're enjoying now is going to stay it's just funded through the general fund rather than the special Revenue fund and any excess beyond what it costs to run Peg rather
than building up in this account with really no intended purpose right now um can be used to defay you know Education costs or other budget AR expenditures yeah I I
do not see how we could spend 1.1 million under the rules of Peg today we can't spend that money because we can't come up with enough uses for it oh and we we' be
making up uses for it under legally under the peg leg legally under the P that's why later things is to change it so that it is accessible right because it it's but
to to take the idea away from what initially what it was set up for I think puts a sour taste in a lot of people's mouth because they don't you just gave a really great explanation on all of that
what was it initially set up for this Peg money the there's money that come we pay out of our Comcast what was the initial was to support Peg right what it's a Mass state law the original the
fun the fund that we have right now is when we say what the parameters of Peg are what I'm asking is those programming education and government programming education government so all of that
was how it was described to me was to keep keep it going and keep it up to dat as far as um you know how technology is working and I mean we we could I mean a million
dollars is like no money at all you could blow through that the reason I asked that is because the common refrain that I always seem to hear from rebuttal lists a better ter is is that money was intended for the kids that money was intended for schools was
intended for the kids and right now it's been dead capital for a really long time and if we as opposed to having to potentially Flo an override to Pap
schools um I I guess I don't see where the rebuttal would hold up in well that's not really true no the the rebuttal your your definition of pig just for kids is that's not my definition that's the
one could give it to the KidsDay because we no but I mean if you read what the law says about where this money can be spent just Peg Peg specific by by the law we we we could practically build a new building to put a media center in so
that the entire public can come in and create their own ads they can do their own so so P was Des for a media center anyone can do that today with their own phone we don't need to spend a million dollars say what individual it's not
regulated we can do whatever the point I think what Tracy ising to is yeah just it's the accountant it's what if I'm not putting words in your mouth so correct me if I'm not consistent with what you're saying that
so there are two Avenues it is legal to do either you can either account for it in the special Revenue fund which we voted at town meeting and we've been depositing the money in there then there is a list of legal allowable
expenditures you can spend it on we cannot give it to tr cannot use it for Tru we can't use it for anything except that if you repeal it and and the special Revenue funds the account
and you just have it deposited into the general fund then you have more flexibility well I mean say look what saly is you need to you need to know what Salsbury has done with with their SVT or whatever whatever the acronym is they use it for they've got they've got
they got they got a trail a truck and a trailer with with satellite antennas on it they they I mean they they they have a radio station I mean when you start talking about asking about the specifics of Peg because I I and I'm
not this is this is a for reaction right we don't have the luxury of those things even if we say well the P money's right there you're
looking in education related expenses that that we're facing we're looking down that barrel and you said your we're going to get we're going to get to that no no I don't but do you I guess uh at a high level do you go out and say well I'm willing to borrow money
to address those needs or I'm willing to float the idea of borrowing money at X interest rate to address those needs or can I put dead Capital work we hav we hav got there that's a housekeeping item but but that's why I
asked about the specific okay so when we get to that article um I was part of the peg committee and I was there at the beginning I can go back and historically what the inent was and how we ended up where we're at Tracy how what's the what is the the our receipts new money coming
in from Peg has it gone up or down over the last few years you know initially about I don't know three or four years when the streaming kind of first came out it started to decline but it's it had we we thought the revenues would
just go down to nothing but they haven't no because what's happened is that they've they've built streaming into the regular programming right and and so without realizing it we're we're paying for it
in a different way yeah we get anywhere between 30 and 40,000 a quarter so 30 so we're uh 120 to 160 so at the rate of spending it at 65 we're building up
twice as much each year in money that we are taking in that we don't that that's growing that's growing while our education bills are growing as well but we can't in Cut under the way we currently have it set up in our town
legally we cannot ever tap into that other than for the required uses and that doesn't include funding until until right and we would want to if we were to do anything like that we would want to make sure that if we bought Capital with
this say a van to have a mobile TV unit we would need to make sure that we could run it on an operating budget of aund and less than $100,000 a year to support it going forward for it to then be self-
sustaining correct like the ambulance fund it has to be able to be self- sustaining going forward so that sort of investment doesn't come without the long-term Financial Revenue stream in right a question of priorities where do
you want the funds to go correct do you want to it's priority yeah in simple you know in the towns the towns people are going to have to make a decision why we bring it to town meeting okay so article eight
article eight um again we see this every year that's our revolving funds that's just how we account for those they're user funds the user fees that come in and they fund the operation but it requires an annual appropriation so both
the um Recreation revolving fund and the municipal waterways Improvement and maintenance fund which is the har Masters account um function in that same manner uh let's see the next is the um
ambulance Enterprise fund we see this every year the cost of doing business this still um self sustaining still self- sustaining they certified free cash at about $272,000 this
year 272 did you say yes and that's money that then when needed for new ambulance new things for like article 10 article 10 that's where that free froms there we go last year you may recall was
we you authorized uh a lease to allow them purchase to purchase the new ambulance this would be the second year payment of that lease which would come from the ambulance Enterprise free cash what what is the uh lease term I believe
it's five years I believe it's a five years and at what percentage is I don't recall my head I my office I'm being such so this this is the this is the second the second payment of the one we've already
authorized correct is that what you said okay thanks well we authorized it last at town meeting last year right right um so it's a fiveyear lease let me just ask you this then uh what's the longevity of uh of a leas vehicle an
ambulance yeah I think the last one was it 2000 the one we took out our service for this lease is a 2003 okay so we're getting at least wow that's a more than 10 years out of it
yeah okay well that's that's reasonable then Tracy do you know how much money that Enterprise has in their trust that they've that they've saved um yeah they have 272,000
542 542 thank you okay uh the next article is our free cash consent article um we talked a little bit about Capital planning uh these are articles that would be before the capital planning committee you've
probably heard of some of them because they've been ongoing for a number of years we're asking for $1.8 million from free cash to fund upgrades to the mortgage na fire station a DPW dump
truck purchase the final year of the elementary school room replacement and the second phase of the elementary school HB back replacement the second and Final Phase right second and Final Phase yes and Tracy before this what's
the free cash balance right now right now our free cash balance is 2, 536,000 $375 and just um you know I guess just a point of interest
when when the school roof project came to us initially it was expected to be about a $1.6 million project there was consideration given for um moving forward with the dent exclusion override
we it took us longer clearly um um but the total project costs will end up coming in at 1, 163,000 um so we're we're using our cash but we're also depleting our reserves so
with the the pretty significant projects that we've done the library roof looks great yeah it looks fantastic but um this project the hbac in other communities we would most likely be looking at doing Deb exclusion Ides but
we have utilized our available reserves to do these so I I anticipate at the end of this town meeting should these articles be approved we'll be spending our free cash down to about $500,000 so this is a position that's
significantly different than we've experienced over the last 15 years um revenues are are SL it's Nationwide though it absolutely is I don't want to say the r word but um no you know um things are looking significantly
different we knew last year that that this was going to be like this it's not a surprise to any of us we saw it coming um but that some of the decisions that we made um have you know are putting us in this position so that I would be very
concerned about you know say going out to a rating agency by the time we're finished with our 20 26 Town Meeting we're not going to look nearly as appealing as we did 5 years ago yeah meeting in real
terms our bond rating is not going to be a triaa because we have our reserves so there are just consequences to our decisions not good bad right or wrong we're not going to be the only ones so you know we're we're going to still be
part of the big Club corre but but it matters it'll cost us when we have to borrow money it will cost us more to borrow money correct hats off you though because when we first put together that roof plan for the school I was sure that somewhere along line we were going to
have to brive pet to pay the ball to meet the annual requirements of the roof and the a rack and everything else we do that is a huge accomplishment I never thought that would happen I think it it came and we came in under the wire as
far as like um the heightened effect of expenditures to do any kind of work like that we we we we got it done and if we were just to propose that right now we wouldn't be able to come in
with those kind of numbers and and Frank you're right we probably wouldn't have been able to do it if we hadn't had the influx of the ARA funds which we were able to use for a lot of our other capital or we would have had
to so you're right you're absolutely right um Can can I ask some questions on are we done with article 11 can we I have some questions on article 11 uh the the the fire station upgrades do we have I haven't gotten like
anybody's requests yet that came to you does is it specified on what those upgrades are going to be and and is and how long are they going to take is there a is there a plan in in place of okay so that's again
how wew process every year same thing right right so so so are we are we are we going to spend the entire 100,000 in fiscal year 20126 for those upgrades yes correct and what are they going to be so um back
in 2024 back in 202 before um I commissioned a a study DMS design Architects and Engineers they did it for us to look at that building I think it was resulted from conversations that were had at the select board meeting and
they put together um a report and it has a a capital assessment list of all of the repairs that need to happen and when they need to happen um obviously we're not in any position to do all of them at
once or even all of the items that they've identified should be done in 2026 what we plan to do is um the bigger issues are um the asphalt roof shingles which is about 5050 Grand and plumbing
which is about 50 Grand if there's money left over they're going to look at gutters wood trim wood post siding vinyl siding replacement overhead doors windows and I think that's it for 2026 which is just
a small section of the list of things that need to be done right if I haven't seen the latest and greatest Capital planning plan either when when are we going to when is the new fire station going to come to that I've not heard
anyone direct a new fire station so that's not in capital plans at all right now Capital the fire chief had um talked about the need for a new fire station but that would have to come from the select board not not we just don't have
the funding for anything like that right down that would be dead exclusion override right you know I guess I guess my point is I guess my point is is is all those all those upgrades are definitely necessary because the place isn't even sanitary
really when you think about it and and those are all definitely necessary but I think they might be a little push back if we are planning like let's say in the next 5 years we're going to build a new building because I mean the fire trucks right now they they don't even fit in the
building so I mean the building they do they do fit well if you suck your gut in a little bit you can no they they yeah they they do but it's it's I know they're all in the building I I I know but I'm just saying I
don't the building size isn't adequate for a normal fire station no according to the new equipment it's if if you were going to build a new fire station the specifications would be significantly different from what we
have in that area but it's it's functioning adequately do we have issues with plumbing absolutely they can't take a shower and if anyone flushes a toilet but it's disgusting I mean there's there's a lot of problems with that
facility but that being said we're not even in any kind of feasibility study so you're talking about years out right and it's kind of like just to to comparison Whittier is talking about a potential
new building um right at Neco but they still have to address the the septic issues that they're dealing with now I mean it would be great if we could all say yeah we we want to build this new building but in
in reality you're probably six seven years years you could even get approval for it I mean we were going to be here for three years for it's now so the capital plan the capital plan the capital plan that we have that goes
through Capital planning um is there a new fire station even identified on that Capital plan so the fire chief brought it to the capital planning committee and talked about the need for one um um I I think we would put it in there just like the town hall is in there um a
new building or Renovations once again okay we've done the math on this on like how many buildings a renovation on that right to bring it to code does everybody know the answer
how's going to cost more or less than a new building right they're probably going to come in neck and neck with they will come in more the renovation it's it's that's why that's why Town Hall can't be renovated it's
why the fire station is cost prohibitive to renovate these buildings and get them to code I we had a plan for $12 million that would have solved all three problems and it didn't
pass and we now are seeing ourselves in seeing the ch impact of not passing that in 2013 15 15 20151 million in 2015 we would have
already been halfway through the bond life the tax payer impact was $50 a year on the average that's what we keep saying that the we looking at these things and thinking about multi-use buildings and thinking about how to do things smarter in a way that actually
was cost effective we have now so why we thinking about building a new fire station because we can we don't have the money no well hang on a minute just hang on a minute how much do you think the new fire station just just for fun what do you think it would cost I don't know da
Dave Dave has said that you know it all depends upon what kind of building you build and what and what he wants and what we need for space it's not going to be a Taj Mahal you know I mean I don't I don't know I don't have any I don't have any numbers but what I do know is what you're talking about is
you're talking Public Safety versus a town hall which really has nothing to do with Public Safety it doesn't it's not an either or we need both is the thing need both we need both so which so let's put them in line and figure out which one we're going to do first that how
does it pertain to to spending $100,000 to make article that's what I'm like I'm with you I'm off it's 50 grand for a roof my question started with how far are we going to take the renovations and from
what I heard you say Tracy is it is it we're going to we're going to fix everything and it's it's going to be beautiful with new siding new roof new trim new you know if if let's just say that that cost is going to go another 150 Grand over the next couple of years
you know we if we pump a quarter of a million dollars into the old fire station and then it gets put on Capital planning that we're going to build a whole brand new building I think you're going to get a lot of Kickback from the from the residents about that so my point is is why don't we give them what
they need make it safe bring it up to code and then just and and then start thinking about building the new fire station so so we've got a million and a half do worth of repairs identified on here um if the I mean it's respectfully
it has you have to tell me what you want to do as as being in charge of my job is to keep them all functional so that's what I'm doing here so you've never actually I think I've asked you in the past to where if this I know the fire
department has been a a consideration of of yours to bring something to me bring what you want to do and let's get on let's you've never had well right now we can't do it right now we have to think about1 press on what we're doing but but I I just want
to, that's why I'm bringing this up right now I guess I guess what I'm saying is yeah would any of your plans that you're going to share would they any of them get in the way of fixing a roof no today right no so that's where
we are what I'm saying we are right now agree we got to put a roof on the place and we got to make sure that the toilet absolutely okay let's can we can we press on the next one I'm just going to I'm going to push one more button
here um as far as um people looking for you know in the community for betterment for their own group um it I think it's and I'm probably going to come off
as like Simon Simon l or whatever it is but the COA has to has to realize that we don't have the money and I would love to be able to give them everything that they would
they are encouraging but there are other things that are um I don't I know that's not on the warrant but no no no no no no no I know it but it's just like can we let them down
gently you know I don't know what what you're referring to I'm referring to the fact that it's money that needs that is looking to be spent that there operating budget are you talking about no for new facility for the council and agent yeah
there's no project before us they're rented downstairs they're in rented space we pay for it with oper money through we're we're a year and a half out from the lease being up correct and they there's nowhere unless
they reup the lease for them to go um but there's nowhere to spend that money spend I'm sorry they want a new building but that's not before us tonight I understand that Alicia what I'm saying to you I don't want to talk about
something that I have no idea what it even how much they're even proposing oh boatload so we don't know that because it hasn't been proposed so let's just stick to the Articles tonight and try to get through the water article 12 yeah I think so well thank God wait
minute article 11 you had some more questions on article 11 I I do I want to just real quick the dump truck didn't we just buy them a dump truck um we replace dump trucks when they become obsolete so I think the last was this one sched was this like a schedule repl this was it
went a year longer than it was scheduled for okay um and they were replacing a I believe it's a 2009 freight liner with a plow and a sander that they replac in this year and that's that it's shelf life is over oh
yeah okay Rich next one review is that right 2009 yeah yeah it was it was the old one the oldest one okay and then overall in general on article 11 why are we not taking why are we taking this out of free cash and why is
it not coming out of the minicipal building account why would it come out of the municipal building account because these these are all Capital Improvements to our municipal buildings so the I I brought this up last year with the annual town meeting when we
were we were two years ago we we were we were going to do 2 million last year and we were going to appropriate the entire project and then that got CH in capital planning from 2 million down to 1 million so we
approve the 1 million last year when we did that I brought it up at town meeting I don't understand why we don't take the entire 2 Mill million out of the municipal building account and fund it completely now okay so I my my question
is is we're talking about our bond rating we're talking about bringing free cash down to in the $500,000 range and we're talking about if we have to loan borrow money in the future it's going to go up all right if you don't even have to T pick all of these if you if you
just take the hbac replacement and you pull that million dollars out of the out of the uh Town Hall fund account or you call it the municipal building account and you pay for that with that money
then we actually wouldn't need an override no um so first of all I can't pull money out of any account if town meeting puts it into an account I'm talking make make it make it an article make make it a new article if the board
wants to make it an article and and propose it that way that's fine you can spend all of that money for another legal Municipal purpose you have to propose it you have to put it on the warrant and town meeting has to support it I can't take the money out of that F
because town meeting put it in for that particular I'm proposing that right now that's what I'm proposing not well I suppose you could just in your spare time come up with a draft on something like that sure but you would it would
not negate your need for an override because that's a one-time Revenue funding a onetime capital project that doesn't impact well I'm going to bring that up in a minute but we'll sure so um well you want to talk about the B the school budget right
now you want to do um go ahead okay I I I read some numbers on the school budget okay I I have I have the last four years of what we've appropriated right here okay and for the operating budget the
for the operating all of Education all of educ what we have listed for education education all all of education and and and if you if you if you run those numbers over those four years in 2024 their budget was 12 million 500,000
in 2020 it was it was 10, 900,000 okay that's a $1.6 million difference okay that's not their budget you're talking about our assessment our assessment which is very different from their budget our assessment their budget
our portion yes thank you okay over over a 4year period over a 4year period That's a 12.8% increase all right you can't just divide it by four because that comes out to 3.2% okay if you just divide it by four you're not taking into account their
increases over that 4-year period if you if you take if each year you subtract or or add what their assessment is to us they've they've only gone up in the last four years about 3%
okay it's right here I got the numbers right here Dana Dan do you understand how the assessment calculated I don't care if it's calculated I I just I know what it is there was we had two hourong meetings about how the school budget is is calculated especially for Triton and
it's very important that you understand because they're not they don't Wily nearly assign us how much we're paying and it's not understand that how do they assess how much we pay that's not my job my job is yes it is yes it is as an elected official I will
tell you right now it is your job don't don't yell at me and don't put your finger at me all right let's not get into fighting Mr Packer as a citizen and a longtime chair of this finance committee I am disturbed that you don't understand how the Triton funding assessment works there are multiple
meetings to the public every year to parents to need to understand it to all of us we are entrusted by the electorate to negotiate and talk to so on yes we I said we are and the fact that you don't
understand that funding formula like the you want me you want me to regurgitate that to you right now I can't do that I cane the finance committee stop stop stop Dana I think what Cor wait a minute I think what Erica is saying is the way
that you're done your mathematical equation is irrelevant to how the funding formula works it is because it's just it's an assessment it's not an assessment you just told me it was assessment no you're it's our education
assessment it includes whia it includes uh Sagi and it includes St the apportionment of the Wittier budget that is move on please please can we move on okay we in here you know he can bring
that up at your own meeting you know okay we're going to come to your meeting article 12 um represents the um total Appropriations that will be withdrawn from the stabilization fund proposed for fiscal
2026 it includes firefighter structural gear uh um a lupus mechanical chest device chest compression device and Elementary School interior Renovations again here with the um the
engineering study that habiban Associates uh completed we're looking at over $1.5 Million worth of repairs to our elementary school um what we're going to start with this year would be
some uh um ECT tile CL carpet floring Replacements and some bathroom R we need we need a two that would absolutely be a multi multi there's going to be more on top more or you know
again if the select Board of the incom you know want to recommend we've got these you know even with these two buildings looking at we're looking at over $30 million worth of repairs if you want to entertain that exclusion at some
point in time that could be done or a capital exclusion or we just continue paying as you go a little bit of time take care of it the same way you take care of your personal life you know that's how we can afford to do
it so Article 13 um Newbury was in receip of some opioid settlement funds and two about $5,900 at the time we received the funds there was no guidance from the
Department of Revenue no um the legislature hadn't kind of determined what we were going to do with these funds where they would be deposited so as was just deposited into the general fund and became subsequently became a component of free free cash since then
there is special legislation that that dictat how that money is to be accounted for so we're going to ask to take that money out of free cash and um put it into an opioid settlement fund and there are
specific rules around what that that money can be used for things like Nar that's Naran is basically what um is being funded um because I I I guess I'm just not clear on what the opioid
funding is um so um I don't know who I think it must have been each of the individual State sued a lot of the um drug companies and thees Purdue Pharma was one of the big
ones um and that's where we got little it's not going to make a break us then article 14 we have an unpaid Bill one slip through the cracks got to have one every year at least we don't need a we don't
need a special town meeting to pay it right right some of them are hilarious though it's like you know $25 63 cents it's like what you guys finally PID the salt Guy what's that finally wrot the check
to the Salt guy we finally didle represents the language we we all understand it's a two-step process has to pass the appropriation at to meeting and then also in the ballot for an override to to be approved so um an
override of that magnitude around the $500,000 mark would impact the average property tax in Newbury so we're looking at a home that's in excess of $800,000 probably around 850
870 so that would be like the median yes okay yeah would impact them about $158 a year just so you have a an index um we we knew last year um that this was
coming we there was a large group of people that were um petitioning the S board I think they actually even came to one of our meetings call wanting to move an override forward last year we defer yes yeah we deferred it to this year knowing that you know
this would likely be the year we'd have to entertain it so they they came before us um prior to the election yes yes we had um we received multiple um we received approximately one dozen letters received on the topic of supporting
unary community services including schools Recreation Library Council on Aging and public Public Safety um they asked the SE select board and finance committee to support overrides that was public comment at the meeting on March 5th
2024 and just in terms of process so everyone understands as as one of the members of the resal school uh if right now at the level being the funding level being considered by the
school committee Al they haven't voted it yet it is expected that would be able to fund their assessment without an override rowy is considering an override for a million dollar and we could potentially be considering an
override where are we falling into uh categorizing um the the Top Notch and the bottom Notch as far as like our percentage is concerned because I know we're bringing
in a whole bunch of new uh kindergarten students which is going to be uh I think our numbers are down this year on they're down this year they're down for everybody this year and our percent the the BRS percentages have not
changed successfully the incoming kindergarteners is going is setting us up the trend is that Newberry will be over the next few years we will start to see a greater percentage of the Triton population but that's not impacting the
numbers for this year okay the numbers for this year the state funding formula are based on Foundation enrollment and minimum local contribution and then a division between the three right right and so if you know it's kind of we're in
this if then scenario so if Salsbury passes it which they likely will because they don't need an override and rowy passes the override and Newbury doesn't then we're going to be looking at making cuts to balance our budget okay so we'll we'll need to have an
alternative budget ready to go if um it fails in Raleigh and it fails in Newbury then it gets kick back to Triton to make the adjustments in their proposal we'll
see layoffs and things of that nature in order for them to you will either either way they already see them there yeah they're already making some no it's not okay but I understand no no so um so this this year's much more
difficult than we've seen in the last 15 years for sure uh we're the first town to vote at town meeting is that correct I believe we are our town meeting is first so we won't know what the other toe towns I think salsy be the election that will determine election right right
the election will actually be right um and it has to pass a majority at both places uh 2/3 no no majority simple majority at town meeting simple majority at
okay and that will cover the Triton wither essics correct it's our education correct it's not this is not a this is not a Triton ision education override and you know the select board always have the
ability to call additional Town meetings so if then if if it passes in righ and passes in Salisbury and we're looking at making some significant Cuts we can always call another special town meeting and
proposer General historically speaking have the special Town meetings been a productive thing for the town or did they help them yeah okay yeah we had many years where we had always had one
had one every October you us had one every October because you couldn't pay any unpaid bills without it having a special time right so we so yeah we but it's a it's a it's a cost savings we don't have to run a special town so it's it's definitely something that if we can
be efficient I mean where if you run a town meeting would we into the 10,000 plus dollar a month to just run them a special I think it's between six and 10 all right so that's it for the finance
the finance piece of it right did they get to leave um if they like oh I'm on the finance committee now but we have a few more we have a few more bylaws article article 17 is B we've already talked about that unless anyone has
anything to add to that one article 17 17 so 17 is so article 17 I just want to say I've said this last year and I'll say it again this year I'll explain it to the town meeting members when the town decide when Tracy put that money
into that over to that special Peg fund my intent was to try and have to grow up like what's happening in Salisbury an organic Peg programming from The Residency because I think it
was good for the community that never happened that was 2011 it was a long time ago and it never happened and that money has been growing um to to change that Revenue
source to just stagnate in that in that one thing it to me is a is a and then to go back to the taxpayer and say you know we need a little more more money here but we're just going to let that grow over there you know we need more here I I just don't think it's right um well
it's not a tax though either no no but it's fund it's a funding source it's a funding source for the town so the other thing is I want to mention television programming requirement that is pushed upon the people of the community and then the the users of the
service yeah the users of subscri the subscribers of the service then goes and to the municipality so so again there are two models there's the municipal model and
there's the um the 501c3 model I wanted the 501c3 model we're set up we're geared up financially with the is a special Revenue fund to have the 501c3 model the 501c3 model never grew up I think Dana last year at the town meeting you said you wanted to give it a chance
to have it grow up the a year has gone by no not even any like interests nobody also been styi as a board that we're not allowed to get involved into these other aspects of the Town um you know we're not we can't
participate in other boards you personally yeah yeah but no when it's not for us personally this is for the elected but that's how it would that's how it would begin no we we need your leadership would show the way and bring the people
in and then they would take over the program after that well it that's not the way we can do it here I know so so that years it's right several years right usually there's someone somehow wants to grab it and run with it and it hasn't happened I was really
I was really hoping it just never happened it's out it's outed it's outli what it set up for right and actually there's there's potential Ed Mary's office potential legislation pending I don't know what's going to happen now with the new
Administration but he originally had wanted to tax a streaming the streaming services to funnel some of that money to Peg programming because if you think of PBS and you think of those big nonprofits they're losing monies from
that so that was something that he had wanted to do but I don't know where that went I don't think that went anywhere well and it's just they they depend on donations and volunteer right so the argument um last town meeting was you
know that this money should go for the kids this money should go for the kids so riding that wave if we put it aside again I I it goes I believe it goes against our Financial policies that we don't use onetime sources of funding for
our operating budget which is what this will do um it's a one-time Source but it's a stop Gap um but then next year you still have to make up that Revenue stream but once it goes into another program that's that no it goes into the operating it goes into the into the
general fund general fund and it'll be a line item in the general I just don't get you over the hump every year it's not no I agree with you Frank I don't think anyone said that last year I don't recall that at town at
town meeting calling it dead Capital which I think is exactly the right he no you did yeah I and and you also brought it up at um a d that large DCC meeting that we had over at rally fire station
uh and you you presented a a pretty good uh discussion on that whole thing and and it made a lot of sense and this is a good source of capital to use it that way agre so um are there any more
financial the only one that has a potential Financial impact is the very last article um which is the um I think it's 29 it's for um a general bylaw for shortterm
rentals um think Airbnb um this is we we could have an opportunity to um to tax basically um those those rentals so it could provide
a a new Revenue source for the town the state already has I believe 174 units registered currently in our our community but absent this bylaw we can't realize any of that income so this could
be another Revenue Source from us I believe Steve manin was the one that brought our attention but um he he had talked about the meals tax and also the rentals does the finance committee do are they aware of what the meals tax is doing now I
don't know we have it yeah it was voted it's voted and it's actually I think it's not like huge sign I think what do we have what are we up to I mean I was surprised when we got the first payment it was like $8,000 in
the first 174 units what's theuk reports so it depends so what happens is this byw opens the door for the select board to promate regulations on on the um on the rentals
we could get somewhere between between six and 9% and then there's also another opportunity for impact fees but that would have to be a process that's a public hearing process we go through that to identify it but this is the first step um to allow us to move
forward so what what does the state do with those 174 unit they have registered right now how do they collect state tax so they're collecting state they're collecting 5% sales tax right on every they're not collecting 6.2 but they're not but they're not
collecting anything that resem uh um like in keeper tax corre they're not doing that it's just sales tax correct um quick question does anyone know Newberry Port they have a they do they do they do they do so someone renting on
Plum Island on the Newberry side is not paying that and this this is a burden that would be paid by people coming to visit not a burden placed on our home correct correct on are up dramatically in the last three
years I know actually on our street 49 two two of the homes have turned over and have been turned into rentals that were originally um all year round uh residents for the last 15 years they but
the money got so big for the are they short-term rentals yeah okay oh gosh those are the there there is also a a public safety component so this would um the the um
building inspector would be required to look at these units you know make sure they're safe um we'd make sure is that required now from the state though anything that has it's going to be in the new building code it isn't today but for any kind of occupancy right right
you know there there is from what we've heard ocean front up there like right near Town Line there $7500 to $10,000 a week for the month of July wow
it's on the wrong side of the island sorry that hey how much are you getting for your place you know absent commercial I don't know the cat doesn't tell me these are just small yeah it's the only small
OPP's 17 you have a number there's there's 100 no it's just 174 units are registered with the state there's probably likely more that once year another 100 yeah so but that's and that includes so that's I I remember
when Steve brought this as an idea because it's like what do we have for regulations on them but this is a really good step forward in something that is a revenue stream in a place where we just do not have a commercial base due to our lack of infrastructure
right so we're limited and this is something that's not putting a burden on our current residents and taxpayers but we would also still those houses still are Residential Properties so we get the property tax from it and then this is an additional tax when they use that to
make more income the town would get a portion it it would be so uh appetite wise appealing to to people to look at anything down at the island to be able to uh turn it into an Airbnb or a verbo
or uh and and still make a sizable amount of money off of it and it would bring an enormous amount of money into the community and and uh just you know the small businesses and things of that nature that are down there so Tracy I do you have another question question about
article um 19 and 20 do those have any Financial impact against us um the veterans the veterans will have a small impact but not significant that'll be covered by our
um by the money we use to pay for our tax abs and exemptions so itip okay yeah and I can actually add a little bit to that because Steve has gone through
courses and so our Kickback on 115 has gone up to 75% replenishment versus I think it was at a 55% range or whatever but because of the training that he's gone through our Kickback from the state or the
federal I don't even know who gives it to us has gone up to 75% the reimbursement the reimbursement let's not use that we can calculate the impact and included in the um R okay that would be
perfect the rale is really helpful anything that uh can come back to the veterans is a good thing all right so then the other bylaws that we wanted to um we have here that we're proposing is
article 6 16 um the Town currently has a bylaw how many articles are there 29 Jesus so article 16 is the um it corrects a conflicting
bylaw um in 2009 in 2008 we um passed the act that that may designated our form of government the town administrators act and then for some reason in 2009 there was um there was a
bylaw passed that set I don't know what did it set them what did it what did it it set a minimum procurement amount of 25,000 we spoke about it at the last board meeting I think so that every contract over 25,000
would need to be brought before SEL and that's well not only back for was it 25 or 35 but not only would our agendas be very long we don't understand procurement and all that other stuff so this really does should not and the Town
Administrator is our chief chief procurement officer so I we need to repeal that bylaw and just let it sit the way it sits now um so that's what article 16 does um article 17 is the peg
article 18 this is the um the resource the town now has a um Regional Animal control officer we regionalized it mhm last year she had brought this this is trying to
um I guess level out all the communities that she serves to make it easier for her to have one bylaw one Community does not Newbury is not like topsville let's put it that way newb is not like Boxford not like IP switch so there was one uh
line in here that I asked to be REM removed Leslie actually picked up on it last last year is they wanted to um effectively leash all dogs all male dogs that were intact yeah uh or female dogs that are intact as well that could be in
heat um have them leashed and we have hunters we have hunting grounds we have Martin Burns um we have readers it's not it's it was an effective leash leash lot for that so I asked that that be removed
um it has and it has been so that is going to be part of not part of Newber but everything else in here I think is there anything substantive in this this uh so 18 just eliminates the the leash requirement we don't have a leash
requirement the proposed bylaw change had a had a a asking I remember that I remove I asked that to be removed so that's not coming before the town okay um but everything else that she requested is in here that's just updates
our our um Animal control officer that must be a daunting job though for one person the animal control offic yeah so Article 19 and article 20 are the veterans article 21 starts the planning board and I believe that's that's
everything right so it's quarter of 10 at night I thank you all for your time being here I know Finance commit meeting all those in favor Patrick Erica motion
to adjourn the select board yeah okay they're adjourned um I have a motion to adjourn the select Board second I need a roll call vote Leslie Matthews yes Alicia greo yes the ma yes T backa yes Jeff
Walker thank you adjourn