come on I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible with liberty and justice for all [Music]
hi everyone uh Jeff we will be four of us tonight thank you uh the first order of business is public comment we're going to receive oral Communications from members of the public members of the public May address the select board for up to 3 minutes
longer with 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 the this agenda segment will be limited to 15 minutes unless extended at a discretion of the chairperson do we have any public
comment tonight seeing none we going to move right on to Grants Gibson donations approval on behalf of the Council on Aging to accept donations of $110,000 from Friends of the newb Council on agent a motion to accept the donation to
The from the m on on behalf of the council and aging I'll second that okay any discussion yes bill go ahead Dana pointed out an excellent point if you if you look at the schedule of departmental
payments it says at the bottom of it for the period ending January 30th 2025 that's probably a typographical error it probably 2026 and then on the letter that Jim
corrian wrote carrian wrote he referenced fiscal year 2024 25 we're in 25 26 now so the fiscal year is going to end at the end of June June so is over so
um I mean I'm not I'm not sure if it's okay to just accept the amount with the stipulation that the dates will be will be corrected I think okay so we just fix the dates mhm okay so thank for doing that sure
good so um I have a motion to accept the um $10,000 donation with dates being adjusted I had a second all in favor hi hi hi thank
you now I'm just going to do this I can see better okay um new business actually I'm going to take this out of out of order I have um public property use requests by Richard moral on behalf of upm sports L LLC the
request is for three road races to occur on June 22nd 2025 July 20th 2025 and September 8th 2025 I'll enter um I'll entertain a motion to accept this property use
request motion to accept second discussion why you come up and tell us what you're doing advertise a little bit for this event you're on TV my name is Rich moral and I organize the UK races uh we do
three races um June July and September it's the same course each time um we do a a 5K and a half marathon the half marathon is much bigger than the 5 okay um both events start in the industrial
park in New for and head down Scotland Road um the half marathon gets to about great Rock and then goes out into West newy goes around the reservoir comes back out Turkey Hill and returns into the industrial park uh we've been doing that course I think since
2016 we used to do it out of Triton and then we switched over to the industrial park but uh no changes for the coming year same as we've done the last few years happy to answer any questions that anyone has any questions from the board
signs you're going have I see they're all Sunday dates right yes yeah Sunday mornings we found are the U the quietest mornings on the road so it on traffic yeah and you're going to post signs right yeah yeah we have signs we put out usually Wednesday or Thursday before the
weekend of the race no chalk on the roads no nobody likes signs on the road orad we've had is with that in the past and we're never going to forget it not on my watch uh any other
questions all in favor I I excellent thank you I appreciate the help thank you sir good luck with your events thank you okay I'm going to go back and take the marac Valley Public Health Alliance intermunicipal agreement for the public health Excellence for
shared services Grant presented by the Board of Health we have our health agent here is Rogers please do Rogers Heth director um so yeah so I'll just read you a little
bit of kind of ining questions but um the public health excellent shared service grant for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health office office promotes and supports the development of intermunicipal shared service agreements through the state
action for Public Health grant program to strengthen the service delivery capacities local public health departments the communities that will receive shared services would be on this grant is anbury marac Georgetown BR Hy
and the grant goals would be to hire a a regional inspector begin using relevant software for our Public Health employees this will help during inspections and a permanent process um this would also assist in supporting hazardous W Day
events offer several trainings such as hoarding trainings or um Mental Health First Aid trainings and these trainings are open um to anyone in the municipality not just for the health department too this grant also would
hire a regional public health nurse and epidemiologist and the regional um inspector and the public health nurse would be on top of our so these not shared that we're sharing our employees this is a grant that um this Regional be
on top and the Grant's name would be um marac Valley uh marac Valley Public Health Alliance is the name of the grou and it's a regional grou and this we be a a pull so basically um the grant that was awarded is annually it's
4 $486,500 32 it's an annual contract Asbury is actually the the host agent so they take care of all that but we call and request if we needed any additional support especially which would be really good for us is we don't have a lot of housing
cases and so they going to have housing Specialists sporting Specialists somebody have to go to the courts things like that um and then on top of it with the nurses that we they would hire a regional nurse we have a an excellent public health nurse but if she's ever
out vacation if we ever had you know never hopefully never have another pandemic or anything but if we ever needed resources on top of any communic Seas or anything that we would need help with um this is great resources to pull in thank
you um any questions from the board I I have one how many years is it for adep um well it it's supposed to be 20 about 20 years we can opt out at any time we we use their services but at this time I don't know if they know you know how
long so right now they've entered an agreement um through FY 27 it's renew and then they just renewed it actually again until July FY 28 so we do know it's going to go on at least till then and then they would renew then but it is
supposed to be about 20 years okay so it's not something that we're going to start and then have to end yeah no no no no it's it's at least signed off to FY 28 so we know that and hopefully it will keep on going and and again we can take advantage of any kind of the courses
classes um mhaa which is mass he office Association they're paying for any of those type of classes any advanced courses myself or any other municipalities you know that want to take the course that they offer can so awesome it's I think it's a a great
benefit it's just it's supposed to strengthen our infrastructure so that we don't have such like a weak carer if we needed indal help so I I don't think we have anything to lose but to try it and again that you could opt out if it wasn't benefiting us
um but being a small Road town I think it's a great thing for us yeah I think we need to lean on our on our neighbors and I think that even if we just use it for the professional development I think that's great yeah and we did also have to call to review it
yes yeah so question sure um I see that asrey is a lead municipality and they're going to hire this coordinator and and the coordinator gets compensated for salary and what they
need to spend for administrative functions by R retaining 15% of the grant correct and so it's not right it's not u a a burden of money for we don't cost anything cost us abolutely nothing
they've already hired marac Valley Planning Commission to do their coordination so they're the ones who are already because this has actually been brewing for a couple of years like getting it all going and I've gone to all meetings and everything so they're
already got uh Mar Valley planning now they're trying to get all the towns that are to sign off but that took a while the IMA took a while because there's a different town Council in every town I do believe we have Town Council town but so they had to get you know all them all
of them on the same page so kept going back to the drawing Bard but this is the official U compion it awesome any other questions Dana uh I just a couple things that I just would like to talk about a little bit uh one is uh meet performance
standards set by the Commonwealth do the whole plan do we know what those standards are is that something that's going to be difficult to do or complicated or because it doesn't really say what those standards will be you know I I
just so if I'm understand the question correctly um everything that gets approved to get on spend on the expenditures or anything like that mass D pH is at these at these meetings too and everything so the host agent takes care of all that to make sure that we
comply with we comply right that's kind what I thought but um I I got a couple more and Bill already touched on the 15% that was that was that was one of my questions too
um for the purposes of employment status and health retirement and benefits immunities provided by a law of the shared services coordinated and any participating collaborate staff basically is going to be a Public Employee now these is these new
positions that are being these are new positions created um they are new positions um and they are hired I believe the contractual but I I I don't actually know um who who's hired them I mean that's to get all to get those
benefits that's yeah I think it goes into the grant it's going to be more of a contract type of of thing um and again Asbury is in charge of all that so it's kind of good that just get to use them so The Advisory Board uh our health department is going to
appoint two people from our health department to be on that board is that um that that's what I'm what what I read I I I don't know um yeah so it's on it's on page three number five top the composition
one member and one alternate both appointed by the Board of Health from each Municipal municipality would be us right so the Board of Health would not the health agent right and this is on the agenda for their next meeting next so so we we are going to you guys are
prepared to appoint two people from the Board of Health correct to be on this correct and I right I already been going to every meeting so I assume it probably be myself and an alternate would be probably my chair or another board member I I really don't know who but it's on the agenda for next Thursday's
meeting all right excellent um I think I think that's that's the only thing I I read that yeah that's all that's no cost to our town so that's a no I think it's a great yeah quick question sure um
so the services are provided that good job by the way the um services are provided within the program and we don't like use that shared service and get build for it and then how does that no
so what would happen for instance we have a housing situation and we want to hire their hoarding specialist you know it's a you know maybe an additional person besides myself um or if I'm out or whatever reason whatever we would call the host agent and tell them we
need this inspector you know maybe there's a food maybe there's a a food born illness outbreak at a local restaurant and I'm out of not that I ever go anywhere but I'm say I'm out of the then they could call you know so it's just a it's just to use an additional have an additional pool of
Professionals in case we needed it perfect okay yeah because if we have multiple cases you're going to need and right now you know know we're kind of you know I mean we're we're lucky we're in a nice small town but you just never know where you may need a little bit
more assistance and again I think we should take advantage of it if if that's the case yeah thank you you're welcome well done any other questions okay so
um I will entertain them do I have a motion already I don't think so um I need a motion please to um vote to sign the intermunicipal agreement I make a motion that the
select board and the Board of Health of Newbery the town of Newbery um sign the intermunicipal agreement for the public health Excellence for shared services Grant thank you I'll second
okay any further discussion all in favor I thank you Deb that was very well explained to us thank you thank you good night okay um next item on the agenda is
a proposed town of Newbury security camera policy so I need a board vote regarding the adoption of the proposed policy before we enter into discussion so I'll let's a
motion what would the uh vote B we don't want to vote to accept something we what are we doing we're V ad motion to discuss the adop we're going to Mo we're going to motion to adopt it and then if we don't want to adopt it we just don't
okay motion to adopt the security camera poliy Town duber second okay discussion all right so what's happening with this let me just pull it up here is the town
currently does have security cameras located around town we have them um at the police station we have them at the Plum Island
bath house we have them not in the bathroom stalls but we have them um as you come in the entrance ways so that um to discourage any vandalism Hooligans down there MH um
we also have them here this this is unique here 12 kway is unique because we don't own the property um The Entity that we lease from has security cameras here he's responsible
for those but we do have cameras here um so Town counil recommendation is since we have security cameras it would be best if we have had a policy about security cameras and I agree so she's
put together this draft policy this has already been vetted through Town Council um I've read it are there any questions who goes first who wants to go
first I I'll go first okay um we'll do tell me what page you're on believe me I'm I'm I'm kind of I'm on board with that well we need to discuss if you have questions right just tell me what page you're on so like we can all uh I'm on I'm on uh the second page page two and
just the the the the person that has the access to the live feeds and the recordings would be would be Tracy right now in only Tracy unless she designates somebody else I would be designating the IT
director you would be designating the IT director I I I think that's a good thing personally I think that it because cuz I was I was wondering about maybe even having like a threepers board like like maybe the chief the Two
Chiefs in the IT director and yourself or whatever so like let's say somebody comes in here with a baseball bat and smashes somebody over the head I mean we're going to want to review that on the cameras I mean that would be something that you would want to review and I'm just wondering if we shouldn't
have more people involved with that review process that's all well it says here I think it says um only the Town Administrator and your design so you could designate any number of people it's not just one right correct and and
the events would probably change who you would designate abely I think to Dana's point that on item six if an emergency occurs um the police department other
appropriate public safety law re enforcement authorities will be granted temporary access to the camera feed for an emergency response so I I think it kind of C covers that yeah um I mean I know you had the idea of a panel of
three but I think it's it's I just it's a it's a process no that's all it deserves I do know that privacy and all of that is a plays a big piece of this too which is more of what you need to control than having 15 people be able to
look at these live feeds you know so well these aren't going to be monitored either they're not monitored security cameras well but where well they is there is there a te in all the um the public access ways so where the to clerk
is well where does the feed go that that's a good question director it's not a little camera it's just a recording right aord recording but some of of the other things are controled through the police station this is only this building you're talking about well no I'm talking about the all of you know
this me the other the other cameras I imagine would go to the police station well they're already there no no we're not they're not t they're not monitors they're not monitoring they're not video nobody's watching these cameras if something happens they will go back to
them and they hold the data for 14 days I imagine the bath house the uh does the library have any and entrance ways I don't but I I imagine there's one at the Landing I imagine and there's one
down in P Island and those wouldn't go to Tracy they're going to go to the police station and the the signage the signage is are we going to have like and I just I'm thinking like the new be green remember one night
someone stole all the coyotes and we were wondering who stole the coyotes and I said why don't have cameras on the on the Newbie green so we can find out who's stealing the coyotes you know what I mean and nobody stole the coyotes after
B imagine so so the the cameras are we going to be seeing new signs like entering this building they're already up they they're already signs are already um in the parking lot as you drive in they're in the you know the the
um video are we going to put them on some like our monuments and memorials no we're not going to have any outside in those kinds of areas no there's no plan for that at this time I a couple more go ahead the cost
is this has the money already been allocated for for this project actually the project costs were paid for by our insurance carrier Maya they purchased the original uh cameras and equipment for us because because our rate probably
went down because of it and all of that stuff if you know anything that we do that can you know limit our losses yeah right they will give us credit for okay um one thing I thought was kind of funny
it says Town employees are prohibited from removing damaging altering or attempting to alter disable or attempting to destroy any uh disable any camera on Tom property I would imagine that that would could save anyone I it's
against the law to do that you know it's not just I I just thought it was kind of funny that you put Town employees in there because I mean well you kind of have to because they well they're working here
yeah and they're up they're being recorded as they come in and out so I would think I it to me I I liken it to the smoke detector on the airplane in the bathroom you know it's it's an FAA regulation that you can't tamper with
the smoke detector yeah anyway yeah you can't just put a piece of tape over the camera right right right anything else Dana because you've done your homework on this one I I read I studied this package pretty hard no that that's that's that's all I
have all right Bill do you have any questions no I think it's pretty comprehensive Jeff well me either I like the fact that somebody else bought them too okay so we have a motion to um accept
the policy is that what we're doing adopt adopt adopt policy y adopt we have the yeah all in favor I any posos no done thank you okay so the next item on the agenda is proposed heavy commercial
vehicle exclusion regulation and authorization for advertisement in post of related signage I make a motion that the board adopt the proposed heavy commercial vehicle exclusion regulation and authorization to advertise and post
the related signage required is there a second second okay so this goes back to I have a motion in a second this goes back to um locken Road when uh the locken road
was reopened uh we had told the residents there that we would look into excluding heavy commercial vehicles and we petitioned do who agreed that they would be no
heavy Vehicles there so now this is the next step in that um we have to have a public hearing right is that what it is negative what what's the process Joy um so I clarify This Town Council that um because this is um Department of Transportation and a
road process um that if you adopt or or move to adopt the regulation as it is that we then just have to um publicize it we need to make people aware that this is
going to be um a new regulation with enforcement and penalties and then once it's been publicized we then um would purchase do approved signage and post that signage we also have to send the
approved regulation back to the do to show them that we have um followed through with what they gave us permission to do um just as the checks and balances on both sides okay and there is one typo in there Street should be Road it's it
should be Road I put versus Road it's not it's not Len street it's it's should be Ro um yeah really happy to be able to honor that promise we honestly going into it we didn't think we'd be able to
get it we were all pretty surprised that we were successful great um one thing I noticed is um the school buses school buses are not exempt from the weight limit and I'm one and I know that right
now school buses don't go down locken Road and but I'm wondering if we should put a school bus exempt closet there just thinking out loud um I I've been told that the wi
School Bus empty occasionally will trans will go from Georgetown to bfield um right now if you if you if you leave it the way it's written school buses can't go down there at all but a school bus is not a heavy commercial
vehicle yeah they are they're more than 5,000 lbs in the commercial where did this language come from do we do we know that yot says used primarily for the transportation of goods wees or merg
yeah well that's a two off no but that's like that's like two or from the residents on the street is what that's referring to and of course you wouldn't want to restrict like Amazon Prime from going down there or something or the oil truck or the oil trucks or anything so
that makes sense but the only thing I noticed was school buses are are not exempt yeah but they're not primarily no vehicle registered for commercial purposes designed and used primarily for the transportation of goods wees or
merchandise that's not a scho a school bus Which have a capacity of over 2 and A2 tons shall enter or pass over locking Road provided however this restriction shall not apply to emergency vehicles vehicles for collection
delivery of goods yeah see those four that you're reading right now those four of are exclusions right I think that they might we might want to have a five that also excludes school buses if it's helpful the Federal Motor Carrier safety
administration so a dot.gov agency says a school bus is a passenger motor veh vehicle which is designed or used to carry more than 10 passengers oh you're good yeah so so so it would be I don't think this is covered yeah okay because
it's I just was asking that's a good good good call thank you Dana based on I don't think it's covered based on what Joy read um should the motion be changed and substitute publicized for advertise um I'm not sure if we can
amend this this is the language that they language okay in the actual regulation um I believe the regulation was recommended from Town Council and at
the do notice just said that we needed to provide proof that the town adopted it um with me one moment at your earliest convenience please forward to this office the official adoption of this regulation it
doesn't clarify that that's where this language came from well I don't want to mess with this your language I think this language is fine okay except for the road we need to we need to change the name of the um yeah because there's no such
thing as a la of street and I'm just curious this is just informational only George uh Parish Road what is georget toown doing with Parish Ro are they doing or they don't care they no one it's not yeah that's not the actual Bridge itself so Lin Road
ends at Tulin correct I don't know if it's half the Culvert I'm not sure well at I think I think as soon as you AC cross the culet you were on Parish rad yeah so the so the signage that we're
talking about the signage would be on the Georgetown side of the bridge yeah is where that one would go and the other one would go down by uh Rob Ross's house Central Street Central Street Central Street yeah are they doing it George I don't
that's that's what I asked you know otherwise it doesn't make any sense well that that's why I asked so Georgetown we have no control over what Georgetown does all we control is this is this is LIN Road Parish in Newbury right in
Newbury it doesn't matter what George to matter really what Georgetown does you know I mean if and this is what what the concern was I think on the street at the time was that the industrial park in
Georgetown once that bridge reopens they were afraid that they were going to be getting a lot of heavy commercial traffic taking a shortcut out to 95 Northbound right so I'm not sure if that occurred well they can't if we adop now we're doing this yeah yeah and so so we
have a motion to adopt this we have a second is there any further discussion so the only thing that would make it enforceable Ro for us would be I don't know if they said it that our sign would be on almost a jarge downside the
bridge J I don't know where the signs will be put otherwise because what they'd have to do is stop and turn around because they aren't allowed any further do will tell us where we it might actually go out at the end of Parish Road so that they don't get down
there and get stuck and turn it around you know yeah I don't know but if it doesn't it's just like a low bridge bridge it's like a low bridge you can't go down there or you're going to get stuck you have to have adequate signage anybody that lives along stero Drive
knows that or the mer Parkway [Laughter] yeah okay all in favor all great next is review and approve 2025
business license renewals uh Iain a motion to approve a common Vic tuler uh BNR Salsbury LLC doing business as Bob Lobster at 49 Plum Island turn
turnp second all in favor I I I dog training at client sites and on public Trails no on-site boarding or daycare per zoning enforcement officer Colby Jackman outdoor dot dog I think that's dog training and trails at 48 low Street
motion to approve second all in favor I I and I just want to add these are all renewals so this is all stuff that's already been happening just so everybody knows y they already have licenses yeah they've already they're existing ongoing businesses parking lot for Steven Mullen
Surf Side parking at 30 for Plum Island B Boulevard motion to approve second any discussion all in favor all Town administrator's report thank you um we have an exciting new program
that is a collaboration between the new police department and the Council on Aging called good morning Newbury I read about it in the paper oh was it in the paper okay great um it's for senior citizens 65 AG older who live alone um they're eligible to participate but they
still have to register for the program they will be required to call into the communications center by 11:00 a.m. each morning if um the emergency dispatchers don't hear from them by 11 they will make a they will try to make contact if
no contact is made they'll likely send someone over for a wellness check um registration for the program can be done at the police station or the Council on Aging and there's going to be more about this appearing on the police department's
website uh 2026 budget process is underway as we all expected it's going it's is proving to be um very difficult and challenging that being said we're in the early stages of the process and the
numbers do change frequently um I do expect that we will be spending down our Reserve significantly that is primarily due to the fact that we chose to fund a number of very large projects pay as you go
versus the plan de exclusion that we had for them those projects kind of WRA together uh the library HVAC and roof and the elementary school HVAC and roof projects totaling over $3.7 million so
we were able to do that without the anticipated override we had but as a result naturally we've spent down the majority of our reserves so we're going to all you know again should a lot of if
thens but if we um were to pass at town meeting the majority of the capital proposals that are coming forward being presented to the capital planning committee we'll end up with only about $500,000 left in free cash and only
about 200,000 left in our state ization fund so that's significantly lower than we've seen in quite some time is that is that enough to maintain the the blond rating that we have um there it would be of concern um yeah I I think rating
agencies would look at that and um be a little concerned now that's what we would spend down to but our certification the next fall you know we generally close out between 3 and 500 $1,000 a year depending on you know what
goes on throughout throughout the fiscal year but um so there's an opportunity for that more money to be added into it but it's you know I imagine it's going to stay lower we had the um we had the
Good Fortune of ARA funds which funded a lot of capital requests that we would have had to fund otherwise through our reserves or or postpone quite frankly we had had um a pretty big influx of funds
during Co so we had a a big jump in in our free cash reserves that year um we've had a tremendous amount of Grant funds coming in over the last couple of years so that's all those things help us especially when we look to certify the
the following year we close out balances we appropriate um you know we appropriate $40,000 for a project the bid comes in at 35 and we get a grant for 20 so the full appropriation wasn't expended it
gets closed out um but it you know I'm not I'm not sounding the alarm the sky isn't falling or anything like that but um we're kind of right where we expected we would be for the fiscal 2026 budget
so we're still waiting for assessment information from our Regional Schools final Insurance amounts settlement of collective bargaining agreements and our veterans assessment which is going to be tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow I'm going to be going to that meeting and I think
we'll have a number for after tomorrow night great you know we never know but I think we will great um but the preliminary numbers again it's early no votes have been taken at this point in time show an approximate increase of
about 6 and a half% for um education funding and 2.8% for municipal Department's Debt Service and benefits and if we were to apply our 5050 model that we've used in the past
we've board's made a commitment to make sure that all new revenues that come into the town we share them with the district in in the hopes of always making sure we have that balance that we're always spending about 50% on our Educational Services if we were to apply
that model right now we'd be looking at needing an override of about 404,000 to fund education funding so we haven't been able to use the 50/50 model in years so no we funded over over but we
just we just don't have the budget capacity anymore so if that you know again I'm projecting but if that were some the direction that in consultation with the finance committee that you were interested in pursuing we have to have
the ballot language to the town clerk no later than March 31st so just so you have that deadline um just that you're aware of it and again you know things are changing every day at this at this time of the year so I'll I'll keep you
apprised of what's going on the uh Joy has been working uh getting the municipal aggregation meeting scheduled so we have one at the library on Friday February 28th at 1 p.m. and then again on that same day at 6:00
p.m. we'll have one at the police department on Monday March 3rd at 6: PM one on the at the Council on Aging on Monday March 17th at 1 p.m I think the mailings will be going out the end of
this week um with an opt out response due no lateer in the March 20th maybe yeah I think it's March 20th I'm pretty sure but we'll there'll be more information on our website and people will get all the Flyers one quick
observation this is the electrical yes mation there is like it's probably not a copycat letter but there is some warnings to the fact there are certain letters that have arrived at my house that are not you know National Grid or the people that
we're working with there another group which might be normal but that could confuse people pretty easily it's true it's true even I've seen them as well yeah so colonial power has given us an image of what it actually looks like so
that we can do um social media posts and things like that and show residents this is what the mailing will actually look like right now you know if I wen't I'm not always shot but I'd say oh that's it yeah because you're aware it's coming
yeah is there any opportunity for us to put a town seat on their letter too late I don't know if there's enough time we can we can check with them it may be too late but um we'll make sure we get it on our website so people will see what it looks like I think the good
news about what we're talking about is if you don't do anything your rate's going to go down right the worst case is a good case you know the worst case is a good case because I think I remember the numbers that we talked about in that
last meeting and it it was like $14 per kilowatt hour for for National Grid versus 12.2 per kilowatt hour or something for the program so14 yeah but anyway that's approximately I believe they said $11 a
month for the savings savings for the base one and I I know I'm getting ahead of it but the opt out part you can still opt out after you have not opted out one month later right so you know but I don't know who's going to opt out
because they're going to be less than National Grid and if you're private you can't they can't move you you so she clarified um in the packet that we received this week um the mailer we have a copy of the actual mailer we have a copy of what it looks like so we
can distribute that and she also provided um a copy of a postcard and the postcard is going to be sent to anyone who is with a third party provider to notify them that this is happening and to make them aware of what their
their rights are if they want to change um but also um making them aware that they're not being moved it hopefully it cautions them that they may suffer a penalty from their carrier if they opt out of the third
party they have now I would hope but I haven't gone through I don't think yeah I I I would imagine you wouldn't be able cuz if you get a contract with a third party carrier I would imagine you'd have to negotiate that contract before you can you can't leave you can't leave yeah
you know so it's a contract but as we have noticed or I have notic the people who come in here that have the third party thing going on pretty much know what they're doing true they're like totally on top
of this you know my husband's one of them okay um we also still do have a full-time firefighter opening uh they're looking for they're paramedic preferred but will'll entertain others so they're
still accepting reemes um but they are currently interviewing so I'll let you know when that's filled DBW is still looking for plow drivers pickups Z one tons $95 an hour 9 to 10 foot plows also need loaders and skid steers so if you
know anyone reach out to the DPW and just a reminder of the conflict of interest law training if you haven't completed those please do so so I did that and it automatically goes to the to the state
right y yeah okay and you should let the town CL Town CL yeah yeah there yeah there the conflict of interest versus the open meeting I right I went down I went down I was in the office I think Monday or whatever a couple days ago and
I I'm all set cuz she just she just handed me the form yeah because you did it two years ago or one year ago well the thing of it is is what she did was she emailed us the references and the documentation and all is you're signing off on is that you received them and
you're aware of what they say yeah on one of them the other one is the one you were talking about where the certificate goes to the state they keep track of it so was interesting the one that you signed it says I received the information I took exception to and I talked to Joy about it because the the
fifth item on it said that you were aware of any um conflict of any open meeting law violations that you been involved with in the past five years and I said I didn't have that
information yeah but I think Joy furnished links to that of what we did have what the select board did have so you to be careful what you signed for yeah well what are they going to do fire
me could be a blessing sometimes okay anything else gron thank you um okay under correspondence we've had a request from the Triton Regional School District for a nomination to serve on the Triton
middle school high school building committee um I spoke with the chair of the school committee and I asked her if it would be okay if a finance Committee Member said
on that and they said absolutely so I reached out to the chair of the finance committee and their recommendation to me is um Richard yeah Richard Keys offered to sit on this so I'd like to thank him
immensely for stepping up and serving on this um middle and high school building committee um but we need a vote to um nominate him so Iain a motion I'd make a motion to nominate Richard keys
to serve on the Triton middle school high school building committee is there a second second any discussion I yeah I just want this second page with the black on it yeah the bottom is is quite
informative about how this committee is going to be put together and um I just want to bring up to the public that the school administration people are going to be on this committee there's going to be staff students and families on this
Committee in another section and then the town and Community what we're voting on tonight is just our one town representative that's going to be on the committee but right underneath that you can see there's also going to be two community members that have architecture construction engineering experience
would be helpful so there's more there's a lot more that's going to build this committee besides what we're nominating tonight it's going to be more than that so yeah and I just also want to dub tail on to that that this is something that
the town of Newbury is not driving this is going to be driven by a separate municipality which is the regional School District so we've been asked by the school district to nominate one person which we have and and they will fill the right all the members all this other
stuff and the the timeline is is pretty extensive on this program I mean they talked and this is going to be a five to seven year program that you're getting into you know okay all in favor of
Richard Keys say I hi hi um review and approve meeting minut oh where's meeting updates where is it oh there it is I went right side over okay meeting updates um I'll talk you want to
go first no you go first I um attended as my role the DCC meeting and I was just listening to Tracy and I will say that I was musing on the fact that
when designed the budgets for 50/50 split and 50 for education and do for no reason beyond the fact that it happens the school budgets are increasing because they need to have the money to do what they need to do to
teach our kids and what have they been between 3 to 6% each year our model does not sustain that it doesn't sound at the BCC level like
Raley is in a position and Salsbury Neil said certain things I mean to alert the public that you know we will need an override if we continue at this
level because there's no way to get around our heav one is there well considering you were proposing about a 950,000 override back in 20 and we managed to make it this far with
without it it it was just a matter of time before the D are coming in more now too and what's our other Regional component the Essex Tech but I haven't receive so I mean it's getting to a level that we might have to contribute
at the override levels to sustain this so we're going to have to curtail services on the other end that's pretty much how it works so I'm going to duvail onto what Jeff is saying I
asked the superintendent to update this chart of how much the school district has cost us and this is the problem it's a big problem it's not unique to us it's
the state in Chapter 70 funding in 2002 the total operating budget of the school just the operating budget was under $30 million fast forward to
2025 last year not even this year it's over $50 million that cost has shifted the cost of that has shifted the burden of that cost is shifted away from the Commonwealth and more and more and more onto the
cities and towns so that we're more wealthy towns well because the Chapter 70 formula to assess public dollars to from the Commonwealth to for public educ
education is broken it doesn't work and in 20 in 20 22 2002 Chapter 70 covered 34% of their operating expenses last year C 18% of it
and Brian said this year it's going to be less than almost close to 177% So eventually it's going to completely go away and the burden of a $52 million School District which will plummet which will go up to $60 million
is going to be born on by three communities of 20 $25 million each it's it's unsustainable we even if we you talk about the override ride word eventually you're not even going to be able to
override the way out of this but it's not going to change at the state level it's got to change at the state level it's it's got to them so and you got a lot of support for that when you spoke about it at the MMA meeting yeah yeah Bill saw that a lot I mean a lot of the
other select boards agreed it's exactly it's broken I I mean it won't get fixed this year and it won't get fixed next year here but it's got to get fixed because a lot of these communities are going to
hit a wall and you're going to see communities end up going under because either you don't have school or you don't have town because even if you can the override we because of prop two and a half you're limited to that so if the
overrides don't pass you're going to have nothing you're going to be cutting and it's it's a it's a real problem yeah there's a if I may there's a couple things going on here one that Jeff mentioned about the 50/50
thing and it's it's kind of funny because in order to maintain that that posture the 50/50 posture we would have to increase our town budget so that it so that it would keep up with the school budget and that's the piece that Jeff
was talking about that that's not possible you know we our town budget can't go up at the same rate that the school budget's going up right so the 50/50 formula is it's it's probably not realistic the 50/50 formula isn't relative to spending it's relative to
new revenues that come on an annual basis but we've always been a little over shrinking now and and getting back to Chapter 70 it's like in in my opinion the chapter money the 70 money is in in
as a whole is going to shrink because State the state's practically bankrupt no they just increased it didn't they didn't you just increase Chapter 70 is that what yes the governor yeah the governor increased chap Chapter 70 the problem is the formula it doesn't
allocate and they passed the millionair tax that's supposed to increase public education supposed to be split between public transportation and public education so there's two piece too the student Opportunity Act was supposed to
fix this problem it didn't it fixed it with the inner cities and the bit large Gateway cities now get a significant amount of more money than we do um smaller Community Cas smaller communities like us rural
communities are getting wiped out um and they need they need to fix it there's more money with the millionaires tax that's supposed to come to public education but yet we're not getting it so the governor theut sen Governor at the MMA meeting I looked right at her
and and you know she said I understand that there's a problem with this and I and I got got up and I got in her face and I was like yes and she looked right at me and she said we hear you so was it get fixed this year I don't know but at the fiscal policy committee this is
where I'm going to continue to have this conversations because I've already set this off to her I want to add it to our next agenda we're going to talk about how we're going to fix this leg atively because it's the Comm wealth of Massachusetts is the problem with with
with the Triton budget and it's going to affect all of our three communities our operating budgets as well and the problem is with the state and when I was at the MMA meeting I had these two girls come up to me from the western part of the state a women and they said well you
know we're on the select board at s sech town and and the school takes all our money and blah blah blah and I said you're not fighting with them are you and she's like well they want all our money I go no they won't no they don't they want to provide not only an adequate education but a good education
for your students I said and they can't because the state won't give them any money so don't be fighting with them fight the state because they're the problem and they're like we never thought of that so so I'm still fighting the state I sit at the fiscal policy
committee and I I I advocate on that and I I that's our only way out the state is our only way out unless we want to collapse a department or collapse the school that's the that's the only answer okay so some of the stuff the voting
members voted on Saturday was announced that Healey is going to pursue the supporting modernization efficiency of local governments all that stuff that you yeah endorsed do you think MMA is suited up to tackle Chapter 70 for I
mean for the people that have the problem not just I mean your your voice is good but I mean if there were 200 voices 200 select boards 200 towns one of the one of the thoughts that I had was reach out to the
Massachusetts select Board Association and and have them start reaching out to all the different communities and say what who's who is this happening to let's go and then let's see what happens if we
can collectively the problem is the bigger cities that have all the money have the bigger clout it's the voting Block it's all about the voting block is what it's all about but the governor can't allow this to happen they can't allow these small communities to go under in some
respect some of those cities let's say like Lawrence a h they need that assistance at a high level because they don't need as much as they got they you know on if you really look at it it they get 10% more than we did no they need it
no they get more than that they needed it they need it for English language Learners State I mean you talk about a fortune you're going to try to say take some away from give it to it what the state has to do is load it at the other end they need to put more money in it
right and I remember Bruce St saying it a long time ago at Triton sometimes it's always appropriation what we have it hasn't been loaded at the front end in a long time no and I honestly I think this might even culminate in a lawsuit I
think there might be a bunch of municipalities stepping together and suing the same level forever yeah yeah I mean look the money's been the same yeah it's not right it's wrong why don't you start a petition for the the the select
board you serve it up to the I got to out to the chair of the select of the select Board Association and see what she says send the document yeah send the message I mean I've driven all over the state talking to people about this West part of the state a lot of times we go after
time it's not the states got to put more money in yeah yeah and they were supposed to put more money in with this millionaire put more money in decade ago yeah well with the they passed a a tax based on we're going to fund public education that's why that
pass million not the millionaires tax seems to want to fund everything according to them well just those two things but we're not getting it so how about if cugo state auditor Diana investigates uh where the mil tax
money went that's what I'd like you to do is do an audit on chap Chapter 70 and see how in ineffective it is the legislature won't like that where's Elon Musk when you need them they don't they don't they don't do
anything the legislature do we don't need him we have Diana no things are really good that that's a whole another topic of discussion because I totally believe that that the entire State needs to be audited you know well she's auditing
yeah but she's getting a lot of push back from like it the problem and I was just going to say and you said it when you can't at a state or federal level audit the octopus you made it's crazy
it's crazy isn't it it's absurd yeah because we're not talking policy changes here we're not talking processes we're talking we're just auditing yeah where the money's going that's all we're doing making sure it's going the way it's supposed to was intended to go there's no policy changes going on no ab and
that's the state level too all right any other meeting updates I've got a bunch okay I went to the three-day MMA sessions in January with you MH that's the Massachusetts municipalities associate a
351 communities Mar Healey was there lieutenant governor Drisco was there Warren and Mary sent some videos in and they had educational seminars aimed at making selectwood people more effective okay which was
it's a learning process they ought to have that video I think we do pretty well on the 27th I went to the north Northeast Community College Whittier meeting yeah with uh let's see the 11 communities
represented either Town manager or mayor and someone from the select board was there so there were about 22 people who were there they put out an agenda um Zio's Uncle Dennis was the moderator
for the session and what's going to happen is in mid-February there'll be a final donaho report from um University of Massachusetts and they'll have their next meeting after that so what they're
going to talk about is the the whole idea of the Shar campus Exploration with the potential potential Revenue models strategies for achieving a more cost-efficient project for cities and towns um planning to a regional
agreement with the state and NECC as a partner um so this is going to be a lot of a lot of discussions it's going to be very fruitful very important Whittier also presented their Capital plan and the number one item on the capital plan
was the wastewater treatment plant and at that at this point there is investigating rebuild versus replace so that $12 million $1 million project may change on February 4th I went to the
finance committee meeting locally our finance committee meeting on February 6th I actually participated via zoom on the DCC to try to get educated on the 7th Friday the 7th Essex County
Fire Chiefs Association breakfast Tracy and and I was a replacement for uh for for Alicia and chief Evans was there it was pretty interesting they not only went over the history and and mission of the of the uh fire chief
Association but they talked about Regional training and operation Center they went over the fire mobilization plan and they also have their own call to action for legislative support Bruce was there kasna was there and Lieutenant
uh Governor Driscoll was there on the 10th of February yesterday I went to the local historic district study committee to see what they were doing they went through their resource their study plan next steps and I think
at our next select board meeting they're going to talk about a bylaw that they've drafted that we have to look at okay and that's it thank you Danny you have a meeting tomorrow night right yes the uh Essex veterans and then I talked to you
guys about uh the help me out with this the in Che the the marac beach oh marac Valley marac Valley Beach never get that I went I went to that meeting and uh there there's a lot going on there's a lot going on there uh still I was still
sick I haven't missed one since the Inception yeah I know um but in any event it was um there's there's it's it's it's a complicated problem and and and there's a lot of moving parts and I mean they're talking about you know a couple of guys
from salby they got the lar with the drones and not only you know the what is it DOA DOA is doing that on a regular basis measuring un UNH thank you and uh
we're getting we're getting our own set of of drones and measurements and they're looking for volunteers to uh like I don't know put sticks in the ground at different geographical locations and what what it's this is really interesting what these what these
drones can do is like they can fly up and down the Island beach and and they'll tell you in a week that a that an inch of sand moved from this spot over to this spot and then the other
problem that I the way I see it is the bureaucratic rent tape that we have to go through brutal is is brutal and it seems like in Massachusetts it's worse than especially like in Maine or New
Hampshire but the the other issue there is um like the Southshore I don't know like we don't know how they do it but like na just just got like a $35 million Grant or something for for putting sand on their
Beach no not Inland I'm sorry down U situate the beach down there the situ it it wasn't sit situ has erosion yeah
and and and uh so again it gets it's kind of reminds me of Chapter 70 where this there's there's places that are getting support for Beach of Rosen and this places that AR you know it's it's a bureaucratic problem well to add to what
Dana is talking about which we have we're combined on pom and drones are a great idea they're not really tied to an engineer's Benchmark so and liar used to to be 6 in
and now it's getting much better but there's a little relativity in there people don't want to talk about as Su how accurate they are but they're accur but a lot of these places that are getting the
advantage of sand deposited on their beaches are mass beaches beaches that are owned by the state right like Sal so well I didn't even bring that up in the
meeting because I thought of that I mean we we have even P Island and new aren't some beaches private and some we talk about it for the plovers all the time about you know so that that those those are other obstacles you know so when you
really get into a lot of this then you say oh my taxpayers don't but that's what it is and on the other end people complain if they own the beach because if the you know if Mass owns the beach they're
supposed to take care of it so it's you know I don't know it's all high no anyway I went to that meeting it's it's a complicated issue and no one's got the money to do anything cuz it's big it's expensive when you pushing sand around
so MIT had that model remember I came and told you about it where they're making these oblas I remember this they want to put a break on right yeah just big enough maybe for a whale to wiggle through and
that would actually deposit more s of the beaches and stop the wave energy and everything else does it make sense I mean ultimately it's big business I'm might is Shar and I can't imagine why there are other countries all over the world
that have established great Breakwater technology so I don't know why we don't start to think about that and our wave energy like if we get down the cape it's you know three foot ties you know we get that 9 to 11 foot tide and a lot of energy I don't know why we don't have
some sort of break BLS so and we have you know fredland State groins Jetties that change the energies and you know when you have for navigation purposes a jetty that can screw up your
beach so there's a lot going on lot going on any other meeting updates okay I'll entertain a motion to sign warrants no meeting meeting Minutes review and approve uh meeting minutes
the meeting minutes of January 28th right here Iain a motion to approve them motion to approve the minute me meeting minutes of January 28th 20125 is there a
second second oh second sorry that's okay uh all in favor I and motion to sign Lawrence motion sign second all in favor I I motion to
adjourn motion to all in favor second oh second yeah there a second I all in favor I I