all right everyone good evening and welcome to the select board meeting of what's today thursday April 10th 2025 we have Tanish Luchiano we have Roger Maran and myself and um Alec Kevin is not available tonight and Alec may be here
shortly uh we're going to start with the pledge of allegiance i aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and
justice for all okay we have the appointment of Steve Bishop to the water sewer commission i think he's familiar with that position is he on Steve you on Zoom no okay um does anybody have any
questions you can ask Mr town Manager mr chair Mr marcy Mike is there any reason we shouldn't appoint you nope steve is the current chair of the commission and uh that does a great job mr chair Mr marcy I make a motion that
we appoint Steven Bishop to the Water Commission i second okay motion and second all in favor i I opposed all right and now to reappoint of Michael Tulle as town constable do we have any questions here i know Mr
tool is here um Mr chair Mr mr mercy um Mike I see the we have the list is this all of the constables that we have yes and are they I see the because we we just seem to have
appointed Mike a couple months ago um we appointed Michael Hanigan a couple months ago and he was filling the remainder of a term um so now he's being reappointed to
a three-year term and same with Michael his is now a it's a three-year term can we vote for both of these together okay yeah yeah we can mr chair so I'll
just say we're also um reappointing Michael Hanigan as town constable so go ahead i make a motion that we reappoint Michael Tulle and Michael Hanigan as town constable second all in favor i
opposed all right congrats Mike thank Mike thank you very much thank you um now we have approval of minutes for February 13th 2025 mr chair Mr marc I make a motion that we approve the minutes of February 13 2025
second all in favor i I opposed all right and we're going to cruise along we have a special permit at sorry public hearing at 6:15 so we'll get through these here um we vote to approve uh approve a special events application for
the Memorial Day parade scheduled for Monday May 26 2025 from 10:00 a.m to 12:00 p.m any questions on this one mr chair Mr marcy I make a motion that we approve the special events
application for the Memorial Day parade scheduled for Monday May 26 2025 from 10 to 12 second all in favor i opposed okay next up we have a one-day beer and wine license to Bob Mas on behalf of
Smoky Chestnut Farm for a public event at 98A Bert Street Norton from 11:00 a.m to 400 p.m on Saturday May 3rd a rain date of Sunday May 4th mr chair Mr marc um I see that we have
uh four one day beer and wine licenses can we uh just do them all at the same time for the same uh person at the same location yeah the motion should just say uh approve the one day bear and wine licenses for Bob meas on behalf of Smoky
Chestnut Farms as listed on the agenda what he said Mr chair Mr mercen i make a motion that we approve the one-day beer and wine license to Bob Mus on behalf of Smoky Chestnut Farm on the following dates: May 3rd August 9th September 6th
and October 4th from 6:00 p.m to 8:00 p.m or as as written on the agenda is there a second oh sorry second that's okay uh all in favor i I
opposed all right so now we have a special events parking permit application of property owner Shane Bidi for 36 parking spaces at 260 Mansfield from May 15th 2025 to October 1st
2025 mr chairman you have uh the application and the plan in your packet and this is a location that uh there's been parking for the last several years yeah I remember this from the last few
any questions mr chair Mr i vote that we approve the special events parking permit application uh property owned by Shane Betty for 36 parking spaces at 260 Mansia Lab from May 15th to October 1st 2025
i'll second okay all in favor i opposed okay next up is the special events parking permit of property owner um I'm going to not pronounce this right uh Versito Rosto Brothers LLC for 56 parking spaces at 253 Mansfield Avenue
from May 31st 2025 to September 30th 2025 and Mr chairman this is also a location that all has come before you over the last several years great
mr unit I apologize as the last one as well but any issues with either of these properties no they haven't been they do a good job okay Mr chair Mr i make a motion that we approve the special events parking permit application for property owner
RTO Brothers LLC for 56 parking spaces at 253 Mansfield Avenue from May 31st to September 30th 2025 second all in favor i opposed okay uh now we uh we have the common
pick license application of um Arselon Enterprises doing business as Pat Cousins Pizza to be utilized at 288 East Main Street North Mass u M Miss you want to give us a background on this one briefly so this
is a change of owner for that location that previously had a license okay and everything has been signed off by the departments okay no other changes just the owner right no hours or anything no okay mr
chair Mr marson um through you Mike do um how many different owners has this business had in the past couple years this this particular Fat Cousins this is the only change of owner but there's been other businesses there um I'm
trying to remember there seems like there's been a bunch of different uh pizza shops that have AJ's right that have run through there yeah yeah okay is the uh is the owner here no we could make it
no we couldn't make it tonight is there any reason that uh you would see that we uh shouldn't approve this no say I haven't gotten to the packet but Jen you do background checks on the Yes i make a motion to approve the common
Victorroller license application of Aralon Enterprises Inc doing business as Fat Cousins Pizza at 288 East Main Street Nor second all in favor i I opposed okay now we are 9 minutes in see
uh let's let's go on to announcements mr chair Mr marc I have uh several announcements um on Saturday April 19th 2025 from 10 to 4:00 p.m at the Henry Yellow Elementary School at 6:40 64 West
Main Street the uh Reese Across America Mobile Education Exhibit will be coming into town i encourage everybody to uh try to make their way over to the Yell School between 10 and 4 on Saturday the 19th reach across America is a uh
national organization that the town has been taking part in for the last several years and uh it just gives a lot of information about uh their purpose and how they help out in the community the Land Preservation Society of Norton
invites you to a special event on May 3rd 2:00 to 4:00 p.m rain Date is the May 4th for ribbon cutting at 2:00 p.m taunt Nav 1.5 miles from Norton Common um at the LA Foster Wildlife Refuge
enjoy enhancements to the self-guided trail celebrate Norton's unique history and environment pick up handouts for nature games and projects and it'll be games and treats can I speak to that please you
want to speak to it absolutely thank you thank you i'm Kathleen Kathy Ebert Sawski and Dedico is here too to talk a little bit about LPS we we thought this might be a good chance to either introduce you to
or reintroduce you to the Land Preservation Society of Norton um and Deb will tell you a little bit about our organization and then I'll just explain a little more about what our new project is i promise I won't take too much time just a few minutes um so LPS was started
around 50 years ago in the early 1970s and since that time we have acrewed over 1,100 acres in Norton 13 different properties many of which have very well-maintained trails that we invite
the public to um use all year long and uh not only do we have this property that everyone can use we have all kinds of events throughout the year that um are educational events and we partner
with things like the whole public school system from elementary school all the way through the high school and college businesses in town conservation commission in in this town and uh
we focus on ecological importance of all our lands and preserving it and also the history the land history and land use that has occurred on a lot of our properties and so we are um kind of reopening the LA Foster Land as you said
Kathy would like to tell you a little bit about um what that day um will entail and we hope that if you have the time that you can stop by for just a little right the the um the actual ribbon cutting is two at 2 o'clock but
we'll be there from 2 to 4 and it's really a walk through our our extended trail the trail because of the wonderful partners we have the trail has been extended but in addition to that they've added benches and uh Deb and several of us were involved in uh putting in some
interpretive signs that's the first time we've done this on any of our properties and this will certainly help people understand the history of this property as well as the ecology both of which are extremely important you may or may not know that that location was the site of
the um of the copper works the Crocker Brothers copper works in the 17 1800s and the water there was damned and used in order to produce copper sheets which you might wonder what they are for but probably a a function that is no longer
necessary but when ships were wooden they were critical the copper sheets protected the wood wooden house of ships in addition they made planets which became some of our first pennies so it's kind of an interesting history and we have um we have posters and we have all
kinds of things that explain the history and especially Deb and I worked and another person on our on our group who worked on uh ecology science as well um I have we oh by the way when you're there you'll be able to pick up one of our new little pamphlets which is all
about the foster property um what I wanted to mention to you um is first of all I think I lived in Norton for probably 40 maybe 35 years before I saw the Waiting River it's a terrible shame that people don't see it but you know
the rivers in our town they're not the big cascading rivers they're the small because of our elevation change it's not great but um the waiting river as it turns out is that what the day I first saw it I'll never forget it bubbling etc etc it was just really lovely and I
always wanted to let people know about it so this is a good chance for you to see more about the waiting river itself and uh learn a little bit about how it has been used in the past we are inviting you to this event because uh we
think it's very important for more and more people to know about our events as a matter of fact I have an invitation for each of you separately so you won't forget you already have what you need i see thank you so this is for each of you and we are going I'll get back over here
we are going to um ask you if you are going to join us um that you use the invite uh reply so that we have a sense of how many people are coming we have thought ahead quite a bit and planned um this is on route 140 on the way to Taton
that direction a mile and a half that way um and we know that parking can be a problem with many of our properties including this one but we have uh the grace church which is a short distance beyond us has offered their space for pocket so we think that we can manage
and people hopefully will walk safely back to the property and join us there i do want to mention because I think it's very important Deb Deb uh did mention some of the folks who helped us out uh John Thomas of course the preservation director David Codington of Norton High
School and many of his students help and they helped with putting up our signs and posters interpretive signs so it's critical to support the kids because they have helped us along the way and they've done a great job we have a marvelous historic plaque a big one and it's all about the history of the
Crocker brothers that I mentioned earlier a Weaten intern did that for us uh Weeden interns have helped with some of the maps that we've created as well and I want to mention Al Nyl Pharmaceuticals which is uh here in Norton and they're a marvelous
organization they have helped us in in many ways the two main ways are they allow us to have volunteers as a matter of fact next week uh a crew is coming to help us with one of our properties they help us build benches and clear the trails in addition to that I just saw on
their website today so I thought I'd mention it why not that they have been named a Newsweek most responsible country company company in 2025 so I'm pretty proud of that right here in Little O Norton but I'm also proud of it because I know how responsible they are
we see those people working for us on our own trails they are really amazing folks the Mass Cultural Council likewise has supported us so I think I've probably given you quite a bit of information just keep track of this this has all the the details that you need
and it's in your it's in your uh envelope if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them i'd probably take more time mr chair Mr good um through you um I apologize if I rush through this uh invitation that you had
and I I really appreciate uh people who are having events coming in and speaking to them so I look forward to seeing you there on the third thank you very much Roger by the way the representatives already responded howell and Chason they've already responded they're coming
too so we'll get out there going to be a nice day thank you it's good having that background thank you thank you very much you're welcome okay um one other brief announcement that really quick um Steve Warshell is on the Can I say this right
all right uh Steve Warhel is running for planning board and it looks like his name his first name is spelled wrong on the ballot um it's spelled with a PH and it's not but it actually is Steve Marshall so the current vendor and is there any more announcements i have one more
announcement before you get to the uh public hearing okay sure um so this Saturday we're having a Easter egg hunt we'll be at Norton Middle School gym you can visit Peter Cottontail there'll be face painting um they have a new sensory
hunt at 2:00 p.m the hunting schedule is uh at 2:30 for 2 to three year olds at 2:45 for four five and six year olds and 3:00 p.m for seven and 8 year olds for more information you can contact Park and Rick
all right excellent now we have the we have a public hearing on the application of New England Auto Inc for a class 2 license to buy sell exchange or assemble secondhand motor vehicles or parts thereof in accordance with the provisions of chapter 140 of the Massachusetts General Laws to be
utilized at 350 Old Colony Road in Norton Mass so we'll need to open the public hearing mr chair Mr marcy I make a motion that we open the public hearing for the above stated cause
second all in favor hi hi okay well I'm sorry we're going to roll call that vote uh Denise yes roger yes and I am Yes okay so uh gentlemen you can let us know your names and and tell us a little bit
hello uh my name is Carlos Mora uh I am the owner of the the leader hanging out in New England oh so I'm going to help him with the language yeah absolutely so um long
story short uh we we came to Norton around 2 years ago we bought a business uh ended up being a a nightmare for us so for somehow lucky day I I I
came across the landlord and uh she met my dad she met me and we have a good chat and we explained her the situation that we were uh that me and my dad we were going through and thank God she believe in us we got the lease and and
we're happy to be part of this uh this town we love it and we've been in this business for a while and we just this is our new adventure me and my dad we're trying to to we're planning to stay here for a while
that's what I like to hear all right um do you have any questions please what was your business called previously neo um will you be working on any vehicles there no it's just for resale
exactly yes all right and how many vehicles um do you expect to have on the property uh I if I'm not mistaken the new site plan gave us like a 28 26 26 26 yes I see 26 parking space
great and you won't so you won't have any oil or any oil changes there on your vehicles coming in so the lot is pretty much for display cars are already ready to go uh we are partnered with uh uh
Northeast Automotive which is five 55 1 minute from our shop they take care of our repairs and stuff like that and we detail the cars somewhere else and so again the lab is just for display when the cars are ready to go do you have any other locations that you run your
business no all right uh any other questions from the board uh I think it's pretty straightforward on my end so um if there's if there's been any other questions then I guess we can close the public hearing and then make a decision
i uh Mr chair Mr marcy I make a motion that we close the public hearing for the application of New England Auto at 350 Old Collie Road a second okay motion a second denise yes roger yes and I Yes let's close the
public hearing no we discussed it so any discussion on this again I I I personally think it's straightforward but uh Mr chair Mr mercy um first I I appreciate you coming in and I appreciate that you're a father and son doing this
business makes my heart feel good that you're coming to Lord with this business so thank you for that and that you're helping your father really shows me the kind of person that he is so thank you for that i see that all the checks have been done i don't see an insurance certificate in
here but you do have proper insurance for that was our first requirement i wanted to get the lease okay there's a there is a $25,000 bond within the application okay sorry apologize for I I don't have any more questions or any
discussion so then I'll I'll take a motion mr chair Mr martha I make a motion that we approve the license for class class 2 license to buy sell and exchange or assemble secondhand motor vehicles or parts
thereof in accordance with the provisions of chapter 140 of Massachusetts general law to be utilized at 350 Old Colony Road a second okay motion second well I'll do roll call just in case uh Tenise yes roger yes and I'm Yes congratulations
congratulations good luck thank you have a great day okay i just got a message from Alec he's going to try to join Zoom uh to go through these articles zoom
yeah so maybe we can do uh some stuff below that until it gets on the Okay vote to declare the water to department items to the surplus mike um there's a a list um I can tell you
there's a Chevy 350 chassis um and a 2500 HD uh heavyduty Chevy and um the other parts I can't tell you what they are
is this a handwritten list that's in here all right any questions folks all right i'll take a motion just one question Mr chair through you yep go ahead does the water sewer department have a computer yes
a follow up to that are you sure actually no the question should have been printer okay go ahead Mr chair mr merc I make a motion that we declare the listed water and
sewer items on this list as surplus a second okay all in favor i I All right um update on the status we'll pause that there's no other business is Alec
on yet yes all right alec can you hear us i can hear you guys all right do you want to um do you want to discuss the status update on the new town manager uh hiring the new town manager or do you want to postpone that to next week
no no I can definitely update uh Thursday night we agreed on uh the ad that was going in the beacon and the MMA publication and those were to be submitted for this week so those both
should be MMA website should be live already uh the print will be uh the next print uh actual publication run which I believe he was first of May uh and the
beacon is going live this week as well okay Mr chair Mr u Alec um how are these applications being returned to your group they are going to a uh they're supposed
to be going to a uh email setup uh I'm not sure Mike might have a little more information but there was Charlene was going to be setting up a a specific email inbox uh just for those and they were going to go directly to the chair
uh Dino O'Brien and then uh she was going to get them to us um to for review uh as they come in uh for discussion for our next meetings subsequent meetings and when when is your uh board meeting
again or when do you expect to be meeting again so it's every other Thursday so it's going to be next Thursday night and then every other Thursday uh after that thank you all right thank you Alec
you're w You're welcome all right i guess now we can go through the annual town meeting articles i'm guessing we have to vote on everything we haven't voted on well you don't have to because you meet again next week but that's true
um the first uh item on the agenda is the recotification of the zoning bylaws um and that's a project that the planning board has spent a year on um and had a consultant one of the top-notch consultants in the state um
worked with them on that to bring our bylaws in line with the current Massachusetts laws they did approve um the recotification at their meeting on Tuesday night the planning board has reviewed yet yeah
okay so I I mean I I trust the planning court on that one yeah i was say I don't know we I know we typically wait for FC come first but we necessarily need to I'm okay voting this if you guys Yeah
alex do you have any questions on that one i personally I haven't reviewed them i just got impacted agenda packaging today with the summary of them all i haven't seen them so I'm not there to vote on them yeah I've I've personally I've seen
these through meetings so I I'm again I think I'm okay with it so um Mr chair Mr marc when will the uh FinCom be looking at uh these things that we have i think I think Monday right
yeah potentially Monday yeah i would I just feel more comfortable if we wait till after Fincom looks at any of these just in case they have any issues with them i don't I don't know why if we're going to have a meeting next Thursday we could just go through these pretty quickly after they do them
yeah I was going to say the meeting next week we can wait till till Alec is ready to um I just assume wait and get a recommendation from the U fincom before we go out ahead of them on
anything but I'm fine with that um the next article article four um that's for tree services this is something we've done every year $31,000 and this is um for the highway
department when they have to call in um a tree company to handle um that brings in a crane for some of the larger trees and also for their stump grinding and um I know at your last meeting um you asked
about this um and I think what I think I said he has $19,000 left from last year so he'll be using that this spring and there was some discussion at the finance committee i don't think they voted one
way yet but there was discussion about putting this in the budget and um you know they recommended to move it to the budget so the qu the the issue there is
if it goes in the budget and um he something happens and someone can't get here in June and they have to get here in July say then the money goes back it's goes back and gets certified as free cash if it's an article and uh he
needs services done it doesn't matter that the year the fiscal year ends on June 30th the money's in the article so it's there it's there for his use um I don't see the benefit of putting it in the budget i don't know why that's
was a suggestion but that's that's what was suggested at the finance committee through through your chair go ahead if we know it's an annual expense that we anticipate right and it's part of the highway department why would we not put it in the budget i I guess because it's
something they don't necessarily have to do every year um if if we didn't want to fund it one year we could say we're not going to fund it you know we won't be able to call in an outside service this year but
um I know just putting it in the budget i mean whichever way the board chooses to go um it'll just inflate their budget every year we say about 3% then they have an
extra 31,000 to get added in well the key to it being on an article is so it could roll over every year and not get put back to free cash so um I think it's I think it's good as an article mr chair Mr
uh the only issue I have is that what if there we have some year where we have a storm where he has to go over that amount what does he do they can take what's left from the previous years and not have to go back to town meeting i think there was I asked that question last time or after last meeting right
what was left from last year is like 11,000 or something like that 11,000 so I'm sorry um I guess if the money is just sitting there and it seems like it would be better used if it did roll back into the
uh free cash so that we could use it someplace else if we needed to through you chair okay i mean the emergency need port you could say about a million things that happened at down rate this is no different than anything else i don't know so I also treat it
differently i just I I'm sorry Mr chair i just don't understand why we want to just sit on this money as opposed to if they don't need it then let's roll it back into free cash and use it someplace where where we could use it well I I think as the chairman said um
they don't really sit on it they spend it almost every year that's why um at the end of the last fiscal year there was $11,000 i mean maybe we should start asking for separate budget items for a bunch of things just in case of emergency
and I tend to like to listen to what the uh finance committee is saying as well so if they're saying that they're recommending that it move into the budget I don't I'm trying to understand why we wouldn't want to do that all right so let's skip this one go to the
next one vote on it right you think we can vote on No Mr bar was clear didn't want to vote on it until the till fin already did they haven't voted on it yet that's FinCom said recommended to move to budget i just want to if we could Mr
chairman Mr chairman if it was all or just so your your name address and your political affiliation zack Tillis 3 Richmond Drive i think I'm only speaking for myself here uh a lot of these budgets uh
And I'll pick on the schools because only only because it's the largest budget um you know you see okay we get $30 million whatever it is but you never see the fixed and chairs expenses which is huge because it's medical insurance and then we have articles for uh
mattress removal from the highway and this that and there's all these little pockets of everywhere i my personal view is they should have a budget but tree services should be in the budget the trash pickup that they they have to do
should be in the budget and we have a fincom emergency reserve fund that we fund to the tune of about 150,000 a year is that right Mike uh and you could go to 200,000 a year if there was a storm and you know they needed some more money they could always come to the fin for
that my personal view is everybody's budget should be in I would even eliminate but this is just my personal view fixed and share expenses and assign all that to each department so when any member of the public looks
at it they can tell this is what it cost you for highway this is what it cost you police because when you look at it now the largest expense that's in there you know which is medical and and and retirement benefits is in a different bucket which is you know $10 million plus you know but that's the way it's
always been done so let's get back to the tree service did Did Fin vote on that i believe that I I don't hold me to it but I believe we talked about putting it back in the budget and I don't know where it went i don't think we voted on anything really
for uh funding yet that comes next week we're waiting for Mike's recommendations okay it was all presented to us but nothing's been voted on in regards to I don't think anything major financial thank you Mr so we'll skip that one okay what do we have next that Fincom is
voted on um article 16 um this is for the painting of the Ever Everett and Leonard Park pavilion $5,000 from free cash and the finance committee recommended that 7 nothing mr chair Mr mercy I make a motion that
we uh recommend article 60 is there a second so quick question for your chair um painting of the Everett Park pavilion is under which department like why is that i guess that's a onetime fee so I'm
okay with this one yeah recreation recreation okay i'll second it okay uh Alec Mr chair I had a question oh yeah go ahead i'm sorry um what did we do last year we approved
a bunch of money for over there last year did it not include any painting at all no I don't think it did sorry go ahead M go ahead no I I don't remember it having painting on that one last year i know I
I know what you're talking about i can't remember what it was but it wasn't painting i I I can't remember confusion whether it came through capital or it did uh come to us as an article but I believe
um there was a bunch of work that was done uh you know carpentry and I I just don't recall if there was painting included in that or not so um apparently it was only the pieces of carpentry that
they that they did but it was a substantial carpentry project if I remember correctly and if Zach's in the audience I think Zach might remember some of this as well good i charge you guys a consulting fee here uh we approved budget that coming
out of we we approved uh last year there was rock repair uh around the building now the painting is to protect that wood from rotting out again saying the work has been done uh it came up and I brought it up why it didn't go through capital because it wasn't $10,000 it's
got to be $10,000 or more and again I said why didn't it go through budget because it would be an annual and they wanted kind of the same thing we talked about so they're doing it as an article uh to paint all the areas uh and paint those buildings after they completed the
uh the woodworking thank you thank you very very much thank you Mr chair yep is there a motion oh we had a motion okay uh so motion in a second so we'll go alec
yes denise yes roger yes and I'm Yes then we have number 101 number 10 is um the capital plan um you have that in your packets um this was also recommended by the finance
committee just go very quickly so in the capital improvement plan the recommendations are um 35,000 for data processing replacement of end of life equipment uh the police
department uh they they put in 210,000 for three cruisers um right now the um capital committee has recommended 140,000 for two cruisers um electronic
weapons 21,000 this is uh program that's been going on for a few years now this is year three of that uh the fire department capital recommends um 30,000 for turnout gear replacement and that
would be split 50/50 between ambulance and fire uh ambulance and capital excuse me um the pumper and tower truck uh replacement year 205 uh
$649,800 out of ambulance reserve and station rehab repairs 300,000 out of ambulance reserve um the animal control officer replaced the his van 80,000 out of
capital not public schools um this is uh fire device mitigation at the middle school uh migration excuse me [Music] 48,288 the indoor carpet uh at the LGN
in the main office in the library $25,000 and the tech displays at the Norton High School um on a three-year rotation $35,000 the highway department year five of five of their Peterbuilt dump truck
$28,150 and roof replacement project um 640,000 to be borrowed and in the sore department um so you'll see a Ford Explorer at 26,000 like wow how are they getting it for
that cheap but it's split 26,000 um out of store 26,000 out of water for that replacement um also the Cobb Street sewer pump station phase 3 uh
250,000 and um in water water meter and transmitter radio read boxes computer and software upgrades for that 175,000 so um the 276,000 in sewer projects would come out
of uh sewer retained earnings and the 201,000 in water projects would come out of our water retained earnings so in the end um from capital 427,438 from the ambulance reserve
964,800 total borrowing 640,000 sewer surplus retained earnings 276 and water surplus retained earnings 201,000 all right questions so finance committee voted 11
nothing to recommend so the only uh I'm sorry Mr chair Mr m um the only thing that we're going out to borrow is for the new roof for the highway garage
correct anything else yep go ahead mike how much did we spend last year 2025 for capital improvement how much did we spend um I could tell you what we spent out of the capital improvement fund um was
$987,000 last year so this is significantly higher than what we Yeah it's 2.5 oh I I don't have in front of me but the total weap is 427
gotcha so you're talking about just so you're not talking about like the ambulance fund all that stuff you're just talking about the capital reserve all right so um if you were to look at that
649,800 this is 205 so that would have been in last year's capital okay thanks okay alex do you have any questions i do not i just have a couple of quick questions
uh Mike how much is in the ambulance reserve fund uh the ambulance reserve fund right now um with this report was run at 3,363,291 and same thing for water and sewer um
water retained earnings $3,794,832 and sewer $3,241,792 thank you mr chair Mr marc I make a motion that we recommend article 10 second okay all in favor oh sorry uh
Alec yes denise yes roger yes and I'm Yes okay um now it's 12th Hill Street number 11 mr chairman so article 12 um in the warrant is um for to allow the select
board to agree to a pilot agreement with the current owners of that uh property it's been there for a while and they have not had a pilot we do have a pilot payment in L of taxes on most of
the solar facilities in Norton but these people were reluctant um and now they've come forward and uh and the assessor is working on finalizing agreement with them and hopefully it would happen for you at your next meeting but um so this
would guarantee uh the town in this the agreement she's working on is similar to um other agreements that we have on properties with the amount per kilowatt that they pay um so right now we're not receiving any money no taxes from that
property so this would be uh a good win for the town mr chair Mr mercy so we don't know how much that payment will be uh we'll know next week how'd you think vote on it without knowing um because
they would just authorizing the select board to negotiate and enter into an agreement as the article says to see if the town will vote to authorize the select board to negotiate and enter to into a payment load of taxes also known as a pilot or
tax agreement on that property okay so this article is just to allow the slate court to negotiate okay yeah i'm okay to vote on this uh Ally do you have any questions the finance committee recommended 11 nothing looking at the screen like he's
going to answer me alec all right mr you had something or were you going to motion i I make a motion that uh we recommend article 11 a second okay uh Alec you're with us
you're on mute if you are yes okay sorry that's okay uh Denise yes roger yes and I'm Yes all right are we going to discuss number 17 i think we should
okay what do you think anyone else i mean wait for FINC con we should probably FCON for this one too right i mean I personally don't think we need to wait for FINCOM for the planning board stuff but I uh I would like to hear what the FINC con has to say because I have quite
a bit to say about that okay Mr chair Mr mr uh I have no problem um you know talking and voting about this as well yeah I'm I'm personally fine voting for
this tonight i think this has been discussed at nauseium and I think waiting for finally has their opinions on this so is there do we want to discuss it or I'm indifferent we just we just voted to hold off other ones to wait for
FinCom that's why I said that yeah i mean I personally I don't understand why we would hold off on anything that doesn't I mean if it doesn't have to do with money then we shouldn't be voting because FCO waits for us hang on one second fin waits for us to vote on certain things
and I mean I don't mind discussing it if you uh Mr mr chair I don't mind discussing it if you want to have a discussion about this i'd love to have discussion and a vote on this and just get it off the plate too many things to be kicked down the
road so Mr chair if I may go ahead um so at Tuesday's uh planning board meeting they uh chose a a site for this
uh zoning bylaw overlay um I'm not sure it's what's best for the town is what happened on Tuesday night um I feel that uh the state has come in and come up with an arbitrary number of
units of housing that we should have without discussing it with the town at all and they let gave us the option of where we should put it but not if we wanted it at all and all they did is have us fight amongst ourselves to
decide where we want to put it i feel what's best for the town is to not necessarily do everything that the state says that we should do just because they say it should be done um I am not sure
that this article will pass as as it sits now and I think it's going to put us in a in a worse spot than we were before last Tuesday
um I'm not sure uh if anybody else has any other thoughts on it through your chair go ahead go ahead it sounds like there was a pretty fruitful discussion on Tuesday unfortunately I was unable to attend very short one yeah unfortunately I was unable to attend and haven't had
an opportunity to watch it before this evening's meeting um since we are meeting next week I'd like to request to hold off till next week so I can have an opportunity to review that well I think I mean I think if if everybody else is ready to vote I I
don't see why we would hold off on this this has again been discussed at our meeting how many times now it's at least a dozen planning board meetings uh open meetings closed meeting i mean there is Alec do you have anything to say and
then I'll say my uh thank you Mr chair all I was going to say was you know my personal feelings uh I I happen to agree with Mr maran and a lot of those points um in that I don't
think they are the best parcels uh with the other choices that were identified in available uh for the long term for the town i think these parcels that were identified all but uh made it a
guarantee that these would be developed in um in the future and I I don't I don't think they're the best places um in in my opinion that this you know they
should be built i think that there's other parcels that they had identified that in my opinion would have been a better choice for the overlay so personally I obviously I'm not in in uh you think you know that
that speaks for itself where where I'm at with it okay thank you Mr mr rich um and and my two cents on it um I agree with Mr marine and Mr rich on on basically everything they said i think
um I I think the last town meeting the planning board was given a mandate um I don't feel that they follow that mandate um unfortunately um I think there are definitely better places these ones that are picked at least one of these um the one in
Mansfield can be built within the next year there'll be something there um and that's not what I feel and this is again my opinion it's not what I feel the town wants or requested at the last town meeting
um yeah one of the thing I did notice and I'm not going to call anybody out by name but I I I do disagree i heard something during the meeting of um we need to be unanimous in our vote um I think that is something that should never be said by anybody on any of these boards i think we all should have our
own votes and and be allowed to express our opinions without um any rebuke so unless there's anything else I would like to see a motion but Mr chair Mr um just one more thing that I just
wanted to bring up was that um two weeks ago when we had our joint meeting with the Fin Kong and uh with the planning board we had uh someone who came in and made a presentation and basically said that the
um the more affordable housing you build the better off you are tax wise in the long run and they used Mansfield as one of the uh towns that they had uh done their survey in and I just see today
that Mansfield is going for a tri 2 and a half override again so I don't understand how we are going to be in a better position if we build more so-called affordable housing not knowing what the
cost of that housing is going to be until after it's built and it's determined by the builder and not by anybody else i mean I I could go through and nitpick everything that was said on Tuesday night um but but a couple of quick
things is is the comparison to um to East Main Apartments as far as the the amount of children in the schools is not a comparison to um lower income or lower lower cost housing um and it's just not and somebody mentioned during a joint meeting you know show me the numbers
show me you know somebody who's an expert um that'll say differently that it's not going to that's not going to it's going to cost us money uh I've been in the real estate industry 20 years and the low-inccome units will will bring more children to the schools
comparatively to uh East Maine that's a fact um that's that's my experience and that's my opinion so uh with that said I'll I'll take a motion if there is one i would request again to hold till next week so I have opportunity to watch Tuesday's meeting but you guys can
certainly upote me okay I guess we're going to kick it down the road again Mr chair mr person i would not consider it kicking it down the road to give a uh another board member the opportunity to
see him a meeting that was pivotal to the deciding factors of where it got placed so um I'm I'm not uncomfortable we've we're waiting on several other articles to till next week
and I think this one could be just as easily moved to next week i'm not I'm pretty sure that the vote isn't going to change but um I don't think that we should um discount the uh uh a member's quest
to make sure that they're informed when they make a decision okay well this is where you and I disagree Roger because I think that these choices have been made public for months and months and discussions have been on for months and months uh the only thing different would be the
decision and um the same people speaking at a meeting but again uh we we'll move on um is there any other articles Mr units no uh just one on the special town meeting warning um this is just a prior
year under prior year bills um the finance committee recommended 7 nothing um from free cash $630 to cover uh invoices from Encore Fire Protection uh this is for uh work
down at the highway garage and bills came in in August for work that was done in the prior fiscal year mr chair Mr i make a motion um that we recommend article one of the special time
okay is there a second second okay alec yes denise yes ra yes and I'm Yes all right do we have any other business i don't think so
um now the the memorandum of understanding did anybody give notes to Mr ununits on this cuz we were supposed to i didn't i have to give notes but I have a few questions go ahead or do we do we want to discuss it or do we want
to um you want to wait i think next week uh Mr chair go ahead Ellie i don't I think next week I think everybody we can we can go give our notes but if Denise has questions we can yeah just have to include for next week
perhaps is there do you have the schedule of the other rooms the other facilities yet and is there going to be a schedule of pricing for what those rental fees would be for external locations yeah that's what I I wanted to have some conversation with you a few you people on that okay um because there
are outside groups now that are looking to use the facility here and um not looking to make a killing on it but people uh like the police department uh had a training in here all day so um and
what was a lot of area police departments so different groups like that come in there should be some charge to cover the electrical costs so we'll we'll work on something and come in with some suggestions next week
okay sound good okay um was that it did you have more please okay thank you another town manager's report i just want to announce a few grants uh I want to thank um Croissanna
Paul DJ Joseeppi um Megan Har John Thomas um working um to apply for a grant uh for $109,210 from the state um and this will be used to start the um digitization
process so this uh from what some of the discussions we had before we went out to bid um with companies looked like this might be enough to get four of the departments done border health conservation inspection and planning and then we'll
look uh see how this works out and see which departments we move on to from there but I mean that's uh a nice grant to receive and they put in a lot of work i get that through your chair okay just worth noting at the
Wildman letter I see is contingent upon the MPTA plan being passed okay and also um we received um a safe grant um as part of a safe grant program this two
now um we received uh $4,947.98 and $2,363.35 for the senior program so this helps the fire department go out into the schools and also um to the seniors to discuss uh fire safety and uh the
state says this has helped in reducing um injuries and deaths and it's something that they work on every year and the other one uh that the fire department received is
$9,500 in a fire safety equipment grant they're going to use this to replace um a thermal imaging camera all right excellent thank you Mr uh is there any report mail all right uh if not I approve the
warrants as written our next meeting will be Thursday April 17th that's next Thursday at uh we'll do 7 p.m right i think we talked about trying to get them later works for me all right excellent mr chair Mr marian
make a motion to second okay alec yes denise yes roger yes and I Yes thank you guys hey Kevin