##VIDEO ID:1ADTXC-HGxE## good afternoon I'm now going to call the Wednesday October 16 2024 meeting of the Nora County Commission to order on Wednesday March 29 2023 Governor Healey signed into law chapter 2 of the acts of 2023 an act making Appropriations for fiscal year 2023 which includes a 2-year extension the option for public bodies to hold remote meetings by suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law Mass General Law chapter 38 section 20 that action was effective immediately extending the current option for remote meetings through March 31st 2025 welcome good afternoon you join me in saluting the flag please to flag the UN United States of America to the for stands one nation God indivisible with and justice for all thank you take attendance commissioner stady I am present sir commissioner Collins commissioner Shay is present we have no executive session today number four minutes of the Open session meeting of October 9th 2024 for approval okay I'll move approval as presented second motion made and seconded to accept am minutes of October 9th meeting all in favor I thank you number five appointment with Alzheimer's Association of Massachusetts to explain their upcoming is it a fundraiser so to speak this weekend so I'm going to turn it right over to you John to introduce our guests good afternoon Commissioners thank you commissioner Shay joining us today from the alignment Association is JC settles JC had reached out to us um and as a preemptive dialogue um relative to their upcoming walk I believe it's scheduled for October 20th this weekend is that correct JC at Foxboro they're here to talk about that the commission as may recall about a year ago you awarded funding to the Alzheimer's assoc Association to assist them in recovering their um lost um fundraising opportunities during the co pandemic uh through your uh award it has allowed the all serice Association to Market and project uh this upcoming walk and it fundraising needs for this organization so I just wanted JC to come in today give us a brief update on what to expect this weekend for the walk um and to add any other details relative to the grant award that has been provided to uh all Service Association go ahead J thank you very much first of all I want to say a big thank you uh and Rich and John um uh rich I I have to say this uh to you because uh one thing personal this time when we first met we said we're going to help a lot of people that stick with me uh my mom just lost her battle this past November with dementia and which uh only further uh you know puts the desire and the fire burning so I want to say thank you very much for what you all are doing um just a quick walk update obviously we just quickly met uh Jenny Andrews who is my colleague in the new uh Katherine who you work with um and correct uh the walk is Sunday October 20th coming up at Patriot Place um the just for little site details and numbers coming along uh the site will open for all walkers on at 8:30 and 9:45 is our promised Garden ceremony and then 10:00 a.m. is uh the walk which is approximately 3 miles um the event itself we're going to have a it's going to be a great uh familyfriendly event as you know we're going to have face painting Zumba a tribute wall where folks can put up pictures of their loved ones that they've maybe lost or dealing with it we're going to have Pat the Patriot as well as the Patriots cheerleaders there uh for uh festiveness as far as the uh fundraising and whatnot uh we have currently 1,070 Walkers registered uh we have 205 teams registered and we've currently raised uh $286,800 towards our 400 8,000 goal which is about 69% um and those numbers are obviously moving fast as I talk it's a mov it's people are fundraising and signing up and a lot of those what we'll find out also on walk day we'll get a lot of registrations there so U frankly the numbers are what we see online but there's those are actually moving and already frankly just more uh as we get going and lastly um uh one of the things I find it's very neat is as far we have over a hundred volunteers that range from you know college students to high school students to volunteer organizations as well so for me uh as much as this uh impact uh for those Walkers coming there you got a strong Community Support um uh helping out on walk day so uh keeping it short and sweet we're in a good direction thanks to your efforts and obviously we're expecting even uh a further jump especially with the weather looking like it is uh so other than that just really just so you know quick update if that is okay I know you have a a wonderful meeting ahead I don't want to be um taking too much of your time you can stay for the whole meeting if you want I I'm I'm dressed down because I'm literally at the warehouse and we're packing we're packing up I have set up on on Saturday uh so I'm getting all my banners and everything in line if if it's organized it's organized chaos but uh it's just one walk we do 12 walks as a whole in the chapter but you know nepan it's pretty much are one of our biggest ones so I'm double triple checking everything and making you I'm at in this little closet making calls and and doing whatnot to to keep on track but um I certainly appreciate it um it is uh meaningful obviously for what we're doing to the community and even personally especially uh this time last year I had the yellow flower that we raised during a ceremony for a caregiver now I switched to purple flower for a lost one and um and it's just again what you guys are doing for the community and and awareness um it helps a long way and um as much as I'm staff I've had to use our services I've had to call our heline and I know if I can get that out to other families it it's only going to help everyone battle this disease so from uh as a staff person and personally two different people I want to say thank you very much for your support thank you commission if I may thank you Mr chairman uh JC I I extend sure on behalf of all of us our condolences on your loss um it is a pleasure to see you again though and sounds like you get a great great event unfortunately I've got a conflict I will not be able to attend I would be there to support you but it's going to be wonderful and we want to hear all the good results afterwards give us a good report so keep up the good work and again sorry for your lost here but amazing this all started over a breakfast meeting we just started talking see with Norway I remember that glad we're able to help you out and of course uh all of us extend our our gratitude to you and and certainly appreciate thank you so much and that's why I reached out to John and you trying to touch space because my life as as you may have known and all that stuff once something like that happens it's it's it it turns your life on on edge and then my parents are in Florida so for me even when we had the final approval meeting I think last like October is I was actually I remember being in the room next to my mom just be and we approved it and it's just I had tears you guys if you go in recording you're going to see me crying because it was the most wonderful thing knowing that we're going to help so many people so um thank you very much have a great uh uh rest of your day and again thanks a million times over we'll see you yes thank you very much really appreciate it okay good luck guys thank you very much great day take care all right have a great day so longk you okay moving right along number six public comment each week at our meeting we have a public comment session if there's anyone out in Zoom land who has a public comment now is the time to speak up and director Cronin have you heard from anyone about public comment no sir okay last call for public comment seeing none I'll go to number seven old business I have no business no old business today Commissioners number a personal matters for consideration Commissioners St yes sir Mr chairman we have just a couple here uh I'll move the following for approval and vote first is the move approval of the notice of resignation for meline groin of Boston as the animal science forers herdsman uh and that was at the right stated and that's effective 10182 24 so move second M man second all in favor I I it is a vote next I I move approval of the nor resignation of Edward mcf and of Plainville Mass as a substitute instructor at the agie school rate stated effective date 10724 so moved second Mo made second all it is a vote last and last Mr chairman I move the notice of promotion for Christopher Gil of North adoro as build and maintenance for person with place in Maurice gilbart at the race stated effective date 10724 so moved second motion made in seconded all in favor I that concludes person or today number nine payroll and expense warrants Mr chairman I'm fallowing this is for the warrant list of 10 1624 first 25-15 move approval to payroll of the county the amount of1 15,264 51 so move Mo made seconded all in favor I here's a vote next next I'll move approval for the payroll to school 25-15 subsection 8 38 on the amount of $ 38,1 12335 so moved second motion made and seconded all in favor I I it is a vote third for the expense for the county I move approval of 10325 uh the sum of 8,326 71 so move second motion made and second all in favor it is and last we have an operate award going to the town of metfield this is on the warrant list 25 16 and the amount going at Medfield is $164,500 so move approval second motion made and seconded all in favor all right it is a vote all right that's it that concludes payroll expense Wars number 10 report on American Rescue plan Act of 2021 director Perman thank you Mr chairman just um very brief explanation as to the award that Mr commissioner stady just read the town of field um this will fund Mental Health Services for the citizens of Medfield to help assist with the increased need for health needs uh due to the impacts of the pandemic on the families in town uh this is a revenue replacement category that funds an obligation that will uh carry forward through December of 2026 um as we look at where Medfield stands in the grand scheme of things um I believe they have one more Grant application in the queue or prepared for the queue I spoke to their coordinator yesterday um SP about $170,000 remaining um so I expect we hear from them very shortly um this afternoon the second prong of my um AR report to you I'd like to um put in a more formal sense I've been um alerting the Commissioners that I'm preparing a closeout presentation to you um I'd ask Mark to fill it up right now on the zoom so other folks can see what the Commissioners have in front of them um this presentation um seeks to cover the work done to date to prepare the County for the financial um end of the program effed December 31st 2024 when the obligation period closes um and take a peek into the monitoring phase that will follow Mark if You' don't be so kind as to go to slide two if you go go to slide mode too it might be helpful for the Commissioners to see the picture in a bigger view so a brief history this slide may look familiar to you folks uh just a little over two years ago um actually make that three years ago on August 23rd 2021 um the brief history of how arpa came to the um County started on March 10th when President Biden signed the American Rescue plan act um May 10th the treasury launched a $350 billion um Corona virus state and local fiscal recovery funds act which became arpa um over the next several months um um the County Commission has assessed how to handle this program you held two Tri count meetings with your peers and other counties um and on August 11th 2021 you voted to authorize the hiring of our Auditors as the primary and secondary firms to do the backend work on each Grant application culminating with our first award to the town of wellsy on December 1st 2021 for $1.5 million A lot's happened over the last 3 years um I we'll ask go to the next slide Mark so norfor County was awarded 137 m800 $282,700 um we um of that amount the county set aside 3% or 4,184 182 for project and administration expenses um when you take a a collective look at where we stand with a grand total that $137 million is offset obviously if you take the 3% out it brings the amount available to communities down to $133 million when you account for where we stand today with the amount of money out the door with an adjustment for the return funds um that's 125 million so as of October second um the county had approximately $7.99 million remaining to award award um and certainly last week you made great gains with several awards that total over 2 million plus today's this number continues to drop so as of 10 to right this was that's as of 10 to but um you made Awards last week so that that number went down by that amount plus today so it's going to keep dropping right next slide Mark so of this 7.99 remaining 6.5 is currently under review for eligibility which means we have active applications for all but $1.4 million which is very good we have communities that are very active in fact nine communities make up 15 applications um associated with that balance you can see where the Count's very actively involved in closing out the balance of these funds um the Commissioners may recall that the county conducted a thorough closeout plan exercise to direct the communities to detail their plan to use their remain remaining allocated funds these plans are approved by the county with a corresponding Grant agreement extension um the county has full knowledge of each community's plan and currently does not anticipate any return of unspent funds this could change at the last minute if any plans fail to materialize think we' be clear about that for the last month or so this slide comes from our portal um it's automatically generated so forgive me for the color disorientation but it shows uh the distribution of funds or the allocation of funding to date the vast majority is in infrastructure across North County not a surprise uh followed by um supporting Public Health at 17.7% the economic impact followed um with 14.35% uh premium pay and revenue replacement followed um incidentally if you look at that purple uh slice at the top just under $7 million has been allotted the revenue replacement is a um this was a $10 million aot Commissioners may remember this was a hot button um at the beginning of the of the grant many communities felt that they were entitled to the full 10 million after much consultation with the uh the US Treasury it was 10 million for the whole County so we distributed that benefit across the county and not surprisingly we're seeing some Surplus Surplus the surplus of those of that allocation or available for use in other communities so uh it was high demand but actually low utility um we're seeing a little bit of give back on that utility so that's good uh we'll use that to help communities close out where they encounter some difficulty with their grants um speaking of the close out next slide mark this represents the uh 18 what we call excess capacity applications that are sitting in the portal right now these particular applications were uh solicited we told every Community back in the spring um if you have excess capacity projects that you want us to consider put them in the portal put them in now don't wait 18 applications have flowed you can see the vast majority came from the town of Brookline um I think I've think I've explained to the Commissioners how Brookline is handling their program they had a massive massive infrastructure built on the front of their program they used all of their local AR funds to attend to most of those Community needs and then they turn to the county so the county pieces are kind of picking apart or picking up where the massive Brookline uh community plan left off and it's also reimbursing some of those programs these particular um um Brook line applications are picking up um areas where they're hoping to get reimbursed for expenses associated with awards that they made um but you can see the largest one is the town of Randol um they have a very large Tri toown water treatment plant um that is going on right now um I don't know if that's a viable number I think Brian put that in to capture all of the projected obligation associated with that but uh hard to imagine us getting to that but you can see there's a host of other ones varying sizes um there are some as small as $71,000 in Brookline um depending upon what kind of surplus we're looking at we'll be looking to isolate um eligible Grant programs um that can use up any surplus um once these have been reviewed and ready for um um approval any questions on that yeah if I could all right so this is the only time that that's submitted yeah I'm surprised because truthfully a couple times I've been in Franklin for different reasons and the administrator and the council were telling me they had all sorts of plans that they wanted to seek additional money but they didn't put anything in it's not too late okay it's not too late no oh okay all right they were they were I think they were one of the first ones that finished up didn't they maybe yeah put them the they were in the front there they were aggressive but they were like looking to get more yeah well who's the town manager he's on Jamie yeah and he's I'm surprise that's sorry yeah he's got um he's got about $8,000 left he's got a small grant that we're working on cleaning up right now um but if you're inclined to notify him again let them know but that's now that's as of uh last week yep that's good yeah it hasn't changed much Mo most of them entered their applications um in the spring when our close out memo went out as you can see from the dates that okay yep there go all right next slide Mark Mark So speaking about the 3% set aside for administration County projects um this equates to 4118 million in funding for the total cost of the gr program for the county through April of 2027 and funding project Awards to various County projects this breakout is really a combination of the administrative costs and projects so it's all bundled together our administrative expenses currently project to be 1.54 five million and will cover any salary and contractor related services the next page Mark now here you'll see where the current 2.5 million of that three uh percent is going this may look familiar to you all of the yellow highlighted grants have been approved um they're in various stages of expenditure right now you'll note there are three of them that have um a pink shaded or a coral shaded um assignment that's because they're still pending approval by um Cliff the lson Allen um the first one which was a new restroom on the golf course of $330,000 although the project uh did not go forward we still have an obligation to pay our architect for the work that they did to prepare that application um I just submitted the last piece of information requested by the archite today excuse me by the auditor today that should clear very shortly uh you can see 192,000 was for the premium PID for County Employees non-school we set aside $20,000 very early on that was the first Cod uh first County application uh for Co kits um we've expended almost all of that money by the way uh the next was facility Studies by H for the dam Superior Dam District Court projects $29,000 that has been completed uh we just talk to the Alzheimer's Association you awarded $127,800 to them last year um they're well underway expending that money the financial literacy program for the treasurer's office has been awarded to a vendor I spoke to the treasurer last last week he's engaged with her and putting together the program right now uh the dam District Court building management system 800,000 that uh particular project is out to bid as we speak uh we expect the vendor to be awarded in the next several weeks the next item was a premium pay for the agricultural high school that was $ 119,000 uh the next one is $228,800 for um miscellaneous air upgrades for stoton District Court rentham District Court and Brookline District Court um this amount just landed last week and so I'm expecting that work to be completed um definitely encumbered before the end of the year but be completed over the next several months those are enhancements to the heating systems in each of those three locations um we have requested uh $225,000 for the Kemp Paul HVAC project I just sent an email before I came into this meeting asking the Auditors to expedite that John Wallace is in the back so I want you folks to know we're trying to move them as quickly as possible because as soon as that light turns green we can alert um our procurement unit to get that out to bid I don't want to waste too much more time as we get closer to the end of the year we need to obligate those funds the study that got us the $225,000 plan has been approved and expended um we expect to have uh an update from Patrick Higgins who's helping me do the Wallis and recreational facility tennis court resurfacing that placeholders is $300,000 but he's expecting to get the estimate from the vendor um Friday actually uh October 18th we have two requests um from the uh sheriff's office in Probate um before I get to that there was one item norfor County vehicle and equipment needs so the schools asked for um facility equipment our facility Department asked for facility equipment and the golf course asked for a truck so all three have been approved I spoke to Trish Bernard today she's alerting each of the department heads that uh the quotes that they receive can now be acted upon and they can actively start buying the equipment that they put forward the Commissioners may see a little bit of a hidden theme Here some of these funds are made to be um an improvised Capital plan because in FY 25 we don't have a capital plan this is in effect giving them resources Visa V arpa to accomplish the same task so they're getting some good equipment uh via arpa uh the the next two as I mentioned is for the Sheriff's Office it's a uh Grant of $100,000 and I believe that was for a vehicle a portable Port Port portable vehicle to assist with healthc care services um the norfor County Probate they had submitted a $100,000 Grant item that did not fly with our auditor so we're actively working with them and they hope to have an renew application to us by the end of the week so as you can see that's 2528 million has been set aside awarded or is awaiting award um against the $ 2.57 3 million um and as the call up Bo shows we have about $44,000 floating in unassigned Grants we do expect one more Grant coming in from the weights and measures program for approving approver equipment um I'm waiting for Bill Buckley to give me those quotes soon but these funds should be starting to tight tighten up real soon director commissioner St if I may through you Clos here two things the probate uh 100,000 do you have an idea of what they might be looking for we um sure if they take our advice we advised um they were looking for some kind of a transportation solution associated with um uh their location and public transportation there was a many many people walked that distance and it was a burden so we were looking to give them uh insight as to we actually use the Aggies um bus contract and sent that along to them the other option is um translation services for uh individuals that use the court service okay um so it's up to them we gave them a couple of quick head ideas that would immediately fix um the eligibility category uh but we're hoping to hear from them by Friday yeah Colleen as we know as always said to us the location is a challenge for people taking the train day one she's been I think Transportation was one if I could second point if I may Mr chairman uh we've just talked about it we haven't done anything I know there's no vote but we had mentioned Gilly house as a possible oper helping them out and also I did mention uh I think I mentioned it to you and you Johan Cronin uh ston wants to come in and talk about the VNA program I don't know that's going to be through oper but they wanted to talk about it so is there any um hate to say it but is there any leeway in there in case we wanted to help out those organizations the doors aren closed commissioner so in the event that either of those organizations have concept or ideas that they would like to submit we encourage them to do so okay um and just as a matter of um uh just information I think I I revealed to you that the county does have uh a separate opioid grant program that we're starting to get to and I'll talk about that just a minute under my director updates right okay funding available there Bill Buckley had sent out something about Gilly house but the dates they didn't yeah we're trying to get them in here and we're actively working with them and I think we can put Sten on fairly I want to get I didn't hear from the uh I'm going actually reach out to the manager it might be better to do that uh but I'll try get them in ASAP thank you isn't there something going on tomorrow and something that we been invited to oh yes is it y oh okay I'll look at it chairman Chris invited you to an event I'm breaking okay next slide Mark uh regarding the close out we're planning for all funds to be awarded by December 1st that's our that's our date when we want want the remaining 7 million awarded by don't think that'll be a problem at all uh we'll continue monitoring each community's plan to obligate the funds according to the revised Grant uh agreement deadline um the county will also utilize excess capacity Grant applications to clean up any last minute available Surplus and the selection would based on the size of any surplus against the eligible grants that are prescreened and ready for full occupation uh finally on the last second to last slide Mark if you could monitoring thank you so the grant monitoring actually has been carried out since the grant subception um monitoring includes the quarterly annual submission of Grant expenses by each Community as well as more intensive review of each community's activities and controls so the Commissioners may be uh aware I believe I've shown these two in the past our in report is put up on our website and it shows every Grant award made by arpa to each Community with a description and a full amount though I believe we have three reports up there right now we'll have a fourth and we'll continue to do that um so those that data associated with the Ws is actually um audited by Clifton Larson during their monitoring cycle they also go in quarterly and they select 10 communities for uh more intensive uh review uh sampling of um award records They want to see that you followed through with the contracts the obligation the purpose to which the grant was awarded as well as to make sure you were actually moving ahead with the grant um they also check on internal controls to make sure that the individuals associated with awarding the funds and and uh following through purchase orders are all well defined um those Grant activities will continue into um the following two years um the monitoring phase will cover the final years of arper uh through December 2026 and into early 2027 so we've always known that the obligation period ends in 24 the next two years are the opportunity for communities to spend that money to OB take the obligation and expend it by December of 2026 but in the spring of 27 we still have some reporting activities that we owe the federal government so that's why some of the expenses associated with Clifton lson will leak into early 27 that's why the dates up there but functionally with the communities everything shuts down December of 2026 the program ends sorry go ahead the program ends 24 we know that right no well I mean k was applying for Grants correct the obligation obligation then they have like the two years to spend it that's right okay so when does the US Treasury start their audit of us they can do it at any time anytime at all sure okay yep I see they could pull out a grant that we gave in 22 or 23 they could and take a look at it they could but more more likely um um our our our Auditors uh Markham will be picking up samples based on our sea filing we now that we um handle over $100,000 in Grants um we're subjected to a Federal grant review under our normal auditing program so they'll start sampling many of these grants um within our own audit cycle um starting actually I think they started in this fiscal year all right good so we'll see more of that excellent um the monitoring phase uh to wrap up the presentation Comm commers um will be more intensive um than I'm revealing here well you'll probably receive another uh report from me or presentation in early 2025 once the ground rules of what functionally this looks like and I want to give you a little bit of insight of what this means it's not simply you know calling Avon and asking them to give us a file or an update on a grant award or checking on their internal controls it's more than that um when when an award is made in arpa for a particular the purpose say it's infrastructure say it's $100,000 to do water sewer infrastructure and you made that award to stady construction but stady construction dissolved it went out of business I'm surprised and then okay and so the county the community comes back to us and says well we still wanted to get this work done the same work same scope and we want to go to the next bidder who was Collins construction also also went under and uh we we can take we can take that obligation and move it from a vendor a to a vendor B within the monitoring phase as long as the scope and the value don't change these are nuances that are going to be very clearly defined by Clifton lson Allen for our community so that they can see that there's still some flexibility that we haven't been too too widely broadcasting yet because we want people to settle into what they're expecting to do but clearly the Federal final rule in the treasury is is signaling to communities that there is some flexibility but you have to stay Within These guard rails and those will be made known to the communities so if stoen had a $5 million Grant from us right about that for their fire station and if one of those contractors or Subs went under they can assign it within it as long as it's a fire station but they couldn't do it say for the police station or a library different scope okay all right good it it's an area within the final rule that there hasn't been a lot of dialogue about but we expect to let communities know that as they encounter problems um and with the volume of money and awards that you've given out I don't rule it out I think we may encounter some of those challenges they're G to be tough um because there's a lot of there's a lot of review that goes on involving those things so more on that in 2025 I'll report back in about six months to let you know what that program looks like and we'll of course let our communities know that as well yeah so that's it for the close out if we encounter any challenges or problems um against the deadlines and plans that I've laid out I'll let you know and of course we'll let you know how it's going uh right down to the last award thank you Mr chairman that's any further questions about great job the close out of right more more to here yeah okay number 11 NAA warrants for approval we did that joh yes sir I'm all good okay number 12 report for the procurement Department bid openings and contract Awards nothing this week nope moving right along report of the county director just a few updates Commissioners um we had a candidate uh that we're going to interview this week for the plumbing vacancy he withdrew he accepted a position the town of Needum our human resources department continues to recruit and solicit um applicants for that job as I mentioned I did ask uh cliff and narson today to expedite arer application 1345 which is the Kemp PA um HVAC construction uh application I will I will waste no time alerting our procurement unit in schools as soon as that gets approved um Michelle mcel our labor Council um has sent a request to our colleagues in asme um looking for some dates when we can meet in the next month or two to set ground rules for upcoming negotiations which will for all intents and purposes begin likely after the new year contracts expire June 30th 2025 I'll alert the Commissioners how that progresses uh and also uh as commissioner stti eluded earlier um we uh I'm underway working with Jen LaVine from norfor County district attorney um Michael Marcy's office with round two opioid Grant Awards um J was kind enough to send me the list of 21 Community Coalition contacts um I've drafted a letter she's reviewing it right now we're looking to award $1,500 per uh Grant this year which is up from a th a year ago uh we have a little over $440,000 to um disperse associated with that particular Grant so there is some capacity there commissioner Colin commissioner stadi in the event that um entities like the Gillies house wish to apply as well right all right that's great that's my update thank you Mr chairman any further questions of director k number 14 emergency items the chair did not reasonably anticipate would be discussed the chair has none and would say that we're uh scheduled today for a 4:30 meeting of the school board regular monthly meeting and we're going to start at 4:30 p.m. commission so way we go across 109 28 whichever most direct last call anything else I'll take a motion to adjourn right now move we adjourn at uh 139 second motion made in second did all in favor I thank you very much this meeting is a don't make thank you commissioner safe travels by the way